Holiday giveaway

on Angela Cartwright's blog:

http://acartwrightstudio.blogspot.com/

A copy of Pasticcio Quartz, a lovely zine.

Happy Holidays!

Blog Candy Happiness

A few weeks ago I was the lucky winner of some blog candy on Carolyn's blog, from Inka Stamps - a beautiful poinsettia image and a set of verses. The stamps arrived on Wednesday of this week, and I've finally had a little free time (in between the laundry and getting the holiday lights set up) to play.
I've been fighting a bad winter cold all week, so it took awhile for my creative mojo to resurface. The first card I made is based on the one that Carolyn posted on her blog (forgive the poor scan - my scanner does not do metallic stuff very well):

I managed a second card before my first load of laundry was done. Let me tell you, the gold cording on this one was a bugger! I've had that cording for some time, and now I remember why I don't use it very often - it's very tempermental (which, added to my being irritable from the cold, makes for a bad combination). But I persevered, and this card is the result (photographed because my scanner absolutely refuses to do beads):

Many thanks to Carolyn and Inka Stamps for their generosity. I'm hoping to have more time to play this afternoon.

Something Special

Chrysti is doing the 29 days of giving, and I love the whole idea! I know how much a simple gift can matter: case in point, the wonderful blog candy that I won on Seth's blog back in September, that arrived shortly after Hurricane Ike did so much damage here. It was the only thing that came in the mail that day (we were lucky to even get any mail), the mailman brought it to the house instead of leaving it in the box (they were only delivering packages), and I spent a good hour sitting at the kitchen table going through everything piece by piece, relishing the time spent away from yard cleanup and worrying about the roof damage.

So who knows, maybe I'll get my butt in gear over the holidays and follow Chrysti's lead. . .

Books books books!!

New books: for my birthday today, my folks got me Altered Paper Jewelry by Jenn Mason. Wonderful book, lots of clever ideas. For my birthday, I picked up Making Connections by Susan Lenart Kazmer. I've taken a class with her - she's a wonderful artist, fabulous teacher, and her book is fabulous.

A book I'm anxiously waiting on - Exhibition 36: Mixed Media Demonstrations + Explorations (on Amazon here). It looks fabulous, and the author Susan Tuttle is having a wonderful giveaway on her blog.

On order - a whole stack of Japanese lovelies from Kinokuniya in Seattle, due to arrive the day after tomorrow. I know what I'll be doing Thursday evening!

Almost December

Post-Turkeyday, still recovering. Spent most of today surfing, which is always dangerous because it usually leads to shopping! My yesasia shopping cart is already way too full.

iHanna has some wonderful things in her Etsy shop - wonderful collage packs, notebooks, etc. Check out her Etsy shop or her blog for more information.

More wonderful leather journals from MyHandmadeBooks on Etsy (I have 2 of hers already), and I've been sorely tempted by the suede ones from Kreativlink. But the big sale at Chronicle Books is too good to pass up - I'm getting some of the new soft-sided Moleskines.

Hard to believe that it's already almost Thanksgiving - where has the year gone? Things have been so busy between work and school activities that there's hardly been any time for art.

That being said, I did have a blast at quilt festival. I managed to spend a reasonable amount of money, and was fortunate enough to get into one of the Make It University classes. We made a collaged canvas - I further embellished mine when I got home (and I've "censored" it, just in case TPTB at blogger don't like it):

I got my wonderful Cold Charlotte doll from Kristin at Retro Cafe Art the other week - I can't decide what to do with her, because she is just so lovely by herself. Kristin is having another fabulous blog candy giveaway - check it out:

http://krishubick.blogspot.com/2008/11/another-blog-candy-eyelet-giveaway.html

And definitely check out her shop - she has the most wonderful things!

I'll try to get a link to my Quilt Festival pictures on the blog - I'm still learning about this whole blogging thing (and you'd think that, having been in software for over 20 years, it would be easy for me!).

So much for keeping up with my blog...

Life after Ike has been hectic, to say the least! We're still trying to get caught up after a week and a half of no school, and over 2 weeks of no work (no power at the office building!) - too much stuff crammed into too few days!

Of course, did I use that 2 weeks of downtime wisely? Not really - I spent some of it sorting (only a fraction of the stuff I should have sorted), some of it catching up on the ever-growing pile of magazines and books (of course, I also shopped for more books, so I don't think I made any real progress there), and napping. No major art projects, except for finishing my pages for a collaborative book project. Okay, so I did accomplish something at least!

And just when I think things are finally settling down, I realize that next week is Halloween and I haven't decorated at all, and more importantly Quilt Festival is next week, and I haven't planned out my shopping yet . . .

Speaking of shopping, if you're in the market for cool stuff, check out Retro Cafe Art Gallery. Wonderful service and fabulous stuff, including new frozen Charlotte dolls. And she's having a great giveaway on her blog, here:

http://krishubick.blogspot.com/2008/10/blog-candy-giveaway-eyelet-candy.html

Off to work on my plan for Festival - plot out which booths I have to hit (I already know that the Quilting Arts one is top of the list).