A LITTLE BIT OF THIS, A LITTLE BIT OF THAT!

Oh, my sweet, sweet readers, I feel so badly! I have let you down - it's been OVER a month since I posted. Shame on me! I know you're faithful in checking my blog for new posts and I really am sorry I've been such a disappointment these last couple of months.
It seems like since I got home from those 4+ weeks in Michigan taking care of mom *who is doing REALLY well, btw*, that I've just been lost! No direction!
I think part of it was walking into my studio and seeing the pile of mail and boxes on my worktable.
You see that and start thinking, "dump it on the floor and pretend it doesn't exist", and, "torch it. it's faster...".......
and it was the Christmas season and I had a Lollishop to open. (More about that later:)

So, here ya go............a little bit of this, a little bit of that.............there's really been no rhyme or reason to what I've been doing....just trying to keep up! LOL
So. Want a pictorial tour of what I've been up to???
I've made some precious tags for packages, gift sacks AND you can buy them with envelopes and use them as note cards {the backs are blank}. These next two pics show them - if you want to buy some for this year *I know, I know, I'm late!* or to hold onto for next year, email me. I don't know if I'll get them listed in my Lollishop, but I'd like to.
Two completely different tags, but, both darling {my prejudiced opinion:}

So, I was in a couple of swaps while up north and had to get them done the minute I returned. They were both Paper Whimsy swaps and the girls were so kind and let me turn mine in late.

I LOVE that group - if you've never checked out the shoppe or forum, oh, you must - amazing!

My swap partner that "did" for me was Gail, my good friend and the owner of Paper Whimsy - and she did a fabulous job! Oh, baby, she did REALLY GOOD! LOL

This is the beautiful box she sent her vintage bits gathered in her studio to me.

Here are just a few of the wonderful things she stuffed into that box!

And, these note cards from FRANCE! She travels overseas often because her husband is from England and so I was the recipient of these gorgeous note cards.

Will I ever use them??? I just don't know! They're really special to me!

I had a swap partner, Amber, and she was such a treat to fill my special bucket with vintage pieces from my studio - oh, how I love(d) this bucket! hahaha - I'm so glad she has it now and I really did have such a wonderful time filling it for her - she was so patient with me being late:)
I filled that bucket with as much as I could fit into it! Oh, it was so much fun!! Giving certainly does rival receiving, doesn't it?? (you might be able to click on the picture(s) and see them larger and clearer, I don't know for sure)

And, see that special "I know Jan Thomason" bumper sticker??? I'm pretty sure she liked that the best.....

Part of the swap was to make something using a Paper Whimsy collage girl so I opted to make her a book cover with a collage including one of the new Goth girls on Paper Whimsy. I think it turned out really cute!

The other Paper Whimsy swap was a Victorian Christmas ornament exchange where we ended up with seven color coordinated, yet different, Christmas ornaments that we then strung into a banner. OMG, so cute, I can't tell you!! This ornament shows you what I created for my group. Our colors were blues and silver. Hmmmmm. The banner is so lovely!

This is *part of* one of the bottles I've started creating and hope to have in my Lollishop "soon".

I used it as an advertisement for Lollishops. You can visit the forum at http://www.lollishops.com/ - start there and you'll hopefully find it - that's the best address I have right now.

Wait til you see some of the amazing shops - mine's not open yet, but there are so many other amazing artists selling there, you won't be disappointed!!

A vignette I made to use to take some pics of pieces to sell. Don't you love that rose??? Lovely!

This amazing angel is now used as my avatar on most of my websites. I LOVE her and whenever I look at her, I can't help but smile - she touches my heart.

I've been working on some different designs of snowman gift sacks.

I've done a lot of custom orders, so feel free to email me if you want to order some and they're not listed yet! I'm also doing them on brown lunch sacks with white snowmen. SO darling!

Lots of glitter, lots of Stickles! What more do ya need??? LOL

My first and absolute favorite bottle that I've made. It will be for sale *sometime soon* and I wanted to show it to you. I LOVE it so much!

Another bottle - one of my silhouette bottles. You can expect to see them for sale, too, but if you can't wait, email me at polkadotbarn@gmail.com and I'll get you set up! Just one more picture! LOL - I had to show you this custom bottle order. That's a Great Pyrenees dog on the cork - I think it's a great bottle, don't you??!Y'all are so special to me and I feel so blessed that you stick with me and read my blog posts.

I apologize again for it being so long since I posted and tonight I'm in such a hurry to get this up that I can't even think of being funny!

Augghhhhhh!! I need an assistant!

I'll post again after Christmas so I want to take this time to tell you that I hope for you a blessed Christmas. I hope you all receive all that you hope for on Christmas, especially a re-newed love and dedication to our precious Lord.

Happy Birthday, sweet Jesus!

XOXO,