Thankful, Grateful and Joy full

So much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.  My week started with a visit from Kathe and Joanna of the store Summerhouse on Arnold Avenue in Pt. Pleasant.  They drove all the way to Princeton after seeing a comment I had left on Lemoncholy's blog about their store.....I can't wait until Friday when I see their store and take some photos to share......Tuesday we went to pick up Ian and Kaylyn in Philadelphia and were able to get seats for White  Christmas (Lorna Luft was fantastic). We came home to news of my mom was in the hospital, but she was home by Friday.  I was able to see my Mom Thanksgiving and then we rode a two hour drive for our traditional Thanksgiving at Glen's family's house.....it was a nice relaxing day.  Black Friday was super busy and we had a great day at Princeton Paper Source.  Saturday was a wedding 2 hours away at the tippy top of NJ......small world...Ian's new roomate's brother went through school with the bride......that came to light at Thanksgiving.  Sunday back to work.....and today I am home catching up on some rest.   I also have to catch up on a world I am so thankful for.  The blogworld......
This was sent to me from Jodie of Everything Vintage.....if you know her blog she celebrated her birthday all month long....we share birthdays in October and she was so kind to think of me and sent me this wonderful Birthday gift!!!!  I can't wait to make some projects with the goodies and some cookies with the star cookie cutter. 
This box came with an apron I had lent Pam from Frippery.....this was sewn with Wish you were here ( I missed Silver Bella this year)....I am loving all the pictures and Pam......you are looking like Kate Hudson......you look great!!!!!!  Inside the fabric pouch was a prayer book...I wanted to share a prayer of Thanksgiving, but decided the prayer for Memories was more appropriate:

We are grateful, for the beautiful memories that are ours.  Especially  do we thank Thee upon every remembrance of those who have touched our lives and made us better.  For those who have inspired us, who believed in us, and who helped us when we were too weak, too immature or too foolish to help ourselves.  We would make it one of the purposes of our lives to be such friends to others that someone of them may thank God when he calls us to mind.

Thanksgiving a time to be thankful for  family, friends, co-workers and all who inspire!!!!!

The Coolest Place on Earth

I am not positive but I am pretty sure this is a Monet painting.....I am sitting in the seat on the left.  So the sculptures are lifesize replicas of the painting with a real lake to look like the painting.  Where Liz took the picture there is a sculpture of Monet painting the scene.  It just was so cool to both of us.
This is a picture I have in my dining room.  couldn't wait to get my picture taken with one of my most favorite paintings.  This one and the one below are Renoirs....I know that for sure.
This painting is in my dining room also.......this was so much fun to be part of this scene....I love it!!!!!!  
Isn't really amazing how the lake in the backround looks like the painting.......who knew this was even in New Jersey....I really felt like I was in Europe and regret never visiting here before.  After seeing pictures my husband expressed interest in a future visit....I would love that.  There are a lot of modern sculptures which were interesting in the landscape.  But, of course I was drawn to the impressionist painting sculptures.
     This is where we had lunch with our friend the peacock......we loved the carpet of leaves, too.
This birthday was special for me because I received a card from a good friend who I had not seen in a long time.  We went to Georgian Court College together and were both Art Majors.  While attending school we enjoyed visiting Museums together.  After graduation we went to Washington DC together to see all the Art Museums we could see.  We went to special exhibitions of Van Gogh (her favorite), Gauguin, Georgia O'Keefe, Degas and more I can't even remember.  Eight years had gone by where we hadn't spoken.   Her birthday card  had her cell number, her phone number and her email.....and said call me, text me whatever just contact me.  With work and all for me it is still hard to reach out so I emailed and then last week I asked if she would like to go to a Craft Show and Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton and she said yes!  I couldn't wait to see her and catch up.....it was such a great day.  My favorite quote of Liz:  This is great it is like Disney World for Artists!!!  It was a fabulous day, perfect weather, scrumptious food eaten next to a peacock, art everywhere, beautiful trees and landscape.  Even when it got a little chilly there was a little warming hut...( a building with a fireplace and octagon seating......just a perfect day with perfect company and a day I will not soon forget.

Postcard Friendship Friday

Marie loved your post today and loved that I had Friday off so I could post on Postcard Friendship Friday.......and I would never unfriend you.  I wish I could join you every Friday.  So, during the summer I started to join in on the fun and said I would include a postcard and show how it looks today......never really happened.  I am in retail .... it has been a whirlwind of preparing the store for the holidays.....my days off didn't even include bloggging..... this postcard is from Ocean Grove.  A  very historical town that neighbors Asbury Park.  This gazebo is  called Beersheba Well and was the first well in Ocean Grove built in June 1870.  The picture on the postcard I am guessing is from the 60's it is not marked.
This was last year.  I was so happy Ian and Kaylyn  still posed for a Christmas picture.  I like how you can see the detail on the gazebo too.  And with it being winter you can see the Great Auditorium which was built in 1869 is in the backround on the left.  Ocean Grove is a very interesting Historical town.  Growing up I remember there was still a law where you could not drive in town on Sundays.  I thought that was so strange when I was young, but now I wish there were still towns that would stand their ground and keep laws like that around.

