Think Pink.....

Ok, so you don't really have to if you don't want to as some of you know pink is not a color I really prefer to work in, but I think these turned out kinda cute AND I hope it will help mask the thought that I haven't posted in awhile. 2010 has seen a lot of ups & downs for me & it's only March?!!

My most favorite grandma (whom practically raised me) suffered a massive stroke earlier this year. Doctors said she wouldn't be able to feed herself or even get out of bed. We flew back to Iowa the very next day to be with her & right before we boarded the plane, my cousin called to say that my grandma (who is a very tough 'ole lady) had just got done walking 40 steps back & forth down the hospital hall & was feeding herself whole food!! She seemed to sleep a lot while we were there, but she recognized us & was able to carry on conversations. It broke my heart to see her in this condition.

She has improved more than the doctors & nurses ever expected at the nursing home, however, I don't forsee her ever living alone again, which she seems happy with & I do too!! Since my grandma's son, (my Uncle) died of lung cancer a few years ago & her daughter, well, long story, but her daughter has nothing to do with her, I'm the oldest grandchild, so I've been the one that has had to make a lot of plans & decisions for my grandma (with the fabulous help of my cousins, who live close to her.) I wouldn't have been able to do this on my own without their help. So you can kind of imagine the ups & downs & how it really forces you to do a lot of growing up. (I thought I was all done with that!) :)

In early February, we lost my 15 year old Abyssinian, Sydney, to some unforseen illness. It absolutely broke my heart!! He was momma's boy. He would sit on mom's lap while watching TV, but if the heating vents were putting out that nice warm air, you'd find him laying on top of one of those. Bedtime, you'd find him under the covers with mom.

It's amazing how the loss of a pet can really affect you. I felt like I had a permanent dark cloud hanging over me. The creative juices just would not flow & I almost felt like I was in a depression. As you might know, we still have Matisse, our Bengal & Taryn our German Pinscher, but we had Syd for 15 wonderful years & now being gone, there was an empty hole.

About a month later, we rescued Milana (melawna). Well her name was Lizzie at the time we adopted her & she told us that she didn't like that name & asked that we give her a new name. (She thought her new name fit her SO much better!!) :)

As those of you that have had the pleasure of introducing a new pet to your family, trying not to freak out the new pet, while trying to reassure the pets you had in the house before the new one arrived that you still love them just as much. It's been leaps & bounds with trying to get everyone to like each other, but I think we achieved success!!! Milana loves sleeping with us at night (she actually beats my DH to bed each night). You can either find her laying between us or on papa's pillow closely spooning his head, which he still hasn't gotten used to. :)

AND, she's my little studio cat!! She loves hanging out with me while I'm in the studio & her personality really comes out when she's hanging with mom. She's very good at reminding mom, with little meows ,that I should take breaks from time to time to pet & play with her :) She's an absolute wonderful addition to our family!!

One other bit of happy news (I think), I'm doing my first Arts & Crafts fair in April & I'm SO NERVOUS!!! I went out & bought my 6ft foldable table & am slowly gathering items I need, but oh wait............I need to fill that 6ft with my art. My luggage tags & mini wallets are pretty small on that 6ft table, so you can imagine, that I've been a creating machine ever since I found out I was accepted for the show. I have plans for other items as well, but I really don't have a surplus of items I've created just hanging around in my studio, so I will be a VERY busy woman up until the show comes.

Any pointers or helpful ideas for a person who's never done an Arts & Crafts fair, would be MUCH appreciated, since I'm a nervous WRECK!! The one nice thing is that this show is indoors, so I don't need a tent. And, what about a tent? If I'm not sure that I'm going to do many of these Arts & Crafts fairs, is it smarter to rent a tent?

Ok, sometimes it pays to be a packrat.......

God love 'em, but at least 4 generations of the women in my family have been packrats & we're talking serious packratitus. Where upstairs bedrooms are so full of things that "you might need someday" that all you can do is walk into the room & walk back out backwards in your same foot steps. Hallways crammed with filled boxes of outdated fabrics & patterns. Closets of extra serving dishes & platters. My grandpa, bless his soul, also had this "problem" (don't want to call it a disease, since I question if it was something brought about from living during the Depression Era). He would go to estate sales & bring home boxes of "things".

Growing up with this, it seemed "normal". I never questioned the clutter. Once I moved away I realized, "oh my God, these people are packrats!" I vowed from that day on, that I would break that chain in my family.

