Cleaning House YUK! But I Am Famous!

Yes, cleaning the house this weekend. Yuk!

My brother from Virginia will be here on the 8th for Daddy's 93rd BD! And he will be here until the 25th. BUT I will be gone for a week of that to Missouri:-) I won't see him much this year, cause when I get back, he will leave the next day to go back home, but we are OK with that this year. He will have to entertain the old folks all by himself while I am entertaining in MO.

I am famous!! Thank you, please save your applause for the end. HA!

On my last post, see above, a nice lady named Laura from thealteredbooknook.com commented and asked me if I would be interested in being a featured artist on her web site. Well I wrote a very short bio and sent it last night with a couple of phtos of journal spreads and she put me on her site!!

Go here to see: http://thealteredbooknook.com/index.html. Scroll down on the left to find me. Another lady has also been featured, and my good friend Lotus that got me into this craziness was asked also, so that will be fun to see both of us on there.

Oh yea now, applause please. Awww Thanx!:)

Oh yea, I am back in the water business. Hubs fixed all of the broken pipes last weekend, so I can use the kitchen and the dishwasher again. YES!!

And just now while I have been writing this, Hubs sold his restored 1969 Mustang Mach1 Fast Back, and a few months back he also sold his restored 1956 MGA convertable. Sad when you have to give up the things you love the most to pay the bills. Sigh!

Oh check out what Lotus brought over tonight!!! Weeeeeee! And she added a book mark.



I gave her the book last week and here is the result! Filled with some kind of cool black paper.



Hard to see the Copic Binding.



And she added a library pocket in the front, and I have one of those stamps that they use to use on them. Thinking this just might be my next journal. Gel pens would be fun to use in this!

Gotta go and begin cleaning!!

Have a great creative weekend!

All Kinds of Stuff Going On and Some Journaling

Hey happy Friday, folks. This has been a whirlwind week.

First up is the reorganization of the company I work for. Any time that word is used I begin to stress. But it is actually a positive change even though it means that some times now I won't get to come home every night, but I am OK with that.

Next I guess, will be the delightful story of living in a house that ALL of the water pipes have been broken under it for I don't know how long. This includes 2 bathrooms, 1 kitchen, and 1 washing machine. So for the last 2 weeks I have not been able to run water in the kitchen and use the back bathroom. The Hubs has been tunneling under the house every day and digging dirt/mud out so he can get to the problem(s)and replace the pipes. As of last night, we are back to being able to use the washer and the back bathroom again. He is replacing all of the pipes, because honestly they are all broken and water has been running loose under the house for we don't know how long. Unbelievable!! Just plain Drama! No, we can't afford a plumber, before you ask, and Hubs knows this kind of work so there ya go! But it is very yukky because it is muddy down there, since the water was just going on the ground!

My neck is beginning to want to spasm occasionally after the epidural quit working by mid May, after only 2 1/2 months. Never had a neck muscle spasm in my life until the Dr asked me at my appt last week. No I never have spasms. ARG!!

I am now more of a twit! I am learning TweetDeck!! It is a little confusing in the beginning, but after a couple of days it is getting easier, and it makes cool noises:)

I have been actually working in my journal some this past week.









The spread with the photo of the guy sitting on a camel, I found that pic in a book I bought at a yard sale. A Real Deal Poloroid! And notice the 7 Gypsie's Numero Tissue paper I used with my new good Buddy, Matte. Matte Medium that is. Be Gone, stick the pages together, Gel Medium.

29 days till vacation! Woot!

Happy Father's Day to all of the Dad's out there and for the Mom's out there that are the stand in Dad's! My son still calls me on Father's Day to tell me, Happy Father's Day, Mom! There are some good things about being a single parent. And he is 35 yrs old, and has told me that every year since he could talk. Cause he wanted a Dad, and I was all he had!

A Stencil Challenge

Hey folks,

Paula Phillips AKA Journal Artista has a challenge on her blog, http://www.journalartistaart.com this week to see what we can come up with using stencils. Well this is the "Hot Mess" I came up with.



It is a Hot Mess too. But at the bottom you will see the letters; WWPD, Which means What Would Paula Do? Well, Paula, my friend, What would you do with this craziness??

Go check out her blog and make some stencil art journaling, and put it in her blog and have a chance to win some great Crafter's Workshop Stencils cause she is having a give away! Woot!!

And Psst folks, Paula just recorded a DVD for Cloth Paper Scissors that will be ready for pre order soon AND she will be featured in the next Stampington Art Journaling Magazine which will be out on July 1st. This girl is a STAR, I'm telling you! Look her up on You Tube as Journal Artista. She has quite a few basic supply technique videos, etc. You can always learn something new from Paula.

Have a great week folks. I am counting down the days before I leave on vacation:-) Today is 34 more days! Woo Hoo!

I Have a "Treasuring" Addiction

OK there I said it!

I have a horrible addiction to Stuff when it comes to arty supplies! I must admit I have an addicting personality.

When I was young, I drank alot of alcohol. I beat that addiction 27 years ago without anything but my mind to do it!

Then it was smoking, which began at 16 or so in HS which had an open campus for lunch. Insert funny story here: Everyone smoked Marlboro's. They were cool because they had a brown filter. Well if you ever smoked in HS you know that you had none left after school, cause everybody bummed them off of you all day. You were NOT cool if you smoked a white filtered cigerette. So I learned very early on that if I smoked Kool's with a brown filter, I was still cool, but got to keep my smokes, cause no one else wanted to smoke Menthol's. And Marlboro's made my throat burn, I ended up always smoking Menthols End of funny story here! I beat that addiction 17 years ago again with nothing but my mind!

