Would You Like a Little More Tea?

You haven’t had any yet, you say?
Well please, sit down!
You pour and I’ll tell you a little tale…

There once was a girl from…….
Oopsie daisy… ahem… wrong tale.
Let’s start again, shall we?

There is a place I have heard of…
a magical place of giggles, sweets, songs and fancy.
But to get there, is the trick. For you see, it is in a far, far, far away country.
And in that far, far, far away country is a forest.
A very, very deep forest.
Now if you want to find this magical place, you will have to travel to the center of the very, very deep forest in the far, far, far away country; which, mind you, will probably take a fortnight to reach.
But you will know you have reached the center, when you have come upon a meadow. Not an ordinary meadow…
A toadstool meadow.
(don’t eat the red ones… nasty little things they are.)

But, beware of the sleeping gnomes.
You must be as quiet as a church mouse in order to slip by without waking them. Which, believe you me, you don’t want to do. Waking them, that is. But you must get past them, for in the center of the toadstool meadow is a brier patch.

And in the middle of that brier patch is a tree.

Push past the wild brier rose, but be careful not to let it bite you, and through the sweet jasmine vines and there you will find it.

The Door.

If you can unlock the door and slip through to the other side, the path you will see will lead to much glee!

It starts early in the morning,

when the caged bird sings.

It’s a party. A party of Tea!

Decorations abound and abloom.
The table is laid…

Cakes and sweets

Pies and treats.

Once the tea has been poured,

by the host of the party,
and a grand, flourishing bow has been bowed,
the songs can be sung, the riddles riddled and the tales can be spun.

When the candles have burned down and twilight is settling in,

the path home will appear and good byes will go round…
‘til next year.

*********

For many more Mad Tea Parties,
please visit
A Fanciful Twist

"There Is a Place."

"Like no place on Earth.
A land full of wonder, mystery, and danger!"
~the Mad Hatter

Okay, so the only danger, for me anyway, is that I'm so intrigued that I can't seem to leave in a timely manner to go take care of the things I need to be taking care of.

It's a place called Plays With Needles.

If you have the slightest interest in Alice In Wonderland and/or sewing, stitching, beading, crazy quilts, then you must go see Susan.

DMC asked her to create an Alice In Wonderland crazy quilt block, using their products.

Everytime I go take a look at the newest layer she has added, my jaw hits the floor.

After you have awed over this amazing piece, slip over to her Flickr and take a peep at her bead work.... OMG!

(all photos belong to Plays With Needles)

It's Getting There

Yep, I can feel it trickling in. I think I'm about half full now, so all is good. And a big ol' Thank You for all of the "well" wishes... pun intended... heehee. No really, even though I knew it would fill back up, your encouraging comments have helped a lot.



A couple of other things that have helped too, I think, was junquing with a friend and just getting outside and taking a walk. I think part of it was "winter blues". I know down here we haven't had it nearly as bad as the East Coast or the Mid West, but as per North Texas weather, it's constantly up and down. Seriously you just never know what you will get from day to day. But, it has warmed up and I think Spring is really finally here.



And speaking of "winter blues", I thought I would share a few of my art journal pages. Remember the art journal from this post and how I said I was going to try really hard this time to fill it? Well, I'm quite proud of myself, simply because I haven't gotten off track with it so far.



Back to "winter blues".
So I signed up for Kari's Year of Color blog back in January and decided then that I would use my art journal to help me explore all that is shared through out the year in the blog. Well, I'm sure you've figured it out by now, if you are not subscribed to it, that the colors for January were blue and white. I took my white to a more ivory and cream shade, however.
Anyway, all the pictures here today, are just a few of the journal entries from January.



Again, Thank You! Now, I'm off for another inspiring Spring walk. Have a beautiful Monday.

Making Me Smile

I'm coming off a two day Real Housewives (OC and NYC) binge... cloudy skies do that to me. But now, the sun is shining bright and it's warmed up a bit. I'm feeling like me again.

So I thought I'd share a few things that are making me happy this morning.

This blog. How can this bright spot not make you feel good? The colors, the music, all of it.

Love Letters ezine.

This is the only project I've finished so far, but regardless, I'm enjoying them all.

My Crocs. Hmmm... yep, something this frivolous is making me happy.


Velvety soft Lambs Ears.

I have an idea for some of these lovelies. We'll see if I can execute it in the next few weeks.

These little cuties. I've already pre-ordered my kit.

And I'm feeling some Marie coming on. Although this is the movie I feel I need to see first.

