Joy Is....Having an Art Day with Friends

Another week gone.

Only two photo's today, since I did not take even one pic of yesterday's art day!! WOW! I am lame!

But that just means we will have to do it again soon, so I can. Bhwahahaha! Yes I am evil when I need to be!

Friends, Eva and Lotus and new art friend Dee came over for a few hours and played. I put my Vagabond, and my air compressor out for my copic marker's so we could play with them.

I attempted to make my own decorated tape. First I taped wide masking tape to the slick side of freezer paper, then I spray inked some Color Wash over some stencils to make decorated tape, so here is a shot of that:


I am going to work on this again, since I want happy bright tape and this is more drab ucky tape, but it was fun to mess with.

My doctor visit went well this week! He was blown away with my lab work results. Hee Hee! He said whatever you do, keep doing it. I go back in 3 months and hopefully my glucose will be lower. It is not crazy high, but it needs to be under 100.

This was also my last week for the Diabetes classes I have been taking on Thursday nights. They were very informative. I need to sign up for the weight loss classes to get it in my head better. Maybe I will.

Just an update on my friend Lotus. Her hubby's service was this week and she is doing OK. I am sure you noticed above that she attended the art day. She finished a beautiful Mandala canvas that she had been working on and made a couple of ATC's for us. Here is mine:


The best part of yesterday is that Eva and Dee are not into Art Journaling, except for Dee who has taken a ton of Tim Holtz classes and so she likes the concept from that direction, but I am working on dragging them them to real AJ'ing side. You know, This is Scrapbooking---AJ'ing is Scrapbooking on Drugs! They will be AJ'er's in no time! Hee Hee!

Please have a safe and Happy Halloween, Bhwahahaha!!

I am headed back to LA next week for a training class, good for the class, bad for me to be gone away from my divisions for a whole 'nother week.

PS: 9 weeks left of 2011. Just thought you would want to know this.

Joy Is....Stick A Fork In It, This Week is Done...Thankfully

Whew, what a week! Totally a roller coaster ride.

In Review:

I was south of here all week working at a division with a ton of Drama!! Grrr! I was conducting an Audit and found a few things that have to be corrected soon. Grrr! But while I was preparing to come home, a very serious acccident occured with a bus and I had to stay and work on that. Serious accidents/collisions take a ton of mental work to ensure that all of the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed.

In the middle of that, I received a very sad text from my art friend Lotus. She texted to tell me her hubby, Danny had died that day! OMG!! And even though it was not a shock because of his health condition, it still knocked me for a loop. I love Lotus as a friend and we have talked so much about this day, and now it had happened. WOW! So sad for her and her kids. Please remember her in your prayers. Thanx!

Now on to the better news. I believe I have told you about my health with my very high Cholesterol, diabetes, being too fat and high blood pressure. Well, I had to go get another lab work done on Friday because I go back to see the Dr next Wednesday. So late Friday afternoon I received an email from Sutter Health that I had new messages in my inbox. Well my blood work was already back and OMG!! My Cholesterol was 299 on August 26th and on Friday, my Cholesterol was 199!!!! I have dropped 100 points in less than 2 months!! Woo Hoo!! You ask how? I have changed my diet as much as I can by eating waaay less carbs, very very little fast food, I did have one JIB Jr Jumbo Jack this week as I had not eaten since breakfast and it was 2:30pm and I was 150 miles from home, on my way home. I am trying to get into the exercise habit, but have only walked maybe 30 to 45 minutes since August. So the only major thing that I am doing now is taking Fish Oil and Red Yeast Rice twice a day. I was told by the health food store guy that these two together would bring down my C very fast, and it has!! It does not mean I get to eat like a crazy person again, because my Glucose was still high at 123. But it means that I will continue to take the supplements forever!! I was doing the happy dance Friday night and I am still dancing today!

Yesterday I went to a Craft Boutique in Lockeford to see my friend Eva since she was selling stuffs with her cousin, Martha. There was so much cool stuffs everywhere. I bought this from Martha as a gift for Lotus:


She makes great Rossettes from the Tim Holtz die.

