Thank you, Indian Summer!

My morning glory vine and my petunias and geraniums and my SOUL are all thankful for the gorgeous 80F degrees and warmer the last several days here in northern Indiana. Warm and sunny is the forecast for the next several days also. It's sooooo pleasant!

Table art. Wall art. Art art

I changed my dining area table top from late summer harvest-y colors finally to something a little more holiday-ish. I went with gold, red, and black and white with black toile, and later that day I hung this newly-framed signed and numbered print called "Taksaka." It all matches beautifully. I call it my falliday table. I figured I can leave it until after Valentine's Day if I'm feeling particularly lazy in the decorating department. I used to change my tabletop monthly. This is my apartment in Columbia, not my house in Leesburg. Happy Fallidays!

Give Me My Art Time, and No One Gets Hurt

I've had no time for art the last few days; I haven't even made it to the studio, so I'm starting to feel a little out of sorts! The best I could do was another early morning with a few minutes to play with the camera. Still learning how to shoot into the sun.

Been doing "real work" projects and haven't even had time to blog or look at art magazines or even watch television. I would be getting cranky, but tomorrow starts the weekend - yay! For some crazy reason I agreed to babysit an unrelated toddler Saturday night, but I figure I am guaranteed free time when he goes to sleep because I won't be at my own house.

Some wonderful swap packages have arrived this week, and I need to take time to photograph everything. At least I got my thank-you's out; Martha and Emily would be proud. TGIF (in 41 minutes!).

Good Morning Photo Practice

Good Candy Rumored Here; Love the Leaves Reflecting Off the Window & Witchypoo's Ring

Happy Fall Trick-or-Treaters!

So what do these three seemingly disparate images have in common? Well, atually nothing, except that I have so much to blog about, I thought I'd better lump them together or I might bore you all stiff.

You know how in high school when you liked a boy and you found out he liked you too- maybe he even sent you a mushy note or left something in your locker? And then you went and told your girlfriends (of course!) because you just couldn't help yourself, and then, poof! Cool boy runs for the hills.

Well, that's sort of how I feel writing this, because part of me feels I should just keep it to myself. But I just can't help it! I GOT AN EMAIL FROM THE ARTIST TEESHA MOORE! Oooh, maybe I should tone that down. I don't want her to know I went and blabbed- not that she would see my blog, mind you.

The email went like this:

"LOL! That piece of art is awesome! and inspiring! thanks for sharing.

teesha moorewww.teeshamoore.com"

It is in reference to Zetti Preschool pictured here, which I have shown before. I was ordering from her website, and got all ballsy and sent it to her. For those of you who don't know, Teesha Moore is possibly one of the most famous artists in the outsider art world, altered arts, the crazy collage arts movement. She started about 25 years ago on the west coast and has an amazing following for her art and her rubber stamp company, Zettiology. She even has a Flickr group of wannabees dedicated to her art. She was also recently featured in "Mixed Media Collage" by Holly Harrison. Teesha publishes her own zines and hosts ArtFest and Art FiberFest every year in WA. Her art truly got me started on this current path. Thank you, Teesha!

The Haunted House scene, also shown before, just came in second place in the ARTchix Holiday Art show, as voted by my fellow members, and I am so thrilled to have won a gift certificate to artchixstudio.com.

And the tree. Well, the tree was just showing off today. All the neighbors still have green leaves, and we have this beauty.

By the way, my new blog banner (and more to come) are by Kris L. Hurst at Blissfull (sic) Elements. I love it!

It is SO Fall in Indiana

Love it! Love it! Love it! Did I mention I love fall? Although we live on a corner lot in a modern subdivision, this is the scene from our back patio: corn, glorious corn, getting harvested by a big red IH combine and into a blue cart attached to a green and yellow (of course) JD tractor which is then augered over into a semi to be hauled off to the grain elevator. I am amazed how much farming terminology I've learned just living here. Twenty years ago I wouldn't have known where to get milk out of a cow! That all sounds so folksy. Actually, I am much more at home in the city, but it is somehow comforting to watch all this and know that some things are still done the "old-fashioned" way.

Inside, the comforts of fall mean lighting candles because it is no longer so hot that even a candle is unwelcome. Today I am hosting a little get-together and had fun making Halloween cupcakes as well as pumpkin cobbler from scratch- served warm with whipped cream, homemade macaroni and cheese with peas and mushrooms, cold cider and assorted cheeses and crackers. Tomorrow means football and chili in the crock pot. Yay!

How I Love All Things Fall!

I was so excited with the cold snap that when I got home tonight I was running around grabbing fall decorations, washing my market treasures, opening windows, lighting candles and generally celebrating my favorite season. I am also glad to finally be one with my blog again, having not posted since Sunday. Not working on anything the least bit artistic all week was sheer misery. But, my work travels took me all over the place from IN to KY to IN to MI to IN again with some overnights thrown in, sooo, no time for play. I guess I must cram it all in this weekend. Can't decide what to do first (again). Got some great art magazines to look at. I am really loving Cloth, Paper, Scissors so I got some back issues. I love all Stampington and Co. publications. Well, the list goes on. I have my Country Home, Country Living and Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion piled up. But, I have so many goodies to make and swaps to complete. I wish there was a way to stay up for 48 hours all weekend and not suffer.

My little Pookie leaves for Las Vegas Sunday for her first trip there as an adult. She is going with a group of friends, and the MGM Grand may never be the same. Maybe we should have a Blackjack lesson tonight. Nope, no time. Happy Fall!

A couple more Halloween ATCs

Here are a couple new Halloween artist trading cards I made last night for gifts in my ebay and blog swaps. I am in a Sweet and Sinister swap (see logo at right) which requires something sweet and something sinister (duh!), something handmade and a home decor item, all in shades of black, white and Halloween colors.

The skull card was made by using bleach and a rubber stamp, to stamp an image on black art paper (construction paper does not work). I used various amounts of bleach to get varying degrees of spooky images. I first saw this done in either Somerset Studio or Cloth, Paper, Scissors, two excellent magazines. The examples used an egg stamp and went further by using a brush and paint to add some color to the bleached images- have to try that!

I am also in an Art and Scent swap for my ATC and ACEO Enthusiasts group on ebay and a Secret Swap for Respect: Artists who Love Art, AWLA, on ebay.

I have tons more fall clip art to use, plus I just got 48 new Lyra Aquacolors, so I really need to get back to my journal and start drawing more new stuff. Making these ATCs is addicting. I have to laugh, because only a month ago when I was buying some stuff from Kris H at Retro Cafe Art Gallery on ebay, I asked her how she could stand to do such tiny work- ha!