I'm getting married TOMORROW!!!!

*squeal*
I thought I better pop in here 1 more time as Sarah Elliott because 7-ishy PM tomorrow I'll be Sarah Cooper!
lol... the Artist formerly known as Sarah Elliott.
BIG day planned today:
Kilt pick-ups
Tux Shirt pick-ups
Bakery Buns for rehearsal & wedding day
Get my gift for Greg
Groomsmen gifts
etc...
etc...
etc...
Ending with the rehearsal here tonight!
(MUST clean, ugh!)
See you all on the Flip-Side of the Wedding!

OPH: Birthday

Happy Birthday!
This week Amy has selected the theme....
Birthday
It just so happens to be her birthday...so head over and wish her a great one! This week please create a piece with the theme birthday, it can be anyone's or anything's birthday, a very merry unbirthday, or whatever else your creative mind conjures. As always have fun and we can't wait to see what you come up with.

Sarah dreams of five tiered cakes for her sons upcoming birthday.


Birthday September 23rd:
Perfect timing! My youngest son is turning 6 on October 5th... I decided to make his Birthday Card.
He's a TeddyBear fan so I used this Coloring Book Image; I just love the tippy cake. :O)
The base of the card (4X7") is Glimmer Misted and edge inked. The next layer is this wonderful handmade paper I've been hoarding forever. It's covered in pastel 'gelly' stars and dots, I lightly misted it purple. Image is hand colored and the Quote is also misted and inked. Little Metal charm reads: Make a Wish. Inside has a simple Happy Birthday stamp.

3 Days til our Wedding...

...and I *think* I'm still sane! That is amazing in and of itself... lol.
We're into the final stages of getting perishable foods and picking up rentals.
I can safely say that anything I had to craft is DONE!!!!
This is the rest of it:

The Candle Favors:
It's a 7PM Candlelight Service and so everyone is getting their favor on the way in... when the Pastor lets people know it's time to start he'll ask them to turn on their Electric Candles. So we should be walking down to aisle to lots of our friends 'lighting the way' for us.I must say these turned out better than I had hoped. The original plan was metal wire holders but the store didn't have enough and couldn't get a reorder in time. These are IKEA glass holders... so the kids will be getting Glow-in-the-Dark Bracelets & Bubbles instead. ;O)
I was really thrilled that the stickers we had ordered were a PERFECT fit on the bottom.

The Card Box:
Another fluke... I grabbed this at the last minute when we were buying all the dinner sh-tuff (plates, cups, napkins, serving bowls, tongs etc...). It was a Plain-Jane white pop-together box. 12 X 12 X 12... ah ha! A Perfect Job for scrapbook paper! 5 matching sheets, a glue stick and a printed off label later and voila!

The Candy Buffet Baggies:

These turned out better than I had pictured! I had expected to be making them from brown bags but Micheal's had DARK GREEN! Small bit of ribbon in our other Wedding Color, Dark Blue... a sticker and Dragonfly stamped also in Dark Blue later and we have our bags. Simple yet Pretty.

Food Labels:
For the Candy, Dessert, Chip and Fruit & Cheese Buffets. Different people are bringing different things so I made them all blank and will have X-fine sharpies there for people to fill in what they brought, and wether it's Gluten/Nut/Diabetic Safe.

Activity Signs:
BRIGHT and Easy to see! We have several stations for people to do sh-tuff... no lazy guests allowed. :O) This way the activities are easy to spot around the room.

The OTHER reason I'm done crafting...
Greg's Grandmother, Cupper, treated me to some girl-y time yesterday. I got an eyebrow wax (ow!), pedicure... pretty pink tosies, and Acrylic 'Talons' as Greg's calling them. LOL. I must say they make most things a wee bit harder to do. But I really like them. My nails are very thin, tending to bend and break easy. I would so do Acrylics again, though not this long! They are friggen' indestructible at least compared to MY nails. lol

Wedding Time Capsules...

Oh my!
We're down to 8 days before the Wedding... SOON.
Yesterday was the day of the pay we had designated to deal with the rest of the non-food items for the wedding... shopping, shopping, shopping.
I now hove every thing I need to complete the Candle Favors, Bags for the Candy Buffet and the Time Capsules. I got the Time Capsules completed tonight.
I wanted to keep them Simple, yet Elegant.
I started with clean, brand-new paint cans from Home Depot ($4.97/Canadian each) and covered them with paper from K&Company's Blue Awning line. I bought the paper last year to tuck away (before it disappeared!) because it's poi-fect!
Our wedding is Celtic and the color theme is Green and Blue. I just loved the worn designs in this pack. Kinda wish I'd though to grab another one for scrappin' the wedding.
The Numbers are Free-Printable Table Numbers from THIS Site.

I Inked the Number Labels to match the papers we have printed off for each year, mounted them on black cardstock and added 2 gems to each label (in the middle of the swirls).
Bit of Lace to trim them off in a 4 leaf Clover Pattern.

Inside our Program it reads:
Inside this Program are four pieces of paper, they’re for our Time Capsules
(One, Five, Twenty-Five and Fifty Years).
Please write us a note, make a prediction… anything you like!
These can then be put in the appropriate cans at the Reception.

