Week-end mail from Australia

These wonderful art pieces came in the mail over the week-end all the way from Australia. Dawn is the artist. We are doing a swap, I am working on two cloth ATCs for her, and I don't mind saying I'm a bit nervous as it will be hard to match the quality of these. I emailed her to let her know they came and to say THANK YOU and I told her my favorite was the butterfly lady, and I asked how she did it. She said it was texture paste applied through sequin waste, then painted with metallic acrylics....and believe me the scanner does not do it justice. This is her blog site in case you have never seen her work, check it out. http://littledawnieno1.blogspot.com

I have a meeting tonight but if time allows I might post a couple things I have been working on. Please come back or if you are new to this site leave a comment so I can come back to you.

Hope you all have a fun filled artistic day, BE BLESSED.

Conclusion

As the sun was sitting the evening shadows seem to grow larger and more ominous. The night creatures were beginning to stir. Andraia was hearing strange new sounds coming from deep in the forest, she was becoming fearful. For the first time since her journey began she was having doubts and regrets. Suddenly from the shadows lunged a wolf. Now she was consumed with FEAR.

Her new little yellow friend told her, "be brave, remember your mission." But the cunning wolf came closer and began to speak. First he told her how beautiful she was and how lonely he was and that he was the master of this forest and that if she would just follow him he would give her anything she desired. With his devious ways he persuaded her to go with him.

As they disappeared into the night the little yellow worm said to the unicorn, "go back and tell the Great One she has failed her mission, tell him her heart was to full of fear and that she left with the wolf before the Prince could get here."

So now you have it, it's to bad she gave into the tempting promises of the wolf....you know he was lying. Now she will never get to meet the Prince. I Hope you were not wanting a HAPPY ENDING. I received two wonderful ATCs in the mail and will post them tomorrow. I will try to refrain from any more fairy tales for awhile.

The Waiting Faerie

Rain forest Faerie:

She rode deep into the forest to wait.

Wait for what ? She was not certain, but she knew it was her destiny. She was somewhat lonely as it was her first time away from the camp where she had spent her earlier years. Mixed feelings of fear and anticipation kept her frozen on the log where she knew she must stay.

She thought of all the fun times when she was free to pick wildflowers and to adorn her hair with them and sit by the pools with her friends. Just yesterday was one of those days and then as the sun was sitting she was summoned by the Great One and told, "it is time"! He told her the trip out of the deep woods, across the mountains and into the rain forest must be traveled quickly and that she had to reach her destination before dark. The rain forest was not a safe place for faeries, especially young and beautiful ones like her. Then she heard her name being whispered," Andraia" and again, a little louder, "Andraia". And she saw him, a small yellow worm. "How did you know my name" she asked. The Great One sent a Raven and he told me everything concerning you. I saw you were becoming afraid and I did not want you to leave this place. "How long must I wait here and what am I waiting for, do you know"? "Oh yes, I know! OK, EVERYBODY PUT YOUR THINKING CAPS ON AND TELL ME, WHAT IS SHE WAITING FOR?

Warren is....

Once upon a time: Many years ago in the windy city, Chicago there lived a dashing man. He was in his early forties, very street smart for a guy that had come off a horse farm in Iowa. He had left home at a very young age to get away from the hard work and very strict parents. Life in the city was not what he thought it would be, not much glamour in driving a cab, but that is what he did. Then he found the big money, bootlegging. He knew Al Capone personally, and he spent a lot of time in the speakeasies. (For any of you under 40 I might be loosing you here). He could "cut a rug" with the best of them.

There was a woman playing piano in one of these clubs and she had a baby sister, also straight off the farm in southern Illinois who came to stay with her. She was only eighteen and very naive. One night in the club she was asked to dance. The moment she looked into those mischievous blue eyes she was hooked. They danced the night away, and a romance began. Before she knew what had happened she found out she was going to be a mother. She wanted a little boy so bad and she had his name all picked out.... it was WARREN. Then the big surprise, the baby turned out to be a girl........and her name became Werna Gail . My father was twenty years older than my mother and I wish I could say they lived happily ever after but that was not the way it ended. He died at the age of fifty eight, I was only eighteen. Mother had a few good years after that but she left this earth at the age of sixty two, I was only forty two. I was an only child.

