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!

Happy Thanksgiving

I keep meaning to post something and then never seem to make it but wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving and holiday season.  I hope everyone has a happy day with lots of good food, great company and much to be thankful for.  Don't forget it's the little things that are the most precious treasures you can be graced with and the rest is just icing on the cake.

It's Here!

There is a wonderful fabric artist named Justine Birmingham that owns a company called http://www.themonstercafe.com/ .  She makes some wonderful plush monsters, among other things.  Some of her works are creatures made from the paintings of Jasime Becket-Griffith.  Jasmine is best known for her gothic fairies.  Justine has created various plush monsters that have been depicted in those paintings with Jasmine's blessing.

Today I got an early birthday gift from hubby.  Justine has created a smaller version of a yeti that she made and gave to Jasime awhile back.  The originals are huge and though I want one very much they would cost way too much.  Her first in this smaller "affordable" series were in green and pink.  I love green and the yeti so it was perfect!  Since she rarely makes exact duplicates I had to act fast and she is such a nice lady that she saved it for me so I could have it.  Another great thing about ordering from Justine is she sends snacks with her monsters and if they don't eat it all during the shipping you get to have some!



Yeti

Of course Jake had to inspect it.

On a crafty note I did my first actual scrapbook page.  I've done them before but never completed one.  I don't particularly like doing big scale work and having to decide on photos to use but I do love the papers and have so much of it I decided I should get some use out of it.  I'm going to try to do pages with some of my favourite quotes and sayings. 

My first page was using a quote from a short story called "Devil's Grin" by L.D. Durham that I liked. 

"Devil's Grin"

It was even nicer when the author told me how much she liked it. 



I'm old enough for senior dating spam!

Next month I turn the big FIVE OH and was sent my wonderful AARP paperwork to send in.  Apparently they or someone else who likes to give out this information has spread it around that I'm OLD now!  How rude is that?  Suddenly I am getting mail for senior citizens.  Talk about making a girl feel "good".  What next, cemetery plot solicitors?  I can't wait to get the senior discounts now!

I have actually done a few "crafty things" lately.  I have been wanting to try iris folding cards for awhile now....a LONG while now but never got around to it.  It seemed more complicated then I found it actually is. 

My first card I used a circle as my base for the card then embellished with a lot of papers and some floral and butterfly stickers. 



I forgot to take a picture of the circle iris so this is what one looks like before embellished. 

My second card I used a square base and then placed strips of pages and covers I'd copied from Sarah Addison Allen's books.  I stamped the bird on a branch with some white ink then dusted it with perfect pearls irridescent powder.  I used tissue tape on the edges and embellished with small paper flowers and butterfly.  Crystal rhinstones for the center of the flowers.

My sister asked me to make her a scarf so I made a couple for her.  I forgot (must be that old age getting to me) to take a picture of the first one but did the second.  The first was a thicker and shorter version of this one.

Mortie is enjoying the warmth

Jake has become sort of clingy this week.  I wake up to find him laying on my legs when I'm napping.  He makes a nice leg warmer but he also gets hard on these old bones once he's been there awhile and has made himself comfortable.

This is what I see when I wake up

This is what I see when I try to move.

I hope everyone is doing well and thank you for reading.  Peace!



So what happened to 2010?

I just can't believe that a whole year went by so fast. I think I have whiplash. The holidays are a blur and it didn't really feel like Christmas to me. It wasn't a very crafty holiday for me but they seldom are. I did receive a wonderful stitchery from the lovely   Suzie of Owl Tree Cottage Crafts in the U.K. I love her fairy and the heart bag she made.  She also sent a very cool, artsy looking necklace.   Suzie makes beautiful puffy hearts similar to the one on the bag here and is an awesome artist.  She is just one talented woman.

For Valentines I did sign up to do Valentines Day RAAK's through the Milliande group.  I made ATC's and have been decorating some fun foam hearts as well.  I made fairly simple ATC's.  I just took some red cardstock, tore decorative papers for the bottom, added gems, strings, stamped words then mounted it all on black cardstock.


Tickled Pink

On the hearts I arranged layered flowers that I made with papers, lace, crochet flowers, silk flowers and tulle.  This one I used a feathery butterfly to embellish the top.

 My friend Mel does machine embroidery and made up some names for me on denim so today I played around with them and did this heart for her.

