Please do not copy any images or text from this site and claim them as your own. That's just uncool. If you do use any images or text from this site, please link back to this site. That's the right thing to do and would actually make me happy. Thank you.
« January 2007 | Main | March 2007 »
And that someone would be me!!! :-)
I am continually amused that the glasses I wear these days are SO similar to my very first pair of glasses I got when I was in the 6th grade. Here's a picture of me rockin' those babies on my first day of 7th grade, circa 1971. Check. Me. Out.
Hi there! It's that time of the month again! NO! Not THAT time of the month! :-) It's time to share the projects I submitted for the justjohanna Whimsical Rubber Stamps Design Team! Yay! I had fun this month!
The ever creative Johanna just keeps adding more and more wonderful stamps to her line! And how thrilling is this...justjohanna Whimsical Rubber Stamps is making it's debut at the Del Mar Rubber Stamp Show on March 17 - 18! If you are in that area, please do go check this out! There will be make n takes at the justjohanna both with fellow Design Team members and super talented, Emily Gunnell and Debbie Sheunemann. I am just SO happy for Johanna! She is SUCH a hard working and talented woman and deserves every success! I continue to feel such happiness and gratitude for both her and Cat of Cat's Craft Cupboard. Awesome awesome ladies!!!
So back to cards...I started working on February's assignments just as soon as I mailed off January's and ironically, this was the first month I was late in sending in my projects! Zoinks! My art journal pages just took some time finishing up and I was doing so many things around the house and what not, that BOOM! I was tardy! (sorry ladies!)
I scanned these images. I think they turned out okay except they're a little big! Oh well. Guess I still gots me some learnin' to do with this scanning doohicky whatchamacallit thingy device! :-)
Here's my February card babies...
The frame was made by sandwiching the new justjohanna Dotty Border. Pretty cute, eh?
I used Michelle's Big Scroll stamp with black acrylic paint. I really like how "illustrated" it looks! I was also happy to find a way to put that mini Eiffel tower in a well-deserved starring role on this one!
Okay so one of Johanna's newer stamps is the Bracket Frame (above). It is one of my absolute favoritest rubber stamps of all time! Of all time as in "ever!" I love rubber stamps and I love office supplies. This rubber stamp, people, is a marriage made in Heaven!
Here are my art journal pages for this month...
So with this page, you can kind of tell I am "under the influence" of The Secret. How perfect is that Thought Bubble rubber stamp? :-)
This page really makes me happy. I painted through mesh and then sewed the mesh on to this page. I didn't use any glue on this page. Everything is stitched on, ala the Cabinet of Curiosities project that I'm still working on. :-)
I have one more project to do...so I better get so I can finish that one ON TIME! :-) See ya!
I know The Secret.
Very recently, my dear friend, Lilli, introduced me to The Secret. The Secret is actually anything BUT secret. The author was on Oprah on two occasions. But I didn't see either because I work full-time and only ever can catch Oprah when I'm REALLY sick. But if you know The Secret or once you hear of The Secret, you will understand that OF COURSE I should hear of this through Lilli. It was The Secret in action! :-)
I feel I can tell you The Secret because when I googled it to find a link for you, it was all over the place so I'm not letting the cat out of the bag, and remember, it was all over Oprah!
The Secret is Laws of Attraction. Likes attract likes. That's it in a sentence but if you pick up the book (and I highly recommend it!), there is more to it and some good stuff to just kind of meditate on and ponder.
Now since I have come to know The Secret, I have realized just how present it is in my life, mainly since I started blogging.
Here's something I've been thinking about...
I've been blogging for over a year. Out of all the blogs I've visited and people who have visited my blog, about 15 people or so have surfaced who I completely consider "friends" even without having ever met! But then that process has started. I've already been lucky and have met two of them in person, Andrea and Claudine. So you wanna know how I met Andrea??? She was doing the Journal Your Christmas online class that I was doing which was hosted by Shimelle who lives in England. Andrea was the first to notice that we both lived in the Portland area and after some e-mail exchange, we realized we live approximately one mile from each other! How fun is that!!!
Another fabulous friend I'm going to get to meet soon is Lilli. She and her husband, Steve, are coming to visit and stay with me and my family in March. May I share with you people how absolutely thrilled I am about this!!! And I am also making plans to meet up Jana in the Spring. And I know it won't be much longer before I'll also get to meet the sweet Malou. She lives in the same town as my sister so I know once I get my butt to San Francisco, I'll get to visit both of them (and Britex Fabrics!)
So I've digressed a bit from The Secret but I'll bring them together. Trust me.
