New Painting

I was really inspired by the cover of the March 2008 Better Homes and Gardens Magazine. I was not sure what I wanted to do about it- (paint, scrapbook, cardmaking?)- but I decided to do another painting using the shapes and colors of the cover photo.

My last one went over pretty well- but I wanted to change up the shapes of the flowers to give them a more soft and flow-y feel (like Peonies have) and so that is what I made. The colors for some reason are not as true as they are in person- the soft green is kinda muted in this photo- it almost has a yellow look to it- but in person it is much more soft mint green. In real life it stands out a bit better, I think my camera doesn't like that color (I have had issues in the past with it).

So that is one thing that I worked on this weekend. I ended up having a pretty full weekend- there were fun things to be done that I had forgotten about- but I will post about that soon :)

News From the Craft Room

Ok- my mother of all people chided me about not updating my blog often enough, and so I thought I better do it before another weekend creeps up and passes me by without posting. (and Due to bad weather I plan on spending the weekend in the craft room creating, and not on the PC)

Above is one of the painting that I had been working on that I finally finished last week. I thought it was pretty cute, and I posted it on Flickr, and it has been getting pretty rave reviews- I feel so flattered. Someone (who knows what they are talking about since they are in respected scrapbook\art kit as a designer) said that they loved it and that I should be Designing Scrapbook paper. (!!!!) I nearly died! To have someone mention (even loosely) that I had any kind of skill and say that I should do something that I have as a dream, well- that was life affirming! It was a good day :)

I like the photo that is posted above- but it is this one that is getting the better views and comments- so I will post it too. It is the same pic, but from a different angle and you can see around the other side.

I am not quite sure what I am doing in the craft room this weekend. I am out of canvas- and I order mine from Dick Blick. They are SOOOO nice and SOOOO cheep compared to what is to be found around here. I went to Michaels the other day, and a 4x4 canvas was 7.99 and it was totally cheaply made. At Dick Blick a 4x4 nice canvas is about ohhhhhhh $2 or less. How can you beat that! (except I have to actually ORDER them and wait for UPS to show up.)
I may check out Aaron Brother's and see what they have. They will have good stuff if they have anything, but I only need 1 or 2 to tide me over until my UPS man shows up during the week.

I also want to start sewing- but I still have no machine. And I should probably not spend any more money this week, so maybe not this week. Oh! I bought the most amazing "quilt stack" at a fabric store last weekend. The prints are all amazing- they remind me a bit of Amy Butler, but it is a touch more cute, and a touch less formal looking, but it is adorable. I will post picks of the fabric when I figure out what to do with them. I wanted to scrapbook with them, but they are so cute that I will probably kill myself trying to make my first sewing project a quilt. :)

Oh well- I am still rambling about nothing. I have not slept very well lately. I was really tired all of yesterday, and it was a LONG work day. Got to work at 7:50, didn't take a lunch, left work at 4:15, went to my parents house and got dressed up, and then went to the place where my work gives a Monthly presentation, and I was there from 5:00 to 10:00 last night. Went home and got in bed by 10:30, but I could not fall asleep. I was TOO tired to sleep, and I tossed and turned forever it seemed. And we had a 10am appt this morning, and so I had to be perky and happy and not tired looking when I got to work at 7:50 again this morning. Ugh- I think that I may need a nap today :)

Anyway- I Hope you have a great weekend!

Well Hello My Pretty!

This is my New Phone- The LG Voyager.
Cute huh? It is the "other" iPhone. The front has a full touch screen, and it also flips open for keyboard use ( I still use the touch outside for all of my Texting). It is a Full MP3 player, has US navigation abilities, voice recondition (which works really well) and it Also have a pretty decent camera.

I am now a "Verizo-ian" and this was my fave. I have big thumbs, and honestly- I needed a phone that I could Dial and Text with that was not going to get messed up by my thumbs (hitting 2 or more keys at a time). And the Buttons and touch screen buttons are really easy to use.
John (who had the same phone since 2003) also needed a new phone (both our phones had charging issues and also had a hard time keeping a charge)- and he also decided to get one. We have spent the last 2 day messing with them, and they are awesome :)

I did finish one of my painting this weekend. It was 7:15am on Monday morning, and I was awake, showered, dressed and about to finish getting ready when I got a call from my boss and he informed me that it was a holiday and we were going to be closed today- so to take the day off and enjoy:) So I decided to make some tea and go into the craft room and finish my painting. It turned out ok- I was pretty happy with it.

