Award From my "Junkfest" Sisters

Andrea, Lynette, Cassie, Missy

The four awesome gals at JunkFest have given me a "Kreativ Blogger" award. I am humbly accepting it with gratitude. Check out Andrea, Cassie, Lynette and Missy at their very creative site at http://junk-fest.blogspot.com/ . These gals all live in or near Carrington, North Dakota and they hold an annual JunkFest in their hometown on the fairgrounds every year. This year it will be held one day only on September 12th from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. They are sold out by 2 p.m. and there is a line to get into this great event. I hope some of you can plan to attend. Go to their site to see some of their great Junk transformations and to find out more about their sale.

I was fortunate to have met these great sisters through the Junk Market Style online site at http://www.junkmarketstyle.com/ , and I started emailing back and forth with three of the four. As it turned out these gals had a Minnesota junk trip planned for the first week-end in April, and so it was planned to meet in person. They had to travel through an awful snowstorm to get here, while towing a trailer. Hardcore driver, Cassie, got everyone to Minnesota and back safely. We met in Champlin and traveled to Andover to see "the Round Barn Potting Co", ate lunch at Applebee's, visited our new shop in Anoka, "My Three French Hens" in Anoka and than on to a thrift store before they headed on their way back from their four day journey that they had been on. Lanette from Minnesota joined us for lunch, but didn't join us in the shopping events, as she had just arrived back from Texas and had shopped her heart out down there.

Gretchen & Carolyn best friends

Gretchen, Carolyn, Andrea, Missy, Lynette, Cassie

Shopping at "Three French Hens" in Anoka, MN

So now you know who I've received this award from, so I'll get on with the award portion of this blog post.

There are rules to this reward, so here they are:

1) List 7 things you love.
2) Link to the person/blog that sent you the award.
3) Choose 7 more bloggers to pass the award to.
4) Comment on those 7 blogs to let the recipients know you've chosen them.

Here are the seven things I love:

) Jesus

2) My wonderful husband, Jon, and daughter, Emily.

3) The great friends, family and followers and blogging friends I've made since beginning this journey of blog land in January.

4) Vintage cool jewelry that I can redesign with and create into a beautiful piece for 2009

5) Time-worn patinas. European decor.
6) Our Kitten - "Coco Chanel" , is 3 years old, but goes by the name of "Kitten".

7) Our cabin I named "Lakeview Cottage" and the flower gardens I'm creating there.

8) shopping "occasional sales" with Carolyn

Had to add #8.

So, the next thing is to pass on some awards to 7 people. There are so many more, but this time I am going to pass them onto the people that have been most inspiring to me and/or have assisted me in the blogging adventure first, and than those that have become personal blogging girlfriends.

1. Elizabeth at http://elizabethhousestlouis.blogspot.com/ . This was my first experience into the blogging world and she set the bar very high right from the start. She is so talented in her photography, writings, display and overall the whole merchandising aspect of a business. I think if we lived closer to one another, we'd both find joy in each others company. She has been an inspiration to me, every since I first learned of her through her articles in "Romantic Homes" magazines a number of years back.

2. Elizabeth at http://formattingtest.blogspot.com/2007/05/shop-talk-series-volume-1-7.html . This site has a wonderful "Shop Talk series" she writes for shop keepers who are starting a business and/or are in a business and it is filled with a wealth of information. I'm not sure if people know about this information, so wanted to share it as a separate award, as it is well worth the read and time. I shared this with the gals that recently started up "The French Flea" in Anoka, MN, as I believe as individuals we should always be about growing in our faiths, our characters, and our lives.

3. Karla at http://www.karlascottage.typepad.com/. Karla is another great blogger gal and was very helpful in emails instructing me and encouraging me with setting up my blog. She is a very talented artist as well. She has a definite girly-girl attitude going on in her blog, and she has been very generous with tutorials on great projects, as well as sharing her life and soul as an artist, mother and grandmother.

4. Lanette at http://www.cottageelements.blogspot.com/. Lani as we like to call her in the junking world has become a person friend, a great helper for setting up my blog, and now a partner in the new "French Flea" occasional shop venture. She has a great blog and shows how to re purpose cool items you would think were useless and makes them into awesome treasures. Her house is to die for and would be my dream house if I ever win the lottery. However, I'd move it onto a lake if the lottery provided me with the winnings to do so. Just lovely and so wonderfully displayed. Check out her site for awesome PR regarding the new shop "The French Flea", as well as Sue Whitney book signings. Love you Lani!

