What is your favorite time of day?

Morning has broken, like the first morning

Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird

Praise for the singing, praise for the morning.

Early morning has always been my favorite time of day - no matter how stressed or upset I may have been the night before, morning always brings clarity and hope to me. Perhaps I love morning because I was born in the early morning, but no matter, I always feel reborn every morning as I look out and see the sun rising. Everything will be okay!

I did this layout for http://whatisyourfavething.blogspot.com/ newest challenge - what is your favorite time of day? Do you love the early morning, are you a "twilight" kind of person, or are you a night owl? Perhaps your favorite time is when your family is all together or perhaps it's when you get some "me" time. Whatever, we want you to show us - you have 2 weeks until October 14th. I donated the prize this time - it is a set of Paper Trunk maybe baby papers (very cool in pinks and greens with a little yellow), matching Bazzill cardstock, 2 sets of letters, glitter, rub ons, buttons, ribbons, fabric pieces, some Prima and Heidi Swapp flowers, lots of funky little things from my stash that I thought went totally with these papers, and some handmade fabric flowers, straw flowers, and embroidered felt hearts. I had lots of fun putting this all together!

I started my new intermediate watercolor class today - whoa! I feel like a beginner again! but the teacher is very stimulating and I have to admit even though today was all lecture, I learned a lot. I have lots of homework - by next Wednesday I have to have wetted down the paper, stapled it to plywood, and completely drawn out the subject we are doing, which is a Pacific coast beach scene. Tomorrow I have to go to Home Depot or Lowes and get the plywood - I don't have anything big enough as this is going to be a BIG painting.

I also then had to go in to the gift shop to do some work as today is the last day of our business fiscal year, so it's been a busy day.

Be sure to check out http://whatisyourfavething.blogspot.com/ - Julie's commentary is so happy and inspiring, and wait until you see the fantastic layouts done by the DT. I feel so lucky to be a part of this fabulous group!

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So, what are you reading?

So, what are you reading right now? I love to read and always have. So far this year I have read 74 books, but last year I read 96 so I doubt if I make it to that amount. Some of my favorites this year have been Death comes for the Fat man by Reginald Hill, The Private Patient by P D James, several Australian murder mysteries by Kerry Greenwood, some fantasies by Gillian Summers, the Night Villa by Carol Goodman (her books are very good!), Jacqueline Winspear's latest mystery, the Blue Blood vampire series by Melissa de la Cruz (in the Twilight vein), Ariana Franklin's latest, Laurie R. King's latest (and then I reread her entire Mary Russell series again), Qui Zialong's latest, Wake by Lisa McMann, Susan Hill's books, Patricia Briggs' series, several by Juliet Marillier, the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (BRILLIANT), a couple by Michael Connelly, a couple by Donna Leon (I love her books and just salivate when she describes the foods and wines), several rereads by Mary Stewart (just finished This Rough Magic last week - it is set in Corfu, and one of the TAAFOMFT team members just went to Corfu so I just had to reread this book), and today I finished A Trace of Smoke by Rebecca Cantrell. As you can see, I enjoy well-written mysteries and fantasies. I do occasionally read non-fiction but it's funny - I used to read lots of how to, self improvement, and biographies but now I would rather be entertained. I reread my Jane Austen's almost every year but I don't read much other "serious" literature. I have to admit I read so much of it when I was getting my degree (English literature with an emphasis on Victorian lit) that I rarely dip into it now except for Bleake House by Dickens which is one of my all time favorites.
So, as I asked, what are you reading? Got any suggestions?
I made the corner book marker (above photo) this afternoon for a Candy Shoppe Design blog challenge - super easy!
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Scat by Carl Hiassen (it's a young adult book but just as funny as all of his adult books). He moved to Vero Beach (the town in which I live) several years ago from Miami. Stuart Woods also lives here, and his Orchid Beach series is written about this area.
Have a great day tomorrow and tune in Wednesday for the next These are a few of my favorite things challenge!!!!!!

