The Cat's Pajamas!

Well friends, I am delighted to announce that "The Cat's Pajamas", my latest digital clip art kit is now available for purchase in my Just Bee 'n Me Digital Boutique!! Loaded with cute kitty goodness and lots of girly sleepover fun, this is the perfect kit for enhancing slumber party scrapbook memories, girl's night out or come-as-you-are party invitations, or any number of colorful crafting and card-making projects! I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it!!

And now, speaking of sleep, I'm going to go try and get some right about now...sweet dreams friends!

"When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet."

Proverbs 3:24

Bunny Slippers for your Soul

Howdy strangers! So sorry to have been AWAL on the blog, but I simply cannot blog and chew gum at the same time  :o) I have been working on my latest clipart kit (the bunny slippers are part of the kit), and I've been extra busy at the antique shop, so blogging has been a bit scarce. But as always, I miss you guys too much to stay away from here or your places for too very long without at least saying hello...

So please consider this a very warm hello - like "bunny slippers for your soul" from me to you! I hope you are cozy, warm, dry and safe. Our friends in Haiti, however, are far from it - they are suffering and my heart breaks anew each day as I see more and more of the devastation. I pray they can reach out through the rubble and the brokenness to God and His promises and cling to them with all their might...

"My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life."

Psalms 119:50

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You Know Who You Are

OK, it's time to come clean...you know who you are...  You're that person, searching for what day the 15th of January is, desperately looking at the teeny-tiny January square that's at the top of your old December 2009 calendar, which is still sporting Santa and snowmen... Worse yet, you're relegated to the 2010 calendar you received from your local lawn care service featuring photos of the weed of the month...

Come on, you need a calendar thats sweet, stylish and inspirational...you need one of these...
(click on the title to see ordering information)

"My Cup Runneth Over" 2010 Scripture Calendar

"Wisdom & Whimsy" 2010 Scripture Calendar

And, if you're already good to go with a 2010 calendar, then you might enjoy having some of these swwet, seasonal notecards (featuring illustrations from the calendars) to share notes of encouragement with your friends, family, co-workers, whomever...

Find ordering information for these and the other illustrations from "My Cup Runneth Over" here, and all the illustrations from "Wisdom & Whimsy" here !

Thanks for looking! Hey, if you see a design of mine you like and would enjoy being able to purchase it on a mug, a t-shirt, or any number of the other dozens and dozens of products that CafePress provides, simply leave me a comment or drop me an email (see address on my sidebar) and I will be more than happy to make that happen!!!

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Hope the downhill side of your week is blessed beyond measure!!

New Year/New Look at the Shop

I'm sitting here in our office on the north end of the house, listening to the stiff north wind whistle all around us, and I am so glad to finally be warm and snug at home. The first part of the week was spent taking all of the Christmas down at our space in the shop and transforming the look with new furniture and other merchandise. Though I enjoy merchandising and display, it is VERY time consuming, especially when shifting most of the major pieces of furniture and tagging and pricing LOTS of new stuff. But it's all done now and for the next several days we are just going to be holed up here at home, watching our beloved UT Longhorns play for the National Championship tonight and generally vegging out till the weekend.

I snapped photos of the new look at the shop...I hope you enjoy the tour...(click any image to enlarge)

This is a fun cupboard/hutch/bar I have been dying to get finished and in the shop for weeks. It was a cheap Craigslist find ($40) that we shored up and painted/distressed. I wish I had taken a before photo...it was painted a really ugly shade of red, but it was still an interesting piece that I knew had a lot of potential, primarily as a display unit. It's anchoring the entrance to our space and will hopefully draw folks in...it's hard to see in this photo, but it has cabinets and shelves on the bottom as well as a cabinet on the top which will give us lots of display options...

The glass was missing in the cabinet doors on the top, so I put lace in them instead...

You can look through it to see the rest of the space...

I love the coutry/cottage kitchen feel it gives the space - we are collecting lots more vintage kitchen merchandise and will be adding it in the space as we get it ready. Here are a few kitcheny items we're featuring...

