Vacation Day 2

Hello everyone! Hope everyone is having a safe and fun Memorial Day weekend! I wish I knew someone with a pool :)
So on to Day 2 of my beautiful vacation. You know I have to post everyday so I can relive these sweet memories. Since there is a 2 hour time difference between St. Louis and California I woke up at 6:00 a.m. This is the spot that I was lucky enough to be in that morning. By the foothill of the Kaweah river in Three Rivers. Watching the sun come up over the Mountains. I was able to journal for almost 2 hours here. I will be showing you my vacation journal soon in the next couple of posts. It's almost done.


After journaling I went in the River Dance Bed & Breakfast to find the hostess Sharon making us & another British couple breakfast. It was so delicious! It was nice speaking with this couple who were actors from Britain. They said they now taught acting classes and workshops in many different schools. They were a pleasant people who had a compassionate outlook on human suffering & valued life. After breakfast we were off to Sequoia National Park.




It was pretty shocking to see how big these trees grew & we were surprised to see snow still on the ground in small patches. As we walked down the short path to get to the Sherman tree (The largest living tree) we happened upon this Chipmunk who didn't mind the hikers in the park.





After seeing the magical trees I thought it would be whimsical if I wore a pretty crocheted dress. I can't wait to add some wings and creatures to these pictures when I'm scrapbooking.




Next we visited Morro Rock which is in the same park. We climbed 400 steps to 7,000 ft. elevation to see this view.

This was my favorite little resting spot on the way up and down. There was a nice breeze blowing through. It really wasn't as tough as I thought it would be . All together a great experience.

If you ever do get to visit this park. Make sure you do it in a convertible! It was so beautiful to be able to look up and out the whole time. After we left the park we had to get driving to the Coast of California to stay in a beach side resort and I didn't want to miss out on the Antique shops in Three Rivers so we stopped at a place called Rosemary's Remembrances. A cute name I thought. She had an array of many different cultured collectibles.

Of course my favorites were the china and jewelry collections.
I thought that was the only shop we were going to get to until we saw this on our way passing the Lemon coves. I had to stop. I was called by a fine artistic presence. A laid back feeling.

An old home made into an Antiques shop. I loved this display of interesting plates and silk flowers loosely put together in the garden.






The perfect motto to live by. I can't wait to make a large painting with this quote to go over my couch. I ended up with some vintage photos and old post cards for 25 cents each. I also found an Almanack in a different language from 1929 for only $1. Time to make the drive over to the Central Coast of California which was absolutely the most amazing drive I've ever taken. I wouldn't mind relocating to a small town like Cambria by the coast mixed in with those wineries. And finally, here is where we ended our 2nd day in California. The Cavalier Resort in San Simeon. We had a oven view room with personal balcony and fireplace. They even had champagne in our room when we arrived.
Their beaches were mostly rocks and bluffs a small amount of sand. As you can see we couldn't have asked for a prettier sunset.

I can't believe we experienced this in all one day. It was exhausting just showing you all of it. I would strongly recommend all of it though!

Vacation Day 1

Since I have so much to show you all I think I'll share pictures day by day as it came. Let's start with Early morning on Thursday. 3:13 to be exact. Way too early by the way. Since it was a "get up and go on Vacation " instead of "get up and go to work" it didn't seem so bad. We went to the Airport in Saint Louis and this is the first picture I took. I said hold on I have to get this picture. As my husband is saying Umm okay... Well I don't see dress forms very often and this one just happens to be a pretty floral one. So on with the day. Airports usually do have interesting architectural detail but inside the Chicago airport were hand painted benches and lighting fixtures. Even a light show as we rode on the moving sidewalk.

Then we were off on a 4 hour flight to LAX. It was so fast paced there, we were just whisked away to the car rental location. All I remember is seeing very whimsical looking plants like I've never seen and we were going way to fast for me to get any pictures. I was pleasantly surprised at this fancy convertible waiting for us.




After picking up our car we drove immediately to Central California. It was a 3 1/2 hour drive to a town called Three Rivers with a population of about 2,000. Here is the scenery we witnessed the whole trip. A picture is nothing next to the real thing.





At last we arrive at our final destination for the day. A Bed & Breakfast called Sequoia River Dance. We passed it up at first because it looks like such a small little cottage home in a neighborhood but as we looked closer we learned it was a gorgeous, well maintained oasis.






If you live in California or are planning a trip you must go see this gorgeous experience. You will not find a better place to stay when you visit Sequoia National Park.



There are so many reasons this place is wonderful but this was my favorite

A large whitewater creek running through their backyard! They had two cement patios with furniture for you to enjoy the relaxing sound of the water flowing. A fantastic value! To end our evening we drove to a small pizza place with a magnificent view. Can't wait to start day 2!

