Sunday, January 28, 2007

Brrrrrrr, cold one today!

So another missed snow chance last night. Oh well, I am ready for spring. Sure doesn't feel like spring today. Our high has only been around 28 today. Winds gusting up to 30 mph, makes it feel like 12 or 13. Have I been outside today? NOT!! I have been inside the Art room working away. I have made several greeting cards, and also some more ATCs. Of course I forgot to scan the greeting cards before I put them in their envelopes and sealed them. Duh, I get so mad when I do that. But here are 3 ATCS that I have finished for a trade.



I really like enjoy making Valentine ATCs, they are fun. So this has been my day pretty much. Oh and a little while ago I took my new toy out into the sunroom and took some pictures of our Cardinal family. Mainly the males as they are so pretty. Here are a few pics of them. I still haven't learned how to do much with me settings but I am practicing.


They would have shown up alot better if it had of snowed. Also, when I took them it was starting to get dark. I just love these pretty guys. We have alot of them in our feeders. Also alot of Woody Woodpeckers. We hang suet up in cages on the trees. They are still calling for a chance of snow most of the rest of this week. I am not counting on it, but if it does, know that I will be out in it with my new toy.
Alot of our school systems in middle Tennessee are closed tomorrow and Tuesday because of the Flu. Its really going around. My school system is not closed,,bummer. I did take a flu shot this year and I am glad I did. I did feel pretty yucky on Thursday and Friday, I think it was trying to get me but the shot kept it from happenning.
I hope everyone had a nice week-end. And hope you all have a great week coming up.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Blogger Blues

I can't believe its been almost a week since I last posted on my blog. I did try to post a little "hello" on Wednesday night, but the blogger monster wouldn't let me post. I get so mad when that happens. But I really haven't had a lot to post about this week. I have been really busy at work this week, but today I woke up with a little tummy ache so I decided to stay home. I worked on several swaps and got several mailed out.
Oh,,we really did have a great time last saturday at our stamp meeting. Rosemary was so fun to be with too. Here are some ATCs that she made and gave to me.





Aren't they so awesome? She makes some very pretty ATCs. She also gave me a cute little key chain with some wooden shoes on it as I collect wooden shoes. And also she gave me some very yummy homemade soap. She is a sweetie!
This week I got two 4 x 4s
that are very pretty and get me in the mood for Valentines day. The one below is from my dear friend Jane.



I love these little 4 x 4s,,I have enough of them now to make at least 2 books. The next one is by another friend, Joena.
My dear friend Maryellen will be moving to a another place soon and she is giving a lot of her wonderful art that she has created away to anyone who wants some. I of course had to have some of her pieces. The one below is so cool. I am going to get a really nice mat and frame for it.
I am so happy to have this from my friend. So tomorrow I will be back at work but I am going to meet Rosie for lunch by my school. Its so nice to have a artsy friend now. I really don't have many close friends and the ones I do have are not into art(except my dear sweet Mom). I feel like I have known Rosemary forever, thats such a nice feeling when you meet someone and you feel like you have known them forever. I hope we will be able to get together alot and do alot of art together.
Its been pretty cold here this week. They are saying snow again for saturday night and sunday, and then its going to be really cold and more snow next week. But,,I will believe it when I see it.
Now I am going to go visit my friends blogs. Have a great evening!


Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Just wanted to say hello to everyone tonight. I really don't have alot to gab about so I thought I would just post a pic of me when I was sweet! Well I am still kind of sweet. I hope everyone is doing good. Sorry I haven't posted or visited anyone lately. Work has been hectic, and when I get home I am trying to finish some swaps that will be due soon. Hopefully I will have some art to post tomorrow.
Have a great evening!

Friday, January 19, 2007

Friday's wishes!

