Yeehaw! It's a Cowgirl Weekend!

Whew! Another weekend away from home...
My hubby is sooooo sweet to let me go. ;)
It's PAPER COWGIRL WEEKEND in Waxahachie! Valita is coming to pick me up in the morning, and we are headed south for some shopping along the way, and then we meet up with the rest of the girls at the Cottage for vendor night. Then Saturday is full of artsy-crafty goodness all day til almost midnight! "See" ya when I get back! I will update all the happenings around here sometime next week....

Colorado, Here I Come!!!

Hiya! I don't really have a great post for y'all. This week is super busy... I leave town tomorrow for COLORADO to see my SISTER! Yay! I am so looking forward to some time with her. ( I love you Tammy! See you in the morning... don't have to talk on the phone on the way to work!!!) We will be going to WOF- yes, you read it right... I'm going again! This year she didn't win tickets, but wanted me to go with her. And frankly, I am looking forward to it!

And then....NEXT WEEK is final preparations for The Paper COWGIRL RETREAT in Waxahachie, September 26-27. Valita and I are so excited! How's about you, Nancy? (can't wait to give you a big ol' HUG!) I have recently learned that Cindy of Junque Art will be attending, as well! And then there's Cindy, Tina, hmmmm.... so many!
OH! Go take a look at Valita's new look and new NAME.... very cool! And I just saw a little sneaky-peeky of Silver Bella Swappin' goin' on over there.... ;) (nice job V!)
Okay, back to WILD Vintage Cowgirls and a couple of days of nothing but thrifting, VINTAGE shopping, and crafting! Vendor night is going to be in this cute little pink house!

Well... off to pack, finish packing/mailing swaps... and hopefully a trip to Michael's to get some supplies that are on sale for Silver Bella/Paper Cowgirl. EEK! Ms Heather had to give us the countdown to how many days left (I have promptly forgotten, since it kinda freaked me out how close it REALLY is!
Have a wonderful rest-of-the-week, and fantastic weekend!

Oh, on another note.... Hurricane Ike is long gone.... but the mess he left behind is not. In fact it'll be around for a long time to come.... I just saw satellite pictures of the condos/townhomes today... not a pretty sight at all. The message board I ran across had people that owned one, or had RCI weeks for those townhomes, and everyone is really bummin' that they are such a mess. There isn't a beach left, a pool that once had water to splash and play in, is filled with debris and rubbish. Very sad indeed. Even more sad, many of the beach homes nearby, belonging to residents are gone... ;(

I'll leave you with this perfect little picture... look at ALL those smiles!

COLORADO, HERE I COME!!!

Storm Prayers...

My heart and my prayers go out to all those fellow Texans down along the coast... Galveston, Surfside, Freeport,... Surfside is where our good friends, Michele and Erik have their condo that we go down to in the summertime. It's just so sad to see all the pictures of houses and areas we have seen, or even walked past! Our wonderful beach we played on, built sand castles and drip castles -gone, underwater, for now. Even the houses waaaay up past the beach, have at least ankle-deep water underneath it. This year we saw so many new houses that went up, old ones remodeled, painted and spiffed-up since our trip last summer. It's not the prettiest beach in the world, but Surfside, with it's small-town character was quite quaint and perfect for all of us. It's most likely the condo will be hit and suffer damage- how much? I don't know. And there are so many people in those beach-front communities that have chosen to stay and weather the storm... so scary.

I had a video of Surfside, but there were questionable pictures where the video ended and froze... so I chose not to display it on my blog.
But here's the link: Surfside waiting for Ike

For all of you, all or your relatives, friends, co-workers you have down there... I pray for safety. I hope many of you/them have already left and are making your way to a safer place...

My better photographic memories of Surfside...

Two photos (flooded surfside/ike radar) at top courtesy of wfaa.com

Soldering... A Beginner's Tale

As I was blog surfing, I came upon a blog of a new found friend, Joanna, who will also be attending Silver Bella. I met Joanna for the first time at Heather's soldering class a little over a week ago. Joanna blogged about her experience and posted pictures of class (she was a good little girl, and remembered her camera). I hadn't given it much thought to blog about my experience because I didn't know anything about soldering (except what I learned that day). So it occured to me that, duh, you don't have to know everything about something to blog about it! And it was a milestone for me, so by golly, I'm gonna blog about it!