And last, but not least, A Year of Color and this magazine. These two things have been fantastic jump off points for my art journal. Which, I've been very good about working in lately. I'll share soon.

Well, now that I have some energy (thank you Mr. Sun!), I'm off to clean the house.
Have a beautiful day!

The Stamptini Girls

Good afternoon! I wanted to pop in real quick and introduce you to some friends of mine.

The Stamptini Girls!

These three lovely ladies have recently started up their business, Stamptini Girls, and offer a great selection of gift items. They create all kinds of wonderfulness! From cards to mini albums to coaster to candles. Check out their blog and if you are in the Fort Worth area you can find their creations for sale down at the Stockyards. They are also teaching classes and workshops in the Frisco area. Oh, and when LolliShops opens, be sure to look for them there as well!

(photo: Stamptini Girls)

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

Welcome to the Awards Ceremony! I have been honored three times recently. Yes that's right, three times!

The first award is the Tree of Happiness Award. My sweet friend Diane gave this to me.

This award says...
"You have just received the tree of happiness. It is scarcely
a small plant, which depends on you to grow firmly and strongly.
Plant it on your heart, water it with your smiles and kindness,
feel the aroma of it's flowers, savour the sweetness of it's fruits
and protection under it's shade with whom you love."

I now have to share 6 things that make me happy (this is the hard part... there are a whole lot more than 6 things that make me happy):
1. Life
2. My Farmboy
3. My children
4. Creating
5. Being able to spend all day creating if I so wish it.
6. This awesome blogging community

Now I will nominate 6 people to accept this happy award (okay, no, this is the really hard part):
1. Joanna for listening to me babble all day long, every day. (She is sporting a new look by the way, and I personally think it looks marvelous!)
2. Dawn because her sweet giving-self totally rocked my world this morning in an email!
3. Natalea because she let me join her swap and she is so giving too.
4. Sherry because you are a good friend and I believe that trees can help us find strength and peace when we need it.
5. Whitney because our friendship began here and has grown very strong and beautiful just like a tree.
6. is for anyone else out there in blogland who would love to have this award. There isn't anyone I've met who has not passed on a little happiness to me in one way or another.

Award number two also comes from Diane! This one is the Blogging Friends Award.


Here are the rules:
1. Use the Twinks Bank icon
2. Nominate 5 other people only
3. Four (4) nominees have to be dedicated followers of your blog
4. One (1) has to be someone new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
5. You must link back to whoever gave you the award.

I nominate:
1. Lori since the first day she read my blog, she has left a kind words for me.
2. Jenn whom I am so glad for having met this past summer.
3. Allie it's always a pleasure to read her comments.
4. Brenda she has jumped right in to my little world and always leaves words of wisdom for me and I appreciate it very much!
5. Elly I have just met Elly through LolliShops and linked her up today. Her blog is really so fresh and inspiring. You know, it reminds me of a breath of Spring air. I know that probably sounds corny, but I really truly believe that.

Award number three is from Natalea. In all of her sugary sweetness, she has given me the E is for Excellent Award.


Really, I think every blog I read is excellent, otherwise I wouldn't read them... right? But 5 must be nominated so:
1. Karin OMG, she cracks me up!
2. Tiffany OMG she cracks me up too!
3. Brenda again with the cracking up. I really like to laugh, can you tell? It all goes back to that "happiness" thing.
4. Wanda there are a lot of reasons here, but if for nothing else, her blog has a rating of "genius"! I'm hoping some of that rubs off on me.
5. Sadie because Sadie has and is doing the most excellent job when it comes to LolliShops!

Whew! I think I'm all awarded out, but I really do feel honored. Thank you everyone!

More Places to Visit

So while I was away, I missed out on Kari's, (Artsy Mama) Sweet and Sinister Swap. :( This one is so cool too. Not just an ordinary swap, but one that has a blog to go along with it. However, she is providing a second blog that will have all of the fun guest tutorials, Halloween inspiration and giveaways that will be provided in the swap blog.

Luckily it is not full yet! Sign up information is here. I'm really excited about this, especially the tutorials. Last Halloween I made my very first banner. I was just starting to get into all of this vintage crafty goodness and I was totally inspired by this girl. And even cooler, she will be a guest designer on the blog. Yippee!

The second place to visit is Shabby Scraps. Tiffany is hosting a party.

This Friday, August 1st, she will have links to all of the participants who will be showing their dress forms, both big ones and minis (I have one of these). I believe the link list is full now, but it should prove fun to visit them all. There will be over 50!

