coming soon!

In just a few days (March 1st) signups begin for our Texas altered art retreat~
Paper Cowgirl!
http://papercowgirl.blogspot.com/
This fantabulous event will be held June 26 - 28 in beautiful Waxahachie, Texas.
I am so excited to be teaching! My class is called "Nature's Song". We will be creating bird themed shadowboxes using all sorts of wonderful ephemera and found objects.
There are lot of great classes offered, a vendor night and much fun and frivolity and those famous frosting shots to be had by all !
Hope to see you there!
xoxo

I love Texas!

I don't always adore Texas, but when it is 80 degrees in February, I sure do!
What a glorious day! My heart goes out to all of you who are still stuck in the clutches
of winter. I hope spring is near for you, too.
I ran a few errands today and soaked in the beautiful rays of sunlight that flooded my car through my OPEN moonroof. Ah, joy!
It has been a quiet day. I've worked on digital orders this afternoon with the backdoor open to the accompaniment of birdsong and now I am hearing a most wonderful sound of suburbia... a lawn mower! If that doesn't scare winter off completely, what will?

on the horizon...

Oh, what is that I spy?? I do believe it is *S*P*R*I*N*G*T*I*M*E* !!

I am LOVING the bits of tender green that are appearing, the first sweet blooms,

the longer days and the glorious SUNSHINE!!

Springtime energizes me! I am feeling creative and happy

and hopeful about every little thing!

Hope your Monday is springy, too!

sneak peek...

Here are my glass (bird) houses for a swap hosted by Tina Wright. Participants will end up with 10 glass houses to make a garland with. It was so fun to pick up scissors and ephemera, glitter, velvet ric-rack and sequins after months of doing only digital work. Cutting paper will always be my dearest love! So, to all you smartypants swap gals who made your houses months ago... see! I have mine ready on time!! Whew! LOL!

It is a glorious day here in the Dallas 'burbs. I am thinking positive and am feeling the bad vibes melt away like wet witches!

Hope your weekend has been pleasant.

xoxoxo~dale

BE GONE!

There as been a bit of a dark cloud overhead lately... a sort of vague gloom lingering in the vicinity. Things have been breaking, car mishaps, dealings with unpleasant people.

Today I am electing to dispel this nasty fog of negativity! I intend to focus on JOY!

There are far more good things in my life than bad. I am going to steer my thoughts

toward creativity, gratitude and FUN! Yes, there are bad things that must be dealt with, but I am approaching them with an attitude of victory and positive vibes! POOF! Vileness be gone! Spring is in the air! There is joy to be found, laughter and good friends to lighten my load and I am aligning myself with the benevolence of the universe! I am off to create something beautiful!

crunch!

In my last post I discussed the worries of moms who have kids driving cars.
And... to prove my point my 16 year old son had a wreck on Monday. Poor kid!
A truck pulled out in front of him and then the driver FLED the scene! My son
actually chased this guy for 5 or 6 blocks, honking his horn until the guy pulled over.
Thankfully, the guy didn't shoot my son! He tried to talk Ian out of calling the police,
but Ian was too smart to fall for that. And really, my son (and the other driver) were
unhurt, so that is the main thing.
But poor Ian! That boy ADORES his car... works on it nearly every day.
The photo is a bit deceptive. His radiator is messed up. I'm afraid this is
more than cosmetic damage. But, he is taking it well.
It is a perilous world!

big kids...

My kids are big kids... 23 & 21 (my married son and sweet daughter-in-law), 19 (daughter), 16 and 12 (sons). While many aspects of life are easier & less physically demanding when your kids are older, the concerns merely change. Now I don't worry that my kids aren't eating or sleeping enough or developing normally... nope, now I worry that most of them drive cars! My oldest son is a motorcycle technician! EEEK!

Tonight I have kids scattered all over... work, church, who knows where... and what I really want is all of them here, safe and sound. I offered to build my son and his wife a little bitty house in the backyard. I told them I'd cook for them (and I HATE to cook) and wash their clothes (ha!ha!), etc. Oh, well... healthy birds leave the nest. My nest is stil pretty full, but my babies are all spreading their wings. I know this is good. It is the way of the world, but sometimes I miss those chaotic, exhausting days when they were underfoot, filling the house with joyful noise!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Remember when you were young and dating and Valentine's Day was such a big deal?
Now it seems like a plot by the greeting card industry, florists and chocolatiers.
I don't mean to sound grouchy. Love is grand, but I am just not so excited about
Valentine's Day anymore. I'd rather have a working washing machine than flowers!

Yes, it is true... my washing machine is STILL not working and the home warranty people are dawdling around like imbeciles. It is ALMOST laughable! Well, actually it is funny. In a sad sort of way.
Hey, look, I know this is a very small thing in this world, so fraught with despair and such. It is just a pain in the hiney...

The husband is flying in from Grand Rapids this afternoon and we have a V-Day party to attend.
I SHOULD be making a dish to take, but I think I'll just buy some cupcakes. I am just too &*#$%@ lazy to even look at the stove. Domestic Goddess... I think not!

Ah, how lovely to awaken to the sound of birdsong!

Dare I say it? Spring is in the air!

I love the longer hours of daylight!

I feel my spirit getting lighter and more joyful

as winter begins to fade.

I am off to McKinney today to spend some time in the shop where I have a space.

It is a gorgeous sunshiney day... a good day to be out and about.

The poor husband is off to Minneapolis on business. Brrrr!!

And my washer languishes in the laundry room, idle and on the verge of extinction.

I am waiting for the warranty people to declare it dead. Time to pull the plug!

