She's Baaaaaack!

Just a quick note to let you know that I'm back. Remember that I said that I called my sister to let her know a package was coming for her birthday and she said she wanted me there as well??? I got there right after her package did. What did I send her, you may ask? She just discovered Hannah Montana and has had a blast engaging in marathon viewings of Hannah and all her antics. What would be a better present than a box full of Hannah gear. Yep, that's right, I sent my silver haired sister a long blonde wig and a microphone and a very usable shoulder tote. If you hang in there with me through out all these pictures, you just might see Sister in the wig. Don't worry, I asked her first. That's it, so enjoy...

She was happy to see me!

We had fun playing drums...

We belted out a few old favorites (the playing is so totally staged, but I did wail out the tunes)

I made new friends...

and laughed until I needed Depends...

I had my first fondue experience...

I even got to see some surprise snow...

We did lots of retail therapy, so as the packages start to arrive, I may share with you some of my various birthday booty. I had a lovely time and am very thankful to have such wonderful sisters. They know that I love them, but I wanted to say it again. I had fun and while there's no place like home, California if a great place to visit...if you have a sister there.

Just a quick trip!!!

Just a quick post to let everyone know that I am taking a quick trip to CA to see my sissy. It was quite unplanned. I called to let her know that I had sent her birthday package and she got excited about that, but what she said she really wanted was for me to come see her. Since my birthday is on Sunday (we are five years and five days apart), I decided to shock her by agreeing to hop a plane and fly out. I am not the greatest traveler, but once I get in the airport, I do alright.

Therefore, I'm off to San Diego early Friday morning and will get back 9:00 pm Monday. Maybe I'll have some fun photos to share when I return. So keep me and all the pilots in your prayers and I'll be back soon.

This and That

I'm still in the midst of spring cleaning, so I really don't have any art to post. I did make a loomed bracelet on a child's craft loom to get back in practice. I have a large beading loom, designed by Don Pierce, that I am planning a project on, which will be fun I'm sure. If you are not familiar with beading on a loom, check out his web page.

I am always seeing fun things out in the yard. I have several squirrel nests high up in my trees...

If their nests become flea or insect infested, they abandon them.

My neighbor has feeders. I'm not sure if this is a bird feeder or a squirrel feeder, but the hubby was able to get a quick shot, through the screen and quite a distance away, but you can see the determination in this little fellow.

What a hoot!

Look carefully and you can see him stretched out between the feeder and the tree that he is literally hanging onto my a claw. Funny.

As some of you may know, the Cardinal is the state bird of Virginia. There is a good reason for that. I saw this little guy fly by today and was able to snap a quick shot of him.

Isn't he gorgeous?

Several weeks ago I mentioned that I'm not a practical joker. I have one favorite joke that I pull on my hubby. Whenever I'm letting the length of my hair grow, I always get a little fake hair scrunchie and wrap it around my short little pony tail to mask the growing out process.

My trick on the hubby is to come running out of the bathroom with the fake hair in my hand and act like a big glob of my hair has come out. I know this is not really very funny and the last time I did it to him, we were on vacation in California and it just about scared him to death.

While doing my reorganizing, I came across my "partner in crime",

Looks like Ric Flair hair!

and thought I would show her to you before she is retired to a life as a doll wig.

Well, that's all from me today. If I get some art or jewelry finished, I'll be sure and share. Until then, enjoy your week, give someone a hug today and tell them it's from Susan.

Five new friends

We have five new friends. At least I thought they were friends. They seemed to be a bit miffed at me for taking their picture and haven't been back for several days. Imagine living in a reasonably large suburban area and having these sweeties in your back yard. I love it. While everyone else on our street has back yards, my neighbors and I have yards and wooded acreage. We have a very small crick that runs along the property line and since having so much rain and snow this winter, this little stream is supplying lots of critters with a cool drink. I've seen groundhogs and squirrels, but way too many bees for my tastes.

In addition to watching the wildlife, I have been doing a bit of spring cleaning. Yesterday I tackled one of my art storage areas.

Shower stall in extra bathroom used as storage

This is just the first area I'm working on. I'm planning on organizing the closets, the laundry room (where more of my polymer, lampwork and beading supplies are) and maybe getting new curtains or draperies for several rooms. Lofty aspirations I know, but that's what a little bit of sunshine and fresh air does to me. Right now I have the hubby toting heavy stuff out to the curb for the bulk pick up guys. Ahhh, springtime.

As most of you know I have a weight loss blog, so I usually don't post that sort of thing here. Recently though, I read several statements that really rang true with me. One of the things I read somewhere was "if hunger is not the problem, then eating is not the solution". This really hit home with me. How often do I eat when I'm not hungry? Only all my life. The other thing that I wanted to bring to your attention is the current post of Roy Cohen. He mentions how much time we spend doing daily activities and how we could borrow from those minutes to make time to work out. Really good article, I hope you have time to read it.

