So Excited! You'd Think I Just Got Published

These two amazing books are by and belong to two fellow artists and people I can truly call friends. I am so excited for them! Each is very different - the book and the person- and I feel privileged to say my art is in each book. The thrill of publication belongs solely to the artists, Jane Powell and Lisa Kettell. But, I'm so thrilled for them, you'd think they were my books.

Altered Art Circus is now available here on Amazon. You won't be disappointed. And I can say that even though my copy is not in my hands yet, for I have some of Lisa's original work as well as works by some of the other contributing artists.

Artist and Silver Bella founder Teresa McFayden reviewed the book here. Although I didn't get a mention there, I am just so happy with her review of Lisa's book. The circus animals by Lisa that Teresa shows on her blog are great, and interestingly enough, Martha Stewart just featured a similar project here by Katie Steuernagle, Matsutake on Etsy. And talk about full circle, Lisa was in the audience, third row, for the Martha taping that day!

The hand-made, 75-pp book above is equally impressive. Owner Jane Powell of Random Arts in Saluda, one of my favorite places, decided to host a collaborative journal project and even sent out some supplies to willing participants to get the ideas flowing. When the unique pages started flowing in from around the country and beyond, Jane knew she had something special.

So special is this book that Jane "donated" it for a fund-raising auction for the Saluda Senior Center and then Jane bought it back in a bidding war for $500.00! How great is that? You can see my "Sorry, Time's Up" page peeking out of the photo above and my finished project here. I hope I can get to Saluda again soon to see the entire book. Here's her story about it.

Check Out My Interview With Birthday Girl Lisa Kettell

Recently I had the extra special joy of interviewing my dear art friend Lisa Kettell of The Faerie Zine for Vintage Indie. The feature, along with pictures of Lisa's incredible art appeared Nov. 12, just a couple days shy of Lisa's birthday. Last year she got a book contract; who knows what good things are in store for her this year? I do know she's going to see one of her mentors on this birthday weekend when Mary Engelbreit speaks at Silver Bella in Omaha, where Lisa will be a vendor and will be meeting some of our other mutual, virtual art friends, like Miss Sandy. You can read the article here and you can leave Lisa some birthday wishes on her blog.

So Much Goodness All in One Day!

Lots to share here! Larry the Cat is home from the hospital after a week. He ate something very bad that nearly killed him. After many xrays, enemas, fluids, anesthesia, four different medicines and much more (on a loooong, detailed bill), he is home! Lester has been missing him, and so have we! Larry is the brown-nose(r), and Lester is pink. Larry says, "why did I have to get sick, mom?"

The adorable ornament with intricate sequins I posted about before arrived in the flesh (fabric?) today from the sweet Sadie Lou. More to come! Sadie Lou and I both hope to go to Silver Bella next year. Too many lucky artistas will be having fun this weekend in Omaha without us!

Besides the beautiful Blythe Style book I got on Amazon with amazing photos by Gina Garan, I finally took the plunge after weeks of study and ordered my Blythe from ebay, and she is en route from Tokyo. Blythe dolls were originally manufactured by Kenner for one year, in 1972. Hasbro later bought Kenner. In any event, both the Ashton Drake Galleries and Takara Tomy Japan reintroduced Blythe in about 2000, and they have been a cult phenomenon. There are about 700 Flickr groups devoted to Blythe as well as countless ebay and etsy shops. The most popular websites appear to be http://www.thisisblythe.com/ and http://www.blythedoll.com/. An adorable blog is http://adventuresofmolli.blogspot.com/. I can't get enough! Anyway, I chose the model "Star Dancer" (shown here), and she is soon to be renamed Lilly. People actually spend hundreds of dollars customizing and clothing their Blythe dolls with false eyelashes, mink and more.

The mermaid ATC shown was just for fun, but I have a couple of ATC swaps coming up as well as a Mermaid theme swap, so who knows where it will go? The yellow pear ATC is a swap I received from the talented Deb Lockard, tnangel on ebay and Stars*Go*Blue on Flickr. I think it is Zetti-licious!