I did pretty well until I started creating art again. It's a lot easier creating when you already have the paper you need for a journal signature or the right color of thread to finish a quilt. I spoke with other artist friends on how to "cope" with this disease & if it was acceptable or shunned & I was reassured it would be ok, but that I had to be careful, that it could easily get out of control. So, I keep it "in check" by organizing. All of my paints are in 2 clear rubber maid totes, my rubber stamps in another, fusible webs, etc AND they are kept in my studio either in the closet or underneath my work table. I cannot store extra rubber maid totes visibly in my studio, so this is a way of me controlling how much I can "hoard".

I generally give my grandma a hard time about all the things she keeps & shouldn't, but this time, I'm glad she did. When we went back to see her last week, she gave me a grocery bag full of the postcards that you see here. There had to be over 150 of these postcards & in fabulous shape for being over 97 years old!! They're all correspondence between my great grandmother & a friend of her's, most of them still have the 1 cent stamp that was needed to mail them on it still.

I feel like these postcards are a small part of my family past so I won't be cutting them up to use in my art. Instead, I have plans to scan them into my computer & then use them possibly in my work & as for the actual postcards, I think they'll be put into an archival binder where one can easily enjoy them any time!!

Headin' Home to Iowa

I won't be posting for just a little while since we're heading back home for a family wedding & the highlight of my trip...................to see my 82 year old grandma. That woman is absolutely awesome!! All of her funny little quirks, habits & values, I SWEAR, I take after her :) (I wonder if it's possible for a granddaughter to take after her grandmother?) I did have the wonderful opportunity of my grandparents living right next door while growing up so I guess I can see there being a possibility.



I also took advantage of while I'm gone, my sewing machine is in the shop getting it's 1st year checkup. This worked out perfectly, since I didn't know how I was going to be able to be without my sewing machine for a week. :)



A small favor of those reading my blog.................I'd really love to change my blog background, but haven't really found anything that fits me. Everything I see out there is either too formal or Shabby Chic so this has me toying with the idea of hiring someone to design it for me if I can't find anything out there on the internet. If you have any suggestions for background sites or someone who can create a background relatively inexpensively, please let me know!!



Thanks & have a great rest of the week!!!
(Adriana will be flying back to Iowa with me, so maybe she'll have some interesting pics to post here when we get back.)

40............sigh

Yes, I am 40 today or as I'd like to say 20 (times 2). :)

A very wonderful friend of mine, Michelle, made these fabulous things for me for my birthday (they're SO cool & they're in my favorite color!!)

40 tudes is a little journal that she made using painted interfacing & on each page is a different technique that Michelle likes to use in her art. Also, on each page is a clear little sleeve that I've been told that are for me to put pictures in of my party that we're having tonight. Michelle has said that she'll be posting on her blog more info about this wonderful little piece if you'd like to know more.

She also sent me these earrings that were made from a Fresca can. (Aren't they great!!)

Make sure you go over & check out her blog & see what she's been up to lately!!

Thanks Michelle, I love them!!

I had planned on doing a giveaway drawing for my birthday, but I've been so busy working on creating a piece to submit to Greencraft Magazine, I didn't have to the time to create anything. After I submit to Greencraft Mag, I'll do a giveaway, maybe a journal from Cheetoh bags or a mini wallet or maybe both :)

Crisp bags from the UK

My wonderful friend, Lynda, sent me a huge envelope full of Crisps bag wrappers to use in my mini wallets. It felt like Christmas in August!!

I thought I'd share a few pics so my US friends can take a look.

They have flavors like we have in the US, like the Salt & Vinegar, BBQ & plain salted, but there were some that seemed strange like the Chicken & Onion, the Prawn Cocktail (no, I'm not kidding) & then they have interesting ones like the two below.

These bags above are beautiful!! I'd be interested in seeing & tasting the 8 other flavors :)

Thank you, Lynda, for sending me these wonderful Crisp bags, I can hardly wait to start using them to create my wallets!!

Karma Friends Award

Cheryl of Scrappy Cat generously sent this to me............

The wording for this award is as follows:

The Karma Award: These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kinds of bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

Through my blog, I have met & made tons of friends in the States as well as Internationally. (Should we ever end up living in North Carolina or in the UK, I can happily say I have tons of artists friends to go visit) :)

Purple Missus

ArtMixter

Elizabeth Creates

Mags

Sherry in NC

Alis Clair

Michelle

Huckleberry Arts

I'm Back!!

