Mr. Froggy Came A Courtin'

This adorable little needle-felted frog arrived today, a birthday gift purchased on Etsy (like ebay for all handmade things). Mr. Froggy was made by MarmeeCraft, and I first saw him on her blog at http://www.marmeecraft.typepad.com. I then had to hop right on over to Etsy and nab him. He is my second stuffed frog and joins a host of other strange and wonderful creatures, such as a crocheted Hello Kitty and a zebra sock monkey.

And still more cupcakes, or is it eye candy?

While I'm on the subject of cupcakes, and what a great subject it is, here is a link to the most wonderful blog, which goes with the Flickr photo site below. http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/. It is amazing the art people can create with these tiny little cakes. I do like to make and decorate cupcakes, and always have. But, I am waaaay out of my league here. Still, I love to look. Believe it or not, the creator of the mosaic below is not a professional baker and has only been decorating cupcakes about a year. That is some crazy talent!


I am feeling behind and bogged down with all of my art projects. I want to create, create, create, but work and life have to come first. I have so many things due in October, from Zetti postcards to a witch hat to 27 handpainted book pages to.....I forget. I have the ideas and the supplies, but....


Another ridiculously frustrating thing is that I have to put away virtually all my art supplies every night. Not because I am an anal tidier, which I am, but because my cats will eat anything. So far they have consumed parts of the following: paint brush, wooden ruler, sandpaper, feather, ribbon, paint water, yarn, rubber band, rubber stamp rubber, glue-like crystal effects liquid and more. Mind you, I do not want them to do this for their sake, and I try to keep it out of their reach. But, they try to do this when I am sleeping. Grrrr, just when I was starting to embrace clutter! (just a little clutter on my art table, that is).

Finally another shout out to two of my special groups: ZNE http://zneiscrafty.ning.com/ and ARTchix http://groups.yahoo.com/group/artchixstudio/. These are such wonderfully supportive and talented people and fun and active groups!!

OMG Cupcakes!!!!!!!!!

My creation
Originally uploaded by ShamsD

This absolutely beautiful mosaic and more importantly, these beautiful, stunning cupcakes were added to my Flickr Cupcake group by ShamsD. She is completely amazing and received several Flickr photo awards for this. No surprise.

My Newest Journal

In response to a prompt from the ZNE Book Club weekly assignments, I created a new journal (I was due for one anyway). We are studying "Alphabetica" by Lynne Perella, which is really an art book celebrating collaborative journals made by published artists using various prompts. We were to choose a word, phrase, acronym, monogram or other collection of letters regularly used by or associated with ourself.

I chose "whatever" because I wanted my journal to be able to contain whatever but also because I have developed the bad habit of saying it way too much, with all sorts of assorted inflections.

What started out as mimicking my teenagers has taken on a life of its own, as I use the word to indicate such things as "do what you want," "I don't care," "Oh, sure." "No really, whatever you want to do" and other such phrases. Hey, if it can be said in one word instead of seven, why not?" Or, I mean, whatever.

I'm a Happy Camper

What a great day! Started with two hours of thorough house cleaning, always a good feeling, and then a trip to the rubber stamp store, consignment shop, antique mall and a trip to Stamp Camp.

Cris Marsh http://sassafraslass.blogspot.com/, my Stampin' Up demonstrator, and her sister Angie Higginbotham, collectively Creative Cottage, offer a monthly stamp camp for their customers. All the pieces and parts are provided, along with refreshments and door prizes, while attendees go table to table, making various cards and things.

Here you can see the cards I made. One is actually perforated and includes a tear-off book mark as a thank-you. There is a darling Halloween card, and then we decorated a bottle of bubbles for a great gift. Finally, we rolled a pen in decorative paper and micro beads for a cool result. Such fun!

Some Little Lovelies

Isn't that lamb the sweetest thing ever? My daughter went to town for some last minute Vegas trip supplies and came home with this lamb, bubble bath and a cute emery board for dear old mom. I think I'm getting buttered up for something.....but she's airborne tomorrow.

The 5 x 7 canvas is an acrylic, by a friend, of my old jewelry business sign (hence, the name of my blog).

