Bye Bye Busy April

Its the last day of the month. What does that mean for me? Well kinda sad, as I am always fond of April. Its my 1st son's birthday month and that alone makes it one of my fav months. (also Feb and March were kinda depressing this year)

Anyhoo.. You all might want to see this digital calendar beauty I made for this month. It turned out great. I still love doing these. You can see my others from this year here. Or all 12 from last year Here.





























We're out in the sun having fun today. Hope you have a beautiful day where you are too.

Maniac because everyone is sold out of my large carving blocks

I'm still keeping up my art pace. Sure its more of a speed walk than a jog, but still.. It feels good to be posting again. Its coming down to the count down for the garage sale. I should be in total panic mode, but I'm not. My garage looks like a hoarders episode, but thats a good thing. The pug rescue garage sale is goin' to be HUGE! (I will of course share pics if I can stop for two second to take pics)
Only two weeks left! eek!

Onto the crafty stuff. My bloggy bud, Lauren always does sketches from Limelight papercrafts. This is unfortunately their last sketch. I'm late to the party, but at least I showed up. Here's their sketch for this week.
















And here is the card I made:





























The challenge was to use your fav stamped flower on the card. I used my lotus hand carved stamp I made.

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I put in an order today on Amazon and found these cups ON SALE that hold loose tea to make hot tea on the go. I bought two. They are an amazing price. Find them on Amazon here. They are only $2.74!!



















Well I'm off to straighten things up. I have a friend coming over for a playdate today. Thanks for stopping by! Have a great Friday everyone.

Lions oh my!

I've enjoyed painting alot this week. I paid and have been taking this class by Alisa Burke. I haven't done much with it. I did watch and work on this a bit yesterday in my art journal. I'm not entirely comfortable drawing in pen with out doing it in pencil first. But here was my first try at it.



















I really miss doing my weekly art journal pages. This year's challenge has really went into the toliet. Last year was so dedicated. I have to keep telling myself its only April (almost May) time to get to stepping! That is what I plan to do.

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Yesterday I went to a thrift store and found a new book for my collection. I don't know if I ever mentioned that I have an effientity for vintage children's books? Well I do. Especially those with illustrations of lions in them. Well this beauty was 25 cents. I love it! I also really like well illustrated children readers.

















































Well I have to find some lunch to eat and paint a little before I have to go. Thanks for stopping by!

White little cats running through my mind

I've had a fantastic last few days. I've been keeping busy by doing all the things that are difficult with a 3 yr old. Yesterday I went thrifting, to a pet store, craft store, and a clothing store. I got everything this week I wanted to get except for making it to the tea store. I wanted to go to the tea store in the mall to get a new loose tea holder for my cup and maybe some new tea.

I've given up coffee now. I just can't handle how it makes me feel. I get horribly jumpy and jittery. I get cranky because I can't stop feeling out of control. So no more coffee. :( Its a whole lotta caffeine free hot tea for me now. How weird is that for me to say? WEIRD thats what. I love my coffee. I have a feeling when winter comes back around and I see that peppermint coffee creamer I''ll have to hold myself back.

I did a new layout for Sketchy Thursday's layout this week. I've been fiddling with it all morning.

Here's the sketch.



















And here's what I made.

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I also wanted to share a new mosaic of my fav flickr favs I made. I do love making these little inspirational mosaics. I want to make another book of my favs again. I like looking through them. It makes me feel inspired. Look at the bottom for links to all where they came from on flickr.





























1. dec daily|02 (explored), 2. Untitled, 3. Haunted by the 80's, 4. ya think we like birds?, 5. Art Quilt - Into the Mystic, 6. Betsey Johnson Mini Tea Party Strapless Dress, 7. 3 Cupcake and Cake Bottle Cap Magnets with Decorated Hinged Gift Tin, 8. "Scrodzilla", 9. hooray!... for cake

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

Thanks for stopping by!

Tulips should come in turquoise

Yesterday was wonderful. I got so much done! I put together my easel. I also finished up the dog bed I made for the dogs ages ago. I made this dog bed cover for my dogs out of scraps of fabric I had. It is velcroed over an old blanket folded up inside it. This way I only have to wash the cover I made for it. Thats my biggest beef with dog beds you buy. None of them have easy to wash covers. Hello??@! Dogs are dirty beasts. Well at least mine are.

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I also finished a card for the jinglebelles current challenge. Go green and Go Earth Day! This week was to use recyclable, reusable items. I took newspaper and colored it with alcohol inks by Tim Holtz and the snowflake tape is by him also. I sewed on the card and used some chipboard thickers and old BG tag I had laying about. I used a Martha Stewart snowflake punch on the newspaper. It turned out so neat. Finally I feel back into the card zone.





























I'm trying to plan out my other totally free day! I'm thinking some more art and thrifting might be in order. Tonight is a night out with hubby. We're going to go to our fav Indian restaurant. Thanks for stopping by!

