Getting Ready

Hey Folks.

Just a short post about what is going on in my little world.

Besides trying to have work done on my car, it is 10 years old and just starting to act a little tired. It has to live another 2 years! But with 185 + thousand miles on it.......we will see. I can't handle payments yet!

And I am up to my neck in Dr appts and procedures, Yuk!

AND, on Tuesday, my 6'4" baby boy is coming home for a week! So this weekend I have been trying to clean house some. And now at 4 pm on Sunday, it don't look too shabby. It will do! Jason is coming home now, cause he wants to be able to visit with his Grandparents. Since Grandma is 90 and Grandpa is 94, he has to come, since he won't be able to get back here for a few more years. But the sad part he is coming alone cause my DIL won't take the kids out of school now so close to the end of the year. I am not upset with that decision. I totally agree. So it will be a while longer before I see them, but I will live. So for the next week, I am going to be very very busy, with work and my son. Yikes!

I wanted to share what I did yesterday with my art group.

It was so cool. We each had a canvas and made a background. Then we passed them to the person on the right of us, and we got 10 minutes to add stuff to that canvas and so on, we passed them every 10 minutes until our own got back to us. WOW!! I love it!

Then after, me and my friend Arlene that was kind to give me a ride stopped at an estate sale and I picked up 2 Lincoln books:

Very cool and super cheap! YAY! And we also stopped at a Antique Sale out in the country that is only open 2 weeks a year! Yea, that's what we thought. Anyway, I bought these tin type photos there:

Oops! sorry, I took it the wrong way with my Iphone. But they are cool! And I am now completely caught up with Downton Abbey! YAY! I cannot wait for Season 4 to begin I think in Sept!

So that is what has been going on!

I will be back after my son goes home and I will show ya some pics of his visit! He told me the first thing he wants to do is go to a 7-11 and get a chili cheese dog! WOW!

Bye!

Late as Always

Well I am back for just a short post tonight.

I am really struggling lately with work, my health, and my Daddy's health. I am exhausted all of the time, because I can't be home every night I guess.

I must get better myself before I can help others. So I REALLY need to get serious!

Since the last time I have been here, I went to a Kelly Kilmer class in Fremont. I made a great new type of journal for me. More like a portfolio. Pretty cool! And I needed the break from work also. It was fun as always. I laughed alot, and I needed that more than anything else.

Other stuff going on, is I am now a Downton Abbey Junkie! OK, so yes I am very late getting into this DRAMA! But everyone has been talking about it on Facebook and Twitter, and the first season was on Netflix, so I watched it and now I am hooked! My friend Arlene, let me borrow her Season 2 & 3 DVD's today, so I can catch up with everyone else!

I am also trying to get my art cave cleaned up....again! I need a craft maid! LOL Maybe someday I will get busier than I have been lately. It has been almost 2 years since I really was serious about cleaning in here! Yikes!

Oh, I know you want to know what I am reading. Well, I am right now hooked on 30 & 40's pulp fiction detective books. Cool old Signet, etc paperbacks with the best images on the covers, that were 25 cents when new. I find them at the flea market and used bookstores. They absolutely smell terrific! I love the smell of old book paper!
YUM! LOL

Oh I am going to another arty class next Saturday. I believe we are going to do some arty stuffs on canvases!! Woot! Since I have never been much at creating on canvas, this should be fun!

And one more thing before I go. This morning I saw our Big Boy Koi Fish, Homer, out of his pond laying on the lawn, deceased! And later my hubs found 2 more smaller gold fish dead on the ground also. I do believe we have a raccoon visiting at night! So there are 3 fishies left tonight. Let's see what I find in the morning . Hopefully happy swimming fishies!

So that is about it. I know I have not been posting much lately and I apologize, but I will keep plugging along. Just hang in there with me!

Bye!

Back Again

Hey folks, I am back again after another hiatis.

Those who know me, know that I take my day job very serious. And the last year it has been a struggle to stay afloat when the company I work for has conducted lay off's 3 times. I worry each and every day that I could get the tap on the shoulder and it will be over. But I keep working my brains out and so far I have survived. But that is enough of THAT drama.

I actually took a junk journal class today with my local art group and it was fun. We made Junk Journals with a coil binding. Remember to click on the pics to make them larger.

We used numerous junky type papers which included everything under the sun. These are a few of the papers I used, including a coffee filter for a pocket.

As you can see at the bottom, I made it wonky, but I don't care. I had a fun time learning how to use the binding machine to punch the holes, stack the pieces and then run the coil into them so it was bound. Next time, even though I like different size papers and envelopes, etc. I will stick with the sme size papers until I get the hang of it. It is actually about 8.5 X 11.

Anyway, since the store we meet at is an arts and crafts, school supply, 4-H Supplier, etc store, I always have to go shopping before we leave, and today was no exception. And OMG! I hit the Motherlode! Woot!

Behold, the Motherlode as in Faber Castel Big Brush Pens!!! I almost fell over as these were in the 50% off discount bins. In packages of 4 each and I took all I could find, and at $7.15 a package, I could not resist. I bought 5 packages! I love these pens. And they work as stamp markers too, cool!

And yesterday on my way home from the Bay Area, my car, instead of driving home all of a sudden went on detour and when it stoppped I was in Berkeley at Scrapbook Territory. WOW! I still don't know how that happened *wink*

So these interesting items jumped into my hands and into the car:

The white handles are Doodle Rollers! So cool. One is a Chevron design and the other is an arrow design. Cool. You will also see 3 new stencils and a Rays rubber stamp in the back. The magazine you see is a new art journal magazine called Featuring and it comes from the UK and features newer lesser known artists. It is great and was waiting for me when I got home.

