I know that we humans,

are like the rest of the natural world and that sadness, fear, frustration, or any other troubling feeling can not last. Nature doesn't create a storm that never ends. Within misfortune good fortune hides.

 
 
This is my entry for the Cloud Echo Challenge.  You can learn more about them here at Chrysti's Blog or here at Susan's.

I am sorry.......

It has been very hard for me to get back in the swing of back to school things.  Kiah has been having trouble staying focused.  This caused a lot of problems last year.  I thought we had it pretty much controlled by the end of the school year.  The doctor said if he did have ADD it was a slight case and he didn't need medication.  The school said he didn't qualify for any support because his IQ was too high.  Well here we are this year and the teacher is already hinting at putting him on medication.  Not those exact words but I am not dumb.  He is always trying to get me to let him stay home, saying he hates school.  He has a lot of friends and does well on his work.  We just got some of the standardized testing scores home and he is basically in-between basic and advanced.   In math he is so close to being advanced; so what the heck!  We have started him on a vitamin regime and I am in close contact with his teacher.

Besides that things are picking up at work.  Which is good I was really starting to worry.

Here are a couple of crafting things I have done to stay sane along the way. 

A soldering class with my friend Raquel.  It was a fun technique to learn but will take a little more practice and a new higher powered soldering gun.  Oh my God when I typed that I heard the Tim the Tool Man Taylor grunting sound.   Yeah baby more power.

My Orange mixed media canvas

And some cards I made for a challenge at Stampington & Co.

I wasn't sure about the top picture at first but now I really like it.  She is the Goddess of Our Burning Desires.  The butterfly and image of the woman came from The Graphics Fairy.

These photos are from my camera phone that's why they look so washed out.

Hope all is well in your land

Love is in the air and apparently strep throat too.....

Well, it is officially summer here.  Kiah's last day of school was Thursday.  The prior Saturday he started complaining of a sore throat, but I didn't really think anything of it since he is prone to allergies.  So we went ahead and took my sister and her boyfriend out to Santa Cruz.  It was the cutest thing seeing them go down the boardwalk hand in hand.  Her in her scooter and him in the wheelchair.  Ahh, young love.

 Kiah was not better by Monday; still a sore throat, a tummy ache, and a slight fever.  I set him up for an appointment early Tuesday.  He wanted to go to school even though he felt crappy because he didn't want to miss the last three days of seeing Nina, his 2nd grade sweetheart.  It turned out he had strep throat.  Go figure.  As soon as he took the first dose of antibiotics he started to feel better.

I am amazed at how many people commented on the giveaway.  Thanks to everyone who stopped by and a special thanks to the people who decided to follow.  You all made my week.

I am taking another one of Susan Tuttle's workshops.  I haven't had much time to do it, but I did do a couple pieces. The bokeh texture was made from some pics I took of bubbles purposely making them out of focus.The stained glass and Venus de Milo photos are from morguefiles.com.

She had a lesson on adjustment layers .  I never messed with adjustment layers before.  I made the above photo's background more pink by messing with the photo filter adjustment layer.

Next time I have some vintage finds to share.  Hope everyone has a good week!

Well, here it is almost the end of May...

I swear the months go by way too fast.  I wanted to share this picture I took while waiting at a red light on the way to a winery we went hiking at.  Doesn't the cloud look like an airplane or space shuttle?
Crazy, huh?

I have been working on at lot of crafty things, lately.  I made this Dream keeper out of a little box I found left for garbage at the flea market.  It was this~

Then I glammed it up.  I just love the way it turned out.  I was taking pics to post when I noticed that my first dream might come true.  On June 4th I find out if Schmaps Guide to San Francisco wants to feature one of my photos in their magazine.  This project is inspired by two workshops I am in. The Artistic Mother's vision statement banner and the Mondo Beyondo workshop I am in is about finding and realizing your dreams.  I needed something smaller than the vision statement banner because of limited space and wanted something I can tuck away when needed.  I used mostly Prima for this.  The paper is their watercolor paper, and the feather bouquet is one of their pin bouquets.  I went a little psycho with the Stickles I must admit.  I finally got my hands on some Creative Imaginations Mini Foil kits, so I used it around all the edges.  When I went to the scrapbook store they told me they would give it to me for 50% because it was missing the sticky sheet.  Um, okay. When I was putting everything away I noticed it said "free sticky sheet included"  They gave me 50% off when the item missing was free anyways.  I love when that happens.

