CUPCAKES AND ANGEL FACES

As I rub my dry, chapped hands together I realize that this is part of the price you pay when you love to be creative. Broken off fingernails, tons of little hang nails and small cuts are just remnants of creative bliss! But man, it sure would be nice to have pretty nails and soft, smooth hands. Oh well, at least I get to take pleasure in looking at what I have made and the knowledge I have gained spending two days at Blissful Living Studio. Not to mention the eye strain from looking so hard at all the wonderful items in the studio. Take a look for yourself.......it's truly like eye candy!!



this is just a little taste of the studio.....there are so many wonderful things tucked all over the store, the walls, on the floor and hanging from the ceiling. It just makes you smile to be able to create in this colorful atmosphere. And the best part is that it is constantly changing with the seasons and artists that teach there.
Anyways, on Thursday I took my niece, Jenny, with me to learn how to make cupcakes out of sweaters. This is Katie who taught us how to make them. Isn't she a doll. And a sweet teacher.

The two in the background are Katie's samples and the one in the front is mine.
I was happy with the outcome. These are so cute and not hard to make. Now all I need is to find wool sweaters that I can cut up! So if any of you are intending on getting rid of any please let me know and I will pay for the postage to send them to me! Might even thank you with a cupcake of your own!!
On Friday evening I went back for another class with the amazing, Julie Haymaker Thompson.
She is a darling mixed media artist with a bubbly personality and lots of positive patience. If you haven't heard of her you really must check out her incredible creations on her website:
www.juliehaymaker.com. Taking the class with me was another talented artist, Mai Lepore. So that was an extra special treat for me.
Here is a smaller sample of the little angel music box that she taught us how to make.
We began with a heart shaped cardboard box, added a music box, glued the lid shut and covered the box with mod podged torn pages from an old book.
The really fun part for me was learning how to work with paper clay. We formed our faces and wings out of it and put them on heaters to dry. Meanwhile, we painted the ball legs and glued them to the bottom of the box. Then we did some aging with stabela pencil and paint. Acrylic paint was used to paint the face and wings. The pearls were strung into a small circle and crimped off and glued around the face. We embellished the box with ribbons and.........
..........TA-DA!!! The finished product! My angel has butterfly wings with crackle paint and glitter.

I think I could have spent the whole day playing with paper clay. There are endless ideas for all the things you can create with it. Oh dear, another group of supplies are on my shopping list for Michaels. I might have to sneak this bag of goodies past my hubby. We are suppose to be tightening our belts with the economy crunch, but I am finding it so hard to pull back on my art supplies. This was such a fun way to end my week. I hope to make several more cupcakes and angel music boxes soon.
We said good bye to my niece and her husband and son today. It was so nice to have them here for the week. Little Zachary is darling and we will miss them.
Now I must head to bed to get some sleep as I will be playing in a little 9-hole couples golf tournament tomorrow after church. This will be the first time I have golfed in years! YIKES!! Something tells me it won't be pretty! But at least I will be out in the 80 degree sun all afternoon. Nightie, nite everyone!!!

Playing Catch-Up

I have so many things to share with you after being AWOL from my blog for so many days.
It's probably best to start from last weeks activities and work forward, especially since that's the way I happened to post all my pictures!
I finished the last of my 3 painting classes and here is the final product of my first watercolor attempt. I learned several clever techniques and some I was able to reproduce and then there were some that, well, I didn't quit get! Most importantly I loved the classes and truly enjoy painting.

The last half-hour of class I tried some free hand painting. I had printed a bird picture and decided to see if I could paint the birds head on my own without tracing it first. This is how it turned out.....I accidentally touched my brush to the paper right under the birds chin, so don't mind that.
On Saturday we were blessed with the arrival of our long-time, dear friends, Judy and Bruce Biddle from our hometown in WA. They have been our close friends for over 30 years. They lived just down the street from us and we raised our kids together. Frank and Bruce taught together for over 20 years. We have been trying to entice them down here ever since we moved in and they finally made it. AND they even dressed to match my color scheme in the house!!

