Black Friday Through Cyber Monday Sale at The Painted Cottage Studio!

20% OFF all items at The Painted Cottage Studio, where you'll find my hand painted jewelry! The sale runs from 11/24/11 through 11/28/11. Enter coupon code HOLIDAY20 at checkout for 20% off your entire order!

THANKFUL FOR YOU SALE

Thank you to all of my past, present and future customers! To show my appreciation, I'm having a THANKFUL FOR YOU SALE going on right now through Monday, November 28th at my hand painted jewelry shop, The Painted Cottage Studio! Save 10% on your entire order by entering the code THANKFUL10 at checkout. Or email me at handpaintedjewelry@charter.net for a custom item!

Also, my Wallflowers items have joined in on the sale with 15% off your entire order through Monday, November 28th! Simply enter the code THANKFUL15 at checkout.

Have fun shopping, getting ready for the holidays and being with family and friends. Have a wonderful day!

Yummy (and easy!) Pumpkin Muffins

These muffins are so yummy and so easy! I believe this is a Weight Watchers
recipe, but it was passed on to me by a friend. I just had to share...

1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin

1 box spice cake mix

1/8 cup water

**option... 2/3 bag of mini chocolate chips for the chocolate lovers! Yum!

Mix together with mixer and fill muffin cups half full, or bake in muffin
tins sprayed with cooking spray. Bake approx. 12 minutes or until
toothpick in center comes out clean. Bake at temperature according to
directions on the box.

Custom Painted Necklace

I just completed a custom made, hand painted necklace for a friend. I used very tiny brushes with this one, it's all on a 1 inch square!

Holidays and Traditions Shabby Lane Shops Magazine

Another wonderful Shabby Lane Shops magazine just hit the news stands! This "Holidays and Traditions" issue includes my short story, titled The Christmas Tree Farm.

You can find "Holidays and Traditions" in select Barnes & Noble, Bookworld and Hancock Fabric stores! And of course, you can also order this issue, a subscription and back issues at this link.

The Making of a Mural

I recently finished a mural at a friend's house and luckily took a few pictures along the way! She wanted a tranquil ocean with a palm tree on each side and a few flowers.

It didn't look like much when I first started...

Okay, a little peaceful looking now...

I love this, the floating coconut stage. It made me laugh. (Notice how my client wanted fluffy looking clouds, so I changed them for her.)

We labeled these "the aliens". Unfortunately I had to leave it like this overnight and my client woke up during the night thinking aliens had landed!

What a difference a few leaves make!

Here's the left side...

and now the right side...

and ta da! It's finished!

Back to the Missouri Botanical Gardens

I was lucky enough to find this heart shaped hydrangea at the gardens. How perfect!

The climatron and water lilies look so beautiful together. It was great to be there on a sunny day, a little hot of course (in St. Louis, what do you expect?) but that's okay, we were just happy to be there!

Chihuly created these glass sculptures a few years ago and they add so much color. Those lily pads are so large, we had to resist walking on them like stepping stones.

These guys were just asking me to come over and take their picture. I couldn't say no.

Still green, but finding these gourds was a subtle reminder that fall is just up ahead. (Yay!)