For One Moment - Little Snippets of my Life and Art...

I posted my Throwback Thursday picture to my facebook, but forgot to come back here and post it to my blog.   I got caught up in a couple of hours of tripping down Memory Lane, going through several hard drives of photos.  Such fun memories...recent and not so recent. Anyway here is this weeks spotlight. 2010 Stacey at 15....LOVE this picture!

I know, I know!  I promised MONTHS ago that I would be back to blogging soon...but we've had a lovely summer of sunshine here in Florida and I have enjoying it! I've been trying to keep up with my Throwback Thursday and at least getting a picture up. I plan on going back to edit the posts to add a little history and story to each one as I love the old stories and memories. My art desk has been sitting sadly neglected also...but Winter is moving in and with it longer, darker nights. I'll be inside and back at my desk soon.  No more late evenings enjoying the wonderful Florida sunshine. Well, it's off to work!  Have a great day everyone!

Cousins 2004  Busch Gardens, Tampa

Late Edition - Throwback Thursday. Throwing it WAY back to 1916-1917 Battle Creek, Michigan My grandmother Sarah Schepel LeMay in nursing school before she and my grandfather got married in 1918

Kentucky Fried Chicken - Okinawa, Japan - 1974

1972 16 Years Old Eustis High School Libray ...one of my favorite places to be.

What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday? Work in Progress...

Well, it's time to dig in the vaults again this week. This time we are going back to 1969 and the last time I ever had a short haircut. I was 13 years old and this was my 7th grade school picture. Shortly after this someone called me "Sonny" and I vowed to never have short hair again. (Of course I was not wearing a dress when that happened...but STILL..really "Sonny!"

Hi everyone!  Finally had time to check in and give a short update here on my blog.  School started back a couple of weeks ago, and life has been hectic getting everyone back into the school routine.  Although I haven't been posting on my blog, it doesn't mean that I haven't been at my art desk.  I've made quite a few Birthday Cards and Get Well Cards this month, but didn't slow down to take pictures before I sent them on their way. I also joined in with PaperArsty 3UP Challenge   on the PaperArtsy Blog.   Every participant was sent a little bundle of goodies to use. Included in my package was their Nut and Meg 7 stamp set. As the little elf didn't have a body...this proved to me a bit of a challenge.   For the first piece I used the small Hanging Chunky Board that was also included in my package.   The package also included a color swatch that we were supposed to use so that all the projects posted the same ...

Turning back the Time Machine 50 years.... Setting...1963 Roswell, New Mexico My brothers, Roger and Robert, me and my sister Barbara.

Blogalong 30 Posts - 30 Days For Throwback Thursday we are going to 1969-1970. My brothers, sister and I raised chickens and showed them in the local County Fair. Cochins, Silkies, Silver Sebrights and Golden Sebrights to name a few.   We carried those chickens around like babies  and washed them in tubs of soapy water just like the family dogs. Here we are are bathing a few of them and getting them ready to go to the Fair.  These were the only pictures I could find in my scanned files.   I'm going to have to go through Mom's photo albums to see what else I can find.  First one up was taken in 1970 . This picture is actually from 1969... I can tell because I had a super short hair cut that year. That was the last time I ever had short hair.

Not Giving UP!  I'll be back yet!

Blogalong 30 Posts - 30 Days Blah, Blah, Blah... I'll be back to add content later.

Blogalong 30 Posts - 30 Days Okay...it's been a long and full day.   A full day of work, followed by a two and a half hour Boy Scout Committee meeting,  which was then followed by a 45 minute round trip drive to pick up  my poor sick daughter from a friends house. So tonight I'm just going to share one of my digital art pieces from many years ago and call it a night.

Blogalong 30 Posts - 30 Day Sunday Trip Down Memory Lane These days I do all my scrapping digitally...and have been since I got my first digital camera in 2004. I was looking through my files today and ran across a couple that really made my heart happy. My first car!  Oh how I loved that little car!   I think I'm going to posting fun images from the past every Sunday. It was fun to take a trip down Memory Lane!

Blogalong 30 Posts - 30 Days Art Washes Away Decided to play in my art journal today.   There was a page that I created a few months ago that didn't quite feel finished  and when I was mounting and playing with my Zettiology Stamps the other day,  I knew one of them would be perfect for that page. I sat down with my supplies and just played.   I didn't think about what I was doing, or how it was going to look, I just dabbed, rubbed, painted and scribbled.   I'm thinking I like it.  Love the big dust balls being washed away!