In Roy's profile he uses the word mindful several times. This is a word that I have often used and to me it means that you have thought something through. Being mindful of the way you live is a good thing. If we all just went through life willy-nilly, nothing would ever get done.

As we all know, life is like anything else... you have to think it through, figure out what is the best way to go about things and then do it. If at first, what you thought was best isn't, that doesn't mean that you just stop trying. Certainly it's ok to sit in a chair with binoculars and watch the deer for twenty minutes at a time, but you need to eventually get out of that chair and do something else. It doesn't have to be productive or mean something, but you do need to grab onto life and show it you're in it for the long haul.

Set aside an hour or so for blog reading and then get up and do some one minute exercises. Do some stretches or what ever you are physically capable of doing. Unless you aren't mindful and overdo it, you'll feel better.

With all this being said, it's time for me to hit the treadmill. Enjoy your day and if you'd rather, put on some peppy music and dance your way through life. At the very least... you'll be getting some exercise.

Happy Easter

What's in your "to do" box?

Today is April 1st and since I don't really like pranks, I thought I would address one of the little jokes we pull on ourselves. You know the one where you start a project and for some reason you never finish it?? Yeah, that one. Whether it's a knitting project that just got boring,


...or an entire shopping bag of jewelry that you keep because you KNOW that you are someday going to redesign the pieces, we all seem to do this.

What about you? Do you or any one you know do this routinely? It could be the latch hook kit that your mom put away for so long that mice ate the yarn (I know someone else that remembers that one) or maybe you have a bag of half-done embroidery projects. I have a beaded project that I decided to give up on and placed the magazine with the instructions and all the components into a bag and was going to give to someone else to finish,


but....I just can't seem to part with it. I know I can finish it someday. Blessedly I have room to store these treasures, and it's a good thing, because I plan on being able to do my crafts and art and jewelry for a long time to come.

And I ask again...what about you? Do you always finish all your projects? Do you feel guilty if you walk by the same necklace for months at a time and then make yourself finish it and then realize that it took about ten minutes.



Have you been wanting to whip up some stretchy bracelets and are such a whiny baby that you find every excuse not to? Now's the time.



Even though I'm much more a "lady of leisure" these days than in the past, I still find myself procrastinating on some things and spending way too much time on others (blogging and web surfing, just to name two).

Here is a piece that I started several years ago, that was inspired by the neck wear on Dancing With The Stars, but what would I ever wear it with... so here it sits..



Is the key multi-tasking or motivation? Right now I'm out on the deck making this post because it's just too beautiful to stay inside (multi-tasking). I do set little goals for myself, and try to stick to them. I clean the house for two hours and then allow myself to play in the studio for three, (motivation) . What's your method of getting your favorite things worked in with the must do things?

Right now I have to make a decision. I want to stay out here on the deck,



but in between dodging all those wasps with the crazy long legs, that keep circling me, and the desire for some tea with honey to combat my scratchy throat and cough, I think I'm going to have to go in.

How did you spend April 1st? Any jokers in your crew? Are you now so worried about your "to do" box, that you can't concentrate on any thing else? Hmmm, maybe I'm more of a trickster than I thought.

Take care, and let me know how you deal with some of the quirky little things that we do to ourselves.

Enjoy.

Thursday's art

You may remember that I've been working on an art bead for a Flickr group challenge. This month's inspiration comes from Van Gogh's beautiful "Almond Branches".



My initial thought was to make a landscape cane with the entire image formed into the cane. This proved much more difficult to execute than I expected and looking back, I think that I should have used an inlay technique instead. In any event, this is what I ended up with...


I tried to duplicate the look of hand painted porcelain by adding some extra accents to the branches with various pens and paints and after curing, I coated the pendant with a product called Faux Dichro Liquid Glass which gave it a lovely glazed ceramic look.

Much to my delight, the current assignment for Art Beads. com's Beaders that Blog program is Spring. We were told to pick anything from the catalog that made us think of spring. I thought that it would be fun to combine the challenges and decided on blue jasper calsilica coin beads as a complement for the Almond Blossom piece. I mean after all, what says spring better than the beautiful blues and woodsy browns that are in these jasper beads. The beads that I received are so gorgeous, that they almost outshine the focal bead that I made. I'm thinking of also using them in a multi-strand necklace. I've very happy with them. To complete the design, I made some accent beads to match and I decided on light yellow seed beads as spacers.

