Halloween Fun! At work today, we girls decided to be RETIRED HOOTERS girls! Haaaaaahehehe, big hanging low bbbbbbbballoons! I made the t-shirts so we would look like members of the same team! Hehehe! Mary is on the left, Me, Julie and Cathy!
This is Julie and her sweet Grandbaby Ethan (Curious George)! Ohhhhhh he is a dollie! And you are right......Julie is a GREAT lookin' Grandma! She is a doll too!

It is hard to make change with those TWINS in the way! :0)

A bit more than any of us would EVER wish for! Hahehehehe!

Steve works for us at the restaurant, doing tables and trays! He was in the Halloween spirit too!
We had a laugh filled day!

If you recall......last year we were the LUNCH LADIES and this topped that I think! Customers were roaring!!!!!!!!!! Too funny! Happy Halloween!

Muahaha, here is our scary witch for this years carved pumpkin! She has a ggggreat evil nose (the stem of course) and the rest is carved and some fun added hair and hat too!
Don't be afraid! BOOOOOOO!

Fall colors here are just about past their prime, but I wanted to share some of the beautiful and inspiring shades that God has graced us with the FALL! Enjoy!
Ohhhhhh, the eagle is a carved tree some people have in their front yard.........awesome!!!!!


I did not carve this.......it is in some people's yard, but it is an amazing eagle........I would stain it if it were me........:0) I would love this in MY yard too!

Christmas Ornaments for a swap! These are little fabric ornaments with a ribbon hanger and leaf embellishment at the bottom! They are light and should hang on a tree nicely! :)

These are ATCs for a swap! Images from paperwhimsey.com .

This was an artist choice, so I just used one of my favorite colors and made them according to what felt fun to me! Some zig zag stitching edges them and the quote is about friends! :0)

I've been tagged
I've been tagged by Patsy, now I must do the dirty deed (hee hee) and post some information!Here are the rules:1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird. 3. And tag others........I will save you all the agony......hehehe!
So here are my 7 random and/or weird facts:
1. My favorite season is FALL and I enjoy seeing the change of colors, the temperature and carving pumpkins, caramel apples and ALL the parts that make fall spectacular!
2. I am most appreciative of my artful friends who understand and join me in my art adventure......understanding the obsession and FUN of it all! :) YOU are all great!
3. I secretly(and publically) wish that I did not have to work so I would have all the time I wanted to art and play, cook and clean even.......yup!!!!!!!! I would enjoy it all much more!
4. I miss my dear(Shi Tzu doggie) Buddy who I lost a year ago in November! :(
5. The internet surprises me daily with wonderful & kind people who share their talents with me in one way or another, I am a complete stranger really to them, yet they find the heart to do this.........and that is just another sign that the WORLD is still a loving place!
6. I absolutely ADORE CHEF GORDON RAMSAY---I watch his shows and would LOVE TO MEET HIM in person! What a guy!!!!!!!!
7. If things keep going the way they are, I may have to vote for Steven Colbert for President! Hehehehe!
There ya go!!!!!!!! Hope that was entertaining and a little insight! :0)

Muaaaahaha! Time for a Halloween ATC Swap! Debbie and I found some great dimensional witches hats stickers and these cool spider stickers too.....which helped me to get my Halloween ATCs rolling! I got these finished tonight, because I just could not stop! Now my eyes are tired, time for a rest! :0) Weekends are such fun, becaus there is time for arting!!!!!!! YES!

Debbie and I had quite the day! :0) We arted like wild women and got lots of Christmas Tree ornament pillows partially done! Debbie took these to add RIBBONS and some special embellishment touches and they will be gifties for family and friends and a fun ornament for the tree! Neat right? Poor Debbie, she said I was a pretty bad slave driver! Hehehe, they tell me the same thing at work! But this was supposed to be a play day! We had a ball really and were covered in threads and the floor was too! Such fun!!!!!! Here is what we got done enough for her to take home, there is another small batch here too to be finished up! We shopped and went to a rummage sale too!Oooooooh the fun! Thanks Debbie!!! <3

Debbie took me to Hannah's today!http://www.hannahs.com/about/default.htm
They have classes and neat stuff everywhere! I loved it, it is in Illinois. What a fabulous store! Wheeeeeeee! Debbie got me this cool mini-mask! Opposite a stencil is the easiest way to describe it! You are shading everything but the mask! Anyways, Debbie and I said we'd trade atcs using it! This is the atc I made tonight! I wanted to try it just on white to start! I think it will be pretty on different things as well! You can use paint, ink , etc. on it! It is removable and reusable! It was a fun day, as it always is with Debbie! <3

A SPECIAL THANK YOU to all of you who have participated in ATC swaps over the years, that I have been fortunate enough to receive yours in personal or group swap! I had these stored in a binder and changed my mind as I wanted to SEE them and be inspired with these mini-art pieces daily! Soooooooooo.......I bought a room divider...
and glued them on! Aren't they gorgeous?? I know that you might have one( or more :) on here and I thank you for sharing your art with me! I will put this in my art room once I clean it up!!!!!!! Phew, that will be a job! But this will make walking in there a joy!

