Sunday Sketches

Good morning and happy Sunday!  This is our last artistic meeting for the year 2013.  Can you believe that?!  I'm just amazed at how quickly this year has passed but I'm so thankful for how many blessings have unfolded over the past 6 months.  Uh huh.  My life is overflowing with good and I couldn't be happier.  :)

Speaking of happy things - how about the little ocean of happiness above?  This is a new Facebook header I'm designing for my own page to soon implement after the first of the year.  There are a few final touches to be done and then these adorable sea creatures will be dancing across the top of my page, greeting all of my lovely visitors with cheeky smiles.

Although Mr. Toast and I are still on our honeymoon here in London, I wanted to wish everyone a fabulous, creative day.  I'm still VERY sick and have been in bed for quite awhile now.  Your prayers are much apprecitated.

We also have limited internet access, so please be patient with me.  I'll visit everyone as quickly as I can.

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This week's participants:
Please sign-up below to submit your sketch for this week, which will also allow others to stop and visit.

Little Birdie

It's late evening here in the little village of Great Ryburgh, which is located in a little English county of Norfolk.  I'm wrapped up in a blanket on a cozy little sofa, sipping on hot water with lime and honey in it.  Yep.  Uh huh.  I've fallen quite ill on our honeymoon. Needless to say, we've been having a lovely time here.  Our first week was spent in London visiting sites, having high tea, and then off to the country to visit Michael's family.

Above is a little English Robin illustration I made for Michael's mother for Christmas.  Enjoy and I'll see you on Sunday!  :)

Happy Christmas from England!

Wishing all of my wonderful peeps a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year!  Love you all very much!  See you on Sunday for lots of doodles and creative inspiration!  :)

Sunday Sketches from London

My first week in London has been absolutely fabulous!  Won't you accompany this little fellow above, enjoying his tea time just around the corner?  Hee

Please accept my apologies for this being so short.  We have a packed schedule at the moment.  I promise to visit everyone very soon.  We're off to go see Michael's aunt down the road in Barnes/Hammersmith for afternoon tea.  Sadly, it may be the last one.  She's getting on.

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This week's participants:
Please sign-up below to submit your sketch for this week, which will also allow others to stop and visit.

Oxford LOVE

We arrived in London yesterday and are currently settling in.  Our first day was spent in Oxford and I immediately fell in love! The town is filled with little, cozy shops galore and the Oxford University, built of majestic, intricately carved stone.  It's absolutely beautiful here and a place filled with artistic inspiration. I look forward to sharing some new sketches with you this coming week.

Across the World

Mr. Toast and I are on our way to London, England for our honeymoon!  We will be visiting his family (his first Christmas with them in 25 years!), as well as having some of our own time to celebrate us and our new life together.  This is my very first time flying abroad, so wish me luck!

We will be posting photos of our journey from time to time, so make sure to visit us here at our new blog, Paper Chains & Bunting.

Sunday Sketches

Hello everyone and happy Sunday!  Like myself, I'm sure many of you are preparing for the coming holiday season.  Yesterday morning, Mr. Toast (aka Michael) and I celebrated Christmas a little early with his boys, as we are scheduled to fly out for our honeymoon in just two days.  As a new (step) mom, I'm learning their family Christmas traditions of homemade cinnamon rolls, orange rolls and hot cups of tea, along with a few new holiday traditions of our own.

My heart was overjoyed as we watched the boys unwrap each of their pressies, smiling ear to ear.  I may not be their real mother (and would never attempt to replace her) but it filled my heart with so much gratitude to see I've finally been given the gift of being a mom to some pretty amazing children.  I've always wanted to have my own but it was never possible due to past trauma.  I look to the heavens this morning and thank God above for all of the new gifts and blessings that now fill my life.

The tea cup above is one of my most recent illustrations created over this past week in between my college finals. I have a few more new ones and will be sharing those with you over the next few weeks.

Happy Sunday Sketches!  I'm off to see what everyone else has been up to.  :D

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This week's participants:
Please sign-up below to submit your sketch for this week, which will also allow others to stop and visit.
 

WOYWW - Creative Heaven

Although I've not accepted anymore custom orders throughout the end of the year (simply to enjoy my wedding and honeymoon!), my desk is still busy with various illustrations and ideas that have been floating around in my head for months now.  Between classes four days a week, a part-time job at the school and misc illustration projects outside of these things, I've not really had the time to just sit down and let my mind wander on all things whimsical within my heart and soul.