These challenges just might be the motivation that I needed to get out of my slump. When working on a design, I'm not usually very dreamy or poetic. The beads I chose are calsilica, actually a man-made amalgamation of various minerals and stone fragments that are held together with resin. While working with these beads and the polymer clay, I did stop to contemplate the many ways of combining natural elements with man made products. It seemed to make a statement about how we can retain our love of nature and yet use modern technology to enhance art, as well as so many other areas of life.

That's it for now. Hope everyone is enjoying their week and getting ready for the weekend. Take care and stay creative.



*FTC compliance disclosure* the products attributed to Artbeads.com in this post where provided as a promotional gift by Artbeads.com in relation to the blogging program. My comments pertaining to these products are my personal opinion, no compensation has been received.

A give away

I still don't have any art to post, but I'm working on it. I am offering a little giveaway over on my other blog and thought some of you might be interested. I won't give away the details here, but I will give away a cool item over there. So join the rush to enter your name at my healthy living and weight loss blog, "Let's Lose Weight This Year" and meet some new friends and maybe win something!

I'm still working on my art bead necklace and will post that later this week. Between crazy weather, a hubby with a cold and motivation that is apparently taking a vacation, I've been pretty slothful. But this will pass, it always does.

Take care and enjoy your week.

In between projects

I'm in the process of making an art bead for a challenge that is due before April 1, but in the mean time I thought I'd pop in and just say hi and post a few fun links. I'll be posting some art soon, but I thought until then I would ask you a quick question...do you have little guilty pleasures? One of mine is watching court shows. It started back in the old days with Judge Wampner and The Peoples court. These days I love to watch Judge Mathis and Judge Judy. I have to think of my little uncle (God rest his soul), of how much he loved and respected Judge Judy, so I don't feel but so guilty about it.

Anyway, what is your little pleasure, that perhaps no one knows? I have several...in addition to my judge shows, I love watching reality shows in general. I always loved to dance, so my other little secret is that when no one is looking, (imagine me whispering this) I try to teach myself how to do those "booty shake" moves that I see on the dance shows. I know you are laughing, but I'll bet you do funny little things like that, too.

Come on, fess up...you know I'm not alone.

What's up with me

The weather the past few days has been beautiful. We went shopping several times and ate out several times and have just had a nice time recently. In between times, I have been doing my usual things... housework, laundry, listening to talk radio, and being creative.

I was quite happy with the agate cane from last post, so I put on the mad scientist lab coat to see what I could make with it. To start off, I sliced the cane into equal slices and flattened and elongated each piece slightly. This was done using a small piece of white PVC pipe that the folks at Home Depot gave me from a pile of ends that was next to their cutter. Never know where your next tool will come from, huh? Any hoo, I poked holes in the tops of the slices and baked them in my trusty toaster oven.

Side note to my Sis...I'm still using the same little oven that we placed a label on that read "polymer clay only". Upon seeing this label, our other partner in crime exclaimed "Where in the world did you find an oven for polymer clay only?" We hooted and hollered and Sister just held the label maker up, gunslinger style, blew the smoke from it and tipped her hat. Ok, well maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but it was really funny in a "duh" kind of way.

Back to the slices. This is what I ended up with.




On to another matter. I don't know if you remember, but a while back, I was contacted by Art Beads.com and invited to be a member of their group "Beaders that Blog". The way it is set up, they have certain beads that we can get from them, as a promo gift and then we review them. I have made several nice pieces using beads from this program and I have been able to try new items, that I ordinarily would not have tried. I took apart several vintage necklaces and made this piece, and then I tried my hand at resin and blogged about that here. Having not used the copper bracelet with the resin, I still had it and have just been looking at it and waiting for the right time to create something.

All of this is leading up the the creation of a faux scarab type bracelet from the ends of the agate cane. I love to challenge myself to use my scrap clay in a pleasing way, so I formed little beads and pressed them into that copper colored bracelet. TAA, DAA...


I still participate in the Beaders that Blog program and after choosing and receiving my latest beads, I got stumped. I had originally visualized making a sparkly neck piece using both the garnet tear drops and the purple faceted CZ beads together, using a wire wrap technique.



This last time I chose purple CZ beads and garnet teardrop shaped cubic zirconia (CZ) beads from their online catalog. As you can see in the picture, I was going to use sterling silver wire and wire wrap the tear drops to make a loop on them to attached to silver chain. Well, this was my first time working with this type bead, and they were too delicate for this technique, so I had to put my thinking cap on. I normally have no problem with design, but when I had to go back to square one, it took me a while. After several weeks of looking at these beads I designed this necklace.


I used amber colored crystal beads from my stash, and place the teardrop garnet cz's between them. It's really comfortable and looks quite fancy for such a simple design.

