sweet evening song

i love "friday evenings" on a tuesday!! i'm off work until monday, the 5th so it feels like a sweet, sweet delightful friday to me. i'm listening to a bit of mellow pearl jam (driftin'), some eddie vedder (i love the into the wild soundtrack!!) and a bit of paul mc cartney (heaven on a sunday and little willow from the flaming pie cd). i started my facebook page yesterday and i want to finish setting it up, make some contacts (i see that some of YOU belong yeah!) and load some photos. wonderful, lazy evening filled with life's sweet evening songs!

i did the little sweet evening song collage on sunday. i'm enjoying using some hand cut paper elements instead of only using torn paper. this is the first in a series of 4 collages so stay tuned for more. i have 5 full days to play and sing in the art room!!

sweet dreams and mellow songs to all!

self-portrait

i've been wanting to do a self-portrait for some time. what better way to spend boxing day than home in my art room (and my pajamas!) doing what i love?


the caricature of me depicts my younger, funkier side but i feel even at 56 that i still have a good deal of spunk!! the camera is my dream camera, a nikon d-60. if i visualize it, it will come true. i covered the background of the canvas with torn pieces of my favorite sheet music -- the beatles, james tayor, paul simon and carole king. i'm wearing jeans, of course and a long boho scarf, my favorite look. all the garments, my hair, the camera, etc. are cut from scrapbook paper.


my dear, sweet presley is done in shiva paint sticks on a heavy blue patterned scrapbook paper. he's right by my side, as always!


the little brown cart holds some of my favorite mixed media torn paper collages, all ready to travel off to an art fair or gallery. they're for sale, of course!


my blue bike is loaded down with a collection of books by my favorite authors, all ready for a trip to the library. the bike was a bit challenging but i was quite pleased with how it turned out. this is still a work-in-progress and i'm sure it will be tweaked a bit over the next week or so. i'm not crazy about the green library or bust banner and want to do some more work on the books to get them to be a bit more realistic. collaging is so forgiving and can be fixed quite easily.


i added a bunch of colorful balloons so i could depict my little mantra hope, peace, love, joy. hope this beautiful sunday morning finds you happy, healthy and creatively inspired. if not, treat yourself to a long nap!

christmas reflections

yesterday (christmas day!) was a beautiful day here in ohio, cold but sunny with a refreshing crispness in the air. as i so often do on a day with a bit of non-busy down time i grabbed my camera and played around. the above is titled bare trees. i love the tiny bit of rainbow effect as the sun streams through the bare branches. i can almost feel the warmth of the sun cutting through the brisk winter air.

the busy christmas season is a wonderful time to reflect on our lives and the priorities we set for ourselves. growing and expanding creatively was a big focus of 2008 for me. as i reflect on the year i'm so proud of what i've achieved. i'm formulating new goals for 2009, planning to discard the excuses and self-imposed restraints and fly free into the creative life i crave.



at times life feels all out of focus and that is when i try the most to concentrate on the simple things that truly matter -- my hubbie, my children and grandchildren, my dear parents and extended family. and, of course, our sweet, sweet presley who makes every day special with his presence in our lives. it is during these times of quiet reflection that everything comes into focus and i know i'm on the right course in life. i feel so blessed and grateful!



so come, journey with me, my bloggy friends, into a creative world. leave behind the safety of anonymity, the security of staying in the box. step onto the slippery slope and enjoy the ride with me.


i'm standing tall in my shoes, liking my reflection and spreading my wings to fly!

christmas eve at grandma & grandpa king's

a quiet anticipation
hangs in the air
a sparkling winter wonderland
for the little ones to share

little eyes and little fingers
will ooh with delight
when they see grandma's wonders
and experience christmas eve night

little white lights
and santas galore
are seen through the eyes
of the ones i adore

one giant santa
stands guard at the door
he sends a warm welcome
of what is in store

the tree is overloaded
with treasures and balls
years of collecting
are decking our halls

these handmade little dollies
are nestled in the tree
awaiting the arrival
of their new family

when jenna arrives
it's time for her to seek
the shiny green pickle
it's no fair to peek

her prize will be hidden
in the tree as well
jenna will love it
her mom will say "oh swell"

then it's on to the goodies
in boxes so bright
some are filled with funnies
some with delights

there's one for matt and megan,
one for sarah and jon
for joe, jenna, layla,
amaris & everyone

candy canes are waiting
to add the finishing touch
to a special cup of chocolate
to enjoy with no rush

as we sit to dinner
we say a special prayer
of blessed thanksgiving
what a wonderful family we share!!

merry christmas, all my bloggy friends!!

what you lookin' at??!!

i snapped this fun little picture thru the back door this morning. super sneaky mr. squirrel had climbed the tree in the front yard, leaped onto the roof, walked over the roof and down onto the fence in the back yard. i'd love to know what he thought he was going to find back there. we played a little stalemate game of watching each other for a couple of minutes. he stayed put while i grabbed my camera and then after only one shot, he was up onto the roof and gone.