So in the course of "meeting" people through blogging and comments, every once in awhile, there seems to be some comments and e-mail exchanges from people that are just a little bit more conversational. Have you ever noticed that? There's just some kind of connection. It's like we have always been friends and we are just now finding each other. It doesn't matter what our medium is or where our artistic interests lay. That's not what connects us. I think what connects us is that we have simiar energy and/or passion and/or similar life experiences. And another thing, (this part totally blows me away) I've noticed that the people I've connected with have ALSO connected with some of the same people I've connected with! Yep! There are distinct rivers of artists running through Blogland. I just think that is SO cool!!!!
So what are those pictures of the beautiful goodies at the top of this post? Just more of The Secret in action, is all!
Remember for Valentine's Day there was a wonderful project to giveaway a treat to our blogmates? My "Valentine" was Marlene Wint!!! She was kind enough to introduce herself and leave a comment on my blog and I drew her name for the little Valentine I was giving away, a pack of ephemera. Well, in yesterday's mail, she surprised me with this package of goodies. The journal is glorious along with all the stickers and decorations. There is also a handmade card and bookmark that are just so striking and elegant! Marlene, thank you SO much for your kindness and for sharing your art with me. I am so honored to be at your same frequency. :-)
So you see, dear ones, The Secret is alive and well and we have all been a part of it, whether we knew it or not! Hope you have a joyful day!
Hello My Lovelies! Sorry I've been away! I've just been spending my time doing other things...primarily cleaning up my studio!!! I'm having a VERY special visitor in March and I want my studio to be in tip top shape!
Also, I had THE REAL root canal done today. Piece of cake. I took some Ibuprofen, as recommended by the dentist, and the only discomfort I've had the whole day is a mildly sore. Bless him! :-) The single worst part of the whole ordeal was that friggin' tooth tent! I completely panicked when the dentist installed it. Until you get used to it, it feels like it's sealing your mouth closed. I was not prepared for that! The dentist was very considerate and let me take my time to adjust. He offered to find an alternative but I "manned" up, to quote our friend Wayne, and after doing some deep relaxation breaths, I was fine.
Okay, so time for some more Circle Journal pictures! Oh but first....
*** WARNING WARNING CIRCLE JOURNAL ALERT ***
Here is my LO in Elizabeth's CJ. Thanks again to Andrea for hosting this. So much fun and so challenging, but in a good way. Elizabeth's topic is "The Five Senses" and at first, I struggled with this one. It took me a bit to figure out what I wanted to do but then once I picked a subject and focused on that, it not only made it easy, but it also made it SO JOYFUL! You'll understand in a sec...
Left side...
Right side...
My sweet soft flowery little girlie pot pie. Sigh. It does my heart so much good to reflect on the little subtle things that contributed to her childhood; thereby,my memories of being a mother. Lord knows there were a few years there with memories I would just as soon forget. So I go back to these memories OFTEN!!!
I also wanted to share with you Elizabeth's sign in page. This group of Circle Journal ladies are frickin' genius' with these sign in pages! I am astounded with how clever they are!!!
I am temporarily without a camera. That's a WEIRD feeling! Almost as bad as when the car is on the fritz! It makes me realize how much I use it and how much I've come to depend on it for sharing stuff on this little ol' blog. The battery died and the replacement didn't work and now when we put in the old one, it won't charge. Not sure if Glen will have a chance to fiddle with it today since he's heading out to hang with some workmates to watch the Daytona 500! Fun for him!!!...and play day for me!!!
Yesterday's Craft Day with the neighbor's was lots of fun! Becky knitted socks, another woman did cross-stitch, another sorted fat quarters, another trimmed pictures for her scrapbook, another worked on her "design" notebook, and two other just came to visit! I decided to work on the long-neglected, long-suffering granny square afghan. I'll show pictures later! After that, I did some weeding in the garden and then did some marketing for the week.
Last night after dinner (yummy BIG salad with fresh strawberries and nuts and french bread), Glen and I watched "An Inconvenient Truth." Ironic that Glen suggested we watch it (he bought a copy of it about two weeks ago) since I had just read an e-mail from Lilli mentioning Al Gore.
If you haven't watched this movie yet, please do. Pretty startling. I was thankful that it ended on a "don't go blowin' your brains out now yet because there's still hope" kind of note. But still, it really paints a depressing view of what the next 50 years holds for us if mankind doesn't change.
Since I don't have any pictures, I'll share my list of things to do today I made using this....
Hope you have a wonderful day!!!! I LOVE that the days are warming up...a few of us in the neighborhood brought up the subject of camping yesterday...YAY SUMMER!
It's late. Much too late for this girl to still be up. But I just got home from a math study group and Glen was still up watching Stargate and the computer was calling me...so, well, you know how the rest of that story goes. :-)
I don't have any pictures to share since I'm waiting for the new camera battery to recharge so I thought I'd make one of these...