I really liked the purple cz's but they weren't speaking to me until today. I had used my beading board (which is a neutral gray) to try out endless color combinations and didn't like anything. It wasn't until I took a piece of hot pink fabric and placed the beads on it, that inspiration came to me. While it didn't involve pink at all, it did make me realize that these purple sparkly beads needed aged copper beads as their new best friends. Don't you agree?



Sometimes we need to just sit back and think about simplicity. This is the simplest bracelet ever. Copper beads and Purple faceted CZ rounds on elastic. I have it on right now and I love it.

Since I always wear earrings, I whipped these up, also.

Well, that's it for me today. A little bit of this and a bit of that. I should get my treadmill tomorrow, so that will be fun. I'll be sure to let you know how that goes. Take care and remember to have fun and be creative in your own special way.




*FTC compliance disclosure* the products attributed to Artbeads.com in this post where provided as a promotional gift by Artbeads.com in relation to the blogging program. My comments pertaining to these products are my personal opinion, no compensation has been received. It's probably a good thing, too, because I'm sometimes way too honest in my reviews.

Another day in paradise

I cannot believe it's been a week since I posted here. What with the snow being on the ground for so long, and having fallen into an indoor daily routine, I never seem to know what day it is. It used to be I knew what day it was by what I had seen on the television the previous night, but now we DVR all our shows and watch them throughout the week. If we watch our Monday night shows on Thursday, and our Wednesday night shows on Saturday, it can get a bit confusing.

I have been spending quite a bit of time working with polymer clay. One of my favorite books for ideas is Ancient Modern by Ronna Sarvas Weltman. She loves to make jewelry that she refers to as impracticable...big, bold pieces that might impede normal duties, but are still such fun to wear. Here is a bracelet made from one of the techniques.



One of the components in this fun chunky elastic bracelet is faux agate slices. I found a picture online of a really pretty agate slice and referred to it as I built this cane.

Isn't it cool how my patio table looks like water???

Using translucent clay, gives it a more realistic appearance. To get an unusual texture for the outside of the cane, I rolled it in Epsom salt and then applied various colors of alcohol ink. You can then gently remove the salt, or you can carefully make the slices without removing it, but don't run it back through your pasta machine, or the salt will scratch the rollers.

Speaking of agates canes, the bracelet also includes slices from an agate cane that my sister and I made about nine years ago. Just another confirmation as to the length of time you can keep unbaked clay. Some of you may recognize the ring and brooch from an earlier post, but since they are favorites of mine, and made from this same book, I'm showing them again.

Other than watching it snow and hoping for Spring, I have been doing a lot of blog surfing. I read all your blogs and for some reason have been lax in commenting and for that I do apologize. We did go to see a movie last week, The Crazies, and I loved it. Really scary and lots of gory special effects that were believable enough to be fun, but not so disgusting.

The sun is actually out this morning and the hubs has suggested a shopping trip to Stein Mart, so I'm off to get ready for that. Hope everyone is enjoying their week and preparing for a warm and sunny weekend.

Take care and stay creative.

Just some art

Now, I know some purist would beg to differ. Not everyone would consider the following beads actual works of art, but for today we will.

I tried several techniques since I last posted. Much of my time is used playing Mad Scientist with my clay. I have several great books and while I know their techniques work, I'm always wondering "what will happen if I try this?" I learn a lot, but lab work does eat away at your creative time.

Today's art is faux bone. I based several of my pieces on the ancient art of Scrimshaw. Scrimshaw was originally done by whalers on the bones and teeth of whales and walruses. They used the tools at hand to engrave designs and then rubbed the design with pigment to bring out the image. If you like to do scrimshaw, you are a scrimshander. These days artists certainly don't use bones and tusks from endangered animals in their art, so it is often referred to as faux scrimshaw or faux bone even though the technique is still the same.

This may sound odd, but I haven't seen a piece of actual bone in years. I remember ham bones and chicken bones from my younger days, but since all the meat I cook is boneless, I'm not really sure what color bone is. With that in mind, I relied on the color combinations mentioned in my various clay books for my faux bone polymer clay. I came up with these...



The piece on the left was done on raw clay using a needle to punch tiny holes into the clay in the design of a tiger. I wasn't sure how to initially get my image onto the raw clay to go by, so I printed out a small picture of a tiger and took the needle tool and punched holes through the paper to outline the tiger. I pressed the picture onto the raw clay and was going to go over it with a soft lead pencil in hopes that the graphite would go through the holes. Well, it didn't...but something even better did happen. Due to the light burnishing of the image, the holes themselves showed up on the raw clay giving me a perfect dotted outline to start my project.

