Stacie Rife Bailey's Bliss

Self Portrait Tuesday

January's Topic for Self Portrait Tuesday is...

Personal History...

"I guess I've always dreamed of being a princess"

GIFT IDEA

Ribbon Bookmarks

This is a simple little project I found at Martha Stewart's website. It would be a wonderful little gift idea for a friend!

I hadn't been to her website  in quite some time and was surprised to see so many projects and ideas!

It is one of my New Year's Resolutions to complete at least 3 full books this year! I know that sounds silly, but with working full time,  doing Art projects whenever possible, and spending quality time with my husband, family and friends,, for ME, it really isn't silly. I have 1 under my wing so far, so let's hope I can manage 2 more for the year! I love to read, but never really designate the time for it. It seems when I do have free time I find other things to do. So if it's a goal, then maybe it will help me relax a little and wind down and READ!

Happy Toe Tappy!

Ok,, how funny is this...

I signed up last week via our parks & recreation dept here for a Tap Dancing class.. yes... you heard it.. a Tap Dancing Class....

WHY? Well,, it sounded fun! So why not! I took tap dancing as a child and remember liking it.. (much more than ballet).. so I thought,.. what the heck!

Well when I got home from work yesterday there was a message saying the class had been cancelled due to not enough people signing up! OH MAN! I was so bummed... I was really.. I mean really actually looking forward to it~

So, today my husband's Aunt gave me her old tap shoes that don't fit her..(she had been planning on doing this for the class).. so.... I have been tappin' around the house all day. Granted the shoes are a little too big for me... not a big deal... nothing a pair of thick socks won't correct! But.. I think I am driving my husband nuts! :) HA!

Hey,, who says we have to grow up????

Studio Friday

It's Studio Friday!

Today's Topic is "ARTIST'S UNIFORM"

I would have to day my trusty apron would be considered part of my uniform!

It is one that I aquired off my Cafe Press site!  (YES you too can own a Stacie Original Apron as seen in picture!)

This is probably one of the best pieces of attire I own~And that is only due to experience of getting acrylic's, glue and chemicals on some of my best clothes and fuzzy jammies!

I made a vow though to keep my new pink polka dot doggie jammies  that I got for Christmas clean of glue and acrylics...thus using my apron all the time!!!!

Feb/March Issue of ME is out!

Well from emails I have received......the Feb/March issue of Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion is OUT! I am so excited to see this issue as I have been featured in article on ATCs.

I was so excited when I received an email from a gal in Michigan congratulating me on the article that I had to go out and make a midnight run to try and find it.. but no luck at all...

Then the next day I made a trip to Borders to try and find it and only found the Dec/Jan issue :(

I guess I just have to be patient! But this is such a BIG DEAL for lil' ol' me that I just can't contain myself! :)

Personal History

Good advice from Mike at Paper Notes in a Digital World on writing about your PERSONAL HISTORY

Tearin' up the place!

My husband was working on sewing a new comforter (yes... my blue collar husband was SEWING--pretty sad he can sew and I can't) and there was left over batting.. and the kids had a hay-day with it! At first we thought

"OH BOY....this is going to make a horrendous mess" but it was so comical watching them we let them have their fun! I was laughing so hard..

Bailey was tearin' it up! and Scout wanted to play with her in the midst of it all!

By the end of the playtime we had a mess to clean up but it was worth it! It is so nice when a furry creature can make you laugh!

Christmas 2005

This Christmas I had to literally push myself to make cookies, put up decorations, SHOP (yes I had to push myself to shop) and get into the spirit at all. It was due to things going on in my personal life and things within my family. Although I had to push myself I am glad I did. There was a moment there where I thought I would just skip the tree and decorations all together, but for reasons of hosting Christmas Eve.. I didn't want my family showing up to a very important Christmas with no decorations... so although I did it for myself, I also did it for my family.

This year we have 2 little ones in the family which belong to my cousin. It is so refreshing to have little ones around during Christmas time. I think seeing them ooh and ahhh over Christmas things makes it ALL worth while!

