Pantone has announced their color pick for 2011, it is brilliant pink!!! My favorite color!!! Well if you visiting my site then I guess I am stating the obvious.  Joan Beiriger has a great article on her Art Licensing blog about the choice  "Pantone Announces their 2011 Color of the Year."

"Courageous, confident, vital!" I love pink because it is an energetic, sexy color which brightens up everything from cheeks to purses giving a rosy attractive glow. I have two daughters and they were infused in pink as babies! I wore pink to my graduation and pink at my Mom's wedding. When at the Luther Burbank Gardens in Santa Rosa I took some photos of the beautiful pink roses there. They were saucy, confident and reigned over the the other roses in all their glory!!!

It is week 6 of the Sizzix Triple Play Blog Hop! This week's featured die is the Album, Brackets, Bigz XL Die #656053 by Brenda Pinnick used with Big Shot or Big Shot Pro. 
Just hop along with the button on the right to see this die in the hands of sixty talented designers!

 
Although most of my designs are winter inspired this time of year for this die I found the shapes spoke to me more of something romantic and flowery. I adhered papers to the pages, glued flowers and buttons to the frame. I added ribbons and tassels to complete this floral inspired remembrance. I see my grandmother seated at her desk creating something very simiiar to keep cherished momentos among the pages.

A winter wonderland has surprised my world through the night. This snow is official, here to stay and tonight the colored lights and eyes everywhere will sparkle. I love to decorate in harmony with the seasons, a collection of snowmen, snowflake pieces, reindeer sculptures and trees will keep the place cozy and reflect the snowy view outside.

This is a very different holiday season for me, it will be the first one in which my daughters do not live with me but both will come home for the holidays. It is in a new place, a new city but it is still home. They will create their annual themed gingerbread house, play games, cook, watch favourite holiday movies, shop, laugh, hug, talk and cry together. They are amazing wonderful young women pursuing their dreams, warm, funny, kind, smart, responsible, have all the qualities you could possibly want your children to have and they are happy above all else.

I love my girls in a way that is fierce and proud, in awe of who they have become and who I have become because of them. I wait for my daughters to arrive filling the place with surprises, decorating & remembering as I unwrap their stockings, the cherished ornaments to hang.

So as I decorate my new place I have a huge tree, a gift in the sunroom foyer entrance and with my love of birds and several bird cages I decided to use one as a tree top. I am also creating two love birds to sit atop the cage but they are not quite completed. I fastened the cage securely and then decorated around it. Using what you have as part of the Holiday decor is always a fun and easy way to decorate. Follow the JOY! Debra, CEO!

Sitting on a bench in warm sunshine surrounded by a beautiful garden is a place where spirit dwells. There is a reverence found among the roses, the greenery, the fountain dancing to the melody of the day. The camera captures the moments of this space, the delicate veins, the purity of the shaded hues within each flower, unique, extraordinary in its own way.

We are like each rose, each flower found in the garden gifted with a beauty that is defined by an inner light, hues colored by the holiness of our inner lives. Joy, sorrow, laughter & tears are all expressions of the soul's story found within. So walk among the gardens of life, linger and see what lies within, what lies within thee. Debra, CEO!

It is Fowl Friday with Fran & Freda and it is December!!! Happy Hanukah & Christmas is just around the corner. We are making our list and checking it twice. Freda hates to write but when it comes to her Christmas list that chick can write a novel! So here are a few highlights from her list. She wants to get it in early!

All I want for Christmas, top 5! by Freda Fowl!
1. A Patridge in a pear tree (hear they make a great date! & I love pears!)
2. Two turtle doves (they are known for their excellent maid service!)
3. Three calling birds ( and it is not colley, these are calling birds so I won't strain my voice when needing service!)
4. Four French hens (I love French cuisine & these chicks know how to cook!)
5. Five gold rings (2 wings, 2 legs & 1 neck, deck me out Santa!)

So there you have it Freda's list! It is a good thing Debra loves birds cause this loft will be a flappin' over the holidays! Follow the Fowl! Fran & Freda!

Drum roll please! It is week #5 of the Sizzix Triple Play Blog Hop with Karen Burniston's Gift Card Holder. This was for me the most challenging as I am not primarily a paper designer so I decided to not to use it in a card. I love winter and snowflakes so I decided to create a Snowflake gift of Joy. The diecur piece fit perfectly over the snowflake. Plus any excuse to use a button or two or three..

I painted the cardstock diecut adding glitter while wet. Embellished with buttons, ribbon and more glitter. The Gift Card Holder, 3D Pop-Up, Bigz XL Die #656740 by Karen Burniston is used with Big Shot or Big Shot Pro.

Hop along on the magic button at the right and see what 60 very talented designers create with this die! Always follow the Joy! Debra

inspiration [??nsp??re???n] n

1. stimulation or arousal of the mind, feelings, etc., to special or unusual activity or creativity

2. the state or quality of being so stimulated or aroused

3. someone or something that causes this state

4. an idea or action resulting from such a state

 

Where do you find inspiration? Why do we need inspiration? To be inspired is to feel really alive, to see something which excites the senses and then want to create from the feeling. I vividly remember being in downtown Houston several years ago when they shot fireworks off the tops of the buildings, they cascaded down reflected in all the glass, it was amazing the explosion of vibrant color. A year later there was a gorgeous quilt inspired by the fireworks hanging at the Quilt Market tradeshow in Houston. The quilter had stood beside me that evening and remarked "this will be my next quilt, Fireworks!"

 

Nature is always a source of inspiration, I had been wanting to add my writing to beautiful photographs of my own. Visiting the lovely Luther Burbank Gardens in California with a friend who leant me her great camera I was able to take some photos of the beauty found there. Each one touched me and the words easily came to go with the photo. Follow the Joy! Debra, CEO!

 

 

 

While visiting Santa Rosa, California recently I so enjoyed seeing light poles wearing bright knit sweaters in gorgeous stripe designs. What a fun idea! Living where there is now a few inches of snow on the ground just about everything here should be wearing a sweater! How fun it would be to see all the poles in bright knits for the winter. Of course some could possibly go missing if in the midst of blizzard like conditions, they would make a great scarf!  It made me smile as the poles looked a little sassy below the officious sign they were "forced" to carry! Follow the JOY! Debra

Finally Fowl Friday with Fran & Freda. We have been "preempted" the last few weeks because of the Sizzix Triple Play Blog Hop! Not wanting to disappoint our fans Debra is letting us blog today. Actually she is still asleep being early morning and we took action as in "borrowing" her laptop for a short time!

Yesterday was Thanksgiving for our American friends and a very sad day for us of the feathery persuasion. Today is aptly known as Black Friday, for humans a gluttony of shopping after the gluttony of yesterday. For the Fowl among us it is Black Friday where we mourn the loss of so many of our turkey peeps. We will always fondly remember those gobbles heard in the early morning, the handsome feathers and buff bods! Freda has always had a thing for a "Tom".

So to our dear turks no longer among us, you sacrificed so others could enjoy. Rest well and know your legacy lives on in the leftovers of today! Sniff. Follow the Fowl!

It is week four of the Sizzix Triple Play Blog Hop featuring the talented designer Eileen Hull's picture frame die, 3D Pro Scoreboards Die #656835. 

Since the snow is swirling everything I make lately is winter themed. I used fabrics, ribbon and wool felt to make a winter wall hanging. It is a very versatile die with several pieces so it will be exciting to see what the rest of this wildly creative group comes up with! Happy Thanksgiving! Debra, CEO!