I have to say, as much as I enjoy custom orders it is a wonderful artistic "break" to be able to do my own thing over the next few weeks.  This is something in which I feel is crucial in keeping one's creative mind fresh and flowing with bright, new ideas.  Uh huh.  It's much needed for me as I have several more Jolly Jake children's book covers to design as well as a new opportunity to draw children's illustrations for a non-profit organization.  Each of these are on my list for the coming new year.  Until then, I'm in creative heaven and thrilled to see my new ideas and designs coming alive on paper.  :)

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For more fabulous, creative desks, make sure to stop by Julia's place here.

Sunday Sketches

Hello, my wonderful peeps!  I TOTALLY dropped the ball this weekend.  Oh dear.  We had our Christmas Tea Wedding Reception last night and it completely slipped my mind that today was Sunday.  Please forgive me.

If you've prepared a piece, please DO STILL post a link and I will definitely make rounds this afternoon to everyone.  See you soon!  :)

Please post your Sunday Sketches link below:

Christmas Matchbox LOVE

I hope this little note finds everyone doing well.  As you can tell, there's been alot going on over here in my little corner of the world.  Uh huh.  My Fall semester classes are almost complete and tomorrow is our wedding reception.  Please do keep an eye out for photos and a NEW blog in which Mr. Toast and I will share together, letting you in on snippets of our journey and life together as a couple.  :)

Above are 25 matchboxes I decorated and stuffed with little gits and should be arriving to a lovely lady in the UK soon.  I received her boxes today and (hopefully) will start featuring hers on my site here each day for you to enjoy along with me.

Happy Friday!  :)

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Officially Mrs Toast!

Hello everyone!  I wanted to share a quick update to inform you I'm now officially Mrs. Toast!  Uh huh.  Yes, Mr. Toast and I celebrated this wonderful event yesterday.  Please share in our joy and happiness by leaving a comment below!

Much love to all of our wonderful bloggie peeps.  Here's to many more new and creative adventures ahead!  :)

Sunday Sketches

Good morning and welcome to another week of sketching, doodles and all things art!  Uh huh.  I'm currently curled up on a chair in the dark at Stanley Hotel in Estes Park.  If you're not familiar with this place, it's one of the most haunted places around here!  We were graciously gifted a dinner, room, breakfast and afternoon tea and so far, it's been filled with fun and delight!  Thus, my deep apologies for being late with my post!  As I mentioned last week, there's alot going on in this cozy, little town of Colorado.  :)

The doodle above is a little different for my style but I'm pleased with the results.  As you can see, it shares some of my favorite things about life!  Uh huh.  I'm so blessed and thankful for all of this and more!

OK.  I'm off to breakfast and then to see what everyone else has been up to.  Happy Sunday Sketches!  :)

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This week's participants:
Please sign-up below to submit your sketch for this week, which will also allow others to stop and visit.

Sunday Sketches - Jolly Jake & Pirates!

Happy Sunday Sketches!  It's another wonderful week of planning, creating new illustrations and lots of studying as the Fall semester begins to wind down.  As the days fly by, I'm getting excited about wrapping up another successful semester, wonderful new art projects and of course - getting married!  Woot!  :)

Jolly Jake and little bear, Blue, are on yet another adventure.  Uh huh.  They're pirate hunting!  This is the second children's book cover I'm designing for this series.  The first one is now available on Amazon, so make sure to check it out his jungle adventures.  Elleanor Bird is a fabulous children's story writer and I'm so blessed to be a part of this journey.

OK.  Off to see what everyone else has been up to!  Happy weekend to everyone!  :)

Grab the Sunday Sketches button here.

This week's participants:
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Sunday Sketches

It's a wonderful weekend here in my little corner of the world.  The snow clouds are rolling in and the wind is a bit chilly but it's perfect for sitting at my favorite coffee shop with my favorite hot cuppa

Last night, I held my 1st annual "Little Handmade Holiday Sale" on my business Facebook page and it was a huge success!  There were a lot of smiles and laughter from the Christmas Carol game and everyone enjoyed my brand new illustrations posted only for this special sale.  I'm so blessed and went to bed smiling.  Thank you again, to each and everyone who pulled up a chair and joined me for my online art sale.

So much has been going on these past few weeks.  I've been studying for exams, writing research papers, painting new illustrations (such as the two above), and most importantly, planning my wedding and honeymoon.  I'm utterly excited and can't wait to share more details with my wonderful bloggie peeps soon.

May each of you have a wonderful and relaxing weekend.  I can't wait to see what everyone else has been up to.

Grab the Sunday Sketches button here.