Blogalong 30 Posts - 30 Days Just a little playing with my Copics tonight.   It's been so long since I dug them out and they were getting lonely. The stamp is from Zettiology   number 22-114E. I've had this stamp for a least 10 years and it is still offered in their Catalog. Zettiology Rubber Stamps are so fun!!

Blogalong 30 Days - 30 Posts Short and Sweet tonight as I just got home from an enjoyable evening listening to William Lishman  speak about his life, his art and his work with Operation Migration helping to save endangered birds. Each morning before I go to work I tune in to the current   Operation Migration Class of Whooping Cranes  on USTREAM and watch as they teach the birds to fly together and prepare them for migration in the fall.   It was a joy to listen to the one of the originators of the project this evening. Now I'm going to enjoy a bowl of ice cream, catch up with a few blogs and call it a night. I'll be back tomorrow...

Blogalong 30 Posts - 30 Days Tracy Weinzapfel has issued the Mixed Media Monday Creative Dare for the month of August. She is daring us to Let It Go! To pick a favorite Quote and set the timer!  Pick out your favorite supplies to have them on hand,  your art journal or a canvas  and see what you create in 1.5 hours.   She is reminding us not to stress and to give ourselves to permission to just play! So tonight I took advantage of the fact that is was a fend for yourself night at home and did just that! Just a little playtime with my Gelatos, and Pitt Pens. While it's not a masterpiece by any means, I like the colors and enjoyed the process without worrying about the results! Posting in Effy's Blogalong Challenge and Tracy's Creative Dare   Oh and I can't forget  What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday #218 .  It's been a busy summer and it's been ages since I actually had something on my Workdesk on a Wedne...

Blogalong 30 Posts - 30 Days Work in Progress... Just a little playtime with Gesso, Dylusion Sprays, Gelatos, Distress Inks and FW Acrylic Inks With a little inspiration from  France Papillion .

Blogalong 30 Days- 30 Posts It's a No Pictures Day!   Just a few snippets from my day. My morning cup of coffee....Hazelnut creamer please!! Wagging Tales and Purring Kitties Happy Mail that I can't share yet!!!  Going to be FUN, FUN!! Santa Claus on his bicycle in full cycling gear with helmet going down Main Street. (This made my smile all the way home!) ...of course he spends his summers in Florida. Date night with my sweet husband at a local restaurant  where we watched the evening rain storm come in across the lake. (Blackened Steak Sandwich with Blue Cheese Crumbles - YUM!!)  ....and to end my day, an on-line weekly get-together with arty friends. Couldn't ask for a better day!

Blogalong - 30 Posts - 30 Days Making it short and sweet tonight.   Still have chores to get done and a messy art desk to clean up before I call it a night. Just a little playing around with Inka Gold Metallic Rub by Viva Decor.  I used a palette knife to spread some blue, green and gold on my craft sheet...spritzed with water and ran my cardstock through the wet Inka Gold.   Yummy! Metallic swirls!  Dried with heat gun and buffed with a soft rag..then stamped with Archival Ink.  Finally gave up on trying to get a good picture as the light kept reflecting off of the shimmery background.   Stamp is from  Lost Coast Designs .  

Blogalong 30 Posts - 30 Days I have several boxes of unmounted stamps, some old and some new, so today I decided to spend some time mounting the new ones on EZ Mount and cutting them out with a hot knife. It was the first time I've used the hot knife and I'll never go back to scissors and the sticky, gummy mess it makes. Once I got started, I decided to pull out the boxes of older ones (some of them are at least 15 years old) and start remounting some of my favorite ones.  I had to pull off the old mount that just wasn't sticking anymore and then mount them on the EZ Mount. LOL!  I did get a bit sticky before it was all over, but now they are ready to go.  I still need to get a new notebook to store them in as I forgot to plan ahead for this part. I stuck them to available plastic packaging for now. I will deal with the notebook situation tomorrow.  ...this is only a of the ones I got mounted today. OH...and I still have boxes and boxes to go....

Blog Along 30 Posts - 30 Days Okay...here's one of those journal pages where I tried to work past the mess ...only to end up with a worse mess.   My stencil slipped when I was applying my texture paste so there is a bit of a shadow effect,  which I like... but I can't tell you how many layers of paint I've applied and taken off because I can't get the next step to look the way I want it. You can see remnants of of some of them.  Any suggestions? Well, I think I'll see what I can do to get inky tonight!   See you again tomorrow!