it all made me a bit nostalgic for presley's good old days at our old house when all we had to do was say "squirrel" out loud and presley would tear thru the house and out the doggy door to chase away the squirrels in our yard. of course, he never caught one but he'd still come running back inside wearing a smug look on his face and an air of accomplishment. now i'm not at all sure he'd even be able to see a squirrel in our yard. or maybe he'd be scared and run back inside with a whole other look on his face. hee hee

lazy overcast and cold days like today have me feeling a bit old myself. i'm glad my old friend presley is here by my side!! no better company could be found!!

welcome to bloggy land, ben and jaci!!

these are my co-workers, ben and jaci! they are a fun and delightful couple (newlyweds!!) who are my cube neighbors at work.  jaci has just started her first blog called tips to a beautiful life. please stop over to visit and welcome her to this wonderful world that we all love!

let there be light

very few things do my heart more good than a lazy weekend morning at home. today, still in my pajamas and enjoying some time in my art room, i glanced thru the living room and thru the patio doors to this canvas hanging in my florida room. i recently moved it out there to make room for all the christmas decorations. the sun streaming in the windows onto the wall and art made my heart sing. the weekend is the only time i get to enjoy the sunshine in my house these days. bill and i are up at 5:45 each morning and on the road by 6:30. it is after 6:00 each evening when we return. so as you can imagine we are never home during the week when it is light out. sunny weekends are a huge delight to me.

as i was taking this photo and the one of my tree decorations in the header above, i was thinking about my love of light and brightness. or maybe i should say my love of light and shadow. it really is an analogy for our lives. there are bright sunny times with laughter and cheer. these are balanced by darker days of woe and concern. i'm so blessed to have very little woe in my life. perhaps it is due to my outlook and trying to always see the bright side. i'm so aware of the troubling times we are facing in this country but i keep my faith strong that this will pass. we just have to persevere. we just have to seek the light where it exists and spread the light where shadows loom.

what better time than christmas to spread a message of brightness for all the world to see.

i'm off to get dressed and have coffee time with my hubby. then my son matt is driving over from indiana so we can christmas shop together. what a fun-filled day of light and joy it is going to be!!!

christmas eve traditions

i stumbled on this photo a few months ago and experienced a flood of wonderful memories. pictured are my grandma and grandpa farmer in the basement of their economy, indiana home preparing stockings for the annual christmas eve family get-together. parents of 4 children, 17 grandchildren and more great grandkids than i can count, they hung a stocking for every family member plus a few strays who wandered in with the grandkids. each stocking was filled with a bit of candy and fruit plus at least one very practical item like gloves or socks. this photo was extra special since grandma and grandpa were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary that year -- on christmas eve!! some of my favorite memories of christmas eve at their house are the boxes of toffee, the silver christmas tree with the revolving multi-colored light, getting to hold all the new babies that had been born that year and especially the ride home after the big night, singing christmas carols and basking in the warm glow of family love.



for all of my adult christmases, i've continued the christmas stocking tradition. but this year i decided to shake things up and do what i'm calling christmas take out boxes. they are fun and cute and easier to handle than the bulky stockings (i have nowhere to hang stockings!). the biggest downside so far is how little you can fit in each box!

last year i started a few new christmas eve traditions. we played a christmas trivia game that i researched on the internet and then typed up plus a homemade christmas bingo game i made. it was fun with lots of dorky prizes to be won!

what are your favorite christmas traditions?

studio mascot and young apprentice

a few of you have asked how presley, my little art studio mascot, is doing and i wanted to give you a quick update. the daily dose of prednisone has really helped to reduce the ill effects of the brain lesions. he does very little spinning these days and is much less restless at night. the above photo shows him snoozing in the sun streaming into the art room this afternoon. he is enjoying the little bit of snow that fell yesterday, doing his classic "snoofing" by running his nose along the ground and breathing out heavily. my husband has now built two small wooden ramps to assist presley with getting in and out of the house -- one from the house down into the florida room and then one right outside his doggy door at the back door. the ramps have been a god-send and do a great job at preventing presley from falling quite so much. his balance is still impaired but he has adapted well for an almost-sixteen year-old miniature schnauzer.



in addition to my art room mascot, i now have an art room apprentice. my almost 4-year old granddaughter jenna visited on saturday and we spent several delightful hours "doing messy crafts" as she likes to call it. on each visit she discovers some art medium or gadget that she hasn't gotten to play with yet. she adores the oil pastels, the watercolor pencils, my bowls of beads and my collection of multi-colored vials of glitter. she has a great imagination and i'm always delighted by the little projects she creates on her own. yesterday i let her play with my collection of scissors and the zig zag ones were her favorites. she told me that her teacher lets her cut with scissors but her mommy never does. sorry, megan, but it appears that you are now quite outnumbered. although i never left her side she was quite trustworthy with the scissors and she had a grand time! of course, it took about 40 minutes to clean up the mess after she left but i wouldn't trade the experience for anything.


last sunday our almost one-year-old granddaughter layla visited. she is walking up a storm and so enjoyed just wandering around. our house offers much more open space than the apartment she lives in with her parents. in the photo above she is looking thru the patio doors into the florida room where presley is patiently waiting to be let back in after a potty break. they seem to adore each other but we are very wary of letting them get too close. they're both too teetery for comfort!

and last, just a word or two of thanks for those of you who faithfully follow my little blog and offer words of encouragement and cheer. it truly does my heart good! i've been a bit hit and miss on blogging lately but promise to get back into the swing with more frequent posts!