Blog Silence

No.....I haven't run off to Paris or fallen down a well. But I've experienced several very painful personal losses since November as well as a surgery earlier this year that is taking far too long(IMHO) to recover from. I've been trying to push through these times by painting and journaling. But I'm just not the type of artist who paints or journals their pain or darkness. I love pretty flowery girly happy art for the most part. So I have come to the conclusion I need to take a break from my blog for a bit while I work through this period of my life. I'm sure my imagination and creativity will come swooping back in when I have worked through these times. I will spend some time with family and work on other projects which sorely need attention.

I have been encouraged and inspired by the wonderful friends and fellow artists who have visited my blog as well as my amazing friends in real life. Often the encouraging comments or emails you write have inspired me so much and I can't thank you enough for that. Who knew I would find such talented and good friends here? So I'll say good bye for a while and will stop by your blogs when I get a chance because you all inspire me so much. Happy creating and I know I'll be creating and back here again when the time is right.



Forever In My Heart...Little Girl

New Classes Kit SAVED 1/2/10 POST

AWOL ; "Absence without proper authority from the properly appointed place of duty"...."one who is away or absent without leave"...."absent from one's post or duty without official permission but without intending to desert" .....I think I like that one the best :) Anyway I am apparently feeling much more creative because I have a lot in the works for the next month or so.

I don't really scrapbook because...well I don't know exactly why, just not what I'm best at. But I found this wonderful site called Scrapbooking From The Inside Out . It is Rachel Kaufman's concept. She is very welcoming and I love the concept. It feels similar to journaling as it revolves around a monthly one word prompt using a gorgeous kit. October was Loss, November Gratitude and this month the theme is Peace. I got my first kit today and it is just full of wonderful papery goodness, stencils, stamps, ink and more. So I will be trying my hand at a couple monthly projects using my kits.

I'm involved in several good online projects now.....signed up for one more month in Kelly Kilmer's class "Prompt a Day". Also working on Karen Grunberg's Reclaiming My Time project. I start Dispatch From LA Remains Of The Day class with Mary Ann Moss on the 15th and then I'm taking DJ Pettitt's upcoming photo editing class. I've loved her style of painting for years and I'm sure her new digi class is going to be fun. A bit intimidating but fun! Her sample photos are beautiful and I'm looking forward to it. Last but not least I'm doing a Wacom Bamboo class with Jessica Sprague in January.....Take that rusty muse! Break time is over! :) Welcome back !

January 2 2010 Post Saved
No, I haven't run away and join the circus or come down with a horrible case of hobokorokis. But I did abandon my 30 Days Of Happiness project. I've been trying to stay positive through a lot of personal losses recently by working in my art journals but had to take a break finally when my sweet little dog Mina took a turn for the worse in her battle with brain tumor she's been fighting. We had to let her go two days before Christmas so it's been a very sad time for me personally. Everywhere I turned was a reminder of her so when my brother called and asked me to go to Homosassa Springs with him for a day and then come back up to Georgia to be with family I jumped at the chance. I knew it would be very good to spend some time with them. That's a picture of all the girls except Loni the wiggle worm when we woke up today. I'm hiding in the very back row. None of us were feeling very glamorous but we were all here in the main house at the same time which rarely happens. It's always a full house here and everyone here is a night owl like me. Love that and waking up to a house full of family and friends. I'm really enjoying spending time with my nieces and nephew, especially getting reacquainted with my youngest nieces Loni and Lily as they are growing up so fast. My niece Lucy and I are definitely cut from the same cloth as we both love thrift stores and shopping. I am, however, going through some communications withdrawal. I left with an hours notice to pack and forgot my cell phone charger and laptop among other things. Today I hijacked the computer in the family room. Lily is at my shoulder demanding to know what I am writing and WHY is it taking so long ? :) Anyway lots of time to think about about my journal projects but not much time or many supplies to actually do much about them right now. I plan to take a long meandering drive home next week sometime and hit every thrift store I can in search of neat fabric and "stuff" to add to my journals, especially my "Remains Of The Day" journal. Sorry I haven't been answering my phone or emails but I truly hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and I will talk to you soon!

Happiness Day 9 It Was A Dark & Stormy Night

It WAS a dark and stormy night.....I didn't post for Happiness Day 9 because we had no power last night. It was peaceful and INCREDIBLY quiet though. You don't realize how much noise your house makes until the power is off at night! Or that your dog snores ! Even kitten makes little ghostly groans as she sleeps....I read by flameless candle light!

Little Orange Crocs !

