Thriving Art

I'm not really sure where the past two weeks went to, but WOOOSH! Here it is Tuesday again and time to catch up with all  The T-Gang at Elizabeth's blog . The first week I was absent was due to two sick granddaughters, about a third of both of their classes were absent with the flu that week. Then last week a dear friend of mine ended up in the hospital with pneumonia and we were all rallying around her. Even though we had a very sick friend in the hospital, we did take time to celebrate Lea's 75th birthday at Bill Lee's Chinese restaurant. One of our favorite lunch spots.......lunch specials are only $10.00 and none of us can finish them, so there are always take-out boxes for all of us. Look what I found!! MY own "world in a cup" cup Even a compass inside to keep me on the straight and narrow! LOL! WHAT'S ON THE EASEL THIS WEEK I took this photo of Hannah when she was about 5, we were at the beach and she was just walking al

The summer of  2015 was a very busy one, and a lot of you will remember "Camp Grandma" with Granddaughters Hannah and Rachel.  So here is a short look for  Elizabeth's Second look on the Second challenge  ( the original post was WAY to long to re-post) Rachel is on the left and Hannah on the right.  Two cousins born exactly one week apart.  Hannah is the oldest.  Rachel is not my birth granddaughter, but might as well be I knew her mother at a younger age than she is here in this photo. Some of my T-day friends commented on seeing the "grands" and how they have grown.  Oh, you have no idea how they have grown!!! * * * * * * Hannah on the left, Rachel on the right. Hannah is nearly as tall as me, but Rachel is now taller than I am......and I am not a short woman. They are in the 7th grade ( jr. high) and both are cheerleaders for their school. They will turn into "teenagers" late this summer......EEEEKKK! If you

Hello everyone! Time for my  T-day, with Elizabeth and T-gang  again.  Boy this past week just wooooooshed by like lightening striking!! But the sun is shinning and the temperatures are in the 60s........might just be a false spring.......but I'll take it! This past weekend was the Shafter Colour Festival and I have participated in the art gallery/show for the past three years. They always have the prettiest programs.  This was my acrylic exhibit The third side was for my Alcohol Ink pictures.  Below are random pictures I as I walked around during the "meet and greet the artists" They had a local winery there for wine tasting, very nice people and their wine was very good.  My friend, Judy, stopped so we could pose for the camera (I'm on the left.....and my glass was behind her back...LOL!) Last Monday was a no school day and Megan and Hannah came for some grandma time. They started with art journaling in their Bibles.  I have Meg

 It has really been cold and raining here, all the mountains around us all covered with snow, some places are quite low. If our temps drop about 10' it will snow here in the valley.  I haven't heard the weather report, but I sincerely doubt if the main freeways are open.........this is California and about 99% of the people DON'T know how to drive in the snow.......so they just close the roads....LOL!!! I have been playing along with the Art Journal Journey challenge : yellow brought to us by RIKE at  Rike's Art .  I just haven't taken the time to scan and get them posted, so today you get a twofer!! Still trying to use up that stash of Graphic 45..........I never dreamed it was such a large pile!!  These papers are from The Secret Garden collection.  I do like yellow and powder blue together.  "The Secret Garden" was a favorite book when I was a young, young, girl!  I even bought the movie at one time. This page was  demonstration page f

Great balls of fire!! It's Tuesday again and time to link up with  The T-Gang and Elizabeth our hostess Since last week I was SOOO late and unprepared, I've tried to do a little better this week......I mean last week I posted on Wednesday and this week it's on Tuesday. LOL! I have shown photos of this winery many times, because we are wine club members.  It was time for us to go over and pick up our spring wines.  We don't have it shipped because we enjoy what they call a "Pick up Party"  The winery is closed to the public and only wine club members are allowed in.  On these events they have a chief come and prepare food for a light lunch to pare with the wines.  This time he had prepared a loaded baked potato soup and  a lamb stew.  I'm not a big potato soup person, so I chose the lamb stew, and was not disappointed. I forgot to take the photo before I started.  It had rained all the way over to the winery, and the sun came out just as we got

I lost all track of time this week and woke up this morning and realized it was Wednesday already, and I hadn't joined the  T-Gang at Elizabeth's Blog . So, I don't have photos prepared for this post. Even now, this is a rushed post :( as I need to get ready to go have lunch with some friends.  Hopefully I remember to take some photos before we get lost in making up for the couple weeks we haven't seen each other. The weather is nasty today, and I just haven't been able to get my mind on going out the door LOL! Just yesterday it was almost spring like, the day before was freezing cold and now it's blowing and raining.........who said you couldn't get more than one season in a week??? We live in a valley and all the mountains have been covered with quite a bit of snow.  Which is great, we need that moisture to carry us through the hot summer months. So, now it is time for me to go get ready to join my friends here and at the  T-Party  .....

