All Day Birthday Celebration for My Sis

This past week my sisters and I all got together to celebrate one of the sister's birthday, Diana, sister #2 of 6. It was a surprise celebration.

She was totally caught off guard...it was a couple weeks of planning behind the scenes to get this event pulled off. Her daughter Natalie and friend Jean hosted the event at their home in Novato. They planned the outing, food and craft project. The project was something we've never done before.

We started with these glass containers...

to build some mini terrariums. Natalie and Jean had a huge table of supplies...

There were mini plants, props, toys, rocks, you name it...it was all there for us to use.

Below are the finished projects. What a fun time we had building these.

Below is a picture of 5 of the 6 sisters. My sister Lana was unable to make it today, as she was leaving for France the next day.

Next up was a shopping excursion in Natalie and Jean's Mercedes Sprinter. We got chauffeured around town in this luxury transportation that they own.

We were riding in style...

One of our stops, Liquid Marin...

Short break back at the house for birthday cake.

Then we were off again, now to Japan Town for shopping at Japanese dollar stores... 

and ramen for dinner!

Wow, that was another fun sister celebration. Thanks to Nat and Jean for hosting a terrific party!

As a side note, I finally got some pictures posted on Pinterest - lots of repins...but it's a start of things I favorite: http://pinterest.com/constancefong/pins/.

Alameda Point Flea Market

Today I went to the Alameda Point Flea Market with my sister Maryl and her husband Rocky.

We got an early start...we were there by 7:15am...the sun was just coming up. The line wasn't too long.

It was fun going through piles of loose jewelry looking for those special pieces to re-purpose.

Below is a picture of a box of glass slides...only $1 each, which I couldn't pass up. I'm not sure what I'll make with the slides...but I'm sure I'll come up with something. 

Next is a picture of my sister and her husband searching through a pile of name patches. My brother-in-law even found his name, "Rocky" on one of those patches!

Below is a cool booth that sold some hand made aprons and purses.

 Here's a picture of the owners of the booth.

 One of them is modeling an apron. I had to buy one too, which you'll see at the end of this post.

I found some cool metal pieces from this pile of "junk". After taking the class from Leighanna Light, I'm in search of small metal pieces.

The picture below shows a painting in progress. Someone set up an easel in an empty stall and was painting the view in front of them.

Below are pictures of the items that I came home with...

Love that black velvet purse with the aqua satin lining.

I love this picture frame with the scissors - so simple, I know...but it was just calling my name.

I'm collecting yard sticks after I saw the post from Paula at One Lucky Day

This is the apron I bought at the booth I showed above...I might turn this into a purse.

I'm collecting black bound books (got that idea from Paula, too)

It was such a fun outing today. Alameda Pt. flea market is the first Sunday of the month - you have to check it out if you're in the area - especially if you like to hunt for vintage finds! 

Art Is You - Petaluma - Day 3

The final day of "Art Is You" was another class I was really looking forward to: Diana Frey's Madame Bijoux Boxes. Pictured below are the two embellished jewelry boxes I made. I didn't have time to complete them both, but you get the idea. :-)

We soldered on top of the boxes and made frames from copper strips to hold our resin pieces. Below is a picture of Diana showing us her techniques - she was a wealth of information!

Here's some pictures of my project in progress...

Added a bit of glam to the bottom of our boxes.

Soldered and textured around the top edge.

...and some of the class projects at resin filling station.

It was another great class and a wonderful ending to a artful weekend, I can't wait to come back again next year! Here's a picture of my good friend Lois and I - we carpooled together and will be back!

Art Is You - Petaluma - Day 2

The second day of "Art Is You" started with an all day workshop with Leighanna Light. The project was a metal deck. I absolutely loved the project and all the techniques she taught. This is the cover of my deck (i.e. as in deck of cards).

Below is a picture of our wonderful teacher, Leighanna.

Here's how we started...

Pictures of students busy at work...

Below is a new friend I met, Betti who is from the East Coast and who made the class so much fun!

 Lex from A Work Of Heart was in my workshop as well - what a nice surprise!

Below are photos of my metal deck before the shellac and metal pieces were applied.

Here's a picture of us drying our deck after we put on the shellac.

Luckily it was a warm day, so these dried in no time. Below are the inside pages of my deck.

I have more metal embellishments to add, but this was a good start.

 I love the amber finish from the shellac.

The collage images came from my collection, you may recognize some of them.

 I finally got to use some of the Instructrial Chic charms.

That was a such a fun class, I would definitely take another class from Leighanna!

In the evening was the vendor fair. Here's me and my good friend Connie from LA. We did some shopping together around the vendor fair. The first time I met Connie was a year ago at this same event.

Here are my findings...primarily vintage items and some kits.

Connie came up from LA with her good friend Dede Warren. We all had a great time together!

Dede, Connie, Connie, Lana

 I'll post pictures from the final day in Petaluma tomorrow.