RedBarn Studios

i found a little gift in my mailbox a little while back

an email informing me that i (or rather, one of my products) was included in an esty treasury.

butterfly kiss Lil purse

i love being included in treasuries.  it’s so much fun to see what the list is about and who else has been included.

esty came up with the idea of treasure hunts whereby an esty member gathers together a list of 16 sellers according to whatever criteria they choose.  it can be all about favorite items, a cool colour, a theme or  even a personal wish list, the sky’s the limit on what it can include.

‘enchanted with yarn‘ put together an etsy treasure hunt with a selection of Huntersville artists/craftspeople and i was included…yay me!  she says she’s a newbie at etsy but a long timer at creating and sharing her creations.

~  savannah necklace ~  minky stroller blanket ~

~  indian bloodstone gemstone ~

~  red dazzling strawberry hair clippie  clips   ~

~   tile/stone monogram coaster ~

~  original painting – dahlias in the cloudscape ~

~  round and round planner ~

~   coming home poncho ~

~  butterfly kiss Lil purse journal (that’s ME!)   ~

~    handmade pink chocolate boutique hair bow ~

~   sterling silver wire wrapped fresh water pearl bracelet ~

~   silver salad forks ~   sea life wine charms ~  joyful christmas card ~

~   pastel in pumpins ~  custom children’s paintings ~

if you haven’t you need to. and for those who don’t know, esty is a place of handmade good-ee-ness

….no kidding.

toodles all,

G

Tags: community, pic of day by grace
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My girl…she’s all grown up now.

Yesterday she left for a trip to England…her first time on a flight by herself….AND it’s across the Atlantic.

Yup…she’s putting another step into the adult pool.

Sigh…..

Tags: family, pic of day by grace
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yes, I watched the royal wedding this morning…had to wake up at that time anyway to get cman on the bus.

my experience this time is somewhat different than the absolute fluttering i remember experiencing watching princess diana’s wedding all those years ago.

first, i was single then and any fairytale wedding would have appealed to me probably yearning for my own.  2ndly, this time i am almost 20 years married with 3 kids so i didn’t as willingly step into the magic of the day.

my magic was receiving the flowers above from the hubby.  not a big fan of flowers (still prefer photographing them to keeping a fresh vase of them) but darn it, once in every blue moon he surprises me with some. That’s my magic.

Enjoy the lovelies!

Toodles,

Tags: pic of day by grace
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hope everyone enjoyed their Easter Celebration!

today, before prepping dinner, we headed out for a drive.  after all the bank and forth weather we’ve been having it was wonderful waking up to a beautiful easter sunday morn.

in fact as we were eating breakfast we noticed outside the window, on the green across from the house, a family with their young son flying a kite. magical indeed!

only last night my neighbor, originally from Guyana, told me that on easter sunday, Guyanese from all over, to celebrate the risen Christ, fly kites…the skies are chock full of them.  had never heard of that tradition before and it just so happens that we see a kite flying this morn.

anyway…i’ve been working on a new thing. youtube has issued a challenge that members vlog (video blog) every day for the month of april (got this from Tam over at willowing.ning.com).  so i decided to chime in on this.  with only nine days left in the month it seems an easy feat.

so go go check out my youtube channel and see what’s up. it’s weird being in front of the camera but i kinda like it….it’s not as hard as i thought it would be….much like talking to you guys thru this blog.

wish me luck with keeping up with it.

toodles,

p.s. on our drive we ended up at university of nc at charlotte’s botanical gardens where I proceeded to take lots of pics..the orchid above was one of them…gor-gee-ous!

Tags: family, monday posts, pic of day, road trip, video moments by grace
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photo credit: scott bailey

been on the computer for the last few days uploading new pics of journals and other items to update etsy shop.  poor shop has been so neglected of late.

since my digital camera is now officially broken (boo hoo) i’ve been taking pics with my camera phone.  altho i do love the fact that i always have a camera on my hip, at the ready, it’s just not the same as taking pics with a digital SLR.

what’s missing?

I actually miss figuring out how to maneuver the controls to take that perfect (yeh right!) picture even tho i still can get a little frustrated in the moment cause i’m still learning.  so right now, after uploading these pics, i’m finding that i have to adjust lighting and other things a bit more on these camera phone pics to make them more presentable for showcasing my artwork.

so, this is all to say that my eyes feel like the picture above…..a big blob of blurred vision.….especially after a couple hours on the Mac. I don’t know how IT people stay on the computer all day long.

on a good note I have researched (extensively as usual) and know which camera i’ll be getting next.  i finally decided to stick with the canon…

sorry nikon

…and will be purchasing this

Canon EOS Rebel 3Ti

sometime this year (i kid you not, this one ain’t in the budget right now).

so me and my blurry eyes are going to get some much needed rest.

toodles all,

Tags: monday posts, pic of day by grace
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this past thursday was a wonderfully special day. i watched my son fulfill a dream.  he was excited and nervous all at the same time.

on that day my son joined the air force. the smile on his face as he finished the swearing in was priceless.

this is one proud mama

congratulations hon…I am so very proud of you.