The tile on the left was done by pressing an un-inked rubber stamp into the raw clay. On both of the pieces, I baked the clay at 225 in my little toaster oven. I use a lower temperature than recommended and it seems to work quite well and I don't get much scorching. After curing the pieces, I used brown acrylic paint over the entire piece and then wiped off the excess with a cloth before it dried . If your image is quite deep in the clay, you can sand any remaining paint off of the piece. If your image is not that deep, and sanding would obliterate your image, you can lightly spray rubbing alcohol on a smooth cloth and go over the top of the piece. Rubbing alcohol removes acrylic paint, so don't spray it directly onto your piece, or you will have to start over. But it's good technique if you don't like the paint that you used to antique your piece, as you can use the alcohol and an old tooth brush to remove that color.

Whew, I'm wordy today, aren't I. Sorry about that. On to the next one...

On this one, I simply rolled the bone clay into a somewhat large ball, then flattened it slightly with my hand. I textured the clay with a needle and lightly pressed an oval shaped cutter onto the clay, giving me a frame for my picture. I baked the clay, then antiqued it. For the picture, I used a copyright free, laser printed image left over from my library art club days (thanks, Marnie!) and a piece of clear packing tape. You place the tape down on the image, and use something to burnish it. I used the back of a teaspoon. After making sure the image is burnished completely, you then place the whole bit into a small bowl of water and walk away from it. It usually takes about five minutes for the paper loosen and you can then start to remove the paper carefully from the tape, using your fingers, re-wetting as you go. I use my non dominant hand, so I won't be tempted to scrub the image from the tape. After all the paper is gently removed, the image is completely transferred to the clear tape. I used a bit of gel medium to glue the tape transfer to the pendant, added a few gold paint highlights and it's ready to string.

Lastly my personal favorite is a grungy faux bone heart.


I roughly shaped the clay into a large heart and sliced it flat down the middle (think of filleting a fish) and then roughly placed them back together. I wrapped thin wire around the hearts, pressed in some grommets, roughed it up some and also used various shaped pieces of wire for texture. Cured and cooled, I removed the wires and applied the paint to antique.

While blog surfing earlier this morning, I checked in on a favorite, Pink Crayon Studio. Suze Perrott is a marvelous artist and today she shows a picture of a stack of her fabric that reminded her of a deli sandwich. That got me to thinking what a great way to find colors that go together. If you are in a bind and can't think of what colors to use, think of your favorite foods and the colors that they contain. The colors of a juicy hamburger, with shades of ground beef brown, tomato red, lettuce green and that off white colored onion, would make great colors for beads for a new necklace. Ok, now thanks to Suze, we're hungry and off to the store.

Take it easy this week. If you're expecting more falling weather, prepare for it and remember spring is right around the corner. It has to be...tell me it is!

Still hanging in there

Not a lot going on here. Did get a few beads and buttons made...

but I just can't come up with anything I really like. I prefer my work to be original, but there comes a time when you need to get out the books and practice techniques using another artist's work as a sample.

I want to make some canes and create some jewelry similar to that of Karen Lewis (Klew) and Kim Cavender. The best way to do this is to condition a lot of clay ahead of time, so you can proceed uninterrupted with the building of your canes. Conditioning clay is my least favorite part of the process, especially the stiffer clays, like Cernit and Fimo.

If you are not familiar with the process building a complex cane from polymer clay, check out the the free tutorials of Desiree at Desiree's Desired Creations.

There are as many ways to use polymer clay as there are artists and crafters that use it. There is no right or wrong design, and once you learn the techniques you are really not limited by much. It is an inexpensive art material and requires few tools, and can be cured in an inexpensive toaster oven. If you find that you really like polymer clay and want to subscribe to some really helpful and professional videos, be sure to check out Cindy Lietz.

All that being said, I'll leave you to check out yet another picture of me. An unretouched full length shot of me standing in front of our door.



The reason I'm mentioning this is that this shot really shows that I have packed on some winter weight and I'm going to be using this as my "before" shot for the huge amount of weight that I plan on losing. Wish me luck and keep track of my weighty musings over here if you want.

That's it for today. Hang in there and try not to let the acres of snow drive you batty. It has to melt sometime! If you don't have snow...enjoy that fact and act accordingly!

Frivolous Friday

Frivolous because I really don't have anything much to say. Got out today and ran some errands...

Piles of snow everywhere, even at the bank (snow bank, get it?)



Went to see Crazy Heart with Jeff Bridges, liked it a lot, but I kept thinking that Jeff Bridges was Kris Kristofferson, I got a bit weepy at the end, but it was really good and the music was good, too.

Went to Merle Norman to get some nail polish, but they only carry OPI nail color now, and I can get that cheaper at the mall, so no new nail color today. I didn't realize that Merle Norman was discontinuing their brand of polish, or I would have stocked up. Grr.

DH took a picture of me in my new glasses with relatively good hair today, so I'll share that with you.