I did two drawings today, the first one I want to do over so you will see it later. This one I did in a bit of a hurry so I would have one to post.......not one of Warrens best poses.

This or That, or Maybe Both

I wasn't going to post today. I really didn't have anything. Then I sat down and started to draw this cat, since he was resting I said to myself, "I'll post this on Sunday". When it was done and I got out the ink pen I got a spot of ink on the flower pot, it was blue, oh boy now what...well I covered it up with the green. Now I'm unhappy with the picture and I started another one. This flower and dragonfly. When it was done I decided to post it and save the cat for tomorrow, but when I scanned it I was not happy. The wings did not show the detail work. Oh what to do, what to do! So here they both are and I think I'll take tomorrow off and have a day of rest. Can you see the little yellow worm in both of them ? I have decided to use it in all of my drawings, he has been in some of the older ones. It's a boy worm and his name is Warren.

AND THAT'S ANOTHER STORY.

Flower & Fairies

I wanted to draw a flower this morning and after I finished it I thought, "how boring" so I added these little guys and my worm to add a little character, well I'm not sure that is the right word. I just can not get my fairies to look anything but comical !!! I need lessons, Sombra where are you ? HELP! Oh well I guess I'm stuck with funny looking fairies. You think they look funny you should have seen the mouse I tried to add. The fairy on the left was suppose to be a laughing mouse......believe me it was anything but funny. Why is it you can have such a clear picture in your head of what you want to depict but when the pen hits the paper it seldom comes out right? Maybe that is what art lesson are all about? Since I am relatively new at this maybe I will get better with time and practice...I sure hope so. Well I think I'll go work on that mouse, he is in my head and he really needs to come out. I'm not to sure how blogging has helped my art work but I do know it sure has helped my spelling LOL! Have a BLESSED day, and pass on some of those drawing tips. OK?

Grandpa's Barn

This is a picture of me back in the early 80's in front of my grandfathers barn. When this was taken no one lived there. He passed away in the 70's and we lost my grandmother many years before that. One of the trips home to see my mother I suggested we drive down to the old farm to see if it was still there. I was so thankful I was able to get this picture so I can keep it with all of the wonderful memories from the 50's when I was a child and used to visit my grandparents

We lived about a four hour drive from southern Illinois where they lived in a place outside of Mt. Vernon, called Horsecreek.We did not get to visit them but a couple times a year, not near enough, as they were the dearest people I knew. I'm not sure how much land they had but he farmed, with horses, they never owned a tractor or a car. There was woods, a large pond, a silo, tool shed, and this wonderful barn. Of course it never looked like this. Grandpa always took real good care of all of his property. The barn and tool shed were always very clean and neat and the barn had that wonderful smell of fresh cut hay, his loft always had several bales stacked around.

Now for the best part, he had two horses, they were just big old work horses, not the kind you show off or ride, but I loved them and would spend all of my time petting them if only I could. I was told to STAY OUT OF THE BARN, wellllll I can not remember how many times I got in trouble because I would sneak out to the barn to pet my friends. I had to stand up on the feeding trough to reach their heads and it was dangerous, (especially when I got caught) as grandpa was afraid I would fall down under their big feet and would get hurt. It was always worth the risk of a scolding or a leg switching just to spend some time with them. I have loved horses ever since.

The other great thing about the barn was milking time. Of course I would tag along, a little begging went a long way with my grandparents. You see I was the only child of their baby girl so that made me real special. We always had a trail of cats and kittens following us to the barn as soon as they saw the milk pails. There was always several old tin pie pans close by the cows stall and when he would sit down on his stool and begin to milk the felines would all be gathered around them, waiting anxiously. He got great delight in squirting them in the face for a sample of what he was going to fill the pans with. What a site! After his buckets were filled we would head back to the house, me tagging along humming as he would sing, Just a Closer Walk With Thee.

My grandmother always wanted me to have a glass of that fresh milk, she would entice me with her latest baked goodies but I never did care for it. She would skim the cream off the top and make butter. Then we could hitch up the horses, load up the milk and eggs we had gathered and ride down the road a few miles to a little corner store filled with feed sacks and all kinds of stuff that delighted a small girl, oh the wonder of it all.....I'm so thankful for these memories.

Now this was nothing like Tracy's story of a barn.....I don't think this one had owls, hope you enjoyed sharing my memory.