totally obsessed this weekend

I did even more Scrapgal Fall Haul projects today and I am scrapped out!!!! the above layout was a scraplift but I gave it my own twist with the little Heidi Swapp clothes line, waves, and surf boards. this is one of my last remaining Heidi Swapp rub ons - I have to admit they are terrible - they crack and don't want to adhere (I also have found her old alphas not to stick well but they[especially the she ones]are my alltime favorite looking alphas) but I supplemented them with some pen. I made the little felt hearts. Does this layout look like me? It's probably the simplest layout I have done in a while and the photo is in the middle - totally not like my usual but we need to stay loose and maybe do things a little differently.
Julie T-W did 2 layouts for the OLW word "open" and since viewing them on her blog, I have been thinking about being open to new experiences and opening myself to new ideas. Being open and always learning new things keeps you young in mind and spirit, and I want to remain open to all that exists out there - to continue learning, growing, and changing.

this was for an altering challenge - I altered an eclipse gum container (since my DH quit smoking 1 1/2 years ago, he chews eclipse gum) with ribbons that I won from Kimbo on SIS on NSD.

This Wednesday I start a new watercolor class but in the meantime, I hope to finish at least one more painting. Currently I am working to build up a group of paintings and other items to sell on etsy. I also have quite a few books listed on half.com and have begun to sell some. Every little bit helps!!!!

Hope you have a great week, and remember to get us your favorite room layouts by Tuesday, and the new These are a few of my favorite things challenge will be up on Wednesday. Wait till you see what I did - it's kind of different!!!!

thanks for reading and ttfn!

Some Fall Haul Layouts

Since one of the members(Jamie/Jaylynn) of These are a few of my favorite things blog is a member at Scrapgals, I joined in the fun there this weekend for their Fall Haul crop. I really enjoy these types of crops as I tend to do totally different things and to use photos that I have printed but just haven't scrapped - and that's what happened last night and today. The above layout was one of those challenges where they give you a list of things to use - only cardstock, something red, brads, chipboard, and a title any length. I painted the pear in watercolor. BTW, this dark chocolate with pear is very good - subtle and different.

this is a card I made in like 15 minutes from a Pagemap link that was on the challenge. I printed out the pagemap card pdf as I am terrrible about making cards and this sketch sheet made it so easy!

On this layout you had to use a piece of notebook paper (I will post it to the Lotuspaperie flickr challenge also). On the paper is written -

Is it so small a thing to have enjoyed the sun, to have lived light in the spring, to have loved, to have thought, to have done......?

--Matthew Arnold

that is actually 2 photos taken from the same spot on my driveway, just one higher than the other. I love these K&co butterflies and really like to layer them.

this challenge was to use 5 school supplies - I used a staple, a bullclip, a paperclip, a flashcard, and a pencil (double eraser ended!!!). I love this photo of Brian taken last summer but just hadn't gotten around to using it.

This layout was for a challenge to use an older Halloween photo - this one is from October 2007 and was actually taken at Disneyworld. This is my very last piece of this fabulous Love Elsie paper so it had to be a special photo! I won the Smile word and the little epoxy smileys from Kimbo on SIS at NSD.

I have been a busy bee today - working, shopping, and scrapping. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!!

In retrospect, a creative week

Despite having a cold this week, I have been quite productive. I have been staying home other than to work on Tuesday so I have spent most of my time in the studio painting or scrapping. I decided to try painting a lily - not the best but at least a start. Next Wednesday I start a new watercolor class - Intermediate Watercolor and the teacher teaches very classical and traditional watercolor methods with lots of washes so I am very excited to begin the class. And thanks to an angel named Julie, I was able to purchase some new paints and brushes that I really needed (thank you again!).

Here is a photo of my work table - a crazy mix of stuff. I am working on a shaped mini album but it's still in progress so no peeking. I started working on it right after I finished the painting and part of the mini album is painted so that's why my brushes and towels are there as is the dirty paint water. You might be able to guess the subject of the mini album from some of the items on the table.

This is a little fall display on my entry table. It is beginning to cool off a tad - like highs now 87 and 88 instead of the 90s and lows in the mid and low 70s. Hopefully we can turn the air conditioning off near the end of October - I love our winter electricity bills!

I am going to check out the Fall Haul Crop on Scrapgal tonight and tomorrow. I always enjoy the inspiration from online crops and challenges.

Hope you have a great weekend and here's another quote about home - be sure to get in your Favorite room layout to These are a few of my favorite things - the challenge ends Tuesday!