I have however never been able to stop the addiction of food, usually junk food that I was never allowed to have as a kid. I admit I am in love with Mickey D's, Sonic, Taco Bell, Five Guys Burgers, and anything else that resembles fast food! And this helped the cause of putting on 100 lbs when I quit smoking.

So you get the addicted personality of me??

I am also addicted to books. I must have thousand's of books in my house. I am going to stack up all of my art journal, drawing, etc, type books, take some pics of the spines and post next time. I am sure it will take me all week to find them all just to get a picture AND I also know it will not be just one photo. They will never fit in one.

So now on to the gist of this post. I went and purchased NEW art treasures yesterday, when I said I was not going to. I have an addiction, sigh....



Just how many different adhesive's do I need?? I am sure this is not all.....



These were gift's from friends, thanx Lotus and Cheryl. I am intrigued to find more of the Sakura Paint marker. See? Hear what I just said??



These two new books were bought just yesterday. There are 3 in the series of the little drawing books, but of course the other 2 that I bought before are no where to be found today for a snap shot! Agh! And I also am a sucker for book making/binding books!



And this is a little booklet I made from some cheepo file folders. Just taped the pages together with tape. This holds brain storming ideas for a special friend of mine that is in the middle of "just thinking" about writing a book. So without her knowledge, I am making notes and creating an outline for her to begin at a swifter pace. I know she doesn't look at my blog much, so I am not worried about her seeing this and putting 2 and 2 together. I will mail her this hopefully in a month or so. And I may do it anonymously, just to see what happens. This is just a nudge.

Well this has been a very long post. But I feel better and now I just need an addiction counselor appt soon for my "Treasuring" not "Hoarding"!!

3 Day Weekend Art-complishments

Happy Monday! I can say that since it is a Monday and I am not working. Woot!

I have been doing some serious work in my art journal this weekend that i want to share.



I am using a Composition Book that I glued 3 pages together throughout to make it stronger. I am liking this. A little larger than a Moleskine, which is my first love, but with a larger surface to challenge me. And it cost me 25 cents at the back to school sales at Target last fall.
I still have to do some writing for this, thinking maybe something about falling in love? Or maybe something about having someone there to catch me? I will figure it out.



On this spread I used some new 7 Gypsie's 6 X 6 paper called Lille. I love 7 G's. I put a different sheet on each side. The word Abundance means so much to me everyday that I had to use it. The other sheet that says Life is Good, is another happy place for me. I added a bit of corrugate that I made with a paper crimper that I learned from Paula Phillips, my friend in Canada. Please check her out as Journal Artista on You Tube. She is the bestest teacher for learning the basics. She is going places, folks, I'm telling you. And I am glad she considers me a friend. I added the Lille tape to match. I still have work to do on this spread also, but wanted to go ahead and post them.

I took the leap and booked my vacation flight and car rental. It is done! I will be heading to Missouri in July to see my son and his family for a week. I have not been there since '07! I have not seen my Grandkids since then, except for a short 30 hour stay in 2009 when I had traveled to Iowa for work and we all met in KC for the weekend before I flew home. I am looking forward to it so much.

I am stopping in Columbia MO for a couple of hours on the way there to meet Barb Owen who joins in on Paula Phillips Ustreams on Wednesday and Sunday's in the chat room. Can't wait to meet her. I would also like to drive to OK City while I am out there, and meet Jonathan Manning, AKA The Artistc Biker, who has restored an old building to create a Art Studio for kids. I doubt if I will get there, but I certainly would like to. Since I am only going to be there for one week, time will fly!!

OK I am off thinking about a Monday Only Flea Market here, that I never get to go to. Byeeeeee!!

Gotta Share

Hey folks, I know that Blogger has been giving everyone some trouble lately, but I needed to post my every weekend post anyway.

If you are anything like me, you are connected to folks on Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, etc, or just love to be on the internet in ANY capacity.

Since I have been "technologically" enhanced in the last couple of months with acquiring an Ipad 2 and an HTC Thunderbolt Smart Phone, I am now connected more than ever to cyber space. I can now check in, and share what I am doing at any given minute of the day. Or I can check out what everybody else is doing or checking into.

Let's face it; Hi my name is Sharon and I am an Internet Junkie!!
In short, I love it!!!

And so since I love to share what is happening with me and what I find out there surfing all the time, I had to share this new "Improv Everywhere" Musical. If you don't know about Improv Everywhere, you need to connect and check them out.

Have a safe and fun 3 dayer................

RIP My Friend........

Yesterday was my friends' memorial service, who passed last Friday, (see previous post). I met Pam in 2002 and worked for her for 7 years. We became co workers, and she became a mentor to me. But most of all, she became my friend. She and I shared a common thread; both of us had raised our children as single parents, working away from the home everyday, and still gave them the best that we could.

Pam shared my love for antiques and vintage anything's, and often, we would extend our lunch and shop the antique stores downtown by the office.

Pam was a Breast Cancer survivor for over 13 years. And then last fall, it returned with a vengeance. She left her home in February for a routine Chemo Treatment and because of other medical complications, she was never able to return to her home. I visited her weekly in the Hospital and watched this strong, beautiful, spirited woman slipping away.

She made sure that everything for her final arrangements was perfect. She did not want to be a burden to her daughter and son. And as soon as that was finalized, she left us as graceful as she had been, her entire life.

Today she is on her way home to Montana, where she wanted to retire and be close to her son and his family. And now she will be forever.

I love you, my friend.