some more atcs

These are the last four for the Vintage Children's Book
atc swap. The images are from the children's primer
On Our Way. Instead of Dick, Jane, and Spot, we have
Jimmy, Sue, and Pepper.



One of my swap partners collects chicken things, so I
had to make her an extra--the feather is compliments
of our own dear Zoltar. Yes, thank you, I am aware that
the label is a little "off." However, if you've ever
met a rooster, you know that they're generally more than
a little off!

a little art therapy for me

Wooeeee, I'm tired of cryin'! Yesterday was the
funeral. I don't know about anybody else, but for
me, it was like every funeral I've ever been to
rolled into one. Today I just slept, did a little
bit of laundry, and played in the art room. And
now dh is rubbing my neck for me and reading over
my shoulder. I love this guy!

It's raining and raining and raining here (which
fits my mood just fine, thank you), so you can
just forget about any of that natural lighting
business for THIS picture.



My Alice In Wonderland atcs for a swap. (Alice is
one of my all time favorites; I have a little bit
of a collection of different Wonderland books.)




These are two Alices I received, the one on the left
from Jill, and the one on the right all the way from
Israel from Michal. I really like Michal's use of
the text from the story.




Finally, for a Door-That-Opens atc, here is one using
an Altered Pages image. The picture was so gorgeous,
I didn't do much to it. (The little doors open up to
some rub-ons, and the word "love" surrounded by gold,
with a little sparkly heart above it.)

Wesley and Tippy

One of the things I found out about my grandpa
is he really liked dogs. He'd never had a dog
ever since I could remember, but here he is on
the farm with Tippy in 1944. This was pretty much
right before my mom was born.

Isn't he a good looking guy?

August love (aka blog giveaway), and announcing the September love . . . and other, more important love . . .

Thank you to everyone who came by for a little visit in
August, and to all these who posted. Every one of these
peoples (except Julie, who could if she wanted to) has a
blog that's worth a visit. Which is why they are linked.

Julie--my Alaska friend!
Tipper
Shelly
Catharinas
Jan
Kathleen
Contessa Kris
Angie
Beth
Sue
Nancy
Danielle (my Florida twin)
Rhonda
Zeborah
Theresa
Suzy Q
Renea
Christina
Susan
Inka
Alina
Janet
Caryl
Jackie
Joan
Cindy
Lola
sabii wabii, who runs with scissors
Linda
Robin
Jersey Girl
michi

If I missed anybody, I'm sorry. If you're lurking, then
post a comment next time, silly!

Danielle my Florida twin gets a little August love,
shown HERE (clicky linky thing).

(If you're out there, Danielle, please e-mail me
your address!)

The September love, contrary to popular belief and despite
a rumor viciously spread by, wait, that was me, is NOT
another tile, but instead the fairy sparkly hanger thing,
shown HERE (another clicky linkety).

I did hang her from the rearview mirror, but alas,
she proved to be too distracting for some of us.
Bad news for me, good news for you.

Now the really not pleasant news for me is that my
grandpa does indeed have cancer, and tomorrow I will
be going with my mom to help make arrangements--
hospice, whatever he wants. This is biting me even
more than with the other times we've gone through
this process, and it is because for as long as I've
known my grandpa, I don't really know that much about
him. Don't get me wrong, I know the important stuff,
like what a great guy he is (my husband is a lot
like him), and that we'll be seeing him again (what a
day of rejoicing that will be! No, wait, that song is
supposed to be about Jesus. But it still fits!), so
it's not a mourning without hope, it's just feeling
sorry for myself, and my mom, and my uncle, and wishing
I knew things like what his favorite color is, and what
he liked to do when he was a kid.

I aim to find some of those things out in these next
few days.

Maybe, just maybe, there's someone you love, that you
need to hang out with, too, and find out a little bit
about them. Because it really is true that you never
know when it may be too late.

Too late for here, anyway.

Apple Festival offerings, a little art therapy, and a surprise for somebody . . .