BlogAlong - 30 Posts - 30 Days Ok... Effy has thrown out a challenge to do 30 days of blogging and I'm going to jump in and do my best to swim upstream.  LOL at least that is what it feels like some days when I am just trying to get the things done that I have to do. I've neglected my blog terribly and hopefully this challenge will help me get back on track. Just because I've neglected my blog doesn't mean I've neglected my art...well, not completely anyway.  I've managed to make some beautiful backgrounds like the one below.  I love each and every one of them...and I have gotten each of them to the stage where I'm afraid I'll mess them up if I do anything else.   I know some artists advocate working through that until you come out on the other side, but somehow I just can't do that with this one.  So now I am on the hunt for the perfect quote and embellishments to it to tell its story. I have always been drawn to shades of jade,...

What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday? I've been missing in action the last couple of weeks.   It's just been CRAZY busy and I haven't taken the time to sit at my art desk and when I have had time to sit down at my desk late in the evening, I've been falling asleep.   LOL!  Guess I've needed the rest. Still nothing new to show as far as projects this week, as my work area is all clean and neat. ...but I did want to share the lovely ATC that I received from  Monica  for the Anniversary ATC swap. Isn't all the packaging lovely!  To the left is the card that she included with her ATC and the ATC was beautifully wrapped and presented in a wax envelope. Don't you just love the presentation? It was all so lovely, I hated to take it apart!  Here are the little snippets that were tucked under the ribbon and the picture below shows her beautiful ATC. Thank you Monica, I love it! If you want to see what everyone is up to for this...

Happy Birthday Tracy Weinzapfel! May has been a special month at Mixed Media Mondays with Tracy Weinzapfel  as we have been celebrating her birthday with a month of fun! My gift to her was this 10 x 10 inch canvas and just as promised in the sneak peek in  this post , here is a look at the completed project. A list of the products I used will be at the bottom of this post. I started out by spreading on a layer of  101 Artist's Cement Light on my canvas and impressing it with  stamps and bottle tops, etc. to create texture. Next I started adding layers of paint. ...with each layer adding a bit more depth and dimension to the canvas. Here's a little closer look at a portion of the canvas showing the texture created in the Artist's Cement and some of the layers of colors.  Several more layers of color were added after this shot was taken.  While layer of paint were drying on my canvas, I cut a heart out of a heav...

What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday? If you want to see what everyone is up to for this week's What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday ,  check out  Julia's Stamping Ground  and take a peek at workdesks from all over the world.  This is WOYWW Four Year Anniversary and we are celebrating! Just a quick peek at my desk today.   This week I have a new LARGER canvas picked out  and I'm going to  give a got a working a bit larger this time. I've got an idea in my head and I'm hoping that I can bring my vision to life on my canvas. I haven't forgotten to post the reveal from my Sneak Peek last week.  It has been shipped off to its recipient and as soon as I receive word that it has arrived, I will post it.  I actually have a post all written and saved.  It is just waiting for me to push the button. UPDATE - the full post has now been published here. I also treated myself to a little tabletop easel this weekend as ...

What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday ? Just a quick peek at my desk today.  I'm working on a project that I can't really show yet...so I'm just going to show you the what I've used so far and one little tiny peek into the project. If you want to see what everyone is up to for What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday , check out  Julia's Stamping Ground and take a peek at workdesks around the world.  I'll have to take some time to do that later tonight, since I've on my lunch hour and headed off to a Board Meeting in just a few minutes. I promise I'll be back with a complete blog post once I finish up the project and it has been delivered. ...and here is a little peek at the project.

I made this little card for my Mom's birthday.   Happy Birthday Mom!  I love you!! I had watched some videos by PaperArtsy using Grunge Paste along with  their paints and metallics and I thought I would give it a try with the products I had on hand. I used USArtQuest's  101 Artist's Cement Light and a stencil to create the textured pattern on my paper.  Sorry...I forgot to take a picture of this step.   Then I used USArtQuest Perfect Pigments to add layers of color. After the paint dried Iused my Metallic Rub-Ons that I've had forever and added a few colors over the area with texture to give it some added depth.   There were a couple of areaa where the cement must not have been dry all the way through because some of it tried to pull up when I rubbed the metallics on.  Guess I need to allow a bit more time for it to dry next time. Then I added a handmade paper flower tinted in colors to match. ...