William's Home!!!

Another non-crafty Post.
Yesterday we had our final meetings at CHEO and William's dismissal meeting.
I must say the final meeting was... surreal.
Imagine a conference room that can hold 16. We were 12.
6 doctors and other health care professionals on one side.
Down the other side:
2 parents
Crossroads worker
School Principal
William's classroom Teacher
and the school's Resource Officer.
(...and a partridge in a pear tree! lol)
A LOT of people for 1 little boy.
We came home with multiple copies of all the final reports to pass along to the required parties. LOTS to read & re-read ourselves. Mind boggling really the material. Dr's like to talk a lot... lol. I find reading all this they like to to repeat, repeat, repeat... most of these reports could be 1/2 the length or less if they just wrote it once. So my head feels like it's going to explode with information.
The basics though are the diagnosis is correct:
ADHD, ODD and some anxiety with violent tendencies.
He's now on 2 new meds and one was kept the same. There are new morning & nighttime routines that involves a parent being almost exclusively 1 on 1 with him. THAT will be harder because Greg is usually gone from 3-4 in the afternoon til 2-3 in the morning, then he sleeps til noon. I will do my damnest but I am only 1 person. I only wish Me, Myself & I could split up and each take a piece. LOL
But my little Boy is home again and that is the really important part.
Tomorrow is his Birthday too!

Life is rolling along...

The Studio and the rest of my poor, over-cluttered house have been in overdrive!
We are at 12 days and counting down til the wedding.

PLUS
Good News!!!
William's in-patient program went better than expected,
he's coming home Tuesday night... to stay!
There have been some new Therapy options put forth and a major medication change. We have a full-run-down discharge meeting all of tomorrow afternoon.
We'll know more then.

In the meantime, back at the ranch...
Plans are still being hurriedly yanked together for our Wedding on the 25th.
Most of the things I have to make we can't afford the supplies for until the 16th so I'll have more pictures after that. At present I'm assembling 'boxes' for each table at the reception. It's not a sit-down but a Dessert/Chip/Cheese/Apples/Candy Buffet. We will have very minimal Guest seating, enough for the older folks and for people to drop for a bit between dances and stop to nibble, then move on.
LOTS of activities planned.
There will be a KIDS ONLY table stuffed with bubbles, markers, coloring pages and a few other little treats.
My Mother generously agreed to pack that up and store it at her place. There are 4 sets of lil'boy prying eyes and more importantly prying fingers in this house! lol
The other tables will have sign-able photo mats, time capsules and another with photos & an array of scrapbook pages/projects I've made about 'US'.
I still need to buy the 4 paint cans to make the Time Capsules but I WILL post pictures when they're done.
The only Boxes packed so far are the 4 RubberMaid Totes with the Candy Buffet. Greg and I spent an evening playing with candy, containers and arrangements and finally came up with this rough plan:

The 2 bowls in the center-middle are missing the Diabetic safe Candy and Fortune Cookies. We have black tongs to put out and silver scoops too. The arrangement will be a little more compressed so we can put the Favor Boxes along both sides. We figure there will be a bit of nibbling at the Reception but most people will fill a box to take home. There will also be a sign that says 'Love is Sweet, Take a Treat'.
The Table cloth will be a Darker Blue, so the 15 electric candles will show a bit better.

I DID manage to get the Programs done. Much hassle though!
I have a fancy smancy Photo Printer ($300) that refused to accept the pre-done Program bases. SOOOOOO frustrating! I had 2 other friends over working on their wedding stuff, they're getting married October 3rd. They watched me fight, jiggle, caress, sweet-talk, scream at... you name it to get the $%#@! printer to work. 6 hours I wasted, ugh. Good thing they brought booze with them... lol, Drunken Brides Club.
I swear that machine drove me to drink!
Popped the bases in our $30 'spare' printer and vvrrrrrrmmmm... out they came...
*siiiiiigh*
Thank-God for cheap printers! lol

Cover:
Back & Front
The center of the Cross will have a gemstone on it... need to buy those on the 16th too. :O)


Inside:
With Time Capsule Sheets attached.


Time Capsule Sheets


Inside:


All the Clip Art is courtesy of Aon Celtic Art.
FANTASTIC site with ample FreeWare images.
Beautiful!

OPH: How I spent my Summer Vacation

This week Peggy has selected the theme....

How I spent my Summer Vacation

How did you spend your summer vacation. Peggy spent her in the studio. Did you go to the beach? Catch up on some reading? Maybe you didn't get a vacation (grumble grumble). However you spent your time please create a piece that reflects that activity. As always have fun! Can't wait to see what you come up with.

Well for me this has been a Creative Summer, continuing with my pledge to be more Creative this year.
I started with a mounted Canvas... glued the Quote on, then covered the remaining with tinted Texture Plaster.
The rest... basically if it was withing arms reach of my work area, it's on here!
Cogs (from dead runners) beads, chipboard, wood elements, buttons, buttons & more buttons, brads, brass thingies, spoon, lace, ribbon, flowers, book page, gems, Glimmer Mist and GLITTER! Oh my!
"In Art there are no mistakes, only opportunities for creativity."