The first thing that struck me were the flowers! An old favorite of mine are hollihocks! I haven't seen hollihocks since I was a child and we visited grandparents and other relatives in Iowa and Kansas every year. My Grandmother Sowers always had hollihocks in her garden. She lived in a really small town in Henderson, Iowa. That's where my mother grew up.
This yard was full of hollihocks.
A close up of the beautiful pink hollihocks. BTW, these were taken with my small Olympus camera. Didn't take the new one because I don't feel ready to take good pictures with it yet. Still learning.
These beautiful roses were found in Pine across the road from several shops and a thrift store. The bushes were loaded with blooms.
Daylilies!! I haven't seen daylilies since we moved here from Virginia. I had loads of daylilies in my yard in Virginia. Loved them! They looked great and require no care!
Flags along the fence at a small group of shops in Pine. The shops look like old buildings that may have been on a small farm. Getting ready for the Fourth of July!!Tomorrow I will have pictures of my finds while shopping in Payson. I haven't unpacked them yet! Too tired.
Yesterday was also my monthly card making class with the Stampin' Up dealer in my area. I take these classes to meet other ladies who enjoy this kind of work and also (are you ready for this?) to catch up on the latest "goin's on" in this community where I live. Lots of stories! In fact, one lady had just returned from a 73 day cruise (way too long for my taste!) to Africa! She had this wonderful picture book full of photos that she had taken on the trip. She somehow managed to send all the photos by computer to somewhere (??) and they put together the book for her of page after page of her wonderful photos (just printed pages, no actual photos on the pages like a scrapbook) and mailed it to her shortly after she arrived home. Didn't know that was even possible!
Anyway, here are the three cards we made yesterday. I really like the mouse card! The white cardstock is actually punched out and the yellow cardstock is behind it. Looks like cheese!
Got this display idea from the trunk show at The Paper Studio last evening. I met Kim there and we looked at the jewelry and art pieces created by DJ Pettitt and Deryn Mentock. They are doing a seminar at The Paper Studio this weekend.
I bought this small handmade book by 
In the box was this Jan Vogue Doll. Isn't she pretty? She is in her original outfit and with the original box. I think she is in pretty good condition considering that she is approaching 50 years old. We should all look that great at 50!! LOL!! This was my sister's doll.
On the bottom of the box you can see that I had drawn a fireplace with rock surround for our pretend doll house. Jan and I had the furniture, but no doll house. Anyway, the furniture would not fit in a regular doll house. It is too big!
This one has a gold applique that I found while rummaging through a drawer in the spare bedroom. Recognize the little face? It's from the Barbie picture stands a couple of blogs ago -- see below.
Old mother-of-pearl (MOP) buttons. You can stamp on ribbon. But make sure you stamp on a piece of paper first so that your second stamp is lighter.
Old MOP scarf slide or belt slide. The ribbon is from 
Ah! See a small gift for the upcoming Annie Oakley class?? I have done a bunch more, but will not take up space right here. Maybe I will post them later on the right side of the blog. Again, I was just searching through my box of trims and my scrap box for trim and images. The basic cards are from the Instant Memories and Memories of a Lifetime books that have the CD's. Lots of good stuff in those!!
These three pins are wrapped with old lace, rayon seam binding and ric-rack. I found some tiny dressmakers pins recently which are perfect for holding the trims in place.
Here you see the beginnings of the next altered book. I went out to my garage on a scavenger hunt and pulled papers, bingo cards, small file dividers and pages from old books that will become the pages of this book. (You have to believe that my garage is a treasure trove of stuff I have collected!) I have a lot of images that I want to put in it that are very whimsical. They are from "Memories of a Lifetime Weddings" by Sandra Evertson and it comes with a CD of copyright-free images. It's great!
Cute little animal pitchers in blue and white. There were about 8 of them. Must have been someone's collection. 
Now, these are wonderful! They will sell quickly in my booth at Merchant Square -- as will the pitchers. They are marked "45th Barbie Anniversary". Hmm! Must have missed that one! Anyway, I think they are photoholders. Barbie still sells -- although not much else does!
Couldn't resist adding faces! I think I will remove those before I sell them, but I thought it was a good idea. They are not permanently fixed to the dress forms.
Another picture of the baby quail -- sorry! I first spied them on the front porch a few minutes before they appeared in the back by the slider. They must have walked around the house. I think they have grown since this morning! They looked bigger!
This was such fun to put together. It took several weeks because of the trip out of town earlier in May. But it is finally finished. I call her "Madre Tierra" or Earth Mother. I loved using natural elements as well as things from my stash for this collage. Just fun!
This one is for Kim and Joy. Yeehaw!!