While enjoying Margarita's out on the clubhouse patio, we were visited by a curious Road Runner. He jumped up on the fireplace right next to where we were sitting to check things out.

Earlier last week our Art Group participated in the Trilogy Farmer's Market. Here we are setting up.
This was my table. Next time I hope to have some watercolor pictures to show.
We have also been enjoying the company of my niece, Jenny and her husband, Tom and son, Zachary. They flew down from WA for a week's visit with my mom.
Zach really liked our little Sofia. He wanted to hold her the whole time. Hopefully he keeps that same attitude when his new brother arrives in early June!
Since I never wished everyone a proper Happy Valentine's Day, I wanted to do it now.
Hope all of you had a special day.
I think that takes care of all the catching-up. We waved good-bye to the Biddle's this morning as they head home. I plan on heading up to do some painting tomorrow afternoon with the Art Group and on Thursday will be taking two different classes with my niece, Jenny. So stay tuned for those pictures. For now, adios amigos!

Blow'in in the wind

I feel like a leaf that has been blowing in the wind and hasn't yet settled to the ground. It's been a good flight, but I feel badly for neglecting my blog. I have several pictures that I need to post in order to get you up to date on what's been going on....but it will have to wait until tomorrow when I am free. I have had art classes, participated in an art show, picked up relatives at the airport and spent time with them and then welcomed some dear friends to our home for the past few days. It's been lots of fun and I will fill you in on all of it soon.
We will sadly say good bye to our company tomorrow morning as they head back to Washington state and our old hometown of Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island.
Have a nice evening!

YIPPEEE!!! I WON!!!

Gosh, I am so excited! When I opened my blog this evening there was a comment waiting for me telling me that I had won a prize on "Tip Junkie." I just never win anything so this news really made my day. Not sure yet which prize I won as there were several items being given out to 4 winners. There are all these giveaways on these blogs that I read just for leaving a comment about their post. So I always leave a comment.....just in case I might win. And TA-DA, I finally did!! I spend lots of time (too much time) reading other people's blogs. I can't help it....it's addicting. Infact, I think I may be looking for a BA meeting soon (blogger unanimous).

Any-who, I wanted to show you some pictures from my watercolor paint class. This is our teacher, Valerie Toliver, giving some students a few helpful tips. Truthfully, she is sitting in front of me trying to show me how to get the right amount of water on my paper, with the right amount of paint, in the right spots! Not that easy, believe me.

Here's Valerie letting us know what mistakes we keeping making over and over! She really is very nice and so incredibly patient and positive with us. Not to mention very talented.


These are her examples of what she wanted me to paint.
And here is mine, so far.......good thing I am going up to paint with the Art Group tomorrow morning. I need the practice.

OK, I slipped the latest pic of my little granddaughter, Sofia in again. She is growing too fast. But it is fun to see her follow us with her eyes and smile. Of course, we have her "sporting" another one of my headbands. I think she might have one for every outfit now.
So I had such a nice weekend. We spent Friday evening with our kids and grandkids. Saturday we went to the movies and saw, "He's Just Not That Into You" and "Slumdog Millionaire." Both were enjoyable. We met some friends for dinner and listened to Kristi Dee sing and play guitar. She's great...has a beautiful voice. Then it was to church on Sunday and out to breakfast at Joe's Grill (actually the little coffee shop of his next door) with all the family. We filled out stomachs with delicious egg dishes and then came home and plopped on the couch for about a 2 hour nap! I love Sunday's when I can curl up on the couch with my pillow and black velvet and satin blanket, knowing that I don't have anything else I have to do the rest of the day. Thankgoodness for leftovers in the fridge!!!
Today was a cold, windy one. So spent it inside getting my messy studio cleaned up again. Man, I have the worst time keeping it neat. I'm really missing our sweet grandsons up in Washington. Talking to them on Skype is great but it doesn't take the place of holding them in my arms. Just a few more weeks until we get to see them in person.
I'm off to bed for the night. Hope all of you had a good weekend.