Happy Thursday! I hope you can hear the birds singing, too!

xo

enough already!

I strive for a peaceful spirit. I don't fret (too very much) over things that I have no power to change, BUT I am just about over having a broken washing machine! We have a home warranty to deal with this type of thing. Now we are 3 (yes, THREE) weeks into no washer.

I have been to my sister's to wash, to the laundromat and have handwashed some things.

It is getting rather tiresome...

How I long for this joyful domestic scene to play out at my home once again!

Today the super-tech is coming to offer his skills. If he can't fix my machine I'm going to HIS house to do my laundry!

Ah, sunshine after a dreary morning... how nice!
I completed a few digital orders and shopped for some new elements. It is wonderful that more digital images are being offered with commercial use licensing. I make a lot of my elements, but it is great to find beautiful vector images, overlays and other elements to work with.
Our "winter" contines being unwintery. I am love the warmer temperatures, but keep thinking we going to have a freak blizzard at some point. My neighbor's cherry tree is in full bloom!
I am so sleepy this afternoon. I feel like I took a handful of Tylenol PM. I have got to snap out of it and clean up a bit. The washer repairman is coming after dinner to FINALLY fix my machine. Good grief, I am sick of washing my clothes in the creek! ;)
Oh, I think I MUST go rest my eyes...zzzz....

TGISE...

Thank God it's Sunday evening!

The big event at church went well and the best part... IT IS DONE!

The paper moon portraits were a big hit and much frivolity ensued.

For some reason that moon just seemed to make people grin.

I am cranking out digital orders as quickly as I can.

Thank heaven I love this work! It still feels like play most of the time.

I am grateful for my wonderful customers who trust me to help them

embellish their blogs and shops. xoxoxo

I am going to have to break away from the cyber world for a bit.

I have sold out of 'Twilight" pendants at the shop in McKinney

where I have a spot. I got an SOS call from them yesterday

begging for more. I have them soldered, so I just need to clean them

up, add some bead and charms and run them up to the shop.

My car window is repaired and my neighbor paid

for our deductible. Very nice of them.

Hope your weekend was nice. It was in the 70s here!! Texas can be a very lovely place!

awww...

Look at my poor baby! I LOVE my car. It's a 2006 Honda CRV (the year before they changed the body to make it look like a short fat minivan) and I adore it! After centuries of driving a minivan, I feel so sassy in this car. I'm 5'2", 100 (or so) pounds and this car is the perfect size for me. It has realtime 4 wheel drive (that I never use, but think it's cool), Sirius radio, lots of cool cubbyholes for stowing my Edward Cullen doll and cellphone, so... I am very sad that an errant BB took out my rear window last night.

I NEVER leave my car out the garage, but I was working on that $*&@#! paper moon for my church so I DID leave my car sitting out. The neighborhood boys (good kids) were having an airsoft (and BB, apparently) shootout up and down the alley and one of the BBs got my window. In fact, there is a silverly BB in the tray between my 2 front seats. I'm not mad. I have 4 kids, 3 of them boys. Things happen. I'm just a little inconvenienced and out $100 for the insurance deductible. Farmer's even sends out a MOBILE repair guy! They are coming this afternoon. Woo Hoo! Gotta' love that.

So, mostly I am sad that my pretty gal got a boo-boo. Soon she will have a shiny new window and nobody got hurt... so it's all good.

TGIF!!!

It's only a paper moon

Today I am working on a huge paper moon... spackling it and preparing to paint and glitter it. It is for a dinner/dance at our church on Saturday night. We're going to take paper moon photos of the attendees. Should be fun and it least I am getting my hands in some glitter after a long non-sparkly spell of all digital projects!
But you know what? Spackle does not smell good!
I think I'm going to have to light some incense in the garage.
Whoa! That takes me back to my high school days...
Okay, I am off to hammer the CO2 detector that is STILL beeping even with new batteries!
What's with that?

Let there be light...

Whenever I see the work of English painter J.M.W. Turner I am struck anew by his stunning ability to capture something as ethereal as light. Turner's work is mostly landscapes and seascapes. Human figures are vague, seemingly unimportant in his work. Some have even called his paintings cold. I do not find them so. While he does not offer the perfected realism of Vermeer or the tenderness of Boucher's Rococo renderings, his work is romantic and enchanting. For me, the light in Turner's work is life. It is spirit and breath blossomed on canvas in impossible brushstrokes.

When I was fortunate enought to see his work in person it left me touched and uplifted, though his subjects can be ones of peril and statements of social injustice. Light draws us all, calls to mind hope and truth. In Turner's exquisite golden light I see the shadow of his heart.

swoosh!

Geeze! Where'd the weekend go? I spent mine working on digi orders and taking care of the husband. He has the FLU! Egads! I am swimming in hand sanitizer and spraying Lysol like a madwoman! Somehow we never got around to getting flu shots this year... DUMB!
After a shot AND an IV at the doc's office, a pile of prescriptions and a few days in bed the husband is slowly recovering. Poor thing!
It was gorgeous here this weekend... very warm, felt like SPRING!! Even the birds were sounding spring-ish. I know, I know... it's winter and as if I needed a reminder a cold front is roaring in like a run-away freight train as I write this. But, it's February and spring WILL be here soon. Joy!
And, finally... my washer sits idle as we wait for a new motor to arrive. It is amazing how much time I spend doing laundry. Sometimes I wish we had pelts. Glittery pelts. Maybe some nice pink polka dots for me. ;)
I'm off to dreamland where islands and conch shells wait for me...