Ashley just came home from doing her 2nd endurance ride-a 25 miler. She placed well, rode a good ride and she and Mimi stayed safe and sound. Can't ask for any more than that. So proud of you, Ashley, for the discipline you have had in conditioning your horse. Picture was taken by the ride photographer on location.
CHA is just around the corner...and I'm excited to be able to be going again. It's always so much fun to see friends that I haven't seen for a while, make new friends, plus be able to see the latest and greatest in product.
This year, my good friend, teaching partner and co-author, Tena Sprenger, and I will be doing daily demos at the F+W/North Light Publisher's booth. We are planning to do a fun little make & take illustrating a couple of techniques we used in our book, Artful Memories, scheduled to be released in May, 2006. We are so excited about being able to do this book and will talk your ear off about it if you let us. LOL! No, seriously, we are just tickled about this and are looking forward to our time in the booth. By the way, Artful Memories is now available on Amazon for pre-order...so, feel free to order away!
This is just a little sample of what we'll be demo'ing. Here's the information about when and where we'll be:
BOOTH #3211
MONDAY, 1/30/06: 11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M.
TUESDAY, 1/31/06: 12:30 P.M.-2:00 P.M.
WEDNESDAY, 2/1/06: 11:30 A.M.-1:00 P.M.
Hope you'll stop by! I'd love to see you.
It's been a long time, an embarrassing long time, since I created something just because. I am long overdue. So, despite the fact that there are deadlines to meet and lots of personal stuff going on, I took time to do this for me.
Ashley went skiing in Park City, Utah earlier this month with her cousin and aunt. Her cousin, Nicholas, took this picture of her and developed it (the old fashioned, dark room way). He has started taking some photography classes and I think Nick did a great job of capturing the essence of Ashley. They all had a great time and Ashley had the added benefit of having her Aunt Carmen, a ski instructor, pass along some great tips (at the family rate...free!).
I was excited to use some of the Heidi Swapp ghost snowflakes to form the background. I randomly placed them on the cardstock and dry brushed gesso over the entire surface. I then added the gessoed snowflakes to the layout. I love the new, fresh colors of the ribbon and cardstock. It's cool to create, just because.
During the last month, I have been busy purging and organizing my studio. My hubby, Vern, bought me two armoires to add to the one I already had so that I have three of them side by side, lining one large wall. It was totally his idea and he even took a weekend of his time to help me rearrange things and move furniture. He is a super guy! Anyway, the additional storage space was so welcome and I ended up getting rid of things and regrouping things to maximize my new space. During the process, I discovered these truths:
1. I will never use all of the paper I have in my lifetime...even if I never buy another piece of paper (like that's really going to happen:)
2. I am hopelessly addicted to ribbon. In going through my stashes, apparently I bought ribbon that I had already had (but probably couldn't find in the mess).
3. Buying another rubber stamp isn't always a good thing...especially when said stamp is the one that jams the drawer in the Iris cart!
4. All of the shelves that hold my books and magazines are sagging...and the shelves are made from 3/4" thick pieces of wood. Is that supposed to happen?
5. It is painful for me to throw away a single magazine...really painful..I mean, what if I threw away a potentially brilliant idea? Hmmmm, maybe that's why the shelves are sagging.
Wonder how long it will be before I run out of storage space again?
My new copy of Legacy Magazine arrived in the mail on Friday. I was tickled, OK, really tickled, to see that an article which I wrote last year, complete with the entire hand made photo journal, was published in the February/March issue. This was the first time I had written a biographical account of someone who wasn't in my family and I had such a good time writing and creating. Many thanks to my friend, Sandy, who put me in touch with her friend, Natalie. The article is about Natalie's father-in-law and it's a surprise to Natalie's husband...shhhh, don't tell! One of the magazines is going to get mailed to Natalie on Monday. So fun! Can't wait for them to see it!
Major kudos to new Legacy editor, Tonya Becerra, for the seamless transition and continuation of the beautiful and artful magazine we know and love. She did a fabulous job.
When I was pouring over the magazine, I noticed that 3 fellow Arizona artists had their work prominently featured in this issue: Carlene Federer, Lilia Meredith and Ruth Giauque. How cool is that?
I had an awesome day yesterday.
