Happy New Year

This is my favorite day of the year. I feel excitement in the air, a shiver of joy as the new year stretches out in front of me. An opportunity to learn something new, improve on something old and enjoy what I already know! I love Christmas too, but I feel so tired by the end of the season that this day makes me feel refreshed and young again. There are 357 days of shopping left! That alone makes me think that perhaps this year I might get things done ahead of time. Lol. Then again, I'll probably wait till the very last minute. I don't think it's because I'm lazy or I procrastinate too much (perhaps a wee bit), but I know it's because there is so much to do and learn out there. I'm a very curious cat by nature. I like to veer off the beaten path and see and take pictures of everything I can. By the time I get back on the path again, I'm late. Like the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, I'm always saying ..."I'm late, I'm late, I'm late". This year my resolution isn't going to be to be on time or to stay on the path more often. This year my resolution is going to be "MORE". Does that make me sound greedy. Perhaps, it is. This year, I want to have more off the path adventures, more being late because life is so full of interesting things, more of my kids hugs, more of my husband's kisses, more of being creative and especially more of being me! I look forward to every new year and I look forward to this one too. I wish for all of you new adventures in life and the time to enjoy them!

Welcome

Welcome to my Virtual Open House. Come in and warm yourself. It's a cold 36 deg. outside at the moment and will be about the same when Santa comes to deliver his presents. The house is decorated with lots of lights outside, Christmas tree inside, and many of my most favorite items on display for everyone to enjoy. Santa is one of my favorite images for Christmas. I think he embodies for me much of what Christmas is all about. Not because he brings presents, but because he gives from the heart and because he doesn't expect anything in return. Well, perhaps some cookies and milk and a carrot for his reindeers!

So to make sure Santa has his cookies, my DS and I baked a bunch of cookies today. Think there'll be one left for Santa?

Upon entering my foyer, you'll be greeted by three ceramic Santas I painted way back in the late 80's. There were so many ceramic shops then, but now, it's hard to find any. I barely did any type of crafts then and my hubby spent all his spare time detailing model airplanes. My mother-in-law pointed me in the direction of ceramics and I did these as one of my first few pieces way back in the late 80's.

From my foyer, we enter the living room. My collection continues. Here are some store bought Santas I have. I add one each year to this.

Times changed, and the ceramic stores closed. I still wanted to do art, so I did some paintings on my own. Here are three santas that I painted once I couldn't find any ceramic stores.

ornaments my son and I made

and more Santas. This time as cards I sent out. There are no art stores close to me here, so I turned my creating to scrapbooking, cards and ATCs. Now that my local scrapbooking store is closed, I wonder where my art journey will take me.

I hope you enjoyed a little bit of the time you spent in my home. It's been my pleasure to show off my collection. I'll be giving a hostess gift to one person picked at random from those that leave me a comment here. I don't have a pic of my gift, but it will be one of my coasters. There is an example of it further down in one of the other posts. Of course, it's a Santa! I've got a selection of images you can pick from and I'll make it especially for you. Thanks for stopping by. Next on the tour is Tami's house. Just click on her name and just like magic, you'll be whisked away to her home. Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and a very joyous New Year.

Christmas Cards

This is one of the cards I did for this year's Christmas Cards. Cards are not forte and it takes me a bit to figure out the paper and the mix of all the hundreds of emblishments that are out there. So, I decided, why not just do an ATC. Well, now that was right up my alley, so this is what I came up with. It's one of my all time favorite stamp (by inkadinkado). As you can see by other posts below, I've been using him quite a bit this year. I then tried a bunch of different backgrounds. Patterned papers, watercolored paper, stamped paper, and finally 2 different embossed paper. The ATC was much easier to do then figuring out what to mount it on! lol I finally settled on this embossed one and added a ribbon to just tie the colors together. For the ATC, I colored using markers, pencils, watercolors, and inks. I added textured snow for the cuffs and the hem of Santa's robe and around his hat. To finish it off, I glued on pearlized looking snowflakes. I hope the ladies that get this version of the card, like him.

Ink spots!

I was coerced...I mean...I joined a swap for melted crayon backgrounds. This was a very good friend of mine's first swap! We used crayons which were melted onto the background. Then whatever image showed up, that's what we needed to refine and paint/draw/do whatever needed to bring forth! I realize that once I've painted this and shown you the result, you can tell what it was supposed to be. But my gosh, in their raw form, I had an incredibly hard time reading these crayon melted ink spots!! I mean, I ended up doing 32, yes, you read right, 32 backgrounds before 3 spoke to me. Thankfully, these two were very easy for me to spot and bring forth. The other, well, let's say I'm going to have 29 backgrounds for something! I had an extremely hard time letting go of the leopard. If anyone knows of where I can join therapy for letting go of one's art...point me the way.

I've Done....

I saw this on CattyCat's blog and loved it. So, here's my "done" list. If you want to play along just copy this and then bold the things you've done.

I HAVE . . .
1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars (often)
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower (stayed up most of the night watching it)
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world (more than once!)
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo (my family would disown me!! lol)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris (does almost count!)
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch (I'm mostly self taught)
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning (would never want to repeat that one!)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (shhh, I won't tell if you don't)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset (aren't they beautiful)
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing4
9. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Ridden an elephant

Hmm 47 out 100. Not too bad. I've never bought a new car, nor seen some great art in Paris, never been to Russia, or on a gandola in venice. But I have walked on the great wall of china, and slept on a train, seen fabulous sites, scuba dived, been on a cruise and seen disney world. However, all pale next to being blessed with a great family, terrific friends, and receiving so much love to overflow my heart.

Christmas Ornaments

I joined an ornament swap this past September and waited till the last possible moment to make them. It was for a blind swap with one partner. There was a dollar limit, but it could either be handmade or store bought. I figured I'd make some. If they were tacky looking, then I'd buy some. These are what I made. The Santa image and the swirls are stamped. I painted the background white, stamped and then colored with watercolors. Added some texture for the fur area, and glued on some snowflake emblishments. The back of the ornament is stamped with a Christmas postage stamp, some snowflakes and more swirls. The snowman is a free hand painted design on a dark blue background. He's one of my fav. designs for winter. The back of the ornament is painted red and a pine bough design added.

I know my ornament swap partner doesn't check out my blogs, but I really hope she'll like them. I sent a matching Santa coaster to her too.

Since she received my item later than anticipated, I added the coaster as an appology and as an added gift for the holidays.

One stamp challenge

I joined a stamp-a-thon this weekend and Friday's challenge was using one stamp as the main focal image. First picking out "THE" stamp was a bit of a challenge, and then not making them all look exactly alike was challenging. I guess that's why they call it a "challenge"! I could have added a lot of doo-dahs and different papers, but...I had just cleaned my studio area and I didn't want to make a huge mess again. I'd just done a collage-a-thon recently and I make such a huge mess that it takes me forever to dig myself out again. So, I added different images to each and colored them using watercolor crayons and inks. I made the little black/white emblishments and added those to each pic. Adding color to any image is my first and true love so that's the way I always end up.