I was going to share some little pretties I made before vacation, as well as, a couple of lovely items I picked up. Alas, no camera. I suppose I could have gone and borrowed my MIL's, but I've been really busy putting together a new kit for the shoppe. So it will have to wait.

Until next time...

There's No Place Like Home

Well, we are back and as much as I enjoyed seeing my parents and viewing that gorgeous turquoise sea every day, there really is "no place like home".

I was going to share some photos of our trip, but my Farmboy left for Austin and took the camera with him. The camera and his laptop are where all of the pictures are. So I will have to wait a few days before I can share them.

In the meantime, I missed the Cottage Style Street Team's "Christmas in July" event.

I made two Tussie Mussies for the event.

The color in the photo above does not do it justice at all. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get it to look right either.

I listed them in the shop before for I left since I wasn't going to be here for the event and the pink one sold before the event ever took place. Thanks Jenn! :)

Here is the blue "Noel" tussie.

This one is still available here. There are still many gorgeous Christmas goodies to be found from the other members of the CSSTeam. Just put "cssteam" and "Christmas" and "July" in the Etsy search engine to find them.

I also want to share this with those of you who don't know yet.

Sadie Lou, the marvelous idea guru herself, is creating the ultimate shopping/selling/information gathering venue. LolliShops will be THE place to go to for all of your "Elegant Whimsy, Romantic Inspirations, Fanciful Creations" needs! Before the official Grand Opening in the fall, she will have a trial run, so to say. There will be a few shops open so that the bugs and kinks can be taken care of before all of the other artists open their shop doors there. Including mine. Yep, I'll be opening an Alisa Jane shop at LolliShops! I am SO excited about this! You can keep up to date on all of the LolliShop happenings at the LolliShop blog. Seriously, you have to go check it out right now!

What are you waiting for?! Go!!
Talk to you later! :)

Waiting for the Rain

I have two lists of blogs I read and I try to read all of them everyday. Most of these blogs I have learned about through other blogs.

The Brocante Home Chronicles is one I found from a blog post by Lori a few months ago. When she posted about it being the first blog she had read and that it was the start of Faerie Window being created, well I had to go check it out. I don't know that I ever go a day with out reading it now. If you don't know of it, the author is a single mom living in England. She sells wonderful antique treasures on ebay and writes in the most entertaining way about domesticity. (And Heaven knows I strive to be that Domestic Goddess!)

I was reading one of her posts earlier this week and because I enjoyed it so much, I really felt the need to share it. This post was entitled "Puttery Treats For A Rainy Summer Weekend". Here is a taste of some of those puttery treats...

*If you are feeling rather blah burn pine or rosemary oil to lift your mood.

*Do something meditative like shelling peas (serve with feta on warm bread for supper later..) or polishing silver. A repetitive action that allows your mind to wander into that really rather glorious state you occasionally horrify yourself with while driving...

*Re-connect with your partner. Designate a gorgeous notebook to a "written conversation". Leave it in your bathroom or a bedside drawer and use it to write down the things it is sometimes hard to say. Sorry. I love you because... please put the bins out... It will in the long term become a gorgeous record of love, forgiveness, hopes and dreams.

These are just a few of her "rainy weekend" ideas, but quite frankly, I loved all of them! Now I'm just patiently waiting for the rain.

Have a beautiful day no matter the weather.

ps. the photo at the top has absolutely nothing to do with this post. It's what I'm working on at the moment and I thought it was pretty. :)

Celebrations, New Friends and Journals

Happy Monday! Hope your Father's Day was a wonderful one for all of the Daddies. Our weekend was very nice and felt so long... that was great!


All three kids, Pretty Lady, Capin' Davy Cannonswine and E, managed to drag their bodies out of bed early to make pancakes and sausage for the farmboy. And look who else got a bicycle on their special day...


We also had a small family birthday celebration for E. Grandma and Grandpa came through with the much wanted Ripstick before they flew back to their paradise island. They left it with me to give to him, but I'm a bad mommy and didn't hide it very well. He however, is a good boy and let me believe he didn't see it. :) He waited very patiently for Saturday to come round so he could ride it.

Everyone gave it a try! That was quite the sight!

Now for new friends...
I would like to introduce you to two new friends of mine.
Joanna of Sweet Finds has had her blog for a little bit now. You may have already met her. She has jumped right in with Show and Tell and other fun activities.

And Allie of Under the Texan Sun just started her blog last week. If you love France, Italy and cooking, she has some great links on her sidebar!

As for journals...
I finished two journal entries for my Write Time, Write Place Art Journal.



Alright, I'm off for a bike ride and then house cleaning. See ya later.