some sadness

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Vanesaa Valencia,  the artist who hosted last weekend's Mad Tea Party. A quick look around my blog and you can see how much I'm inspired by her mad whimsical world.

The last few months Vanessa shared the heartache of discovering that one of her beloved fur babies was very ill and had precious little time left. Today I went to visit her blog and learned her sweet dog Baby had sadly passed away. Through it all she still created an amazing tea party post and didn't let us down. But she was suspiciously absent during the party and I think many of us had a feeling something might be going on. And there was. My heart truly aches for her and I wish her love and healing through this sad time.

a wish of a different kind...

I'm an animal person. I have a soft spot for all four legged creatures and for kitty cats in particular.I can't imagine a life without a little furry baby to share conversations, late nights and buttered toast with. My own little Luna warms my heart everytime she looks at me with her big green eyes. I love how she waits for me to turn in for the night no matter how late (or early in the morning). She gets up from whatever spot she decided to curl up in and with sleepy little eyes follows me to bed. I never have to call her. This is our nightly routine. If there truly are angels on earth I believe our pets are as close as they come.

Vanessa's loss opened up a hurt that I've been nursing for the past 6 months. It's never gone away because everyday I 'm still reminded that someone is missing from my life. My little Kushka, the Maine Coone you see on my side bar passed away at the tender age of 3 1/2 after a battle with a cancerous tumor she developed from a feline leukemia vaccine. She would have been 4 this month. Everything around me reminds me of her. Especially Spring because I knew last year's Spring would be the last one we would have together. She left us on a beautiful sunny December day. I was left with a haunting heartache that remains even today.

I told myself I wouldn't share sad personal stories here. I wanted this to be a happy place readers could  escape to. There's already enough sadness in the world. But I had to have a page for her. If only to ease my own sadness. So I tucked away a little story about my Kushka and you would only find it hidden in my other About Me page if you happened to look. (The one with my picture) Today the pain of having of say goodbye much much too soon all came back.

I know Vanessa may never visit here. I'm just one of the the hundreds of happy souls she's touched with her art and stories. But I couldn't help but shed tears as I read her post. Tears for her loss and tears that reminded me of mine. Her story touched more of us than she'll ever know.

If you're a pet person you probably know this sorrow all too well. And yet there's always another fur baby waiting to be loved. Always. And we take a chance and love unconditionally for as long as they bless our lives with their presence and we feel heartwrenching sorrow when we have to say goodbye. We know we will always love them long after they're gone and we willingly love again. Because this special kind of furry love is a gift and it seems, to me anyway, that it's nothing less than pure bliss.

For my Kushka, BT and Pye
...and for Baby

make a wish

Do you remember making a wish when you were  a kid?And all the little rituals you did to help your wish along. Blowing out all the candles on your birthday cake, tossing change into a water fountain (usually  the one in the mall) or wishing on a shooting star (which was more often than not, an airplane).

When we lived in San Francisco one of my cousins told me that whenever we drove through a tunnel I had to hold my breathe and touch the top of the car with one finger. This would of course guaranty that my wish would come true. (I was about 10) Some of the tunnels in SF were pretty long and I remember getting light headed a few times trying to hold my breathe until we came out at the other end. We did it so often that to this day I'll hold my breathe whenever we drive through a tunnel and I always make a wish. Sometimes I'll even touch the top of the car with my finger (if I'm not the one driving). And I still can't hold my breathe all the way through the really long ones.

At 6 or 7 I wanted to shrink so I could play IN my dollhouse. At 8 I wanted to fly and at 9 I think I wanted to be Wonder Woman. I liked her bracelets. Of course the wishes that needed the most tending were the ones where I wished a boy I liked would crush on me too. I got really good at holding my breathe by then.

Today I still make lots of wishes. Some silly....I wish HGTV would come and give my house a makeover. Others genuine and heartfelt....and I can't tell you those because I want them all to come true. I've heard about some very interesting wishing rituals over the years but none of them stayed with me like the holding your breathe through the tunnel one. What rituals do you do to make your wishes come true? Care to share a wish or two?

2 reasons why i love the 4th of july

It's been a mad mad month here. Two big blog parties, graduation, visiting family and a number of family holidays. All in one short month! The dust is starting to settle and now I'm ready to look forward to the next  adventure.