5. Theresa at http://cottagegardens-theresa-smith.blogspot.com/. She has so much going on her blog. She is a very talented lady and I just love her time worn patinas that she collects and sells at large Flea Market and Gatherings through out the US. She has great taste, and I really admire her. Funny thing is she and her house she lives in was featured in a national magazine and I immediately loved what she'd done to her double wide trailer. Who would of thought to do such a fabulous make-over, but Theresa. You must read about it, and to do so go to this link: http://www.countryliving.com/homes/house-tours/double-wide-mobile-0607?click=main_sr . She was about the third blog I truly followed and admired. My dream is to meet her at one of her annual blogging parties in Texas. Maybe, this Fall.

6. Andrea, Cassie, Lynette & Missy at http://junk-fest.blogspot.com/ . I just met these wonderful gals on a Minnesota road trip that they took together to accumulate finds for their annual "JunkFest" event. This is the group that gave me the kreativ award, and now I give it back, as you gals are so deserving. Each of these four girls bring their own take to the Junking world and are very talented. What is cool about their site is that there are four of them posting their inspiring, enticing projects online and combine their talents for an annual "JunkFest" event. This year it will be in Carrington, North Dakota for 1 day only on September 12, Saturday. Read more about in this post from their site: http://junk-fest.blogspot.com/2009/05/just-reminder.html . Only 127 days away. Thanks ladies for the award, but most of all for our new found friendship. Blogging is awesome!

7. Candy at http://junksophisticate.blogspot.com/ . Candy is an inspiring gal and co-contributor with me on the Junk Market site. We have become blogging friends through this site, our own blogs and emailing and she is just an all around top notch gal. So very talented and works with her beauty with very little money. Hoping to get to meet her in person someday soon. Check out her site for wonderful photographs, inspiring ideas and just a great all around blog.

Thanks ladies for all that you've brought to my life in the past year. I look forward to many more years of blogging, inspiration and creativity with you all. And Elizabeth, Karla, Theresa and Candy, I promise you, I will one day meet you for real. It's a must!

"Now go out there and continue to Bee Kreativ!"

Photo taken last week while walking on a nature walk. I was about 12 inches from this bee. A bit scary, but made for a great photo op.

Valentine's Day Tag Swap

So you may have noticed while following my blog that there was a gadget related to a "puppy love" tag swap. If not, you can see it on the bottom of this page. It is in reference to an invitation I received from Karla Nathan over at her blog site called http://www.karlascottage.typepad.com/ . I have gotten to know Karla through her blog and through emails we've exchanged back and forth since last fall. She is a multi-talented artist and was one of the bloggers that first inspired me to start my own blog. The idea of the swap was to submit 6 handmade Valentine artist tags that you've made with a "puppy love" theme. Your choice of what you do, and in return you will get back 6 tags that other artists from aruond the US have made. I decided to go for the challenge and thus it began. A side note is that Karlas' dog, Twinkles had given birth to adorable little puppies, thus the theme was born.

I know that Karla loves pink, white and fairies, so thus sent my mind a spinning to create a special necklace for her as a thank you for her hosting this swap. It is a lot of work to host them and this one turned out to be about 60+ artisians being included. I can't wait to receive my tags.

The above tag is the tag that was included with Karla's gift.

So above is a sampling of a few of the items I started my project with. A paper cutter, vintage millinery flowers, old keys, puppy dog charms, alphabet stamps, scissors, glue stick, modge pog, distress ink, paper glaze, hole punch, vintage ribbons/lace, flocked scrapbooking paper, vintage wallpaper, tags, etc.

Ok, so above shows some of the tags cut to size, some were modge pog'd, etc. Ready to embellish with whatever ones heart desires. But oh how the "puppy love" theme taunted me. I really struggled with the theme, and ended up with 5 of my 6 in that theme. Naughty me!

This tag started out as a flocked piece of scrapbooking paper cut out to be a tag. The puppy is a vintage Valentine I bought and cut in 1/2 using it on 2 different tags. The flowers on the bottom right are new and sold through Michael's, but are hi-lited with a vintage mother of pearl button. I antiqued everything with the distress ink. I typed out and printed in red ink the sayings for the different tags and than distressed them as well.