Blest be that spot, where cheerful guests retire

To pause from toil, and trim their ev'ning fire;

Blest that abode, where want and pain repair'

And every stranger finds a ready chair.

- Oliver Goldsmith

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JOY - an early holiday layout and original patterned paper

NOTE - IMAGE WAS DELETED AS THIS LAYOUT WILL BE PUBLISHED IN THE OCTOBER ISSUE OF SCRAP N' ART ONLINE ZINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I know that it isn't even Halloween yet but I noticed Christmas stuff was already at Michaels so - actually that's not why I created this layout. The current challenge at Candy Shoppe is to make your own patterned paper and since I am obsessed with stamping right now, I decided to use a couple of the Harlee-Quinnz stamps ( a border stamp and an accent stamp) to stamp this piece of kraft paper. I think it has almost a Jenni Bowlin look (I love Jenni Bowlin but have never been in a store where I could purchase any but I read her blogs - speaking of, congrats to Amy who just won a fabulous stash of Jenni Bowlin on the Moxie Fab blog) so I went with a vintage b/w photo and embellishments in the dark red, dark green, and brown ranges. I cut out the little felt heart and added the edge embroidery and the buttons. The striped pieces are cut from a little holder that I got at Starbucks with a free cookie in it (had to get a pumplin spice latte on Saturday), the title JOY is the name of the type of tea on the TAZO bag, and the journaling block was stamped from a Harlee-Quinnz stamp. I also added a fabric scrap, a lace scrap, a tape measure scrap, a Prism trim scrap, a book page scrap, a HQ Tabacco scrap, some mix and match flowers (Making memories and Lil Davis and my buttons), a Heidi Swapp tape scrap, and a couple of funky vintage buttons.
Sometimes I find myself doing layouts with a purpose - that is, to use certain brands of supplies or to answer a challenge; and other times I do layouts just for fun - just to play with my stuff. This layout started out with a purpose but it became fun - I just kept digging through my scrap box (and that's another story: Julie T-W once said she kept her supplies in her rollaround tote so I was determined to weed mine down to something like that, and though it's not quite there yet, most of my supplies and scrap stash are in a rollaround crate that is 13x15x15 - are you not impressed????I keep a few things out to inspire me but most stuff is now organized and I find that I am really using up old stuff, like alphas, etc.) and found all these little treasures.
I had a terrible night last night with my stuffed up head and with my cat throwing up 4 times - I thought animals were supposed to be easier than babies?! but today I feel way better (just tired) and the cat seems fine. I will be busy in the studio working on some projects to submit and on some items to put in my etsy shop, which will open very soon. Thanks to everyone for the encouragement!
Hope you have a great day!

the A list

I created this layout for the Dreamgirls challenge about first liners - your favorite first line in a book - actually with my English Lit background, I have lots of first liners but I decided to take a photo of my collection of Alice in Wonderland books and use the first sentence from the book:
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, "and what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?"
I used Harlee-Quinnz Butterfly Garden paper and accentuated the butterlies with little gems. The pink/brown/turquoise paper with the birds and flowers is cut from a vintage postage letter (remember those ones that you could write a letter on one side and then fold it in thirds and address it on the back); the chipboard butterflies are from K&co; I made the fabric flower from some Amy Butler scraps; and I stamped the A with an old Heidi Swapp stamp.
My incompetence with stamps is decreasing bit by bit but I had a disaster with this layout yesterday afternoon when I was working on it. I wanted to use one of my new stamps on the bottom right to offset the A on the top left so I selected a beautiful one that is like a frame around journaling lines and practiced it over and over on scrap paper till I felt confidant. Then I stamped the paper and it didn't all come out right so I restamped it and tried to fill in with a Sharpie pen - disaster! it looked hideous so fortunately I had a 2nd sheet of this paper and I carefully removed everything and put it all on the new sheet. the colored cutout section in the middle was larger that it is now as I had to carefully cut off the stamped part - I was able to save most of the background paper to use as cutouts or for a card.

I was feeling pretty terrible and frustrated - both from the disaster with this page and from my cold, which I can report that I really do have one. Thanks to everyone who wished me well. Hopefully this will only last a week or so. I did go in to work today as I felt pretty much okay this morning but as the day has worn on, I am tired now, but all in all, not too bad - just stuffed up.