Yes,,it is friday at last! It is one of my favorite days of the week. It means I get 2 days to play. And playing is what I like to do the best. Tomorrow is going to be a fun day! I get to go to my monthly "Sassy Stampers" meeting. That is the name of our little club and we meet once a month to get together and do some fun art. We learn new techniques on rubber stamping and other creative arts. Some times there are several women there and some times just a few. Tomorrow is going to be fun because Mom and I are bringing a very special guest with us. Our dear friend Rosemary is going to join us for the day. I am so excited to get to see her and have fun playing tomorrow. We usually meet in a little community center that is out in some very pretty countryside. We all bring potluck dishes and just have a really great time. I am taking the new toy to take some pictures and I will post them on sunday.
Well the weather men had us all excite here this week. At the first of the week they were saying we were going to get some snow on sunday. But of course now that has all changed. It has been very cold here this week, but it seems that it is going to warm up just enough to make the snow turn into rain,,yippee. Now I was really ready for a nice snow so I could take the toy out and take some wonderful snow pictures. The are saying that we probably will get some snow in the near future as the weather patterns are indicating that. The last really nice snow we had here was 4 years ago this past monday. It was a nice, deep snow. It came fast and quick starting around 9 in the morning. Of course they didn't let school out fast enough and some school buses were stuck and it was late evening before some kids got home. I was smart and stayed home that day. My kids were still in school. Kalyn had to walk up the big ridge to get home,,she wasn't a happy camper. When it snows really hard and fast, it paralyzes our city. We just don't have the equipment to deal with it. People will get stuck on the interstate and side roads, and end up having to leave their cars. Its pretty wild here when that happens. I guess its good that it doesn't happend that much. But since I have snow fever,,I am going to post some pics of that very wonderful snow 4 years ago. And maybe it will change our luck and actually snow instead of rain on sunday,,lol.
The day after it snowed, Kalyn and I walked down our backyard into the woods. There is a pond down there and it was frozen over. The day was pretty and sunny but really cold.



I love these pictures. We had such a fun time that day. I made a little scrapbook of this adventure, so she will have it when she gets older and can show her children.

I guess the reason I love a nice snowfall is that is makes every thing so pretty. It hides the dreary, dead of the winter. I know everyone that lives where snow is a every day occurance thinks "whippee",,but when you don't get alot of it , you love it when you do. So maybe we will get some soon.
I hope every one has a wonderful week-end!

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Art for a Winter's day!



Well I have been slacking on posting for the past several days. I have been a little busy doing some art and spending some time with my sweet Mom. I was off yesterday for MLK day. I really enjoyed the day. Mom came down on sunday night and spent the night. We stayed up pretty late doing some projects that we needed to work on. We had warm temps here up until yesterday. It rained hard all day yesterday, and the temp dropped drastically last night. We woke up to a very cold and cloudy day with snow flurries on and off all day. I am just glad we didn't have the ice that our neighbors to the west of recieved. I would have enjoyed another day off by means of a snow day, but maybe that will happen soon as the cold weather is here to stay for a while.
The lovely art above is the great ATCs that I received from my dear friend Maryellen. She is really going to town on making ATCs and she is a great artist! Thanks for swapping with me!
The pictures below are of the art work that I have done this past week-end. The one below is my quilt art page for a swap that I Mom and I are in.
The next page is the one Mom made.
The next four pictures are 4 x 4 "chunky book pages" for another swap that I am.



The pics below are of my Vintage Valentine ATCs that I have made for several different swaps in Swapbot. I hope every one is doing good and keeping warm while we all seem to be in a deep freeze. Hope to visit everyones blog in tonight and in the next few days. American Idol starts tonight so I will have to watch that. I love to see all the kooky people who try out on the first show. Have a great evening!!




Saturday, January 13, 2007

Finally the blog monster has let me post a pic. I tried most of yesterday afternoon to upload pics and post too. I had nice post and went to publish and it completely disappeared, so I gave up. I was too tired to fight with the blog monster,lol.
The picture above is another collage that I did in Photoshop. I don't like it as much as I did the first one. This morning I went and downloaded even more brushes. I love those brushes!
I have been working on some art this morning. I have several swaps going right now and I also have to make two quilt pieces this month too.

Its been very mild and warm here the past 2 days. We are suppose to have some heavy rain by tonight and tomorrow. Then very cold air will be making its way south by monday.
Mom is going to come down and spend the night tomorrow night as I am off on Monday for MLK day. We are going to work on some art projects tomorrow night.
I have made a few Valentine ATCs this past week for a swap. I have several more to complete and also some chunky book pages.
I do hope every one is having a great week-end. I know that I am!

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Tuesdays Treasures

Above is a beautiful 4 x 4 that I will be putting in with my other chunky book pages. It is from my friend Laura. We also swapped ATCs too. I posted the ones I sent to her last week. These are the awesome cards that I recieved from her today!


