It's been awhile, but I just want to wish everyone a wonderful Holiday Season. Be thankful for all you have and will receive, for all your loved ones and friends near and far. Most of all, be safe, be happy and share the love and joy around you and wherever you go. Merry Christmas!

YIPEEE! I have finished my first Creative Workshop http://creativeworkshops.ning.com/ project from the Painted Fabric Collage class. I am happy! I am looking forward to doing more...as well as the other swaps I'm involved in with Altered Arts of Visions and Dreams. This picture is simple, and I want to secure it to a piece of old fence board ("...Honey, can you find me a piece of......."). Yes, my sweetheart is going to look for me :o)) And as always, pictures don't do artwork justice, but that's okay. Rain is expected this Tuesday now...hmmmm...maybe I'll hide in 'OZ' for some special art time. Cloudy days and rain always make me smile.

The Heart I received is the one with the lovely yellow flower in the middle...I love yellow and am fond of wine LOl! It is definitely suitable for framing!

The second shows the actual peices I contributed.

Here are the finished products of the Heart Puzzle Swap. Six ladies (including me) took 8 pieces of a heart puzzle...all the pieces being mixed so no one worked on their own but all worked on everyone elses...and altered to our 'heart's' delight! The results are so fun! Thanks to Dove, Kas, Kimberly, Kristal and Phyll! You ladies ROCK!

So here is a picture of my felt skeleton...rather looks like a bride, so I think she needs a groom...and she is sitting on my hat (veils of gold with black cats, black lace in front with a skeleton attached), my spell wand from a branch that I glittered, rhinestoned & feathered and my "poison" apple. That campsite will never be the same, trust me!! A good time was had by all!

Okay, so there were 13 of us all wearing witches hats, holding our wands and chanting spells over the fire...then, after burning our paper spells and notions in a caldron, we walked under the full moon (1/2 mile one way) to the edge of the lake and dumped the ashes in the water...hey, it's how witches do it, I guess :o)) Either way, I'm sure we scared a few other campers that night...wearing hats, waving wands, repeating spells...what a hoot!!

OMG, so much has happened over the last month or so. But, let's just get down to business. I finished my second Halloween matchbox anad it is now off to her rightful owner along with the tombstone one.

Then I joined my dear friend for a few days of camping and a Witches Birthday party for her! This was quite interesting and included making witches hats, spell wands, poison apples and felt skeletons!

It is getting to be that time of year again...Autumn is officially here (Sept. 22) and although California is still hot (Indian summer), thoughts go out to my favorite time of year. I love Halloween, and decided to offer the idea of Halloween Matchboxes to swap. I've completed one done not in the traditional style. I used a wood cutout of a tombstone and you can see the rest. The other will be a pumpkin, though I've yet to decide if I'll go cutesy or not. Also, as October approaches, we will have the Harvest Moon on Oct. 4th lighting up our heavens. I'll be camping with my dear friends, celebrating birthdays, making witches hats and other ghostly things! For those who have an interest, the Harvest Moon is the full moon that is closest to the Autumnal Equinox...or the first day of Fall. This moon can be before or after the equinox...this year it is 13 days past. The next full moon is called the Hunter's Moon. Lately I've had some incredible luck with my camera (must be that I'm learning how to use it LOL) and I've gotten a few impressive 'moon-shots'. I'm anxious to see what I'll come up with on the 4th.

Happy Autumn to all!

Thought I'd try my hand at the camera...this is a close-up of the inside of a 30+ year old barrel cactus from my mom. I'm not a photographer at all, but have found the want to incorporate my own photos in my art, as well as just try my best at taking some decent photos to hang. This almost has a wedding feel to it since it is done in black & white...in reality it is cream colored and pale yellow. It opens once a year and the bloom lasts only for a day, if we're lucky. My husband and I were both out early clicking away when we realized it had reached it's peak of perfection bloom.

Boy, I might as well call myself Slacker Woman to be!! Time flies when life is going on. Anyway, I just finished hosting a charm swap for Altered Arts of Visions & Dreams which was very successful! Pictures are of some charms I made...the 3 are for the swap and the glass ones were a little extra thank you gift for each participant. I'm still trying to master the glass charms; using different glues to get the clearest look, especially when I use fabric...trial and interesting out-comes (no errors in art LOL). Must get back to work now...

The artwork used in these marble pendants is from a card by Yvonne Montano, artist and craftsperson in Livermore, CA, and also my very dear friend! These were given to her as a gift for all the wonderful things she has done for me, given to me, taught me.

Here are pics of the altered tin I did for my group. I had a great 3 days of crazy fun with my dear friend/artist extrordinaire, Von!

I've added a link to the Altered Art group I'm involved with and hope you will visit there...or even consider joining! We're a friendly easy going group for all levels, and would love to have you come along and join our adventures and share you talents!

Here is just another side of my life...my garden. Well, I share it with my husband and cats, but I love it. My grape arbor was built as a gift and is a very peaceful sitting place. I can view all the garden from there and with the grape vines going crazy, it is very cool in the hot summer heat. One of my other favorites is my basil goat! I tried growing flowers in him, but he likes the basil better. And there's tomatoes, corn, carrots, morning glories, zucchini...and lots of other small plantings of veggies not shown here. Maybe someday we'll plow a little more turf and make a more 'proper' garden. For now, this will be just fine! Hubby used his expertise and got our little cherub fountain to work again, too; the birds love the fresh water!

