Barbara will be teaching this little pumpkin and cat at the next meeting.  If you have any questions give her a call.  Remember to bring your regular painting supplies.  I will be back in New York but will be thinking of y'all.  Have fun!!

Romantic Roses With Beth Wagner DVD 473

Vacationing with the Yankees!!

I haven't been able to attend the meetings the past two month but for good reason.  I went on vacation to visit my sister in Pennsylvania and to share in the celebration of my niece graduating from high school and my nephew from college.  I had a great time shopping in antique stores - they have such good stuff up there.  I also spent my days on the front porch of my sisters house which sits on the side of a mountain.

The weather was near perfect - nice temps, a cool breeze....hard to come back to the scorching 90's!!

A reason to be proud!

Sue has good reason to be proud of her son:  (she doesn't know I'm posting this)

                        Joseph Luciani and Senior Associate Dean for Research Richard Lueptow

Joseph Luciani, senior design and prototyping specialist at the Segal Design Institute, was recognized with the summer STAR award as a staff recognition picnic on July 31.

The STAR Award—which stands for Staff Team Appreciation and Recognition—is given quarterly to a McCormick employee who demonstrates leadership and goes above and beyond his or her regular duties.

Luciani was nominated for his willingness to mentor the 3-D printing lab during a colleague’s leave of absence.

“Joe is a dedicated employee who exemplifies professionalism and rises to meet any challenge,” the award states. “He is recognized for his above and beyond contributions to the Rapid Prototyping Lab, the Center for Talent Development, and the Engineering Design and Innovation Bootcamp. Joe is valued for his diligence and willingness to step up when needed.  His leadership style serves him well, and he is an instrumental contributor on the Segal team.”

Winners of the STAR Award are nominated by fellow staff and faculty members, and a selection committee recommends a finalist to the dean for selection.

Congratulations, proud Momma!!

September paint in

Thank you very much to all the who came and especially to those who taught the class.  We had a lot of fun.   The minutes will follow as soon as I receive them.

 I will be out of town mid month, just to let everyone know.  Thanks again.   

 Here is the information on the quarter party for September 6:

Admission - 25 cents and 3 donated items. The items should be nice items that you would be willing to buy. You could bake a cake or make one of your favorite craft items, paint an item, a plant from a nursery or your yard, or an item that you no longer want or re-gift an item, etc.

You will receive an envelope containing tickets that all have the same number on them. ex. an envelope full of tickets with the number 5 on them.  This identifies you and is your hopefully winning number for the drawings.   

You will need a roll or two of quarters.

The donated items will be auctioned off one by one. If you want to bid on an item you will place a quarter and one of your tickets into the pot. If you really want the item, you can place several of your tickets and an equal amount of quarters into the pot.

Then we will draw a number for the item which will indicate the winner. 

We will also have a silent auction table with art work from teachers that we entertained at one of our seminars.

Bring your friends and neighbors, the more the merrier.   

Jacky

Hope y'all had a good time at the Christmas paint in last month.  I was thinking about you but I was also having a good time in New York and Pennsylvania.  

Margaret sent this picture and info for the next class.  Again, I won't be there, I have a niece graduating from boot camp and a niece having an open house plus my sister is still here visiting:

This is my project for Saturday. An origami folded ornament using card stock, no painting involved.

Please bring scissors and glue and regular tracing paper, graphite , etc. If we have time I have another folded item we can include. I will supply card stock, tassel and ribbon for $1.

From Crystal:

 I will be teaching a paper egg ornament. The supplies needed will be sissors, E-600 glue, ruler , tacky glue, a pen or pencil, hole punch, glitter glue red and  green (stickles) is a good brand. Glitter glue is optional.  My project will cost $2.00 dollars because of the cost of the brads , pearls, filagrees, and rhinestones.

From Jacky:

I was hoping that we could have a seminar for January.  We all need to talk about this, plus money issues to have a seminar.

From Diane:

Remember to bring your quilt sales tickets and $.  Our current bank balance is $894.75. No transactions in the month of July. 

