TGIF and Photos From A Recent Walk

Remember any photos seen here can be on a blank photo card for sending. Just ask me. ****************************

I love Fridays as it's the first day of my weekend. I am spoiled with three days off from work. No idea what I'll do with it this weekend. We were going to have friends visit from out of town but they cancelled their plans at the last minute...so it's up in the air. A lot depends on what bro's needs will be too.

But whatever we do I know it will be enjoyable. As right now Life is Good!

Wishing YOU ALL a pleasant weeks' end and weekend!

What is?

Up Date: Bro got up feeling pretty darn good this morning. Not much discomfort at all. So glad! Question: What has a white beard, is bald, and is minus two big gall stones the size of meat balls and several smaller ones? Answer: My brother! He's sitting in my living room eating chicken noodle soup and looking not too much the worse for wear after his surgery today. Thank you all for your thoughtful wishes for his speedy recovery. It sure helped me through this day. *********************************************************************************** I also had my first ETSY sale today!

Below you can see the label I made for my Relaxation Bliss CD which I sold today! There's a lot more where that came from!

Relax and Enjoy Grateful Thursday!

May I please come in?

May I please come in? (or Open the darn door will you?) Where are they?

(I see you behind your silly camera, now open the door!)

Pretty pretty please?

Happy Animal Wednesday from

Henry V

Another true story from a satisfied user of my RELAXATION CD:

Remember the story of the woman with the two afghan dogs who joined her each time she put on my relaxation CD and laid on their backs listening until it was over?

Well today another new client came in raving about her use of the relaxation CD I had given her last week to help her control her anxiety. She said first her 8 yr old daughter came in to sit next to her on the floor where she sat back up against the couch legs stretched out in front of her. The little girl mimicked her mothers position and listened to the end of the CD. Then she said: "I didn't hear it from the beginning, can you start it over again?" And she did and they did sit listening to the end again. But before she got started her CAT, named Angel, who she said is a very hyper active cat came into the room. Angel saw her sitting on the floor and walked up to her legs and stood just starring up at my clients eyes as if to say: "WHAT are you DOING?"

The cat stood thus for a while (the relaxing CD going all this time) and then went to sit next to the little girl and sat there quietly until the CD ended.

All three got up feeling very calm and relaxed.

So NOW I am not only a people relaxer, dog whisper, but also a cat calmer!!!!

I feel so successful!

;0

Happy Bloomin' Tuesday!

My next door neighbor planted sunflowers in his front yard this year. A small grove of them and they are beauty-full to see! This one is (or any of my photos really could be) on a photo card in my ETSY store!

Just request it~ He also has a plethora of cosmos and poppies!

This blurry beauty is a small myrtle tree in our front yard!

Wishing you all a Happy Bloomin' Tuesday.

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Tomorrow my brother has a double surgery (gall bladder removed and hernia corrected)

and then will be coming here to our home to recuperate. Do send your positive thoughts, and

prayers his way for a safe surgery and speedy recovery. Thanks.

Cactus Monday and K = Kitty and Kite

DH and I found this lovely array of Cacti on an evening drive after dinner last Friday night.

I'm always excited when I know I have a Cactus for the next Cactus Monday!

Dh says he's my blog manager and makes sure I have what I need for posting!

He pulls right over to let me take my photos!

Thanks DH. You are a gem~

K = Kitty and Kite is for Mim on our ABC ATC Blog swap!

Done in ink pen, and watercolors using a water brush!

You fill the body of the brush with water

squeeze some to the tip and dip the wet tip into the paint pad.

Wah...la! Water colors!

DH has brought me home a set of these brushes in various sizes.

More fun and games for creating fun stuff!

If you want to Google them the brand I have is called

Aqua-Flo by Royal Langnickel.

Gold Mountain Art Quilt FOR SALE IN ETSY SHOP

Ta Da!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This humble artist is very pleased with the outcome of this newest creation in fibers, hand dyed fabrics, hand dyed ribbons, metallic threads and Chinese embellishments.

Stitches here are gold metallic thread and shine and red metallic threads too.

