Paper Bag Gift Bags

In the current issue of Somerset Life (at the top of my list of favourite magazines), I fell in love with the Paper Bag Gift Bags by Roben-Marie Smith.

I just had to make a couple. Instead of using them for gift bags, I made one a perfect size to hold my little Moleskin notebook and the other is big enough to hold class notes 8 1/2 by 11 inches.  I love them. 

Look at the mess I made in the process -

 
It’s pretty much tidied up now though – I want to do some rubber stamping next.

- Edited by LP -

I wasn’t happy with the smaller bag so I revamped it and added a button – now I love it!

Love this Cafe with French Pastries

Two weeks ago I went down to Queen Street West to pick up some rubber stamp supplies, I got there before the store opened and had time to catch a coffee at the cafe across the street. 

I had to resist all of these yummies!

 

Look at these lovely macarons in beautiful rainbow shades.

And from the business card below you can see that they are doing a fundraiser for Japan with the macarons.

 

On another food note that isn’t as pretty as the macarons – here is a picture of some cabbage that I steamed up the other night - doesn’t it look like someone signed it – what, designer cabbage?

Back soon with some Travel Journal pages from our recent cruise.

Vintage Clothing Show

Every year I attend this show held in Toronto at the C.N.I.B. building and I’m never disappointed with the rich treasures on display. I managed to return this year with one book and a few yards of lace. 

Here are a couple of shots from the show:

This display was from Love in the Afternoon. Lots of vintage fashions and accessories. I always love the pretty button and lace cards.  
Last Tango always has a nice selection of vintage jewellery, buttons and fashion related treasures. I got a great book from this booth both this year and last.
There were so many lovely things to look at, I wish I could go back again but I’ll have to wait for next year’s show - sigh, sigh.

In the meantime, maybe I’ll make up some button cards of my own.

Caribbean Cruise

Today, I’m sharing some photographs from the cruise we took just before Valentine’s Day.  I think I mentioned that it was our first cruise and we would love to go on another but I don’t think we will become cruise-aholics like some of the people we met up with.  But then again, maybe we will.  It really is like Summer Camp for adults – better than kids’ camps because you get to choose your activities plus you get to have alcohol – hehe!

There were a number of iguanas on the pier when we disembarked in St Thomas. This is a handsome example of one of them.

  Yes, the water was really that colour – don’t you feel warmer just looking at it?  The temperature outside today is minus 15 C, so I’m having a long look to warm myself up.

As you can imagine, I took hundred of photos so it’s hard to choose which ones to post. I’ve tried to include ones that show the gorgeous colours of the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean.

View from one of the old forts in San Juan.

We laugh when we see this photo. A nice gentleman offered to take our picture together; we weren’t expecting that the photo would be so off-centred and that our legs would be cut off. We’re happy to have the photograph though!

The weather throughout the week was perfect. A bit too hot for us to stay in the sun for very long but we were always able to find shade to cool ourselves off.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Here are a couple of Valentine Cards that I made on board the Caribbean Princess!

The materials and colours in the cards are quite different that what I have in my own stash but I didn’t care; I was just so happy that a crafts class was being offered!

The cruise was a first for Bruce and I.which took us to many ports including St Thomas, Tortola, Antigua, St Lucia and Bridgetown in Barbados.  It was a great way to get a taste of the islands.

I have more photographs to share in my next post!

… project 52 …week 3

Here is what I was doing yesterday. Sherrie’s video this week was so inspiring!  I took copies of photographs from my recent trip and followed her directions to paste and paint them onto watercolour paper and ….voila!

I am happy with this – for a non- artist like me, it almost makes me feel quite artsy!

The project information is here and good news  - it’s all FREE ----       OOPS – sorry, i got this mixed up – the classes are not free but they are a very good deal – one class a week for 52 weeks for only $30!

A Couple More Journal Pages

 
This was my first train trip on my own. I recorded my observations of the ride under the ticket holder on the top of the page.

 
My little room in Paris that I had all to myself. it was so cozy and warm.

I learned a lot about my scrapbooking style from doing this journal. I have dubbed myself The Slap-Happy Scrapper because I don’t measure anything, preferring to cut or tear, eyeball and glue!