Still going through my piles. I love mixed media but there is almost nothing ever that I want to get rid of because I will use it someday...ahem....seriously..no REALLY! Anyway in my mini sort today I found these tiny baby crocs that I probably planned to send to my neice a couple of years ago when they would have fit her but they are so darn cute they are going up on my "sparkle" shelf. My happy stuff shelf. I'll share a picture of that soon. :)

Happiness Day 7 STUDIO CleaNuP !

I have realized no one pays too much attention to my blog when I'm not doing artwork ( there are exceptions....thank you Lynn and Becky)..... :) you both are so sweet to notice when I need a bit of a pick me up comment! Truthfully it is pretty liberating doing these 30 Days Of Happiness posts. No rush rush to meet challenge deadlines or trying to create when I'm just not there yet. But the happy news is that I found out Thursday that a lot of my feeling so bad the past couple months was due to a prescription problem. When I had my thyroid removed I was told it could be a rocky road but I was just glad to be cancer free. Now I am starting to understand how the wrong dose of thyroid RX can take the wind out of your sails and if there are any stressful things or sad things going on it is amplified. So I'm looking forward to feeling much better. I know it takes several weeks to feel really better but I am noticing a little difference already. I feel more creative and can do a bit more without being short of breath or heart flippy flopping. Yeah! I worked today on my art supplies/thrifty finds storage area today with my friend Lori and we really did some work. I have totes. They are labeled. They are accessible. This makes me very happy! Next my studio!

Lazy Days & Journals

Well it's almost midnight and I have been so lazy today that I forgot about my happiness post. Is it wrong just to be happy to have a lazy day? I hope not because I'm happy I did!

I painted 14 pages in my journal last night so I can start adding collage and writing. What a messy fun thing that was! Here's a sample from my daily journal prompt with Kelly Kilmer. The prompt was about your feet! Ugh but fun to do! :)

I also signed up to take a class called Remains Of The Day with Mary Ann Moss from Dispatch From LA. It is a journal made of all sorts of bits and pieces with sewing and well...just too much goodness to believe. Can't wait til class starts on the 15th!

Happiness Day 5 Cat Houses & Cookies

What a great relaxing day. Full of homemade cookies and homemade cat houses :) We had a big box and I was laughing, saying that it would make a neat playhouse for Yoshi. Next thing I look up and see said house in progress. Two windows and an escape hatch ! I should mention that this fur ball has the man of the house wrapped around her little stub of a tail...completely. The second it hit the floor in all it's glory it was occupied. Definitely made me smile.

Next off on the "Home Improvement Store date". I'm sure most of you married ladies are familiar with these. A quick meal, a trip for hardware necessities and there you go! I even got some shelves for my studio redo.....repainting and rearranging to be more organized. Art stuff sure does seem to multiply!

Home to make cookies while the Florida Gators played in the SEC Finals. Only glitch in the day was when they lost and Tim Tebow cried. He's such a nice guy as well as a great quarterback. Hated that they lost their first game of the year! Still a good Saturday was had by all.....especially one spoiled kitten.

Happiness Day Four The Perfect Gift

Gosh , where to begin...first the obvious when I opened up a box with no return address. We live very remotely so I order a lot thru the internet...etsy...eBay...art supplies...QVC..etc so I'm thinking it must be from eBay or etsy. Imagine my delight when a shock of teal followed by bright purple followed by shiny followed by warm fuzzy! And finally a sweet sweet note buried down in the depths of all this goodness from my wonderful SIL and my niece Lily. A birthday gift because I missed our Thanksgiving get together when we sometimes have little somethings for each other. So here's a pic of Lily and Steve playing the last time we saw them and a couple photos of teal and purple goodness :) Grinning still! Thanks so much you two ! I love you!

Drawn To Digital....

I have been resisting doing too much digital art as I really REALLY enjoy getting all messy with paint, pastel, ink.....all of it! But I keep signing up to learn more with Jessica Sprague and I keep updating my Photoshop Elements software and then I asked for a Wacom Bamboo Craft tablet after seeing Rhonna Farrer doing digital doodling with hers. So I must somewhere on some level be yearning to master this new set of skills! I just found PenScrappers which is a dedicated Bambooo blog so off to see what I can learn today.

Happiness Day Three TEESHA StUff

"Nothing is so personal as Happiness...Each soul is fitted for a joy entirely individual....Often a whole life is required to discover it. Jeane De Vietingghoff "

Today I was struggling with my new happiness project. The dark and twisties were really trying to get a hold of me. Among other things I was on call #92...the "on hold in a foreign country" type call and waiting for the oven repair man to show up to fix my broken (NEW !) oven (he didn't). I was really trying to find my happy thought yet alone take a photo of it when the mail showed up with a little box with neat stuff from Teesha Moore. I had ordered some beautiful teal twine so I could bind the journal I'm working on and was surprised to see all the neat little goodies that were in the package with it! And in that little pile of treats was the long stamp on the right that has the above quote on it about happiness....how serendipitous ...LOL! I had to look that up after it popped into my mind to be sure I was using the word right and found this definition "the phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for" ...... Sometimes it is indeed the little things that make you happy. So thank you Teesha Moore !

