Another birthday gift ...

I received the most stunning gift in the mail today all the way from Shelly Sessions in New Orleans, USA. She's altered a notebook that is just divine. I love everything about this journal and can't believe how generous it was of Shelly to send such a beautiful gift for my birthday ... I feel like I've won a lottery.

Front Cover: paint, lace, fabric, mica, vintage text & papers, image covered in beeswax, rusty cardboard, rose dipped in UTEE ... just beautiful.

Journal with one flap open.

Journal with both flaps open.

I have finally finished all my little houses for the Creative Soul Retreat Swap. I ended up making 52 of these little houses and know I actually made 53, but can't for the life of me find the other one anywhere ... hopefully it'll turn up sometime because I'd promised to give it to someone ... I might have to make another one.

If you want to see what some of the other little houses retreat delegates have made, feel free to click here.

I cut the houses out of cardboard, then stuck the roof through the cuttlebug to give it some texture, I added patterned paper that I stamped with text in black and chicken wire in grey (which is quite feint). The roof has been painted in rust, a sticker added across the base and some german scrap on the edge of the roof. The bird is hand cut out and all 3 eggs, some painted muslin forms the nest. I then used spanish copper rub 'n' buff to go over the edges, the sticker and the german scrap to give it a rustic look.

I also managed to finish a couple of birthday ATCs ... one very belated one for Barb Thomas in Wagga Wagga (I couldn't get my act together in February with relatives here and a new baby in the household) and one for Sarah Walker, who's birthday is on the weekend while I'm away in Melbourne.

Only 22 hours and 56 minutes until I leave for the airport and go to the Creative Soul Retreat ... I'm very excited ... must go pack now ... I have left it to the last minute of course.

"A great attitude does much more than turn on the lights in our worlds; it seems to magically connect us to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before we changed."
~Earl Nightingale, 1921-1989, Philosopher and Syndicated Radio Personality~