The blog will look a bit different - I upgraded to Google Chrome and I am not sure how it works.  Looks like y'all have a lot going on.  Have fun,

Christmas in July Ornament Paint In

It's that time again, time to paint ornaments.  I'm sending this out now because I will not be here next week, I will be in New York with my family for two graduations.  If I receive more information before the 12th, I will enclose it, not sure if I can add pictures though as I will be working on my IPAD.  Janice L has sent the info for her ornaments as you will see below.  Margaret has switched dates with Beverly since she will be in Houston at that time.  So, y'all have fun!



For Janice's class:


Bring your black 01/05 Micron pen and a No. 2 pencil with eraser.  That's all that is required.

Optionally, you can bring transfer paper, scissors, colored pens/pencils, or watercolors of almost any kind.

I will provide cut-to-size white card stock, if you want to trace an ornament pattern to mount on another surface after drawing your tangles; five ornament outlines to trace or tangle on; a practice sheet; pictures of tangle patterns from Suzanne McNeill's book Zentangle Basics.  To the best
of my ability, I will show how to draw some of the patterns.

Three of my mounted ornaments are shown in the photo. 

June paint in....

Hey everyone, I hope everyone is having a nice summer.  Doing some fun things  with family.  We did  not have a NWSO meeting in May, we just had the Quarter Party.

Here is some NWSO meeting notes from our June Paint-In. 

Meeting started about 1030am

President comments:  I received a letter from the IRS stating they receive our paperwork and it will  take 90 – 180 days to process.  The IRS also said, if there areany problems or questions with the paperwork, I would get a call or another letter stating what needs to be corrected.  

Treasurer Report:  I sent an email to everyone about the treasurer’s report.  One change on the treasurer report,  Jacky’s coping cost was for the IRS paperworkinstead of quilt copies.  Our balance as of May 22, 2014 is $894.75 not counting what we received in June.

Membership Dues are coming up in October,  and selecting new NWSO officers as well. 

We can talk about having another Quarter Party for September when we meet at theJuly Paint-In.

A couple of reminders for members:

Quilt Raffle is not that far off.   Please sell your tickets.  Raffle Date is 4 October 2014. 

For July:   If you are one the individuals teaching a Christmas Ornament could you please send a picture of what you are painting to Brenda for the Blog or me and I will pass it on everyone. 

<<...>>

Also attached is a picture of what happened in our June Paint-In. 

See you all soon.

Jacky

Painting on magnolia leaves...

Who would have thought to paint on leaves?  Sandy did.  Unfortunately her husbands illness prevented her from coming today (hope he is doing better now), but Margaret got us started.  Here are a few pics of the ones done in class..

Painting on Magnolia Leaves with Sandy...

Thank you to all who participated in our Quarter Party last month.  We had a great time.

We will be painting on Magnolia leaves that have been prepped with mod pog
and painted green, red and gold with sparkles.  Patterns cannot be traced on
the leaves so look through your Christmas books and find something that will
be simple to paint freehand like snowmen, ribbons, bows, candy cane and etc.

Bring your sparkle paint, hair dryer and toothbrush (to splatter).  If you
have snow that is great also..

I glue 1/8 inch ribbon to hand them on.  Bring what you have.

Quarter Party at the next meeting

We will not be painting at the next meeting but it will be a good time to have a party.  Looks like fun!!

QUARTER PARTY

Admission - 25 cents and 3 donated items. The items should be nice items that you would be willing to buy. You could bake a cake or make one of your favorite craft items, paint an item, a plant from a nursery or your yard, or an item that you no longer want or re-gift an item, etc.

You will receive an envelope containing tickets that all have the same number on them. ex. an envelope full of tickets with the number 5 on them.  This identifies you and is your hopefully winning number for the drawings.   

You will need a roll or two of quarters.

The donated items will be auctioned off one by one. If you want to bid on an item you will place a quarter and one of your tickets into the pot. If you really want the item, you can place several of your tickets and an equal amount of quarters into the pot.

Then we will draw a number for the item which will indicate the winner. 

We will also have an auction table with art work from teachers that we entertained at one of our seminars.

Bring your friends and neighbors, the more the merrier.   

April meeting and Paint In

We received word that due to Lucy's husbands recent hospital stay, Lucy will not be able to teach this weekend.  There wasn't a lot of time to come up with a project so Jackie has requested that everyone bring something small to paint on and she will teach a lighthouse/beach scene.

