I WON a Pasta Maker!!!

I know that sounds funny. It's just that dorky me didn't even know I had entered a giveaway. But I did and I won! Here's what happened. A few weeks ago, I was reading the blog of one of my new blogging friends Cheryl. She has a wonderful blog called Healing Woman and had sent me the beautiful Dreamcatcher for the Wishing tree I wrote about, in my last post. Well, she wrote this very detailed, yummy recipe post about this fantastic lasagna. Homemade noodles, roasted tomatoes, she even had the recipe for making the ricotta, the whole nine yards! Now I know that for those of you that don't know me in my "real" everyday life you may not know that I cook. But I do and so does my creative husband Ernie.

Here's a few Eats we've made...

My Lemon Cake
(pretty easy, just used one those fancy flower pans)

Potato Cheese Empanadas & Chimichurri

Ernie makes a killer flaky dough!

Mango Berry Mosaic
Another flashy,but pretty yummy ice-cream, sorbet treat,
perfect for serving in the ODLS!

Ernie's Red Velvet Cupcakes my Lenten
(oops I mean, Easter favorite)

Seafood Paella

You get the idea. But my point is we love to cook and of course eat. With that said, you can understand how entranced I was at the sight of Cheryl's inspiring food post. So I commented. I had to! Well if you commented you were automatically entered in this amazing giveaway for this beautiful pasta maker. And I WON!
Ernie & I have been wanting to do the homemade pasta thing for quite some time now, but never seem to get around to it. I think having this fun gadget to assist us might be just the thing!I'll let you know when it arrives!

Thanks again Cheryl !

I hope to make you proud :)

Things for Spring and the Wishing Tree

I am blessed, thankful, encouraged and inspired by all the wonderful people that stopped by my little space this past weekend in Brea. It was wonderful to see so many loyal customers and friends. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for supporting and encouraging me to continue to do something I love.

Here's a few pics of some pieces I took to the show, some have gone on to their new homes, some I'll try to get on Etsy, or take to The Little Dress Shop. Or maybe you'll see them at Glitterfest. I've played with the idea of another show for April, we'll see. I'll let you know...

As always after a show, I was completely exhausted, but the one thing I couldn't wait to do with my family on this particular Saturday was hang this beautiful new piece I received from Roanoke, VA for the Wishing Tree.

We sat at the dining room table, unwrapped the package and I read the note aloud. We were silent. My daughter was the first to speak. "We need to pray for her" she said. After it was up in the tree, we took a few minutes to gaze up at all our wishes so far. I am so honored and peaceful about what we've been entrusted with. The lovely dreamcatcher was crafted by the very talented and inspiring Cheryl Dolby and her daughter Kelli just for our tree. Thank you Cheryl and Kelli. Thank you both, for participating and know how honored we are to have added your intention to our prayers. :)
Love, peace and gratitude,

Bridgette

Oh! I almost forgot. Look what else popped up on the tree while I was away...

I believe.

Just a few new Goodies for Spring!

Here's a few little works in progress...

I'm working on a watch case dioramas again. I've done some cool custom orders as well.

This sweet little Querido Charlotte piece was sent far away to Annie, but lots of her friends will be at my next show this Saturday in Brea March 21st! Stop by and see them if you get a chance! You can see the flyer on my side bar for more info.

Even though this little flower is invisable from the front of the piece, I like that the person wearing it looks down and is the only one who can see it! A secret little detail... I'm playing with the idea of adding something like this on more of my pieces. :)
That's all for now, Ciao!

New things on the Wishing Tree

My husband doesn’t really ask much of our tree. The giant old ocean rod secured with fishing line to its trunk is his main contribution as is his silent belief in its strength and power for good. He helps me care for it, gently pruning or weeding and of course is my main go-to guy when I want something hung in just that spot I can’t reach. When he asked me to make a tag for a friend of his I knew it was important. While I won’t get into why or what we are specifically praying for, if you get a chance and might feel like sending some prayers or positive energy her way, please do so for Kerry. Thank you so :)

Here are a few other new additions to our tree…

Some lovely prayer tags already a bit weathered from the rain...


And this beautiful symbol of love gifted by my sweet sister-in-law for the tree. It’s so perfect on so many levels don’t you think? Not to mention, its among the first things I see when I look out my window to the tree.
I just love it.

Oh! And if ever You’d like to add anything to the tree, just email me or leave a comment and I’ll email back with where to send your wish. I’ll post a pic of whatever you send for the tree and a link to your blog if you’d like. I’m thinking I may start a blog for just the Wishing Tree, but for now, it’s all here. :) Tomorrow I’ll post some pics of my new pieces for Etsy and some I'll be taking to my first show of the Spring! Have a peace-filled day .
Love, Bridgette

Prairie Thistle: 400th Blog Madonna and Child Reliquary Giveaway

Prairie Thistle: 400th Blog Madonna and Child Reliquary Giveaway
In celebration of her 400th post this generous artist is giving away this gorgous piece! Check out her blog and and toss your name in the hat!Have a great day!

