HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

HAVE A FUN AND SAFE HALLOWEEN, EVERYONE!!!!!

TMTA - "Halloween"

Well, I'm a bit late for TMTA this week, but I wanted to get a little ATC done, so here it is! The little witch is from Digital Collage Sheets.

Happy Thursday - Another Backyard Photo

Here's the "Mr." to this post's little "Mrs." They are Anna's Hummingbirds, and stay in the Sacramento area all year round, which is a real treat for those of us who live here. The photos were taken in my backyard at one of our feeders, and they are unretouched. You can get a close look at this little guy if you click your mouse on the photo. I'm hoping one day to get a better camera because I love taking pictures, especially of nature. Have a great Thursday, everyone!

Ten on Tuesday - "10 Favorite Movie Moments"

There are so many movies I love, but here are the scenes that came to mind this afternoon: by the way, check out Ten on Tuesday when you get a chance and see what others had to say in answer to this theme!

1. The scene in Dr. Zhivago where Yuri and Lara, (Omar Sharif and Julie Christie), walk into the summer house in the middle of winter, and everything’s covered with ice and snow, and it looks like something magical out of a fairy tale.

2. Atticus Finch’s, (Gregory Peck’s), courtroom speech in To Kill a Mockingbird.

3. The car scene in Wayne’s World where they’re all singing to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody—hilarious!

4. Jack Nicholson’s speech to Tom Cruise in A Few Good Men—“You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!”

5. The scene in Pride and Prejudice when Emma Thompson gets the guy—so sweet!

6. Albert Molina, (a.k.a. The Mayor), laying in the storefront window with chocolate all over his face, in Chocolat.

7. The last scene in To Sir, With Love, where Sidney Poitier is saying goodbye to his students.

8. When Christopher Reeve first kisses Jane Seymour in Somewhere in Time-so lovely and romantic.

9. In Dances With Wolves, the battle where the Native Americans come and rescue Kevin Costner from the U.S. Army, where they’d beaten him and chained him up in that wagon--a wonderful moment where you just have to stand up and cheer!

10. The scene in Chinatown when Faye Dunaway is saying to Jack Nicholson, “She’s my daughter, she’s my sister, etc.” Very dramatic and noteworthy!

PS--My hubby's all-time favorite movie moments are 2 scenes in Young Frankenstein -- the one with the revolving bookshelf, (Terri Garr and Gene Wilder--"Put the candle back!"), and the scene where Cloris Leachman is asking Gene Wilder if he wants anything before retiring for the night--"Oval-tine?" He NEVER fails to crack up when we watch that movie, no matter how many times we've seen it!

GOTHIC ARCHES-"Orange and Black"

In honor of Halloween, Gothic Arches this week has posted the theme of "Orange and Black"--you can see everyone's creative arches here. (The bat image is a wonderful freebie from The Vintage Moth. The lovely lady is one I found in a folder of vintage women I have, and I can't remember where I got her. The crow, skull, moon, and word images I used in my arch came from Digital Collage Sheets, a great and inexpensive source of wonderful vintage images!)

Sunday Funnies - "The Twilight Zone"

And now, for my all-time favorite spooky TV Intro--the old Twilight Zone series. I loved to be scared by that show! They had some interesting ideas for spooky scripts back then, I think: the creepy Talking Teena doll, the little girl who was stuck inside another dimension in the wall of her home, the giant child playing with the humans who were trapped in a fake town, the creature on the wing of the plane that haunted William Shatner--classics! And Rod Serling--that voice! Who better to take us across that border into "the land of shadow and substance" - the Twilight Zone? Enjoy your Sunday!!!!!

Theme Thursday - "Faces"

I made a little ATC for this week's Theme Thursday challenge subject of "Faces"~I bought the sweet little girl image from Paper Whimsy a few years ago . . . The background paper is from K & Company, the roses I scanned and printed out from my German Scrap Victorian collection (so I could make it last longer!) and the button and words are antiques--the stamped scrolls are from my clear flourishes stamp collection, and the ink is from Colorbox, flowers are from Prima.