I am posting a few pictures of my house around Christmas time for my Internet friends to see. I don't know about anyone else, but I like to see how my distant friends live and the pictures they post..(to me) are priceless. So I thought I would do the same for my friends....

I meant to do this much sooner but was delayed with no Internet access.. so better late than never right?

Bailey and Scout also get spoiled during Christmas. Grandma brings over several presents for them to open. You would think they were her real Grandchildren by how she treats them! :) Although they both get presents, and Bailey being the "brighter" one of the two.... she is the one who opens them all.

YES, Bailey opens her own presents..... but the cool thing about it is... she leaves them all alone,, until one is GIVEN to her.. and we tell her it's okay to open it.. and off she goes.. ripping and tearing and spitting out paper and revealing whats inside for HER! She knows once the decorations start coming out that soon she will have her own (and her brothers) presents to open! I get the biggest kick out of it! It originally happened on a fluke about 8 years ago and we've been giving her presents to open ever since!

This last picture... I think she actually got tired of opening them... because she had SO many!

And last of all.... here is a picture of my little (big) man Scout and I.

I got all my hair chopped off (about 12 inches) 2 weeks before Christmas but this is one of the first pictures of my new haircut! I thought it would be a lot more traumatic than it was, but it hasn't bothered me a bit!

Collaborative Journal

An unplanned sabbatical from the Internet has spawned my creativity for the better. More time for art.. and no time (or at least not allowed any time) on the Internet. But I AM BACK ON-LINE~and much faster too!

This is what I have been working on... a collaborative journal with the gals from MMCA (mixed media collage artists) group. The picture is of the front cover.

I am still not sure if I am finished with it yet. I have a few other ideas, but sometimes more is not the best thing... we'll see. I will scan pictures of the other pages as I go! I am very pumped for this project, which is a good thing seeing as it will last an entire year! But the people I am working with are amazing! I haven't been this excited for anything in a long time!

Happy '06!

This picture is of a little snowman I made for my Aunt Pam. Behind it is beautiful flowers I received from friends in Indiana! :)

Jeff and I hosted our family Christmas holiday this year and it was very nice to spend it with the people that matter. Although it was an emotional Christmas it was very nice and I was happy to host it. Although it seems like so much preparation and work, it is worth it if you spend it with people you love. I hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas!

We went to Seattle for an early dinner and spent the rest of New Years Eve night reassuring our little Scouty that everything would be okay. He gets so worked up about the fireworks that the YAH-hoo's in the neighborhood save from the 4th of July. I see no need nor does it seem like any fun to blow off stuff that makes loud obnoxious noises. Maybe I am getting old, but when I think about it, I don't ever remember liking the "booming" noises when I was young.

Today (New years day) has been a fairly lazy day but I pushed myself today and took down all the Christmas decorations. I am off work tomorrow and didn't want to deal with it then. It is never any fun to take the decorations down. It is fun to put them up in anticipation of the holiday season, but there is no gratification in taking them down. BUT,, it's done!

I think I will spend the rest of the night cleaning a little, and maybe reading a book or spending a little time in my studio.  We are having around 50-60 mph winds right now so it is a good night to curl up in a blanket and stay inside! I recently finished the book A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

And now I am working on reading the second or sequel to that book called My Friend Leonard.

Both very good books and easy reading!!!

My Internet is still down, called Verizon AGAIN on Friday, and in the middle of an hour conversation GAVE UP,, I don't have time to deal with them anymore. Comcast will come out tomorrow morning to hook us up with cable. It has been way too long. I am at my mother in-law's now borrowing her wireless connection so I could write a post to my blog and give myself a little Internet fix.

Happy New Year to everyone who reads my little contribution to the WWW! I am hoping that 2006 is better than 2005, but that is all up to ME! 2006 I plan to focus on things that are important to ME!

Toodles for now, hopefully I will be posting from the comfort of my own home tomorrow! I will cross my fingers!

:)XOXO