This little girl was so cute, and pink to boot, so I included her in the swap. This one was modge pog'd, vintage lace trim was added, new flowers and again the computer generated question, "will you be mine?" This one is actually my favorite. ;- ) The one that didn't fit in with the rules.

This one represents young love or "puppy love" if you will. It looks better in real, and this photo is showcasing it quite poorly, but I used the vintage millinery on this one, with a mother of pearl button, as well as vintage lace trim.

This one has the typical red Valentine theme color going on with it. I used a sparkly tag to frame the young lovers "puppy love" and strung vintge ribbon through its hole. There is vintage lace, a silver backing, new red/ivory antiqued flowers with computer generated printing for the words.

This tag was made with vintage wallpaper. It is a more unusual color theme, but kind of fits into the whole calm, serene, theme that many of us junkers tend to love. It has that time-worn feel to it. It has been modge pog'd to create a nice tough exterior, and is layered with paper flowers, another white mother of pearl vintage button, an old puppy dog charm that has a wool tassle on it and I hand stamped with the alphabet stamped the wording "PLEASE BE MINE".

This tag was made with the use of a pretty piece of tissue paper and a white pre bought tag. I modge pog'd it, added vintage lace trim, new paper flowers, the other 1/2 of the vintage Valentine and a few more foo foo's to complete it.
I'm not totally thrilled with the outcome of my tags, but hopefully the people receiving them will like them better than I did. I mailed them out on Monday and was so sick, but was able to make a quickie mail run to get them in the mail to Karla in time of the due date. Barely!

A close-up of the pendant I gifted to Karla the swap hostess.

I also thought this would be a supburb opportunity to get to know some fellow bloggers.

This is Karla's tag with her pendant gift wrapped.

I knew the day I came upon 4 of these little butterflies that they would embellish

Karla's gift box when I sent out the tag swap. It just looked like something she would

and could recycle in one of her own future projects. Her gift box was created with sparkly pale pink tissue paper, and was warpped with vintage tri-dyed seam binding tape ribbon and a vintage sparkly butterfly.

It is always fun if when you are gifting someone, that you try to keep all of the items in the same color palette. As you can see the pink tones, vintage feel and recyled items were my foray.

Thanks for taking the time to check out this post. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of my blog, this post, or other posts I've created. I'd love to here from more people what they'd like to see more of or less of. I was very sick this week, so really wasn't able to post like I had hoped to, so will try to have a few more posts next week for your viewing. Please tell your friends, as I'd love to get enough viewers to actually start having contests, but at this point the viewing size is too small, but I'd love to get a contest started in the next couple of weeks, so please spread the word and get your blogger friends to stop over for a visit.

My First Blogging Award

I'm so excited!!!

I just started my blog last week and I've received my first blogging award from a fellow blogger today. Thank you so much Amy. Please visit her site and support her by posting on her blog. She has some great reuses for junkers as well as people that just want to have more organization in their lives. Thank you Amy!

THE LEMONADE AWARD

from

Amy at http://whisperwoodcottage.blogspot.com/

What this award is about...

Bloggers who show great attitude and gratitude.

What you have to do...

Upon receiving The Lemonade Award, you also pass it on to other bloggers who you think show great attitude and gratitude. Here are the rules:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!

3. Link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.


This award is being passed on to...

1. Lani @ http://www.cottageelements.blogspot.com/

2. Candy @ http://www.junksophisticate.blogspot.com/

3. Janis @ http://janisgurney.blogspot.com/

4. Karla @ http://www.karlascottage.typepad.com/

5. Theresa @ http://cottagegardens-theresa-smith.blogspot.com/

6. Elizabeth @ http://www.elizabethhousestlouis.blogspot.com/

7. Debbie @ http://www.curiousgoodsantiques.blogspot.com/

8. Dawn @ http://the-feathered-nest.blogspot.com/

THANK YOU!

I plan to go visit these wonderful gals sites and let them know they've been awarded a special thank you from Mimi-Toria's Designs. Please plan on stopping by these wonderful blogs and visit each of them. They all offer great inspiration to my life, to my dreams and aspirations, and to the blogging community at large!