The Missouri Baptist Children's Home (who now also
operate the Special Care Homes, which is a group
living facility for adults with special needs) is
getting ready for its annual fund raiser, The Apple
Festival. The main draw/money maker is the quilt
auction, and there are always many AMAZING quilts,
but there's also an auction of craft items.

My offerings fall under the "unusual" category, which
my children find highly amusing.



First is the little handbag with a bit of rescued vintage
feedsack quilt, embellished with beading and text.

Here's the little quiltie pendant, complete with the carved vintage button
(as decided in an earlier post, thank you to all who voted).

And finally the faith bamboo tile
pendant, which was made a while back, but only
the one on the right, as the other was claimed by DD.


Creative Therapy's prompt this week was what inspires you.
I don't know about inspiring, but what gets me going is
a deadline. A little pressure. A little urgency. I'm not
a procrastinator, but there's something about that little
jolt of added adreneline that really gets things jumping.

Here is the surprise. If you recognize this
as YOUR dear Granny, please send me an e-mail with
your address, because, although it was somewhere in
this house at one time, it has gone into hiding . . .

emergency atcs

Well, not exactly an emergency, but I did
NOT read the swap rules well for the collage atcs,
and shorted my partners by one. So, made them
each two more in about 45 minutes (okay, yes, the
backgrounds were already finished), and these I
like way better than poor Jimmy and Pepper and Sue.

Maybe this means I work better under pressure?

Then there was a thunderstorm and the electricity
went out, and our lan line phone died so we went
to Target and bought another one for $5.00 (can you
believe you can get a phone for $5.00??), then
came home and spent the rest of the evening trying
to sneak up on one another for the sole purpose of
scaring the jibblies out of each other. It was
hilarious, we were just a giggly mess--but the
teenage boys probably wouldn't like me saying THAT.

vintage children's book atcs

Supposed to be making six of these; here are the first
two. I feel okay about them, which usually means they'll
end up in the trash, or revamped somehow. I really like
the backgrounds, at least. That's my favorite art thing
to do right now--make backgrounds!

Jimmy and Pepper and Sue just aren't doing it for me,
though. Maybe I need good ol' Dick, Spot, and Jane!

atcs and a quiltie question??

Here are some atcs (using Altered Pages images) for a swap:


these are for a collage atc swap,


and these are for a sparkly atc swap. They're embossed with that
iridescent powder, so they're very glittery in person. Which means
I was very glittery in person yesterday, after making them.

This little quiltie is going to be a pendant, but I can't
decide which button to use up top for the necklace hook
part thing. (You know, the necklace hook part thing. That
makes perfect sense!)



So that explains the poll. I love these things!---------->
They very much amuse me--c'mon, don't be a spoiler,
play along. You can pick the button you think is the
ugliest, if it will give you a cheap thrill for the
day. Go ahead, click the little circle . . . you
don't have to leave a comment . . . just a little
clickety click, no one is watching . . .

This piece was inspired by fancy picnic, whose things are
just gorgeous.

Really, really gorgeous. Mine is kind of cute and fun,
but hers are luxuriously richly gorgeous. Okay, the
heart is felted cashmere--does that count for luxurious??

our trip to Africa

The weather was so incredible Monday morning that
we took a little trip to Africa (the kind that doesn't
require passports, shots, or jet lag). The girl child
took possession of the camera, and shot these
photos--

the elephants were having a snack
(they each had just received a big
chunka hay),


the gorilla was enjoying a nap in the shade,


the tortoise was giving us a "go away" look
(he really was looking at us, which was weird,
because we're used to being pretty much
ignored by the animals),


the zebra was playing with her colt,


and the warthog, well, ain't he a cutie?

how do you spell "cancelled?" canceled???

Actually, either is considered correct. I've
decided I prefer the two l spelling when
printing, and the single l when writing. It
just looks better, to my eye--but that's just
me. Wish I'd figured that out BEFORE stamping
the "canceled" on these postcards, but done
was done, and they were mailed for a swap.



This wonderful Seussian snub-nosed monkey came
my way, thanks to Kitty--



and this beauty of a twinchie thanks to Sue--



and this one I'm sending out for a butterfly
ATC swap.