Hi everyone. Hope you had lots of fun and will have some great

memories from Christmas. I had fun with my grandkids. I made a

page in my journal before heading out for the visit to show some crafts we could make. They looked at them and wanted to make the glittered stars. We had fun and it was a great way to show them the idea rather than just telling them about the crafts. I used Pitt pens and watercolor pencils to make the page. The second picture is a photo of what we all came up with.

The third photo was a way to procrastinate in my knitting. I thought I'd stop and draw the process before I finished the socks. I am not good at drawing from memory so needed them in front of me while I drew. This page was done on MiTientes paper with colored pencils.

My new year is starting off with lots of new classes. Hopefully I'll remember to share some of what I do in them here on my blog. I tend to get overwhelmed and forget to post things when I take on too much and I've gone and signed up for classes that overlap and

add up to about 9 of them at once for a little while! They just sound like so much fun I can't help but sign up and join in!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all have a great new year!

I took this picture in December last year. Yes, ALL that snow was one of our biggest snowstorms since we moved to Arizona eight years ago.

Inchy again

This is the last inchy for the year. The theme for this week at inchybyinch is "your favorite Christmas carol". I first heard Silver Bells when I was in my grade school glee club. I loved it. So this is my inchy with my favorite song of grade school.

They didn't have try-outs when I joined but they did when my sister tried to join two years later. I have always wondered if they heard me sing and decided to not let someone with a voice like mine join again! Yes, I am that bad. That's why I sing with my art and crafts instead.

Inchy

The theme at Inchybyinch this week is Yule. Not Christmas but a holiday celebrated by pre-Christian peoples. It conveniently transferred over as Christianity took hold. So I have a background of evergreens with a pine cone on top.

Two Inchies

The theme for this week was presents over at
Inchybyinch.

I ended up making two inchies for a change.
Mainly because the first one with the embossing
powder seemed too simple. With the static electricity we have right now I couldn't keep the particles from flying all over the piece either which I could see once it was enlarged.

So I made a second one. This one is a little bit
3-D with the tissue paper sticking out of the box. It was hard finding something small enough to put in this tiny package!

As an aside, I just signed up for the 2010 Bead Journal Project. If anyone loves to do bead embroidery and would like to join us in doing one piece (or page) a month for a year go to Bead Journal Project and check it out. The deadline to sign up is rapidly approaching - December 14th is the last day so hurry!

May BJP Page

Helloooo? Anyone still out here besides me? I got another
page done! May is finally finished. I'm not so far behind because I don't like my beads or the BJP anymore. I just can't see where the needle tip is when it's going into the fabric. It's driving me crazy. I think I have to not use dark fabrics anymore for one thing. I even have trouble under the magnifying lamp.

Well I have this one done at any rate and only three more to finish off this past year. I know, it's well past by now. Ok, I'll quit whining. If you read my blog you know I haven't been sitting doing nothing but worrying over my beading.

May is the month for the Mother's Day holiday so that is my theme. I took a broken earring of my mother's and glued her picture to it. I coated it with a good layer of Delta's Air-Dry PermEnamel Clear Gloss Glaze. It's wonderful stuff, more like a resin to give a nice shiny hard coat over something. Then I glued that to my fabric.

I took a heart bead (remember I am using gifted beads somewhere in my page) my sister gave me to symbolize me and added a banana for my son and a rabbit for my daughter. The banana was given to me by my grandchildren. I would have loved to have used a surfboard but didn't have one and did have the banana. My son eats a case of them a week so it fits. My daughter loves rabbits so that's why I picked it. If I'd had a baby bead I could have used it as she loves babies more than rabbits.

Then I took a mexican bead gifted to me by my daughter to symbolize her and added four little hearts for her children. Three generations represented here.

I started beading around my mother with blue since this is the month for blue on my color wheel - my other theme going through the year. All in all, I'm happy with how this turned out even though it took so long.

New Inchy

The theme for this week's inchy over at Inchybyinch is texture. The guest designer who suggested this and made samples for it is Jaine who has the blog Confessions of a Craftaholic here. This is my textured inchy. I figure burlap is a very textured material. (When I was little my mother made all five of us girls gathered skirts in colored panels of burlap. They were fun to wear).

Go ahead make a wish!

Looking in the Mirror

I thought I'd share a new page I've made in my journal with you. This one shows my grandson as he made faces for the camera this summer while swimming in his new pool. This page is from a class I am taking from Kelly Kilmer. The prompt was about looking in the mirror and this is my take on it. Hope you enjoy it.

Turkey Meme

I saw this meme on Janet's blog Just Me and My Art and realized the holidays are really approaching! So I've decided to do this meme also. So here goes:

1. Which do you like better: Cooking at your house, or going elsewhere? I like going to my daughter's house but we wait till Christmas usually. Some years they and our son come here but not this year. Our son is working overtime at San Onofre Nuke Plant and our daughter is with the in-laws. Boo hoo!
2. Do you buy a fresh or frozen bird? We buy the frozen birds that are on sale for $5-$7 at the grocery store. We usually buy three and keep two for later in the year.
3. What kind of stuffing? I would love to make stuffing with onions, celery and sliced almonds like when I grew up but my husband only likes the seasoned bread cubes. I use lots of jellied cranberry sauce with it.
4. Sweet potato or pumpkin pie? Pumpkin pie with lots of real home-whipped heavy cream! Yes it's overload on fat and cholesterol but once a year I enjoy it. If my son-in-law comes, I make apple pie also since he doesn't like pumpkin pie. I will make two pies even if it is just my husband and I as I'll eat it for breakfast, snacks and dessert. It's my favorite pie.
5. Do you believe that turkey leftovers are a curse, or the point of the whole thing? Leftovers are part of the whole scene. Pot pies, soup, hot turkey sandwiches, cold turkey sandwiches and even tacos for myself.
6. Which side dish would provoke a riot if you left it off the menu? Mashed potatoes and gravy for most of the family. My husband likes southern style candied sweet potatoes (sliced taters simmered in butter and sugar with a TBS. of water - very rich).
7. Do you save the carcass to make soup or stock? Absolutely! Actually I save the wings, drumsticks and leftover parts of the thighs. I freeze them for later and the back takes up too much room. With all the meat on the drumsticks we get plenty of flavor.
8. What do you wish you had that would make preparing Thanksgiving dinner easier? A maid!!
9. Do you get up at the crack of dawn to have dinner ready in the early afternoon, or do you eat at your normal dinner hour? We get up at the normal time. Dinner is usually around 4-5 p.m. on Thanksgiving which is very early for my husband and just right for me. I make the pies the day before so I can start with pie for breakfast.
10. If you go to somebody else's house, what's your favorite dish to bring? I make rolls. They are easy to carry and easy to warm up. No one else wants to make them anyhow.
11. What do you wish one of your guests wouldn't bring to your house? Crabbiness! This is a happy time or should be, so everyone is expected to be joyful. Sometimes the men in the family get a bit crabby. I don't know why except we have a small house and when you fill it with too many people it can be loud with nowhere to go for a private moment. I think they get overwhelmed.
12. Does your usual mix of guests result in drama, or is it a group you're happy to see? Oh, see this fits last question! Usually it all works out. I stress over it but try to keep that to myself.
13. What's your absolute favorite thing on the menu? Pumpkin pie! Hands down!
14. What are you thankful for this year? My son has a new job he's doing pretty well in. My daughter is finally homeschooling which she's wanted to do for a long time. My grandson has won a medal in his cross country running which he is enjoying this year after having to sit out most of last year with injurys, our Sarah dog survived her rattlesnake bite and everyone is doing well at the moment. I am thankful for all my internet friends. You make a rural woman happy!

If you would like to do this meme feel free to take it. Let me know if you do it so I can come read your answers!

And now it's time to start thinking about what I am going to do for Christmas cards! What about you? Do you make them or buy them? Design one and print out a bunch or make every single one totally by hand?

Teesha Moore Style

I've made a new page in my journal to fit a prompt over
at Blissfully Art Journaling a yahoo group I am in. I'd started a page to emulate Teesha Moore's style which I saw just recently. She has videos on her blog to show how she makes her pages and it sounded like so much fun I just had to try one! You can find her videos here and here. Look around as there are lots of videos taking you through the whole page.

My page follows a prompt as to whether we like to wear hats or not. I've had a few but the wind takes them away from me. I had one taken by the wind when I was in a gondola at the San Diego City Zoo. There was no way I was going to jump out in midair to try and catch it! Another time, I wore one to Sea World and away it went again! Now if I need a hat to block our extreme Arizona sun I wear a baseball style hat which doesn't look nice but I can make it small enough to stay on!

The "hat" on this page is a sculpture by Jennifer Maestre that I cut from a magazine. It looked perfect for a hat. I added a little make-up with Pan Pastels and some jewelry with a Sharpie Poster Paint Pen. This was lots of fun and I'll have to try Teesha's techniques again. Maybe in a different journal where the spiral binding won't interfere!

Photo Thursday

The theme for this week at Photo Thursday is "YOUTH" (Young, Energetic, Optimistic, Children, Baby, Education,...). I couldn't just upload one. Energetic describes both of these grandkids. These photos were taken a few years ago. My grandson is now on his high school cross country team where running 6 miles a day up hills and down is his norm. My granddaughter still sparkles as you could tell in her recent picture of a few weeks ago here. Why don't you join us and tell a story in a picture?

Bread

The theme for Photo Thursday is ""FOOD" (Fruit, Vegetables, Cookies, Candy, Meals, Food for Animals, Feast, Hungry,...)". I am posting a picture of bread I made with my granddaughter. This is just before we removed it from the oven. Yum!

Photo Thursday a Day Late Again

Photo Thursday's theme for this week is: "CLOTHS" (Colorful, Unusually, Fashionable, Komonos, Sari, Suits,...). I thought I would share a photo of my grandmother's handsewn quilt.

You can always join in by going here.

Have a good day and notice some nice fabrics around you.

New Journal Page

In a workshop I am in over at A.R.T., a yahoo group our lesson this week was to make a page using a page out of the book we are using Artist's Journal's and Sketchbooks by Lynn Perrella. I chose page number 26 that had a hand on it. Mine came out quite differently I think but I am glad of that really.


This has acrylic paints for the background with white butterflies embossed with clear powder. I don't know why they turned color. Anyone have an idea? Did it suck up color from the paint with the heat of the gun? I don't know. Anyhow, the rest of the page was done with Pitt pens and watercolor pencils except for a few cutouts from my own photos.

Three Inchies

The theme for inchies this week at Inchybyinch is babies.
The pictures I made these from are from my own photos.
The two pictures of the goat are from when our Mary Muffin was a baby. She's almost 8 years old now. The woman in the picture has a new baby now so it's fitting that she is in the photo. The calf is a picture I took outside our gate last week. This little guy will probably be sold off but if he is a she perhaps she'll be around with her own calf in a year or two. She'll be sporting long horns as she's one of those long-horn breeds and I mean looonng horns. I would not want to upset her when she's grown. (She/he is not ours - she's just in a free range area.

I reduced these in size and added script to them in PSElements. Then I added chalk ink to the edges.