c'est la vie

It's time for the new challenge at These are a few of my favorite things and this time is What's your favorite scrapbooking manufacturer????  This one was so so easy peasy for me - it's Prima!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and coincidentally the manu of the month for August at Scrapgal was Prima so I have been in flower heaven all this month. Be sure to check out the wonderful DT layouts at http://whatisyourfavething.blogspot.com/ (such a fabulously talented group of designers - they always amaze me with their layouts as do all of the wonderful submissions we receive for the challenges!!!!! We are such a fortunate group - and add to that - we have Julie as our boss - how lucky can we get!!!!!!!) and if you get a chance, check out my post today at the http://thegalblog.blogspot.com/ about how I made this layout (hint - I used packaging for the bay window!)

Hope your have a super day and thanks for reading
ttfn
Chris

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

Hello there on this wonderful Sunday! We had quite a bit of rain last night and today - much needed rain! I have been very very busy this past week painting bits and pieces - playing with ideas, practicing things, and drawing - not sure what will develop from all of this play but it's making me very happy. I have a painting that will be in an exhibition at the Vero Beach Art Museum this month (not pictured here) so things are going well.

August is almost over and September is ready to happen - I changed out some of the decor in my house this morning as I was cleaning - changing the wall quilts, candles, and accents. We will be doing some exterior and interior painting once hurricane season is over and it begins to cool off. I want to change our bedroom curtains and got a brilliant idea today to alter some Pottery Barn linen/cotton curtains that I bought in 2005 when we moved back into our house after the hurricanes and reparation. I bought the curtains on ebay for my studio but the auction had 6 curtains and I only needed 4 so I just put the other 2 away. As they are much too long for our bedroom windows, I can cut them apart and come up with the 2 pairs that I need for our bedroom - a project for this week.
I have decided to do a NOT BUYING IT month during Sept so I have figured out several projects to keep busy with so I don't spend any money. I have joined a quilt-a-long on Fat Quarterly (begins 9/6 with the cutting out instructions) so I went shopping in my stash and selected these fabrics to use

Yellows, oranges, peaches, turquoises, grays - I think it will be a fun quilt - very spring-y!
I have also joined a Triangle knitalong on http://www.ravelry.com/ - it's in the Jane Thornley forum and she is offering a RAK of 3 patterns for those who finish by 9/30. I saw some shawl/shrugs at Anthropologie when I was in Jacksonville that were mixes of very subtle grays, mauves, and blues so I found some yarns in my stash that would work. I think this will look really cool with jeans and a white tee.

As you can see, I have cast on and the triangle is growing..........
And if that isn't enough, Scrapgal will be having an online crop Sept 17th and 18th, plus I need to get some Halloween DT layouts and projects ready for the October contest that Keke and I are running - lots to do!!

Thanks for reading and I hope you are having a great day!
ttfn
Chris

B I N G O

The summer is passing quickly and soon it will be September - the earth is moving on its axis and already we can see a difference in the angle and intensity of the light (don't get me wrong though - it is still brutally hot!) This morning when I awoke at about 6am, I looked out our bedroom window to the east and saw Orion in all of his glory. We are going through a drought period now but one positive to that is being able to see the stars so clearly. Orion is my favorite constellation - I always feel good when I can see him up there in the sky guarding over me.
And now for something totally different - BINGO tonight at http://www.scrapgal.com/ - it will be at 10om edt but you need to have a sign on set up and also to have selected your bingo words from the list on the forum and pm'd them to whoever is the official Bingoer (probably Cassie or Kelly, but I know that the instructions are in the forum). I will be drinking tea to stay awake long enough to join in the fun so be sure to check it out - it's lots of fun and also we will be having a Fall Haul crop on Sept 17th and 18th - lots of great challenges, games, and prizes!!!!!!!
This week I attended a 3day watercolor workshop with Pat Weaver, a national watercolor artist and teacher. It was so incredibly inspiring - I learned how much I have to learn - it was a little depressing by the end of the 2nd day but after some positive results on Wed, I came away feeling renewed and committed to my pursuit of art. Yesterday afternoon I spent a couple of hours drawing cats, and then last night I had the strangest dream - at one point in the dream, my cat Hana was making friends with what looked like a stockier version of her but when the animal trotted over to me, I realized that it was a dog that had been trimmed to look like a cat - WOOOOOOOOOOO - maybe I should cut back on drawing cats! LOL!!!!!!!
Thanks for reading and have a super day - I will be back on the weekend with some photos of things that I have been working on.
ttfn
Chris

Buttons and beaches

I have a post today on the Galblog so please stop by and say hi - http://thegalblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/buttons-and-beaches.html

thanks so much!