Other than going out to lunch yesterday and to a movie today, DH and I aren't doing much for Valentines Day. I'm kind of funny about Valentines Day. It started back in grade school when we were supposed to give those little Valentine cards to all our classmates. It actually started when I was in first grade, my Mom, after trying to deal with me and my siblings waiting till the last minute to address the valentine cards, decided it would be a lot quicker if she wrote the names on the envelopes....in cursive. That meant that the next morning in school, six year old me couldn't read any of the names on the envelopes, and had to traipse back and forth asking Mrs. Henderson, the teacher what each envelope said. Needless to say, thirty trips back and forth to the boxes would have been too much for her, so then she takes over and puts them into the boxes. Not a good way to start Valentines Day, huh? Then fast forward to sixth grade and yes, we still have to put a valentine in those stupid boxes. But the cards they got me to give out all said I love you on them, or be mine and that didn't sit well with me. Man, I couldn't catch a break, I just wasn't into any of the boys in my class, or many of the girls for that matter, (they all teased me because I was the chubby girl). It never occurred to me to not put a valentine in every box, I mean how rude would that be?...anyway, I took my pen and crossed out love on the cards and wrote like instead. For some reason, the adults thought this alteration was hilarious when the teacher ratted me out the next day.

As an adult, it didn't get much better when my boyfriend of almost ten years, waits until after Valentines day to pick up left over candy that was on sale...the reasons for not liking Valentines day go on and on.

Blessedly, as you know, I now have a wonderful, loving husband who would go all out on Valentines Day and would take me where ever I want to go, by I'd rather stay at home with him, watching shows that he tapes for me and feeding him my homemade chili and watching him doze off in front of the tv. That's what Valentines Day is really about for me. He has bought me jewelry and perfume and candy and clothes over the years, but sitting beside him watching our shows is the best present anyone could get. Like the song says, who could ask for anything more?

So what started out as a frivolous post, turned into a happy post about my sweet hubby. If you haven't seen him for a while, here is an older picture of us together. I think he looks so cute here.

So there you have it. This little photo is my Valentine to you. Hope you have a great weekend and a wonderful Valentines day. If your day doesn't turn out the way you planned, remember you could be forced to send love notes to kids you don't really love. In other words, it could always be worse. Take care and embrace and enjoy what the day brings, I know I will.

Monday, Monday

The sun is shining and although there is a lot of snow, the roads are clear and dry. DH had to dig out some, but thanks to our neighbor, our driveway was mostly clean. I had errands to run before the next storm (Tuesday, grr) so I got chauffeured around town all morning.

Went to Michael's for a new clay blade. I have tons of dull ones and haven't figured out the best way to sharpen them, so I had to fork over $5.00 for one blade. Yikes.

I think I'm going to take a break from the collage work and make some jewelry. Making jewelry is what I always go back to and I think my polymer clay is calling to me. Hopefully, I'll have something to post later in the week, jewelry-wise, but until then here is the only art I've done recently... my last two collage journal pages.

My pages are fairly large, 11" x 14", so I have lots of room for my images and lettering. I may have mentioned that I'm participating in a Flickr Collage group, where we all download the same image and create our piece. I'm getting a bit stymied in this type of collage art. For some reason, none of my pages look anything like the others in the group, and I'm constantly comparing myself to them. The group leaves positive comments on my art, but for some reason, I feel like they are dancing around the fact that I'm just not like the other kids. I have always been a bit different, and have been called crazy, weird and my all time favorite...colorful. Ahh, but again, I digress.

Here are my most recent submissions.

The guitars and the necklace were my addition to the supplied images, as were the words and the doodles.


This week's sheet was mostly party images with cake and balloons and vintage photos of fancy ladies. I had some really nice watches cut from a fashion magazine ad, and I added them, but I really never got a feel for this week's images.

With all this in mind, I think I'm stepping away from collage for several weeks and going to play around with wearable art, mostly necklaces. I've done a bit of research on what the new trends in jewelry are and will be trying my hand at a few new ideas.

We picked up my new tri-focals today and am trying to get used to them. I can see much better than before, but there is a learning curve. Maybe if I can come up with a cute way to camouflage my turkey wattle, I'll post a picture of me actually wearing them.

Well, that's it for today. Keep your fingers crossed that we don't get any more snow, but I'm thinking we will. If you get any of this next storm, try to stay warm and safe and enjoy it.

Hang in there and remember to be creative in some way and to love life.

Yes, I'm snowed in

I am snowed in, but I'm not unhappy at all. It started snowing early Friday morning (about 3 a.m.) and now at noon on Saturday it's still snowing. Due to the fact that at times it has been quite fine, we haven't gotten the accumulation that we did on Christmas Eve, but this is a heavy snow that is sticking to everything. Our neighbor had a new blade he was itching to try and he pushed and plowed everyone's driveways. After working (playing?) for hours, he finally realized it was an uphill battle.