True Love

To me, true love is : giving 100% of yourself with no expectation of anything in return. How many of us know, that takes God working in your life? Do you lack the ability to give this kind of love? Ask God to help you and He will. HAPPY VALENTINE DAY

Key West Fabric ATC

This is the cloth ATC I have been talking about. It has a red felt background and the black and white fabric is some Key West Fabric...probably from the 70's. It has three button embellishments, the black by her hair, the red and white on the flower, (also with a red bead) and the card with the heart

There is some red lace with rhinestones across the top, it does not show well. Then I gave the cat some green bead eyes. To finish I added a black ribbon across the bottom. It is backed with black card stock.

I really was not going for a valentine on this on but with the heart on there I guess it could qualify.

I need to get caught up on some things around here so I may not be adding anything for a few days. It will be hard not to run to the computer if I get a spare moment, but I'm going to try. BE BLESSED and please come back.

As if 2 is not enough

I had not planned to post any valentines today. I made these a few days ago but was not real happy with them. The first one in red, does not show the shiny red heart or the pretty ribbon across the top and bottom. I think I would have liked the third one better if I had left off the "He loves me, he loves me not" but that was the idea behind the daisies so.

Now the first one which was suppose to be posted after the other two, oh well, at least it made it on here. I like it better than the others but only because it has a fairy. These are just not frilly enough for me.

I should be spending some time trying to figure out how to put things where I want them.

One last comment, today is my birthday, well not my (when I came into this world) one, that is in Aug. but the one when my name was written down in the Lambs book of life. Feb.10, 1976

I'm 31 today......Yahoo! and going to live FOREVER. For those that believe like I do, you know why I am so excited. Sooooo HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

What do you think about the ATCs, do you like the victorian ones better? I'm working on a 4x4 fabric piece and hope to have it ready to post by Monday. Hope everyone one has a GREAT and restful Sunday. BE BLESSED

5 days to V day

I bet you can't guess who I was thinking about when I did this purple one, I wish I could say I thought up the saying but alas it was Helen Keller. And of course being the kitty lover that I am I just had to do another one with a cat. You would think the valentine well would be dry by now but it isn't. I had to go to Walmart today and of course I can not go in there without checking out the fabric department... I found some trim on sale, like half off, ssssooooooo, we have gold, red, purple,lavender oh boy! Now the delima is finding the time to play. It is getting warmer here and that means, yard work, which I also enjoy . To bad we have to have sleep, I mean there's at least six hours for me that I could create
something. My youngest daughter,(she's such a good girl) bought me some plastic holders for all of the ATCs I have been making. Right now I am keeping them in a tin, so it will be nice to put them all in a notebook. If anyone is interested in doing a swap just let me know. So I'm off to read what you all have been up to. BE BLESSED

Yep, more valentines

VALENTINES I hope you do not get tired of looking at these as I am having so much fun making them. If the number of comments drops off to 0 I guess that will be my first clue. I used an antique piece of lace on this one and not a lot of other things as I thought the picture was so great. I did spend some time reading other blogs today and was very inspired by some of the other wonderful creations. Hopefully I will be able to do some with fabric. I have one other one I would like to post with this one if it will download......Well it did, not where I wanted it to but it is on here. You cannot tell the heart is a shiny red and I looked everywhere for a little black spider to add but was not able to come up with one. So we have two very different ladies here, and you know I'm going to like the one in pink best. I did two others, one on lavender, all hearts and flowers and the other one with lace and a kitty. So if you are enjoying these come on back for more, if you think I need to move on to other things just let me know. Even if I stop posting valentines I doubt that I will stop making them.....well not yet anyway!

In the LOVE mode

I LOVE MAKING VALENTINES:
Help, somebody stop me please! No don't, this is just to much fun. I made a third one and number four is half done but I think I will save them for tomorrow. If I make two a day between now and the 14th that will be eighteen not counting the one I posted last week and the one that is on it's way to Ca.
Is anyone else having a hard time with blogger? Last night I almost gave up trying to leave a comment on Beth's blog, then finally it went through. I started to get frustrated but then I reminded myself that I was doing this for FUN .

I just had to do one with kitties !!! So am I the only one still making these or has anybody else got love, kisses, hearts, and Be My Valentine on the brain?