Mummy

Tags: family, pic of day by grace
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i took pics of all the fabs i dyed last week and had all intentions of working on getting them posted in the wee hours when we were on our trip this past week. yeh, right….the best laid plans and all.  so Sat night before doing anything else i cropped and labeled them all, ready for posting yesterday.

but….best laid plans came into play again cause my mOjo somehow reappeared and ya know we gotta work when the muse hits.

so with out further ado here’s the results of my in the zone dye day, yippee!

don’t ya just love the gradation thing going on????

see the three yellow ones on the top…i actually did a 5 gradation run of  Dharma golden yellow  but this time, boo hoo.  because i did so many fabs i tried rinsing them all in the same wash in the machine (i usually separate the lighter colours).  ix-nay on that one and i should have known better.

splotchy won’t do for NC’s workshop so i’ll either over dye it or do some screen printing.  as a matter of fact, a bit of both might be in order.

the drudgery of ironing
when have lots of fabric to iron i set up my ironing board with my large studio board on it in front of my bed with the board at a comfortable ironing height and then have at it.  i figure there’s no sense in standing and shifting from foot to foot…sitting and ironing can only be a good thing…you guys should try it.

anyway that’s how I got these pics.  was trying to get a good angle on all the newly dyed fabrics all in a row and couldn’t, so tried a spiral.  love it!!!

gradations came out fairly evenly from one fab to the next.

remember this:

here’s the shirt that resulted….and i’ve worn it already i might add…..ha!

when i first brought the fabrics upstairs to begin ironing i just dumped them on my bed. Connor came in and, seeing a chance to play, dived right in throwing the fabrics everywhere.  had to get my camera for this one.

see the how excited he gets with newly dyed fabrics? Not!

my cutey pie

toodles,

Tags: hand dyed, hand dyeing, hand dyes, monday posts, pic of day by grace
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Some days you just need to pause, take a deep breath and re-ground yourself.

Happy Re-Grounding Day!

Tags: down time, Inspiration, life sayings, pic of day by grace
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Today I went for a change…from the neck up that is.

The Back Story

One of my blood pressure meds was discontinued (did the manufacturers bother to ask me first….NO!) and for the last few months have been going thru the rounds trying to find meds that worked with my body without making me dizzy or lightheaded and a plethera (love that word) of other side effects.

Now I’m on one that just makes my head feel thick (one step down from dizzy I suppose) but it also dries out my skin. This last bit, a too dry scalp, is what has led to my from-the-neck-up transformation today.

Because of the dry skin issue my hair was a mess (those who regularly see me know this as the honest truth,) and, it was continually breaking off. So today I told my hair stylist to chop the darn thing all off! I was done with the bad hair I was bizarrely still trying to hold on to, as if having that hair was what made me who I am.

Today

After leaving the salon, feeling good about my decision, I headed to the vision center to pick up my new glasses. When I got back home I went around to my neighbors to see if they recognized anything different.

I got all smiles, everyone seems to love this new look. My best friend kept smiling and hubby, well he kept peaking his head back in the room to check me out again and again.

Wow!!

Who the heck knew this little change would affect people so darn much, not to mention how good I would feel about myself.

Here’s a before…

(looks like a lock-up pic doesn’t it…all I need is the number plate)

and here’s the after shot…..ta da!

I heard somewhere that as we women get older, shorter hair is better (never found out the reason just know this is what I was told…Ha!).

Most of you know I rarely post pictures of myself…that self conscious thing coming into play I guess….and besides, I like to be behind the camera. Today, though, I thought I’d step in front for a moment. Tomorrow I’ll be back in my role as amateur photographer.

Thanks Cassandra (of Ce’mour’s Hair Studio), you did good.

Toodles all,

Tags: life etc., pic of day by grace
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I know this is not what you expected when you read the title of this post but hang in there with me.

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Try this….put your cursor at the top of the picture in the link below,

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then s l o w l y move the cursor to the bottom of the pic…no stopping, no clicking on the mouse.

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How cool is that!

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http://61226.com/share/hk.swf

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Tags: pic of day by k grace howes
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