Isn't this the coolest?! To make your own, go here. I LOVE the old timey look to it. I saw this on Kari's blog and then Teresa McFayden's. I haven't played around with printing these off yet...but I will!
Okay, so I'm off to bed. Tomorrow I'm going to a Neighborhood Craft Day. A bunch of the neighbor gals are gathering to just do whatever crafts we want. Mostly social but there may be a bit of crafting that gets done. I only know the knitters and quilters in the group so it will be fun to see if anyone brings any paper crafts. I haven't quite decided what I'm going to take. Can't decide how much of a mess I want to make at someone else's house!
See ya later, yous!
...with my husband! Happy Valentine's Day to my sweety peaty!
So what's with the "I *heart* Glen button?" you may ask. Is it old? Maybe even vintage? Yes and yes. :-) I actually BOUGHT this when we were first dating so that is almost 23 years ago. Sheessh! And you wanna hear something so cute it will make your teeth hurt?! I used to wear it! LOL! Oh to be in young and in love again..oh well...one outta two ain't bad!! :-)
Oh and you can't really tell but in this picture my eyeballs are completely dilated! I went to the eye doctor for an exam today and ordered new glasses! Yippeeee!!! Can't wait to show them to you. They're SO...sassy!
So on the subject of buttons...there's another type of button I want to tell you about. I am completely, unequivocally, and unabashedly in love with sewing buttons! I have a huge jar of buttons that I love love love! I bought them at a garage sale about, hmmm...18 or 20 years ago? An older woman had an old hat box full of them. She was asking $7.00. That was a lot of money at the time and so I really hesitated. I could see she was hesitant too in selling them. I finally decided to pay her price and when she gave them to me, she told me their story. They were the buttons she had been collecting since she had been married. Buttons from clothes she made, buttons she clipped from clothes before using the fabric for rags, quilts, etc. Swoon. She asked me to take good care of them. Well, I have and if any of you have received ephemera packs from me, the buttons that were in those were from this prized collection.
Here's a picture of my jar...
So you might think that this jar would be enough for me. Well, you would be wrong, kind hearts, if you thought that. My Mom recently completely re-ignited my love of sewing buttons when she gave me this collection. The buttons in this tin have a similar sweet story. They are ones she had collected over the years, clipped from our clothes before they were recycled or donated. These buttons will NEVER go in with the other button general population.
After a conversation with Regina about a purchase she made on eBay recently, that sent me off to eBay to start bidding on button collections! Oh joy! I have two coming my way so far!!!! And then, it was as if all the planets were in alignment and the button mothership, once again, called me home. Fortunately it knew how to reach me... standing in the craft aisle of GoodwillI! I found a jam jar full of buttons and a bag full of buttons still on their original cards.
I almost had an out of body experience when I saw these! I'm SERIOUS!. And the extra bit of sweetness about these finds was that I could tell these two collections were from the same person. Some of the loose buttons were the same as some on the cards.
Here's the button spread out in a bowl.
I made a comment to my friend Heidi that to the untrained eye, it would appear that I am obsessed with buttons but I believe, and I'm sure you're with me on this one, that if I am to explore my full potential as an artist, to find my true calling, it will be BECAUSE I keep things that make me happy and inspire me within visual reach! In this case, it just happens to be lots and lots of buttons! And ribbon...and lace...and thread on wooden spools...and scrapbook paper...and paint...and embroidery fabric...and...and...dang! I am so busted. :-)
Oh dear, sorry for the long post. I'd better go...Glen have been trading text messages back and forth all day with candy heart saying, i.e., UR CUTE, BE MINE, HOT STUFF...he doesn't know it yet but the next one from me is going to be, WHAT'S FOR DINNER? :-)
Happy Valentine's Day to all of you, my sweet little buttons!
Tomorrow is a day dedicated to L*O*V*E! How absolutely SWEET! As a little warm up to this special day, I wanted to share with you the mail love I have received over the last week or so as a result of being a part of this FABULOUS bloggin' world! I truly feel like my life is SO much richer and fuller and feel loved because of YOU! And that's not just the Vicodin talkin'! :-)
Oh but first...screeeeeeechhh!...(that's the sound of brakes!) I want to thank you for your emphathy, sweetness, and very kind words about my root canal!
This picture is of the first V-day giftie I received a couple of weeks ago. It's from Andrea aka shopgirl, who is my former new blog friend (met her during Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas) and is now my Circle Journal mate and real life friend!
Aren't these little treasures just dreamy?? Completely my cup of tea! Thank you SO much Andrea!!!!
Next up, I just HAD to buy one the heart boxes filled with pink and red goodness from the one, the only Kari aka ArtsyMama! She has an Etsy shop and puts some delightful treats out for the world to enjoy now and again. Such divine sweetly treatlies! Gorgeous work, Kari dear!!!