Vintage Postcard

The back of this postcard reads, M20705 The Rotograph Co., N.Y., City. (Germany)

Dresden Pompeo Battoni

Die bussende Magdalena

I went on a search to see if I could find this artist. I found him and some of his work. You can buy this print in different sizes and styles. As a poster, canvas, framed or not. The new title for it is Saint Mary Magdalen. I found this information at All Posters. com. I really like the colors and the intense solitude that it suggests. I like it enough to hang it in the bedroom. Maybe I'll just mat and frame the postcard, sure would be cheaper.

I would like to thank you all for all of your prayers and good wishes for my hurting back...it is much better. BE BLESSED

Drawing

Kitty in the clover, just fooling around drawing one of my favorite subjects. Our youngest cat is gray with yellow eyes like this but I did not use her as a model, this just came out when I put the pencil on the paper. I really only like doing their faces so I need to work on doing the whole cat.

My back is still bothering me so I do not feel much like creating anything. My posts might not be as regular as they have been, I need to catch up on some other things.

I came across another really neat postcard as I was looking for a certain picture, I may post it later. Blessings to all.

Christians

When I say..."I am a Christian"
I'm not shouting "I'm clean livin".
I'm whispering "I was lost,
now I'm found and forgiven."

When I say.."I am a Christian"
I don't speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble
and need Christ to be my guide.

When I say.. "I am a Christian"
I'm not trying to be strong.
I'm professing that I'm weak
and need His strength to carry on.

When I say .. "I am a Christian"
I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting I have failed
and need God to clean my mess.

When I say.."I am a Christian"
I'm not claiming to be perfect,
my flaws are far too visible
but, God believes I am worth it.

When I say.. "I am a Christian"
I still feel the sting of pain.
I have my share of heartaches
so I call upon His name.

When I say.. "I am a Christian"
I'm not holier than thou,
I'm just a simple sinner
who received God's good grace, somehow. by Maya Angelou

Vacation picture

Lookout Mountain, Tn.

This is one of my favorite places to visit. I have been there several times. This trip was one of the best as I went with my sweetie. He was so good about it all. I mean I like to do the trails, bridges, lookout points, the caves, Ruby Falls, I like it all and he, well it was our anniversary ssoooo!

I like the spring best as everything is turning green and there is a lot of wild flowers. I took my mother in 84, we stopped on the way back to her place in Illinois

She had spent the winter with us in the Keys, when we lived in Big Pine Key. I knew she was afraid of heights, but I didn't know how afraid she really was. I was so sure the beauty of it all would overshadow the fear.....NOT. I guess my first clue should have been how white her face turned as we were ascending the side of the mountain. She was a real trooper though and stuck it out. When we left and finally got on level ground she said she really was glad she had gone but once was enough for her.

She went home to glory in the spring of the next year. April 25, 1985. Love and miss you mom.

Don't Have a Clue

For some reason it took FOREVER for this to upload. And of course you cannot see the vibrant purple color but at least you can get an idea of just how beautiful this piece of material is.

Now what am I going to do with it? I know some of it will end up in Ca. but at this point I'm not sure of what it will be. This is the fabric I bought at the store I found Wednesday. Also bought some lavender seed beads that really stand out when laid on the purple.

Last night we got a much needed rain. What wonderful timing as I had just planted five small pine trees and some bamboo. The weather report is calling for more today so it is dreary looking just the kind of day to stay indoors and create.....since I have nothing in mind for this piece yet I think it will be valentines.

So am I the only "have to have that" nut that buys something without a thought as to what you "have to have" it for? Ok some of you creative people, give me some ideas.

Hit By Cupid

I made a couple of valentine ATCs today, I tried to post them together but it made them so small you could not see them very clearly. This one is of my sweetie when he was a boy, and it says, "You hold the key to my heart". There is a glass red heart in the lower left corner. The background paper is some I found yesterday when I went into town to pick up parts for our truck. The word going across is Passion. Not only did I go to a scrapbooking store, and the mall, but I found a fabric store that has EVERYTHING! I bought a piece of purple satin with little gold butterflies on it, you can probably guess who I had in mind when I saw it. She had the largest selection of how to books I have ever seen plus beads, special threads, and to much to list it all. To bad it is so far away as she is going to start a tatting class soon. I have wanted to learn for some time now. I am going to try and post a picture of the material I found yesterday. If you do not see another post you will know it did not go through. It is storming here and I need to finish before we loose power.