Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile...

{photo taken by Labour of Love}

Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all. - Stanley Horowitz

Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile. -William Cullen Bryant

October's poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter.-Nova Bair

Here is my October 2011 Desktop Calendar. Autumn is one of our favourite season...we love when the leaves change into their vibrant + glorious colours. For a couple of weeks it hit 80 degrees...but today it has been raining like cats+dogs all day...

This shot was taken nearby UM-Wisconsin Arboretum. Two canoers just started their journey on Lake Winagra. I wanted to capture the Fall beauty...I truly love seeing all the different colours through my camera lens. It was a perfect shot!

What are you planning for this weekend?!

In the meantime, enjoy the rest of the beautiful Fall weather! Until next time...

au revoir xoxo

Hello August!

This summer surely is going by so fast! Maybe because the munchkins and I are absolutely busy every single day. Not one day goes by where we aren't doing something or going somewhere. I guess that's good in a way. It keeps us hopping. But it prevents me from updating my social media outlets big time...July went by like a flash. I do have photos to prove it but I just haven't had the chance to upload them. Soon...I know I sound like a broken record, but I promise myself that I will post soon.

Last month we went on a mini-vacation to Michigan, with my very creative sis, Mary Ann (whom we lovingly call Reya). We stayed at my sis' good friend's, Joanne's sweet B&B and went to another of my sis' good friend, Angela's BBQ&Pool Party. It was beautiful. Their homes were absolutely divine!!! A much needed getaway! Sooooooo very, very, very...Hoooooooooooooot but very beautiful! Joanne and Angela surely made us feel so welcomed. Thank you so very much ladies for sharing your homes, your weekend + your hearts with us. The munchkins and I loved every minute!!! I met some wonderful + Creative Soules...so much inspiration going on...(again, I took some great pics of our trip...and will post soon...)

We also had the chance to visit the Sketchbook Project when it came to Chi-Town. We met so many wonderful artists that I can't wait to share some great photos of their work and photos of the artists themselves! We met this mother-daughter duo from Indiana. Ann + Kelly . They are the sweetest duo ever!!!! Their journals were so beautiful and inspirational. Please check Kelly's post to see more of their fabulous visit to Chi-Town over here... (I will hopefully post my pics soon of these amazing women and our visits)

I hope you are all enjoying these dog days of summer and having a blast with your loved ones. In the meantime, please enjoy the above desktop calendars for August (sweet french vanilla angel cuppies & lazy summer days=sunflower) (and sorry about my late July photos~delicious blueberry puffs w/ blueberry lemon tea~yum!)

until next time... au revoir...

xoxo jo

June...sweetness

enjoy all that summer has to offer!

xoxo

March...Lucky all month long...

Wow!

Did i really only blog 2 posts in February?

That's really sad.

Well, it was a very short month + as usual it's hectic around these parts of the woods.

February was a busy month. I've been making sweet lil' things for my munchkins' Valentine's Day treats. To be exact about 40 or so little items. I didn't get a chance to take pics before handing them out to the kidlets but I had a bunch leftover and will be using them again for

St. Patrick's Day-YAY!

{i'm in the process of preparing a picture tutorial so you can make them too!}

Everyone wants to make neat things that's easy, quick + with stuff you already have, right?

Well these beauties really did the trick!

They really are easy to make. you'll see when i get my picture tutorial up, how really easy it is.

I found that you just have to do some good prep work inorder

for the assembly line to go smoothly.

Basically, you can use any type of paper you'd like. Cut them in rounds. Do a quick fold (this can be a lil' bit tricky), glue the middle and stick sweet treasures inside!

For my lil' fortune i wrote 'Lucky' and collaged 4 lil' hearts together to make a cute shamrock.

I had leftover Valentine heart chocolates and covered them in orange crepe paper then glued them onto strips of index cards-it was that easy!

(for Valentine's Day: i stamped cute heart, robot, 'bee mine' designs on strips of index cards, then glued a red chocolate heart to it. then stuffed it into the cookie-viola!)
In a couple of days, I'll have that tutorial up. in the meantime, I'm continuing on with my 'Monthly Calendar Project'.

Please enjoy March's Calendar. Couldn't decide on one photograph so, I've included a variety for you to enjoy. Here's wishing you a whole month of 'Luck!':

bonne nuit

xoxo

jo

picture days...

confession #1: i'm a closet wanna-be photographer... i really love still life. one day when i grow up, i'd love to be a professional photographer, stylist, graphic designer, illustrator, artist. i do not have any formal training in the fine arts department or photography. but i do love to capture beauty in different ways...create something sweet + there's something about France+ the Eiffel Tower that tugs at my heart...that's when something clicked and i started making these paper eiffels+i wanted to capture their beauty by taking pics of them...i also love drawing them...maybe one day i'll be able to set foot inside my beloved Eiffel but for now, taking pics+drawing them fill my heart with glee.

confession #2: i'm always asking what day it is or i'm always looking for a calendar to see what i need to be doing...and of course, i never can find one...i always divert back to my yahoo page...which isn't very pretty...

ok, so now why the confessionals? well, put those 2 together and what do you have? pictures+days...this is a new project i'm working on~monthly calendars of my photos to share with all of you...every month i'll put up a new photo/collage of mine...feel free to use them...i'm hoping you'll enjoy them... this will give me a chance to spark up some new inspiration for myself, improve my photography skills, think out of the box + finally know what day it really is...hahhhh!

bonne nuit

xoxo