This week's participants:
Please sign-up below to submit your sketch for this week, which will also allow others to stop and visit.

WOYWW - Favorite Things

Just a quick little sketch/watercolor of a few of my favorite things in life.  The perfect hot cuppa, cozy socks, yummy cakes...ahhhh!

Life is getting very busy as the Fall semester is wrapping up.  Only 4 and a half more weeks to go and then it's winter/Christmas break.  Yippee!  I can't wait.   Add to that, all of the wedding plans, decorations, dresses, etc.  I'm getting SO excited!  Keep an eye out for a special blog in which myself (Mrs. Tea) and Mr. Toast will be sharing together.  We'll be sharing photos of our wedding, upcoming trips and so forth.  You don't want to miss it.  Hee

Until then, much love to all of you!  :)
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For more lovely, creative desks, please visit, WOYWW here.

Sunday Sketches

I'm taking a small break this afternoon to set up Sunday Sketches for this week.  I've been studying for almost three days straight now and seriously ready for a big break in studies.   Only a few more weeks and I'll be on holiday from school until the Spring semester.  Woot!  :)

Since last night, I've been working on putting together a draft of my 20-page paper due tomorrow for my English III class.  It's been quite challenging and overwhelming at times, to say the least.  Thank goodness for those perfect cups of tea to get me through.  Uh huh.  Otherwise, I'd probably be fast asleep by now!

Throughout this past week, I've also been updating items in my shop, working on new projects for customers as well as prepping for my upcoming "Little Handmade Art Sale".   I'm thrilled at the responses so far - make sure not to miss out!  All you have to do is grab your favorite cuppa and laptop, have a seat in your favorite chair and join me for some fabulous, whimsical illustrations that will be on sale (15% discount!).  Perfect for holiday gifts and/or stuffing stockings.

I'm off to finish wrapping up my English paper.  Once that is completed, I'll make my rounds to all of my wonderful bloggie peeps.  :)

Grab the Sunday Sketches button here.

This week's participants:
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Digital Doodling

Just a little digital doodling this morning before diving back in to major homework and paper assignments.  I'm no way officially trained to do digital artwork but was inspired by another lovely lady, Jennifer at Studio JRU.

Happy Friday to all of my wonderful bloggie peeps.  I love you all VERY much and appreciate your support, encouragement and love over these past several years.  I've been through alot and each one of you have (virtually) stood by my side.  I'm SO blessed!  xx

WOYWW - Mojo Flow

It's been a fantastic week for creating and designing new illustrations - and I'm loving it!  Uh huh.  From new hand-painted cards to clip-art, to many more whimsical creations.  I'm sharing just a few of the items above that will be a part of my "sweet collection" and would LOVE your opinion on the illustrations thus far.  :)

In fact, let me invite you to my 1st annual "Handmade Holiday Art Sale".  It's SO easy!  This is all you have to do:

When:  Friday, Nov. 15th
Time:  7pm - 10pm (MDT)
Where:  In the comfort of your own home.  Simply grab your laptop, pull up your favorite chair and view the sale items (15% off all items)!  Woot!

So, mark your calendars and be sure to stop by for a cup of tea, whimsical creations and tons of fun chatting with many other fabulous artists.  ♥

For now, I'm off to visit everyone else and see what they've been up to for the WOYWW!

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For more wonderful, creative desks, please visit WOYWW here.

Special Memories

I'd like to share with everyone the wonderful photos we had taken by a dear friend, Jon, over the weekend.  These are a few of our official engagement photos.  To answer your question - yes, this is myself and Mr. Toast!  Enjoy. :)

Time to CELEBRATE!

Happy Monday!  Today started with the most incredible sunrise.  Radiant colors of oranges, yellows and reds danced across the sky early this morning, offering joy and hope to those who gazed upon it.  It's been a very long and difficult journey these past several years but somehow, I always found the strength to press onward.  I'm so thankful for the many blessings in my life!

With that said, it's time to celebrate (for a few reasons) and because of this, I'm offering FREE SHIPPING in my shop on all items.  Uh huh. All you have to do is use the following coupon code:  FREENOV and tada, it's all yours!  How sweet is that?  ♥ ♥ ♥

So, what am I celebrating?
-  Jolly Jake and Blue - "In the Jungle" is now for sale on Amazon.com.  Yeah!
-  I got an A (100%) on my recent English III paper.  Woot!
-  My ETSY shop has been renovated with some darling updates and NEW items for sale.
-  It's NOVEMBER!   Who says we can't celebrate November?

