Candice Windham Design Studio

...46 days since my last post? AARRGGHH!! I'm totally useless! Since then I have: 1. Finally retired - for the second time- from my job at MLGW.I managed to get their museum updated before I left, which was a necessity. I created it for the 60th anniversary in 1999 and updated it for the 70th in 2009. If you are ever in beautiful downtown Memphis, go by and check it out at the MLGW offices at 220 S. Main. 2. Spent a weekend at European Papers' Artiscape in Columbus, Ohio, where I met some cool ladies and saw some awesome Rugby players in really unusual outfits. 3. Cleaned my office from top to bottom and discovered some things I thought I had lost. Also discovered that I have more than 1,000 CDs of files archived from my Mac. Do you think I should check everyone or just turn them into a craft project? I promise to post more often and include some cool tutorials involving painting, stamping and paper arts techniques. The image here is a preview from our new Girly Girls CD at Ro...

We lost two good friends this weekend. One, Willie Burroughs, was a musician who has definitely left his imprint on the Memphis music scene. Not only was he a great musician, he instilled the musical muse in his son Tommy, who will carry on his father's legacy. Willie will be greatly missed. The second was Amanda Conner Gray, daughter of our dear friends Jack and Kathy Conner. Amanda was a wife and mother of two children and was taken too soon. She loved animals, dressed up every Halloween ... I have the rock star pics to prove it...and was a joy to be around. I can't begin to imagine what her family is going through. She was with her mother Friday night until 11:30 or so and when she left, her last words were, "I love you, Mom." Amanda died of an aneurism sometime early Saturday morning. Another friend lost her son last week. I didn't know him, but the photos I saw of him reminded me of my own son. This is a reminder that we can never know when our time is up. Am...

...and finally up! The California air was great, but it knocked me for a loop! I had no voice while I was there and have been in bed with a horrid cold since I got back, but went to the doc today for some much-needed meds. Otherwise, these pics would have been here earlier. This is the surf at Newport Beach, just below the beach home of Brad and Angelina. The house was gorgeous, but I spent a lot more time looking at the surf. I wrote our name in the sand, so that all the surfers would know who we were and rush home to look us up on the net, but forgot to add in the "www" and ".com". It seemed like a good idea at the time, although it was gone by the next morning. I also spent a lot of time snapping pics of seagull tracks and wash areas that I will post later. We had some wonderful food, like this lucious creme brulee. We also had lots of pastas with super-rich sauces and two-count 'em - two trips to the Cheesecake Factory. The best part? We walked so much to a...

Roxi and I were California girls for a day. We took a tour today that took us to Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and Laguna Beach for a day of beachcombing and gallery hopping. I'll post pics when I get home. We had such a great CHA show, but are ready to get back to Tennessee, although the half-naked guys playing beach volleyball caused us to stop and think about sticking around for a while. I did take pics. You'll see 'em by the weekend. We are tired, but full of new ideas for classes. We'll be sharing those with you soon and will be adding a lot of new merchandise in the next few weeks, so be sure to check out www.rockcandystudios.com See you soon in Tennessee! WhooHoo! Go hug someone you love.

The CHA show is over, my feet have walked about a bajillion miles and Roxi, Roann and I are all exhausted. Roann just makes me tired, talking about her taxi picking her up for the airport at 3:50 a.m. We had a great dinner with Niki Meiners and Carla Schauer, two talented designers from North Carolina and Cincinnati respectively, at a tiny little hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant called Carolina's. Cheesy oregano bread, huge plates of pasta with a variety of incredible sauces, spumoni, strawberry cheesecake and tiramisu. Need I say more? Roxi and I are staying an extra day, through a happy accident in plane reservations, and plan to hit the Laguna Beach area tomorrow morning, for a day of gallery hopping and beach walking. We'll be back home in frozen Memphis Friday night. We all had a very successful show and are coming home with lots of new techniques and ideas. Be sure to check back often. Roxi and I will be posting some classes in the next few weeks, and we will also be a...

...and not in my house, where we keep the temperature at a cool 60°. Larry likes so that when we sneeze, it snows. I like it when I get a low utility bill. The CHA countdown is here, and I'm doing what I usually do: coming up with killer project ideas when I fly off to California in less than 90 hours. Will I get my designer showcase ready? Have to. Will the press kits get finished? Have to. Will I forget something totally necessary? Without a doubt. BUT... I intend to have the best time ever at CHA. I'm taking a few fun classes: jewelry making, encaustic and raku as well as some business seminars. Roxi and I (the RockCandy sistas) will be checking out new products for our online store and reporting back to you. Because of a snafu in our flight reservations, we'll be staying in sunny California an extra day. I know, I know. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it. I'll try to post here while I'm away and let you know what new and exciting products are ...

Today is our monthly stamp club meeting and we are making booklets for our new members' welcome packet. This project could easily be adapted to hold a stationery set of cards and matching stamped envelopes. Using a 12 X 12 piece of printed double-sided cardstock, score it in half on one side and 3" from the bottom on the other. Fold it in half so you have a 6" X 12" book, then fold up the bottom to the inside to make the pocket. I like to trim away the center of the pocket so it will fold better. For embellishing, I used a swirly stamp from Technique Tuesday and stamped in a diagonal pattern across the front with white pigment ink, then embossed with clear embossing powder. I used Colorbox ink pads to apply blues and greens lightly over the pattern, then wiped away the excess with a tissue, revealing more of the white swirls. I used the same stamp to stamp blue swirls across the white ones for added interest, then wiped again with the tissue. Add eyelets to hold the ...