Easy like Sunday morning

Today is a very special day for me - it is Dan and my 30th anniversary - I can hardly believe that we have been married that long!?!?!? Of course, I was very young when we got married!!! LOL!

And today is the new challenge at These are a few of my favorite things!!!!  What is your favorite day of the week?  When I was working full-time, Sunday was always my favorite day - peaceful, leisurely breakfast, maybe a walk on the beach, just recharging my batteries. Then in the afternoon, football in the fall and winter, and a peaceful dinner - usually in the crockpot or simmering on the stove. Summertime dinners are on the grill or boiled shrimp (like for our celebration dinner tonight along with French bread, a salad, chocolate mousse, and Prosecco.)  So delightful!!!

We had a wonderful time on vacation - we stopped in Charlotte on the way up and I got to shop at Cheap Joe's art supplies and also at Trader Joe's - great food and wines!!! in Asheville, my SIL and I went to a fantastic quilt show and then on Sat, all of us went to a super crafts fair and lunch, and I got to go to my favorite yarn shop and fabric shop and get some beautiful yarns and fabrics.  On the way home we stopped in Jacksonville, where we lived for 10 years, and went shopping at the Towne Center - it is incredible - total shopping heaven and an anthropologie too! We then went out to the beach for dinner at what used to be one of our favorite restaurants and happily, it was just as good as we remembered!

Since retuning home, I have been doing some DT work for Sept - we will be having a crop on Sept 17 and 18 on ScrapGal, and also painting quite a bit. This coming Mon, Tues, and Wed, I will be taking a class with Pat Weaver, a nationally known watercolor teacher. I am super excited!!!!! And on Friday I won a RAK of laces from Prima - is that not so cool!!!! I think you know how much I love Prima products!

Thanks for reading and hope you have a great day
ttfn
Chris

Artist journal

I have been wanting a watercolor and sketch journal for some time now and decided to make one for myself. I was very inspired by Ruth Rae's book Layered, Tattered & Stitched, and used her journal as the basis for mine.  However, I used canvas for the cover and lined it with heavy interfacing and felt. I sprayed the canvas and the felt with Tim Holtz Adirondack color wash in lettuce - this goes on very well but takes a while to dry on the fabric. I then layered everything and sewed it together, creating a spine. I used old sheet music for the bottom layer of the embellishment and added some of the new Gecko Galz Versailles designs - Opulence and Let them eat cake (I printed the designs on fabric paper) for layers and also added some antique lace, some tulle, and some of the wonderful vintage Gecko Galz buttons as well as some from my collection. Everything is securely sewn onto the cover.

On the inside of the front and back covers, I added some pockets to hold pens, pencil, brushes, and a small watercolor kit.

For the insides of the journal I created 4 signatures of watercolor papers and actually sewed the signatures to the spine.  This was probably the hardest part of the project but I am very pleased with it and will be taking it with me on vacation later this week - I hope to sketch some of the beautiful scenery in North Carolina.

Thanks for reading and have a creative week!

Prima vista

It's August 1 and that means a new manufacturer of the month at Scrapgal - can you guess this month's manu???? One of my favorites - Prima!  I took this photo at Epcot in the Marrakesh Restaurant (by the way, I will have a posting on the Galblog Tues 8/3 about this layout - hint hint!) - the patterned paper is Flights of Fancy and this photo just seemed to be perfect - I cut apart some of the Prima flowers to create my own chandeliers.

This paper is Pastiche - I put puddles of very wet watercolor paint in the middle and used a short straw to blow the paint outward - this is a really fun thing to do and is actually a technique that some Chinese watercolorists use quite a bit - they are so skilled at this technique that they can create animals and flowers with their blowings. The photo was taken when we lived in the Bahamas - have I mentioned how much I love the ocean and the beach?! LOL! These flowers are actually vintage velvet - a lucky find. The brass piece is packaging from something unknown - it just looked cool to me and I just had to save it - I actually had a couple of these and used one once before on a layout.

Hope you come over and check out the other Prima layouts by the DT and also check out the new members of the DT who were announced today on the Galblog!

Thanks for reading and see you soon