Happy Thanksgiving...

Did you know that even sitting on a soft couch can make your bottom sore if you stay there long enough? I wanted to start working on Christmas cards today, and yes they should already be done, but it has become a pajama-do-nothing day. I am trying to at least catch up on my blog reading. I decided I should at least stir myself enough to do a post and to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

This week was all about getting the house presentable and cooking pumpkin bread, made from fresh ginger ginger butter, pumpkin soup, turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, cranberry chutney, pumpkin pie, whew! (I secretly want to do a whole pumpkin festival theme) I had a wonderful day yesterday with friends and family. I hope everyone had at least as much fun yesterday if not more with their family and friends.

Hugs and kisses!

Lost momentum...

Well, I didn't make it with daily entries. Kind of lost momentum there. Doesn't look good for the rest of the month with all the preparations for Thanksgiving but I'll keep trying. Here is a picture of fern growing in a stone wall from my trip to England.

Another post...

Well, last night I completely forgot to blog so you get two today. The previous post was another petting zoo animal. This is a collage of some texture type pictures I took at Stone Mountain. I really love old things. They have so much character.

What?

Doesn't everyone sit in the feed bin?

A cup of coffee...

The IMT challenge this week is to do something that relates to coffee. I love coffee. I even grind my own beans and yes those are real beans in the corners. Fortunately, I haven't gone as far as to roast my own beans. There are personal roasters you can get if you feel the need. I woke up yesterday with visions in my head for this challenge and this did not come out anything like that. I started with the idea of collaged tissue paper and collaged text for the coffee cup. Once that was done it just seemed flat even though it had texture. Decided to grab some cheese cloth and modge podged that on. Have to say it was a little odd looking. Kind of like used gauze. Yuck! So I gessoed it, stamped on the swirl and then to use up the rest of the brown added swirls to the border. Still looked a little plain. Mom suggested the coffee beans and there we have it. Still not happy with it but I've played with some new techniques.

Another Purchase...

Well, Karen at Blue Bee Designs made another mixed media piece that I couldn't live without. I'm so excited that it arrived today. I just love it. Karen also wraps things so pretty. I can't wait to figure out something to do with the musical fabric strip and she included a sheet of music. Too much fun.

Mom got free tickets to see the opera Cinderella so we did that tonight. It was fun to watch although I have to say the I'm not the biggest fan of the operatic singing style. I know there are some that I've enjoyed the style of more like Rigolleto and Die Fledermaus. Well, anyway we did enjoy it. It was interesting to people watch too. People were dressed all the way from jeans to black tie and evening dresses. I was really surprised by all the fur coats. I thought that was no longer pc and this is the south. Hardly gets cold enough.

Otherwise, today I did actually work on one of my projects and even took a little time to work on the Ispire Me Thursday challenge. It isn't done yet. I had this grand idea but I didn't fine it pleasing once done so now I'm fiddling with it. Do or die I'm posting it tomorrow and hoping for the best.

Well, off to bed. Sweet dreams.

Here piggy, piggy...

Well, this was Friday's post but looks like I just saved it and forgot to publish it.

More Stone Mountain animal pics. Usually I see pigs hanging out in a mud pit but these two are kept nice and tidy. I'm not a pig person but these two are kind of endearing. In an odd sort of way..

The blessed weekend is here. Deep sigh of relief. Changes are afoot at work. Our IS Director has moved on to greener pastures and I will miss her. She started out as the trainer at the firm and gradually moved her way up. In the process we became good friends. Fortunately, she is still nearby. Just won't get to check in on her as often. As my friends and family will attest, I'm very bad at phone calls and emailing. I always think of it when it's too early in the morning or I'm not at the computer. Hopefully they still know I love them.

Well, even though it's Friday night I suppose I should mosey off to bed so I don't wallow in bed too long tomorrow morning. Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite.

Fabulous Quilts...

Dana at Old Red Barn Co is giving away some quilts. Go to her site for your chance to win. The one above is the one I want. I just absolutely love the colors in it.

Day 11...

So tonight all I've accomplished is cleaning out some old emails. I almost forgot to post too. Back in September I attended the annual company picnic at Stone Mountain Park. In the park are some transplanted historical buildings and a petting zoo. For the next few posts you will be looking at some farm animals until I manage to create something. This guy just made me laugh. He was busy chewing on some hay and had the funniest expression.

The last of summer's blooms...

One last garden picture. The final fading of the Hydrangeas.

A pleasant surprise...

I saw this little picture on Karen's Etsy site and just couldn't resist these cheerful little guys. They just make me smile. Sorry for the bad picture. I didn't manage to get one during the day with good lighting.

Well, in addition to that she sent me a little packet of fun things to use for collaging and whatever. I'm so excited by all the neat things she sent. I can't wait to use them.

Mixed Media Painting...

So over the weekend, in between other things going on, I wanted to try my hand at the Mixed Media challenge of Autumn colors. I pulled out Creative Embellishments by Sherrill Kahn. I started with an inspiration piece to try to do something different for me and mine came out completely different. I really would like to take some art classes. I haven't decided if I like this or not but I at least spent some time creating and trying some different techniques. I used a little trowel for putting the paint on for the background page and used some cardboard for texture. I wanted to use a real leaf but wasn't sure how to preserve it so altered a silk leaf to be a little more realistic. This week's topic for Inspire Me Thursday is open so going to post this for that challenge too.

Day 7 sort of...