I stamped on the foam heart then added embellishments to it.  I cut the denim in a heart shape.  Now I just hope everything stays put.  I'm not sure what glues actually stay on foam so we shall see.  On one of my first hearts I had just used a white gel pen and embellished with freehand swirls and placed the butterfly on the side. 

For you crafty people out there; I just read "Waking up in the land of glitter" by Kathy Cano-Murrillo a.k.a. Crafty Chica.  I really enjoyed this book.  It is a love story but also crafty so if you're into that type of thing you should really check it out!

I hope everyone is having a good beginning to 2011 and it keeps getting better everyday!   Peace♥ ´¯`*○ ☆ ○*´¯`

Creative Lettering

First Anniversary

Today was the first anniversary of our adopting Jake.  It hardly seems like a whole year has gone by already.  He got to celebrate by going to the vet for his annual physical.  He was over joyed.
We also got a climbing "tree" for him so he can do more jumping and climbing that doesn't involve jumping from the top of my desk to the back of my chair and trying to flip me over.  He has really enjoyed being able to climb up and look down on everything.

It's right next to my desk so he can run along the top of it and back to his crows nest.   It was funny to watch him the first couple of days because he wasn't use to jumping from the odd angles the way he has to for this so he'd jump so far and then be dangling off the edge till he could wiggle his butt up enough to get inside.  He's become a pro at it now.

There's also a tube at the bottom that he likes sleeping in.  He starts out curled up inside then, as you can see, he gets very relaxed.
I did some work on another canvas.  This one is larger then the others I've done.  It's an 8X10 and I did it with a bit of Halloween theme.

I titled this "Death" with the saying: "Death is not the greatest loss in life.  The greatest loss is what dies within us while we're alive" by Norman Cousins.  There's a lot of 3D and movement to this.  The bat fringe on top is some edging I found at Joanns.  I took twigs for the left side and hung a plastic skeleton from it.  The fence was punched out using a Martha Stewart edge punch as were the smaller bats.  I also used Martha Stewart transparencies for the moon, headstone and larger bat across the moon.  It has red eyes but you can't see it well in the picture.  The swirls and flower are by Prima and the mulberry paper fall leaves are from Michael's.  They're really pretty with gold glitter edges and I wanted to use them in something so I stuck a few on the branches.
I also finished up some old ATC's I'd started awhile back when I was in my scenery stamping stages.

I did one for breast cancer awareness but the picture is so disappointing.  You can't see the embossed words on the white.  Love is across the bottom and Faith goes down the left side of the paper.  I used a words of hope embossing stencil for the white cardstock then layered the rest on top.  I really wish it was more visible because it does look so much better in person.
Two months before the start of another new year.  Why does time go by so much faster when we get older regardless to how much or how little we do?
Thanks for stopping by!

Artful Surprise

I received the coolest gift from my friend Melanie E. the other day.  She made a Halloween wall hanging that is just the neatest thing I've ever seen.

I love how it sparkles and it has bats!  You can't go wrong with sparkle and bats now can you??? The round disks are made of wood and covered in various papers and the images are 3D.

Well I do LOVE treats!

I love the bats and how they and the black swirls are all sparkly.  You can't see it as well in this picture.

These pumpkins are just too funny.  

The background papers used on this is so cool and it's on both the front and back.  I really love how this turned out and especially that it came from such a special friend.  Thank you so very much for thinking of me and giving me a part of you, Mellie!

Failed attempts

The past several days consisted of failed attempts by me with various things.  Firstly we tried to get a playmate for Jake but it didn't go well and I got scratched up being referee.  After reading up on some of the guides on introducing new pets I see I did it entirely wrong. 
We assumed that because the kitty we were bringing in was so friendly and easy going that Jake would take to her with no problem.  Unfortunately he felt threatened and jealous so all they did was fight.  I ended up having to return her, which broke my heart because she really was such a lover and so pretty.

At least now I know the steps for when (if) we ever try another pet again.
I also did a canvas for my breast cancer awareness theme.  It was going well until I tried using my own handwriting.  I didn't like it at all once it was done because of that.  The other parts turned out good though. 

I used strings of beads for the hanger instead of a chain this time.I cut the wings out of fun foam and stickers make up the ribbon and words.  I sprayed dictionary paper with S.W.A.K. Glimmer Mist for the base flower then layered a denim piece of fabric cut with a sizzix flower die, crochet white flower and topped off with a prima daisy flower.  I really like layering flowers this way.  The smaller flower was a couple of prima petals attached together with a metal flower brad.  I glued a small pearl bead to the center of the brad but it's very hard to see in the picture. Guess it's back to the drawing board.