Aren't they awesome? The first card with the pattern is covered with beeswax. Laura is a great artist! I hope to do many more swaps with her.
So back to work I went yesterday, and 5 a.m. came way to early!! It was a busy day and when I got home I managed to walk on my treadmill and that was about it. The rest of the night I just vegged and read some books.
Today was another busy day. We had a cold front that came through and we saw some sleet with it, east Tennessee, up in the mountains is suppose to get several inches of snow. Oh how I wish I could have some snow days, lol. But really I would rather they come toward the end of Jan. or in February when I will really be wanting a day off. I will be next Monday for MLK day.
So that will be a nice long week-end. It is suppose to be another rainy week-end so I will probably be doing art most of the week-end. OH,,I downloaded more brushes for my photoshop and will be making some more collages with those. They some fantastic brushes that I can't wait to use.
Tomorrow I will be in Court a good bit of the day with my Truancy cases, not looking forward to that.
I hope everyone has a great rest of the day and a peaceful evening!!!

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Yesterdays art and wonderful news!

Yes,,I did do my art for the day yesterday, I just didn't post it yesterday. This is another college that I did in Photoshop. I sure do love playing in this program. I have downloaded so many brushes. The vintage children is a picture that I started the picture with. Everything else in the picture is made with the brushes that I downloaded. Its so fun to make collages with this program, and you don't even get glue on your fingers, lol.
So, if you remember I was having major problems with my HP printer this week. It would scan just fine, but I finally determined that the printer head went bad, as I tried every thing I could try to fix it. Well,,my wonderful hubby walked in the door Thursday night with a brand new Cannon printer, scanner, copier, fax machine. I was so blowed away. He said "Happy Early Birthday", now is that not awesome? He is definetly a keeper,lol. I just love it and it makes excellent prints, alot better than my HP.
Now for the really big exciting news. Not sure if any remembers back in late October, Daniel (Hubby) went to take his Professional Engineering test for the third time. It is an all day test and is very much like taking a bar exam to be a lawyer. Well, yesterday the letter came in the mail to let him know if he passed or not. I got it out of the mailbox and knew that was what it was. I didn't call him and tell him as I knew he would worry the rest of the day about it.
I had to go shopping so while I was out I bought him a nice card to thank him for the printer and tell him how much I Loved him. So I put the P.E. letter out in his den and put my card on top of the letter. He always goes out there relax when he gets home. He came in and handed me the letter, he wasn't smiling so my heart just sank,,I openned it up and it said "Congratulations, you passed",,,I of course let out a big whoopie,,and jumped up and hugged him. He was grinning from ear-to-ear! So now he is an official Professional Engineer! And I am so very proud of him! Some people take the test over and over and never can pass it,,I guess the 3rd time was the charm for him. We celebrated the rest of the evening by drinking a little wine and listening to some good music.
Today has just been a chore day for me. I did run some things up to my Moms that I had picked up for her yesterday at Michaels, and I have made some ATCs today too. I will post them tomorrow.
I hope everyone has had a wonderful Saturday!

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Last night I played with my Adobe Photoshop. It sure is fun to play with. This is the collage that I made with it last night. I do think I am going to really enjoy playing with this neat program.
Yesterday I went up to Moms and backed up some of her pictures with a flash drive that she bought. I also printed some pictures out on her Laser printer. My printer is still messed up, I have tried every thing I know to do. Daniel keeps talking about getting a new one, but our funds are a little low right here after Christmas. I would love to have a Laser printer as they really produce excellent pictures, but I just can't see us paying $300 right now. Maybe when the good old income tax check comes in. We have a older printer that I could use until then, so that might be the answer. I am going to work on the printer again today, but I am terribly afraid that the printer head has croaked.

