Girls Weekend: A Day in the Studio, Part 1

Welcome back to Girls Weekend! This day will soon not be forgotten. In a place I love, with women I love, doing what we all love; crafting, creating, laughing and opening lots and lots of presents! I will be creating 2 posts for this Day in the Studio. There were just too many photos and too many things to share to try and pair it down. So off we go...

Friday was dedicated to spending the day together in my studio. My studio is named Blue Sky Studio because it sits up in the tree tops and it is also painted a pale robin's egg blue. Today, I would host the first art class with Guest Artist, Dawn Edmonson from the Feathered Nest.

Before the class we would go into the studio, take a look at all my studio what nots and then dive into all of the treats in our goody baskets. Here is a look at my studio. Here I am, waiting to greet the girls and let them finally into the studio. I made them wait until Friday morning. I hope they felt it was worth the wait.

One of my gifts to the girls was aprons that I made. Each one was different, just like them. Here they are laying over the railing waiting for each of them.

Each apron had a sewn tag with a vintage thread spool and a small saying entitled the Pattern of Friendship.Here we are as a group all wearing my apron gifts. From left to right we have, Ruth, Judy, Luz, Lee, Me, Angela, Natalea and Dawn. My soul sisters!

I loved having the girls with me in the studio. It was wonderful sharing my things and my space with them. It is fantastic to have like minded ladies appreciate the studio. They so get what it is all about. I loved showing them all of the things that they had made for me and sent me in the past. A part of them and their kindness is always with me.

Now on to the goodies! When my little invitation went out, I asked each lady to please make or buy one thing for each person attending the Girls Weekend as a remembrance of the time we spent together. As you can see by the over flowing basket here, the ladies out did themselves.

Packages came in the mail for weeks from the girls and I loved looking at all the beautifully wrapped gifts. I was eager to see what each of them made and they wasted no time either. It was so much fun to receive these treats. We painted, collaged, stitched, crocheted, baked, collected and created a memorable collection of presents. Here is what everyone made.
Luz put together these beautifully decorated paper mache hearts. The perfect sentiment and reminder of friends old and new.Angela with her vintage flair, collaged these old 78 records with ephemra and old photos from her own family history. Very clever as always.Judy treated us to her baking creations! My SIL is known as the Cookie Lady in Gray and she treated us to a box of my favorite cookies. Her melt in your mouth chocolate chips, light and crispy almond cookies, delicate chocolate snowballs and my fav the cinnamon swirls. Yum!!!Lee put a wonderful decorated bag of ephemra, crystal prisms, cards and vintage wallpaper together for us. All wrapped with a ribbon and stencil for each of us.Dawn brought these hand made journals with a collection of lovely nature images and sayings. She also treated us to some soap from Clearly Fun Soap. Natalea hand stitched these feminine cloth hearts each with our own initial on them. They have pretty lace, sweet millinery items and old rhinestone pieces tucked into the pocket on the front of the pillow. Trademark Natalea. Lovely in everyway.
Ruth got us ready for summer with these cute flowered flip flops. She crocheted the little flowers and leaves and added some buttons for the middles and attached them to these chocolate brown flops. Just precious! That's my Mom. Master crocheter!Just a few more things for the girls. A box of pretty note pads, peachy candies, hand made tags and a Sandra Evertson stamp.
Whew! That was fun. What a talented and generous bunch of women. Thank you all so much for the time and love you put into these gifts!!Yes, we did finally get to the main event! Ladies, please meet the guest artist, Dawn Edmonson! I am so glad that I contacted Dawn. She agreed to join us for the day in the studio and teach us one of her art projects. Look at all of the supplies she brought for the project. They were so pretty to look at.
Sorry to leave you hanging here, but I welcome you back to see Part 2 to our day. Come see what project we make with Dawn, join us for lunch at the Tea Room and cocktails poolside to wrap up our Friday.
See you soon!