It's Here!

One of favourite time of year is finally here....well sort of.  After a brief tease of cool Autumn weather we're back to 90* degrees.  It was nice while it lasted.  I just love the crispness to the air when Fall comes around and the beautiful colours of the foliage.  Unfortunately we don't get as much of the colour changes in this area but they are still so pretty to see.  We went to Oregon a few years ago to visit my in-laws and there were so many lovely trees along the way. 

Sacramento, CA

Mt. Shasta

Last night we went to have dinner at our dear friend, Patti's home.  Her job is transferring her to Florida because their local branch is closing down.  The recession has really hit hard and so many people are out of work or have been out of work for so long that she decided this was an option she needed to take.  I don't envy her because she has lived in our valley all her life just as I have and leaving all her family and friends behind for a place where she knows no one and has to start over alone is very scary.  I admire and am very proud of her being so brave as to take on this journey at this stage in her life and hope that great things come from it.  She really deserves some good fortune for a change.
This was the cake her children got for her going away dinner.  Aren't they sweet?  Actually sarcasm and humour are big with us.  Sometimes you have to laugh to mask the tears.
I really do think Patti needs to start her own blog as a diary of her new life and adventures. Who knows what could become of it.  Plus her friends and family can share the ups and downs with her, what do you think?

Patti's going away cake

I have been doing some more crafting but I decided for once I wasn't going to post anything until the receiver received.  I put together a canvas for my friend Kristen.  She is such a lovely soul and I wanted to send her something positive.  We both like the supportive and zen like sayings or quotes so I tried to do a little of that here.

Zen

Since this is the month of Halloween and Breast Cancer Awareness I'm hoping to get a couple of things done with those theme's soon too, fingers crossed.  I found some of the cutest bat fringe that I'm dying to think of a use for so come on inspiration!
Jake has once again taken on new territory.  This time it's the upper shelf of my desk.  He is really getting more into the jumping and climbing from one spot to another so I cleared off a section for him so he could jump from my chair or desk up to it and lay when he wanted.  He was content with that for awhile but the past couple of days he's decided he wants the entire shelf.  My desk is a corner unit so his original space was twice his length.  After being showered with my nic naks and framed photo's falling on my head I decided to clear it off and give it to him.  Hopefully he, my large wooden initial and the clock can live harmoniously together up there.  Now he likes reaching down into my cubby holes and throwing my papers, staplers and whatever he can pick up at me.  It was bad enough when he just stole things.  Some day I know I'll find that I-Tunes gift card, lip balm and his original cat brush.

I hope everyone is having a lovely October. 

King of Anything - Sara Bareilles (with lyrics)

I need to be more "Green"

Two days of blogging in the same month, amazing!  The heat is still here which makes me even less ambitious to do things, if that's possible, but I decided to try putting together some embellishments with the beads I have.   I've been seeing ads for the show, "Hoarders" and can see myself getting that bad with my crafting supplies because of my lack of motivation.  I'm much better at buying the things then using them up.  It also made me wonder what deep seeded issues I have that makes me do this.  Thankfully I'm more of a clutter-bug and not hoarding garbage (literally) as I've seen on the commercials.  I'm afraid to watch any of the shows because it looks so emotional and I'm afraid I'll see myself in there some how....  So I shall move onto a show that I DO watch which is "Living with Ed" on the planet green channel.  Ed Begley Jr. and his wife show the pro's (he's obsessively eco friendly) and con's (His wife likes nice and comfortable things).  It shows some really cool ideas for living more "green" and how you can have nice and comfortable as well.  

I watched an episode the other day where Rachelle Begley needed to organize her office space so she hired a green friendly organizer to help her out.  My craft room can so relate to the way her office space looked.  The woman said that one of the problems of clutter is that people need to organize to their own personal habits and figure out why they keep some of the things that they do.  By organizing properly you eliminate not being able to find things and re-buying them, which is what I do constantly.  So even though I've told myself a million times I'm going to get myself organized, hopefully this time it will sink in.  I'm also trying to use the things I have to help reduce the problem of finding spaces for everything.  Naturally everything from junk mail to office chairs were recycled.  It really is a cool show.