It was a "copy" of something that I had seen at Borders, and I will post the Painting and the inspiration sometime later today.
I hope your weekend was awesome!

Long Time no Post!

Howdy!
It's been awhile since I posted last. I'm not sure why, but I am guessing that the 8 hours a day I spend working with a PC may be the reason I am not jumping for joy at the PC when I get home.

I have been spending a lot of time in the craft room latley. I am working on a painting right now- well 3 of them really. one of them is going well and should be done today. One of them is stumping me- I cannot figure out how I want to finish it- and the third? Well I may have to just give up on that one. You can only repaint and paint over somthing so many times before you just are over it. Maybe I will use that canvas as my "Paint Board" and so after I make a few more paintings it will have some random paint blob affect going on.

I am also thinking about making some 4x4 canvases. Dick Blick has great prices on them, but I may pick one or 2 up at the local art store and see if I like the size before getting a shipment of them..... we will see.

Sorry for the random rambling. I have had trouble sleeping latley. I had a bad 2 weeks, then 4 or 5 nights of great sleep, and now I am going to bed at 9:30\10 ish and I wake up at 4:30ish and cannot fall back alseep. So this morning (and on a Saturday too!) I woke up about 5ish and by 6:30 I was sick of laying in bed trying to not wake John up. So I have been web surfing for a hour, and am finally ready to leave the office and start my day. It is still early, but maybe I will go into the kitchen and make some "saturday morning Cinnamon rolls" for John as a supprise :)

Have a great day and I will post some pics in a day or so :)

Gettin' Crafty and Other Stuff

Hello :)
I hope everyone had a great weekend! Mine was pretty good- cold and rainy- but good.
Saturday I spent the morning playing in the craft room (with lights, DVD’s and space heater all running and making me happy) and sipping my Rose Petal tea (Yum!)... hmmm now that I think about it... I might try making some of my own rose tea-hmmmm.... but that is for another post- and most likely a post for my cooking blog).

Anyway- Saturday night John and I went to the Symphony at Cal Poly. As usual, we were in our favorite seats, and the music was amazing! They played Debussy, Tychoskhy, and A wonderful piano sonata4 by Beethoven. The Pianist was the most amazing musical thing that I have ever seen. She played the entire piece by memory (blending in and out of the orcustrha flawlessly), and her hands were really amazing. The piece was fast and complex, but her hands flowed like liquid silk and was smoother than seemed humanly possible for such complex music. It was amazing :)

The next morning (the 3rd) was John and I's 3 and half year anniversary- and so we went out to the Apple Farm for Brunch (our favorite place to get breakfast) and it was Cozy and fun.
We spent part of the early afternoon doing our own thing (me reading with some tea- him with his laptop) and then we headed over to my parents house to watch the Super bowl. (Random fact: we have been dating for 42 months, and it was the 42 super bowl- and meaning of life of you have read hitchhikers guide to the galaxy)

It was not a overwhelming weekend- but we will do something more "special" for our anniversary in the next month or so- this month is just so busy already with the weekends already half full of plans.

Well, as promised, here is the project that I was working on for John. The PDF of the pages are available from Ali Edward's site (see link on my sidebar) and I put it together a bit different than she did. She used a sewing machine (which I still don't have) and red felt (which I have but am using for another project).I made mine in more of a "board book" style.


Here are some of the photos from the book. It was about 10-12 pages long. Each page got something different done with it. Some had longer writing, some had just 1 sentence, some had just a touch of embellishments, and some were more elaborate. Each page had a photo that corresponds with a reason why I love Him.


(We are in the Jelly Belly Factory getting a Tour- Because I couldn't just drive by the factory without a tour!!)

(BTW: those are NOT my kids- they belong to my sister!) lol




It was a bit harder than I first thought it would be. I had to cut and measure all the pages and in essence- make a book, and then figure out the best way to attach it to the outer binding, and how to make it close properly. (A "hanging inner hinge" bind worked pretty well- as you can see in the above photo- the spine of the book is free floating and keeps the spine from cracking when you read the pages).

Anyway- I need to get back to work- but I hope you enjoy the pics :) I will try to show more projects later :)