Hi! Wow, I can't believe another week has already gone by. My mother believed 'they' had figured out how to speed up time. She said time didn't pass as fast when she was younger as it does now. I'm beginning to think she is right.

It has cooled off about 15 degrees in the day time this week which is great!!! August can be unreal in central Alabama. We still have September to go thru. It can be real hot and dry, dry!!!

I promised some of you I would list some more detailed pics of my journal tote bag for the Mind Wide Open challenge. That challenge is the most fun I have had in a while. ( I live a very sheltered life LOL!!). When Gail listed the image on her web site I down loaded it to my desktop on my computer at work. I work in Medical Records at a hospital and assemble charts to get them ready for analysis. So while I was working on my charts I could study the image and write down different ideas for my design. One day I will scan some of my sketches and let you see how I design things. I have lots of ring binders of sketches and ideas. Anyway that is how I came up with the journal tote bag. It has a divider inside and 2 pockets. It is lined with white diamond quilted fabric, and also interlined with fleece on the back. I didn't use fleece on the front like I usually do since there was 4 layers of fabric ( 2 uphostery and 2 muslin weight). The pattern of the outside fabric (a really pretty abstract design of heavy woven fabric) didn't show up in the original pics. I think these are better. The bag is 11 inches wide & 12 inches deep. The shoulder strap drops 16 inches to the top of the bag. All of the elements (leaves, tassels, beads dangles, keys, ribbon, and rose buds are hand sewn on the bag. The metallic trim and yarn are machine sewn on the bag. This is functional working bag. An interesting note- the combination of the keys (real ones) and glass bead dangles makes it sound like a wind chime!! I hope you have a great night and here are the picks Love Mary (PS I am like my grandfather Nelson- he signed all of his cards and letters Love Harry and I follow in his tradition with Love Mary)

Well another week has gone by. The weather has been stiffling hot. I don't have air conditioning since they wanted $1300 to fix it. I told the man if I had that much money I would buy a new car. Does not really bother me except when the humidity is real high. I have ceiling fans in every room.

I entered the the August Challenge at http://mind-wideopen.blogspot.com/ that Gail Schmidt is running. She has a really nice blog if you like "pretty" altered art. I am not in to witches and skulls and that type of stuff you see in a lot of the altered art/mixed media stuff. I like the vintage , I guess elegant look. Be sure to go out to her web site and check out all the entries and be sure and vote for your favorite.

Today while I was finishing my entry it stormed and the lights flickered. Had a lot of distant thunder. We got some rain -not enough!

As usual when I am trying to finish something to a dead line, there were things I couldn't find. I think my problem is I have too much stuff. I am trying to organize things. I have taken two of my bedrooms and one is a sewing/computer room and the other is a crafting room. It is coming together. When it looks a little better I will put up some pictures.

I promised some pictures so here goes. These are some of the pillows I have sold on EBAY. The butterfly pillow is handbeaded. I hope you like them. I have also added a picture of the "Secret Journal Tote Bag" I made for the Challenge at Mind Wide Open.

I guess I will sign off now. I hope you have a great week end!! Love, Mary