Come Join The Pay It Forward Art Making Project!!

  

My friend Kathy, from over at Kluless, posted about the Pay It Forward Art Making Project for 2014 and I signed up right away!  I love to make things, as I know all of you do, and I love giving gifts to family and friends for no reason.  This project combines both making and giving and I'm so excited!!  If you would like to join me, the rules are simple!

What I will do:   Make a small work of art for the first five people who comment on this post and say "YES, I want in!"  

What you will do:  Swap a piece of art with me, post the rules on your blog or any other social media AND make something for the first five who comment on YOUR post...you in return will get 5 pieces of original art.

The rules are simple:

– It has to be your work, made by you, and the recipient must receive it before 2014 ends.

- Doesn't matter where you live in the world. 

- Copy & Paste this as your latest entry on your favorite social website (your blog is fine).

– It can be anything art-based: a drawing/illustration, a photograph, digital, jewelry, a knitted item, cross-stitch, paper maché – or anything in-between.

- It doesn't matter if you aren't an artist...the sky's the limit...

Okay - who is in??

Focus On Life Week 17 ~ Evening Moments

The month of May ends with evening moments.  Sally says, there is a moment when the day begins to quietly slip away from the earth and the calm of evening floods over the land.  Colors deepen, stars peek through pin holes in a twilight sky.  We begin to exhale and slowly let the world of the day slide from our shoulders.

It's been mostly cloudy all week.  I was doing dishes after dinner one evening and when I looked up the sun was shining as it was going down.  There was just something about the color and the shadows and the way the pink blossoms on the cherry tree sparkled.  I knew I wanted to capture it for this week's prompt but it was one of those moments I would have grabbed the camera anyway.

I hope you have a fabulous weekend!

xo Annette xo

There are more evening moments below.

115.  an impromptu date night

116.  sleeping with the window open

An InLinkz Link-up

I've Been Playing

I've been trying to decide what to do for Shylee's second baby doll quilt and I think I've settled on an idea.  She likes to draw pictures of the sun and flowers so I thought I would go in that direction. The colors might change for the border.  It will depend on my mood when I get to that part!!

I got a new toy!  It's the AccuQuilt Go fabric cutter.  I've wanted one for a long time and it finally went on sale at JoAnn's.  Gotta love those sales!  It came with a square and triangle die, and I got the rose and a bird die.  I can't wait to play some more and get started on the doll quilt.

Have a great Thursday!

xo Annette xo

112.  spring

113.  people who make me laugh

114.  memories triggered in unexpected ways

Tea Party

I was so happy to have Erin and Shylee spend last week with us.  It's always fun to have them visit.  We shopped, fixed new recipes, watched movies, ate dinner out, and ended the week with a tea party.  We were working on Shylee's good manners so we can take her to Tea By Two now that she is old enough. (the tea room only allows children six and older)  She was enthralled with that for all of three minutes!  In spite of that, we had a fun time and I wish they could have stayed longer.

Have a great week!

xo Annette xo

109.  tea parties

110.  Easter

111.  forgiveness and redemption

Focus On Life Week 16 ~ A Moment Best Captured in Black and White

Sometimes, when there is no distraction of color, the image is no longer just a photo but a clean, honest, deeper look at life.

I wasn't sure what I was going to photograph after reading the prompt, but then my girls came to spend the week and I wanted to capture a moment between them.  The two of them adore each other and there is always a lot of laughing going on.  Trying to get a shot without one of them moving proved to be quite difficult.

But then I got this shot and I couldn't have been happier!

Click on the links below to see more moments captured in black and white.

Have a happy and blessed Easter weekend!

xo Annette xo

105.  a week with my girls

106.  listening to Shylee read stories

107.  seeing more signs of spring each day

108.  using my phone for discounts at stores

An InLinkz Link-up

Focus On Life Week 15 ~ A Moment of Focus

This week we're focusing on one moment, one subject.

Shylee turned six this week.  It was the best moment of the week as she proclaimed, "I'm six.  I'm done with five".

You can see other moments of focus below.

Have a great weekend!

xo Annette xo

103.  still celebrating

104.  perfect spring days

An InLinkz Link-up

Wordless Wednesday ~ Spring

Happy Wednesday!

xo Annette xo

99.  wisdom

100.  Shylee's 6th birthday 

101.  chocolate birthday cake

102.  making memories

Focus On Life Week 14 ~ Morning

Can you believe it's April already?  I'm so glad it's finally beginning to look and feel like spring.  This new month brings a new topic for Focus On Life.   We're going to be capturing moments.  Moments frozen in time that years later, with a glance, will trip the trigger of memory.  Memories, bits of time saved from forever being lost.  This week we will focus on our morning moments.

After breakfast every morning, I fix a cup of tea and spend time on the computer checking emails, catching up on Facebook and playing Scrabble, reading blogs, and hanging out on Pinterest.  I spend way too much time doing this, but I enjoy it and I have the luxury of time at this point in my life.  It's much less stressful than the days of getting kids up and off to school and then going to work!

You can see other morning moments below.

Have a really wonderful weekend!

xo Annette xo

96.  the blooming flowers and trees

97.  running errands without a coat on

98.  a new great nephew

An InLinkz Link-up

A Little Doll Quilt

As I said in this post here, Shylee loved her baby doll quilt!  I sure enjoyed working on it.  It was a great way to use scraps, although I didn't make a dent in the scrap box!  This one went home with her and I'm going to make another one for the baby dolls here at Grandma's house.  I'm thinking about doing an applique quilt although I've never done applique before.  Actually, I tried applique once before, a very long time ago, and it was just a mess.  There are so many ways to do applique now that I'm willing to try it again.  Maybe.

Have you tried anything new lately?

xo Annette xo

96.  the blooming flowers and trees

97.  running errands without a coat on