We have some business to finalize tomorrow.  Mostly about taxes.  There are some items we need to vote on within the directory.  If Barbara is able to attend she will need volunteers to fill the list of paint ins for the rest of the year.  I'm not sure but we will probably finalize the tickets for the quilt.  Please check the blog again tonight or tomorrow morning for any further updates

I didn't have this image available earlier because I have grandchildren over and it is really hard to get on the computer when they are here.  As always, bring your regular painting supplies and something for potluck.  The meeting begins at 10 am.  See you there.

Please check out the retreat pictures from the Wiregrass Decorative Painters website:


http://www.wiregrassdecorativepainters.org/2014-retreat---we-dig-painting.html

The photos are a slideshow, so give them a minute to load.  You will be able to see the projects everyone did, the pins, etc.

I wanted to add that we had a great time at the retreat.  If you missed it this year you might want to consider it for next February.  Since the theme this year was We Dig Painting, they asked that each of us paint a trowel as our ticket to get into the retreat.  Some of us went out of our way to make our trowel unique.  I don't remember what each painter did but I thought I would point out a few from our chapter.  Sue originally had a yellow trowel.  Since she lives on the beach it was only fitting that she do a beach scene.  But she didn't just paint one, she added little shells and charms to hers.  Then she cut the rubber handle completely off and added jute.  At the top where she tied it off she had little seashells and charms hanging from the jute.  It was sooo darn cute!!  Click on the picture to enlarge.

One of the projects they had us do was a brain teaser.  They provided us with a board and we were told to tape it off in sections, about seven would be nice.  I didn't hear that part and I sectioned off 13 sections, determined to use all the tape I had on hand.  Jane taped hers off in triangle wedges.  We then had to trade our favorite colors of paint with our neighbor.  That didn't deter Jane.  She painted her board with unexpected colors and they still look as if it was what she intended to do with her favorite colors.  It turned out so nice that if it had a hole in the center it would have made a beautiful clock.  I was able to get mine painted but with 13 sections I had to mix a lot of colors.  Then we had to embellish them and they had all kinds of things to choose from.  Luckily, I had Sue sitting next to me who has a great imagination.  She helped me - well, actually she embellished my board and it came out so pretty.

Diane was sitting next to me.  Some of our smaller projects were painting ghord pins and a small replica of our retreat theme.  Diane did something on the background of her ghord piece, not sure what but her piece ended up looking like it was antique.  And being the patriotic person she is, she painted her retreat pin in red, white and blue.  We had so much creativity going that day.

I mention these three because they are the ones I remember and we all sat at the same table.  Everybody's work was just great.  Maybe they could bring it in to the next meeting so you can see it in person.  It might help make up your mind about attending next year.  Be sure to check out the website above.

I wasn't able to make yesterdays meeting but I heard y'all had a great time.  Sue was kind enough to send me a few pictures of the hankie dolls.  I'm sorry I missed all the fun.

A note from Jacky

     2014 is moving very quickly, everyone is busy with traveling to visit family, or helping family with sickness, work or kids.   One thing we should always remember to say our prayers and thank those around us.

     I want to thank everyone who attended the Ros Stallcup seminar and participated in the dinners with Ros.  I was glad to meet the new people from Enterprise and see what their art group was painting.  I am also happy people are volunteering, we need everyone helping with our art group to be a successful club, without you, we are only partly a club. 

     I also want to welcome 3 new visitors who came to the meeting and painted 1 February, Dee, Ann and Angela.

     Finally, welcome to everyone, ready for a new year, maybe new people, and paint new ways.

Jacky

Painting a Bow - watch to the end, there are more videos. www.paint-therapie.com

New Year, New President, New Place to Meet, and New Friends

Lots of new things for us this year.  We started off the new year with a Ros Stallcup seminar which was great.  I think everyone that attended really enjoyed painting with her.  We have a new President, Jackie and a new place to meet.  The fire house meeting room is small but will be fine until someone finds something bigger. And we had new friends visiting us, welcome, Angela Simone, her mother Ann Simone and Delores Mintz.   Now we are preparing for our next meeting on 1 March.  Jackie will be teaching a fold hankie doll.  This is what she said to tell you:

For the class,  people should bring a good pair of scissor, and their normal supplies, tracing paper, hanker chief - size is about 14"x14".  Jacky

Of course, we will have lunch so don't forget a covered dish.  We are still working out the kinks of meeting in a new place but I think with a little soap and vinegar we should have it looking good by the next meeting.  I'm hoping I can get with a couple of our members to do a little cleaning.  I will also bring a coffee pot - I bet some of you were going through withdrawals last Saturday.  