First I have to say how very very much I enjoyed participating in my first big blog parties. I had sooo much fun. From planning them, putting them together and finally sharing them with everyone. And the best part was being able to see what others have done and meeting so many wonderful, talented and amazing people. There is so much awesome creativity out there it truly makes me giddy! And so much goodness and kindness from everyone who had such nice things to say. I only regret that I didn't discover this world earlier. But I think things happen they way they're suppose to so this is how it's  meant to be.

Today the temperature here reached 101 which is not so unusual this time. Still I'm not known to have a fondness for the heat so it takes lots of effort for me to deal with it. Lots of ice water and staying indoors as much as possible.

One of the reasons I love the 4th of July is probably the same reason everyone else does. Fireworks, parades, great summer food, love for family, pride for this country and just seeing everything bathed in red, white and blue.

We live next to a great park where there used to be a fireworks show every year. We would camp out on our front lawn and watch everything with our neighbors. People actually offered to pay us to park in our driveway but we always had friends that got there first. Sadly the event got too big for our little neighborhood, it got too expensive for the city and 2 years ago they decided to stop having it. We still have a fun neighborhood parade in the morning which is where I'll be next weekend.

The other reason I love the 4th is because whenever the 4th of July merchandise starts hitting Michaels all the Fall and Halloween stuff starts to show up  too. And for me Fall and Halloween can never come too early. Even when it's 101 outside! I snapped these pics a few days ago at Michaels. My son and I literally start to salivate when we get our first glimpse of orange and black. Now I'm not a fan of the gory slasher side of Halloween. More the vintage, fantasy ghostly, witchy and eerie. More Martha Stewart with an edge.

This year I'm even more excited since I've discovered this thing called blogging. I can't wait to see all the great autumn happenings and hopefully join in on another party or two. Heck maybe I  might even come up with one of my own!

For now I'm going to focus on doing more of my collage art. I've also discovered inchies and twinchies! Mini art pieces to swap or share. I have a little Mad Tea Party after party planned so I can properly choose a winner for my giveaway and seeing that July is just days away I have a few paper dresses to finish up too.

I think it's cooled down just a bit right now. Ha! It's 99 instead of 101!

a mad tea party

It's another double party Saturday here at Frosted Petunias! Happy Pink Saturday to all my pink friends and a Mad Tea Party welcome to everyone else as well.

Thank you to Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for hosting Pink Saturday and to Vanessa at A Fanciful Twist who is hosting her 3rd Annual Mad Tea  Party.

Make sure to hop back over to their places for more pink and tea party madness.

You'll find a touch of pink here and lots more at the party if you decide to follow me through this Wonderland door. But first we need a most special set of keys.

 

 

I saw it this morning. Hanging on one of my trees. Have you seen it? It has a striped cotton candy pink ribbon which came all the way from Wonderland you see.

 

 

Ah.... there they are!! Are you ready?

 

It's time for a Mad TeaParty! Grab the keys! 

Click here and follow your bliss!

(little hint: there might be fairy music at the party so turn your volume on

just a smidge to listen...or not if you prefer a quieter soiree!)

99 and counting

One more post before the big 100! And it worked out that 100 will be the one about the Mad Tea Party.

I just went back to look at post #1. My blog was originaly called Cupcake Alchemy and I thought I would blog about all things cupcake. Real cupcakes, crafty cupcakes and cupcake places. But I soon learned I wanted to blog about other things. Mainly my journey finding my inner artist.

So I changed to Frosted Petunias. The frosted part is a nod to the cupcakes and all things sweet. Petunia is a name I've always liked. Silly and whimsical but also pretty like the flower.

This is the first pic I posted. It's a cupcake I had at a local place called Cupcake Craving. It was lemon and very yummy so I try not to go there too often.

Hope to see you Saturday at the Mad Tea Party!

i can soar collage

I thought it would be fun to mix my paper dress pattern with my collaging. I did something similar with the mail art piece for my cousin so I used the same idea here.

first day of summer

It's the official first day of summer today! The summer solstice. The longest day and the shortest night of the year. Officialy beginning at 7:28am EDT.

Image source Barrons Catalog

Here in Tomato Land it's a shockingly mild, gorgeous day. Yesterday for Fathers Day we went out for lunch with our visiting company (mum and dad in law, sister in law, her soon to be hubby #4, and 2 sons from hubby #2). The weather was insanely perfect. Low 80's with an ever so slight cool breeze. I had to pinch myself. June temps here are usually in the upper 90's and even topping 100 by the last week.