Enjoy your Monday and the new scrumptious "Let's Celebrate" cake card above I recently painted!  I don't know about you but I'm ready for a slice of that cake along with a perfect hot cuppa.  :)

Sunday Sketches

I've been in the studio working on various projects this past week.  I've really enjoyed it and have so many things to share with you.  LOVING the creativity flowing from the tips of my fingers lately. Uh huh.  :)

Above is a holiday card I doodled a few weeks back, now developed into a card.  This whimsical holiday tree, along with several other items, will be available in my shop throughout the weekend.  Enjoy!  I'm looking forward to visiting everyone!  Happy weekend and happy SS!  :)

Grab the Sunday Sketches button here.

This week's participants:
Please sign-up below to submit your sketch for this week, which will also allow others to stop and visit.

Sunday Sketches

It's been a lovely week here in my corner of the world.  The Autumnal weather just continues to unfold; from the beautiful colored leaves on the surrounding trees to the gorgeous sunsets in the evenings.  I love my little, cozy world.  Uh huh.  :D

Above is a watercolor/sketch inspired by the lovely "Le Road Trip" found at a local used book store.  Inside of it are pages filled with sketches and watercolors illustrations, documenting Vivian's travels to France.  I LOVED it and it's inspired me to do a similar watercolor journal for my own upcoming travels.  I look forward to showing you snippets of my art travel journal as it unfolds over time.

Wishing everyone a wonderful Sunday Sketches.  I'm off to catch up with all my lovely peeps.  :)

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This week's participants:
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Happy Scotties: Ruffy & Binko

Remember these adorable fellas - Ruffy and Binko?  They're all done and available as a original, hand-painted greeting card.  Melt.  I love them and look forward to being able to make these into printed cards at some point and time.

What do you think?  Should I make more fun illustrations of these little guys?  :)

WOYWW - Jolly Jake

There's a huge mess on my desk at the moment.  Unfinished projects, multiple watercolor palettes, paint brushes, sketch pads and so forth.  It's been a bumpy couple of weeks but I'm crossing fingers that the worst is behind me now!  Uh huh.

My current focus is this little guy above - Jolly Jake and his little stuffed bear name, Blue.  This is a working illustration, which will be appearing on the cover of a children's e-book on Amazon in the future.  Yippee!! I'm quite excited about it.  You can keep up on Jake's various adventures at his "home", alongside the illustrations I'll be posting here.

Until then, happy WOYWW!  I can't wait to catch up with everyone.  It's been way too long!  :)

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Sunday Sketches

Hello and WELCOME to another fabulous week of sketching, doodling, painting and, well, anything creative!  Uh huh.  You've arrived at the right place to unleash your inner creativity to the world and I'm so happy you could join us.  :)

Above is an ongoing illustration in which I shared with you a few weeks ago.  Remember this little duo when I first introduced them?  They're slowly coming to life as a little greeting card and I absolutely love them so far.  Ruffy and Binko have a special message to announce -- Miss Alexandra is GETTING MARRIED!  Uh huh.  Oh yeah!  It's high time to do a little more celebrating, don't you think?  :D

OK.  I'm off to visit everyone else and see what you've been up to these past few weeks.  Yeah!

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This week's participants:
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Recovering/Pushing through

It's been a long journey these past few weeks.  I've mentioned previously about being sick off and on.  For some reason, I'm really struggling to get over whatever it is that's been attacking my body.  It's a bit discouraging, to say the least.  However, I'm still pushing through and choosing to focus on things above.  I didn't come this far to throw up my hands and quit!  (Flexes her arm muscle!)  Hee

I'm off to catch up with homework.  For now, please enjoy my little girl who's finally completed for a wonderful lady I've been blessed to work with.  She really makes my heart smile!  :)

Sunday Sketches

It's been another long week of studies and catching up from being very ill on Thursday and Friday.  I'm happy to say I'm back on my feet and plugging away on things.

Above is another idea for a holiday card I'd like to do.  I want to add more doodling to it but not sure as to what at this point.  I'll have to play around with it when all of my studies are completed!

Here's to a wonderful weekend to all of my wonderful bloggie peeps.  :)

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This week's participants:
Please sign-up below to submit your sketch for this week, which will also allow others to stop and visit.

New Music - from my heart

Many of you know I recently had the opportunity to see my younger brother (picture above) a few months ago, for the first time in 15 years.  It was a time filled with mixed emotion of joy and heartache.  In fact, tears fill my eyes tonight as I sit here at the kitchen table, sun almost down, praying God could somehow reach his heart and heal it.

