I worked my half day at the Carriage House yesterday and while I was there
Sherry came to visit me! It was great to see her. She has been very sick lately and she is finally feeling better. Sherry surprised me and brought me some goodies!
Sherry brought me the new Artful Blogging. What a beautiful magazine. Sherry asked me if I had ever seen it before and I told her that I had bought one about 6 months ago. My first reaction back then was OMG these blogs are so amazing and I was so depressed about how much work my blog needed and how much there was to learn. (Silly, I know.) But this time, I am inspired by these gorgeous pictures and unusual art. I will keep working on my blog to make it a true reflection of me and my creations.
Thanks Sherry for being my friend, too and for this great, inspiring publication! As if that lovely magazine wasn't enough, look what else she brought me...
This is the sweetest minibook. Sherry made this for me and it is all pictures from her beautiful collection of vintage and romantic decor. She cut out these images and added inspirational words and phrases to it. It is so wonderful. Here are some of the pages:
Don't you love this blue prom gown? She has it displayed beautifully in her home. Now I get to see it whenever I want. This pretty book is now in my studio gracing one of my tables. Many thanks, sweet friend!!!
Another surprise this week was from my friend Tam in Savannah! She has given me this blogging award.
To translate the gift from Portuguese to English, it means:"This blog invests and believes, the proximity"[meaning, that blogging makes us 'close' -being close through proxy] How awesome is that??
"They all are charmed with the blogs, where in the majority of its aims are to show the marvels and to do friendship; there are persons who are not interested when we give them a prize, and then they help to cut these bows; do we want that they are cut, or that they propagate?"
Thanks for thinking of me, Tam. To reciprocate, there is a list if very talented and special women that I visit and you can find them all in my List of Favorite Places to Visit found on my blog . If you haven't been to see them before, please go say hello!
This was our wedding invitation. It is currently in a frame outside of our bedroom. It reminds us everyday of that incredible time in our lives. Over the years we have celebrated in different ways. Our 1st Anniversary was spent in France and Germany. After that we took motorcycle trips to Gatlinburg, Tenn and stayed in a beautiful cabin in the Smoky Mountains and one year we took another motorcycle trip to The Grand Canyon. Some anniversary's involved some beautiful jewelry and some were spent home alone. All of them are memorable! 
Here, I was 30 and Don was 45. We look at this photo and laugh saying that we hardly recognize these people! Since being married, we have moved 4 times, lived in a foreign country, traveled extensively, toured on motorcyles, had our sweet daughter, became Canadian citizens, bought our retirement home, have never had a serious illness, laughed almost everyday, never gone to bed angry, found our Faith together, now miss our motorcycle days, trying to age gracefully together, trying to lose 20 lbs, together.... 
We are now 41 and 56 and still loving every minute. It doesn't matter what comes, as long as we are together. We have a plaque hanging outside our room and it says, "The best thing to hold onto in life is each other." We know no other way. I would say that I am lucky, but truthfully it takes working on it everyday! We both toasted over dinner to another 11 years together. May they be as good as the first 11.
As usual, Natalea out did herself. She sent me a spooktacular array of gifts. I have them here set up in an old suitcase in my studio.
Don't you love this black crow and Happy Halloween sign? I am going to add a little bling and tulle to our feathered friend here and perch him in my dress form.
This image cracks me up. This will be us gals 30 years from now! Great Card.
This is definitely the sweet part of the swap. Darling ATC!
This a paper mache skull pick with this beaded ring. The ring fits perfect and is awesome for the Fall.
Look at these candles. They are so clever and they look so cool when they are burning. Great job, Natalea.
Many thanks, Natalea for suggesting the swap and for all of the presents!
This is a creme ceramic pumpkin that I added a crow tag and some tulle and buttons to.
This is a trick-or-treat bag that I sewed out of felt. I love this vintage image of the little witch. I filled this bag with vintage inspired candies from the Cracker Barrel. A hand made card with a witches shoe to go with it.
A hanging collage.
This was for the sinister part of the swap. I found these glass Czech. spider buttons on ebay. We drilled a hole in the bangle bracelet then I glued the spider button on top of a vintage black wooden button and then glued that to the bangle. It came out so cute. I may have to make one for myself! 
I had a great time making these Halloween goodies. I am ready to make some more for some other unsuspecting ghouls!!
Here is a sample of the back of the package.
So many of you great ladies out there share your recipes, so I decided I would share this one with you. I will warn you about these cookies....you can't eat just one!!!
2 and 1/2 cups of fresh sliced almonds.
Add 1 cup of sugar to the almonds and mix.
Add 1/2 cup of melted, unsalted butter to the almonds and sugar and mix well.
Now, add 5 tablespoons of all-purpose flour and mix well.
Lightly mix 2 egg whites in a separate bowl. Once the egg whites are softened a bit, add to the almond mixture.
Now add a dash of salt and a 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and mix well. The cookie batter is now ready to spoon out onto the parchment lined cookie sheets.
The most important step to making these cookies is spooning them onto the pan and then spreading them out. Take a small amount of cookie mixture on a spoon and place onto parchment. Then spread the almonds flat and into a circle. The flatter the dough the crispier and crunchier the cookie.
Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden brown around the edges.
I hope you ladies have a great weekend. Wish us luck at the Grand Opening tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes. 
Natalea sent some lovely wrapped packaged with great Halloween Tags. She even sent the black bird perched in my candleabre. This sparkly black candleabre is both spooky and elegant. I found it at the Cracker Barrel, of all places.
I can't wait to open these packages. I will open them and post the show and tell when Natalea receives her goodies from me.
Here are my treats to her. I had so much fun making these gifts and of course wrapping them.
This is the sinister portion of the swap. I hope she likes it. I will show you all of the Halloween Swap Goods when we open them all up! 
I was inspired by the movie Marie Antoinette with Kirsten Dunst. There is a fantastic scene in the movie where she is trying on the most amazing sets of shoes and eating tons of bonbons and cakes and candies galore. That was such a fun part of the movie that I made it into my intepretation for the I want candy book swap.
I made a master background sheet first and then scanned and printed them out. I added the shoes and candy emblishments to the remaining 11 pages.
I was glad that there were only 12 pages. I had to cut out the shoes and candies for each page.
All of the pages are done and ready to go to Natalea to be put into the books!
This brown box was the perfect size to put all of the pages in to send off and hopefully get there in one piece. I hope Natalea likes what I put together for her fun book swap. I will share the completed book with you all when I get it! Ta Ta for Now!!