Image source Classic Hostess

Now the birds are singing, company's all gone home, my house is still semi decent after the mad cleaning I did the last week and I can still draw the curtains to let the sun in rather than blocking out the intense heat.

Image soure Plow and Hearth

I've been eyeing these beautiful glass dispensers for a while and each summer I start looking for one I might like to get. This beautiful weather has me thinking about them again. I know Target and even Wal Mart carries similar ones. I thought I can even use one to store ribbons after the season. So I'm prying myself away from the computer and going out to enjoy this first beautiful summer day.

Hope your day is beautiful too in your neck of the woods! Happy sunny, sweet ice tea, pink lemonade, first day of SUMMER DAY!

where bloggers create and pink saturday

Hello everyone! Thank you for stopping by and joining me for 2 fabulous blog parties today. And a big thank you goes to Karen from My Desert Cottage and Beverly from How Sweet the Sound for being our gracious party hostesses.

My whole house is really my creative space as I'm always experimenting with different styles and I have lots of things around the house that I (and my son) have made. But my actual work area is my small dining room! A wooden hutch was all I was using to house my crafting supplies. However since I decided to nurture my creative spirit this year I've pretty much taken over the entire room. My son who is also a budding artist says it's like living in Michael's (craft store).

Inspired by the talented women featured in Where Women Create who have turned their entire homes into a work studio I embraced the idea of living in a creative space rather than keeping it under wraps. It has done wonders for my art and crafting. It's where I play, dream, blog and create. And when this room isn't in 'studio' mode I even mange to use the table for a meal now and then.

These photos were taken over several days so you might notice a few things moved around here and there!

So without further ado here's a little peek into where this blogger creates.

Here's my Luna doing what she does best! This hutch was a birthday gift from my husband and I chose it specifically to house my creative gear because we don't have an extra room to use as a craft room. It holds my paints, bottles, packing supplies, extra papers and general odds and ends.My polymer clay oven sits on top next to bags filled with flowers and millinery.

I like to hang different things from the chandelier depending on what mood I'm in. I have been loving all things pink lately and the pink rose garland always makes me smile when I look up.

I was starting to not like my chandelier very much. Until I swapped the old plain beige shades for these very girly beaded ones. Now I feel like a gypsy artist when I create!

Here Alice watches over a few brushes and pencils.

These sit out on the hutch....

....next to to my favorite sources of inspiration.

A colorful drawer full of paint bottles.

I'm fairly new to collaging and these are the fun

things I've recently discovered.

 

Dreaming big...

The small table to the right of the hutch holds current projects, paperwork and things I use more often. At the other end is a rolling cart filled with ribbons and my sewing machine. It usually slides back into the corner when it's not in use.

I also work at this table when I'm doing quickie stuff or just doodling.

I redid my inspiration board after the first set of pics!

 Here's my little cutie 13 years ago, a favorite quote from Nietzche,

a fun card from a creative friend.

Wings to SOAR.

This stand is to the left of the hutch. It use to sit out in my backyard where it faded and gathered rust. I repainted it vintage white and brought it in a few months ago.

My favorite witch Lucinda and the Gypsy dancer keep me inspired

during my late night crafting binges.

Simple words I try to live by....

....and a creative fairy to watch over everything.

For the love of ribbons.

But wait...there's more!

On the opposite wall is an antique tea cart re purposed for displays and more

storage. My paper dress project and Mrs Penny Bunnie sit on

the bottom shelf.

It also keeps my favorite papers within reach.  My organizer is

an old record album holder I found at the thrift shop for .98 cents!

Charms...wishes...and dreams.

This cart has had several incarnations. It was once green with a large parrot on top! I refinished it years ago and now I think I'd like for it to be green again. Minus the parrot.

I have had such a blast since I started on my blogging adventure

this year.I've learned so much.....

....from incredibly inspiring people and places.....

....and met and made such wonderful friends.

All right here in this creative bloggy land!

Thank you for stopping by and letting me share my creative space with you. I hope you'll decide to follow me on my artful journey. I know there's so much more to come.

AND DON'T FORGET TO COME BACK NEXT SATURDAY!!

Join me for the Mad Tea Party hosted by

Vanessa Valencia at A Fanciful Twist.

It's going to be MAD and I'm having a giveaway to

celebrate my 100th POST on that very day!

Now go and visit Karen for more inspiring spaces

and hop over to Beverly's for Pink Saturday too!