Happiness Day Two STaRfiSh !

I am amazed at how many little things make me happy when I am looking for them. It really is a whole new attitude adjustment.

This morning I was considering putting away my starfish to decorate for Christmas and realized that I really like my starfish out and they are pretty enough to be Christmas decorations themselves. So I am digging out a few silvery blue candles to add to the mantle and we will have a simple but beautiful reminder that it is indeed that time of year.

I relearned how to cut stained glass again. Like riding a bike...rolling eyes here :) and have a simple but oh so pretty design started. I felt happy being around other creative women today. Hope you had some fun today. N

31 Days Of Happiness....Day ONE

I have had a good day. I woke up and things just went well. My copy of Artful Blogging is here and the first article I read was by Erin Wallace. She has a blog called Bluebirdbaby and she talked about blogging "30 Days Of Happiness" and it really struck home with me. She wrote that she was struggling with with hard personal issues and decided to step out of her normal blogging routine and try something new for 30 days. She wanted to find the joy in every day. Take a picture and talk about what made her happy in that photo. I am a believer in that old saying "You are about as happy as you make up your mind to be" so it made me sit up and take stock. I am happy today for a lot of little reasons.....In no particular order....I found my pink eraser that I had been searching for forever :) I had lunch with a new friend....my little Mina feels pretty good today...I had an comment from Lynn that warmed my heart...the weather is beautiful...I am taking a refresher stained glass class tomorrow...I had a neat package from Hannah Grey Curiosities & Dry Goods full of neat little stuff to art play with. Wow..that's a lot of happy! Hard to do just one picture so I picked one I took of little girl snoozing in the sunbeam because it makes me very happy! Hope your day had some happy in it :)

A Moment To Remember A Friend..LYLAS Deb

I had forgotten how life can change in a instant....I lost my growing up, unconditional love, best friend this week. She died very suddenly with no warning from a brain aneurysm. We were preparing to celebrate our shared birthdays this weekend as we are a week apart and try to see each other every year. I have had a lot of other things going on this year but to lose such a dear friend so suddenly puts most everything in perspective and in a different light. There's not a moment to be lost in this life. Let the people you love know it right now, everyday....

I miss you Deb.....so many firsts we shared. You were one of the bright shiny people and the world is worse off for having lost you. I am worse off for having lost you. I am done with tears now and I am moving on to celebrate your life this weekend as we were planning on doing. This is a photo I love of us when we were 14 and off to the Charles Chips Christmas party your parents had every year. We were so fancy and felt so glamorous. I remember it like it was yesterday. Dana, Tom, Carla, Harriet, David, Karl ....let's all just keep on loving her the way she loved us. Unconditionally

I'll be back in a while after I regroup and can think creatively. I wish you all very peaceful loving holidays with those you love most.

I am PINK today.......

Two posts in one day.....it must be a blue moon tonight! I thought I'd share my inspiration for a journal page from scratch and then I will show you the results in my next post. Yesterday was my checkup day with two docs and I just hate waiting rooms so I always take a sketch book and a magazine. I had quite a few of those ah ha inspiration moments looking through Elle and Real Simple. Unfortunately these were NOT the magazines I had arrived with. I hate it when people tear up magazines in the waiting room...you know half way through an article and RIPPPP....you're left hanging so I went to the window and quietly explained "I had to have these magazines or my inspiration would be lost and I would gladly bring two magazines to replace these next visit"......by now the girl is "Good..sure..just back away from the sliding partition lady" So now I am off to work with these gorgeous images. I am pink inspired ! I keep singing that color song from the Dell laptop commercials..."I am green today...." but inserting pink! Here are the lyrics for anyone who has managed to stay with me this long :)

Colors By Kira Willey
'I am green today, I chirp with joy like a cricket song,

I am grey today, gloomy and damp like a morning fog,

I am orange today, loud and messy like finger paint on the wall

I am red today, hopping mad like a playground ball

I am black today, strong and tall a great big bear

I am purple today, bright and happy like a butterfly in the air

I'm a rainbow today, all the colors of the world

I'm a rainbow today, all the colors of the world are in me

I am yellow today, I shine my light out like the sun

I am White today, soft and quiet like new snow

I am Blue today, calm as glass and cool like the sea

I'm a rainbow today, all the colors of the world are in me.'

