Polyimer Clay Creation Craze

If you've been following my blog, you probably know that my daughter Rachel's latest hobby is working with polymer clay. She's been creating a storm of cuteness! Here's Rachel at work.

 A cake plate full of clay creations. I love the painted faces she puts on them, too cute!

I can't believe how many items she's made. My favorites are the peas in a pod and the Chinese take out box.

After Xmas Purchases & Special Gift

This past weekend I went after Christmas shopping with my daughter, Rachel, on 4th Street in Berkeley.  We like to shop at Anthropologie, Paper Source, Castle in the Air, and Scrapbook Territory. My best finds were at Scrapbook Territory.

Brenda Walton's New Emphera Pack, "Flora & Fauna"

Brenda Walton's Desinger Paper Pad, "Flora & Fauna Ledger"

Annalee Notecards from Prima

Basic Grey Curio Pieces

Tim Holtz Vagabond Sizzix Machine!

The girls (Daniela & Nicky) at Scrapbook Territory demoed the Vagabond machine to me, and I was sold!  I purchased it as my bday/xmas gift to myself. I'm such a sucker for gadgets and I love the way this one looks. Tim has designed some really nice die cuts too. Daniela and Nicky showed me how easy it is to make a rosette and I had to have it. I'm going to use the rosette on the kid's thank you notes - I'll show those to you later.

On another note, Rachel has really been into Sculpey clay and has been creating a storm of cuteness (that's a word, right?). Tonight she made me this hamburger ring, and I just love it. I don't eat hamburger's much, and I don't eat cheese and tomatos, but it doesn't look like a real hamburger with out those toppings. I had to show you, but there's so much more to share - I'll post more soon.

Christmas Celebrations

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday. Xmas Eve we hosted for my husband's side of the family at our house. A small, cozy group.

Christmas day was hosted by my sister, Pat, and her husband, Bob, for my side of the family. A much larger group, with 30+ people. Love the wonderful food, great company, beautiful house and seeing our family and close friends. We had all but one sister with us. Diana spends this time of year in Hawaii...we missed you!

Our gracious host & hostess

My kids' Xmas morning.

I want to share this Xmas card from my kids that Rachel made it. It's a baking sheet of felt xmas cookies (3"x 5") - love it!

The day after Christmas, Rachel and I had a mother-daughter bonding event and went shopping! We ran out to Stoneridge in the morning and then 4th street in Berkeley in the afternoon.  I'll post some of our findings this week.  One of them includes my bday/xmas gift to myself - it's a good one!

Happy Holidays!

Sister Christmas Poem

As some of you know, I have five sisters and no brothers. Can you imagine a house of six girls? My parents kept trying to have a boy, but after six girls they gave up. Well, we had lots of fun together growing up and we still have lots of fun together now. One of my sisters, Diana, was married to Ken, her first husband and a true artist. Unfortunately, he suffered from MS through his adult life and has since passed away. Today, Diana forwarded the sisters a Christmas poem that Ken had written the sisters a long time ago. I just love it!  Mock is our maiden name.

Merry Christmas to the Sisters Mock

Merry Christmas to the sisters Mock;

The sisterhood of solid rock.

One by one or six by six;

It's amazing how they mix.

A certain smile from one of you,

Can radiate to the others too.

Whenever I try to put one down.

The sisterhood supports the crown.

It isn't easy to adjust,

But I know I just must.

You're all so beautiful and contrite

My fondness grows all through the night.

The night is day and look what's here

Christmas, popcorn, holiday cheer.

Merry Christmas Lana, Diana, Frances, Maryl, Pat and Connie!

                                                                                             Love, Ken

We miss you Ken, thank you for this wonderful poem.

P.S. My Xmas tree is on the 7 Gypsies designer's blog, check it out if you want to see it again.  http://www.2gypsygirls.com/

Winter Workshop with Connie Govea Stuart

This past Sunday, Connie Govea Stuart came over and held a workshop for my sisters & dear friend, Ruby. We made an adorable baby themed theater pendant. It was a perfect day for staying indoors and creating.

This is the sample of the finished project.

Here's Maryl modeling all our necklaces.

Everyone's project turned out great. It was a wonderful day of creating.

The other highlights of the day were the food. These are pecan rolls, my favorite item from Williams Sonoma. Just look at these in the oven, it's pure delight and my guilty pleasure! 

Ruby also made this wonderful vegetable soup. It was delicious and just perfect for a cold day. Lana made us panini turkey bacon avocado sandwiches, always our favorite.

It was a perfect ending to the week. Time spent with my family & friends creating art!

Renegade Craft Fair

This morning, I went to the Renegade Craft Fair in SF with my sister Lana and my daughter Rachel. Over 200 hundred vendors with some beautiful items.

Love these sculptured dolls

Bought a couple of journals from this booth

Here are our purchases. Rachel was happy to find a couple of plush artists and picked up this adorable soft serve ice cream made out of fleece. I picked up some journals that I especially liked because they left some of the original pages in them. I also found some cool Japanese wax paper and masking tape. My favorite find was the necklace made from shrinky dink. The artist used a couple of Catherine Moore stamps and this great teapot body.

Tonight was Rachel's Nutcraker ballet performance. No cameras allowed, so no videos this time. It's been our tradition to celebrate Rachel's performance by going to Fenton's for ice cream afterwards. This was her reward!

The Renegade Craft Fair is also open tomorrow (11am- 7pm) - admission is free too!

More Advent Tags & Final Christmas Cards

I've made some progress on the advent calendar tags, I made eight more. That filled up my tree nicely. I also sent pictures of my advent tree to Paula & Deb of 7 Gypsies and they'll be posting my tree on their blog (http://www.2gypsygirls.com/) soon too.

Those who received my Christmas card have probably seen the finished card now. For those who didn't get it, here's the finished cards.

Today after work I went over to Addison's End Paper's - love that store! They always have wonderful items for sale. Next to their store is Mixed Pickles. They use to be open on College Ave., but they closed and have now re-opened right next door to Addison's End Paper on Telegraph. I'll be going there a lot now!  Mixed Pickles has a great assortment of wonderful vintage items. Here's the items I picked up today.  Some fun magnets and old tags.

Tomorrow morning I plan to head to SF and check out this Renegade Craft Fair - sounds like fun. http://www.renegadecraft.com/holiday-sf.  I'll take pictures. Tomorrow night is Rachel's 2nd Nutcracker performance which will be exciting. Have a great weekend!

William's Sonoma Holiday Kids Party

On Wednesday our office hosted a Holiday Kid's party.  My sister Frances and her daughter-in-law, Kacia and her two kids Lennon and Owen came over to attend.  Here are some of the pictures from the event.


Waiting in line to see Santa

In the craft room making reindeer's

Our Jolly Jester

Here's Santa

Lennon looking at the water fountain

Lennon at the end of the event, ready to go home!

 The kids did great, we all had a fun time.  I love this time of the year, the decorations, the families & friends, the special moments are all so precious.