My Seashell Art Dolls, why my tea went cold...

Monday night I tried my hand at making something a bit different for a swap I have coming up. We have been assigned a partner, mine who likes mermaids and so I set out to hand make her a spirit doll,  and I ended up making these three, a Madien (the little one) , Mother (above her) and on the far left Crone. I made these for myself, because I needed to make it easier to part with the one I made for my partner.

The one I made for my partner is much more serene looking and I loved everything about her, I used Jute ribbon for her hair, shells for her body and a face I crafted out of polymer clay.  I put her together with my glue gun and a lot of love.

For my other friend Lin, who commented on my photos I shared while making these little lovelies, requested I try one with Red hair, so I did, this is a tea loving Mermaid, so she has to have a facinator and her tea in her hand, mean while under the mounds of crafting supplies on my table and all over my floor, I have lost track my own cup of tea, now stone cold to the right of my mouse....

Well it is after ten, I guess I should try to discover the table so school work can begin again in the morning. Thank you for joining me for a cup of tea, cold as it is and a look at my sea shell dolls, mine can be hung up on perhaps a sea themed holiday tree...
I would love to here from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com

Keeper of The Light Lantern, Cup of Tea & Haiku

I have been spending my time at home crafting with my new cricut joy and items I have purchased at the dollar store. I found these $4 lanterns at my local Dollarama and I used permanent black vinyl and added my decal, a Lighthouse. I added the words Keeper of the Light. Which is part of my Haiku, I wrote below. 

Keeper of the light

Strong, and steadfast, unswerving

The Beacons of Hope

by Karen M. Gibson

It was so much fun creating yesterday and having so much fun. Waiting out the Moon was worth it too, I cannot wait to try to paint what I saw in my night sky!

I think it looked like a painting already. So I am going to try to paint it.
Thank you for joining me this Friday for a cup of tea and a Haiku. I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com

A Couple of Cheerful Door Wreaths I Made This Weekend...

“In a time of destruction , create something”-Maxine Hong Kingston

This weekend I kept my hands busy creating a couple of wreaths one for myself and one for my friends door. I got this idea from a blog photo I saw on Facebook called www.createcraftlove.com 

I used only items I found at the dollar store and created something I am pretty proud of. A huge thank you to createcraftlove, for this inspiring wreath craft.

I should not go to the dollar store inspired and unsupervised. I do only go out once a week for supplies and practice social distancing. So the cart gets pretty full. 

Each wreath was created for under $10 and is bright and cheerful. I can't wait to give my friend hers. 

I would love to hear what you are doing to keep busy during these crazy times and if you are a front line worker, long haul truck driver, retail associate please know how very much I appreciate all you are doing for us all.  Thank you for taking time to stop by for a cup of tea and a cheerful quarantine craft, please feel free to leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com 

Friday, The End To A Work Week Full of Plot Twists.

Friday morning tea in one of my favorite cups and saucers.  A great start to a rather long day. It is now after 8:30 Pm and I have just gotten home, more than 12 hours after I first set off.
I was hoping to have a great story to share from the tea shop or a great find but honestly today I did not have time to shop, and the dust on the stores shelves, did not tell me anything new. It was pretty much just a hurry up and wait kind of a day, which I welcome in a week that was one plot twist after another.

I saw this quote on the anniversary of my dads one year passing, March 3rd and it made me smile. So I did a screen shot and as I was going through my photos for the craft I wanted to share, I thought it so fits the theme of this post.  The truth is, I so can relate to honesty in this statement, and it is the last three words that made me smile.

  I  wanted to share a quick dollar store craft I made for the store window this week after a rather unfortunate accident, the spillage of tea and some expired coffee beans...

The thing about tea is that it can be used for many things, especially if you accidentally spill a fair share of it on the floor when you drop the tea tin.... So instead of just writing off the spillage, I saved it and came up with a quick craft that gives new life to the lost leaves and for good balance, some old coffee beans that we used in the window display.

I went to the dollar store before work and found two jars about the size of cookie jars, they were $4 each. I also found two lovely little artificial succulent plants that came in  a jar of their own. When I got to the store my boss and I filled the jars with the beans and the loose tea, then placed the jar with the succulents in the center. We used some brown cord that was wrapped around the smaller jars on the lip of the larger jars and voila we made a pretty cool window display.  You could very easily use real plants, however for the sake of ease and the fact that this window sits behind display tables and is very difficult to access, artificial made the most sense.

In truth not one of the days this week went the way I thought or hoped and I am thrilled to be home, in bed and writing from my laptop.

Thank you for sticking with me through each post and for the support and love you have shown me this week just by being you.
I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com