Bawd (that's Croatian for Hello) :)

I'm back from my Rome/Croatia trip & have to tell you, I had the MOST wonderful time!!! The only reasons I was looking forward to coming home were to see my 4-legged kids, sleep in my own bed & drink a Dr Pepper. (Some people smoke, some people have to have their coffee, I have to have my Dr Pepper.) The only soda that I found in Rome was Coke, Coke Zero, Fanta or Sprite and in Croatia the same with every once in awhile finding a Pepsi. So, I compensated by drinking more wine & beer while I was there (that's another story for later.)

I learned a few things as well :

• Americans are always in a hurry
• eat WAY too much junk food/greasy foods/foods just in general not good for our health
• should have adopted the metric system
• don't eat enough gelato (lol)

& oh yeah, somewhat shy about showing skin on Croatian beaches. We saw a lot of FKK (we never figured out the translation, so if someone knows please tell me, but from what we can tell, FKK has something to do with nudity). We saw quite a bit of nudity on Croatian beaches & everytime, it was shocking. And, if any of you are wondering if I participated in this................ARE YOU KIDDING?! Um, NO!!! :)

Anyway, I'm back & I miss those beautiful & wonderful places already. I took TONS of photos & once I can get them all organized with all of the proper names of the places on them, I'll share a few here AND plans are to set up a new site/blog with all of the photos that were taken by my DH, me & the friends who went on our sailing Flotilla with us in Croatia. I'll let you know once it's up, if anyone is interested.

(btw, Adriana went with us, so she has some photogs as well) :)

One More Time!!

I need your help ONE more time with the Artisans Challenge.

All three of my pieces won the first week, which wouldn't have been possible without all your votes, which are VERY much appreciated!! Now is the weekly challenge where all of those that won last week are to go up against each other. Not only am I competing against others that were picked, I’m also competing against myself. (I also JUST noticed that my favorite ACEO was chosen for Miniature Category & one of my Squiggle Scarves made it into the Clothing Category!!) :)

So if you'd consider voting for me one more time, I’d really appreciate it & thanks so much for your help!! http://blockheadradiolive.com/artisanschallenge

And, if you're curious of the three pieces, my Dragonfly Recycled Journal got the most votes of all three. (It received over 82 votes in it's category!!) thank you!!

You can cast your vote once in each category on the left. The Weekly Challenge is the category of those that won last week & the rest of the categories are this week's new entries for the Challenge.

Time to Vote!

I need your help! The Artisan's Challenge is now in full swing & three of my pieces was chosen to be in the challenge!!

I am SO excited that these three pieces of mine were chosen to go up against other artists' work.

found under miniature

category

found under paper crafts category

located under 2D category

If you click on this link: Artisan's Challenge it will take you to where you can vote. Pick the category on the left & it will show you the work, on the right, that was chosen & then it's up to you to vote for your favorite. I'm hoping you'll consider me when making your choice!! Voting will close for this weeks Challenge at 9:10 am Monday, March 30th.

Thanks so much for your help!! :)

Happy St Patty's Day!!!

Top 'O the Morning to Ya!! Happy St. Patrick's to all of you!!

This is the day that I get to wear my MOST favorite shoes. Not that I need a special day to wear these since I wear them all the time (of course!!)

I LOVE my green Chucks!! We visited a Converse store last summer & there they were. It was that type of moment, when you can see nothing else, but what you HAVE to have. I looked at my DH with big eyes & a smile to match (probably like a kid in a candy store) & he did what he often does with me, he shook his head, rolled his eyes & said, go ahead. Woo hoo!!! I'm getting a pair of Chucks in one of my most favorite colors!!! I must have been the happiest girl on the planet at that moment. :)

The young girl at the check out mentioned as I was paying for my shoes that they were selling a shirt in the same color to match my shoes. I thanked her for letting me know but then shared that I already had two in that color to match at home :)

I've been reading up a lot on my trip in May, to Rome & Croatia & have been hearing stories of others who have gone to Rome before me. I've heard things such as women don't wear shorts in Rome & you can tell if you're American if you wear tennis shoes. I can respect the no shorts, it will be May so the weather shouldn't be too hot, but tennis shoes? I'm going to be walking all over that wonderful city & my feet are going to be comfortable, so I don't care if you can tell if I'm American or not, I'm wearing my tennis shoes. Besides, I'm sure I'll probably stick out anyway - I'm thinking there's probably not many blonde Italians that live there? :) (maybe I'm wrong)

Wonder if my green Chucks should explore the Roman streets with me or better yet, the Old Town of Dubrovnik (Croatia)?