Philadelph Big Band

Ian has joined and played in a couple of Jazz Ensembles at UArts and we are so proud of him.  But, this all takes the cake.  Ian asked where is the Christmas ensemble?????.....answer there isn't any.  Ian is surprised and asks can he start a band.  The school says yes, but they can't fund it at all.  So Ian puts up signs and gets 17 band members very quickly and has to sadly turn some away.  A week later they are recording some demos and a week after that they have a date to play at City Hall at the Christmas Market.  Last week Ian's sister Kaylyn designs the logo.  And, this week I use supplies from Paper Source to design a CD holder for Christmas gifts.  I used our red and black enclosure cards and our big round labels.  I love how it all came together so quickly.  The band sounds great and I have been sharing sound bites on facebook.  When I figure out how to share on my blog I will.  Hopefully it will be a video from the Christmas Market at City Hall in Philadelphia!

Catching Up

This is the new Quikcutz Letter Press Machine.  This is the card we will be making for our Open House at Princeton Paper Source.  I love the thought of being able to letterpress our papers.  It is such a great partner for our papers.  Ashley Farina will be our demonstrator for this new tool this weekend.  She designed this card and we will be using this as our make and takes.
This was our Open House last weekend...we are so lucky to have this room to do our workshops.
Yes, Ian was in another Jazz Ensemble....and we were able to attend, even after he told us the day before the concert.   Oh.....the talent....they sounded great.
I couldn't resist this picture of UArts at night......I  still can't believe this is where my children call home right now.

One day Glen and I took a ride.  We wanted to check out Delaware.  As a Jersey Girl I have lots of fantasies.  One of them is not paying so much in taxes.  But, as we entered Delaware and went over many bridges(which for some reason I hate lately), faced a nuclear plant and then had to pump our own gas......Glen started to head to Maryland.  We ended up in Chesapeake City.  I found my ultimate fantasy.  Just a quaint old main street on the water with the cutest little store.....and it is for rent.  This is what I have always yearned for and when Glen saw it he let out a little oh no.....but, said he would pull over so I could check it out......isn't it the cutest?  Wouldn't it be the best way to spend the day.......heavy sighhhh!!!!!  I will keep dreaming.

We ended up at our favorite overnight destination the Water Club in Atlantic City.  I love how they packaged the food in our room to look like the building.
I guess I don't get out much, but I couldn't believe this......it is ice built into the bar to keep your beer cold......it was the best cold beer I have had ever.  This is where we watched the Yankees win the World Series......it was a fun night.

10 days!!!!!!

Our window......peace, joy, paper
Our demo table will be put to use a lot this weekend.  We our hosting our second open house weekend with lots of make and takes.  This picture is a true inspiration of a straight and cleaned up ribbon wall.  Denise really put some love into straightening and organizing the ribbon.  She even made a binder with all of the prices.........a true sanity saver!!!!!
Ornaments, wreath kits, new wrapping paper.....oh my!!!!!
Our selection of Holiday Cards are amazing.  I have a new appreciation of anything letterpressed.  We did receive the new letterpress machine by Quikcutz today---more on that on my next post.
     Has it really been 10 days since my last post?????  So, much has happened in the last ten days.....This is what Paper Source Princeton looks like in preparation for the holidays.  I am so glad I took these pictures, because in one week everything in our store is different already.   Wishing you all peace, joy and paper.  I am so glad I didn't take a daily challenge of posting daily......I would have failed miserably......10 days!!!!!  I think this is a record for me not posting!

November

November this year to me is remembering the good times I was able to experience at Silver Bella last year.......going into November this year I was going to challenge myself to the November Creative Every Day challenge.  I can remember seeing the buttons in the new year on blogs and thinking I should challenge myself.  I feel challenged enough to make a huge commitment like that....I thought I could start taking pictures in October and it wouldn't be that hard....well I am off to a bad start already.....it's November 2nd already.  So, I will put that thought aside---no pressure here.  But, I would like to keep sharing what we are up to at Princeton Paper Source.  Our holiday window is up and I can't wait to share it.  We also have open houses with free demos and make and takes for the next two weekends I would like to share.  We sold out again for our Girl's Night Out which was called the Grateful Table.  I loved this night.  It is good to take some time out and think about what you are grateful for and do some paper crafts to go along with the holiday.  Well big day tomorrow for the future of New Jersey----the Governors race-----time to vote....and another goodie is Starbucks is giving out free coffee tomorrow and they switch to red cups.  I love when the new cups come out to check out the graphics.