HAPPY THURSDAY!

Happy Thursday! I'm hoping to make some time for art today! I thought I'd post one of my recent photos~this little gal is a frequent visitor to my backyard; her hubby often chases her away from the food, and then they proceed to perform some incredible air acrobatics all over the yard, for my viewing pleasure! This time, however, I was able to take some photos of her while she took possession of the nectar feeder! You go, girl!

GOTHIC ARCHES-"Risque"

This week there was a wonderful theme challenge over at Gothic Arches; it was a challenge for me, finding an image that was both risque and yet tasteful~because although I love vintage nudes both for their beauty and history, I have always been shy about using them in my art. I found this beautiful image on Flickr, courtesy of Suzee Que~she shares some absolutely wonderful public domain images, (and also her lovely artwork), and I'm very grateful to her! I hand-colored the image with my art chalks and then, well, the rest is pretty obvious . . . I do love using little Prima flowers and those Stickles! To see all of the artists' lovely interpretations of this theme, go here!
PS-click on my images to get a better look!

Sunday Funnies in October- The Outer Limits

"Back in the day," as they say, we had black and white televisions, and this is the opening to a famous spooky TV series from back then--I remember the first time I saw it as a kid, how creepy it seemed; of course, now, it's sort of cheesy, but still holds a fond place in my heart. So, continuing with Halloween-type themes, here's The Outer Limits TV intro from 1963.

GOTHIC ARCHES-"Twilight"

The theme for the Gothic Arches challenge this week is "Twilight"--I started with a background created from an image posted by Dawn of The Feathered Nest. The original image appears below my arch. I edged the arch with Stickles glitter, and there is glitter sparkling all over the butterflies and the forest, but it's not very visible in the scanner image. I used a label that was provided by Karen of The Graphics Fairy and added some text to it. Pretty simple--wonderful theme. To see all of the lovely Twilight Arches, click here!

A Grandchild a Day Keeps the Blues Away!

Yesterday I had this little muffin all day--her name is Gabby and she is 4 1//2 years old! Sorry the photo isn't real clear--I took it with my phone! We had a wonderful day together; we played at the park, watched a little TV, I read books to her, we colored, played on the computer, and had a nice dinner with Grandpa when he came home from work, and she had a great time playing in the tub when she took her bath last night. Lots of laughs, lots of love! Today it's raining for the first time in many months, and the weather is very stormy--a perfect day for art!

Sunday Funnies in October- The Munsters

Last week it was the Addams Family TV show intro--this week, it's the Munsters!

It Can Happen to Anyone!

(HERE ARE SOME ROSES FROM MY LITTLE GARDEN)

I originally started this blog to sort of keep a running diary of events in my life, and/or comments on various things I love and am interested in because I'm not very good a record-keeping at home, etc. Well, it quickly evolved into an art blog and I don't post nearly enough of what is on my mind because I am always so busy and don't manage my free time very well--and then, I make a little art and just post that. At any rate, I am going to try and expand my blog posts a little from now on, if I can. I'm just writing this to vent a little, and no one will be interested, anyway--but it might help me work out some frustrations!

