"I'M A MAGPIE! I'M A MAGPIE!"

Greetings, dear reader!

Of course I speak of the famed "Magpie Ethel and the Blog Ribbon Challenge created by our dear Elizabeth of Creative Breathing.

My favorite aunt used to call me and my sister Peggy "Heckle and Jeckle" (for those of you who do not know this illustrious duo...behold the following):

Two wild and crazy magpies!

(Heckle and Jeckle, aka Paula and Peggy at an early age...with our dear daddy) Aren't we adorable?

Annnnnnnnnnyway, here is my blog ribbon...as always, it's made completely of repurposed paper and such...I felt a bit like a bird building a nest...hey! It's a THEME! lol

Speaking of birds nesting...I hung a happily spring wreath on my front door, and daily see a sweet little wren mama building a nest at the top for her babies...it seems a precarious place to build a home, what with me constantly in and out and all...but it is a wonderful springtime gift to sit in the early morning hours drinking my Earl Grey and watching mama bird so hard at work.

Here's the kind of wreath I'm talking about:

I will post pictures of the nest in progress when I can do so without disturbing the residents. :-) SO SWEET!

Ok, I'm on to my next project...and gathering goodies for my next giveaway! WOOHOO!

Springtime smooches!
Paula Clare

ACROBATS, JESTERS & PINCUSHIONS! (p.s. SOCK MONKEYS!)

Greetings, dear reader! I hope you've had a happy Friday? Mine has been FABulous. There has been a break in the 1000 degree weather (okay, that's a SLIGHT exaggeration...but only SLIGHT mind you!) so I can actually BREATHE today! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Breathing is GOOD. Anyway, I've been creating for a good part of the day and thought I'd share a few of my creations with you.

Behold the acrobats:

Another of Sandra Evertson's zany designs. It's so much fun to make the acrobat "booooooooooing" on the springy wire. :-) (I'm easily amused, what can I say?)

Next, I give you a reeeeeeeeally easy papercraft...Higgins the playing card jester:

Super easy...cut limb shapes out of playing cards...glue feet hands and head (wouldn't YOUR head look nice on the jester?!) onto appropriate limbs...add a bookprint hat...cropodile at the joints for movement and voila! A fun little guy to hang around the office and/or computer desk. (He will even do a little mid afternoon jig for you if you don't install his eyelets too tight!)

And then finally, I've been wanting to make something very 70s...you know, orange, harvest GOLD and AVOCADO green? (DID SHE REEEEEALLY SAY THAT?!?!) I got a piece of designer (Oleg Cassini) fabric from my husband's mother's estate, and it was SOoooooo wonderfully "mod" I just HAD to hang onto it for the perfect project. I stumbled upon a set of these FAB vintage mugs, and decided to make pincushions out of the orange, yellow and brown ones...behold the retro pin cushion (with designer fabric and coordinating shrinky dink pins!)

I tied on a piece of vintage ribbon (from the same era) and added some beads for good measure. HOW FUN IS THAT?!?!?

And THEN (as if all this creating weren't therapy enough) I found HIM waiting for me when I got back from running errands!

It's Stanley the Sock Monkey! Isn't he just the sweetest? My sister (the one who purchased the Travel Gnome for our last sister weekend) found him in a flea market. She's the BEST gift giver EVER!

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! I also received this today:

Stationary, bookmarks, paper dolls, tags, stickers, from the incredible Elsiecake Etsy shop! (She had alerted her blog readers that she would be updating her Etsy shop on August 1...there were also rumors that there would be a sock monkey or two involved in said update. So on July 31 at 12:01...I was waiting ready to pounce on the first sock monkey treasure to hit her shop. I was overcome with sock monkey joy! I have a feeling there will be a photo shoot in Stanley's immediate future...



"I'm ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille!"

More soon!

XOXOXO



Paula Clare