A Celebration!

An Birthday Celebration

Over Thanksgiving weekend our family assembled for a double celebration. Not only were we celebrating the Thanksgiving Holiday, but since it's the one time of the year when the entire family is together, we threw an early surprise birthday party for my husband. He won't turn the BIG "70" until December, but that number certainly deserves a special celebration. (And, yes! He robbed the cradle when we married! LOL!)

In addition to making the lollipop centerpiece, I rummaged through dusty boxes and old albums of family photos and surreptitiously scanned and uploaded them (whenever he was out and about) to create a slideshow of his life that was shown at the party.

Thought you might enjoy a few of my favorite pictures:

Baby DH

My George Clooney!

What a trip down memory lane for the entire family. And yes, that's me in the picture above (circa 1982). The "Princess Diana" look was very popular at the time!

The Birthday Boy!

Now you know why I've been a bit absent lately. Throwing the party required a lot of time away from my regular computer activity and art schedule, but it was worth all of the effort when the Birthday Boy walked into our oldest son's house and was greeted with: "Surprise! Happy Birthday!" And the best part is . . . . (miracle of miracles!) the man never suspected a thing!

May your day be blessed with a few wonderful surprises!
♥
Credit: Special thanks to TumbleFishStudio-DeviantScrap for the party hat.

More Gratitude & A Freebie!

 

November

Gratitude Journal

(Click anywhere to see the details!)

In the spirit of the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday, thought I'd post a few more spreads from my Gratitude Journal. All of the journaling is spontaneous - I don't think about what I'm going to write until I actually pick up my pen.

October 27 - 30th

And last but not least . . .

October 20 - 24th

 

I'll be taking an extended blogging break to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, and the surprise birthday party for my husband is scheduled for Saturday. (BTW - I haven't spilled the proverbial Birthday Beans! My DH never reads my blog unless I ask him too!)

Of course the Thanksgiving holiday isn't complete without a turkey, so here's an image that you might enjoy. He's bringing you a ton of wishes for a beautiful Thanksgiving filled with family, friends, love and blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A PNG File

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with joy!
♥

A Bit of Gratitude

"Thanks!"

Next week we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving here in the States. It's a time for thinking about our blessings and gifts, for spending time with family and friends, and it's the official beginning of the Holiday Season.

(Click on the moon to see the details!)

A few months ago I started a journal that's been dedicated to expressing gratitude for life's little blessings: Candles when there are no lights, a friend who becomes an angel during a family crises, an empty parking space in a full lot . . . . You get the idea! 

September 27th

September 28th

Thought you might like to see some of the things I've been grateful for this fall.

(Click on the moon the see the details!)

 September 29th

September 30th

By the way, I am very grateful to Lee @ The Way I see It for her generosity and kindness. Lee discovered a few blogs that she thought were visit-worthy, and was dismayed at the fact that although the blogs and the artists were awesome, no one had taken the time to leave any comments. Despite her busy work schedule, Lee did a very generous thing. She decided to do a giveaway for anyone who visited and left comments on those fabulous blogs. Wonderful people DO inhabit this earth!

Also, my heartfelt gratitude to Beth Niquette @ Beth's Artworx  Beth's blog post on Tuesday featured the journal page in my previous post. On Tuesday's, Beth generously writes about and showcases artists who's work she finds particularly inspiring. Her blog post also provides a forum for all artists of all mediums to share their work with one another.

I'm also grateful to everyone who's been visiting here and to everyone who leaves a comment - no matter how small. My personal life has been a bit crazy over the past few weeks, and my blog visits have sadly fallen by the wayside. My spare time has been spent on planning a surprise birthday party for my husband over Thanksgiving weekend. (Shhhhh! It's a secret!) I am truly blessed and thankful for my dear Blogland friends!

May your day be filled with many blessings!
♥

November Journal Prompt & An Award

November's Page

(Click on her hat to see the details!)

How would you answer this question: If you could be any creature what would it be? It's a v-e-r-y interesting question which prompted a lot of thought. It's a question that was asked in my art group this month, and a question that could be answered 100 different ways.

  

For a short time I entertained the idea of being either a butterfly or a beautiful, mystical Unicorn. But all along, thoughts of being a dog were always strong. Who knows? Maybe in my next life I'll be reincarnated as a sweet little pooch!

