…Giving thanks for all the unknown Blessings already on their way…

As we gather round the table …

May we appreciate this food and remember those who are hungry,

May we appreciate our family and friends and remember those who are alone,

May we appreciate our health and remember those who are not well,

May we appreciate the freedoms we have and may there be Peace on Earth,

Bless those present and absent ones as we give thanks for all the unknown blessings already on their way

and Bless the hands that prepared this feast

* * * Brightest Of Blessings to one and all * * *

oxo ~*~ Patty

WS: Number “3″ + a giveaway

I chose “Three” as the challenge this week over at Wednesday Stamper

I created a beeswax postcard and used a flower stamp pressed into the warm wax to add texture around the edges … bits of lace

*click for a closer look*

coloring with Pearl Ex powders and gold Krylon Pen

* * * and here is my giveaway * * *

it was a year ago this month that I was invited to be a co-moderator on Mittwochstempler … time really flies when you are having fun … many thanks to Belinda and Hermine for making me feel so at home at Wednesday Stamper … they inspire me every day and have taught me so much!!!  thanks to Tina too!

to celebrate I am giving away a little matchbox

(1-7/16  x  2-1/8  x  1/2 inch)

stuffed with bits of this and that along with some other goodies that I will surprise you with

there are several recent posts here on my Magpie’s Nest explaining all about the stuffed matchbox idea…thanks to Kimmie

all you have to do is

leave your comment here on this post and I will pick a name randomly out of the hat on 2 December … announcing the winner on my WS post next Wednesday … all are welcome … it’s a fun way to say “hello” even if you don’t get a chance to comment often …  along with the chance to win a little prize

tea and German pancakes

a gorgeous cup of Bai MuDan (white tea) with Pomegrante … thanks again Elizabeth … it was delicate and delicious and I got to use my tea cup wire mesh tea ball

and by special request from our boy home from college for Thanksgiving … German pancakes … with seedless Black Raspberry Jam … yummm

we have used these enamel plates for oh so long now … the green one with the daisies has always been my favorite

wishing a happy T Tuesday (the last one in November already = oh my!!!) to one and all

*also a special thank you to Roberta of RCS Creations for helping me get my photos clickable again … I don’t know how she does it, but it’s working and I am SO very grateful … I really missed that feature!    Roberta is an inspiration to me on so many levels!*

oxoo

a touch of Ruby Floy

in case you haven’t heard about my friend Nathalie’s Ruby Floy etsy shop, do visit and have a look around at her wonderful vintage bits of this and that

I did and ended up ordering a few treats for myself (above) and boy did they ever arrive quickly!  the lovely Marie powder box is stuffed with 7 yards of beautiful laces

she even included a bonus bag of hooks, eyes and snaps and a couple of her vintage library cards

Nathalie has created some wonderful ATCs using bits like that… she calls them her “reduced paper” ATCs … fun … fun … fun

another twinkling twinchie

ABAA got me going this month with their twinkling twinchie (2×2 inch) challenge … you really should stop by and see their beautiful inspiration pieces

you can see my first ornament from chocolate foil here

our son is home for the holiday and chewing  the most wonderful gum (take a peek at the other color foils it comes in = OH MY!)…of course I’m glad to see him … the turquoise gum wrappers are a bonus *ggg* … talk about packaging … get a load of that name…Solstice

Wrigley is working overtime on marketing!

you can even read about the benefits of chewing too … it would be nicer if the ingredients were more pure…but whatta ya gonna do

*many thanks to lovely and talented Roberta for helping me get to the bottom of why the photos were no longer clickable … I would have never gotten it otherwise *

you can now click on a few of the photos here

in preparation for his homecoming I was tidying up a bit and came across the wonderful sparkly stringy stuff … the tiny scrabble tile words are a favorite ingredient of mine … the little girl is from the same company (although you’ll notice no company name is listed on their card)

I sanded the edges of the photo and word tile and inked it lightly

added the little music charm and peach bling butterfly with the wire handle that I attached by punching two holes at the top … how do you spell f-i-d-d-l-e

so I say … let them eat chocolate AND chew gum and please save the wrappers

stuffed to the gills

this lovely matchbox arrived all the way from Kansas!

tucked inside a sweet velveteen drawstring purse

Elizabeth of Altered Book Lover and I were partners for Pat McNally’s stuffed matchbox swap …  each letter of “Patty’s Secret Stash” was hand stamped and I must admit I am impressed … I was wondering what special font Elizabeth used … alphabet stamps intimidate me just a little

just look at the treasures Elizabeth tucked into one small matchbox!!! each and every bit is really special

a lovely sewing machine charm with thoughts of Mr Magpie getting my sewing machine repaired … an elephant charm … did I say SO MANY sweet treasures!!!

the stamps say “temptress” and “lover” … aren’t they just perfect!    it was a bit of a challenge getting everything to fit back into the matchbox … Elizabeth is an expert packer!

she has done a lovely blog post here

oh and Elizabeth also sent me some exotic white tea … Bai MuDan with Pomegrante which I look forward to trying very soon!