One of the projects I started in order to use up items is putting some of my beads together for embellishments to projects I haven't started yet.  I had these dangly beaded bits that I wasn't sure what to do with so I put them on clips to use as markers or something. 

I also wanted to try and get some Halloween projects going.  I say this every year so wish me luck.  I put together some bat and mummy beads with regular ones and eventually they will be a part of something else.  I also did this with some Neko kitty beads.  I think these beads are just so cute. 

I had some kid fang necklace kits that I'm not sure what I'll do with but I put one together the way it's suppose to be.  I know I'll be using the fang parts for embellishments rather than as necklace pieces.

I thought about doing a book or wall hanging of vampire type things since I'm into that.  My ideas come and go more rapidly then my hands seem to work so we will see how that progresses.  I've yet to put together my book of cemetery pictures and that's been something I've wanted to do for quite some time...but I think I might have an idea to help that one go a little faster now.  Fingers crossed...

Tomorrow is Labor Day here in the U.S. and I hope everyone has a safe and happy day, where ever that may be.

Wow, what happened to summer?

I keep telling myself, "Today I will post to my blog" and then the next thing I know it's the next day.  This cycle has gone on for apparently longer than I thought.  What I had thought was a few weeks absence I now see is well over a month.  I wish I could say things were so exciting and busy around here that I just couldn't find the time but alas, that was not the case.

I did catch a couple of movies in the past few weeks.  The first was "Salt" with Angelina Jolie.  It was a good action film but I felt like it was missing something in the end.  I also saw "The Expendables" a couple of weeks ago.  It started out with action and explosions and kept it going throughout the movie.  This was definitely the man's date night movie.  Hubby loved it.

I've been trying some new recipe's along with making some old ones I hadn't done in ages and tweaked it up a bit.  I made (for the first time) something called "Chicken Smoosh" (didn't think to take a pic of it but will show the one Miss Maddy took of hers) which turned out so good.  It tastes almost like a chicken enchilada but in casserole form.  I got the recipe from a 10 year old girl who just loves to cook.  I can see her becoming one of the great chefs of the future.  If you'd like to try her recipe or see others she has you can find them listed here at "In the kitchen with Maddy" . 

Chicken Smoosh by Maddy Johnson

Another recipe I brought out of the closet is, for lack of a better name, just called "Chicken Stuff".  It's a favourite that I would make regularly when I first got married and the very first thing I ever made for my husband.  It's very easy and tasty so I have no idea why I don't make it more often.  The picture below shows it with spinach since I didn't have any bamboo or chestnuts.  It's a forgiving recipe so most of the time I switch it up a bit.


I basically just throw things into the pan but this is the basics if anyone would like to try it.  You'll need: (depending on how much you are making you can add or subtract any ingredient "to taste")
Sesame oil
2-3 chicken breasts 
1 bunch green onions (chopped)
Chinese parsley (cilantro) to taste (I use half a bunch)
1 can water chestnuts (sliced is easier) and 1 can bamboo shoots
1 can or fresh mushrooms
1 tsp. grated ginger
1 garlic clove
splash of soy sauce (I use enough to give it some flavour.  Use your judgement)
1 tsp. cayenne pepper (I seldom add this)
1 tsp flour
1 can chicken broth
Chop chicken into cubes and brown in 2 tbsp. sesame seed oil.  Add green onions and parsley to chicken and stir..  Gradually add in chopped chestnuts, bamboo shoots, garlic, ginger, pepper and soy sauce.  Stirring as you add.
Mix flour with broth until smooth then add to chicken and cook until reduced.  About 20-30 minutes. (I do this the lazy way and sprinkle the flour over the chicken then stir in the broth, making sure that the flour is incorporated well and not lumpy).
Serve over rice.  (I used a plain chicken flavoured fried rice with this and hubby loves the extra juice over it.)

Last but not least my kitty question of the day...."How in the world can this be comfortable"????

The space under this chair is not very big yet he likes to sleep under it.  Most times I can't see him at all because he's in the center but since he was hanging out I took the photo op.  He's made finding him when he's quiet and I don't know where he is more of a challenge since adding this under the chair spot.

 Labour Day is near and the schools are starting to get back into session.  I hope everyone has had a lovely and safe summer.  I'm excited that my time of year is getting closer too.  The crisp days of Fall shall be here before we know it.  Until next time, peace and happiness.