**********

Thank you Geri!

A very loving and belated "Thank You" to Geri Centonze @ My Heart Art. A few weeks ago (during the infamous snowstorm and resulting power outage), Geri gave me this awesome award. I'm supposed to tell you seven things about myself that you might not know, and then I'm supposed to pass the award along to 15 bloggers who I think are deserving of this award. 

However, there are so many wonderful blogging sisters in my world, I can't choose only 15.  Rule breaker that I am, I'll pass on that rule, but I will reveal a few things about myself.

1. I need coffee - and plenty of it - to start my day.
2. Admittedly, I'm hooked on watching romantic comedies and love TV shows that make me laugh. (I'm a huge Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts fan!)
3. "Memoirs of a Geisha" is one of my favorite reads, along with "Jayne Eyre".
4. Obviously, I'm a h-u-g-e romantic!
5. I've been known to put chocolates on my husband's pillow at night so he can have sweet dreams.
6. Doing small, random acts of kindness makes my heart sing. I love seeing someone smile!
7. Lately I've been giving a lot of thought about my art and what direction I should be heading in.
8. I know - I know! The award said to tell you seven things, but I told you that I was a rule breaker! LOL! My bonus reveal is I have a secret crush on George Clooney!!! (But who doesn't?!?)

Thanks, again, Geri! If you have a few moments to spare, stop by to visit Geri and congratulate her on the arrival of her new grand-daughter, Harper, who was born on 11-11-11 at (are you ready?) 11:11 a.m.!!! Congratulations, Geri! Many blessings are being sent to Harper for a long, healthy and happy live!

May your day be filled with smiles!
♥

Credit: Special thanks to Rian at Freubel's Freebies for the body of the dog and the girl's pretty head!

A Friday Freebie!

Moon Fairy

(Right click to save her!)

Sometimes the best of intentions and seemingly well-made plans fall by the wayside. Originally I was going to post a few pages from my Gratitude J♥urnal - that being said, life got in the way of art making this week!

Both my grandson and my beautiful daughter are celebrating their Birthdays this weekend. In a spirit of celebration, I hope this little fairy will brighten your spirits and your art.

May your day be tinged with the colors of j♥y!
♥

Fall Calendars - Finally!

November

(Click on a leaf to see the details!)

You're looking at a journal spread that was created by candlelight! When I printed my images earlier in the week, little did I know that we'd lose our electricity for five days. No art for almost a week??? No Way!

If our fore mother's could do it, so could I! I sat at my kitchen table cutting and pasting by candlelight until my poor hands were numb with cold. When our power returned, I finally had an opportunity to finish my spread. There's certainly a lot to be thankful for lately!

Thought you might like to see my "finished" October spread too! I'm so happy that this spread is colorful and fun. There were no treats in our neighborhood this year because we'd been "tricked" by Mother Nature with that unexpected snowstorm!

October 2011

May your day be filled with warmth and lots of l♥ve !

 
Credits: November - Thanks to Tumblefish Studio @ Deviant Scrap for the "crown" apron & to Dover Publications for the butterflies. October - Thanks to Cassi's Creations- Etsy for the unaltered witch mannequin and to Land of Nod Studio - Etsy for her lovely shoes. All remaining images from Pringle Hill Studio.

Powerless!!!

It all began with

a few snowflakes . . .

How do I begin to tell you about our week? It started innocently enough with just a sprinkle of snowflakes on some fallen leaves and our Halloween pumpkin. Within a few hours, however, we were living in a winter wonderland!

The gentle snowfall rapidly became a terrible snow squall. When the storm ended 24 hours later, we were blanketed with 12+ inches of wet, heavy snow. Downed branches and broken tree limbs dotted the landscape and ripped power lines apart. Within hours we were left in the dark along with approximately 1/2 million other people in our area. 

Fortunately, we sustained  minimal property damage. We  did have a fireplace to keep us warm, plenty of candles, water, hot water (believe it or not!), down blankets, and - most importantly - a cell phone.  Our camping experience ended yesterday when the power popped back on. We're very fortunate - many people are still powerless almost an entire week later.

Needless to say, there's been no blogging, no new posts, no new art, etc., but I have several pieces in the works. I'll share them with you soon, but will use the next few days to regroup. I've missed everyone so much -  It's good to be back in Blogland!

Warm wishes for a wonderful day!