So technically it isn't day seven anymore but for me it still is. Was up last night until 3:30 am and then up again at 8 am for work related stuff but won't bore you with the details. I did manage to get my nephew Tyler's birthday card created for today's little birthday get together. I'm exhausted so more later on a lovely something that came in the mail for me.

Day 6

Have I ever mentioned that I think frogs are cute. My calendar at work this year is cute frogs. Course I think of frogs and toads as about the same. On one of my many shopping trips found this little toad house and fell in love with it. I don't know if it's ever had any guests.

What day...

Ah, only day five. Fortunately I have scads of pictures. Maybe a couple more of these and I may move on to pictures from England.

So pardon me for a moment while I go techno chic on you. I usually don't talk about work because this is my escape from it but I just have to get some ranting off my chest. Is it too much to ask for some consistency in documentation? (Imagine that in all caps.) I'm working on upgrading some web software called SharePoint and it's like pulling teeth to get a straight answer or a complete one for migrating a web site from the old version to the new. Some make it sound simple while others make it complicated and when you have to make sure that all goes well you worry if you are getting everything you need. It looks right when you are done but it is a test environment after all and it isn't exactly the same as a live one. I have only one week left to feel confident in the process because next weekend is D Day for the upgrade. I think I see a few more grey hairs. I am really thankful that my Thanksgiving vacation comes soon after so maybe I can come down off the ceiling and tackle the next item on my list at work.

Well, of course it's after my bed time again. I never get enough sleep during the week. I ride the bus, then train, then shuttle to work everyday which has turned into my nap time both ways. I must confess that today for the first time I slept through my stop (much to my chagrin). I played it cool though and calmly got off at the stop I woke up at and just had to cross over to the other side and go back one stop. I don't think anyone noticed. Might be on the camera's though at the train station. I bet they see it all the time. Surely it's not funny anymore.

Day Four...

Still haven't refound the post that inspired my picture taking but here is another one. Worked late tonight and did watch an episode of Grey's so didn't accomplish a thing. I have all these ideas floating around in my head though and it's feels like that saying 'better out than in'. How do you motivate yourself to create after a long day at the office? Still working on that one as you can see.

I am so looking forward to Thanksgiving week which I have off. The first part will be flurry of cleaning, cooking and more cleaning and then a massive rush to eat by the family. Hopefully Black Friday will not include shopping but will be the beginning of a long weekend of creativity. Oh my I have so much to get done before Christmas. I think I have to lie down now. Nightie Night.

Day Three...

Three days in a row is a first for me, I think. Well, today is election day. I went and voted even though I'm not happy with the choices. I've finally realized that's why you go vote in the primaries but I'm not married to any party so have always abstained from that. Goodness, it is so much work trying to find out what the candidates really stand for and to filter through all the rhetoric. Ah well, I guess we all just do the best we can.

On to more pleasant things. I read a recent post and now I can't find which one but it had lovely pictures of dying plants and it inspired me to run out and grab some pictures from the garden. So, for at least a few of these posts I'll be revealing them. If I find the link again I'll mention it in the next post.

ttfn

National Blog Posting Month...

So rumor has it (according to Misti) that it's National Blog Posting Month. The web site for it is NaBloPoMo and I thought let's give it whirl. So I watched some tv but here I am at least posting a photo I took this weekend. Since I have to figure out something to talk about each day I will wait to go into more details about the inspiration for my photo shoot but you should notice a theme soon. Hope everyone survived their Monday and I'm up past my bedtime yet again. I really should be in bed by 9pm since I get up about 4 am. Never seems to work well for me since I'm more a night person. Oh well, I'll just keep on trying. Nightie Night.

More ATC's...

Ok, so somehow I need to spend more time in the evenings working on creative endeavors. I should have enough energy for it. I have a plan. I will setup my laptop at my desk so I can catch up on my shows and manage to create at the same time. Of course it could backfire on me if I just sit dumbly staring at the monitor but hopefully I will get at least something done. Feel free to check in on me and bust my chops.

Last weekend I did manage to finish another ATC but had to go wild and do the triptych type. It was another idea from Bernie Berlin's ATC book which has some cool ideas and I can't recommend it enought. It also looks like a portion of the proceeds from her book go to help rescue animals.

I have this lovely Eiffel Tower stamp that I hadn't used yet and decided it would make a great triptych version ATC. To get started I stamped several of them and then picked the one I liked best. Decorated it and turned it over and was trying to figure out what to do with the back and rather than cover up the other test stamp decided two towers were better than one. So this is a two sided triptych. Say that one real fast. Go ahead. I dare you. Anyhow, I hinged it with eyelets and ribbon and decided it needed a hanger so made that out of some prestrung beads I have. Did I ever tell you that I also have a bead addiction? So far it is just ones that are on sale and I haven't done much with them yet but have great plans for jewelry making. I know, it's a sickness and how can I possibly fit it all in with a full time job?

So now the question of what to do with these. My understanding is that you trade them and I did find reference to a Yahoo group for it and will probably check that out. I think I may be doing more of these. Not sure yet if I actually want to collect them but it seems that it's okay to just give them away and I could call them ACEO's and sell them. We shall see. If anyone has ATC groups they are involved in that they recommend feel free to share. Bernie Berlin's book also had some cute ideas for how to store the cards but that could be another addiction so leaving it alone for now.

Oh, shucks! It's past my bedtime. I guess that's enough rambling for now.