Playing catch up

I will start out this post by admitting to one and all that I am a candy *ss about the cold weather - it is totally wearing me out as our house is so cold, our plants are withering and brown, and I am so concerned about the animals here, especially the birds. You can all expect produce to be expensive as all the crops here have been devastated as well as all of the fish farms (did you think that tilapia, catfish, etc. came from lakes or the ocean?) I know it is so much colder in other parts of the US and Europe and I totally sympathize (having lived in northern climes most of my life), but this weather is really miserable for Florida and for the Bahamas and Cuba.
Anyway, I am trying to stay busy and also trying to keep up with all the scrapping and painting that I need to do. The above layout was done with the January Sampler kit from Scrapbookingsuppliesrus - the kit is filled with bright cheery papers and embellishments, a cool mini album, wonderful flowers, and some fabrics - check it out! I so love this Hambly bicycle paper and I find myself using those red October afternoon alphas on everything (I need to see if they come in some other colors too).

this layout is for the Let's Get Shabby summertime inspired layout - their poster example has a sunbrella on it so - just looking at the bright colors makes me feel a little warmer (I wish).

this is a card for the Sketchy Thursdays card contest - the prize is a set of Copic markers and I am dying to win those.

This is for the Sketchy thursday's GD contest from a sketch - mine went off on its own tangent - I made the ribbon flowers for a tutorial for Scrapgal - I am loving the turquoise and brown together. The photo is of a brass compass rose that we have on our front porch - it used to be on our sailboat so it really means a lot to us. We also have some of our old anchors sitting in the flowerbeds - that always gets comments from people coming to the house for the first time.

This layout is for the Artastic Pro Hart challenge - I had never seen his work but after seeing the painting shown as the inspiration on the blog, I goggled him, and his work is brilliant - so happy to learn about a new (for me) artist - I am surprised that art journalers don't mention him as an inspiration - he does 2 very different styles of painting, and the bright semi-abstracts would make great art journal prompts.

So ------ now to do the linkys but before I go, be sure to get us your favorite layout at http://whatisyourfavething.blogspot.com/

and your "I" layout at http://candyshoppedesigns.blogspot.com/

and your top 10 resolutions and your sketches 1 and 2 at http://www.scrapgal.com/

I finished a painting on Saturday so at least for one week, I kept my resolution to finish a painting a week - I need to get quite a few finished so I can put them in my etsy shop (I will announce it here and put a link on the sidebar). This weekend I have a painting in the Art by the Sea show at the Vero Beach Art Museum, and there will be a reception at the Museum on Friday night - it's supposed to get up to 70 that day and I am really hoping that it does because I want to wear something that looks arty and not look like a bag lady (which is what everyone looks like as we don't really own heavy coats so like yesterday when I went to BAM and Michaels, I was wearing an undershirt, a long sleeved teeshirt, a cardigan sweater, a light wool blazer (from my working days), a big scarf that I had knitted several years ago, jeans, loafers, and SOCKS.) I know you are laughing but it worked, and I was warm. Dan and I went to a gallery opening last Friday and I wore an undershirt, long sleeved tee, and a patchwork jacket that I had made from Japanese fabrics when we lived in Jacksonville - it was relatively cozy. Dan is golfing today and he was definitely bundled up.

I need to finish and get busy painting - I worked all weekend on DT stuff for blog posts, Valentine stuff, and altered items, none of which I can show just yet - but it's fun. Thanks for reading, hope you have a great day and stay warm! Don't forget the RAK in the previous blog - I will announce the winner on Friday when I post the next Fav Things challenge - see you then!

ttfn