What's New?  

Okay, I've been really, really, REALLY busy at work so I haven't had much time to take pictures yet but many things are changing. Including the job that has kept my creativity at bay. So....

Since the 1st of October, I have gotten my business license, tax numbers, and a booth at the Eastbrook Flea Market and Antique Mall. Granted it has sat there empty for two weeks now, (because I've worked 179 hours at my other job!) BUUUUT.... tomorrow morning, my first day off in two weeks, I'm going to go paint it, and start the process of moving in. I have enough stuff made to fill it... I think. :) AND.. As I pack stuff to take over to "DH Studios" new store, I will take pictures and post them! Just in case you missed it, the name of my new business is DH Studios. Here is a picture of my business card.

Memories

I have been crafting in one form or another it seems, my entire life. One of the first "crafting" memories I have: I think I was about seven years old and my mother had some baby blue taffeta fabric and I was sitting at her Singer sewing machine making a doll dress. I had a large family, 7 of us in all, and we used to have home made Christmases. We'd split up and either go with Mom to a table with fabric, glue and a plethora of odds and ends, or with Dad to the garage where wood, tools and imagination knew no limits. Mom used to make all our clothes. She was really good. My girl friends used to love the dresses she made me. She hasn't done that since I was in high school and I miss them. She made my doll furniture complete with bed linens. Dad was a true artist. His medium was oil paints. Wonderful scenes that came alive on canvas. He also was a cartoonist. He doodled all the time. He even did my wedding reception invitations. A cartoon of a little boy, in an over sized tux and a top hat pulling a wagon with the little girl bride in it, and a sign on the back of the wagon that said just married. I spent a lot of time in the "shop" with my Dad. We designed everything from children's toys to furniture with secret hiding places built in. In 2000, three years before he died, I had been painting some project, (in acrylic paints) and he was watching me. He said he had always wanted to try acrylic paints. I said do it I'll help. So he came up with a challenge. He found a picture in a book that was of a house on the bank of what looked like a pond or lake. He said "pick a season, fall, winter, spring or summer, and paint that picture in your season". "Don't show or tell your season". So in a couple of days I'll post the pictures of our paintings. By the way... I chose winter, he chose spring. Since then my Mom who hasn't painted in a while painted my favorite season...fall.

Dad's Spring version 2000

Debbie's Winter version 2000

Mom's Fall version 2008

Dad was 68 years old when he painted his version.

Mom was 74 year old when she painted her version.

Being creative has no age limit!

So no matter what age you are find and do what makes you happy.

JUST WRITE SOMETHING! I can't count how many times I've heard that since I told my family that I was going to start a blog.

The problem is... It's easier for me to write about someone, anyone other than myself. So I think that is where I will start.

My only child, my daughter Christen, my pride and joy her entire life, is unbelievably talented. She has been married for ten years now and in August 2011, became a new mother to Caroline, my first and possibly only grandchild. Fortunately Christen's circumstances allow her to be a stay at home mom and even though she sometimes feels overwhelmed by the daily "to do" lists of being a wife and mother, now she has started a new business called Belle Reve Designs. Her Etsy store is where she is selling her jewelry designs and a few of her art pieces. She is planning shows and making product and blazing along. Years ago when I started my first craft business "Victorian Accents", I had home parties, a booth in a craft mall and did quite a few craft shows. But WOW how things have changed! Back then...1980-1993, there was no "Etsy", really no "On-line" market place for crafters at all. AND O.M.G. how the crafts themselves have changed and evolved.