I started another project last night after dinner - Candy Shoppe has a challenge to make your own background paper so I used 2 of the HQ stamps to stamp a background - and it came out pretty cool (As you can tell, I am currently obsessed with improving my stamping skills). Depending on how tired I am after dinner, I will try to finish that layout tonight and post it tomorrow.

and a quote about home and hearth:

Home is the sphere of harmony and peace,

The spot where angels find a resting-place,

When, bearing blessings, they descend to earth.

- Mrs. Hale

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Harlee-Quinnz layouts

I did this layout using some HarleeQuinnz paper from the Butterfly Garden collection - the paper is called Fairy Grove but I thought it would be a cool Halloween paper as it is pretty much black and gray, and the bare tree limbs look sort of menacing. I used one of the images from a H-Q ephermera page (they have some awesome ones) along with a vintage postard, 2 vintage bookmarks, and a KISS mask - all from my collections. I added a Heidi Swapp clock, a flower, and a Making Memories moon.

This layout is of Dan's grandpa Pete - I thought this photo of him up at Lake Erie with his pipe in his mouth was perfect for the H-Q Scents to Remember collection - this paper is call Tabacco and I used some of the stamps for the words in the little Making Memories metal frames. The fox print is actually a wallpaper sample from Anthropologie and the doily is sprayed with Glimmer Mist.

I have also almost finished 2 other H-Q layouts but one had to be totally redone due to my stamping incompetence. Fortunately I had another sheet of paper to redo it on. I then created a piece of original patterned paper using one of the H-Q stamps - it actually looks great!!! and I am doing a layout on it for the current Candy Shoppe Designs blog.

Anyway, right now I feel pretty terrible and I am afraid I am coming down with a cold so hopefully I'm wrong, but if not, I won't be posting for a few days.

Hope you have a great and creative week!

Home and he{art}

"The happiness of the domestic fireside is the first boon of Heaven." - Thomas Jefferson

Some photos of what is inspiring me right now. Those pears look good enough to eat but I have to paint them first! I have been very busy the past few days and that doesn't include working at the gift shop, cooking, washing dishes, doing laundry, ironing, etc. - I have painted 2 paintings (but can't show them just yet) and finished 2 layouts with the new Harlee-Quinnz papers (which I will post tomorrow) and have several more LOs in process. I am not a very accomplished stamper but the new HQ stamps are fabulous and I have been playing and playing with them.

The 2nd photo is of a raised cake plate I have on my desk on which I put little things that inspire me or I want to use right away. I love all the new Prisma flowers so I have been trying to create some of my own that look similar. I did the green ribbon flower, the 2 fuchsia ribbon flowers, and the dark red Japanese kimono fabric flower with a vintage crystal cufflink in the center. I have also been cutting out autumn-colored felt and paper embellishments, and the Halloween chipboards came in an old Making Memories kit that I bought last winter for almost nothing at Tuesday Morning. I hope to finish the Dreamgirls challenge for first impressions (first lines of books) today - I took a photo this morning for that layout.

Football games start in about an hour and a half, and there is also a NASCAR race so I will be multi-tasking!!!!!LOL!!!!! I usually play in my studio while Dan watches tv in the living room - I can hear what's happening and I will pop out if something happens that I want to see. I have a pork roast in the crockpot so dinner will be easy (and yummy).

Have a great Sunday!

Harlee-Quinnz, a quote, and a visit to the Candy Shoppe

I did the Candy Shoppe Designs blog hop and here's my layout - the steps in order: create a background, put an edge on a piece of paper, layer a pp on top, pick a photo, a closeup (okay, this is not super close but believe me, you don't want to get too close to a man who has been on a sailboat for 4 days, who stayed up much of the night, and who hasn't showered since leaving the US - got the picture?!), do something to the photo (I painted the edges), layer the photo on top of the pp, add some ribbon, add 3 flowers at the corner of the photo, add 3 more embellies, and add a title. The prize for whoever wins this blog hop challenge is a kit from http://www.studiocalico.com/

In other news, I received my design team kit from Harlee-Quinnz, and it is awesome - the papers are so beautiful and the stamps are just giving me chills. This morning I am painting but this afternoon I am going to play with my new toys!!!!!!!!!! Don't you just love these mandalas and the fairies! And the ephemera pages are just too cool!