The other pics are my Charge-It Fairy charm by Sally Jean Alexander. I just found the tiniest easel today that finally fits it-kind of like Goldilocks- I now have at least 7 easels plus a fork. Okay, well, the tines were bent to make it into an easel, but it was, *sigh* too big. So, I made it a business card holder upstairs. The fancy silver easel I made into a business card holder downstairs, and I still have easels to spare! But now I have one that's just right. No wonder the back of the charm says "She Couldn't Help Herself....It's So Me!"

Speckled Egg Hat Swap

This lovely chapeau has now been completed for the Speckled Egg Halloween Witch Hat Swap. A lot of people made paper cones, but I found this satin-like hat for $1 (sorry, recipient Jen). I then added fabric stiffener (didn't even know this existed in a spray bottle- thought I would have to use liquid starch). Once this was done, I attached a large crow, which my cats had tried to abscond with. I also added skulls, bones, black roses, and gold glitter. Through the point I added a removeable silver wand for emergency spell-casting. The wand is embellished with gold glitter and black fun fur. On top of all this is a lovely black veil and orange feather pouf. Now, how to mail, how to mail?

The Mother of all Hauls

I could not believe my good fortune today. Found all this stuff at an antique mall- not a flea market or other bargain venue. The bottles were all in a box for $4. Eighteen, count 'em, 18 totally cool glass bottles, including an inkwell, milk bottle with plastic cap, old Cliquot, old Lavoris, perfume, medicine, vanilla and salt (I think) and more. There was one scary, large brown one I left outside. It still had liquid contained by its cork. The label says Oil Oajaput by Fuller-Morrison, Chicago. Perhaps someone knows what this is.

The bottles are sitting on some other treasures I got: a smooth wooden paddle that looks like it should have been a hand mirror, a printer's tray and a wooden cheese box. I also got a wooden folding ruler, which was the only thing I went for (as if).

The other great treasure was a complete vintage Bingo game set in great condition. There are tons of cards, markers and numbers, all soon to be altered into who knows what. Maybe a few of these treasures will make their way to ebay for someone else to alter. I am typically not a pack rat and can't stand clutter, so I will use it or lose it.

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!

When Are You Going to Blog Me, Mommy?

Unlike his reserved brother Lester, Larry the Cat keeps asking me when he gets to be pictured on the blog. He is constantly posing: in my suitcase, in the tub, on the soffit, sink, upside down, in a dress (yes) and anything else he can do to get noticed.

Here he is spying on the pizza delivery guy as well as trying to arrange his rotund self behind the post (not blog post, post post) to give himself a slim appearance. Notice his grimace when he realizes not only is it not working but that he has been busted by the paparazzi.

So Excited - Home Page Honors!

I was frolicking along, reading the posts in one of my groups, ARTchix Studios on Yahoo http://groups.yahoo.com/group/artchixstudio/ when I let out a little gasp, as one of the posts was congratulating *ME* for creating the art on the home page. I couldn't believe it!

I didn't even know I was on the home page. How cool! This is the piece of art, Dream in Color, that was chosen. It was one of six artist trading cards I created for the ARTchix Fairy Dreams swap, using ARTchix products (as if that's a problem!).

This has been such a fun and supportive group. I have already done several swaps, trades and may even meet some Chix in person for an ATC-making day this month. We do have Chux too, in case you are wondering. ARTchix is such a pleasant company to order from-check it out here.http://www.artchixstudio.com/.

Welcome to Zetti Pre-School

I created this 8 x 10 paper collage on artist board today, using some heads I got in a Zetti swap with ARTchix friend Jade from Michigan. I made this for my Flickr Zetti group. There are nearly 300 members, fans and afficionados of artist Teesha Moore. There are also over 1,000 gorgeous pieces of art to view here http://www.flickr.com/groups/zettiology/ including some of mine.

Some of the bodies are from Lisa's Altered Art on ebay; some of the heads and hair were drawn by me. The wings are from a wall paper border (what a clever idea!) given to me by my CaaT friend Sue Young in Tampa for our Art & Scent swap.

The teachers' instructions are helpful: please leave extra-large wings, wands and heads at home on gym day. Bring nap mats and cupcakes on Tuesday. I did have a rabbit head girl I drew also, but she wouldn't fit. However, I have four Zetti postcards due October 15 for a Swapbot swap, so I am sure she will come in handy.

If you haven't scanned all the way to the bottom of my blog, there is an ever-changing, ever-growing slide show running, courtesy of Ning, the new home of the ZNE Talk art group, and home to a bunch of fabulous artists.