A Wonderful Day!

We woke up to a beautiful, sunny day this morning. I quickly got dressed, made my daily Mocha and headed over to Jami's house. She is suffering the after baby exhaustion so I went over to help her with her laundry and a few other odd jobs that needed to be taken care of. But first things first!! Hold my darling new granddaughter...who happened to be wide awake. OK, she has got to be THE cutest little doll ever. She loves to hold her mouth up by yours and have you kiss her around her tiny, soft lips. Then she lays her head down on your shoulder for a moment, then picks it back up, mouth wide open and waits for the next round of kisses. What a way to melt my heart!
After helping Jami for a couple hours it was time to head to my Book Club for lunch and discussion.

Judy (on the right) was this month's hostess. She served us a scrumptious chicken and rice salad with these yummy crackers. For dessert she had made little individual cheesecakes with cherry topping and brownies along with this lip-smacking sparkling Zinfindel wine. Sue (on the left) is a dear friend and one of the "bookies".

Judy (on left) and Rosie (on right) look terribly serious after finishing off two bottles of wine. What's with that?? Actually, I caught them off guard with this picture and they were in the middle of filling in their calenders for the next monthly meeting for the club. You can see the 80 degree sun shining in.

This month we had a special guest. She's Rosie's neighbor from Philadelphia who flew in for a week's visit with Rosie and her family. Her name is Jenny and she is 94 yrs. young! She is darling and full of life. I want to grow-up to be just like her!


Yesterday was Art Group. Since I haven't purchased any watercolor supplies I decided to take my soldering to work on. This is a picture of our group leader, Erica. She is a very talented artist and an incredibly nice person. Did I also mention funny?


I wanted to get a few pics of some of the rest of the talent in this group. Aren't they amazing.



This is my friend, Terry, who got me started in this whole painting thing. I love her work. Maybe because she likes to paint animals and you know me and animals!!

I just love her painting of this little dog.
So it's been a full two days of activity and fun. Late this afternoon Frank and I took a long walk around the community (or compound as all us Trilogy residents call it) in the warm sunshine. Frank ran to the grocery store and brought me back a dozen long stemmed soft yellow roses. Holy Cow!! What a great surprise! They are so pretty. For dinner he threw some chicken and salmon on the BBQ and we ate out on the patio by candlelight. It was just a perfect ending to a Wonderful Day!

Creating in Purple

We woke up to another sunny, warm day in Arizona. Man, I love this weather! After finishing up my ironing, a little dusty, changing the sheets on our bed and kissing my hubby good-bye (on his way to golf) I settled into my studio for the rest of the day. Luckily I have a small TV in my studio so I don't have to miss my morning routine of watching the Today Show, then Sonoran Living, the View and Martha. Martha actually had a cute swarvoski crystal heart tutorial this morning. I think I might try it out. I had to do some house cleaning in my studio before I could even get started. My assorted piles around the room were getting in the way so I finally got that all picked up and put away. Only to pull out a bunch of other stuff that I needed to put together these 5 wooden plaques I was making for Sofia. Jami needed something to hold all the headbands I made her. This was a good day for me to stay home and work since I am still battling the crummy stomach.
I started with 5 unfinished wood plaques, painted them, added some glitter to the upper edges, some assorted ribbon on the sides, an oval piece of scrapbook paper on the top and finished them off with a glitter edged flower and leaves. I ran to Home Depot and after scouring the cabinet pulls and all the other possibilities for some type of a hanger, I came upon these white hooks outside in the garden department. I think they will do the job just fine.



I finished these up in time to get outside and enjoy some sunshine before getting dinner ready. Tomorrow morning is my Art Group here at Trilogy and I am trying to decide what to take up there to work on. Since I haven't purchased any watercolors or paintbrushes yet, I might just take my soldering. I did manage to get my Valentine decorations up at the house today. Will get some pictures posted soon.