And now another quote about home (in honor of the What's your favorite room challenge on TAAFOMFT)

"'It is but a cottage,' she continued, 'but I hope to see many of my friends in it. A room or two can easily be added; and if my friends find no difficulty in travelling so far to see me, I am sure I will find none in accommodating them.'"

Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

This weekend I plan to be a busy girl painting and scrapping - not only for the design team but also the Great beginnings challenge (I think that's the title) at Dreamgirls - I have selected a great opening sentence to a book and can hardly wait to scrap it.

Have a wonderful day!

tie one on

This photo was taken the same evening as the one in my TAAFOMFT favorite room layout. I love to make aprons (and wear them) so I found a wooden peg rack at the thrift store, painted it, and Dan hung it for me to display some of my aprons - I change them for the seasons. This layout (sorry for the glare on the photo) is done totally in LilyBee papers (that I won from Scrapjacked) but I used an old doily as a mask and glimmer misted the background and then stamped with an old stamp I had. I have been so inspired by Jeanet's layouts lately at TAAFOMFT - she is so totally talented with the misting and stamping!!!! - and I wanted to try my hand with supplies I had on hand (until yesterday afternoon I had only a very few stamps but I will tell you why I now have more in the next posting).
Since we are doing what is your favorite room at TAAFOMFT, I thought I would post some homey poems and quotations for the next week or so and here is the first one:

"His house was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all."
-----J.R.R. Tolkein, The Hobbit

Do you feel lucky?

This is an altered layout I did for the gesso-peso challenge on Candy Shoppe - unfortunately I used heavy chipboard and the gesso is causing it to warp a little - no matter.... the photo is of a pair of earrings I bought a long long time ago from a vendor at the Jacksonville Jazz Festival just after Florida started its Lotto (probably 15 years ago?) - they issued the coolest Lotto tickets with charming designs on them and there were 5-6 designs (no more - just a ticket with numbers now). I love these funky earrings and they are great fun to wear to parties. I used leftover alphas from several sets (you know how you get down to last few and you have trouble figuring out exactly what you can spell!) and I even had to make the U from a J and something else and the Y from an X - and those numbers were the only ones left but now I feel good that I used them all. The edge colors are water soluble pastels from Staples (these are so cool - you draw with them or color and then dip your finger in water and smear the colors - so fun - and they are really inexpensive). And, oh yeah, you had to use some money or fundage as my son used to call it so I put on a 1 dollar EC (Eastern Caribbean) coin and a French 5 centimes from one of the French islands.
Have a fun day and as Cathy Zielske says, go forth and create!
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What is your favorite room???

the new challenge is up at http://whatisyourfavething.blogspot.com/ so come on over and check out who won the food fight, I mean challenge and see the fabulous layouts and mini books created by the DT - they will totally inspire you!

My layout is of my kitchen on a cold (for Florida that is) winter night - I love how the lamp light makes the kitchen look so warm and cozy. I went crazy trying to make the LO look like a decorating magazine page and used some magazine cutouts along with some real elements glued on top.

Come on over and check out the blog and show us your stuff!!!!!!

Some autumn decorating

Yesterday as I was cleaning my house, I decided to put away the summer accents and get out some of the autumn ones (no jack-o-lanterns just yet). Over the past 6 years (that's how long we have lived in this house), I have been collecting items from thrift stores or after season sales, and then I use them to decorate the house. Dan was watching sports on tv yesterday afternoon as I was putting things out and he laughed and said that this was my way of "moving furniture" without actually moving furniture (I love the move furniture around and he hates it).

I created this candle arrangement for my coffeetable. Even the apples and pears are candles.

A view of our dining room (this table is my pride and joy - I ordered it and 6 chairs from Pottery Barn after the hurricanes in 2004. Our dining room ceiling fell in and all the wet insulation ruined the old table and chairs that we had so it actually worked out to be quite cost effective just to get a new set as to recover the chairs and refinish the table would cost so much.) As you can see, I have bookcases in the dining room - actually I have bookcases in every room in the house except for the bathrooms. When we redid the kitchen after the hurricanes and got all new cabinetry, I ordered a bookshelf for the end of the cabinets - I keep some of my cookbooks there.

