unINspired!

I haven't posted - because I haven't had anything to share. Last week was a long, wet and dreary week - and for whatever reason I was busier than I always care to be with little art time. I think the culprit was that Monday was a holiday and that really threw me off. I kept thinking that Tuesday was Monday and so on for the rest of the week. I did manage to get some cards made in the evenings for a BIG project I'm working on with some friends, but that's about it. I'm not to happy with most of ones I managed to make. I think it's beacause I didn't use any vintage materials, sometimes new stuff has a hard time to inspire me.

Last night I dug out some old pictures and paired them with some scraps of this and that and managed to make a new batch of one of a kind ATC's. I am really loving them, and hoping that the inspiration and creativity I'm feeling doesn't go away....

I made all these ATC's for a friend in my art group who is celebrating her birthday today. Though we're celebrating a few days late, it's at her house and she doesn't have any idea. (I'm sure she has an inkling since we've had a little birthday celebration for the last two months - one for Kelley and one for Molly.) I think I'm keeping the FAITH ATC, but all the rest are for her, along with a hand made card which I'll share with you later.
I really LOVE LOVE LOVE how this one came out with the vintage capacitor coming out of their heads. Kinda makes me think of two friends on the same wavelength.....and makes me smile when I see it. I think I'll be making some more like this!
I also love this one. I carefully cut the lady out of "FAITH" so I could keep the background in tact and use it on it's own card. Just as I Am makes me think of a person all filled up with her own thoughts, feelings and memories - and the world has to accept her just as she is.....That one makes me happy to!

I've had these Jenni Bowlin ATC cards forever - and happy that I hadn't used them before now. Now, I really MUST get ready for my group and decide on what I'm going to bring to work on....I'm thinking some ATC's under glass or maybe another bird or two like what I made for Loretta a while ago ! THANKS for visiting and enjoy this glorious day!

I survived....

Mt. Washington. phew. did. I. ever. survive. As you can see by the first several pictures it was pretty foggy up at the top...and the drive up was pretty harrowing. With not knowing what to expect at the next bend, a pretty narrow and windy road not being able to see 15 feet in front of us....a lot of the time my view was of the roof of the car. I was pretty nervous, and my guys DID NOT MAKE it any easier for me not to be nervous.

Look at the picture of the my little guy and me at the Summit of Mt. Washington, look at how tight we are holding hands - and how he is holding on to the sign. It was SO windy - we held on to each other for fear of falling over! I don't really think we would have, but it was pretty windy. And cold. We even saw a little sleet mixed with the rain. The summit of Mt. Washington was 6,288 feet. Six thousand feet in the air. phew. No wonder I was white knuckling it on the way up!

On the way down we stopped a couple of times to take pictures. I love the lichen in this picture ( I think that's what it's called) with the pretty flowers growing out of it.

I love this pretty maroon trillium. We used to have them around here and my Mom always called them Stinky Benjamins. This one didn't stink...but it was very pretty.

We also took the gondola up Wildcat Mountain. At one point they stopped the wire, and the gondola started swinging - and I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Again, my guys laughed and picked on me because of it. I felt like Rodney Dangerfield.....lol.

Look how cool the clouds look behind us....that's the summit on Mount Washington. You can see how dang foggy it was. I don't think I'll ever go back up there....at least I won't be driving up there again!

He's such a cutie!

On the way home we saw this very cool junk spot and decided it was a great place to poke around for an hour or so....and did we ever. We found a few neat things....

Well, that's all for today...enjoy the rest of your weekend and HAPPY Memorial Day!

Angels and Demons....

Hubs and I went on a date tonight - dinner and a movie - two of our favorite (and well only) date things that we do. Dinner wasn't that great -but the movie was awesome. We went to see Angels and Demons with Tom Hanks. It was awesome, with a few twists and turns - and it really didn't end the way I thought it was going it. I really loved the daVinci Code - the book was written by the same author and Tom Hanks was also the main character in the movie version, and Angels and Demons was certainly a movie that you need to pay attention to....one little blink off for a nap for 2 minutes and you've missed a lot - I am happy to report that that didn't happen to me tonight!

I recently had a little ATC swap with Audrey Hernandez from Small Creations. We both submit to the Somerset magazines and we decided to trade a few ATC's. I showed you the pink ones, here in this post, here are the other two that I sent her.

The Evening Primrose one is a chunky one on a piece of pine that my husband cut for me and the other is a fabric/paper one. My friend Hannah gave me a swatch of the cutest owl fabric that this little art girl comes from, she's just adorable - and so is Hannah! :-) I had lunch with her today.....She also gave me the little tea card that the flower on Evening Primrose was cut from. I was really happy with the way these came out. I'll share the ones that Audrey sent me tomorrow when the light is better for a picture.

It's been a pretty hectic week -and I'm thankful for a few days off with NOTHING scheduled but what we want to do. Monday was cross country practice and Wednesday the boy had another meet. This time it was in a neighboring town - and I was nervous for him because the track seemed longer - and MUCH steeper than he's used to. Actually the one place was a long but steady incline - plus it was a pretty warm day and he has a habit of not hydrating well. We were so proud of him that he did better than last time - andd only a couple of seconds more than his very first meet. He was pretty tired when he was finished! Look how much taller he is than all the other boys in the group running! He's almost a whole head taller than the others his age!

