WOYW- T

So I'm late, as usual. This is a special WOYWW (http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/) since this week I was was visiting my grandpa over the last few days.  He's in hospice care at my parents house 6 hours from here.  I had a few days just to sit with him and chit chat while he was awake, and read or paint while he rested.   We had a great visit.  I was amused to see this 94 year old farmer fall in love with my parents little dachshund, Rusty.  Rusty has refused to leave his side since he first started getting sick (when he aspirated).  The little stinker crawls right back into his bed and snuggles by Pa after we place him on the floor.  Pa says he does more good than any doctor ever could.   On Wednesday, I was back on the road so I could go back to work today.

 

Painting while my grandpa rests

   

Rusty snuggling with Pa.

 

Pa has had lots of visitors.

While I was in AR, I dropped by to say hello to my in-laws at Art Outfitters in Little Rock.  Of course...I had to make a few little purchases.  So here are the additions I made to my art stash :)

WOYWW

Wednesday finds my desk again.  I'm so tired I had to retype today's name 3 times before my brain got the right spelling. Play along at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ 

*Begin random babbling*  My grandpa is hospitalized now with aspiration pneumonia.  He's 94 and has had a full and wonderful life.  If you think about all the world events that have happend in the last century and what he's lived through, it's really mind boggling.   Women didn't even have the right to vote (in the US) when he was born (1919), the empire state building was built when he was around 12 (1930), The Great Depression, WW2 ( during which he fixed torpedos in Hawaii), television invented, first man sent to space, Civil Rights Act, 9/11, first black US president.  As a simple carpenter for a local paper mill and a farmer, he sent his 4 sons to college.   It's really quite incredible to think about.   The truth is now that he's ready for eternal rest.  He's told us that he's ready to meet God.  The whole thing has me spending time reflecting on life and death...and letting go.  What a beautiful, beautiful life we have.  There's so much to experience...so much to learn, enjoy, love, create, explore, discover, do... I want to make the most of it, and, God willing, help change the lives of those around me (both animals and people) for the better.   So go hug your families now, create a little more this week, and thank God for all your blessings.  *End random babbling*



Soo.... My desk.  I took the picture of the flowers earlier so there was better lighting :)



I bought these flowers just so I could use them as a painting subject to practice watercolor still lifes!

Here's my desk today.   A pile of cards I got from swaps and one card that I did ( the flower, of course).  I don't like at all the way the flower turned out so I'll keep right on practicing with my watercolors.  Lately, I've just been playing around with my set of plain old Prang watercolors.  I have a really nice set of fancy-shmancy watercolors, but for some reason...I've just felt like using the basic set.  There's a news paper, a remote...random art odds and ends and a note book with a list of trades/swaps I'm participating in.  I need to work on cards for the swaps I'm hosting (Watercolor still lifes, watercolor landscapes, and colorful hot air balloons).but maybe I'll do that next week!


Peace and Love, y'all!  Thanks for visiting. 

WOYWW - late as always :)

Play along http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/

Here's my workspace this week!   My little crafty corner.  I have all my craft supplies in my wardrobe - neatly tucked away. 




And here is a close up of my desk.   It's got some cards I got in the mail, a list of swaps I'm participating in, prang watercolors, to-do list for today, grocery list..

On the floor are these books from the library. :) Lots of things to inspire...

Thanks for looking! 

Peace and Love, y'all!

Recent Swaps and Art

I've been signing up for as many swaps as I can lately over at ATCsforALL :) Here are some of the cards I've mailed:
Coffee swap!


Top Hat swap

Sheep Sheep

Big Eyed creatures

It's been a lot of fun creating cards and getting back in the swing of creativity :)  Chase and I have both been somewhat stressed by work.  So this has been my outlet.


Peace and Love, y'all.

WOYWW

Play along here http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/  

Nothing really interesting on my desk today.  It's kinda a mess with all the stuff I used to make some ATCs for swaps (already mailed).  Since it was a boring day for my desk...




Here is my shelf :)  It's got all my books about art, altered books, art journals, and some boxes of supplies. 

Peace and Love, y'all!

WOYWW - almost forgot!

So I spent this Wednesday spaying and neutering animals at the local shelter.  Last time I resisted looking at all the available animals, but this time I decided 1 peak wouldn't hurt.  I walked down the halls, and all the animals peered through their doors with their sad little eyes.  Sorry loves...I'm not the one your waiting for.  I wish I could save them all, but I'll have to settle with volunteering my time preventing more unwanted animals from being born.  Anyway...I almost forgot what day it is!  

It's WOYWW hosted by Julia over at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/.  On my desk is a notebook with a list of swaps I want to do and trades I have going (ATCs), stamps, envelopes ready to mail, cards I've been working on, and assortment of other goodies :)




My workspace in crafty disarray...  Hubby got me a "little" television for my craft corner and it can stream netflix :) Fun fun. 

