kandeland

Etsy, Journaling, Art Exchange and Swap!

Hello there! Lots happening lately, so I thought I'd check in with a few odds and ends. Ok, first off, I added a few Valentine creations to my shop just now....

Two mini canvases done in crackle paint.

And a super sweet oversized magnet made from a vintage heart tin...

You can find them here: http://kandeland.typepad.com

I have also been trying to consistently work in my fall/winter art journal. I'm trying to vary the look and feel of the pages, and just have fun.

Sometimes quotes, sometimes recaps of the day...

I participated in the crazy "art exchange" thing that has been going around blogland. So far I've received 2 gifts in the mail! It is so fun to come home to surprises like this! I hope everyone who said they'd play along with follow through. The concept is so easy and fun.

I received this pretty embellished notebook from Phyllis Covington:

It's a lined paper notebook and I've already been using it! Thanks Phyllis!

I also received this beautiful sewn flower from Cami of http://creatingmyselfcreatively.blogspot.com.

It's neutral and so elegant. I could use it as a pin, hairclip or headband....hmmm...

Thanks a bunch Cami!

As far as swaps, I just finished a 12 Days of Christmas Swap and I'm in the process of getting my ornaments wrapped and shipped! I can't wait to see the results of this one!

Another swap I signed up for is my dear friend Sandy's swap:

Go sign up and maybe you'll be my partner!

And.....on a final note....my 400th POST GIVEAWAY is coming up real soon! So stop back soon and meanwhile I will figure out what I'm giving away!!

Etsy Update....

I've put some Christmas things in my shop, and will continue to do so all month! So stop by

http://kandeland.etsy.com and see these....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What makes me happy

Last week all of us ESL teachers had a Halloween party with our students. It was such a fun time!! All 8 classes got together for food, laughter and fun!

My students bring such happiness and perspective to my life. They make me laugh, smile and feel rewarded every day. This little celebration was so nice because it got us all out of class and together. We had pizza, snacks, baked goods and some ethnic foods as well.

The two above women are my "sisters". We always say this when we see one another, which isn't often enough- they are at another location. Six of the eight classes are at another site, so it is a real treat when I get to go there and visit with old students I've had. These two have a special place in my heart. They are courageous, lovely, kind and hysterical!

The above photo is of my brother and his class. He is also an ESL teacher. Notice how sweet: his student was so excited for the photo she wanted to hold his hand!

These people truly make my day. I've never been so happy to start a work day as I have been working for this school.

Here's the crowd getting pizza and food at the party! We whipped through 8 sheet pizzas in about 20 minutes!

No food goes to waste at our get-togethers!

Some of the students even made Halloween masks for the event! So funny! They all had cigarettes hanging out of the mask's mouths!

Here's me with one of my most favorite people on the planet!! I love him!!

It is seriously a true honor to be able to spend my days with these delightful people. They make me remember what to value, how to treat people, and the essence of gratitude.

So if you were ever wondering where I spend my days, now you have it!

reminders to self...

.....I wouldn't want to forget that!.....

and of course my motto!

Pageant Cowgirl Obnoxiousness!

How did my mom and I just know that she would pull off this look in character?

Although I can't stand pageant kids and I'm not a big fan of western cowboy/girl anything I had to agree when we discussed that Scarlet would make a good one! She really played it up I'll tell ya!

It all started off with the obnoxious cowgirl hat from the fair, and then it grew from there! My mom found the authentic cowgirl boots online, and I have to admit they are quite adorable! Scarlet was not keen on getting dressed up at first, but when she did, she was pretty psyched about the whole thing!

These pics were actually taken the day before Halloween when she visited relatives at their work. Last night was not as much of a show since it was cold and WINDY as can be!! We went trick-or-treating with a bunch of neighbor kids and she had fun but didn't last too long. Not to mention you couldn't tell what she was as much because she had on a fluffy white winter coat!

Well it was fun playing dress-up, but she better not try to pull this look off when she gets older! When she's a teenager she can be a tomboy!

I hope you all had lots of Halloween fun and got lots of candy!!

Pumpkin Madness

Here they are again! Those velvety pumpkins from Olive Juice & Co that everyone is showing! I just love them! My only issue is that I bought them minus the stems because I desperately wanted them, and now I'm realizing it's not as easy as I thought to attain dried out pumpkin stems!

I already tried my local greenhouse and although they searched the pumpkin patch for me, they only came up with mushy ones! Eew! So I might have to creep around the neighborhood late at night and steal stems off of everyone's pumpkins! HA! Not really, but I will certainly be popping off and attempting to dry out my own pumpkin stems after Saturday night!

Now that Halloween is this close I have to admit that I'm letting things get messy around here again! My mom came over this morning and said "Don't you think you should keep the Christmas craft materials off the kitchen table at least until the weekend is over?"

And already the tree out my kitchen window has lost most of it's leaves and is starting to look sad! Well, it didn't "lose" it's leaves...they're right there all in damp piles all over my lawn (that I've yet to mow or rake in a month! Yikes!)...

So Sunday this place will be stripped bare of Halloween, and hopefully cleaned and made ready for the Christmas stuff that will soon slowly sneek it's way in!

Down will come the dusty cheesecloth "webs" and all the ghostly trinkets. It will be sad. I love Halloween... But enough already! It's not over yet!! I have a huge party with my students tomorrow where two schools that the refugees attend will be getting together for a joint holiday party. I'm crossing my fingers that it's not raining because we have to walk to the school about 1 1/2 miles away. There will be 400 students there together- eating, drinking, and learning a little about Halloween- (which I'm sure they think is nuts and don't quite understand so soon after their arrival in the U.S.!). So tomorrow will be loads of fun for me!