This afternoon, I felt this little soulful urge to sit down in front of the piano and wrote the song attached below (words and music).  Keep in mind, this was only recorded by the use of my cell phone.  I would be honored if my lovely blog peeps would not only listen to the song but if you would send up a prayer for his very broken heart tonight.  He needs a miracle of healing and hope in his heart.

Love you all, very much!

10-minute Holiday Warm-up

I'm just thrilled to have squeezed out another one of Diana's 10-minute warm-ups.  Uh huh.  With the holidays quickly approaching, I felt it appropriate to sketch out some misc ideas.  Above is one of the several ideas I put to paper.  I can't wait to develop it into a holiday greeting card.  Only thing is, I need a holiday quote or saying!  :)

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What are your favorite holiday images on greeting cards? I'd love to hear them!  :)

Balancing my creative soul

I took a break from studies to toss together these cozy, little punkins.  I've really been missing my creative time these past few weeks.  There were several moments through the weekend where this little craving to just DOODLE kept nudging my creative soul.  Being a full-time student is challenging in many ways and doesn't always allow me to just stop all I'm doing to meet that inner creative need.  Sigh.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm very grateful to have the opportunity to return to school and get my degree and I wouldn't change it for anything in the world.  The end results will be worth it all.

Have you ever had those moments where you're just so busy you fear losing your creative mojo?  It bothers me a little.  So, I'm going to do my best to join in on Diana's 10-minute warm up a few times a week to hopefully keep those creative juices flowing amidst all the hours of doing homework and taking exams.  :)

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What do you do to keep your creative mojo moving forward?  :)

Sunday Sketches

It's been a long couple of days, trying to keep up with homework while fighting a terrible cold.  I'm ready for the sneezes and sniffles to stop so I can breathe once again.  Sigh.

The weather was utterly beautiful today.  It felt wonderful getting out into the fresh Autumn breeze this morning to sip on coffee and nibble on cheese biscuits; my favorite, by the way.  Uh huh.

Between the homework I'm buried in this weekend, my little creative projects will have to be placed on hold for now.   In the meantime, enjoy Jake and his little blue bear.  He's a new whimsical character developing in my world of creativity and dreams.

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This week's participants:
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Illustrations coming to life

One thing I love LOVE about sketching is adding color.  To me, this where each sketch/character comes to life.  I've got alot going on behind the scenes but doing everything possible to continue making time for creating whimsical illustrations to put a smile on the faces of those around me.

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What do you do to keep your creativity flowing amidst a hectic life schedule?  :)

Sunday Sketches

I look forward to Sunday Sketches each and every week.  With my current college studies workload, it's so wonderful to have that small reprieve at the end of the week to just doodle and catch up with everyone!  I appreciate each and every one of you.  Uh huh.  :)

This little girl is an ongoing series of this one from a few weeks ago.  She's darling and I've had so many comments on her.  :)

I'm off to see how everyone else is doing in your creative world.  Yippee!

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This week's participants:
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Sunday Sketches

Hello!  Hello!  Welcome to another week of Sunday Sketches!  A place where we love to create, whether through painting, drawing, mixed media, etc.  I hope everyone has had a wonderful week and I look forward to catching up with each of you!  :)

Above is a quick 10-minute painting and my own interpretation of one of Beatrix Potter's illustrations.  She definitely remains my top inspiration behind my own sketches.  She always finds a way to bring out the child-like heart within me.

Oh, and let's not forget to mention that I received a 96% on my Math exam this past Friday! Yeah! :)

Happy SS!

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This week's participants:
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Sunday Sketches...and planning!

Hello my wonderful peeps!  Welcome to another fantastic week of sketching, doodles and all things creative!  Uh huh.  I love this little world of creativity and design.  :)

Tonight, I'm doodling away at a local coffee shop, sipping on a peppermint mocha and beginning to do a little more planning for a special, upcoming occasion.  I'm still prepping for a big announcement soon, but until then - any guesses as to what I'm planning for?

OK.  Off to see what everyone else has been up to. Happy SS!

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This week's participants:
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Creative Tuesdays

I'm buried in homework, discussion papers and upcoming Math exams but I most certainly took 5 minutes out this afternoon to have my CREATIVE moment and sketched out my idea for the current Creative Tuesdays theme.  These little fellows were sketched out on a 3x5 note-card and I can't wait to paint it and make it into a cute greeting card.  :)

Now, I'm off to finish visiting everyone else.  Wishing you all well and an evening full of warmth and smiles.

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For more Creative Tuesdays artwork, make sure to visit here.