The guys at the fire department graciously allowed us to leave our tablecloths in the kitchen.  No one wants to have to drag that around.  One of my suggestions for members is to take a trip to the Dollar Tree, check out their craft section and then head over to the party supplies and pick up a plastic tablecloth.  And since you are already there stop by the tool section and pick up a faux shammy cloth.  They are great to put in your palette to hold water for a wet palette --- and the good news is everything is only a dollar.  If you don't have a fairly flat palette, see if they have plastic trays to use as a palette.  I also buy my small squirt water bottles there.  I'm not getting paid to endorse Dollar Tree (unfortunately) but there are so many things there that we could use in our craft.

I am bringing my old Decorative Painters for any member who wants them - free.  If you have something you want to share feel free to bring it also.  Not sure where we will put these items but we will work it out.

Thawed out yet??

Hope you all made it through our ice storm without damage.  We were fortunate we only lost power overnight but I found it hard to sleep when I don't have my nightlight.  It was really dark in the house so I was forced to open the shades to let in enough light to find my way around.  Like most of you I waited for the snow but only got ice.

We will have our regular meeting tomorrow in our new meeting room.  We checked it out this week and decided the room needs a little cleaning so that's what we will be doing first off.  Keep in mind we are entering a mans world so you know it may not be up to our standards.  Then we are going to practice Ros' strokes.  So bring your painting supplies and a dish for pot luck lunch and let's start planning our new year.  We are challenging each member to come up with something you can teach this year.  We have nine months remaining to paint this year and we need at least seven people to come forward with a month they are willing to teach.  Then we need six members to teach ornaments in the month of July and August.  This will give everyone a chance to teach.  If you feel uncomfortable doing it by yourself ask for another member to work with you.  If you feel you don't paint well enough to teach I say...Poo!  I have seen everyone's paintings and I know you are much better than you think.  If you need help finding something suitable to teach, ask us and we will help.  I will tell you about the first time I taught a class.  I was petrified!  I had to teach an oil painting in front of people I didn't even know.  I practiced my project at least a dozen times.  I wrote out my instructions as I painted, then when I finished I started all over again.  I painted that canvas so many times everyone in my family got the same painting....and you know I have a big family.  It turned out fine but I wasn't convinced.  The next class I taught I did the same thing...my family finally said they loved getting a painting but didn't all want to get the same thing!  Even now, I get butterfly's when I teach so I think it must be a normal feeling.

I am excited to tell you that I have the quilt we painted and will bring it to the meeting tomorrow.  It really is very pretty, I think you will be quite pleased.  We will discuss how we will handle the raffle at the meeting.

I found this fish on Pinterest and it reminded me of a reverse Zentangle.  Thought you might like to see.  Hope to see y'all tomorrow.  We're off to a good start!

Another seminar down...

We had a fantastic seminar this weekend painting with that brush abuser Ros Stallcup!  I checked everyone's paintings and they all turned out beautiful.  Dark backgrounds, light backgrounds, even purple backgrounds...some on canvas, some on wood or tin...we had a little bit of everything going on.  Ros was her usual self, very sharing and fun to paint with.  She is fast becoming one of our favorite teachers....we might want to think about having her next year.

Now, the bad news is we did lose money but the good news is it wasn't very much.  We will have a discussion about it at the meeting.  I want to thank those who went to dinner with us on Saturday night, eight of those attending joined us.  And the food at the Fish House was delicious and they gave us plenty.

As you know when we rent the community center for a seminar we are responsible for cleaning the room and removing any trash when we have completed the seminar.  This time we had to not only set the room up for the seminar...thanks to Jane, Jackie, and myself, but we had to reset it before we left which meant moving tables and chairs back in place, vacuuming (thanks Jane), wiping down tables and cleaning the kitchen.  I wanted to thank everyone who stayed behind and helped, it was so appreciated.  I especially wanted to thank Joan for taking the trash.  I live next to the woods and the raccoons and critters have learned to open my trash cans - I may have had a mess to clean up while waiting for the trash day on Friday.  You were a life saver and I have a special little something for you at the next meeting.  Thanks again to all of you.