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

here is what I put together for Elizabeth

the matchbox was not decorated by me … I picked it up at the Blacksburg Farmer’s Market … Birdsong Farm knows an artist that hand paints the bee skep matchboxes for them … each one a little different

I wonder if Kimmie knew what she was starting by sharing her excitement about The International League of Stuffed Matchboxes … many thanks to Pat of Ooglebloops for hosting this matchbox swap and to Elizabeth for such a lovely trade … I am getting a sweet collection of stuffed matchboxes  thanks to thoughtful and generous friends

*footnote: the matchbox measures

1-7/16 x 2-1/8 x 1/2 inch*

from a distance

Sandy’s SaWo challenge is to use corrugated cardboard

Martina’s inspiration piece is beautiful!!!

having just changed a lightbulb … I saved the packaging … it’s no wonder I have so much “stuff” AND it just happened to be corrugated

using the lovely Art Creations Friday lady image behind vellum (Happy 1st Birthday to ACF!)

I looked in my cigar box of cut out words from various books … the words “gathered darkness” came up and I added them to this piece … the next morning I looked at it and thought = OH MY !

today something quite different came up for me …. inspired by Bette Midler’s “from a distance” … quite a turn around … you know that saying about things looking different in the morning!

“It’s the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance” ~Bette Midler (who has SO many wonderful quotes!!!)

*footnote Sunday 22 Nov 09: Sandy just announced that she will be closing the doors of her wonderful Saturday’s Workout AND her TGIF challenge blogs, going out on top after two years of great fun and inspiration …. thank you dear Sandy! all the best to you always!!!

Pink Saturday … one thing can lead to another and another …

vases/vessels are something I really enjoy … and arranging flowers … oh so very much!

ves sel

Pronunciation: \ˈve-səl\    Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin vascellum, diminutive of Latin vas vase, vessel

Date: 14th century

A hollow utensil, such as a cup, vase, or pitcher, used as a container, especially for liquids.

I cut a few stragglers in the garden for this little bouquet:  mini petunias, Pink Fairy Rose spray, lavender, black eyed susan seed heads, vervain, maroon mum, fern leaf tansy leaves, garlic chive seed heads, flowers from an ornamental Plectranthus accent plant in a barrel … just off our back porch … a bit protected and still going strong even after a couple of light frosts

the backs of the leathery leaves are dark maroon

I once heard that arranging flowers in a fan shaped vase is one of the easiest shapes to use for the perfect arrangement every time

*sorry the photos are not clickable for a closer view the last few days … not sure what WordPress is up to … I am not doing anything differently*

moonflower seed heads

you know how one thing can lead to another and another and … here is a good example of that … while out cutting flowers for my new pink vase … some of you know I have a “thing” for mushrooms

I spied two different kinds of mushrooms that  popped up near our white pine tree

I have always wanted to try making spore prints … if you would like to find out more about that you can click here

in less than 24 hours the mushroom caps dropped their spores onto the cardstock

next time I try it I will be more precise (like placing a glass over each mushroom cap to keep air flow from altering the spore patterns)

it was fun to finally give it a try after so many years of thinking and wondering about it

mycology is a whole nother world

how did I get here … one thing just led to another … my Mr Magpie knows I Love birds on a wire and snapped this picture for me  … thought you might like to see it too

~*Happy Pink Saturday*~

you can stop by and visit Beverly for a list of all of this weeks’ Pink Saturday participants

Happy Birthday Art Creations Friday

here is proof that time flies when you are having fun!  it has been a year already since Art Creations Friday began their beautiful challenge blog … here was my offering for their first challenge back in 2008

this week the challenge is using the same gorgeous image

I printed her out in a little different color than the original image for my 5 x 6 x .75 inch painted canvas

I used Texture Magic Dimensional Paint pushing it through a plastic doily and washing over it with white stamp ink and PanPastel

two tassels looped together at the top make the perfect hanger attached with fancy tacks that I colored  and hammered into the sides of the canvas

Congratulations ACF and here’s to many more wonderful challenges!