Artisan Challenge!!

I love visiting Huckleberry Arts . She has such a wonderful blog!! She creates one of a kind original creations, does custom graphics & also has a freebie page, where she generously offers items like buttons, tags & collage sheets. Please check out her fabulous blog when you get the chance, I think I could just spend the entire day clicking on all of the links that she has on her first page :)

She had this posted on her blog & I wanted to share it with all of you (although, I considered not doing it, therefore weakening my competition) :)

All you Artisans out there make a note of this date:

March 23rd

Some may remember... some may be hearing about it for the first time! Either way there's a bit of construction goin' on over at Blockhead Radio as we prepare to relaunch a cool weekly contest. Seriously, if you head over there you will hear power saws, drills and jack hammer's workin' 24 hours a day. Okay, no you won't but you WILL hear some really great music by indie artists :)

Formerly known as the Etsy Challenge (the name was change to protect the innocent...) and then renamed as the Artisan's Challenge because there are soooo many great venues out there for selling handmade.... and then the whole shebang came crumbling down. It was feared that the challenge would never be heard from again.

Yes, the Artisan's Challenge is being dug up from the depths of the internet graveyard!

For those who may have never heard of the Artisan's Challenge, let me tell ya what it's all about. There are 12 different categories with 60 different artisans every week (5 submissions in each category). The winner's of the categories from the previous week then face off in a weekly challenge!

So head on over, read the rules and enter your submissions now! You'll be notified when it's your week in the challenge. Then its up to you to tell your friends... your family... your neighbors... the people in the checkout line at the grocery store... to go vote for you in the

Artisan's Challenge!

What's in it for you? Besides lots of people seeing your item when they vote?? Besides FREE publicity for your shop??? Besides all the fun????

It just so happens that the winner of the weekly challenge will now win a audio commercial with a banner to play the entire following week on Blockhead Radio! That's even MORE FREE publicity for your shop!

Remember, it's ANY selling venue! Entries are being accepted now so hurry and get your submission in.

Another incentive... blog about it & Let Witchy of The Copper Cauldron know you did! You'll be entered for a chance to win a $15 Gift Certificate to The Copper Cauldron. Visit the Copper Cauldron here!! Last date to enter will be March 22nd. Winner will be selected by a random number generator. One entry per blog.

When does Spring start?

Sorry, no pics to post as of yet. Remember the studio remodel & laying the teak flooring? The last thing to be finished is my work top area. My wonderful DH made the cabinet for me (which I will post photos when all completed) & now he's putting in tons of drawers to hold all of those little things that can easily get lost & big drawers to hold my many clear shoe box containers of dyed cheesecloth, misty fuse, cording & clasps for my journals, etc. I'm going to be so organized, it's going to be scary. To be able to actually find something that I'm looking for & finding it the first time, I can't even imagine.

So, with that said, I haven't been able to finish any of the 3 pieces that are in progress right now. I have plans to send one of my pieces off to Virginia for the Fiberart for a Cause, Collage Mania. Just a little hint, I'm using my funky green, dyed on bamboo & there will be squiggles involved :)

As I posted the question at the beginning, "When does Spring start?" We have had some of the strangest weather here the last 3 days. It seemed as if every time I looked out the window, this weekend, something different was happening. We had light snow, then sun, then sleet & then sun again. Later in the day, it was raining snow, I can't think of any better way to explain it. It was coming down fast like rain drops, but was actually snow & all of this happening with the weather being around 42 degrees.

Saturday evening, while barbecuing (one of the wonderful things we can do year round here) it was snowing & we saw lightning. Sadly, we don't get to see very much lightning, so this was quite odd. While at work yesterday, round three - snow, sleet, sun, hail, blizzard-like conditions & thunder (all within about 2.5 hours). Yes, snow thunder. I didn't think it was possible.