More Lessons

So, I was all ready to go to our neighborhood Super Bowl party, eat junk and root for our Cardinals, when I woke up this morning with a very sour stomach. Since it didn't calm down by 3pm today I ended up laying on our couch and watching the game by myself. I sent Frank and my Caesar salad off to the party alone. He was sweet enough to come back before half-time to check on me and try to coax me over for dinner, but I decided to pass and stay close to home. So I fried up a couple eggs with toast and stayed in the nest. I really thought the Cardinals were going to win it..........no such luck. So sad.

TIME TO GET OUT THE LAPTOP !

Oh, how I love to learn new creative things. I got to go to another one of Joey Otlo's wonderful digital scrapbooking classes at Scrapbook, Etc. in Mesa last night. She is such a talented teacher as well as a really great person. We spent 4 hours learning all kinds of new effects we can get with our Photo Shop Element programs. By the way, Joey is the one in the middle!

We have a huge work area all to ourselves. And of course Joey always provides tons of chocolate to keep our energy level operating at its peek!

Here is one of the new techniques I learned. I actually extracted our Little Tinkerbell out of another picture and placed her in this new page. So cool!! The only bummer is that I have to wait until the end of March to take Joey's next class as she will not be teaching until then.

Yesterday before class Frank and I joined our friends the Brasch's to go see the movie, "Gran Torino." We really enjoyed it. I would recommend it.....does have rough language, but very authentic to the plot. Afterward we enjoyed an early dinner at Texas Roadhouse. I got home about 9:45pm to find our little granddaughter, Hanna sound asleep in our guest room. She came to spend the night. So after church this morning we dropped her off at home and got to run in and see Sofia. AND she was even wide awake!
Her little Valentine outfit has a big red heart on the rear-end that says "Be Mine"..... so cute!
She is growing so fast. We are getting more and more smiles everyday from her.

When we asked Hanna what she would like for breakfast this morning she quickly ordered up, pancakes with syrup, sausage and scrambled eggs. She definitely has her appetite back.

Tomorrow is a free day for me. I don't have any clubs to attend, no classes and no little people to babysit. My biggest decision will be to figure out what I want to work on in my studio. Yippee!
Or maybe I better think about getting my Valentine decorations up around my house.
Today marks 40 years since Frank and I had our first date! Wow, that's a long time. Thank goodness we are still best friends and he is the love of my life.

Sleep Little Baby...but please wake up alittle!

Boy, have I forgotten how much newborns sleep! Sofia just loves to sleep the whole time she is at our house. Two days in a row now I have babysat from 10:15 am until 1pm and this little nugget never wakes up!! She is 2 weeks old tomorrow already. I want to stop time so I can savor this sweet infant stage. I'm trying to embed in my memory her little noises, her sweet smell and the feel of her satiny soft skin.

Oh, a quick opening of her eyes....just long enough to snap a picture, then back to snooze land she goes.

Jami and Hanna came back to pick up Sofia and Jami put her in her sling. It is one of Sofia's favorite places to be. All cozy just like a little pea in a pod!

Hanna is feeling great now and has regained most of her strength. This morning she had her music lesson and then out to lunch with mommy. She just loves her little sister and has now become mommy's wonderful helper.
Tomorrow I am going to go up to the clubhouse and check out the Art Club. I have a friend who is painting and has joined the club and invited me up. She wants me to bring my canvas art up and join in. I have put a call into a lady who teaches watercolor classes and hope to take a few classes from her to see if I have any painting talent. I know, I know, ANOTHER activity to add to my already crammed life.....hey, no one can say I don't stay busy. I just love exploring new creative avenues. It all seems interesting to me and for the first time in my life I have all these opportunities available nearby. I just can't seem to take enough classes. Too bad I didn't feel this way when I was in college!!!