Wow! If you ever wanted a chance to go to a Scrapbook Expo.......FREE here's your CHANCE to. GIVEAWAY: Win FREE Admission to a 2019 Scrapbook Expo Show! Hello Ai Fans! Today, you are seeing a special blog post for our 2019 Stamp & Scrapbook Expo ticket giveaway! We LOVE seeing Ai fans at stamp shows! In 2019, we are attending 17 Scrapbook Expo shows around the country, and we want you to come and say hello at your local show! To kick off our travel season, we are giving away SIX free admission tickets to any  Stamp & Scrapbook Expo ! 

Happy Wednesday!  We are halfway through the week and all is good here. The rain has stopped, there is frost on the ground this morning and snow on the mountain tops......it's going to be a GREAT day! The Card Concept  has a new challenge just starting.........you guessed it "Love is in the air." I have just started making a few valentines, mostly for my grandkids, and of course one for the Hubby. I chose to do a clean and somewhat layered card......using their card styles.  All die cuts, starting with the heart I won from  Darnell  some time ago. (smile) I had to make sure NOT to cut the card all the way through ( those little pieces are a bugger to put back in) They are reinforced on the back so there would be no possibility of them falling out.  Sentiment are from dies I've had for years and I just added a little sparkle with rhinestones on the y-o-u. Are you making any Valentines? If so, then you should be linking them up with  The Card Concept ch

It has been raining, off and on here for the past 4 days, and I think it is making DH and I a little stir-crazy.  He doesn't work when the weather is like this, so we've been practicing (or I have) for when he retires and we are together 24/7 ALL the time. LOL! Saturday he suggested we just go for a drive up to Lake Isabella and see if there was any snow there.  The lake is only 50 miles from the valley, but the winding road makes the trip almost an hour long. No snow there, but the lake is starting to show signs of filling up again.  The past couple of years of drought  has all but emptied it.........so that is a good sign. We chose to drive over one of the summits and down the other side, but got stopped at the top with a Road Closed sign.  There was evidence of the last snow fall still on the ground.  It was starting to rain and the wind was coming up.......they were expecting 5-10 inches of snow that night.........time to get off the mountain!!! Coming back d

It's a howling wind and a spitin rain outside right now. I pray that anybody with a pet, has them inside where it is dry and warm, and that you are snuggling on the sofa with them.......safe and warm too. Happy Little Stampers  has a challenge going at the moment. To join the challenge I created this card, with slashing rain in the background (blue watercolor). I had the die cut square just laying around from some past project, that wasn't needed, so I found my favorite doggy stamp.  I have had him for more than 20 years, been ripped off the wood mount so I have no idea who made him........it might be from d.o.t.s. but don't quote me. (smile). His little heart is also water colored, and I took a gold gel pen around the edge of the die cut, then actually trimmed it back to the gold.  The sentiment is a TH Small Talk. (The black frame is just some paper i put behind the card so it would scan better.) Hope you weekend is full of creativity and that a

http://alteredbooklover.blogspot.com/ A journal page from March 2014, for a second look on the second day of the month. I still love that saying!

Well, we've landed on the first day of February and the horizon of the weekend. A new challenge, for this month, at  Art Journal Journey  it is the color Yellow , which was chosen by our hostess   Rike  from  rike's art  .  Yellow is a wonderful, cheery color, but not many people use it as a base color.  It usually takes "supporting actor" instead of  "actor of the year", so this, IMHO, is going to be a great challenge. I started with a couple swipes of yellow paint, then being determined to use this stash of Graph 45, I started pulling things already cut, adding a little Washie tape here and there. As you can see, even Graphic 45 uses yellow tones as highlight colors. Want to see more ways to use yellow?   Hop on over to  Art Journal Journey

One more for the  Tag Tuesday challenge One of my inky backgrounds. Pit Pen doodles and sentiment. Clear rhinestone hearts Fabric flowers Heart shaped paper clip and sheer ribbon.

Hello Blogger Buddies, Happy Thursday!  I hope all of you, that are experiencing the extreme cold invading the land, are all safe and WARM.  It is raining here, with a light wind, but the temperature is 55' (F), so it is not anywhere near cold, even for California.  So it has been a good morning to get some "play time", while I hear the rain coming down.....not real hard, but just right! SOME ART TAG TUESDAY  is all about hearts, and it IS getting close to Valentine's Day!  There is something about making Valentines that takes me back to a school kid again.  We had shoe boxes decorated with hearts and colored construction paper, and a slit cut in the top of the box to accept Valentines from our classmates.  There was always that anticipation of getting a romantic one from the cutest boy in the room......LOL! On Valentine's Day we all got to open our boxes and read all the Valentines......of course they were not romantic ones at all......but a young gi