You say "global warming" & some people roll their eyes, but in the 12 years that I've lived in the Pacific NW, I think the climate has really gone through some changes. The summers are getting hotter & the winters are getting a lot colder. We never used to see temps below 38 or above 78. The last couple of winters we've had quite a few days hovering around the mid-20's & the last couple of summers has seen quite a few days around the upper 80's & lower 90's. Today, while waiting for my bus, in 24 degree weather, to get to work, I would have happily embraced one of those upper 80 degree days :)

I Love Jesus but I Drink a Little

Jennifer aka "Blueskysunburn", from Trial & Error posted a comment on my blog & when I went to visit her site, she had this posted & I HAD to share it with you. I laughed so hard that I cried, so I thought I'd share it with you hoping that maybe you might get a little giggle out of it as well :)

On Cloud 9

I've been dyeing fibers for over 20 years & for 15 of them, Dharma Trading has kept me in the supplies I need to create my art. Dharma is a fabulous company to do business with, from their high quality fabrics, their wonderful customer service & their attention to the environment.

I subscribe to their monthly newsletter, like I'm sure some of you do. In their newsletter, you can see below where they have sections for Featured Artists, new catalogs, sales & new items just added to their store.

As I was reading at the bottom of the screen, in tiny, tiny print, they mentioned that if anyone had used their products in finished pieces, to please email them & they might include those photos on their website. Since I do most of my hand dyeing on their bamboo poplin, I sent them photos of 3 different pieces. Within 15 minutes, Sam from Dharma emailed me & said that they would love to have me as a Featured Artist in their newsletter & will be featured on their home page!!! I was & STILL am SO excited, I still get goose bumps just thinking about it!!

So, come April, those that subscribe to Dharma's monthly emailed newsletter, you'll see me as one of their featured artists!!!!

A Scarf for Mia

I'm a HUGE fan/collector/owner of some of Michele's work at EyEmbellishments. Michele creates the most wonderful ceramic embellishments for you to use in your own work, but the way she sells them in her little collages, it's hard for me disassemble them & use them in something else. It's like that fat quarter of fabric that you just dyed & love so much that you can't quite cut into it yet & that it needs to sit on a shelf somewhere & be admired for awhile.

They're such wonderful little works of art!!! Warning though, you can't just have one, they're addicting!! I have at least 4 of her collages hanging in my house not to mention the many loose ones that are taped to the pieces of card that they were shipped on.

I also follow Michele's blog, religiously & she has a Sunday section dedicated to her Sock Sibs. She has created each one of these & they're all quite the little characters, all with their own personalities & always seeming to get into trouble. Mia, (below) is a little rock star, she loves going for drives with the top down & her I have something in common, we both love a good martini so I decided she needed some accessorizing & I made her the little hand dyed silk scarf that she's modeling below. I rubber stamped it with martini glasses & shakers & then added green seed beads to represent olives in the glasses.

Mia in Chicago

Mia in Martini Sari

Mia doing the Marilyn Monroe pose

(Told you she was quite the little character.) Michele's sock sibs like to go on adventures, so I had mentioned if a couple of them would like to tag along on my trip to Rome & Croatia, that they are more than welcome. Michele informed me that she was going to create for me, my very own personal sock sibling to take with me on my adventure. (I can hardly wait!!)

missing in action...............

...................but I have a good excuse!!

For over 3 years, I've wanted to remodel my studio & finally this Christmas, I got my wish. The carpet in my studio was there from the last owners that had children & no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the stains removed. (Who puts white carpet in a small child's room anyway?)

So now to look for flooring.............. we tend to do the remodeling ourselves in our home & I have to say that Daryl (dh) is quite the carpenter. We try to be as green/recycled/reclaimed as possible when remodeling, cork flooring in the den & library, plans for concrete kitchen counter tops, possible salvaged ceramic tile for the bathroom (a project for next year), etc.

I looked at bamboo flooring in hopes of staying "green". What a let down. I've heard that bamboo is quite hard, when in all actuality, it's quite soft. You can get hard bamboo flooring but to do that you remove the term green since you need to add glues and the formaldehydes that's needed to harden the bamboo. Since I have three-four legged children, I decided with their little claws it would be best to find something harder. There is another kind of bamboo that is naturally harder & it's called twisted bamboo. When you see bamboo flooring, it's either laid side by side or turned up on it's edge & laid together that way. The twisted stuff is actually that. They take the bamboo & twist it tight & then lay it side by side. What I didn't like about the twisted bamboo, is that it looked like regular wood, it lost it's bamboo "look".

