Well that year went by fast

I can't believe it's already Halloween.  It seems like we just finished the last holidays.  It's been sort of a roller coaster year for me but I really had no idea it had been this long since my last post.  

In February my good friend, Patti, had a brain aneurysm which was totally unexpected.  She lives all the way across the country by herself so we're all thankful her son had been visiting that week so he was able to get her to the hospital.  She just thought she was having bad headaches and wouldn't have gone otherwise.  She made quite the comeback after surgery and was eager to get back to work.   

There have also been several breakups/divorces among family and friends this year.  It's really a sad thing to happen, especially when the break up is a bad one.  I hate being in the middle of those and this time it was with my brother in law and his wife.  It was brutal and I think my brother in law feels we should have ditched his now ex too.  I can't be mean and unfriendly with someone who's done nothing to me but I guess some people think otherwise.

Several deaths occupied my 2012 as I'm sure it did many people.  One was of a good friend from my high school years.  He was gone within months of his diagnosis.  I've known the family since I was 5 years old and his sister has been one of my best friends for many of those years.  It was heartbreaking to feel the anguish and pain she experienced trying to cope day to day.   My husband has not been well for quite a long time now and I feel he's giving up on trying to get better so every person's loss drives home that this could be me next and it scares me to death.  I envy people that are strong and can go on despite tragedy and loss.  I am not a strong person anymore.

On the upside, today is Halloween!  One of my favourite times of year even though this post is not exactly cheerful.  I hadn't realized until recently that I gradually stopped celebrating Halloween around the time my father died.  It must be some type of psychological thing since today was also his birthday.  I still love the day even though I don't decorate and party like I use to.  I'm just too warped to stop liking it I guess.

I have done a few creative things this year.  These are some of what I've done in the past few months.  

I used some Viva Las Vegas Stamps on this ATC

This was for a origami crane challenge in a art abandonment group.
I left them along with a pocket calendar at our local Oncology center.

This was for a Poe challenge.  I used rivet embossing on a piece
of copper metal sheet.  I cut pairs of eyes out and placed them
behind pieces of film ribbon then attached them to the card.

I used the Tim Holtz bird and cage die for this one.
I cut the cage and used the upper portion as a vase type
vessel and put grassy shreds inside it to puff it out a bit. 

This is my first attempt at using digital graphics.
The bat girl is from Tiddly Inks.  I coloured and cut her out
then added it to this digitally coloured background then
added the words and moon embellishment.

I made this Halloween tag as a make and take
from the Collective Journey scrapbook store in
Redlands, CA

I thank those of you who are nice enough to visit me and hope you have a happy and safe holiday.  My prayers are with those of you back east facing the disasters of  hurricane Sandy.

Practice Practice Practice

I've started learning to work with my lettering to be able to use them better within artwork.  I hate my printing and get so discouraged when I have to incorporate anything handwritten so I've started to do something about it.  I am working with Rhomany at Willowing,com to learn some of her whimsical word styles.   To start with we are making a basic font with our natural handwriting and then embellishing it to something we like better.  The assignment was much harder than I expected.  I am also finding that I am quite dysfunctional at making anything look the same twice even when it comes to my writing.  I don't think I have ever made anything identical in my life.  There is always something different from one piece to the next be it obvious or not.

Our first project required writing with 2 pencils at once then blocking and tweaking the letters a bit to fancy them up and then colour them in.  Once I realized that writing my name with 2 pencils was just as agonizing as writing with 1 I changed my word and managed to do a little better.

Week 1

Another thing we are to learn is blending colours.  Naturally I couldn't find the coloured pencils I needed so I made do with what I could find.  I guess it's not too bad for a beginner but you can see why I dislike my writing from the sample.  Hopefully I get better with time.  Practice and Patience are two of my weak points so this should do me good if I live through it.

I haven't mentioned Jake in awhile.  He is such a character and has brought so many smiles to us.  He is constantly finding new places to hide or nap.  He has little get away retreats all over the house.  His most recent has been a tent on the couch.  I had draped a blanket I'd received at Christmas on the couch and when I went to move it I heard a light squeak underneath.  Since then I left the blanket where it was and poofed it up more like a tent.  Jake will either lay on top of it or he jumps up on the armrest then slips under the blanket and snuggles up inside.

Jake peeking out from under his tent blanket.

Sometimes I'll lift part of the blanket up to peek inside and he'll grab the edge and pull it back down.  I never thought I could be a cat person but I guess you can never say never because you just don't know what will come into your life and change your whole perspective on things.

Today is National Margarita Day so I hope everyone is enjoying it, drinks or not.

I'm Baaack! I think....

There is only a couple of weeks until Valentine's Day.  How did that happen?  I swear every year seems to go faster and I get less accomplished.   I spent so much time in medical offices throughout December and January just to find out I'm normally abnormal.   Luckily it's over with for the most part and I can get back to my life of procrastination.  

I hope everyone is kicking off the New Year healthy and happy.  I have a few friends and family members that are going through major health and/or personal struggles and I pray that they will be resolved along with anyone else out there who is going through a difficult time.  The New Year is suppose to be a time of fresh starts but it's been a hard road for many with the economy being the way it has been.  I hope that this year will show us improvements that will make our lives better as time progresses. 

I  manage to do a little creating over the past few months.  Most recently I have been crocheting these little hearts pictured below.  I think they are so darling.  I tied 3 together with a bow using pieces of yarn then adding tiny roses at the edges.

Crochet hearts swag sewn together and embellished with small roses.

Most of my creations have been variations of ATC's.  I wanted to see how the look of corrugated cardboard as a base for my ATC's would be so I did a few like these below.

My cousin Kathy sent me some small stones and beach glass from her back yard (The Pacific Ocean) and I put some together on a very small canvas with easel.  I used rub off letters on the sea glass to spell out the word LOVE.   

A little shrine to my parents using a picture of  when they first got together.

This is a canvas I painted then added the skull and words to.

Another thing I've discovered over the past few months is Pinterest.  It's a site where you can keep all your "finds" into a filing system.  I've discovered a number of new yummy recipes on it.  One was a delicious Loaded Baked Potato Soup.  The actual recipe can be found at Mama Loves Food! 

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

I just love Pinterest and all the fun things you can find there (Recipes, Tips, Music, Funnies, Quotes, and so on).  The Pinterest fun doesn't just stop there.  There is also a "Pin It" button you can download to your browser so that whenever you go to a site and see something you want to save for further use it will add it to your filing system along with the link embedded into the picture so that you can find your way back to the original site.  It's great!  

Thank you for visiting.  Peace to all!