ABAA: Twinkling Twinchies

my twinchie for the ABAA challenge began with these child’s cardboard game pieces which just happen to measure 2 x2 inches

I was then inspired by some new (to me) Ferrero Rocher  chocolates with beautiful and different foil … Yum!!!

I sandwiched two of the game pieces together…using the brown and gold foil papers along with some wired starburst that I have had for some time now…the icon image is from an Altered Bits collage sheet (Alicia is having a buy 2 get one free sale)

I would like to try these using some brighter color foils too … seems more chocolate is in order

* illuminated *

my little 3×5 canvas began with the lovely dancer image from Terri Kahrs of Pringle Hill Studio (there is a gorgeous colorized version too)

Terri often shares images along with her creative process which is always a delight

here are some of the supplies I used … forgot to include my stamp pads in the photo

I think this canvas will become a part of a larger piece or a book spread at some point

are any other WordPress bloggers having issues with making your pictures clickable for closeups?  the last couple of days something has changed and I have not altered any settings … not sure what is going on … hopefully things will go back to the way they were … I enjoy clicking pictures for closeups!

“From its brilliancy everything is illuminated” ~Guru Nanak

just “B”

here is my house for the Dans ma maison il y a “une lettre”  challenge this week

a favorite letter of mine  has always been “B” … I like what it has to say

I got excited when I received the latest Dover Design Sampler notification with free images … this batch had lots of wonderful offerings … the horses fit perfectly in my house

you too can sign up to get notice of the free Dover images here

the lovely lady is from a vintage French postcard from my collection, some dotted scrapbook paper, black German scrap, gesso, paint, ink and stamping along with black PanPastel for shading (thank you Teesha Moore)

WordPress is not letting me post photos so they can be clicked for closeups … not sure what has changed???

“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook” ~William James

St Petersburg, Россия

I created a postcard for Katrin’s Travel Around the World Swap #15  to St Petersburg … there is still time to sign up and play along … you only have to make one postcard and you will receive a postcard in return … see the details here

my postcard also fits the “map” challenge at Wednesday Stamper this week

in both challenges at least one rubber stamp must be used

here is my Judikins crown stamp along with some finger nail bling to decorate the crown … I tried several times to gold emboss a crown … all of the nice detail on the stamp got lost

I got to visit St Petersburg back in 1999 with my Mutti … we were there for Mother’s Day … a trip I had always wanted to make … my Oma (mom’s mom) was born in Russia and fled as a young girl of eighteen to settle in Germany

the two photographs were taken before we had a digital camera

here are two members of the Red Army playing a Balalaika tune for the Pope in the Vatican

Россия is Russia written in Cyrillic

Star Pilot

here is my “Star Pilot” arch for the Gothic Arches “stars” challenge this week

“You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star” ~Friedrich Nietzsche

Tea and Stitchery

Carole in New Zealand issued an invitation on her Madness and Mess blog to join in on her “blogging buddies quilt” project

she supplied a 5×5 inch piece of tea dyed cotton and sent everyone green embroidery floss … along with a pretty ATC  she made by cutting up a vintage embroidery from her collection as a giftie

each participant will embroider their square and mail it back to her

I used a free pattern from Bird Brain Designs that I shrunk in size … you can sign up to receive their free newsletters

I just had to add a wee bit more than embroidery and had the perfect teeny tiny buttons (each one a little bigger than a grain of rice) … there was no needle small enough to thread through the buttons, so I stitched into the center of each heart leaving both loose ends of floss on top … I proceeded to thread the single strand through each tiny hole by hand … I marveled at my patience and persistence on this step (it’s healthy to pat yourself on the back every now and then )… but you know how it is when you have an idea and you really want it to work

it will be exciting to see Carole’s completed friendship quilt … she does beautiful work … you can see a nice sampling  in her etsy shop here

be sure and visit the other tea Tuesday bloggers … Kimmie lists them here

what is outside your front door?

a view of the sunset here in Virginia this evening

a little after 5pm

so much beauty waiting to be noticed outside our front door

some evenings really take my breath away

I take lots of these sunset shots … each time seems brand new and I get so excited … just thought I would share a few snaps with you this time around

*************

“Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all” ~William Faulkner