Okay...now I'm trying the glass marbles for charms. These are 3/4", but I received from my dear friend and co-member Dove, larger marbles I can't find in my area...hot dog! Small ones are fun, but need to practice on larger ones with a different glue. My 'will stick to everything' glue is a little testy :oP, so time to try what has been recommended (Mod Podge). Also, the group is doing altered tins YIPPEEEEE! I've got some great work ahead of me to do, so I'd better hop to. Later today I hope to take pics of my back yard garden and post them here. My hubby has planted a gift for me...an Angel Wings cactus that is in a dark charcoal blue pot! Although he put a few treasures in it, I am going to add more...a pic will show up later!

Remember..."No one is in charge of your happiness except YOU!" Happy creating!

Another Monday Hobnob ATC...Yin and Yang is the theme. I used a new trick on my camera where I swapped colors. The Buddha is really white, then I swapped it to black. Looks much cooler in real life than in the picture.

I need to work on my photographic skills. This is the first ATC for our new Monday Hobnob weekly ATC game, for lack of better term. Anyway, the actual ATC looks way better in real life, in hand, than in this photo. The theme this week is "Sparkle" and the winner hosts the next week.

So many of my fellow artists have been creating beautiful works of art, including Robin, Dove and Val...lots of great inspiration. So, I'd better get moving and explore. Happy April!

Well, I have egg on my face for not keeping my promise to myself. So, here is one of the eggs I did for an Easter/Spring Egg swap, and 2 mini-boxes for another swap. The boxes have a new technique where I took glass slides, layered small cutouts between the glass and used aluminum tape as "solder". These were my first tries and I'm pretty happy with them. I also added buttons on the bottom for little feet. The insides are painted with a small picture glued to the bottom. The egg is a cardboard one from the craft store - gessoed, painted and glued all over with shells and pearl beads...very fun to do. Now I need to get off my rear and make some samples of new ideas...explore what is hiding in "OZ" and stretch my imagination!

Well, Happy Friday the 13th! Again I am remiss in adding to my blog. This time I have good reason. I have been asked to help moderate our Altered Arts of Visions and Dreams group along with Dove. I am so honored and happy to be helping out and it is really putting me to the test of my artistic ability! My thinking cap is on and tuned in to everything around me...I am constantly looking for new ideas and ways to tweek the old ones. I also have been busy typing up my mother's recipe for our family recipe blog. I've quite a few more to do, then they get sent off to my nephew to upload to the site. This is a wonderful way to share the delicious recipes my mom, and actually all the wonderful cooks in my family, have used and created with each other and anyone else who visits the blog. I try to add a little 'history' when I can; it is amazing how simply reading recipes or notes can stir wonderful memories of 'mom over the stove' and her little special ways of doing things. Okay, back to the drawing board! Have a wonderful safe weekend!

Well, here is the finished product...nine glue cards that went ala Round Robin style through the group. I am very happy with them and am currently looking for a way to put them in a book without gluing or punching holes...this will take some imagination, but I'm sure I'll find a way. Actually, they would be nice in a frame - I'll just have to think about that one.

...and tomorrow I will add my Glue Cards. They are finished and returned to me in grand condition; just need to photograph and post.

Time to add my Icicle Dolls from the 2008 swap...finally got them done yeehaw! "Spring", "New Year" & "Halloween" dolls. Actually, "Halloween" was done on time, the other 2 missed the deadline for their respective holidays...better late than not :o)))

A quick addition...finally found pics of my RR Crow, 'Mr. Eye-Ching Crow'. What an adorable flight of fancy this guy is! The ladies of Altered Art of Visions & Dreams did a tremendous job bringing this bird to life! Thank you all so much; he is a great treasure!

Okay, somehow some of my pics have been deleted, though I've retrieved a few. Let's see if adding this one changes anything. This is my Nestle with "Cowboy Ducky". They had quite a long chat that day...

Okay, I know I should show art or something, but for the moment...and just to keep my momentum going...I'm adding a pic of my husband David, me and Richard Shindell, folk artist extrordinaire (Richard is in the middle...)!! We saw him at The Palms Playhouse in Winters last Sept. '08, and he graciously let us have a photo op with him. I have learned some of his music, so with this picture being posted I now need to practice, practice, practice. Thanks, Richard, for a fantastic show!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!! Well, it has been too long a time since I've visited here and I do apologize. The last many months have been quite hectic with health & family issues, but I am SO looking forward to this new year. I plan to start working harder than ever on my art through the wonderful group I'm in, Altered Art of Visions and Dreams, my own personal art concepts & projects, photography and most of all my music. I let myself down in 2008 by not keeping true to myself, my spirit and whatever talent I have been blessed with and I do not want to go through another year that way. I have met many wonderful artists and musicians, some who have become good friends. I always look forward to their latest creations, "thinking out of the box" ideas and just their commeradery that I hold so dear. So, with all that said, I'll start looking to see if I have new pictures to post and get back on the blog! Hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday Season and I wish you all the very best in 2009!