He is a great guy and I'm sure when it finally stops, he'll be back out helping us all.

Here is the view down into my back woods...

A neighbor's tree sags from the weight of the snow...

A close up of a tree holding the snow, as if she loves it.

This shot, taken from my deck, shows even the tiniest branches grasping the snow...like it's some kind of winter game. I love it.

It's a good thing this red car has no where to be this weekend. It will take quite a bit of sweeping and a lot of hot cocoa for this neighbor to go out.

To help deal with the weather, I love to do art, especially coloring. I'm so glad to have such a talented artist friend as Jenny, who graciously shares an image to color. Please stop by and visit her and see my take on Jenny's art.

So, that's it for me today. I'll be staying in, having fun and counting my blessings. Power, cable, food and love...things we might take for granted, but really appreciate on a day like this.

Enjoy your weekend and have fun!

It's monday again...

Well, it's Monday again. We had another major snow storm over the weekend with frigid temps. I don't mind at all. I would show you a picture of this new storm, but surprisingly enough, it looks a lot like last month's storm. So I won't bore you with that.

As you know, I am a very lighthearted and happy person. There have been several really sad things happen in our region lately, the finding of Morgan Harrington and also finding little Aveion Lewis. These were two local missing persons cases, that have been on our news recently.

Both of these cases are now murder investigations and we are all saddened by the events. Last week I was going through some of my previous essays and I came across one that I want to post for you today. Approximately one year ago, two similar events happened that prompted me to write this, and it still holds true.

********

Sometimes when I stop and think about all the pain in this world, I wonder is it OK for me to be so happy? I know He wants His children to be happy, but is it fair for me to be happy when others have such grief in their lives?

Babies being killed by family members. Ridiculous. Families being torn apart by the sudden death of a loved one just doing his job, killed while at work, by someone doing something stupid. The people that caused these deaths? How can I feel for them? Is it Evilness? Madness? Spirits...from a glass vessel? What causes their pain, what causes people to change? From the decent souls that you thought they were, into instruments of pain? Instruments of death?

Can I live with myself for being happily married for over twenty years, with hopefully and prayerfully, many more years in the future? Can you be happy for me? Or do you hate me for my happiness?

How can I ease your pain, how can I not think of you, all of you? I am only one person, one silly little girl. Am I masking my empathy for you with my happiness? Do I bury myself in my own interests because your pain makes me physically ill? I have to stay healthy, so when it is my time to do my part, I will be able. Please don't hate me because I'm happy. Love me for it. It is a gift from God....this capability I have to always stay positive, to be able to remove myself from your pain. I have to, I know you don't want me to falter... I have to be here for you.

If I don't cry when I hear your grief, it's because I must not. I would cry all the time. I have to grab the bootstraps on my pink patent leathers and give them a tug. I am here to help you and I can't do it if I am in pain.

Don't hate me because you think I'm happy, or beautiful, or rich or blessed or fortunate. What you may think of me, what you may think I am, have you considered that you just might be wrong? I love you, I love you all...maybe too much.

Thank you for the music. Thank you for the art. Thank you for the healing. Thank you for being you.

It's ok to grieve, just don't give up. Grab the rope and hang on. It really will be ok. I know that in my heart.

Faith, Hope and Love...

*******

So that's it for today. I'll be back soon with some art and something lighter and happier, I promise.

A little bit of art...

Ok, I know you are tired of looking at my ugly mug, so here's a bit of art.

I mentioned this artist in an earlier post when I drew the apple. That tutorial was on how to draw an apple, but until I get my new glasses, I have to hold stuff in my hand in order to see it. Imagine my surprise when I found out his new tutorials are on drawing the hand. Last night, just as a lark and using the tools at hand, I followed his newest Youtube tutorial and drew this pointing hand.

This is an excellent tutorial that starts out with three oval shapes and breaks the drawing down into simple shapes that anyone can draw. It is so non intimidating to draw in this way. I really didn't take that much time on it, but I did use the pause button on the video as instructed, and did some shading with a Q-tip. The pointing finger is shortened a bit too much, and the shading needs work, but all in all for a quick sketch, I'm pleased with it.

Several weeks ago, I was asked to participate in a Flickr art group called Collage Play with Crowabout. The group administrator, Nancy Baumiller, supplies an image sheet, which you download and print out and then make your collage using at least three of the suggested images. This week's images were ones that I did not immediately relate to, but after one unsuccessful attempt, I applied the "if at first you don't succeed" method and I came up with this.