I need to get busy and finish some projects - sort of going through a lethargic period right now. There are several challenges I hope to complete and a painting I need to finish, and I do have a tutorial that went up on the Year of Color blog yesterday. Also be sure to get your favorite food layout in to the Favorite things blog and check it on Tuesday to see which layout won and what the new challenge is!!!!!!!

Hope you have a great Sunday and coming week!

Fall is coming, a big thank you, and some sewing

I really should be tidying my studio but instead I am drinking a cup of tea and blogging - I guess my priorities are in the right place. LOL! I keep reading people's blogs about the coming of fall, the cooling off, the briskness in the air, etc. but we will still have another 1 1/2 months of heat although the sun has definitely moved in the sky. Anyway, I love fall and in my previous lives, always enjoyed the coloring of the leaves (we would always drive up for a weekend in Aspen when we lived in Denver), the smell of fireplaces burning, cider and apples, Brian trick or treating, and decorating the houses with pumpkins and leaves. Of course, having a birthday in October has always made fall pretty special too. LOL! I painted the above painting 2 years ago and I always hang it in our dining room during the fall season. (sorry for the glare on the glass).

I am sending out a huge thank you to Deana for surprising me with this fantastic ART teeshirt - I love it!!!!!! Surprises are always the best and I just love how perfect this tee is for my life right now. Thank you so much, Deana!

Lest you think I am only a scrapper and painter, I will show you that I can also sew. LOL! I made this bag from some scraps in my studio (one of my friends had this pattern so I copied the idea). I think it came out pretty cool, if I do say so myself. It was actually an easy project as you sew the fabric strips onto pieces of interfacing so the sides are soft but have a real structure to them. I lined it and put in lots of pockets, sort of like a Vera Bradley bag. It's a tote bag size; I used it when we went on vacation to carry all of my lingerie, teeshirts, and soft stuff.

This is a photo of some little bags I made a while ago - they have been hanging on the wall in my bathroom and unfortunately have faded some. I also used scraps here - the idea was to capture the way the ocean looks or the way the sky looks over the ocean at dawn (far right bag). I have been trying to think of something original to make to sell on etsy and I was wondering if bags like these might work. I have also done little fabric pictures like the fronts of these bags and framed them or used in in cards.

Unfortunately I have been thinking a bit about money lately - my painting class cost a bit and then I got the supply list and it will cost a bit more so .... it's not as if we don't have the money (I am not trying to cry poor at all) but things do add up and I am trying to think of ways to supplement my income right now. The goal is to sell paintings but that is a bit in the future so right now I listed a lot of books on half.com and ebay, and I am trying to come up with some items to sell on etsy.

Hope you have a good day and a fun weekend. I really do need to tidy my studio!!!!!

My dream

In response to the prompt on Creative Therapy about what I want to accomplish in my life, I created this painting/layout to hang above my desk. This is a splash and pour watercolor painting in that you wet the paper, drop in paint, and then take a short straw and blow the paint around. After the paint dries, you look for places that look like things (leaves, flowers, fairies, fish, frogs, whatever) and enhance them with negative painting (painting darker around something to make it pop forward). Actually in this painting I was trying the technique of masking out areas and I began to paint birds in those areas; however, I hated the birds so I covered them with cutout watercolor leaves and with the money receipt. My journaling reads - My dream is to become a self-supporting artist - to sell my paintings and hopefully to win some watercolor competitions.
I am an extremely goal-oriented person and writing down goals always helps me to keep them in mind as the bigger picture. Life itself and other smaller intermediate steps and goals often interfere but if I can keep the bigger goal in front of me, I can achieve it. I have been extremely fortunate to have accomplished a lot in my life - I have been truly blessed and I feel grateful every day. I have a healthy and happy son who is a superb teacher, I have a loving husband, I have an affectionate little fur ball to keep me company, and I am healthy and productive.