Hope you enjoy your weekend. We're working on projects tomorrow and taking a road trip on Sunday to Mount Washington (I think if the weather holds out for us) and of course the parade on Monday. I'm hoping to get some creative time in amongst all the other to-do's! What are you up to this weekend?

Where Ideas Take Flight....

Most of you know that I'm a designer for EK Success, which last year became EK Success Brands. The companies that encompass EK Brands are: K & Co., EK Success, InkaDinkado, Dimensions, Wilton and Martha Stewart Crafts. One of the projects that they (and we - the creative team) have been working on since last fall is a community called Spotted Canary. The Creative Team (or CAT as we're often referred to) has been working on projects, articles and so much more to share our love of all things creative with you, and I really think you're gonna love it!

Spotted Canary is a place where artists, beginning and experienced crafters and even hobbyists can meet online to look for inspiration, learn new techniques and see wonderful projects created by myself and my team mates. With subjects ranging from scrapbooking and paper crafts to jewelry or kids crafts - there's really something for everyone. there's even a nice community forum for an on-line place to visit to share ideas and find on-line friends to share our love of crafts with.

I hope you'll take a little bit of time to check it out, I'd love it if you mentioned my name and said I sentchya....and let me what you think too! I'd love to hear your feed back. Just follow this link to Spotted Canary: http://www.spottedcanary.com/!!

I can't believe this is my 400th Post !!

I have to say it again.....I can't believe this is my 400th post. I know I've been blogging since 2007 - but I hadn't been paying attention to the number of posts I've made for quite some time. I've never been the type of person that sticks to writing in a journal, and usually any attempt fails after a week or so - so this just makes me happy. I'm sure the reasons I've stuck to blogging are the fact that I can type my entry instead of hand write (which makes my wrist hurt and hand cramp up) and it's pretty fast to type a new journal entry. Plus, it's artsy and I've always considered hand written journals touchy feely express myself kinda things - and I'm just not good at getting my feelings out there. So, wahoo - 400!!

I don't have a TV in my studio (and really want one), and since I'm home alone most of the days - I move myself to the living room and work on assignments and projects from the coffee table. Here's what my coffee table looked like this morning. I picked up a new stamp (or three) last week and have been wanting to use this one the most, it's really been calling my name. So last night I stamped and painted up a storm and got a few images ready for a new batch of ATC's.

I was also working on a Halloween project even though Halloween is not even just around the corner.

Here's the new stamped image - all trimmed and watercolored.

I've been looking at the image all morning wondering how to add a little something extra to it...and I have a set of inchie stamps from InkaDinaDoo that has several Asian themed stamps that I thought would work nicely. I think I like the Asian lady best. I stamped her first and then used a 7/8" square punch from EK to punch it out. I think I'm going to color it in and then attach it to the ATC using red thread. Red because I coulnd't find my chop stamp (my hubby got me in Singapore) to stamp my name in red on this, which is what I really wanted to do.

Here they are all lined up on my really dirty messy stained painted work mat. I just love the way these came out.

Well, thanks for visiting.....hope you all have a great rest of your day!

It's official....

it no longer looks like Fall! The grass is green, leaves are on the branches of trees - and dandilions have sprouted up on beautiful lawns. I'm happy to report that the BOY has discovered a new way of removing them from the yard.....take a stick - and whip it through the air just over the head of the dandilion - and Voila - the head is cut off!! He He. I think he was bored yesterday when we visited our friend to see her new chicks and ducklings.

A Morning Dove on her nest in a pretty apple tree.

Another pretty apple tree, it's so pretty - but it had no scent at all. Surprising!
Aren't they the cutest little ducklings? I didn't see one ugly duck!

We're having a pretty relaxing day. The weather is kinda crummy - we woke up to rain and it's still over cast though the rain has stopped. I've got some work that needs to be done - both personal and assignments for some new products from EK Success. We've had such a hectic couple of weeks that we've decided to also implement "pj day" rules, the Boy is relaxing from project to project - and sneaking his legos, Nintendo and computer into breaks in between. I'll share some pictures of a few of the projects I've been working on tomorrow! Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Lovelies from Brimfield

Just a quick post today to share some pictures of my goodies from this week. Though, I didn't include the beautiful new papers and embellishments I picked up at Absolutely Everything and Ink About It.
You can tell how small the Frozen Charlottes are by comparing them to the Monopoly piece in the picture below. I wish I had some of the white bisque ones, but we didn't see any - bummer!!

The Boy and I have a busy day planned. I'm headed off to Yoga first thing, then we're headed to the Bowdoinham Library plant sale. If the rain holds off we're going to get a few things planted. He wants to plant the peas, and I want to plant the Kale, carrots, radishes....and something else but I can't remember what. Have a great weekend.....catch you on the flip side!