So, bamboo was out & should I decide to work with liquid dyes (ever in that room), cork wasn't a good idea either, so we went to the opposite side of the spectrum.......................Daryl & I are kind of wood snobs. Or maybe I should say, have an appreciation for fine wood :) Our front porch (we rebuilt) with beautiful ironwood & we're slowly removing the hollow core interior doors with beautiful solid maple doors. For flooring, we found the most beautiful quilted maple engineered flooring from a local store. We paid for it & waited for it to be delivered to the store so we could pick it up. It arrived late one afternoon to the store & we were told we could call the next day to pick it up. The next day, I couldn't reach a live body by phone & when you drove up to the store, there were signs on the door stating the store was closed (for good) & a phone number was posted, which went to voicemail.

(the wall quilt in the photo, was one of the first quilts I ever made, it's over 20 years old)

For three days, I tried tracking down the flooring that we bought that was sitting in that store. I finally found out, they closed the company & filed for bankrupty. We're still working with our credit card company to get our money back, which I think shouldn't be a problem & since then, we found a local place that had their flooring in the "back room." We bought it that day & took it home with us. We found solid hardwood flooring & saved about $500.00 from what we originally purchased & it's absolutely gorgeous!!

It's Brazilian Teak & these were all of the colors in ONE box. Teak is a very hard wood & we also discovered that UV rays will not fade or darken the color of the wood, so what you see is what you get.

Now to put everything that was in that room back into it, sigh.....................!! Oh how I'd just love to throw it all out & start over. Less is more, right?!

So there's my excuse, my studio has been torn up & what was in that room is now all over my house (what a mess)!!

I have been working on some pieces that I hope to photograph over the weekend & post here next week.

Proximity Award

Sherry has shared the Proximity Award with me. Thank you Sherry!!

This award states that: This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY- nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends, they are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers.

I would like to in turn share this award with Michele, Michelle, Lynda, Carole & Cheryl.

Not only did Sherry give me the Proximity Award, but I think she gave me her cold too. :) It has been slowly coming on for about a week now & I woke up on Sunday with NO voice & no energy whatsoever. I stayed home from work on Monday, to save my throat (since the main part of my job is communicating verbally, whether on the phone or in person). Went to work today (will see how long I can last). As for a voice, I now have that deep phone sex voice, so I don't think I'll be answering my phone at work today. :)

A Little Bling...............

Well, the visiting family is gone & now back to work!! Am so excited, a co-worker placed a 4 piece custom order (possibly 5) with me & she needs it by Christmas. Fortunately, the company I had was understanding enough to allow me to do a little each night to work on these four pieces. Should every thing go as planned (which it never seems to do), I should have them finished by Monday & I can start working on another custom order that I just received yesterday from another co-worker. If I don't think about it too much, I won't stress that I have only two more weeks to get all of the pieces that I had planned to get done, done by Christmas.

© 2008 Tracy Borders

Every year, the company that I work for, picks 1 or 2 families that might need a little extra help at Christmas. We all sign up for different items on their wish lists. I saw that the mother wished for bracelets, so I signed up & made these for her. The two outside bracelets are made from Bali silver & fresh water pearls. I scored those brown spiral beads in the center bracelet, while I was shopping for something completely different at a bead store. Don't worry, I picked up extra "just in case" I want to use them for something for me. :)

(I hope the mother likes these.)

I came across this necklace below, this past weekend while out doing the "tourist" shopping thing with my visiting family.

I fell in love with it right away. One of my friends loves Celtic things so I bought it for her for Christmas. I might have to go back & see if they have another one for ME :)

(if you're wondering, because it was my first question too, this is not made from bone, it's actually made from porcelain)

What Green Color Are You?

You Are Teal Green

You are a one of a kind, original person. There's no one even close to being like you. Expressive and creative, you have a knack for making the impossible possible. While you are a bit offbeat, you don't scare people away with your quirks. Your warm personality nicely counteracts and strange habits you may have.

What Color Green Are You?

This fits me to a "T"!! (Whenever my DH describes me to someone, normal is never used in the sentence .) Why be normal, anyone can do that? Being different, now that takes work :)

What color of green are you?

BFF Award

Scrappy Cat awarded me the Blogging Friends Forever Award & Fannie also awarded this to me as well, not that long ago !!! Make sure you check out both of their blogs as they're creating some wonderful art!!

Now I'm supposed to pick 4 dedicated followers & one new one from another part of the world..............

1. Sherry
2. Michelle
3. Michele
4. kiwi Carole
5. Tracy Mc

I did get the blue molding paste journal finished last night & it turned out great (if I do say so myself). Sorry no pics yet, by the time it was finished, it was too dark outside to photograph. I will get it photographed this weekend along with another journal that I just finished & post it hopefully on Monday!!