Five women planned a birthday party for their friend and asked me to teach a project...all of this was a surprise to the birthday girl. She was TOTALLY surprised...in fact, I think it was the first time I have ever seen her speechless. What a fun time it was...attended by the 6 friends, a 4 month old baby girl and for a little while, a seriously adorable and amazingly creative little 4 year old. About halfway through the class, I was walking around holding the baby, checking on everyone's progress and our little artist was creating this amazing collage out of kit scraps and "extras" that I had brought along. I got all teary-eyed..."Wow!", I thought. "Isn't this totally what memory art is all about? Our families, friends, and building relationships?"
I came home feeling inspired and totally blessed. I enjoy people, love to teach, and, I'm such a sucker for babies and bright and creative little kidlets! Sharing a creative day with old friends and making new ones is just the best. Plus, everyone's little book got finished!!!! Everyone needs a group of friends to surprise them and celebrate a birthday in that fashion!
Scrappers are definitely extraordinary people!
This has been a class project morning...I've been prepping two new books for my February and March classes at Ink It; it's been fun putting them together. I thought I'd share a couple of teasers of the February class, a fashion book. I was going through some old pics last year and saw so many of me as a child, all dressed up for church and the holidays, complete with little hats, patent leather Mary Janes and matching little purses...that's when the idea hit of making a fashion book to put all of those types of photos togther in one funky little book. There are lots of mystery materials in there...watch for this class on Ink It's site in the next few weeks...
From this:
to this:
And, yes, the same fabric and trims that are on my banner are in this book; I was actually gathering materials to put this book together when the banner idea hit... Toni , you are right...I was hoarding this stuff since last August just for this class....
My scanner died this morning...no clue what happened there...it was working just fine the last time I used it. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow?
Well, off to finish book 2!
Last night I was tagged by Liz Eaton who informed me that this was a great way to start my blogging career...ok, I'll play...here goes:
Four movies you would watch over and over again:
OK, I'm seeng a trend here...what can I say? I'm a hopeless romantic and think Meg Ryan is just so funny in these movies...
Four places you have lived:
Four TV shows you love to watch:
Four places you have been on vacation:
Four websites you visit daily: (well, none daily but these are ones visited frequently)
Four of your favorite foods:
Four places you would rather be right now: (pretty much anywhere, am at the kitchen table getting ready to pay bills!)
Four bloggers you are tagging:
ON A DIFFERENT NOTE...
Yesterday, Tena and I went to Laurie's house to get some headshots taken for the bio section of our new book. Laurie has the patience of a saint...she kept taking photos and then we would look at them...and take some more. Here's the thing...I'm looking at these high res shots of my face on a wide screen laptop and I keep seeing these bags, sags and wrinkles. I'm thinking to myself, "What is going on here? Why are they showing up on my face?" Oh, wait...maybe it's because they ARE on my face. Thank goodness photo altering software isn't restricted to Hollywood anymore; it will definitely be used! (We're beyond photo editing, way beyond!) The new bio photo is some of Laurie's work. Thanks, Laurie! You are a fab photographer and a patient friend!
I guess it's about time that I joined the blogging world. I have to say that friend Tena has been supremely patient about my reluctance...she never once asked when I was going to set one up...just kept telling me how much fun it was and who had great blogs, etc. I knew that it was time when I started thinking of events in my life as being good blogging stories; and when I began earmarking photos as great for my blog, I was sunk. So, here I am, thanks to lots of help this morning from Tena.
This past weekend was a total blast with the Foxy Croppers. Many thanks to Toni and Susy for putting the event together. It was so great to see lots of familiar faces and to meet a big group of newcomers. What a great time!
Toni and Susy took us to the Garment District in LA for a quickie shopping trip...it's amazing, we were just there in August and we came home with just as much loot as we did the first time. The most lucious ribbons, buttons and bling...
Reality has set in this week...so much to do that it's almost overwhelming. Christmas is still 
hanging around the house and I need to take it down but I guess it's still early compared to last year. That was pretty amazing...the goal was to take down the stuff before Valentine's Day (isn't that sad?) and I actually hit the goal. All was put away by February 13th. I guess part of the reason why I drag my feet is that I love Christmas and all of the decorations. I'm a major Santa collector and it takes several days to create mini vignettes of "my boys" all around the house. I've contemplated keeping them up all year but I think that the novelty of them would wear off and I would take them for granted...so, back to their boxes they go until next year when we bring out the 
old friends.
Well, I'm off to finish making dinner. I can see it now...the family is waiting to eat and I'm busy blogging away. This is definitely going to be a fun habit!
