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

Some Favorite Wildlife Shots

These are some of my pictures from our trip West. 


This one was taken at the Grizzly and Wolf Learning Center.  I think it's amazing...Did you spot the wolf?



While we were driving one day...it started hailing.  The stinging as hail hit the bison drove them to nearly stampede!  They were all tossing their heads as they ran very close to the line of cars trying to get by.

 

This is a bear we saw while driving. 


This is an ermine (short tailed weasel) who popped out of the ground while we were enjoying a picnic.  Isn't he cute?  I read that ground squirrels are a favorite food so no wonder he liked picnic tables since the squirrels will practically come up to you hoping for a bite of picnic food.  Of course, no one in my family feeds wild animals since that encourages unnatural behavior...but we were still happy to see this little guy.


So you might be wondering how my first day went... In summary, it was a good day.  I might post on it later :)

WOYWW and Close Encounters of the Moosey Kind

WOW!!  I'm actually in town and not completely swamped!  And what do you know...from here on out, Wendesdays are a short day at work :) So maybe I'll get to play more often!   What's on Your Workspace Wednesday is really fun - you can play too if you go to The Stamping Ground.  :)    They are even swapping ATCs this week...but I've had no inspiration for ATCs lately and I'm avoiding mail-art until I get settled at the new house. 




This week I have my art journal and an altered book on my desk - along with an assortment of art supplies including isopropyl alcohol and plastic wrap :)

Ugh....and this is what I see if I turn around from my desk.  We'll be moving to a house in 2 weeks - our very first house.  It's going to feel so good moving out of an apartment..  Real job...real house....real bills?  Are we adults yet?.... nah.




Here's the first page of my altered book.    I'm debating if I want to stick with the pink and purple all the way through or not.  It's already starting to drive me nuts so I might add some more warm colors to the subsequent pages.

This is a picture from vacation.  We were just going around a bend on a trail we were hiking when we nearly walked right into this moose.  I'm glad we were paying attention - Moose can be dangerous!   I thought Ellen's expression captured how we all felt.  Of course we were delighted to see such a creature, but all wild animals should be given a great deal of respect ...and distance.


Peace and Love, y'all

Creative Days Off

I have a couple of days before work begins (real work...as in my first real job ever), and I'm using those days to create art (and...clean and pack up the apartment).

I've been somewhat following along with Altered Book Lover's altered journal series, but this is the first lesson I've really been able to complete.   :)  Sort of a lesson 8 and 9 combo:


http://alteredbooklover.blogspot.com/2012/05/lesson-9-backgrounds-and-collage.html


This all started because I got distracted by colors in Taste of Home magazines I was looking through for meal ideas... 

Here's my analogous color scheme background...plus the syran wrap technique described in lesson 9 :)

Ah!  Dry!  Didn't that turn out neat?

Add my wheel, scraps from making the wheel, and some paint...and ta da!...There's an art journal page :)


Thanks for looking!


Peace and Love, y'all!

Lamp (Week 22)

I actually got around to painting this week!  So here's my entry for the draw sketch doodle challenge!  :)
 

Highlights of our trip West

The month of May has flown by and so much has happened since I last updated!  So I'll cover the highlights...

• Chimichanga is a boy chinchilla.   He still doesn't let me perform a full exam, but he's definitely a boy.  I'm just glad I didn't find out by adding another "female" chinchilla to the cage. :)

• Chase and I found a house to purchase!  It's a cute little starter home with 1 more bedroom than we have here in the apartment.  My favorite room is the bonus/family/sun room.  It's got lots of good lighting and laminate flooring...so it's going to be the craft room/office/pet room.  I can't wait to have an easy to clean area around the chinchilla!  That bonus room really frees us to use all 3 bedrooms as bedrooms...now we just need inhabitants for the other 2 bedrooms!  My 2 dogs are going to love the back yard (and so are we).

• I won some awards!  I'm one of Mizzou's 3 internal medicine award recipients (ie...I'm an internal medicine nerd).  That one comes with a year subscription to a journal that I can wait to read! I also received a cash prize for small animal community medicine.  I'm super excited about the cash...since we're a touch (ie...completely and utterly) on the broke side.   My dream job didn't come cheap...8 years of college....150K of educational debt.  AND we just bought a house...so money is a big issue in my brain right now.  

• I graduated, and I am licensed and ready to start my new job on Friday.   I just have a couple more loose ends to take care of.

We just got back from another epic family vacation... 2 weeks of exploring the west.  We visited the Black Hills, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons...  Here are some photos

   

Mammoth Site (in the Black Hills) - this is a paleontological dig site that is available for tours.   It was a sink hole with sides too steep for mammoths to get out...once they stumbled in for a drink of water.  Over time it filled in and HUNDREDS of mammoths were preserved.    It was awesome!  Some of them are still laying in the position they died in - trying to escape the pool.  Even though this wasn't a national park...it was well worth seeing.  We'll definitely go back someday.  They've only dug about 20 feet...and have 60 feet to go.  How many more mammoths will they unearth? 

Grand Tetons.

One of Yellowstone's 1000s of thermal features.  

Devil's Tower - we didn't get to go up and check for aliens.  ;)



Peace and Love, y'all!

Tomorrow....

This is the last night without a D.V.M. after my name.   I'm not sure I'm ready to say goodbye to vet school...I've met such wonderful people...such great friends...


Pella, Iowa.

Pie throw