Beautiful Day To Be Getting Older :)

I just took a walk down our drive today with little pup in my arms and my big girl trotting beside me. The sky is an amazing shade of blue. I had to go back for my camera to record it and share it. I did not do anything to this photo other than throw it up here to remember that we do have absolutely beautiful days here at the Sandspur Ranch. This is fall for us. It's in the 70's and clear as a bell. Fall takes it's sweet time, granted, but when it sticks around for a few days I am happy!

Lines blur.....

I realized I've missed my blog. A lot. It seems as if I've been struggling forever to get back to a semblance of normalcy after my surgery this summer. I've had to make choices about how I've spent my time. Blogging just didn't make the top 10 when I couldn't seem to create the smallest thing or cook or properly take care of my household. I have had a lot of time to think of course and that can be a good thing or a bad thing as I'm sure you know. I've come to realize that I love being able to have a communion of sorts with other artists as we create and if we share some personal info along the way I am good with that. The reason I mention this in particular is that the way I've been pulling myself up out of my artistic dry spell has been to read other artist's blogs and finally to take a journal class with Kelly Kilmer. Now this is not my first journal class. I took a wonderful class with Pam Carriker and one with Dina Wakely but I was more interested in technique. I considered my journal pages more personal than my other artistic endeavors and wasn't sure how I felt about the overly personal posts I'd seen other artists blogs. Did I want to read about other peoples thoughts or have them see mine. Big question...did I want to mix art with my personal life? Now it's not like I have a huge audience but still....However as I spend more and more time playing in this art I find I am drawn to this very aspect of the whole thing. It's wonderful to see how art and emotions come together. So my blog may be taking a slightly more personal direction as I share a little bit of life with you through my journal art. I still want to do my favorite mixed media challenges when I get up to speed. I've met some very wonderful and creative people doing those. But I also love to look for old things to create with as well as things to decorate myself and my home with. I'm going to share those things too. So here's to living the lives we love and never taking a single moment for granted.

Hello Again....Halloween Class!

Well, I have been organizing and playing with all my fun things but as for my creative output...well...my muse must still be recuperating! I am very happy to say that I will be teaching a class at our LSS L & M Scrapbooking in Branford called "Use Every Scrap". I think most of us are being cautious with our expenses these days so I thought it would be fun to take 2 or 3 sheets of paper and some supplies most of us have and make a couple of Halloween projects using the new Spook Alley line by Making Memories. I made a "BOO" banner, a card and had enough left over scraps to make a book mark and a magnet. Kim, who is scrapbooker extraordinaire has made a great LO to go with the pieces I made. It was fun and a jump start for me. I did not take pictures though before I dropped them at the shop so I will try and do that soon.

Missed everyone and hope to be back doing my favorite challenges soon. Oh and for those of you who have been following the great kitchen remodel....I have a SINK !!!!! The kitchen is functional on all levels as of tonight and only needs to be painted and trimmed out! Woo hoo! It took a year but it is wonderful! Would I do it all over? Not only no but no no no ! Kitchen installers need to work too...right? And electricians and plumbers.... I am glad to have my DH back as just that, my DH !

TGIF A Day At The Beach

I was so pleased when Sandy at TGIF asked me to be the guest designer for this week's challenge. Can't wait to see what everyone does! :)
Almost forgot..my image is from Suzee Q's wonderful Flickr site! Thanks!

Back In The Saddle Again....Kinda :)

Well, my surgery went well. I had the very best outcome possible and my test results came back last week and I am beyond happy to report that they were good and the proverbial cherry on top! Now I have to be patient(so not my strong suite as all who know me well are quite aware of!) and allow myself time to heal.
I'm not quite up to sitting at my drawing table for more than a few minutes as of yet so thank heavens for the creator of the recliner. I can sit here in my chair and use my laptop, read, watch movies and even sketch a little. However danger lurks as my little four footed children DO NOT understand that I am no longer their personal trampoline for a while!
So I am thinking and dreaming of the days to come and how I want to live this next chapter of my life. The one thing I am sure of, there will be art! Thanks so much to everyone who sent me your kind wonderful thoughts and prayers. :)

New Little Update....

Finally after a gazillion tests, my surgery is tomorrow and I have all day today to rest and just look at all your wonderful blogs. Thank you so much to everyone for all the kind words of encouragement. I can't wait to be creating again. And I did miss my class with Tim Holtz but the shop owner at Ruban Rouge was even kind enough to give me a refund which I promptly spent on the newest bright alcohol inks, his mini stapler and some of his amazing new stamps. Fun toys just awaiting my return to my studio !