Just a reminder, this year we would like to see EVERYONE sign up to teach a class.  We know some are not comfortable or do not feel confident enough to stand in front of everyone and teach.  But I know each and everyone of you have a talent in something even if it isn't painting.  We have to plan ahead so perhaps you could teach a small ornament during our summer Christmas Ornament Paint in.  Barbara has the schedule to exceed this year so you have plenty of time to come up with something.

Some of you may not have known it but Margaret went to see her daughter dance in Las Vegas last month and was unable to attend the Christmas lunch.  It must have been wonderful to see her come home with her trophies.  Congratulations, proud Mom, and to your beautiful daughter, Susan!

Our next meeting will be held at the Fire Station on Johnson Avenue, one block east of Davis Highway. That is across the street from the West Florida Hospital Rehab Center.  We will meet at 10 am.  This is a new place for us until we find something more suitable.  I will be posting again soon, stay tuned.

Our seminar will be held at the Beulah Senior/Community Center off Mobile Highway starting tomorrow at 9am.  The address is 7417 Woodside  Road about one block south of Mobile Highway behind the Beulah Elementary School.  If you pull up beulah community center on the web it will show you a map, on mapquest type in the address for driving directions.  Everyone is coming from so many different directions it will be difficult to address each one.  If you have a problem, give me a call at home. 850-969-9524 or on my cell 850-982-9524.  Please come early so we can get started at 9 am.  Also, bring a jacket if you get cold easily.  The thermostats is preset at 68 degrees.

Ros Stalcup Seminar

I know some of you did not receive the information about the class so I am posting it here. 


The Lilacs and Daisies were painted on a rectangular board with an insert.  The size is approximately 12"x16" oval.  The paints that were used are as follows


Cad Yellow     Avocado     Olive Green    Evergreen     Raw Sienna     Dioxazine Purple
Blue Violet     Shale Green     Eggshell     Paynes Grey     Blue Mist     Soft Lilac   Warm White
And we will use Glazing Medium


Basecoat:  Paint oval with Shale Green.  Paint frame board with Eggshell and edge with Soft Lilac.


Glass Floats and Shells


Surface:  Wire basket with wood lid 19"x7" (can easily be adjusted to fit many surfaces as I can reduce pattern and bring two sizes.)  The paints used were:


Hi Lite Flesh     Colonial Green     Evergreen     Raw Sienna     Soft Black     Black Green    
Antique Teal     Paynes Grey     Camel     Warm White   and we use Glazing Medium


Preparation:  Paint the surface with Hi Lite Flesh


These are the instructions I received from Ros.  She is furnishing the paints.  If you have any questions, call me (850) 969-9524.  We understand you will not have the exact surface as she painted on but I know you will use your imagination and come up with something unique - canvas, boat paddle (miniature of course), wood boxes, suitcases, trays, etc....so many things to choose from.  Please keep in mind the amount of room we have available. 


We will have a pot luck lunch on each day.  The club will furnish tea and soda.  We will take Ros to dinner and would love for each of you to join us even if it's just for a cup of coffee.  If you have an extension cord available, please stick one in your bag.  Until then.....

Hope you are all curled up keeping warm.  I can't remember the last time the temps got down in the teens!  I am so glad the holidays are over and we are getting back to normal.  Now, I am counting down the days until I can sit on the swing again and feel the warmth from the sun.



Our seminar is fast approaching.  Please read the previous posts for pictures of the projects.  Ros will not bring any surfaces, mostly books and brushes.  Your surface needs to be approximately 12"x16" for the flowers and 7"x19" for the glass floats.  She will bring several sizes in patterns.  If you have these books, Simply Gran you will find the glass floats, and Grans Painting Place has the flower in a vase.  I have a lot of her books but not these two.