I did really well yesterday on my "eating healthy" and also walked 1 mile on the treadmill and did some weights. It sure helps give me energy, and to feel better. My goal is to be 20 lbs lighter by March. I think it is good to have a goal to strive for. I am tall and that helps to not look so obese,,but if I was 5 inches shorter,,I would definetly look obese. I am at that point in my life that its not really about how I look,,but that I want to be healthier. My other very bad habit is that I smoke and have for too many years. I am not a heavy smoker,,a pack will last for days. I am going to get my weight down first, then work on the smoking. I just can't do both or I would be a lunatic, lol. But smoking is such a nasty habit and I will not smoke around people who don't smoke. I didn't smoke while I was pregnant either. But both of my children smoke too. Their Dad is a very heavy smoker and so is Daniel. I really worry about Daniel and wish he would at least try to quit, but that has to be his decision.
So enough about that nasty subject. Today its very cloudy and suppose to rain. My throat is feeling a little scratchy(maybe because of sitting in the rain during sundays football game). I have some medicine that you take when you feel like your getting a cold, so I will take that and hope it goes away.
I am going to work on some swaps that will be due by the end of the month. My picture above was my art for the day yesterday. I will probably play with my photoshop some more today as it is so addicting.
I hope everyone has a truly wonderful Thursday!

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Today was a day of creating for me. The picture above is my Amyrellis that has finally decide to bloom. I took a pic of it with my new toy and then played with the pic in Photoshop. Here are a few more pics that I took of my plants.

I have had this African Violet for 6 months and I have pampered it to death trying to get it to bloom. It finally has started blooming about a week ago. I have another one right next to it and it still hasn't bloomed yet, but maybe it will soon.
It was a beautiful, sunshiny day today,,but pretty chilly outside. Its suppose to be warmer tomorrow.
So today I had to make 3 ATCs for a personal swap that I am doing with a friend. Here are the pics of them.




The backgrounds are a technique that Mom and I tried last week when she spent the night. We painted papertowels with Lumiere paints. They turned out so pretty! I also had to make a
4 x 4 square for another trade.
I also had to do a Winter page for a deco book.

I have decided that I am going to try to do what Dear Janet is doing. We are going to "Create" something every day this year. I will either do some Jewelry creating, knitting, painting, playing and making something in Photoshop, and of course my mixed media art. It will be a challenge for me when I go back to work, but I am sure going to try to stick to it.
I guess my resolutions for this year will be that "I will stick to my resolutions",,lol.
I am rather cranky tonight as I have started my "healthy eating" resolution. And my body and brain just do not like it,,lol. It will take a few days to get use to it and then it will be fine. I have warned Daniel of the side effects, lol. The poor guy came home from and tried so hard to fix my printer. It had a brainfart today and has decided to quit printing. It is one of those HP all in one deals. The scanner part is working fine, but it just stopped printing today and has a nice
green
E that is flashing saying "check cartridges". I knew that my black cartridge was low so I changed it, but no,,it still will not work. I think they make these things so they will die on you after two years and you have to get another.
We are going to try to uninstall it and then re-install tomorrow. I am dreading that because when I bought and we installed it, it would not work. I had to call HP and I talked to some girl in India for almost 2 hours and she helped me get it to work correctly. Whew,,,sure don't want to have to go through that again. Another thing to make me cranky,,Daniel wisely slipped on out to his den after we couldn't get it to work. lol.

I did get brave and try to make my blog prettier. Rosie helped me figure out how to do a background and today I figured out how to make my banner. Pat on the back for that one.
I hope every one has had a nice day! I am going to go eat my tangerine,,before I start growling.

More tomorrow!

Monday, January 01, 2007

Happy New Year !!!!


This is a New Year! I am hoping everyone had a nice New Years Eve and a relaxing day today.
I went to see my favorite football team, The Tennessee Titans, play yesterday. They did not win, but it was still so much fun to go. My bestfriend , Ginny, took me. They have season tickets and no one in her family was interested in going with her, so she called and I said "oh yeah". It rained most of the first half of the game, and we got soaked. Luckily it wasn't cold yesterday. After half time the sun finally popped out and dried us out. I took my new toy to the game and took some really good pics of some of my favorite players.
Their stadium is across the river from downtown Nashville. When we were leaving I took some really nice pictures of the Nashville skyline.
I am not doing anything special today. Daniel and I are going to Home Depot and Michaels. He got a gift card from his Mom for HD. And I have a 50% off coupon that I will use to buy some gel medium for collaging, and also I want to buy some yarn that is on sale from $1. Then I will try to do a little art. I never make New Years resolutions as I never stick to them. But I do have a list of things that I am going to work on, lol. One being to work in my journal every day, I will either do some writing or art or both.
Now I am going to eat some lowfat blueberry pancakes(butter and syrup are lowfat too, right?) that Daniel just cooked for me.
I hope everyone has a great day for the beginning of the New Year!