Tuesday Dawns Bright...

With Canasta. I finally bought this game. For the last couple years its been the only game my GGma would play. I've always wanted to own a set but never picked one up until now. DD and I played during breakfast. I wupped her patootie. This evening after dinner we played with DH as well. I wupped their butts. DH quit. lol Now I've been looking around the internet for the above Canasta pic and saw all kinds of unique sets of it with gorgeous cards. I need to collect these now! lol Canasta means 'Basket' in spanish. Or so they say...

Made a few cards today for a wildflower/weeds theme, using my dandelion stamp. 2nd card is watercolored w/liquid watercolors.



Working on an altered book page now, and simultaneously planning a certain 8 year old's birthday party for Saturday! What are you up to?

Weekend Activities

It was a busy weekend. DD decided to hold a lemonade stand on Friday (or maybe it was Thursday, can't remember). She had only 4 cups (this wasn't a planned business venture) and no real lemonade. She went with grape crystal lite, set up her stand/box and put up signs. She figured she had 4 cups, sell each for $0.25, she would make a $1. But she underestimated her 'cute' factor. She sold all 4 cups in 15 minutes and made $3. DH said he was going to quit work and open a lemonade stand himself! lol I reminded him he isn't as cute.




I have several ATCs I've made lately but just haven't put them up here. Here goes:






We spent a lovely evening and next day picnic with friends in from Argentina. I made a lo-carb cheesecake that people seemed to like (especially ME! ha). Busy week ahead. Getting ready for an 8 yr old birthday party here, need to work on my altered book (due Saturday) and many other things...

I challenge you to do something artsy you've been putting off and putting off. Show me a link to it!

Lo Country Boil

Sunday dinner at my parent's apartment is always an adventure. Dad never fails to have some 'surprise' up his sleeve whether its a new recipe, dessert or whatever. This week, he really surprised us. No silverware or plates!

Shrimp Boil: Newspaper & Freezer (or wax) paper to line the table. Large shrimp, polish sausage, corn on the cob, baby red potatoes, onions and seasonings. Butter and shrimp sauce. We also had a side of sourdough bread, squash casserole and green beans. Peach pie and ice cream! And I wonder why I'm on a diet now? *eyeroll*




After dinner, the girls of course want to swim. Grandma gave Sophia an early birthday present of the flower towel. Aren't they cute?!



Our little mermaids!

Painting Project

You know what they say... when the cat's away, the mice will play.

DH has been at church camp as a counselor all week so we decided to paint the bathroom and decorate. It's been a blank white canvas for about 10 years?



I can't remember how long. We would try to put little things in there, Paris things and DH put in new greenish floor tile 2 years ago but that is as far as we got. For July 4th, when we had company over, DD talked me into new towels and a pretty new shower curtain. That started us wishing for new paint. I was bored by tan or even green. We decided to be brave and go for Cornelian Red! We ended up doing the medicine cabinet, cabinet and ceiling in a tan. I think it all came out nicely.

Only mishap we had was, I had been painting some knobs (which we didn't end up using anyway) and put the lid back on the paint. DD picked it up to go paint the walls and tried to shake it. It came shooting out. Luckily she held on to it and we only lost about 1/4 of the paint in the can. My art room floor suffered a bit but it doesn't look as bad as this picture. lol It's the cleanest spot on any of the floors now!



Now the bathroom is a beautimous red creation. Decorated with all my little Paris stuff. I painted a canvas real quick and we stuck part of my collection of Paris postcards on it. I also framed 3 of the Paris ATCs I have been traded, in old frames. I think the room came out lovely! (Ignore the cabinet, I'm still painting 2 drawer fronts and sticking knobs on them in the morning before DH comes home.)

Craig & New Blogs

Today was a wacky day. We went to a picnic this afternoon and the heat kicked my butt apparently. I came home, tried to brave life for a bit and then laid down and proceeded to take a 4 1/2 hour nap. I just woke up at 1230 am, starving. I'm so screwing up my sleep schedule. *eyeroll* Oh well.

I'll tell ya what I do when I'm up late and can't sleep. Or when I'm trying to force myself to go to sleep when I've been doing art and all these ideas are running through my head. It's so hard to go to sleep with ideas in your head, have you found? Anyway, I digress. I turn on a little talk show host. I've watched most of the hosts over the years, Letterman has that dry humor that makes me laugh and he has good guests. But a few months ago I discovered Craig Ferguson. I don't know what it is about the man but he cracks me up. Plus I love listening to his scottish accent. And since I am usually watching him when I'm needing to get art ideas out of my head so I can settle to sleep, I'm watching him at 2 or 3 in the morning. My DH accuses me of waking him up constantly with my huge gaffaws at Craig's monologues. He cracks me up to the point of tears sometimes. I don't know why. It's not like I agree with everything he says, but I love listening to him. I saw Ted Danson on this week and he was talking about how he'll go to sleep and his wife, Mary Steenburgen will be watching someone like Conan or whatever, and he'll wake up when she laughs and finds she has switched over to Craig! I thought, THAT IS WHAT MY DH DOES! lol Go watch him, tell me he doesn't crack you up sometimes... He's on at 1230 am here, so I tape him.

I've been blog surfing while I'm up. I find so many wonderful places I want to share with you but never do. In fact, I save new places I like in a 'new blogs' file in my favorites. It's a huge file right now. It seems like its time for a long blog link post. I'll work on one and post this week so you have something to peruse this summer. Here's a couple to get you started:
Anything Indie

A Sampler of Things
Urban Cowgirl
It's In The Details
Art Junk Girl
ArtPlayPossibility
Dreaming Spirals
FortyTwoRoads

Altered Book Club & ATCs

I go to an altered book club once a month.. Each month we trade books and get someone else's book to work in. This month I worked in a book all about color. I chose olive and teal to work with and it easily lent itself to an underwater theme.

We work in a technique book monthly as well. This month was collage (my fav) and mosaic. I haven't finished my mosaic page yet.

Worked on a few ATCs this weekend as well:

Time spent...

Has it really been two weeks since I've been on here talking to myself?! WOW! How time flies. Our summer is so full of doing nothing. It's great. I mean, we've had the usual of family gatherings, holidays, birthday parties. But the daily time is spent doing art, keeping the house clean, watching movies and World Series of Poker on TV. *wink*

Dh and I did celebrate 19 years of wedded bliss on Monday. Well, bliss is a strong word, but I sure do love him! lol We stayed home and the girls made it a fun evening. They cooked us tator tot taco salad (don't knock it until you try it.) They looked the recipe up on the internet and everything. They made little cakes that were actually cookie consistency and I loved them! So tasty. My 7 yr old was in charge of the games. She made a Sombrero hat pinata out of a cup, plate and paper confetti inside. That was a hoot. Then we played pin the fork on the mouse (another game by the 7 yr old), equally entertaining. We ended the evening playing a rousing game of Apples to Apples. It really was a fun time. We can always go out to dinner and a movie, but how often can you have a great time with kids and THEY did the cooking?!

The summer days have afforded me unlimited time to do art. With no homeschooling, our days are freer. Since I've joined ATCards.com, I signed up to participate in several swaps as well as personal trades. I've been an ATC making fool! Here a few for your viewing:









The girls decided to enter some ATC swaps as well and have been hard at work on creations. (the first set is by my 7 yr old and the rest by my 14 yr old.)







Gosh! This update was a long one! Hope all is well with my fellow artists and friends. Drop me a comment and tell me what you've been up to and if you have pics up on the blogs so I can come visit. I don't wanna miss out!