You should have received an email from Diane with the list of members who have paid their dues and the seminar.  If you haven't paid for your seminar you should do so now.  Send your check to Diane or to me as quickly as possible.  Diane is taking the seminar and will not have the time to take checks the day of the seminar.  And Ros has asked for the number of attendees so she can bring photos and patterns.  I will give her the count next week.  I believe we will have only about fifteen people attending so we will probably lose a bit of money.  Hopefully we will be able to make it up through fundraising this year.  I will update again before the seminar so stay tuned.

Just a quick note in case you are out shopping for your project surface for Ros Stallcup's seminar in January.  Ros sent the following information:

Lilacs and daisies in glass bowl....

Surface: Rectangular Board  with insert. Oval size is approximately 12 x 16  

Glass Floats and Shells

Surface:  Wire basket with Wooden Lid 19” x 7” (can easily be adjusted to fit many surfaces as I can reduce pattern and bring two sizes.  

This will give you an idea of the size pieces you will need...think outside the box, theses can be painted on almost any surface.

I will be back toward the end of the month.  Please send your money in to Diane if you haven't paid yet for the seminar.  We had a committment from our members in November that most will be attending.  We have opened up the seminar to other chapters and we hope to have enough attendees to cover the costs.  I had hoped we would be able to meet at the fire house but after looking at the room I think it will be too small.  So we will have the seminar at the Beulah Community Center.  We will meet in February at the fire station.  More later!

Decorative Painting: a free Learning with Ros Stallcup

Annual Christmas Party

The holidays are fast approaching and time to host our annual Christmas Party.  This year it will be held at O'Charley's at 2 pm on Saturday, 7 December 2013.  If you plan to participate in the Dirty Santa you will need to bring a gift to value about $15.00 - $20.00.  We always have the most fun with our ornament exchange.  If you are participating you can bring up to five ornaments in a brown paper bag.  What ever number you bring you will get to choose the same number from the ornaments everyone else will bring.  Do not write on the bag.  We like hand made or hand painted but if you are stumped as to what to bring, a purchased ornament will be just as nice. 

I can't remember if I told you but we are able to have Ros Stalcup here in January.  The seminar will be held 18-19 January from 9 am til 5 pm.  I am hoping we will be able to have it in our new meeting location at the Fire House.  The projects with the most votes are:

Ros will supply the paint and she will be bringing books and brushes for you to purchase.  We plan to take her out to dinner on Saturday and invite all of you to go with us.  Please plan to do so as it would be nice if we had a good turnout.  You don't necessarily have to order dinner, maybe dessert or a cup of coffee.  She will stay in a hotel since she is driving and her husband comes with her.  If you haven't painted with her before she will have a video system in place so you can see what she is doing from your table.

I cancelled Peggy Harris for March.  She was very understanding and hopefully we can get her again at a later time - and when our finances are in better shape.  We won't have a meeting in January.

The past few weeks have been very hectic - a nephew went back in for his 13th operation (he's only 13), the next day his mom had a mass removed from her breast (only 42 and has a 87% chance of it becoming cancer), and the next day my daughter in law had a hip replacement.  I am doing the cooking for my son and his family - and y'all know how well I cook - until she is back on her feet.  And I am picking the girls up everyday from school, not a biggie but they live in the next county.  I expect to be quite busy the next few weeks.  But I will be at the party.

See you then,

November Paint In with Diane

 

 



     Do you ever have those days when you just can't think of what to paint?  It sure didn't happen at the Janice Miller seminar - everyone did a really great job on their Jantangle.  That took some thinking!!  Now that we have completed our seminar with Janice Miller, it is on to finishing out the year with one more project.  Diane will teach the ribbon pine cone ornament at our next meeting.  You should have received an email with a list of supplies but just in case I am adding it below.  We will have our normal meeting and then will start our projects.  Being that this is the last meeting we will have this year, there are several things we need to discuss:

     a.  Our bank account
     b.  Fund raiser for next year
     c.  2014 seminars
     d.  Club participation
     e.  Newsletter
     f.  Board positions
     g.  Increase in dues
     h.  Being a member of National vs. not

     I want to take this time to thank Jane for the wonderful job she did this year with the seminars.  We had some great teachers and lots of fun.  The teachers had such lovely things to say about her and how welcomed she made them feel.  Now that she has completed the two years, we are in need of someone to take her place.  This position can be held by more than one person and it is what I would suggest since almost half of our chapter lives outside of Pensacola.  With this position you would receive your seminar free - with two people you would share.  Since we only have two seminars a year it is really quiet simple. 