In the End...Birds & Bonnets Swap

Truth Butterfly with Vintage Wallpaper Dress


Yay! I'm finally finished with these screens for the Birds & bonnets Swap (hosted by Beth & Karla). It took alot longer than I thought it would. But I loved every minute of it. I haven't let go & really gotten into it like that in a long time.
I'm very happy with the outcome & the package was sent out today. Here is everything that was in the package...



Side 1 of the 4 screens

Sides 2 of the 4 screens

Ray of Sunshine Butterfly

This is a cheery one. She's a Ray of Sunsine that says "If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain."

Dance for the Moon Butterfly

Here is a dancing Butterfly with a dress made of an upsidedown clip art of a basket of flowers. I added some ruffles for 3 dimension and to mimic movement. & Of course she has to have sparkly flowers in her hair.

My Gift is My Song & This one's for You

This screen features a small sewn booklet of music sheets, newspaper and design cardstock. Here is a view of the inside.

My heart without you

A new & improved version of the original. I just realized this screen does not have paper from the Vintage Workshop, which is the point of the Swap. I hope they will forgive me this time :)

Here are the Thank you Gifts for the Swap Hosts Beth & Karla.

I hope they will enjoy their matching Angels

Packaging of the Angels

the Screens are packaged under this shredded paper in an old Party bubbles box. Here are the signiture tags I made to hang from the binder rings.

YAA stands for YourAngil Adornments. The name of my Etsy shop.

Although I'm still working on the packaging of the products & designing business cards, I'm excited about the Altered things & supplies available.

In the beginning..."The Birds & Bonnets Swap"

These are the unfinished very early stages of what will be my screens for Beth & Karla's Birds & Bonnets Vintage Workshop Swap. I have to move on to my next project of the day (landscaping) but wanted to show you what I got done so far. I had so much fun this morning imagining what I cuold do on this little itty bitty screen. I had 3 little helpers with with 30 sticky fingers, so that made for an interesting couple of hours but boy will I miss them when they leave me for school. For the first screen, I named this little girl Tina. Which is my mother's name. This reminds me of a picture I saw of her when she was young. Like she would have been so beautiful but quiet & reserved. Her wings are made of a paper towel cardboard roll that I covered with paper & cut into strips. I covered one of the open sides with crepe paper & the other side with Antique Soft blue lace. Each of these screens will have one of my favorite quotes.

Her name is Ella because she looks so soft & innocent. I used an old beaded bracelet I had in my jewelry box to frame her picture.

I think I will name this one Marge. She looks sure of herself & she is stern & gets things done. Her bird nest hat will feature hemp with crystals strung on it.

All unfinished but they are coming right along. I also have some adorable Thank You gifts for the hosts of this great swap. I will show them in the next post.

Oh yes, & some very exciting news! I found a camera that I liked. It was so hard to shop for cameras because I don't know much & had no idea where to start but this is a FujiFilm Finepix s1000. Lot's of cool features. 12x optical zoom lens covering a a remarkable focal range of 33-396mm, 10.0-megapixel, Face Detection, 2.7-inch LCD & Super Macro mode which lets you move in as close as approx. 2cm (0.8 inch)!
I ordered it on-line for only $200. Which is a great deal because it sold for $270 at Walmart. I'll get it just in time for Vacation. I've been reading the Manual on-line so I kind of know what I'm doing before we go.

Mermaid Enchanted Package

A bright starfish crown



I had alot of fun with my 2nd Swap that Gypsy Mermaid Hosted. The Enchanted Swap. I thought the movie was going to be cheesy so I never had intentions of renting it but I'm glad I did b/c the character's outlook on life was so great wasn't it? It's so cheery & uplifting.



The day after we watched it my girls I got dressed up like princesses. Which inspired me to finish all of my projects that I would be sending to Katie. It was so much fun getting all dressed up even if we weren't going anywhere. Here is the complete package.

An angel Art doll

Starfish Wand Jewelry box

Vintage Container with crafting goodies

The goodies inside



Princess Valencia

Baby boxes

While I had my craft mess out yesterday working on the celebrate banner swap. I think I had forgotten what pretty supplies I had so I took the opportunity to finish some long overdue projects. Here are my daughter's keepsake baby boxes where I store my pregnancy journals, hospital bracelets, old outfits, shoes, blankies & announcements.

I think my girls are really going to enjoy opening these in the future. This first suitcase box was purchased from Michaels for $4 with a coupon. On the inside of the lid I added a place to display my daughter's baby announcements and photos. This is a good way to keep our cherished documents from getting bent.

A round hat box makes a beautiful baby keepsakes box. I found a teal skirt at a consignment shop for $1. I made these adorable lace flowers by cutting the tops off of the girls old ruffled socks. I simply swirled the lace and used hot glue to secure a pink pearl to the middles. The strand of pearls I purchased for $1 at the Flea market last year.