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.