And right next to my desk, there's a little Ruby-dog keeping me company :)

The to do list for me today:

-Save all the unwanted animals...er...maybe just spay/neuter a few so they can find good homes.
-Clean up the vegetarian cages (ie., the guinea pigs and chinchilla)
-Tackle the house "Hot Spots" (those spots where clutter seems to breed and multiply)
-pay bills and organize our finances
-PAINT!!


Peace and love y'all!

WOYWW

Play along here:  http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/




So here's my workspace this week.   It has some ATCs I've been working on for trading over at ATCsforAll .  Also there are some new stamps that were on sale at Michaels, stencils, watercolors, etc.

Thanks for looking!

Sassy Models ATCs

I've finally started ATCs back up again.   My style is shifting again as I'm trying out altered art :) 

Signed up for this swap:
http://www.atcsforall.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23815

 

 

 

 

"Love" Altered book page

I haven't done much in the way of art lately so I decided to put some time aside just for art today.  I'm sort of working through one of Willowing's classes (art, heart, and healing), but I got distracted by the idea of attempting a male whimsical character.   Seriously...have you ever seen a dude in that new style of whimsical art?  You know the style I'm talking about...google Willowing or Kelly Rae Roberts.  The style is pretty popular right now..but there are no guy faces.  Anyway..this is the result of my attempt to paint a whimsical dude.  My husband asked who the girl on the left was.  *sigh*  Short of giving him face hair or a box for a face, I'm not sure what I can do.  Ah..mysteries to ponder, techniques to practice.


Peace and Love, y'all!

WOYWW - AC unit, Animals, Armoire, Abdomen, Art/Heart/Healing,

Welcome to WOYWW!  Hosted by Julia over at the Stamping Ground every Wednesday (http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/) :)  I had such great intentions of posting early this week, but it just didn't happen! 

The babbling about random events:
First of all, on Monday night my brother called to tell me that my mom had to call an ambulance for my dad b/c he was having severe abdominal pain.  He's doing fine now.  The docs said it was likely just a stomach bug and sent him home for supportive care.   After that call, I noticed the temperature in my house was 78...3 degrees higher than what it should have been..and approaching too hot for some of my animals.   We realized the condensor thingy outside wasn't even running any more.  Long story short, we were without AC yesterday, but they fixed it today. So there's was a lot to take care of before I could snap a picture. 

The tour of my workspace:
 I thought I had it all squared away last week, but my folks brought up an armoire they are giving to us.  Armoire...that word never looks right.  Oh well...I fit almost all my craft supplies in it :)  Ewedora is the sheep on top of it.  She's rather an old sheep now - 9 years old!  She was a high school art project.
 

My crafting supplies and Ewedora on top. 

And look! My desk isn't completely empty this week!  HOORAY! On it is a book I'm about to alter...it's going to be my Art, Heart, and Healing Journal.   That's a free course offered by Willowing (linky thing on the side bar) that I think is going to be a lot of fun...and really good for me since I'm a little anxious lately.   Also on my desk is a stack of pages from a bird calender.  A bird a day to create art with!  What else?  random things...key to unknown car (maybe hubby's), new light switch i need to install, graduation card, coupons, speaker, tools to remove splinter from husband's foot... that's all!  Thanks for looking!  I can't wait to look around this week at everyone's crafty corners!


Peace and Love, y'all!

Random non-Wednesday post

Phew! I'm so tired this week...and it's only Monday.   This last weekend my parents came up for a visit to bring the piano and a wardrobe.  Thanks to the help of some people from church, the two new pieces of furniture are happily settled in.  I'm so happy to have my piano here... I'm not very good at it, but I like to putter around with it.  Music is therapeutic.  My mom and I rearranged all my crafting supplies so they are all contained within the wardrobe thingy.   That freed up a couple of shelves to put in other places.  I'm even letting Chase have a shelf all of his own :)   My dog chewed my SD card for my camera, and I don't at present know where my backup cards are.  Whoops.  Bad Ruby Dog!  Otherwise I'd take a picture to share.   We also checked out every one of the used furniture shops and flea markets in the Columbia area, and we found a bed frame for the "girly" guest room.  This room is red and white with lots of pictures and mementos from our wedding.  The bed we bought is a simple frame with a cherry veneer.   The bed just completes the ambiance of that room :)  Anyway...the weekend was a lot of fun, and it went by too quickly.    I wish our family lived closer - I miss them.  Sometimes having the 2 extra bedrooms just makes me feel lonely.  I miss my family, and I miss all my wonderful vet school friends.

