Birthday Week in Mexico!

This year's dive trip to Cozumel Mexico coordinated 

with both mine and Mark's April birthdays!

 

Yes...I know what a great way to spend our days...real rough...especially while we are sitting on the dive boat until the warm sun and sparkling aqua water and hear that back home in Denver, it is snowing...

But let's get away from the snow and back to the sun and sharing of our birthdays...

When we go to Cozumel, we pretty much dive, eat, sleep, dive..my actual birthday day was our first day of diving!

Dive Master Gyser and me

This year, besides our dive buddies Candy and Mike, we were joined with their son Justin (whom Mark and I have know since he was 8 or 9 years old) and his finace Kelly!

The weather was sunny fabulous and the diving was beautiful...but on the surface things were brewing!

At lunch that day I was surprised with (none other than) a Hello Kitty cake made by Johnny, the head chef, at the Scuba Club!

It was delicios-o! White cake with strawberries in the center...

More to come with HK...my chambermaid, Margarita, and I have known each other for years and she knows how much I love HK- especially when diving it has become my "signature" . This year after a day of diving we came back to the room to find...sweet- don't you think?

We have a dear friend Lyle (and Sandy) that live part time in Cozumel. 

 

During the week, Lyle was such a champ at taking us to some of his favorite spots...

Mezcalitos on the Beach for birthday margs

This beach bar is on the west side of Cozumel where the waves are big and crash into the shoreline! Diving is on the east side.
The sand covered patio overlooked the beach...beautiful to sit there and listen to the waves and smell the fresh salty air OR get out to the beach and take your chance with the waves! Take my photo- quick!!

For lunch one day, we went to a local restaurant that makes the best fish tacos! You can have them made just about anyway you can think of! I love the sweet pickled onions they put on top of most of their tacos. There is a selection of three or four sauces ranging from mild to hot...oh yum!

Shrimp Tacos at local restaurant

Birthday Dinner for Mark, Lyle took us all to Knita Mexican Bistro.
Do not be fooled into thinking that since a restaurant is in Mexico that is going to be all sand and shots of tequila...this restaurant was very elegant and the food was wonderful!
We sat outside in the garden area...

Seared Tuna on a bed of mashed cauliflower

 with vegi side over sweet potato mash.

 Our Happy Birthday boy with

group after dinner!

All in all, we had a wonderful time with great friends, fabulous food and gorgeous soul renewing diving.

Nothing better than celebrating your birthday 

by having your toes in the sand!

For breathtaking underwater photos- 

see our buddy Mike's webpage...link here

Little Mice...

Simone and I have been working with such concentration on creating master pieces, that we thought we needed a project that was a little more tame...ha! as tame as little mice can get!

She choose to do Mortimer and Merri Mouse

...but with a twist, because that is what creativity is all about!

So we set out in our first lesson to create the heads and ears that are dry felted and then wet felted.

Next lesson, we put the bodies together and wrapped the appendages (including tail!) with flosses.

Final lesson was the clothing.

This is were we delved into a different area...one reason I love Simone is because of her thoughtfulness. Later this year, her Father will be going to a wedding in Poland. Simone wanted to make a gift for the bride and this little mouse would make the perfect bride!

Simone decided to add a touch of delicate embroidery to the edge of the skirt, the front of the bodice and sleeves.

Here is the little Bride Mouse completed!

Next was the mousie that Simone wanted to create for herself.

After deciding on her Spring-time felt colors, she added embroidery, a velvet pocket and a little collar.

 Here is her little Mouse completed!

Another step in these private lessons, is that Simone wanted to be her own photographer, so she took the photos of her completed dolls!

As I write these blogs, I feel an overwhelming happiness and gratitude that I get to teach and share these special moments with such inspiring students!!

Beautiful! The girl and her dolls...

ROotie Time

My sweet husband Mark, thought for my birthday that is would be so nice to get together with my "girls" since I have been concentrating on taking time away from doing my local teaching!

So, he thought why not have it at the studio and what a better way to get together than to start off with Hello Kitty cupcakes and chicken salad sandwiches! Yummy!

What fun it was to see everyone again and more delightful was too hear everyone talking and laughing together!

Me in the center with some of my "girls"

With my special girl Peg!

You would think that visiting and talking with my dear friends would be the highlight of the day...but there was more to come...

Shortly afterwards, my new niece Joyce (sitting on the back of the couch) came to visit the studio with her family that has been visiting from Taiwan!

How fun to hear them speaking Chinese with such animation as they roamed through the studio with so many things to look at!...and yes, the boys especially liked the cup cakes!

Mark, me and Taiwan family

As the day was ending, our friends (minus their Dad/Husband Mark) stopped by for one last hug and good-bye...and yes, we still had just enough cupcakes left for them!

Becca, Ben, me, Alana (who took a class with Simone), and my wonderful handsome husband Mark!

And how could we not end this day with a little sparkle? One of my favorite things to do is sprinkle tons of glitter outside my studio door...it is wonderful since my door faces south and the glitter explodes in a its sparkling glitter-dom!

OOOooohh fun and sparkly!

When we got home, there was a knock at the door and little Frances was there to hand me this beautifully wrapped package that held a hand-made card stating that for my birthday she (and Mama) would like to take me for a manicure!

and it will be something I can use especially after working all week sculpting with clay!

What a truly fortunate woman I am...

I am thankful!

Making Pixies!

Laughter is timeless -
Imagination has no age -
And dreams are forever
~Tinkerbell~

This week, Mark and I have friends in from Minnesota. 

My Mark went to college with his buddy Mark. Mark and Kathy have three kids and one of them, 11 year old Alana, is interested in art...so why not bring her to the studio to make something while she is here (and not up skiing!)

And what would be more perfect than a Pixie? "Our" sweet Simone (12) was happy to share her time together with Alana...

The Pixie body design is simple, with the only part taking a wee bit of concentration is the head construction. Each head is a molded face form and over-laid with pima knit fabric. The main body section simply armatured for dancing capability. I made the bodies ahead of time, so we could complete our dolls in a 2-hour session.

sample front

The costuming is a ribbon bodice with a sweet gathered skirt of delicate ribbon or tulle. The hair is a snippet of mohair carefully placed in a casual frolicking manner.

sample back

The real fun begins when we start pulling out those kept little treasures from my jars of goodies to make each Pixie detail special...sparkles, ribbons, the tiniest flower...

During our time together, Alana turned and said to me...So you like to have fun here! - Yes, as a statement, not a question...and that my dear friends, is EXACTLY what doll making is all about...

 

 After a couple of hours of creating and placing that lock of hair just so...

Simone and Alana with their Pixies

Simone's

Alana's

 

 

 

 It is wonderful to share with others...to pass that love along...

more Pixie postings:

Pixie Magic

Pixie Tea Time