I also made this really cute frame, in the Artistic Mother they use little inchies which make for a darling frame.  I got the frame for a dollar at Michaels.  I first painted it with a tan color.  Then used a custom creamy beige color for the top coat, then sanded the edges so some of the bottom coat can be seen.  I used my Martha Stewart postal stamp punch instead of cutting out squares.  Glued them on, used some assorted pastels on the edges then mod podged it with the Shimmer color which added a gold tint.  Turned out very cute for a dollar frame.

I am a bad daughter and didn't get anything for my mom on mother's day so I made her this walling hanging using this adorable photo of my great-great grandma Lulu and my great grandma Dee.  My grandma Dee is 96, last week she was hospitalized for having a  minor heart attack.  Come to find out her artery was 90% obstructed.  Despite that, she was begging the doc to let her out because she needed to go play cards.

I love how the Tim Holtz crackle paint looks on it.  I accentuated the cracks with his distress ink.  Fun times.  When I am having good mojo on my paper crafts, my photo editing projects usually lack.  But I was able to process a couple that I was happy enough with.

Hope everyone had or is having a good weekend!

Make sure to check out my giveaway~

She wanted to leave this world behind....

Not me, (well maybe), but that is the title to this picture.  I think it is so weird how my artistic flow comes in waves.  I can be totally rockin' it for a week or so, then for the next week I have to really work at it.  I could have erased a little better on this but for the most part, I like it.  I want to submit something to Stampington & Co. tomorrow; have been working on a picture for the Echo group, and have been tossing around ideas for my vision statement banner for the Artistic Mothers group.    

We went to Barnes and Noble the other day and I saw so many books I want.  I took pictures of them in case Chris wants to get me one for my birthday, he can't say he didn't know what they looked like.  ~I thought that was so smart.  

Have you seen any of these books?

From what I saw when I thumbed through, I want them all, especially Delight in the Details By Lisa Pace.  They also have a huge book of botanical illustrations in the bargin books for $24.00.  I want to buy so when we have our own place I can wallpaper a wall with it.  I saw it a Country Living magazine and want to do it in my future craft room.  

I am going to be doing a giveaway this weekend and am really excited about it.  It is a mixed media artist's dream.  I will ship world wide depending on where the winner lives.  Since I don't have that many  followers, the chances of winning will be high.

Miscellany.....

These are some miscellaneous photos that I never posted before for various reasons.  Dang photoshop is not working again.  I am scared to do anything because the computer is so dang sensitive.

Susan Tuttle just released a book, I am dying to win a copy.  If I don't, I will surely buy it.  I have taken two workshops with Susan and learned so much.  You can purchase the book on Amazon or you can try to win a copy here on her blog.

 

I love vintage goodies

Found some really cool goodies today at the flea market.  They were all from the cutest elderly lady.  I got some vintage buttons, a large flower frog, a 1925 copy of Peter Pan and Wendy, and some little vintage hor d'oeuvre picks with abalone and polished stones.  I'll post pics of the other items tomorrow. 

We took Kiah and his friend to the creek by our house.  There were these beautiful yellow flowers and tons of gnats.  But the kids had fun and I got some good pics.

My photoshop elements actually worked long enough for to me to mess with a pic.  I swear it only worked because we were going to be walking out the door in a couple of minutes.  But I was able to quickly do this.

We will see how my computer will work this coming week.  I want to upload photos but am scared it will just up and die on me.  The Geek Squad guy said it can go at any time.  So I have been using my phone for most of my internet posting.  I apologize  in advance for the spelling and spacing errors.

Till next time

playing with Photoshop Elements again

Before and after using Susan Suttle's sepia technique. I loved taking this workshop. I learned more in a few weeks then I did in years. Her videos made the lessons so easy. If you ever have a chance to take one of her workshops, I definately recommend it.