Now - to the opposite extreme - trollbead LUST - okay, I know this is totally frivolous but this was also a goal - to create a trollbead bracelet. LOL!!!!! It took me about a year of haunting ebay to find the beads I wanted at reasonable prices - and this is my piece de resistance - a green-lilac armadillo!!!!!! I will have to do a layout showing the entire bracelet. This layout is for the Candy Shoppe striptease challenge - I followed the sketch, I used cream, turquoise, purple, and fuchsia, I used strips of paper, I used something gold (the little flower just above the swirl on the right). For the background I took an old toothbrush, wetted it, and dapped it in watercolor paint, and then flicked it with my finger - it spattered on the paper. I made the velvet flower after seeing pix of the new Prima velvet flowers - so beautiful! and the feathers are printed kitschy digitals which I got free from the Year of Color blog (hey, if you subscribe to it, I will be having another tutorial this month - this time on a fabric flower wallhanging - not sure exactly when Kari is going to run it).
Well, I have talked enough today. Thanks for looking and hope your day is going well.

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Painting and altering

I have had a really incredible week this past one - first, being named to the Harlee-Quinnz design team; second, being selected for the SIS Catwalk for my layout Cherry Garcia; and third, winning the Lotuspaperie contest. I am feeling very inspired lately and I know that a big part of it is being part of the TAAFOMFT design team - just seeing their creations and chatting with all of them through email is really energizing me. On Friday I went for an eye exam and was told I didn't need new reading glasses - Yay! I have had this pair since 1997!!!!! The Rx sunglasses literally fell apart last year and I glued them with hot glue but then they fell apart again so now I found some little clip-on ones to wear. (I am really cheap!!!!) Yesterday I went to get my pineapple painting mounted and framed as I was invited to show it in a gallery show. Yay! I couldn't believe how expensive mounting and framing is - I am going to get a book from the library on the subject and figure out how I can do most of it myself in the future. Then yesterday I decided to work on some challenges -

for Scrap Mojo (what's in a name) and Point Blank (bright color slapped with blue, ribbons or buttons, bling 8 1/2 x 11 - Become new you.) This project and the one below are the ultimate in recycling. Sometime a year or so ago I saw a cool project on Keisha Campbell's blog where she covered a canvas with ribbons and then attached photos on top. I used a piece of heavy chipboard, added ribbons, and used colored clips to attach photos of my succulent garden. Anyway, yesterday I ripped off all the ribbons and reattached them with Mod Podge to a blank clipboard. Then I painted with acrylics on the chipboard - after the paint dried, I added some torn pages from an address book, a couple of photos with paper clips, cut out a bird from an old card and added a bling eye, distressed some old Heidi Swapp chipboard alphas, added a button and bling for an "O", and finally did some stamping and rub ons. I put down all the name changes that I have gone through - growing up in the southern US, I had to have a special family nickname - Dolly for the story about the tin soldier and the sugar dolly (my favorite), then Mary Chris in grade school because there were 6 girls named Mary in my class, Mary in high school (so boring!), Christina in my working life - had to sound more sophisticated LOL!, and now Chris - totally relaxed, no preconceived ideas. And there you have it!

Here is the Altered clipboard for Candy Shopped Designs. As I said I Mod Podged all the ribbons on to secure them and to create a hard surface. Then I added the flower and epoxy sticker, and some tied ribbons on the clip part. I put a nail in the wall by my design board to be sure I use this clipboard for keeping notes.

I am almost finished with a layout for the Striptease challenge on Candy Shoppe Designs and I received a very very cool present on Friday that I am going to photograph and show you this week. As I said, I had a great week!!!!!

We are having boiled shrimp and a huge salad for dinner tonight with peaches for dessert, and tomorrow for the holiday, barbequed ribs - YUM! Lately all I do is think about food. LOL! I will be glad when the TAAFOMFT What is your favorite food challenge is over - that reminds me, have you done your layout yet???????

Have a great holiday!!!!!!

thanks for reading and ttfn

I am so excited and thrilled!!!!!!!

Just a quickie post to tell you how excited and thrilled I am that I was named as one of the Harlee-Quinnz design team members!!!!!!! I recognize some of the other names and I feel so honored to be a part of them. The Harlee-Quinnz papers are so beautiful and unique, and I can hardly wait to get my packet and start creating!!!!!!