'Tis the season, a sad season for fowls like Freda & myself, Christmas dinner we won't even go there! Meanwhile Debra goes about the house with the holiday music playing really loud, singing and dancing with lights twinkling here and there. We think she is way too happy these days and has completely ignored us all together for weeks! We are so sad stuck in this snowy landscape, one step outside and icicles start hanging from our tail feathers. The experience of sticks of frozen water on your person is not pleasant AT ALL! Our friends are all heading south, they are snowbirds ready to fly as soon as the Holidays are over. Soon they will be lazing on sandy beaches while we are here picking ice out of very delicate regions! Debra has been enjoying travelling south lately, you would think she might have offered to take us but oh no there isn't any room for two fowl when "lovebirds" are travelling.

So we can only dream of lazing in the sun and say Bon Voyage to our friends. We will have to be content with sunny afternoons and lazing on the sewing table inside along with those stupid cats who think that a sunny spot anywhere is wonderful!

The December issue of Creative Homearts magazine features two of our Snowbird friends ready to take off for warmer skies. Debra apparently created them, nice outfits, hope we at least get a hat and scarf set for Christmas! Follow the Fowl, Fran & Freda!

One of my very talented designer friends Eileen Hull creates magic with matboard. She has a new line of dies coming out with Sizzix that cut some very cool shapes from matboard or cardboard. Every week a group of designers create a project using a particular shape. This week's is the Business Card Holder. I used iron on suede to cover mine and added black brads to hold it together. I added a ribbon handle as I wanted a purse look and letter brads to match my business cards. Now I have something fun and useful to take my cards in! There are several other dies in the series. Check out Eileen's blog to see all the projects and to learn more about these wonderful new dies from Sizzix designed by Eileen!

Keep Creating! Follow the JOY! Debra

I returned yesterday from a week completely away from my online world, an unexpected spur of the moment invitation to go on the maiden cruise of the new Oasis of the Seas, the largest cruise ship ever built accommodating 5500 guests. This was my first cruise and I had the best time! The ship is amazing and very beautiful. There is an artist in residence onboard, the attention to detail in choosing pieces was very evident. We had a wonderful cabin with a deck on the ocean side and in our hallway was a fabric sculpture beaded piece of sea creatures. I noticed something different each time I went by the piece.

The artwork was sea or nature inspired captured in stunning light creations, sculpture, art, mixed media and photography, each stairway, landing revealed another piece. My second favorite piece were the metal gold and silver sculptured trees in the Promenade with beautiful butterflies floating among the branches.

Even though there were that many people onboard, approximately 5000 guests and 2000 crew there were many places to go that were still quiet and secluded onboard. In the cabin with glass doors to our ocean view deck it was so quiet except for the gentle sound of the water it felt like you were the only ones on the ship.

To take a week off at this time was something I had to think about and decide could I just go with a few days notice. What I have realized more than anything this past year is life is truly short, magic moments need to be taken and deeply enjoyed for tomorrow is an unknown yet today is a place to find the love, JOY, inspiration and al that makes the heart sing! I follow my heart always and this past week I dove into an ocean of wonder and JOY!

Sometimes life brings unexpected moments, lately my life has been full of them. One of which is as I am typing this, earlier this evening my new kitten decided to pull keys off my laptop. The O and . are missing somewhere. I leave on an adventure tomorrow for the week without laptop. My goal was to post for the week but this is it!

What I do know is each day is truly a miracle, a day of life where anything and sometimes everything can happen. What we know and what we believe is transformed with each new day. May this week be an adventure for all with moments that take your breath away and that magic happens when you believe! Follow the JOY! Debra

Freda & I appreciate it is a season of thanks giving and gratitude especially living with Debra who celebrates both Thanksgivings, the earlier Canadian one and yesterday in honor of all her US friends. 