Here is a clearer shot of the new Dylusions rubber stamps I bought. I could not resist the skulls.

Here is some lucious Japanese Paper that my friend Bev brought me today from her recent trip to Japan. Woot!! The 2 white pieces are huge and the bottom piece is very heavy. So cool!

And that, my friends is what I have been up to recently. I am doing my best to get back to the every weekend post, but to tell you the truth, I am exhausted on the weekends and don't want to do much.
So now I am off to go read and relax and unwind before I will be able to sleep.

And here I am now:

Bye!

I'm Baaaaack!

Hi everyone.

It has been a little while since I posted, but I have been busier than a one armed paper hanger!

This past weekend, I arted all day Friday with my good friend Beth. Shhhh, I was kinda playing hooky from work.

And then on Saturday and Sunday, I took 2 classes from the fabulous Dyan Reaveley. She is a hoot! And talks with a great British accent. Such a down to earth instructor as long as you LISTEN when she talks! LOL, more on that later.

 

Her hair is a great shade of red, don't ya think?

 

 

I brought this fellow to Dyan as a thank you for the class and since their hair color matches, I could not pass it up. Dyan immediately named him Gordon. Here is a pic of myself, Dyan and Gordon after class.

 

 

I am telling you this lady can teach. You are mentally and physically exhausted at the end of her classes, but wow, what a great ride. LOL

 

I must admit, the most interesting thing about my fab weekend was this:

  

 

While I was grabbing stuff to take to the classes, I looked down under my art table where I keep my magazines stored for collage images and saw this statement peeking out. I almost fell off of my chair from laughing. Click on the pic to enlarge it.

 

Oops, I almost forget to show you what I worked on in Dyan's class:

  

 

This is a small 5.5 X 8 inch journal made out of cardstock and Tim Holtz Kraft Resist papers, etc. It is 1 inch thick.

 

 

Here is an inside peek of one spread. Next is a couple of shots of the BIG Journal that Dyan created just for her type of art journaling. It is 11.5 X 9 inches. Huge and has the best paper. Go get one if you like to create on big pages.

 

 

 

What do you think???

 

OK so hope this has caught me up in the blog world for now. Whew! I am trying to come down from this art journaling  high I am on and trying my best to talk with a British accent now, LOL!! Have a safe week, folks!

Ready or Not a New Year is Here

Hey folks,

Hope everyone survived Christmas, and you got great new arty stuffs. I did get some stuff.

I got a cool bluetooth keyboard case for my Ipad. I love it. It is so much easier to do emails, etc.

I also got gift cards from:

Hobby Lobby (already gone)

Starbux (now on my Iphone, so cool to use)

Barnes & Noble

Stampers Corner (LSS)

Target

So I did OK in the gift card dept! And I also bought myself a used Canon Selphy Photo Printer! Woot! I haven't connected it up yet to my computer, because it is bluetooth and I want to print from my phone, so I need to get a bluetooth adapter for it so I can. Here it is, the box anyway, and a little help of the cat!

 

This next pic is a happy surprise. A few weeks ago, Seth Apter posted on Facebook that for one day his 2 new DVD's could be downloaded from North Light Books for $5.00 each. Well I ran there and found out that his were the only DVD's not listed for the $5.00 downloads that day. So I told him and he sent me both hard copies!! OMG!! I about died. Seth Apter is a genius and his backgrounds are fabulous. If you don't know about his art, run now to his blog and check his work out!!!

 

 

This past Thursday, I got to go up to Niles to my friend's studio and have an art day. I took my new friend Bev with me and I practiced working with the Gelli Plate. This is what I did:

I did a few more pieces over scrapbook paper, but these turned out the best on the old book pages.  I then talked to my sister from another Mother in Washington last night about printing stuff on scrapbook paper in your printer, so this morning I tried it and this is what I got:

This was a piece of 12 X 12 paper that I had on my art table that I would doodle on occasionally and so I cut it to 8.5 X 11 and put it in my printer and printed a journal page over it. Kinda cool. Of course I didn't take a before shot! Boo!

So yesterday I cleaned all day in my art cave and:

A cleaned off art table is a happy art table ready for new and exciting artsy adventures in the new year!

Happy New Year folks. Play it safe tonight!

Merry Ho Ho's

Hi,

I am off the radar at the moment.

But I will be attending 3 EXCITING ART DAYS in the near future I will want to share with you, so until then:


Happy Holidays!!

Be safe, hug your kids, your spouses, your partners, a stranger and laugh too much.

And since it is the 21st and I made it out of bed and am writing this, we survived!

I will be back in 2013 with a continuance of my chaotic life!! Until then:

Happy Holidays to all!

New Toys and New Friends

I have been bad again.....

I went shopping online recently and acquired new arty stuffs as you can see here.

 

I cannot pass up tape OR stencils and I really needed these. Yep!

 

 

I also needed new stickers for my journal that Sami was selling in her Etsy shop.

 

I am very excited as I met another new Art Friend this week, and I did NOT stalk her either. Cause now I have other folks doing my stalking for me. Hee! Her name is Bev and we met at the fancy new huge Starbux that is here the other evening so we could get aquainted and she checked out my journals. So now I have a bunch of close by arty friends. YAY!! So the secret to this is to find the time to have art days together. Hope that will take place soon.

 

This next week should be the last week I will have to actually travel for work for the remainder of the year. I asked for the last 2 weeks of the year off for vacation, and got it approved with a couple of conditions, but hopefully it will be OK! I want to do some clutter cleaning in my art cave! Or I should say, I must do some cleaning in here before my stuff completely takes over!!

 

OK I'm out!