My Beach-y Memoir-Published!

Is this not the coolest magazine cover ever? It makes me think of all things summer. It also makes me want to run and jump and do flip-flops like the gent on the cover. Why? Because my beach-theme shadowbox was chosen as one of the featured pieces of art in the "Life's A Beach" challenge as referenced on the cover of this July-August 2009 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine, by Quilting Arts and Interweave Press. Nearly 300 pieces of art were entered in the challenge and 14 were published. I feel truly fortunate.

My beach-y piece has few words but is truly a memoir as I created it while on vacation in North Myrtle Beach, SC, using some of the things I found there, like driftwood and shells. It's been traveling around awhile, so it will be good to get it home so I can hang it up and "dream."

You'll have to buy the issue to get a better look at mine and the other 13 entries. Check the September-October issue for results of the reader challenge charm swap!

I Need 5 Days with No Sleep!

Today at the beach is full cloudshine, so I thought I'd work on a 'few' things. Although now that I have everything out, I am a bit overwhelmed. Really. Did I really pack all this stuff? Am I really going to read all these books? I even brought my sewing machine. I think I may have lost my mind. Hopefully, it is still back in Indiana. My WIPs are a couple of beachy shadowboxes. One I am going to take outside to paint and distress any minute. I also bought Pearl Ex pigments, which I have never used before, to give it an oceanic glow. Some of the mess I actually did buy here, as I scored a seahorse and some driftwood as well as some felted wool flowers at A. C. Moore and more curly feathered birds at Michael's. Something tells me packing is not going to be fun.