Then I got these great bottlecaps fom Eva, cool huh?:




This guy is a magnet. Cool

And I found a vendor that was selling these great Hippie Duckies:




And they joined the other Duckies to become part of The Yellow Duckie Family (Journal Pals) that lives in my Craft Cave!


Wow that is actually a good photo. They look like they are looking up at the camera!! WOW! Someday, a how to take good photo's with a point and shoot class needs to be in my future!

Anyway, thanx for listening to my high and low week. Drive safe, stay safe until next week, my friends!

Joy is.......A Full Week

Back from LA. Had a great time, even though it was work. Any time I am on the receiving end of learning, I am stoked!! And I got to come home a day early, better yet!

So now to the new Sacramento Airport Terminal B and some drama. First of all the new Terminal is amazingly beautiful. This 50 foot Rabbit Art Installation is amazing.



WOW! So cool. There are more beautiful art installations through out also.

Now to the drama. for those who know me well, you know that I travel for work and fly when I have to. I have never had any issues until this week. After learning my way around the new Terminal and getting to security, I got through only to be pulled aside to have my hands swabbed for ?? I don't know, gun powder residue? Oh well, it only took like 3 minutes. No big deal, no body scan, and no bag search. But when I was leaving Ontario on Wednesday to come home, again I was pulled out and this time, got the full body scan, pat down, hands swabbed again and bag searched. OK, wanna know why?? When the security guy took me and my stuff to the side, he unzipped one compartment in my back pack and reached straight down deep and pulled out a short 8 oz bottle of water, that I had no idea was in there and had been in there on Monday when I went through security in Sacramento. LOL! Very interesting Drama.

I just realized that October is my Twitter-versary. A whole year I have been keeping up to date with my arty tweet friends!! It is a fun thing to do. I am following 46 people and 161 are following me, but just like this blog, I only hear from a very few folks. Oh well!

New Toy:


I bought this Rotary Cutting machine on Craigslist this week. Cool! Says it will cut paper. We will see!

And I also found these:


7 Gypsies Tissue Paper. They are called, Keys, Frames and Silhouettes. Yes!


And this is a set of 7 Gypsies Steampunk clear stamps. Woot!!

And the best part of this week?? I stalked out a new art friend at Michael's. Hee! Anyone is fair game, if they are in the Tim Holtz aisle, making comments like, "Michael's just doesn't carry a lot of TH stuff." So I struck up a conversation with her, and found out that her name is Dee and she is a die hard scrapper that loves Tim Holtz!! She gave me her email addy and so I came home, emailed her my cell number, and to make a long story short, she called last night and we chatted for over an hour. She knows tons of stuff about everything but art journaling, so I have volunteered to guide her into this fascinating world!! AND she doesn't do drama!! Oh yes!! I love her already!! Woot!! Can you tell that I am a tad stoked! My name is Sharon and I am a Stalker. Ha!

I went to another Diabetes class Thursday night. I don't plan on having this disease very long so the more education I can get about it, the better to learn how to get rid of it faster.

Well that's all folks, have a creative week.

Joy is...........Hobby Lobby is Open!!

Hey folks,

Yep as you can see above, our brand new Hobby Lobby opened Friday. It took our old Mervyns building that had been empty, well since Mervyn's closed about 3 years ago. They have sooo much cool stuff there. Tons of craft stuff but the home decor stuff is the best. I am in love!! I have went twice and only spent maybe $60.00, that's all.

Here is a new Halloween journal spread I have been working on:


I felt like I needed to do something for fall, and with Halloween around the corner, this felt right.

We went to the Stockton Flea Market today and I found an IPod Player for my desk:


Now I can listen to my music through my IPod Touch and not itunes which I perfer while working in my Journal. And the best part is it only cost me $7.00. And if you click and look at the photo, it will show you Matt Nathanson's new album playing on it. Love his new music. Woot!

The last weekend of October either that Saturday or Sunday, I am hosting a Play Day at my house for my friend's Eva and Lotus to come over and play or make art stuff or whatever they want for one whole day. Lotus brought it up, so I am crossing my fingers that she can come, even if it is a half a day. Eva wants to learn how to bind journals which Lotus can show her and I want to create my pen storage boxes. Can't wait and hope all goes well.