Then tomorrow night is "girls night out" (or in) with my friend, since Scarlet is going to sleep at grammie's and do a test run of her costume! I can't wait to show pics on Sunday! My mom always creates her costumes and they are always wonderful! I can't wait to go trick-or-treating!

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!!

The final countdown...

Since it's finally the week of Halloween I thought I'd show you  MY LIVINGROOM!! I cleared out all the normal decor and made it all spooky and skeleton-packed! What do you think? You think the neighbors would think I was crazy?

JUST KIDDING! I think if that were the case I might be a bit overboard for sure! This is actually the gift shop at the pumpkin farm we went to a few weeks back. Right when I started snapping some decoration photos the battery on my camera died. But they always have tons of scary good stuff for sale there.

I was glad to at least make it there once this season. They make it fun for kids too. We went on a hayride and fed the cute goats.

Well, I'm still sewing velvet pumpkins, but that will officially be my last Halloween crafting for this year. I admit I have already moved on to Christmas crafting! I am working on a swap so I have an excuse. But the day after Halloween I'll be moving full speed ahead on it!

Be back again with a couple more October posts. And I can't wait to show you Scarlet's costume!

Oh no! Only one week to cram Halloween posts!

I can't beleive there's only one more week of October! It went by way too fast. I still wanted to post a lot of Halloweenish stuff, so I better get moving this week. On Thursday night I had two friends over for "craft night" and we made more Halloween candles...

We only made one each and it took 2 1/2 hours because of all the talking we did....but it was fun!

Look at the mess! I love when crafting gets fun and messy!

But considering we went out after, and I came home to this same mess, it wasn't as fun at that moment! But I love the candle I made! I just adore vintage witch images and this one has the quote: "Don't make me get the flying monkeys!"

So another swap finally came in the mail: A sweet and sinister tag swap. One side sinister and one side sweet. I showed you awhile back what I made:

I always do enjoy the more sinister side of things better!

It was fun to get the book and see what everyone made. Here's a peek into the sweet side:

And one of the sinister:

Another way to whip out some quick holiday decor is by buying kits! You don't have to rummage through your supplies and collect things- you just buy it all ready to go- which for me makes it get done a lot faster. When I have a complete kit in front of me I feel like it will take no time and I can dive right in, versus having to seek out pieces in my art room. Not that I don't love that as well, but kits can be fun is all I'm saying!

So I got 2 Joli Paquet kits recently. Oh, and by the way, the site has been having great tutorials if you want to get inspired (http://joli-paquet.blogspot.com) . The first kit is from the fabulous Jenny and Aaron (http://everyday-is-a-holiday.blogspot.com) and I made it last night. I LOVE it!

So easy and fun to put together! I went by the instructions and then added the bottom trim, buttons, black crow and Salem award that I got in the tag swap...

I also beeswaxed all the collaged paper since I love beeswaxed paper- especially during Halloween! I distressed the edges of the board as well as the Salem rosette with Distress Ink.

I love the photo and how they spooked it up! Such a fun kit.

Another one I got so as to make me actually finally make a cupliner garland was from Melissa of http://thegardenofpinkshadows.typepad.com .

Again, it's not that I didn't have all the stuff somewhere in the house to make it, it's just easier sometimes to get a nice, neat kit sent to your door. No punching out paper circles or anything!

That combined with the fact that I like to support fellow artists and crafters!

So stop by Joli Paquet to hurry up and start making a few more things- there's only a week left til the big weekend! 

stress therapy = art journaling

I noticed myself getting WAY TOO IMPATIENT and irritable this past week and a half, and figured something was lacking. Well, a lot of things are kind of lacking right now, but one thing that I could get back to is art journaling. I had been so caught up in all kinds of Halloween swaps that I put simple journaling on the back burner for awhile and I could feel the difference. Stress was sneaking back in.

I didn't quite realize what a theraputic thing it was for me to just doodle, paint, collage and draw for no reason other than fun. I was on a real journaling kick all summer and once the fall came I got sidetracked. How did I let that happen? Well, I decided the other night that it is a real priority for me to spend even a little time in my books to unwind from the day.

So I've been laying some backgrouds and prepping the pages and it really made me feel better. I managed to get a bunch of pages ready for writing and now I am committed to keeping with it again. All creative things make me happy, but there's something very stress-releasing about art journaling.

So I'm promising myself to get back to it daily. I was even letting my 52Q challenges slack. I was really on top of it all the first half of the year and then I got about 6 weeks behind but I'm almost caught up now!

There's only 2 months of questions left, but if you want to think about a small committment to journaling in the next year I'm guessing maybe Emily will do it again for 2010...so visit her sidebar link to check out this year prompts at http://embers.typepad.com if you want to ease into journaling. So now that I've said it I'm going to stick to it hopefully! Ok, my neck is tensed sitting at this computer, so it's time to hit the journal!

Another Halloween Ornament Swap!

I was invited to participate in another great ornament swap for Halloween this year. I showed some vintage-inspired witches I made a few weeks back. Now here are the fabulous pieces I received in return!

1. From Vivian Neroni:

2. From Lori Guerin:

3. From Melissa Merrill:

4. From Sandy Camarda:

5. From Barb Burkhard:

6. From Kathy Lowry:

7. From Jane Raul:

8. From Zhulia Abrok:

9. From Joann Thieme Huffman:

10: From Allegra:

Aren't these so wonderful?! I have such a richly decorated Halloween abode thanks to these girls! One more Halloween swap left to show soon.....