I've been wondering lately how I can get my creative spark going again.  Graduating, moving, and starting a new job sort of drained the creative juices.  Work is sometimes stressful.  My patients often take a large portion of my brain after I clock out each day.  I carry my patients in my heart - always.  Sometimes that burden is not easy to carry.  I'm learning to rely on God to take care of them and guide my decisions with regards to my patients.  After all... true healing comes from God, but I like to think He works through me as his instrument of healing :)


Back to the creativity!  I have another blog that I've set to publish weekly art subjects, but I've been too busy to keep up with it.   I haven't really felt like doing it anyway.   So I decided to maybe do another online class... Art Trader discontinued their classes *sad* so I had to try somewhere else.  I'm not very good at actually finishing classes I sign up for, but I enjoy puttering around with them just the same.  The class I've decided on is a free one over at Willowing:  Art, Heart & Healing  (Look! I added a shiny new blog tag thingy linking to Willowing on my sidebar).  It sounds like a fun, whimsical class with a little bit of art therapy mixed in :)  Sometimes in my art I write my prayers down as the first layer..then gesso and paint over it so it's not legible to others.  It's a way for me to get my feelings down and process some of the more difficult things to deal with... like having to put down an animal I just can't do anything to save.


Peace and Love, y'all!

Time for "What's on your Workspace Wednesday"

Sorry I'm late (as usual).  If you want to playing along...check out Julia's blog http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ on a Wednesday! Today was a day off, but I volunteered at a local animal shelter the first half the day.  I spayed and neutered some animals for them and managed not to go look at all the adoptable critters.  Then I got so hungry...I gobbled down a meal from the first fast food place I saw...and fell asleep again for 4 more hours.   Whoops.   Anyway.  I finally have my crafting space all organized and the walls painted.   Maybe now I can finally get some art work done!!  Now what should I do? Hmm...ATCs...paint some art work for my new house.. :)  I'm so happy to have a space of my own just for crafts!!


My craft corner (and the chinchilla)

Chase's half (and Ruby's crate and Gary's dog bowls)

The "Vegetarian Corner"  Chimichanga the Chinchilla and Chorizo the Guinea pig...

Panda Piggy died (something wrong with his liver and kidneys as best I can tell) Since he was a abandoned pet, I have no idea if something was wrong with him before now or how old he was. :(  Chorizo is still doing great!


Peace and Love y'all!

WOYWW - Paint swatches :)

I'm a late-comer this week, but that's because I had work. :) Wednesdays are usually off or half days. 

So what's on my workspace this Wednesday?  Well a decision of sorts.  My husband and I agreed on 2 shades of green to try.  The rest of our house is a neutral yellow.  Maybe once I get this project done I can start painting again :)
 

Any opinions on the colors?

Peace and Love, y'all!

WOYWW - Getting settled in..

Happy WOYWW!  http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/

This past weekend, my husband and I packed up all our belongings (ie, crap) and moved into our new house!  Chase's parents came up to help over the weekend, our community group cam over to help unpack on Sunday, and my mom and aunt came to help us get to a "livable" state of settled in Monday and Tuesday. I pushed it a little too hard and got a summer cold.  Luckily we hired professionals for the big stuff or we'd be even more exhausted.
 
Moving truck!  Well worth the money to hire professionals to move the big stuff. 

Here's my new craft space - complete with chinchilla (and soon a guinea pig too).  Hopefully over the next week or two I can get it squared away enough to start crafting.

Questions for the lovely WOYWWers:

-What color should I paint this room?  I was thinking a green - maybe sage green?  I was voting for a lime green, but my husband says that's too bold.  I also like pale blue.   The rest of my house is a neutral sort of yellow - lots of red furniture.   Maybe sage green walls with red accents... All I know is..it's certainly not staying white!
-Window treatment ideas?  Anyone got any clever ideas for them? 

Thanks for stopping by!


*Edit*  Here's the latest addition to our family!  Don't know what we'll name him yet...maybe Panda-piggy.  He's from a local pet store that is closing.  He's an older fellow so he didn't find a new home quickly after he was dumped at the shop.  Since they are closing, the owner asked me to take this little fellow.  She's still working hard to place the rest of the critters.  I might take one more male guinea pig if she doesn't sell them all. 

WOYWW :)

Of course Blogger deleted this post the first time I wrote it.  Oh well!  Here's my desk this week!  Thanks to Julia for hosting!  http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/  I'm sorry I didn't get around to even half of the desks I wanted to last week.  Maybe this is the week I'll get through them all.


On my desk this week is a watercolor sketch for Draw! Sketch! Doodle weekly challenge (link on sidebar) and my altered book (the Love themed one).  I've had a lot of fun painting this week :) It's been a great stress relief from my first week of my "adult" job :)


 

Peace and Love, y'all!  Thanks for stopping by