As you head around the bar you can see that we moved the large table, brought the smaller round table to this end, and added a small vintage china cabinet in the corner...

At the end of the bar I placed a vintage step stool that I painted YEARS ago...it goes with the look now and I'm ready to say "so long"....

I made a fun little magnetic chalkboard from a vintage red gingham metal tray that my Mom had for years...I masked off and painted the center of the tray with chalkboard paint, added wire for a hanger, ribbons and rick rack for fouf, and a couple of red fabric strawberries with magnets glued to the back to use for holding recipe cards or whatever...

Here's the interior of the little china cabinet....we'll be getting a lot more goodies to put in here if it stays around for a while...

We're still using the Duncan Phyfe drop-leaf table in the middle of our space, but instead of retro Christmas, it's now holding a pretty collection of garden-y tableware and other items...

Finally, we moved the large table and chairs as well as the chandelier to the opposite end of our space. In early November I had the table decked out in shabby pink for Christmas with a set of sweet rose china, then I switched it to red plaid, cranberry reds and burgundy and a different china pattern for December, and now I've gone back to the pinks for Valentine's Day...

I'm still featuring the Moss Rose china, but only a sub-set of it - I've off-loaded a lot of the backstock of the china to the corner cabinet next to the table - this is so we'd have room for a wider variety of merchandise on the table. I re-used the cranberry charger like I did in December, but I softened it with a pretty vintage doily...very Valentine-y...

Here's more of the Valentine-themed merchandise...

I've been wanting to make a cloche for the longest time and I finally got it done...(on the cheap, of course). I've had this large glass planter/candleholder for a good while (it's the kind that hangs in a round metal holder)- I simply inverted it, glued on an etched candle holder and a vintage porcelain knob to make a handle, then I hung an 80%-off Christmas ornament on it for a bit of sparkle...

Speaking of cheap, these 6 beautiful Spode Mansard "Lady Anne" saucers were just 2 bucks total at a garage sale...love the diamond-weave texture around the edge of the plates...

Thanks for hanging in there through all the photos...whew! Lots of new stuff! I'm enjoying this little break from the shop - I'll be shifting gears to illustration work for the next few days, and will have a new Aimee Asher clip art set to share very soon - more to come...please check back often! (I hope if you haven't yet that you'll consider becoming a blog follower so you can easily see when I do a new post!). I also have some exciting news to share about another interview I did...this time it is for a retail gift trade magazine...can't wait to share!! I'll also share links to my newest products in the Universal Designs line...they turned out GREAT!! So far, 2010 is shaping up to be an exciting year!!

Thanks for sharing it all with me - what a blessing you are!!

Happy New Year/Decade, 2010!

Happy, happy New Year (and New Decade!!) to all my dear friends and family who stop by here to visit!! I pray that this year will be one of abundant joy and the sweet comfort of your Saviour! I know it will be a mixed bag for most of us...all years seem to be that way, but I hope that through it all, the challenges and the delights, you will experience the love of Jesus in fresh new ways!

I, like so many of you, are brimming with new creative ideas for the New Year. Over the next week or so I will be setting new ventures in motion and laying the groundwork for what I hope will be a successful year in my fledgling little creative business. Success, of course, is measured in many different ways, but for me it means that I listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit first and foremost, and follow in the direction He leads...whether it's a nudge to send a little encouragement to a friend, or to launch a new line of licenced artwork...when He leads and I follow, good stuff happens. That doesn't mean I don't plan and dream...it just means I will try to seek Him first...He has all the best ideas anyway!

I am looking forward to seeing where all He will lead us this year. Your creativity, honesty, wit, wisdom, and fun have been an endless source of inspiration for me...Thank you all for sharing so generously - I am so grateful for all of you and for the ability to share our journeys. My heart is full, my spirit is rejoicing, and my hands are ready to create...oh yeah, and my family is going to be here in a few hours to celebrate New Years day and eat some ham, cabbage, black-eyed peas and cornbread, so I better get up from this computer and get busy!!  :o)  Enjoy today and this New Year of promise...I'll see you soon!!