dogwood blossoms.

My mother always loved dogwood trees. LOVED them. When I was about nine, we moved into a new neighborhood in my hometown and she was very excited to plant a dogwood tree in the front yard of our new house. The seasons changed and the dogwood tree never bloomed. She was very sad. She started to notice that throughout the neighborhood there were a few other dogwood trees planted that never seemed to bloom. Apparently, the soil in our new neighborhood just wasn't conducive to a blossoming dogwood tree. A few years passed and still nothing. My mom had been battling breast cancer for a while at this point and a few months before my thirteenth birthday, she passed away never witnessing a single blossom on that tree. We always thought that the tree would never bloom.... then the spring after my mother's death came and the tree blossomed! Wow! What a cool thing!

So several years passed and the tree never blossomed again. My dad eventually decided to just chop it down, but he kept part of the tree in the back of our house (it just looked like a big old stick) until just before he passed away in 2003. I never even knew what that stick was until my brother told me about it a few years ago.

So this brings us to now... I found a really great sketch of dogwood blossoms several months ago that I have kept with me ever since. Last night, I decided to get the sketch tattooed on the inner part of my ankle. The tattoo artist said what I had was a little too detailed so he played around with it and came up with something that we could both agree on. And yes, I know some of you won't approve, but I wanted to have something of significance other than a silly old tramp stamp so here it is...

bottle bottoms

I got inspired a few months ago when I found a project on Etsy where the artist cut the bottoms off of plastic bottles and decoupaged them to make a brooch/pendant/cool piece of art.  So here's my take on it.

I put a little clip on the back to attach the bottoms to a necklace or a pin or a barrette.

Maybe a new hot seller???

the mask.

No way I'm going to let a little illness keep me from baking up some sweet goodness.  My friend Jeremy's 30th birthday was this weekend and he had asked me to make him monkey bread.  Since I have been under the weather the past few days, I decided to purchase a mask and wear it while I cooked so my germs didn't damage the birthday goods.

kinda creepy.

yum yum... my boyfriend's oven needs a deep clean!

resin madness

I decided to play with resin yesterday.  I found a container of buttons that I've had for quite a while sitting around and decided to cast them.  It was my first time to experiment with it so there are definitely a few kinks to be worked out, but this is my result!

the white ones are sprinkles.  yum.

I made the list.

I have been a member of a little website called Cut Out + Keep for about a year now.  It is in essence like a myspace or facebook for crafters where you can create a profile, post projects and how-to's of those projects, and befriend other crafters.  I have posted a few projects there and recently found a list on their site called The Best of 2008.  Well, if you scroll down to #78, there I am giving you instructions on how to make banana lip balm.  Pretty sweet!

check it out.

feathers!

my latest craft... feather headbands.

Here's the best pic I have at this time.  I need to make a new light tent.  A bigger light tent.

things that are red.

the other night, david and I were sitting around the house in our flannel pants and decided to go take pictures of each other with things that are red.  Not the best candids, but here they are anyway....

for sale!! 

 a pretty red bow!

hiding behind a bush of berries.

we found some red nail polish in the car.

a chinese buffet... always quite red!

the chiropractor... showing up a little orange, but definitely red in person.

we finally found the perfect stop sign!

that's 11:20pm... shouldn't it be a little cooler than 52 degrees?

I look like I have a really thick sideburn.

red umbrellas on sale!!  We should go back when this store is open!

david does love a good coke.

winn dixie... a dying breed.

black and white and red all over!

we saw Santa in a yard so I ran and stood by him while David stayed in the car and took the pic.  I'm so glad no one came out with a shotgun!  I wish the picture had've turned out better.

Not too bad for a completely random night!