It's just been over a week ago that I and my 4 year-old granddaughter were mixing up batter for my grandson's 11th birthday cake, when my husband called me and told me he'd just lost his job. I was so shocked and distressed, I could hardly function for a few minutes. I couldn't cry, as I had little Gabby right there with me. My husband had been working for this company for 12 years, and had made a lot of money for them and given them so much of himself--he's such an honest and upright and hard-working man, and so loyal--and this was so unexpected. His boss cited the reasons for the "layoff" as being the economy and cut-backs--and my hubby's job as being "expendable" because he was paid more than a lot of the other employees. We think it was more than that, though. They didn't even give him a chance to accept a lower wage, and they only let one other person go out of all their hundreds of employees. Ever since accepting a position here in California with the same company he was working for in Idaho, his immediate boss down here seems to have felt threatened (jobwise) and has never been accepting of my hubby's being here. This guy has been cool, detached, uninterested in my husband's projects and work, and has, more than once, been sneaky and underhanded about promoting my husband's ideas and proposals in meetings as his own! My hubby's always received glowing job-performance reviews over the years, except for this past one, where his immediate boss just gave him an adequate review--nothing negative, but nothing complementary. I'm not trying to be a "sour grapes" kind of person, that's not my nature, but this guy really was gunning after my husband, and my husband is such a good guy! He was really hurt, and has had several sleepless nights as a result of this layoff. How can you not feel hurt when you've given so much of yourself? It's hard not to feel angry. After becoming employed at the age of 15, and now being almost 54, my husband has never, ever, been let go or fired from any job, and has never been out of work, so this was just devastating to both of us. Although I have always been sympathetic to the many, many people who are out of work and always have felt so bad when watching the news about that, I could sympathize, but never really "empathize" with this situation. Well, now I can. Of course, besides the anger and depression that quickly set in, my mind was racing-- What will we do? Will we lose our house, not have enough to eat, etc. And, of course, I prayed--I do have a strong faith, and that in itself gives one hope, even in the most desperate of situations. Which we were not in--I just have the kind of mind that races to the worst scenario! Well, gratefully, there's a happy ending to our story--when other people in the industry found out, they were really surprised, and another firm jumped right in a couple of days later and offered my husband a job with them! It will be quite a change, and the pay is somewhat less, but we are very, very glad and relieved, and thankful, and anxious to begin anew. And hopefully, this economy will turn around so that others who are out of work will find jobs and have brighter futures--I will continue to pray for them.

Theme Thursday - "Bird ATCs"

Here's my little bird ATC for Theme Thursday today!

GOTHIC ARCHES-"Inventors"

This week's Gothic Arches Challenge is to make an arch featuring an inventor and to provide a little information about him or her. Although the basic fountain pen has been around for hundreds of years, it was Louis Edson Waterman who invented the capillary-feed fountain pen, which used air to help the flow of ink stay smooth and steady. In 1883, Waterman was a New York insurance broker who, when signing an important contract with a new "stylish" fountain pen he'd acquired, was dismayed and embarrassed when his pen broke and spilled ink all over the contract! He vowed to invent a better pen, worked on his idea in his brother's workshop, and subsequently obtained a patent for his design. He then sold his pens behind a cigar shop, guaranteed them for 5 years, and then was able to open a factory in Montreal in 1899. He died in 1901, but was inducted in 2006 into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

My background paper for the arch already had the large hand holding the pen and the handwriting on it; this is where I originally got the idea for my inventor. I added a vellum copy of a vintage ad, along with a vellum photo of the inventor, stamped the background with stamps from an old Stampin' Up kit I had, edged the arch with Colorbox ink, and finished up with German Scrap and some gold metal leaves (or are they feathers?) for decoration.

Tag Tuesday Challenge

This week, the theme for Tag Tuesday is "shabby chic"~ what a fun challenge!

Sunday Funnies in October- Addams Family

ANYONE REMEMBER THIS?????

After a tough week, I finally had a little time to make something today! I had wanted to do a bird tag for Louise's Tag Tuesday Challenge several days ago, and although this is Saturday, I still wanted to post it. I had fun making this: I took a plain cardstock tag, and sponged a background for it using an Inkssentials blending tool from Ranger and some Catseye chalk inks from Color Box. The image of the bird is from a From the Craftroom collage sheet, and the background stamps I used are an Inkadinkadoo flourish flower and a Cavallini Papers Company bird nest. I dusted the tag lightly with Pearl Ex Powdered Pigments, sprayed a matte sealer over all, and then tied a gold ribbon on to finish.