Anna's First Blossoms

Yesterday I went out to visit the Wishing tree and Anna. I haven’t told you about Anna.

She’s our little apple tree that stands small and firm up on the back lawn. She’s almost directly behind the Wishing tree. She may have even been in the background of a few photos of the Wishing tree… anyhow her blossoms are soooo pretty now I just had to let you see.

As I was poking around I noticed a little friend doing his job… and then as I looked closer,

beneath the leaves…


the start of our first one…

3rd Grade Masters

One of the things I love doing, is volunteering to teach a bit of art once a month in my children's class through a parent volunteer based program called Art Masters. Every year we have a fundraiser at my children’s school where the kids design a piece of art that is sent in to a company that places their artwork on mugs, stationary, aprons, all sorts of stuff. The parents can purchase whatever they’d like with their child’s artwork on it and the school receives a percentage which goes back into purchasing supplies to keep our art program going. With that said, we're always trying to find beautiful, simple projects the parents would love and thus want to buy. (Which isn't as easy it sounds) :) This year with the severe budget cuts facing our California schools parent support of programs like this is all the more needed if art in our school is to survive at all next year. I’m not sure if everyone will love how they turned out, but I sure did.

For this project I used a lesson plan that came from the Crayola website which is a wonderful site if you ever need some fun kid projects for class or home and most of them are really inexpensive to produce. I just loved how this years work in 3rd came out. We used oil pastels for the image in each square and then watercolors for the background. I also did a similar lesson in my son's 6th grade. I'll let you decide which is which...

One World One Heart Give Away Winner!

Before it gets too late I need to announce who won my Querido Frozen Charlotte pendant in the One World One Heart blogging event that ended this evening. It's been great fun flying around, getting to know a little bit about other bloggers I may have never met had I not hopped on this magic carpet, and it's been even more overwhelming to see the tremendous response to my little Querido pendant. Thank you, thank you to all 224 of you that left such kind comments about my work, my blog and my creativity. I'm so encouraged. In the next few weeks, I hope to get a chance to stop by each of your blogs as well if I haven't done so yet and as always I invite any of you to come back anytime. Perhaps some of you might even consider sending a little wish or prayer for the Wishing tree?But of course that sounds like another post... :)

So here’s how I chose the winner... I had a bunch of these adorable “Wish” tickets I purchased a while back to use with our Wishing tree. Knowing that our tree would undoubtedly have fabulous "random choosing" mojo, I decided to hang both the hat and the tickets in the Wishing tree before any choosing actually took place. I decided that the first number on my first roll would stand for the #1. Then I had my daughter and her two little friends separate all the tickets on the roll while they were outside playing. After the girls had carefully separated them, we put all the tickets in one of my daughters many hats.

I thought her blue Luna beret was only fitting. I gave the tickets a few good swirls with my hand to mix them all up and let my daughter pick one! She chose # 885262 which matched up to be comment number 62! Jennifer from Just Jingle was the lucky gal! Check out her blog she’s got some wonderfully fun stuff there! When I emailed her for her address her response was just as I hoped it would be! I was so happy, she was so happy! I knew our tree would help choose someone right. Now my little "beloved" had found a happy new home, a place where she'd be loved. So I'm off to get her ready to send and maybe even create a few more sisters to travel around on a little carpet of their own...we'll see. Ciao for now!

One World One Heart Magic Carpet Ride and Giveaway!

I’ve never really been on a Magic Carpet….I mean my kids were in an Aladdin play at the community center a few years back, but I think that’s as close as I’ve ever come. I’d heard about this little voyage from a few of the blogs I’ve been following and just kept thinking it was too late since it all started Jan 25. Not to mention my fear heights. However the chance to meet and share the ride with other bloggers was too tempting for this first time rider to resist. So here’s the deal: If you’d like to hop on too you need to act quick! The carpet mistress is only accepting riders up until today Feb. 8th. Check here to find out what to do and for the exact times and rules etc. In the meantime, please leave a comment here on this post and I’ll put you in the hat to win one of my Quierido Charlotte pendants made espically for this giveaway. As you can see she's holding "one heart" as a little symbol of how we each hold our "one world" in our hands. Please make sure you leave me a way to contact you either through your blog or email that way I can let you know if you win! Since I’m starting so very late here, your chances of winning are pretty good. I'll accept comments up until Feb. 14th and announce the winner on Feb.15th. Sounds like fun doesn't it?

Now if I can figure out how to use the Random counter thingy, I'll use that to select a winner, if not I'll go old school and simply print up your sweet names, drop them in one of Bella's many hats and let her grab one for me. The winner will be announced right here on February 15, 2010. I will also get in touch with the winner. I look forward to meeting you all! Good luck!