Made ~ Marie Antoinette Collage Book

I'm normally a painter but recently I've been delving into the world of collage.  Here is my first attempt at a collage book.  The theme of this book was Marie Antoinette.  She's been my muse of late.

Made ~ Marie Antoinette Snowflake Ornaments

The holiday season was a busy one but I was able to complete a few small craft projects.  Here is the simplest one:  Marie Antoinette Snowflake Ornaments. 

I started with a plastic snowflake I bought from Target in a package of four for $1. 

I then took a digital print of Marie Antoinette and circle punched it.  I adhered the image to the snowflake using hot glue.  Then I attached three small roses to the image.  Next, I took some glitter glue and edged the image with the glue.  Allow to dry overnight.  Viola!

~ Maid Marian

27 Weeks and Counting

Hey Howdy Hey! I'm back in the blogosphere...finally. They say every pregnancy is different and I can attest to that. This one has totally kicked my booty. I thought that the tiredness of the first trimester would leave and I could get back into the saddle of blogging. Little did I know that the tiredness decided to set up camp and stick around for a while. Then the holidays showed up and well, you know...


Anyway, I'm back with a few posts of what I was up to in the interim and to give you an update on my pregnancy.


Pregnancy Highlights:
How Far Along: 27 Weeks


Gender: It's a girl!!! Still undecided on a name but her middle name will likely be Caroline after my grandmother who raised me.


Size of Baby: Baby girl is the size of a small pineapple


Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained 1.5 lbs. Yes, you read that right. 1.5 lbs. I have terrible morning sickness (actually afternoon and evening sickness) during the first trimester and through most of the second trimester and lost 8 lbs. I am the only woman I know that actually loses weight when she's pregnant. I lost about 9 lbs. with my son, Asher.


Maternity Clothes: I wear maternity jeans/pants but everything else is regular. I will wear the occasional maternity top if the mood strikes.


Movement: Lots of movement in the evenings when I'm trying to rest.


Sleep: I think I'm sleeping pretty well but my husband says I'm not.


What I Miss: Sleeping on my stomach and Ice-cold Coke with crushed ice since I've been diagnosed with gestational diabetes.


Cravings: Ice-cold Coke with crushed ice. I'm a Pepsi girl but I've been craving Cokes. Weird?


Symptoms: Tiredness


Best Moment This Week: Having my son rub my tummy for the first time.

A Good Reason for Not Blogging

I have been pretty slack about updating my blog recently but I have a good reason, really I do!  I am expecting my second child and this first trimester is kicking my butt with fatigue.  As soon as I put my son down for the night, I'm crawling into bed from utter exhaustion.  And I sleep like the dead until it's time to get up the next morning.  Typically, before I got pregnant, I would spend a couple of hours each night doing housework, pursuing my artistic endeavors and blogging.  Now, my house, art and my blog have been neglected. I am looking forward to my second trimester so I can get back some of the energy I have lost.  I have several posts planned and hope to post them soon.  Until next time, take care.  I hope you understand.

Collage Coterie

I've signed up for my first online class. I'm so excited about learning all there is to know about collage from Mary and my other classmates.  I can't wait to get started.

I've signed up for my first online class. I'm looking forward to exploring the world of collage with Mary and my other classmates. I can't wait to start creating.

Made ~ Pink & Brown Baby Shower

My friend Brandi is expecting her second child and first girl, Brooklynn.  Another friend of Brandi's, Jessi, and I threw Brandi a baby shower a couple of Saturdays ago.  Brandi had chosen brown, magenta and white for her baby girl-to-be's nursery so that was the color palette for the shower.  I created floral arrangements from supplies I found at Dollar Tree.  The pale pink foam roses were the focus of the arrangements.  They were accompanied by white berries in a low glass vase.  I wrapped each vase with wide chocolate brown velvet ribbon I found at Hobby Lobby.  I LOVE how they turned out!

I also created some tissue poms in brown, magenta and pale pink to hang in the living room and over the buffet.  They were easy, peasy to make.  Brandi plans to hang the poms in her baby girl's room. What a compliment!

For food, we had petit fours and cupcakes frosted to match the color palette.  We had a great chicken wing dip that Jessi made.  Yum-e!  For beverages, we had pink lemonade, Cherry 7-Up and bottled water (the bottles were wrapped with pink and brown paper to coordinate).

From the smile on Brandi's face, I would say the shower was a success!

Made ~ Lady Churchill Collage Challenge

I'm participating in the Lady Churchill Collage Challenge over at Green Paper.  The challenge required me to use three images provided by Green Paper into the design.  After reading up on Lady Churchill's biography, I chose to incorporate a painting by her famous son, Winston Churchill.  The painting is a landscape of Lake Como, Italy.  I used two of the images provided by Green Paper prominently on the bookmark:  the bird and the portrait of Lady Churchill.  The third image I used more subtly.  I used the stamp and the words "New York" from the old check image.  I used the words "New York" because Lady Churchill hailed from the New York area before moving to England.  Below is the bookmark I created for the Lady Churchill Collage Challenge.  What do you think?