The Day the WHOLE Circus Came To Town

On a recent post, I showed you my craft room. I had spent a whole week organizing, coordinating and decluttering it and was quite proud of my accomplishment. I have never had a room so cute. My former craft rooms were always just plain. My mother-in-law has a cute craft room. Even though she doesn't think so, I think it is very organized. She paints, sews and crafts in this cute small room. My current room is large-bonus room over garage, but it wasn't "cute". No curtains, no cute knick-knacks, etc. I wanted to change that. I knew that Elizabeth over at Creative Breathing had an amazing craft room. So, of course I went over to copy get inspiration from her. She loves the same colors that I do, loves cute stuff (so do I), decorates with vintage cute planters (which I loooovvvveee), makes as cute as can be eye candy, and posts the most amazing stories. She really inspired me to make my creative space "as cute as can be!". After I finished the behemothen task, I thought that I would share my some what complete room with her. I had used her flickr photos as inspiration (ok, I admit it, I did some what copy-but at least I admitted it, right?). I left her a message on one of her photos inviting her to come over to my blog and see what I had done to my craft room. I thought that she would probably never really read it. I mean she probably gets 100s of invites from stalkers normal people to come and check out their stuff. Boy, was I shocked when she, my inspiration hero, sent me an email. I was so thrilled and couldn't believe my eyes when I read:

"Would you be interested in a trade?"

Are you kidding? A trade!! She actually looked at my stuff and liked it! You bet I would! I couldn't answer her quickly enough, thinking all the while that she might change her mind and not want to trade after all. That she had made a mistake and didn't want anything. But she did and wanted me to pick something for her. Wow....what would Elizabeth want? I knew that she loved bluebirds and I had just made one the other day with Mary Engelbreit influenced colors. Hopefully she would like it. I would make her one that was similar but would have a little inchie friend. Sorry, I didn't take a picture of it. But she did and it is on her blog Creative Breathing. She wrote the sweetest post about me and the gifts. And of course I read the comments that her sweet blog friend wrote. These blog friends are the most amazing women. They said the kindest things and have even joined my blog. Thank you so much. I have always been amazed that people would even want to read my blog. I started out keeping a blog for my sister in Missouri and my family and in-laws in Alabama and Georgia, Florida, North Carolina & South Carolina. Mainly to let them know what we were up to. I do have a visitor counter and sometimes I will go to it and find out that people as far away as Australia, France, Mexico, Spain, Africa, South America among many other countries have visited my blog. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. These are countries that I will probably never visit but would love to and just seeing your pin on my map gives me a connection to your country. Many states are represented and although I probably won't visit your state seeing the pin on your state give me a connection as well.  You are welcome to leave comments and I will try to reply to them. I am not always on my blog, I may neglect it for a week or more at a time, but I will always try my best to post at least once a week or more :)

 

Ok....now to the swap. Elizabeth read my blog (insert blush), and figured out that I had started making her Circus. I loved the cute little characters. I had only made the elephant and monkey, but had high hopes to make the rest of the Circus soon. Her patterns are so easy to follow and are very detailed. It's this detail that I love, but it is a little time consuming, which translates it is going to take me more than an afternoon to complete the whole set. It is all hand sewing. I love to hand sew in front of the TV and her projects are perfect for this. Elizabeth wanted to know if I would like to swap something of mine for the Creative Breathing Circus. I would love a Circus character, I told her. But guess what!?!? She didn't mean just one character, but the WHOLE Circus. Boy, was I delighted to find that the WHOLE Circus had come to town!!  She sent an elephant, monkey, clown, Ring Master, sweet Seal Trainer & the adorable seal (made out of pipe cleaners!). They are as cute as can be! I can't wait to make a circus banner to go above them.

Above: My elephant w/ fez and my tiny monkey. Elizabeth's monkey, Seal and Seal Trainer, Clown and Elephant.

Above: Look at the Ring Master! He's holding an amazing banner. See the tiny ticket booth. Hobby Lobby has some Circus stuff in their birthday party department. Has real tickets in it.

Above: The details that she adds to each character is amazing. Adorable, just adorable....

Above: sweet clown.

Above: She sent the sweetest butterfly card. Thank you so much Elizabeth! I am so thankful to have made a new blogland friend!

Here's to taking chances and making new bloggy friends!!

So, if someone inspires you, let them know. And if something catches your eye ask about a swap. If Elizabeth hadn't email me and asked about swapping, I would have probably never made my first swap ever! Thanks again, Elizabeth!!

Holly

disclaimer: sorry about the fuzzy photos, same camera problems, plus it's dark and rainy outside and I have had too much caffeine.......