These are small friendship pillows for a swap! They are 3x3 inches and INSIDE the pillow is a positive wish that I have included on a paper! They are sewn inside and meant to be a special secretive message for the receiver to be something to encourage them when they are feeling down and remind them that someone is sending them a good wish! This was a very fun project and I love the idea of little bunch of these sitting in a basket. :0)

This is some flower pounding on watercolor paper! Lyn Avedikian told me about it.....she had remembered an article in Somerset from 2002! :0) Lyn made a gorgeous postcard from her pounding and sent me one! Wheee! Anyways, basically, you take the flowers and place them on a wooden board with paper towel over them, on a stack of magazines and your pound the flowers with a hammer! Some petals are extremely juicy and some are not! I found it fun and interesting!
The watecolor paper can take the liquid and it the prints come out neat! You can overstamp and collage on this paper.....used as a background! Just great! I got lots of the flowers from my Dad's and my neice Elizabeth helped me pick them! Thanks for that Dad and Elizabeth and also for the inspiration LYN! <3

Here is my contribution to a swap Belinda is hostessing! She sent us a template and we were to create a fabric page using the shape....and some sort of art doll on it! Here is my art dollie.......there is an acetate pocket and a tag which reads..."In search of my Mother's garden, I found my own."

I have done some stamping on the background, a bit of chalk around the head and hands, lots of stitching and fowers and leaf embellishments! Feel free to click on the image to see a bigger picture! There are some beautiful crystals on the lace that I added for a little pretty sparkle. Each heart has the first initial of one of the girls participating. Even though the design I created is the same, each looks a bit different with the fabric colors and stitching of course! I fell in love with her and thought instead of making them all different, to go with the same! Enjoy!

Two 4x4s for different occasions! One is for a breast cancer survivor donation,where your piece goes to a survivor as a congrats and encouragement! The other is for a Daughter/Father LFB (little fat book). They were fun to make and hopefully the receiver feels some meaning from them! :0)

Earl and I went to a MAKE A WISH foundation tree carving fundraiser today! It was most interesting and the carvers carved all these beautiful pieces since the start yesterday morning! It was a 24 hour carving session! You can the carvers in the background of the one photo! Most popular carvings (lend themselves to the size of a tree trunk) are bears, eagles and such! Sometimes tree spirits! You will also see one WI BADGER there and they also did a local tv station....channel 6 to all be auctioned with 100% of the proceeds going to the Make a Wish Foundation! Very neat!

We got a new bird feeder and it is guaranteed to be squirrel proof, following the instructions and all! It makes me laugh out loud, because we have 2 squirrels here that are very at home and THEY are UNABLE to get to this feeder! It is marvelous! It is meant for small birds UP to the size of a cardinal and we have all these sweet birds coming to eat here and the squirrel is stuck cleaning up the ground! The curved posts are weight sensitive and collapse at anything heavier than a cardinal AND the length is calculated for the reach of the red/brown/gray squirrels and it works!!!!!!! Heeeheh! Very funny! See his dismay!!!!!!! :0)

You know, I believe that many things I see I consider to be ART! Not just the normal items, paint, canvas, mixed media, drawings, etc.....but I see so much ART in nature, in things other than the norm! In talents exhibited by others that stand out as special! To me that is ART!

Well, I am going to link you to an AMAZING bit of art performed by a wonderful lady and her dog Rookie! They do a FREEFORM ART that is such a fun example of the love and trust between a lady and her pet! This dog is just so talented as is the gal, because they work together as a team and it shows their bond together! It is done to music , so make sure your volume is up! It is a fun thing to watch and really makes my heart tickled to see it! I hope you enjoy it too!
Presenting Freeform Person and Dog ART! Heheheeh!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqbVbPvlDoM

My tree spirit is just about done! Yesterday we primed her face and today I painted and stained her! Her hair is stained with a buttery pecan and the rest I painted and tried to do some highlighting too.....and by the end of today I plan to coat it with a special outdoor polyurethane stuff we got! Her eyes are drilled in and they are those nice round plastic eyes for dolls! Pretty cool! Anyways, you can see her here and page down to see her near completion. :0) I am loving her and I can see her right through the window of our family room! If you click on a picture to see her closer, you will see I scribed my name in the lower left! Hehehe! Gotta sign your artwork ya know?

A bit more detail today! This has turned into a fun project! We do plan to add color and some neat three dimensional eyes when I find just what I want! :0) I am really glad we saved this huge trunk as the wood is just beautiful and having this tree spirit here is just plain fun! Thanks for looking! Happy Labor Day!