Cosmo Cricket

3 Honky Tonk Projects to Love

The girls of Urban Scrapbook have the most amazing projects up  on their blog. I picked three of the 12! And it was tough, they are all beautiful.






I love the idea to make a layout about favorite books and authors. (I can't read the text and so I'm not sure that is what this layout is about, but the title would be perfect, right?!)

What are you reading this summer? Who are your favorite authors?

I just started reading The One and Only Ivan to my kids and I am in love with the story so far. I also have plans to read them Number the Stars and The Witch of Blackbird Pond.  A John Grisham novel I picked up at a yard sales is sitting on my nightstand, but I can't seem to find any time at all to open it. Honestly, besides reading to my kids, I haven't read a non-fiction book in probably ten years. Maybe this will be the summer I change that?!

Honky Tonk Card by Laurel Seabrook

She was the kind of girl that turned heads. Not just because of the long legs hanging out of her jean shorts, but because she was the type that might shoot a man in the back when he wasn't looking.

The dust billowed with each step she took across the floor. She had come for something, and she wasn't leaving until she got it. As she came up next to him, the beads of sweat ran down his brow. Not even his breath could escape. All she said was, "Give me my stamp and I may let you live." 

In other news, Eric's dad gave me a Louis L'amour novel and I think it's affecting me.

Are you a Procraftinator?

Hail all procraftinators! Let us unite in our love of creative clutter and abhorrence of menial tasks!! Who's with me?

I think Donna may be. She sent us this fun shadow box using Sweet Dispostion papers. If she is doing projects like these in a home without piles of laundry.... well then I've lost all respect for her! ;)

 

New Tiny Text

If you love Tiny Text, you will love this news! There are 8 new designs and they are all shipping now. Check them out... I am having so much fun with these.
















Hope you love them as much as I do!


 

Life is Sweet

Using Sweet Disposition papers, I created this fun little illustration. Enjoy!

 

Getting Ready for Ray and Shirley

So, Eric's parents are arriving this afternoon. This is their first time visiting Austin and our home.

Ahhhhh, the home. We wanted to update it when we bought it, but we thought we would wait a year or two. Then it flooded, do you remember?

When my parents came, the guest bath looked only sightly better than this.

For Eric's parents, it looks like this.

Do you remember when you all got after me for not wearing a mask as I scraped the popcorn? (Please test your ceiling for asbestos before touching any popcorn!)

Well, it's almost all gone at this point. Below is the above room now.

I still have a few things to do in here, but it's clean. (That only took most of yesterday, but don't tell the in-laws. They're suppose to believe this is how it always looks! ;)

In the living room, we finished the floors, added baseboards and took out the fireplace. We are going to replace the fireplace with something cool. It's not done just yet, but I'll post pics when it is.

We did, however, hang artwork. All Eric's paintings are in Las Vegas at a gallery, but he had a couple prints of his work, Nate Williams, Jackson Polluck and Bill Flora. We've owned the map for years, but never hung it until now.

But forget the house. It took us two days, three trips to the pool store, and several squeamish screams as I cleaned out very large bugs and other gross stuff, but the hot tub is clean and working!

Please congratulate the winner of our S'more Love Jelly Roll,  Becky Greene.

Becky, please email S'more Love Jelly Roll Winner in the subject line with your info in the body of your message and send it to julie at cosmocricket dot com. I'll send you the sweet stuff!


 

Giveaway: S'more Love FABRIC!

Keeping secrets is the hardest part of my job. I'm not at all good about it and this one has literally been killing me. I have had this fabric for over a month, in my hot little hands and I've not shown a single person.... well a single one that hasn't been to my home that is.

Or a single one that didn't notice us holding it in this photo that we "accidentally" posted on facebook.

Nope, I have kept our S'more Love fabric line top secret. In fact, I think if I didn't hate keeping secrets so much I could get a job at the CIA or something. But now, April 15th I am free to tell the world and show them too!

Like this quilt I designed and the very talented Cindy Sharp created. It will be published in American Patchwork soon. I'll keep you posted.

S'more Love is being released in just a few weeks at the spring quilt market.

The line looks great in a log cabin design. I designed this one with a four patch in the center.

I love these two quilts too. The top one is by Barb Cherniwchan of Coach House Designs. I really like how she took some of the icons in the line and made them into large appliques. The second quilt is by my sister whose quilting shadow I will always live in. I think she is such a great quilt designer! Of course, she is Emily Bailey of Aunt Em's Quilts.

But, the very best part about this line is that we're giving away that jelly roll you see in the first pic. So, who wants it? If you do, let us know and we'll enter you into our random drawing. The winner will be announced tomorrow morning. Good luck everyone.

PS: Wish me luck too. My in-laws arrive tomorrow!

 

Simon Says Stamp with Summer Love

I spotted this yesterday and thought it was super cute!

Simon Says Stamp has a tutorial for the project over on their blog.  Check it out because summertime is coming soon!

ReThinking Super Woman

So, you may have noticed I've been MIA?

It all started with a big project and a short deadline. You see, I'm not actually Super Woman. In fact, I'm pretty darn average. When life gives me too much to do, I have to let some things go like the blog, crafting, getting dressed.....

But maybe this could be my new definition of Super Woman: the girl who doesn't have to do everything. I think there's a super power in that thought!

PS: My good friend Cathy Heck spotted our 2WENTY-THR3E fabrics at Mama Said Sew in Fort Collins, CO. Don't they look great?

3 Random Things: Pro-Bono Work, Fossils and Winners

Random Thing #1: A cool thing about being an artist is that from time to time you get to do work that you really care about. The Sandy-Hook Promise people asked Eric if he would create an illustration for them. Here's what he's done so far. Any guesses on the theme?!

Random Thing #2: There's a lot more bugs and critters in Austin than we ever saw in Utah. We pulled off the rock around our fireplace and this is what we found. I have no idea how long this guy was living in our rocks, but I'm sure glad I didn't find him alive! I wonder how many Austin cockroaches he ate to get to this size?

Ranom Thing #3: Today we have two winners. One from the blog and one from our facebook page. Congratulations go to Suzanne Shipler and Krista Rathkamp Reske. Ladies, send your info to julie at cosmocricket dot com with Blog Winner in the subject line and I'll make sure you get your goodies. Thanks for playing everyone!