Sights & Sounds of the St. Patrick's Day Parade


Our friend, Shannon and his family came for a weekend vacation. Our first adventure together was experiencing the St. Patrick's Day Parade. The weather was perfect and we had only to walk a couple of blocks to get a wonderful front sidewalk view!






Can't you just hear the bag pipes?




























And then there are other Irish bands.













Of course, the parade would not be complete without horses in my opinion.










Oh, these young girls are great!




























There were lots of Irish wolf hounds!







The Vulcans were celebrating the arrival of spring. He has the green dauber ready to paint a clover leaf on my daughter's cheek and then mine! We're supporters of the Vulcans!




This is their antique fire truck....the same one we had a chance to ride in the Winter Carnival's snow sculpture contest.





It looked to me like a leprechaun was driving the Whiskey truck!









The original Riverdance is beginning their five shows here in Minneapolis.









This group was all about recycling and I couldn't help but find her sign very funny. But in reality, he is only away on a work assignment.







And the little children in the back of this truck made me smile!

Happy Birthday Sis!

Each year my sister and I exchange birthday gifts and among all the packages...we promise to have at least one handmade item.

We both usually start collecting unique finds throughout the year for each other. I had found her a gift from an antique store in Mountain Home last year and she also found me an item from the same area during the same time period. Funny how that worked out.

My sister made me all kinds of goodies which I will post at a later date. She is so very clever!


The gift I made were ATC's that are personal for her. I forgot to scan them before I mounted them into their frame.

The letter "A" was Zentangle inspired on Arches Text Wove. I watercolored the background before making the design. I added red rhinestones for bling.


This ATC shows my sister in a "Back to School" picture that my dad had taken. I cropped out everyone else. I added butterflies and a sentiment of "Fun & Funny".


I had made ATC's using Dada poetry a couple of years ago and this particular one was in my collection. The background is a photo of the farmhouse that was our Great Grandparents and the woman is a great great aunt.

I thought the poem was perfect for the photo!

I used antique buttons to embellish the ATC.



I collaged this ATC and specifically selected the words that best describe how my sister views life!

She loves lace so I added a border with tiny little pearl drops on top.




This ATC is one of my favorites that I made. I used dyed fabric that I made when we were together last year over July 4th. The photo is also when my sister was about three years old. I am sitting next to her on the couch however, I cropped myself out of the photo. I added bits of fabric scraps and lace behind the photo...wrote the sentiment and added three black rhinestones.


I really love how this ATC turned out! I used a vintage card button where there was one button left. The red frame was part of the card and it was the perfect size to fit our mother's school photo!

I then framed this onto black card stock and then the final mount was white card stock.



I saved this bit of quilted fabric from my sister's friend when I was on a retreat last fall in DeSota, Wisconsin. Her friend Eileen delighted me in showing me all kinds of stitches that her new quilting machine did and then she gave me a good chunk of goodness.

I sewed on top of the quilting the antique buttons that my sister loves a lot. A blanket stitch borders the ATC.





A playing card is the background for this ATC. I collaged a napkin on top, added the quote and bling. Gel medium was used to seal the card.








This is another part of Eileen's chunk of goodness that she gave to me. I sewed the "dream & play" tiles and sewed three times around the ATC.






This is a photo of me when I was three. I went with the cowgirl theme!



Tim Holtz showed me how to make tiny wire bird nests at one of his classes last year. I made a whole bunch of these at the retreat last year with my sister so I knew I wanted to make a card where I could use one of these nests as an embellishment.



I've had this transparency forever so it was time for me to do something with it! Using it on this ATC seemed perfect. I sewed the transparency onto the background paper. Inside the keyhole is text that says "secrets".

A matching key is attached with ribbon at the top.

Snow & Ice


This was my first time going to the Winter Carnival. It was their 125 year celebration.....which included 125 different events one could enjoy!

We went to the St. Paul fairgrounds where the exhibitors were working until midnight for the final judging competition being held the next day at noon.

My farm roots must be showing because my favorite exhibit was the milking cow!




The sun is so bright it is very hard to see all the details. There is a cat patiently waiting for a drop of milk....and I love the two milk cans that are more realistic that the real thing.


There were so many exhibits.....each one so very unique and fabulous!
















At the ice sculpture show I was delighted to see that they actually had an "ice" bar in which all the beverages were sold!









This was an amazing wall of ice that displayed the sponsors for the show.






















We spent the entire day outside and the weather was absolutely perfect!

I officially have winter wear and so enjoyed the day!

Both events were in St. Paul and took us about 15 minutes to get to our destination. I am already looking forward to the events for next year!

This event was in 2010...I am just now getting some time to post!