It's done on a fairly large sheet, about 9 x 12, so I had lots of room to write (which is my favorite part of my style collage). The sheet had a cow, several signs (open, exit, road work ahead), an advert with Bill Cullen hawking Tenderleaf Tea, a vintage image of a boy, some fish and lots of stuff about Spam. No offense folks, but for a person who stopped eating pork about fifteen years ago, the Spam ads did nothing to encourage my creativity. But I kept looking at it and finally decided that it needed to be a cowboy collage. Having decided that, it dawned on me that I have always thought that, deep down, all guys want to be cowboys. I have lots of old Look and Life mags and took some images from a Roy Rogers ad for little boy's boots and toy guns and such.

I found an image of Sam Elliott (the hunkiest cowboy around) and some vintage images from a western wear website. All of these images lead me to draw a background of the setting sun and then I did a doodle type border frame. I glued down my images and altered them a bit, especially Mr. Bill Cullen.

Well, I could go on and on about my feelings regarding collage art, but perhaps that is a post for another day. Today, I'm staying close to the Weather channel and wondering if the snow that is in our forecast will really materialize.

So that's it for me today. Hope you are all having fun and being creative. Take care and hug the person closest to you. You'll be glad you did.

xoxo
Susan

Something Fun

Here is something I've been working on this weekend. It's unbelievable that it took me hours to figure out how to do it. Duh...copy and paste.

This is just a small sampling of the colors, shapes and styles that I have sported over the past ten years. Sorry that the first one is awful, I was holding my very, very ill fur baby. I should have found another one, as there are lots of me with this Ric Flair mullet, but you get the idea.

Anyway, hope this holds you over until I can post some art.

Kickin it old school...

Ok, I'll be honest, I really don't know if this quote really applies to this piece, but I just like the sound of it.

I used to think you had to suffer
to be Beautiful, but now???

I'm Kickin' It Old School!

The suffering could be anything from eating all your peas as a child, to suffering through many Lilt or Toni home perms. For me, I still do an occasional Velcro roller set, but no color and no perms for this chick. I still love me some war paint (lipstick and nail color) but I kicked the torture chamber heels for more comfy shoes quite a while back.

This next little beauty is along the same lines.

You know how they say

"A leopard doesn't change Her spots"...

Well, Baby I won't tell if you don't!

This little feline sweetie looks a lot scarier than I intended. I hope I don't seem superficial. "Oh listen to her, she thinks all you have to do is slap some make up on". I have always known that folks can change. Whether is something you have been delivered from, to something like gradually breaking out of a rut. We can change bad habits and move forward. Changes can be made, and you can share them with your friends, or they can be your little secret. But the next time someone tells you that "they'll never change" think of my little leopard with her jewelry and make up, and tell them they just might be surprised.

Well, that's it for today. It's raining here today, so perhaps some needlework is in my future. Hope everyone is having a great week. Take care and keep those cards and letters comin'


disclaimer: please be advised that I am a girly-girl, princess type (Baby Boomer that I am) and you will probably continue to see fashion and glamor in my collages (at least until I get some new magazines), so be prepared.

Fabulous Friday

Can you believe that it's Friday again? I know it is, because all my shows were on last night. The week has flown by, but I did get a bit of art done. I'm still into collage art. I like the whole process, from gathering up magazines, to finding images, to deciding whether to look for colors or themes. Everything about collage art is working for me right now.

This first piece wasn't going well, and I just sort of vented as I worked on it. That's where the therapeutic part comes in. I decided to post it anyway...

This next piece was fun and just fell into place...

Someone gave us a stack of Life and Look mags, dating back as far as 1952. When you have magazines that old, you are sometimes hesitant to cut into them, but when I want an image I want it then. So I clip it out. I could wait and go to the copy shop and save the magazine, but shoot...nothing lasts forever, so I am using them. Any hoo, there was this ad for a product to make silver hair beautiful, so that got me to thinking about my journey into the land of uncolored tresses. It's one of the best things I've done for myself lately. Once again I'm happy with my hair. But enough about me.

Speaking of magazine images, if you don't have a lot of magazines and certainly don't want to put a lot of money into something you are going to cut up, check out your local library.



Our's sells their back issues of magazines for .20 each. I went by today and they had lots of different kinds. Another option is catalogs that you get in the mail. I even ask my dentist for old magazines. DH gets musician catalogs and I'm looking forward to doing something funky with them.

My last picture for today is a somewhat blurry shot of a little red headed visitor we had this week. I had to use my zoom feature and take it through the screen, but you can tell what he's up to.

Not quite as busy as Stan the Beaver, but he was quite intent on his job.

So that's it for today. A bit of art, some prose and a look at our backyard buddies. Hope everyone has a great weekend. Do some art, enjoy the scenery or just curl up and watch a movie, whatever you choose...have fun.