So what are we two chickens thankful for, I am sure inquiring minds want to know! First of all we are thankful we are not Turkeys, we lost many friends yesterday so Black Friday seems appropriate. Freda is wearing so much black today I thought she was getting ready for next Halloween early. We are thankful for a warm place to live although we really are lobbying for pima cotton sheets, 500 thread count. Not thinking that possible but one can dream! of course we would dream so much better on those sheets! hint, hint. We are thankful that chicken legs are not prone to cellulite no matter what we eat. We are grateful for tail feathers that do not droop well only slightly when wet but otherwise still very perky! Freda is grateful for still being able to see her feet even though she is in the family way. (I am thinking she is growing an ostrich in there and glad she has forgotten the reason she can see her feet, they are swollen and huge!)

Seriously though we are truly grateful for there is always some moment in each and every day that makes us do the happy chicken dance!  Follow the Fowl! Fran & Freda

One of the best parts of my life is having several wonderfully creative and talented friends. For my birthday this year I received a most beautiful clay sculpture done by my dear friend Michelle Zimmerman, a collaboration gift by Michelle, Helen, Frank and Mindy. She bears a scar which is an integral part of her beauty apparently wishing to jump out of the oven before it was time. She is created from Kato Polyclay. To get her home safely I purchased a new purse while travelling just for her. The base is in my suitcase but Sebasstiania will travel in style, even get to watch a movie with me on the plane. I am going to enjoy having her company as I travel home! Follow the JOY! Debra, CEO!

We are in a frump! That is a cross between a slump and a grump fowl style. It is Fowl Friday and we are feeling fowlish!!! Not only did Debra head off to sunny California without us and leave us here to fend for ourselves with all these dreadful C A T S but she proceeds to send these delightful emails back, she has been to the beach, she has been here, she has been there, she has been on a tour of the famous Alvarado Street Bakery featured in the new Michael Moore Film! and got to tour Mrs. Grossman's Sticker Company and meet Mrs. Grossman herself. Pics etc all to follow when her highness returns!

Freda as you can see is literally climbing the walls in her frump stricken state, her tail feathers are drooping, some are falling out. We could be bald by the time Debra returns from this trip. Will she care, we think not as she wheels her bag by us draping a pink scarf over our little featherless selves! So gathering my wits, featherless as they are I must think of something suitable to greet her with on this return home. Hmm! all suggestions welcome, just keep in mind within the realm of the law yet slightly distressing or uncomfortable will work! Follow the Fowl, Fan & Freda!

The November December issue of Creative Homearts magazine is now out! My favorite time of year is now and my favorite design season is winter and holiday inspired. For my Make it Green column I created some very funky disco ornaments using National Nonwovens new Xotic Felt which is 50% bamboo, so very soft! Fran & Freda are Xotic & proud of it!

JOY is this season for me and with Joy always the wish of peace so I created a trio of JOY inspired pieces for the Holidays. A Dove ornament, stocking and tree skirt. The full pattern for the Dove Joy ornament is on the website along with the instructions. (photo courtesy of Creative Homearts Club)

I am visiting the beautiful area of Sonoma in California. The stores are filled with the Holidays here too and music playing. Seems slightly odd to hear White Christmas here but the feeling very much the same as at home, a hopeful time of year, a time to be thankful. Follow the JOY! Debra

Tomorrow is Remembrance Day, here at home everything closes down to honor all those lost and those who serve. Almost everyone wears a poppy and has been for the past week or more. "In Flanders Field the poppies grow between the crosses row on row", so many wars and so many lives have suffered and lost. We are all bound by the inhumanity of war and have been touched deeply. There are many views but what is most important and basic beyond all of that is the profound humanity of it all, the people who serve, who have suffered, who have perished in any war have been and are loved and cherished, leave families and loved ones. That is all that truly matters, the hearts that are touched and the lives changed.

We can give our gratitude, our support to live with integrity and promote understanding, to honor always every human life. To remember what an amazing gift life is and that love makes all things bearable and possible connecting each of us hand to hand, heart to heart! Remembering always, a poppy lays close to my heart. Debra