Nature's Blessings Art Journal! Freebies!

Hello Friends!

I am delighted to be participating in the
"Nature's Blessings" Art Journal Swap,
hosted by Karla Nathan of "Karla's Cottage".

 We were to make a four page layout
with any nature theme,
with plenty of space for journaling and doodling..

I chose "birds" as my theme.
I think this page has lots of space for journaling:

 I added the bow and trim for texture.

Pages 2 and 3.

There is space on page 2,

and when you lift up the top page,

there are a couple of blank pages underneath.

Page 3 is a page ripped from 

The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady,

with a glassine envelope

filled with tags for journaling.

Page 4 has two pockets for tags
and space around the page for journaling.

 

 

 And here are all six of them,
ready for mailing.

        I'm going to miss them!  :)

Well, can you guess the nature of today's freebies?

Yep.

Some of my favorites!!
Click to enlarge, right click and save!

More Friday fun to be had at Fabulously Creative Friday!  

Lots of great ideas at Show and Tell Friday!  

Lovely blues at Anything Blue Friday!

Lots of links to lovely pinks at Pink Saturday!

Creative living, decorating, and craft ideas at Inspired Sunday!

Lovely tablescapes at Seasonal Sundays!

Cute and crafty stuff at Make it Monday!

Be inspired by Inspire Me Tuesday!

Vintage creativity at Vintage Inspiration Wednesday!

For links to lovely, shabby, chippy whites, stop by Blissful Whites Wednesday!

Beautiful greys at Grey Dey Thursdeys.

Lovely things to be found at

French cottagey links at Feathered Nest Friday!

 

♥♥♥ Thank you so much for visiting and for all your lovely comments!! ♥♥♥
Have a great weekend my friends!

More Paris!! Window Shopping!! Creations and Freebies!!

Hello Friends!

Well, clearly I can't be trusted.
In my last post I promised to post more Paris photos
in a few days...

And it's been a bit more than a few days!!

But here I am!

I thought it would be fun to do a little
window shopping in Paris.
Which in French is called lèche-vitrines.
Which literally translates to "window licking" :D

Let's start with something yummy:

Look at this cute bridal shoppe window with mini wedding dresses: 

Somehow my I-phone slipped into sepia mode,

but I think it suits these wedding dresses.

 How cute are these I-phone cases:

Art gallery window with mosaics:

 

Time for a treat:

Baccarat crystal vase with giant paper flowers:

Pierre Frey fabulous fabrics:

 

Love the look of these falling stars:

Mmmm...boulangerie:

This store was filled to the brim with KITTY handbags:

Ladurée!

The sweet thing about Ladurée is that there are multiple locations but each shoppe's

windows are decorated differently:

 

Another gallery window:

 

My new favorite shoppe in Paris, Mathilde M. :

 Hmmm, this warrants a closer look:

 Okay, must go inside this one:

 What a beautiful shoppe, 

everything is shades of gray and white

with vintage images abound!

  

OK, time for a little something:

Aah, yes.

Love, love, love sidewalk cafés!

Time to share a few creations of mine:

Might as well stay in French mode.
I participated in blissfulART's August "I love Paris" swap,
which was a card and ATC/tag swap.

 

Paris themed ATC:

The July swap theme was Red, White and Blue. French colors!
I created this tag and card inspired by French General's fabrics:

 
 For some reason the colors are off in this next picture,
and the contrast is very sharp here
but much softer in person:

Ooooh, just one more little shoppe!

Wouldn't you just love to pop in here the next time

you had a craving for a macaron or sorbet:

OK, some Paris freebies:

Click to enlarge, right click and save!

More Friday fun to be had at Fabulously Creative Friday!  

Lots of great ideas at Show and Tell Friday!  

Lovely blues at Anything Blue Friday!

Lots of links to lovely pinks at Pink Saturday!

Creative living, decorating, and craft ideas at Inspired Sunday!

Lovely tablescapes at Seasonal Sundays!

Cute and crafty stuff at Make it Monday!

Vintage creativity at Knick of Time Tuesday!

Be inspired by Inspire Me Tuesday!

For links to lovely, shabby, chippy whites, stop by Blissful Whites Wednesday!

Beautiful greys at Grey Dey Thursdeys.

Lovely things to be found at

French cottagey links at Feathered Nest Friday!

 

♥♥♥ Thank you so much for visiting and for all your lovely comments!! ♥♥♥
Have a great weekend!

Asheville!

A long time ago, I lived in North Carolina--
how did I never make it to Asheville?!
Coming now from California,
where we have had a wet Winter and Spring,
and we think everything's nice and green here...
Ha! I now see how green Spring can really be!
Most of North Carolina looks like this:

But in Asheville, NC, there is a thriving, artsy little haven,
with lots of arts and crafts galleries, unique shops,
where the food in restaurants is grown locally...and organically,
and many of the items in stores are handcrafted,
and even some of the clothes in the little boutiques are handmade!

Let's take a little stroll:

Cute outdoor cafes:

Cute alleyways:

Library:

My daughter and son-in-law, the lovebirds,
and some of many public works of art:

Let's windowshop:

Paper flowers!

Chocolate stilettos!

Butterfly dress!

Let's go inside:

Paper dress!

How cute is this:


And the food was wonderful!

Breakfast, southern style, at Tupelo Honey:



Yes. Grits. But these were goat cheese grits, and so yummy!

And some random pics around town:




We loved our stay in Asheville...it wasn't long enough,
we didn't get to do everything we wanted...
but we'll be back!!!