     I know I keep harping about this but we need someone to be Secretary.  This also can be done by several people in case one is not able to attend.  It is simply a matter of keeping notes of what happens during the meeting.  Nothing fancy, you don't have to write down everything, you can then give it to the President at the end of the meeting or send it by email.  That's it...I can think of no reason why one of our members can't handle this. 

     I have a lot going on in my life and I am cutting back on a lot of my projects.  Hence, I will no longer send out newsletters effective the first of the year.  If someone would like to take over this position, I have the program which makes it very easy.  I will continue the blog for now and will revamp it so you will receive almost the same amount of information as in the newsletter.  The newsletter is an unnecessary expense right now that we cannot afford and I do not have the time to put into it like I had before.  I have always enjoyed writing the newsletter and enclosing little articles for you but it has become time consuming so I will try to do as good a job with the blog.  Just be patient with me.

I have reserved a room for the Christmas Party.  We will discuss this at the meeting.

As I am sure you all know, we only had 13 members attend the last seminar for which the club took a big loss.  We are going to have to be realistic and start following the rules as stated in our club brochure on seminars.  Some things we can look the other way but with our limited funds we have no money to fall back on when we don't have enough attendees.  Our bank account is very low, Diane will talk about this at the meeting.  We hope to replenish some of it next year with fund raisers but for now we are going to have to take a good look at what we have planned for 2014 and how we can attain it.  If you have any ideas on fund raising, please speak out.  We have such a great group of ladies in our club no one needs to be bashful.  We also need to discuss the Ros Stallcup seminar.  It will cost approximately $2,000 for her seminar.  We will need a minimum of 23 people at $85 each to even come close to breaking even.  I have had only one person contact me outside the club about the seminar and we are only two months away.  So the dilemma is - if we do not get a commitment from our members we may have to cancel. 

I think I have found a place to have our meetings.  The board has been diligently looking all year for a place that would accommodate us.  Everyone wants to charge - and as I said before, our money is tight.  I was very frustrated a few weeks ago and just about ready to call it quits with the club when Jane suggested that I try the fire departments.  I called several - one had a room upstairs, I couldn't see us dragging our stuff upstairs.  Another never called back.  I called the Ferry Pass Fire Department and the LT. was very cooperative and said he saw no reason why we couldn't use the training room they have - bottom floor.  He said it will seat 35 class room style.  He said he only needed to run it by the Board of Directors and since he was Vice President, he didn't think it would be a problem.  But their meeting is on 4 November so I won't have a definite until then.  They ask nothing in return but did say they like to eat.  I am sure we will find a way to repay them if it is approved. 

This gives you some things to think about before the meeting.  I hope you will come with suggestions and the willingness to give a little of your time.  Without it our club will not survive.

See y'all Saturday.

NOTE:  Yippee!! I just got a call from the LT at the Fire Department and they have agreed to loan us the room for our meetings and seminars.  I will take him a schedule tomorrow and will see if it will meet our needs - I am sure it will since our major need is FREE SPACE.

RIBBON ORNAMENT WITH DIANE

Our meeting will start at 10 am and soon afterwards we will start the pine cone ornament.  I have made these myself and although they take a little time they turn out so pretty.  Here is a photo of one from several years ago:


The supplies you will need are:

Scissors

Styrofoam egg shape form  size approximately 1 7/8 inch by 2 1/2 inch.  for the pine cone

Styrofoam cone shape for size approximately 3 inch by 2 inch for the Christmas Tree

lots of straight pins, plain, no fancy head on the pins, cheapest you can find

Ribbon (Found in the Christmas ribbon section at Michael's) 7/8 inch wide and wired edge.

Ribbon topper. Bow at the top of the ornament. I  find it at the Dollar Tree and use wired edge 1.5 inch wide fancy Christmas ribbon that looks good with the ribbon for the actual pine cone..

I have plenty of ribbon for the hanger. 

 

That is it for this month.  I hope I didn't make anyone mad, I worked for the military for almost 30 years so I have a habit of writing without frills or as they say, the KISS method.  So please take the above in the manner it was meant, concern and love for our club and its members.