Carrot cake is not my friend

I finished all 5 fish painted and done up for my friend, Heather. It wasn't that big of a project. I managed it in a couple hours. They look okay. I like them, I'm worried she won't. The big problem I didn't like with them is that their eyes are drilled out. So I couldn't make eyes for them really. That kinda makes them look "dead" to me. I don't know. I think she'll like them. They were plain metal to start with. I spray painted them aqua blue, then painted them with acrylic paints.

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Easter was fantastic yesterday. We had a lovely time. My parents and sister came over for the day. The boys had a great Easter. Today I'm putting together my easel, painting, making cards, and enjoying my 2 kidlet free days I'm having. I slept in till 7, (which is good for me) but really wanted to enjoy my day so I went back to slept till 8:30!! I haven't slept in that long in a very long time. Sad I know. It was wonderful. Have a great Monday everyone!!

Mustard yellow actually looks flattering on me.

I just looked through my flickr photos looking for a specific pic. I have done hardly anything arty this year. I'm feeling so blocked. I keep hoping to wake up one of these days and feel like I used to, and it hasn't happened yet.

I am working on painting some metal fish for my friend. Her dad makes metal fish or other things to hang outside on walls or fences. She gave them to me. I have 5 I think. They are pretty big. About a 1 1/2 x 1 feet each. I spray painted them all an aqua blue first, now I'm painting them with some acrylic paint. Then when they are done I'll seal them.

I'll post pics when done!

Other than that we colored eggs yesterday. Logan and Leo love that. *note to self make egg salad today*

Here's some pictures.

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I've been obessed about looking at dresses online to buy. I really want to get back into shape and do a 5k again soon. I struggled this winter with all the sickness/lack of motivation/school/pugs..you name it. I let everything get ahead of me being in the gym 5x a week. I'm getting back into the groove. I've started using myfitnesspal.com which is awesome.

I think for every goal I hit, I'm going to buy myself a new dress. This one is one of my favs. You can click on the image to see it on Etsy.



















I have to go get Logan today from school early. Next week is his spring break and his 8th birthday!! Off I go!

I think creative wise I'm going to have to reorganize all my supplies and get my ideas flowing. Next step in this creative drought.

I feel like I'm getting back into the bloggin' feeling. Think of it going kind of like the song "I've got that loving feeling", just substitute "loving" with "blogging". I've been buying a few things lately that have gotten me very happy. One is this album by a new band I found via Pandora. They are called the Submarines. Their music is awesome. I love this song.



I love this video for it. They are great. My new thing on repeat in my car.

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I also made a new treasury of things I love on Etsy yesterday.

I don't know if you are aware, but every Wednesday, Jessica Sprague has dollar digital Wednesdays. You sign up for the newsletter and boom a whole bunch of $1 items sent to your email box. Here's what's on sale today!! Some neat digi Cosmo Cricket!!

I got:

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I'm quite happy with those purchases. I have also been busy making crafty stuff.


Well today is my hour spin class. I hope I don't feel as sore as last week. I'm really slacking athletic wise. I need to get back in the zone.

Thanks for stopping by!

Digi Dare 223

Has there painting been going on? No.. Have I done anything other than what I'm posting right now? No. But I did move my computer back into the dining room and am no longer watching Weeds on streaming Netflix or Prison Break. So maybe, just maybe I'll get some crafty stuff done!

I did want to do a layout like this for a long time. Logan and Leo have always looked almost identical to each other. Like they were identicals just born 4 1/2 years apart. Only difference is that Logan started having curly hair at one year old and Leo's has always been straight. Logan's is no longer curly. But you have trouble telling their baby pictures apart! Its so neat.

Here you can judge for yourself. The digi dare was to have:
• A ruler
• A watch/clock/clockface (some element that tells time)
• The date of each photo and the age(s) of the subject(s) in the photo
• Your journaling should include details from both (or more) time periods

Here's what I did.





























You can click on the picture to see it bigger. Thanks for looking!

I feel like a paintin'

I'm getting a bit more done lately. Saturday was a big turning point for me. We went and took the pugs to their new forever home. Yes! They were adopted. I'm very glad, but a bit sad. I do miss them. I realized though now that they aren't here, how much work just two little dogs added to my daily schedule. Still.. I do miss them. We'll be getting more foster pugs.











After we dropped them off, Lewis and I headed to Sarasota. We stayed overnight and went to the Ringling art museum. It was so great! It really got my creative juices flowing.































Mostly I've just been working on pug type products to sell at the pug garage sale I'm having in May. All the proceeds go to the pug rescue of Florida. Its going to be HUGE.

Hoping to get back into my creative groove and start posting more now. *fingers crossed*

Hope you all had a good weekend like I did.

Thanks for stopping by!

March showing

I'm still on a break, but I had to add my March calendar for you all to see. I am still doing them. I will do these no matter what. Speaking of which I have to work on making a calendar for April.

I also wanted to tell everyone that the pugs found a forever home!! They are going to their new home tomorrow. Very excited. Logan is a little bummed and wants another foster asap! Going to have a nice birthday weekend with my hubby.

Talk to you all soon.