Chinese coins and Ying Yang coin embellish the side and corners of art quilt

I used a combination of machine quilting and hand stitch quilting on this piece. (white tack holds quilt to fence, it's not a permanent part of the art)

Photos taken on a sunny afternoon. Colors are brighter in person.

I made this beauty for my ETSY store! (but right now I am in love with it...so it may stay home for a bit first. ;-)

and Now there are Five...all done!

Number five and four are on top

numbers one, two and three below... Here you can see all five postcards It was fun to get out fabric paints, acrylics, glitter and glue for this last of the five Playing Card Postcards for our Art Quilts Around The World post card swap. I wonder who wants which one? Actually they all went out in yesterdays mail. ********* Saturday was a busy day in a laid back sort of way. I did some studying in the early afternoon while sitting in the shade of our three redwood trees in the back yard. Then I felt like creating so I went inside and let fabric and threads fly! In just a few hours I got the foundation fabrics and ribbons stitched together and then quilted by machine. Now I am in the process of adding hand stitches and embellishments. I love how it's come together. It sings Summer. And it's big about 16" x 16" I'll show it to you soon!

See Kelly's Post and Lynn's Latest Creation

Please go to Kelly's Blog to read this post. It's really important that we all do our part for Global Solidarity with the People of Iran July 25th Today!

http://kikipotamus.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/global-solidarity-with-the-people-of-iran-july-25/#comments

***********************

I used hand dyed fabric from Chris of Dyecandy

and hand dyed ribbons from Vivian's Etsy shop for lots of texture and dimensions

and a few odds and ends fabrics and threads that peek through the others adding sparkle

to create these swirling ocean waves with white caps and sun shining on the sandy beach

that you see here!

Comments welcomed.

Size: 12" X 17" approx.

Grateful Friday

Grab a seat and get comfortable as this is a week of weeks where I collected an even dozen pieces of art from my friendly generous sharing artist friends in blogland! This card came from Mim. Mim is very generous in that she supports other blog artists and she got this card from Fifi of FififlowersDesign.com. Of course Mim and I have a sunflower connection so getting this particular card felt meant for me. Thanks Mim. [If you are new to blogging you can click on the highlighted names to get to their blogs and see art, and you can click on photos to enlarge and see details.] When Mim isn't riding her bicycle or kayaking she is painting fish! You can see a lot of them on our ABC ATC blog. These below are silver sparkling herring for "H" = Herring! I love it because herring is such a Jewish fish! At least I learned to eat it at my grandparents table and then again when I lived in Israel. I wish you could see how they sparkle in person! Thanks Mim for all.

This next pretty card came from Margaret.

Margaret has a unique style and she must use a pen with an ultra sharp point to get the tiny lines she draws to make her zentangle ATCs...

Don' t you just love this jumble of hearts? I sure do. Thank you Margaret!!!!

Marianne sent her ATCs in this adorable pink sparkly bag. It is so "girly"! I just love it. and her lovely note written on this Frida Kahlo post card!

I do wish you could see these in person. As the paint used shines and is sparkly especially the circle behind this beautifully detailed Iris. This was made for our "I" for Iris on the ABC ATC Blog swap.

This wonderful green/blue orb has sparkling glitter on all the swirling parts!

It looks like it is in constant motion! Marianne you are awesome!

This wonderful moon and stars ATC has glitter and little beads on it too. So much beauty that can fit onto one of these diminutive artist trading cards. It is truly amazing.

Thank you Marianne. I love each and every one. Your art rocks!!!

Teri C. sent me an envelope full of delightful ATCs, starting with this hand made card... Don't you just LOVE her "Dazzling Daisies"? I sure do! They sparkle in person...

and this is called: "To The April Fools"...meaning DH and me for eloping on April Fools' Day (1985)...Teri got excited about my jester from that marriage announcement and zentangled this cutie for us. We never got wedding gifts so I can't tell you how fun it is to get one 24 years later!

Look at the intricacies in her zentangling!

And then there were inchies in each ATC packet! How cute are these!!!!!

It's really a high compliment to make art in some form in stitchery, drawing, painting or photography and have another artist be inspired by it enough to create art of her own. That is what Teri did here once again being inspired by my photo of pelicans!

Hers are so cute! Thank you Teri from the bottom of my heart for each and every one!