As you can see by this photo, tomorrow morning I am flying to LA for a week for a meeting with my Boss and the other ASD's. Can't wait to see the fancy new Terminal B at the Sacramento Airport in the morning. Should be cool. And just now, the hubs came in and told me the dryer belt broke! Great, now I have to figure a way to dry my clothes tonight!! Don't want to fly in wet britches. Yikes!!

So with that I guess I will get off of here and find a laundry mat. Have a great week and create some art, my friends!

The Faces of a Genius

I know by the time this hits the blogisphere, people will be tired of hearing about Steve Jobs, but I have to write something.

We would not be where we are today with the way we communicate if it wasn't for this man changing the way we communicate.

Just think of the soldiers that are in the war at this very moment. They can not only talk to their families, but SEE them very clear as well with the invention of the iPhone. This is huge for the young Mother or Father with a young family that has to be away from home for months and/or years at a time.

Genius!

Think Different!

RIP Steve

Joy is.......Letting It Go

Hi folks,

This week was a whirlwind of non stop work and planning and another doctor visit, that has me now sticking my fingers with a needle. YIKES! And I ain't even liking that. Yes he says I have Type 2 Diabetes, very high Cholesterol (299), High Blood Pressure, etc, etc. Oh and just a tiny 100lbs too much weight. OK, so I must behave and eat right and take new meds, and exercise. YIKES, again! He only gave me a Blood Pressure Pill for now, but I have to go back in a month, and then he will decide if I need a Cholesterol pill too. So I have to be good and stay away from Bread, Potatoes, Pasta, no Fast Food, and Salt. OMG! That is all I eat. So I have to let go of all of my loves and figure this out, because I refuse to be a sick person with this disease. So today I worked in my bedroom to "unload" my treadmill, because I must walk on it come hell or highwater. OK enough of that!

Next I received some papers from a paper swap I was in.


This first one is my favorite. This is a piece of "Driveway Art" from Dede at http://inkiwell.blogspot.com/ She actually tapes large pieces of paper to her driveway and paints and stencils them while recording on Ustream Live, then cuts them into 8 1/2 X 11 inch papers for her paper swap. Please go watch her Ustream recordings for the fun. The next two Dede sent came from others who sent in papers to swap.


This is a paper from my friend Kerri at http://ikerrilove.blogspot.com/



And this one is a paper from Shannon. I sent in 2 Deli Papers and so I got 3 back, just cause Dede knew I was after at least one piece of driveway art.

OK so I have been kicking around some ideas for a place I could store all of my pens and markers, laying hortizontal and where I could have easy access to them. I finally think I have it, although I don't have pictures yet, just an explanation. Michael's had photo boxes on sale for 3 for $5.00 and I bought 6. So picture this: I am going to attach 3 to each other end to end for a length of about 36 inches, then do the same with the other 3, then put them together as a 6 pack, 3 on top and 3 on the bottom. Then divide each box in half longways with a piece of form board so each box will have a shelf in the center and THEN, (I know this is long,) divide each shelf in into 3 sections with more form board. So each box will have 6 spaces which will give me a total of 36 spaces to put my pens. Whew!! Since I am down sizing everything I own right now, I have the room to put up this creation and use it. I will show you pics when I get it built.

My friend Paula at http://www.journalartistaart.com/ made a journal out of a magazine. Go see what she says about it on her blog. So I found those Apts for Rent books at CVS and I think it will work. It is small, 5 1/2 X 8 inches, see here:



And here:



The pencil box is next to it for size reference. Paula painted and collaged in hers and I just think it might be fun. You could also use a regular size magazine and paint the text out but keep the photos for journaling and backgrounds.

And lastly, I got my new Tim Holtz limited edition Distress Ink Pads. Woot!



In this pic they are stacked on top of each other, but the colors are, Seedless Preserves, Ripe Persimmon and Gathered Twigs. They were released only for this fall and will not have reinkers. There is a winter release coming out too, just once. I already have mine on reserve, of course.

This has been a very long post, but sometimes I get long winded. Tomorrow I have to stay at home cause I am having my car looked at for a very loud roaring sound coming from the back. Since it is my work car and my everything car too, I have to have it.

Have a great week.