Good Eats and Sweet Treats! ((((special Sweet Repeats Studio Shoppe Coupon Code, too))))

For the love of Creativity--the best I could muster out of myself this week was to make up my own frosting recipe while I made my two little love birds (my big lil men) their Valentine's Day cupcakes. I do have to say so myself, the frosting came out pretty dang well despite the fact it was a little runny. That's how I meant it to be anyway...so there! It tasted fabulous anyway, how can you go wrong with cream cheese, powdered sugar, sour cream, vanilla and butter??

I'm going to be away for a work assignment next week for 10 days so we are celebrating early around here. I bought these plates last year when in Florida when I was thrifting with my Sister. 25 cents. Who could go wrong? Except it's one plate. Also that day, I picked up one heart champagne flute, one heart soup bowl---I guess I knew a head of time, I'd only need one of each this year!

I have been making more hearts as featured in my last post so I guess I have been somewhat creative. In addition, I have been practicing drawing lips in my effort to get back to the basics. Kinda like teaching myself Art 101 with the best resources available one ever could dream of through the internet. Speaking of resources and inspiration, check out one of my favorite online artist's video (part 2) The time Paulette spends on the little details is mesmerizing. I hope one of these days I will achieve a level of expertise as Paulette displays.

Hearts, hearts, hearts everywhere--here we have my lovely "Hanging Heart Swap" gift from Connie. Miss Connie hand sewed and filled with beautiful smelling lavender and spice mix. This is one of Connie's first Sweet Goodness Swaps with us, and I am so happy to have met her and had an opportunity to be her partner. She beat me to the send out--mine went out today so can't wait to hear what she has to say about my creation!

This week was full of Good Treats in the mail! I'm a lucky girl, and don't you all be haters, k??? Miss Paula ((((Paula was my FIRST blog commenters way back when!))) sent me this book and a beautiful handcrafted bookmark as my winnings in a giveaway in honor of her Dear Mother's Birthday. Paula's Mother is no longer with her, so this was her way of sharing her loving memory with her blog friends. Thank you Paula I'm honored to have won this drawing! I will be taking this on my trip with me to enjoy during my down time. I will be working A LOT-but w/o my art supplies and my computer around, I will actually have time to read!!

Another parcel that made it's way to my doorstep came from my awesome Sweet Goodness Holiday Sister, Jane. This sadly was our last swap in the series--I was just getting used to Jane spoiling me each month, too!! Jane is a retired Art teacher, so not only were we kindred spirits in this swap, Jane spent a lot of time giving me pointers and sharing some cool artful goodies with me to enhance my own creativity. Love love love my SGS sister! I'm sure we will keep in touch and perhaps still share the swap love from time to time!

This swap theme was to share some artful recipes and whatever else you wanted to send for the holidays to your swap sister. Jane sent me a huge assortment of crafty embellishments, a gorgeous journal, some book labels and some craft paper--all featured in these first two pictures.

Holy smolly's! Look at all these goodies!! I can't wait to play with all these embellishments!

True to her character, Jane created a fabulous altered recipe book! How cool is that??? I have been wanting to start an altered book but have yet to get passed the painted page stage. I have on started from this summer--but didn't do anything other than background pages. Jane's creativity has sparked my desire to finish that project!

MMM...now how tempting does that recipe sound??:)))

Inside this cool tote, all my goodies were packed. Carefully hugged by this gorgeous quilt Jane made me!! Can you believe that? Her work is fabulous and I absolutely love it!! The time and love Jane put into all my swap gifts made each and everyone of them very special.
Thank you again Jane, from the bottom of my heart!!

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I've kinda been slack at uploading anything new to my Etsy shop, kinda because I knew I'd be away this coming month for a while, but mostly because most of my time has been spent working late at work, or studying at night for my project coming up---dang day jobs!! They take all my fun away!! Anyway--my point is, that for any of my visitors here--if you'd like to purchase something from my shop, here's a Valentine's deal for you. 25% off any item! Please convo me your choice and put Sweet Repeats in the message and I will adjust the listing for you to purchase!! After Valentine's day, I'd like to add new merchandise so help me clear my shelves!!!! I'll enter the coupon code until February 14th! Due to my travels however, anything ordered after February 4th, will not be shipped until February 19th--so check out the shop sooner rather than later!!!!

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Last but not least, just wanted to introduce a local artist friend of mine (she actually lives just around the bend from me a few miles!), Nanette. She is also a new member of the group I joined this month, The North Carolina Mixed Media Guild. Nanette is a Mixed Media Fiber Artist who recently found her calling in life and she just started a blog to shout it out to the world! As we all know, comments are the gas in our blog "car", especially when we first start, so please stop by and hello and see what she has to say on "Nanette Says"!!

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Hope you have a creative week!!