Then there's this amazing card from the amazing, creative, and innovative Sharon aka Norah!
The image is breathtaking and then there's the stitching! Isn't it phenomenal!? Truly a framable work of art. Thank you SO much Sharon!!! And yeah, we SO need to figure out how to to a "play day!"
I also received a SPECTACULAR and SUPREMELY THOUGHTFUL collection of goodies from the fabulous and talented Malou!
I am just over the moon with all these incredible gifts -- a calendar, a journal, a book of scrapbook pages by Anna Corba...but I do have to say, the stamps Malou sent me just took my breath away. She knows I love stamps and these are SO beautiful. These are stamps that have been saved! These have traveled, dear readers. Just incredibly thoughtful. I can't wait to start using these beautiful gifts! Thank you SO much Malou!
Is your head spinning with all this beauty and love? Mine sure is...but wait I have one more thing to show you! After all these luscious new treasures, one more treat came my way just today!!! When Claudine brought by Elizabeth's Circle Journal, she also brought me a prezzie!!!!
Aren't they yummy!!? When Miranda saw them, she said they reminded her of candy buttons! Love 'em! Thank you SO much Claudine!
Okay, I'd better go now so we can both catch our breath!
I sincerely hope each of you have a sweet Valentine's Day. You deserve it because you have made me feel truly blessed and truly loved. XO
Hi! Despite the fact that less than an hour ago, I was down for the count due to an unplanned root canal today (sadly, part 1 of 2), I've gotten in quite a bit of bloggin' AND eBaying tonight! :-) I stayed home from Algebra, snuggled up to a couple of Vicodin, and slept on the couch for a few hours while Glen watched C-SPAN or "the span" as we call it. When I woke up, my face, jaw, and tooth kinda feeling close to normal. Unfortunately, I remembered that while I was "under the influence," I called my Mom and told her and my sister about my ordeal today. Just hope I was only my normal weird self and didn't confess anything incriminating! LOL!
Yesterday, I got the "inspiration" page done of from the Cabinet of Curiosities challenge that Kari and Bonnie are co-hosting so I wanted to share that with you!
To do the letters, I "inked" rubber stamps with PVA glue, stamped them,and then applied LOTS of glitter! Fun! Since I want to eventually hang this on the wall, I bought some aersol sealer at Michael's and sprayed it, hoping that this will keep the glitter from becoming a nuisance! We'll see! I did attach this to the other pages but didn't snap that picture yet. I can't wait to work on yesterday's prompt for my next page for the Cabinet of Curiosities. The prompt is "collection." Uh, I've got a few of those! (Did I mention I just bought two "lots" of buttons on eBay? ) See ya!
I just finished my LO in Shelley's Circle Journal. So ask me how good it feels to get that done? Go ahead! It feels GREAT!!! :-) Since I got this done, that means I'll be able to mail it off to Dana tomorrow which means it will be on time!!! Yes! And something else very VERY exciting...my sweet sweet darling dear of a husband bought us a new printer! OH HAPPY DAY! It's so SWEET! It prints beautifully, plus it scans, plus it photocopies! My art life has just ramped up a notch!
So I played around last night and scanned in the pictures of my CJ pages. Oh, first...
**** SPOILER WARNING***
***AVERT YOUR EYES IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE CIRCLE JOURNAL PAGES***
***DANGER DANGER***
We can now resume...
So Shelley's theme was "The Story of My Favorite Image." Very cool. I have so many of favorite pictures. I have an incredible picture of my Mom with her skinny, gorgeous self in a hand-made dress holding a cigarette. Then there's the cute one of me when I was in Kindergarten. There's the one of my Dad doing something he dearly loved... barbecuing! Then there's me and my two beautiful sisters as "Ted's Angels" (big smile!)
But my favorite picture at the moment is one of my sweet girlie at about age 8. It was taken on our first visit back to California after we had moved to Oregon (I think --- I didn't put dates on my pictures back then so I have to do a lot of estimating). Anyways, I just love this shot. It's Miranda being Miranda. I think the picture is so powerful for me because even though I didn't know it at the time, I was seeing Miranda as her true self. It was a candid moment where I caught her in her own world, discovering things at her own pace. SO Miranda.
Left side with the journaling...
And the right side, with the picture of Miranda...
Whew! That was hard work!!!! I'm sure I'll get the hang of this scanning stuff. The "scanning" part is easy...it's figuring out where it's saved vs. where I want it to save. Oi!
Okay so I'm off now to see what's what with the what what in my world. Glen's off to an airplane function (I decided not to go) and Miranda's spent the night at one of her homey's house so for now, the house is gloriously quiet. Lots to do and it looks like that sun is trying to peek out. I'd better go try and get some gardening done...quick!
Bye bye, my bunnies!