I say a milestone, because soldering is something I've been wanting to learn more about for a really long time. I will be taking a class at Silver Bella with the Queen of Solder, Sally Jean in November. And it's not the Soldering for Virgin's class... I am dying to dive in to her Partridge in a Pear Tree class, which requires at least a basic knowledge of soldering.

So, that beautiful Saturday at Heather's home, I had a great time learning the basics. Met some wonderful ladies, and was thrilled to find Heather is a wonderful teacher. She told us all she knew to get us started, answered numerous questions, and had lemonade and lemon-frosted cookies to boot! (Oh they were yummy- and I won't tell your secret, Heather!) And now, I think I am hooked... a new found love for another craft. Yes, my efforts were very crude, to say the least, but that's okay. I am totally cool with that. Heather says, "Practice, practice, practice!". So that's what I'll have to do. Everyone has to start somewhere, right?

The picture is of the FIRST charm I did. Rather rough, wouldn't you say? It really only got that way because I tried to go back and make it "smoother"...

Mistake #1, Lesson #1. Don't go back and "try and fix" what you call mistakes. It will only make them worse. (at least as a beginner) ;)

A new friend, Charlene, also found this out the hard way. Both of us found our second charm to be pretty acceptable (for just learning), so we both felt that we had a better grip to go back and "fix" the first one a bit.... Bad news. It ended up worse than it started. Oh well. We've learned our lesson, haven't we Charlene?
I cannot show my second one, as it is a gifty for a friend, whom I won't mention, because it's a surprise. (So ya know that it MUST have turned out better than this one!) ;)

Thanks for everything, Heather! I mean, who would buy their cookies at Walmart and ice them with a scrumptious homemade lemon icing? (Did I say secret? LOL!) They were delicious, and tasted every bit homemade! Big hugs to ya Heather! (and to your husband for putting up with us!) ;)

So if your in the DFW area, and want to learn the basics or more about soldering, taking a class from Heather is highly recommended!

Click on Heather's name to link to her blog...
Click on Joanna's name to link to her blog and see more pictures of class that day...

A Quickie Recap of Women of Faith...

(My BFF, Michele and Me, miss flat-head-need-a-haircut)

(Cynthia who hates her picture taken- hee hee)

(The Girls ~ "but" what's that "stickin out my butt-thing" all about?) ;P

Just a quick post to let you all know I'm still kickin'... it's crazy mad around here! Women of Faith was totally and greatly AWESOME! (Once again!)
Michele's sister, Kim, came this time and since she lives up by me, and we go to the same church, we ended up riding together. And that was fun. Anita Renfroe was a bowl full of giggles and laughs... We were not disappointed. Course, if you were there and disagree, blame it on your thyroid! LOL Then each of the other porch ladies, opened their hearts once again, and reminded us that we are NEVER alone, as women or a child of Christ. Their stories and encourgement were uplifting and peaceful. And we were certainly NOT disappointed with basically mini concerts from Nicole C. Mullen, Nichole Nordeman, Natalie Grant, and of course the WOF praise and worship team. It was an emotional roller coaster, yet again... but one that I will forever ride over and over and over again! If you have never been, I highly recommend it... but grab a friend, sister, or mother- it's an event you don't want to experience alone!

We stayed at a house south of Dallas, and rode the train to and from the American Airlines Center, lots of stories there.... ;P Overall a wild ride, but great fun with great sistas and a beautiful comfort- feeling Christ's love so powerful and strong!

(Backyard of the house we stayed in)

I'll come back later, with some creative stuff when I get the chance... Silver Bella Swaps are opening up, and I dove in and decided to host one! EEeek! Good or Bad? I don't know.... but I am TOTALLY THRILLED about it! LOL It will be fun. Catch ya all later!