Monthly Archives: September 2011

A Quick Post!

Good evening!

We are still out camping, but just barely! I am homesick and want to go home. Jason is sooooo in his element out in nature and all that I feel guilty even suggesting we go home early, except I know that he knows! I am not sleeping well, it is amazing how loud the ocean is in the middle of the night and I can’t stop having nightmares about tsunamis, crazy, I know!! Last night I slept so poorly that I literally slept from the time the sun came up to almost 4!! What is the point of camping if you are gonna miss everything!?

Anyway, Jason and I are going to try something different tonight, and if I still can’t get any sleep then I think we will be going home early tomorrow – ce la vie!! At least I am not back to work until the 19th, and honey I can vacation anywhere knowing I don’t have to go to work until then!!! HAHAHAHA!

Well, I hate to cut this post short, but my battery is running low and I can’t seem to find a place to plug in, so until tomorrow!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Wowza!!

Good afternoon!

I wanted to share quickly with you that my sweetie has caught himself a fish!! He is so dang proud of himself, seeing that he hasn’t been fishing in something like 10 years. I know this fish may not look very big, but my hubby is about 6’8″ so it really is bigger than it looks!! LOL! Jason named this fish George, and he did end up cleaning him, and wrapped him up putting him on ice, I am still wondering if he will be able to eat “George” though!! Gosh this man really makes me laugh!! But, look at that happy face!! I am just so glad that if it were even for a brief moment this trip has given him THAT MUCH JOY!!! 😉

Anyway, I have officially started my one-woman-artist-retreat last night. I started things out by playing some nice music and writing in my journal for an hour or so – I am not really sure because we have made all time irrelevant while we are out camping, which has been fun. I did some more writing this morning, went for a walk, took a nap – I think I am fighting a little bit of a chest cold – Jason thinks it might just be a residual of my normal life stress that I am working through, and he is probably right! Anyway, I wanted to share some pics with you of some backgrounds I have been working on. These are all just random backgrounds that I am learning about it a book that I am reading, Collage Discovery Workshop.

So, with this first board, I just want to show you what I am starting with. This is just really inexpensive plywood that has been cut to the size that I am wanting to practice on, which for this week’s purposes is 7″ x 7″.

Next comes a liberal coating of white Gesso.

Then each board is ready for whatever background I have chosen to give it. This one is called a colorwash, I have used two different colors to get this effect.

This was is a torn paper background, made using brown paper bags, and then I paint with two different colors of acrylic paint.

This background was a little trickier, but I may like it the best. I have used a thick coat of Gesso to “draw”  textures into and then once that has fully dried I have used two colors of acrylic paint to give the piece some depth.

So, the hard part will come next, deciding what is going to go on top of each of these backgrounds, but I have decided that I am just going to have to take them one at a time, and just make it happen!! So, hopefully I will have some pictures of that to share with you tomorrow!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

Help Me Lady Gaga I’m A Pork Chop!

LOL!! Good evening!

Now, before you think I have totally gone and lost my mind, there is a story behind today’s post title! When I woke up this morning, at the camp site at the coast, I was awoken to some little kid yelling this at the top of his lungs:

“HELP ME LADY GAGA, I’M A PORK CHOP!!!

I am not sure what caused him to choose this particular war cry anthem, or if he somehow he has come to believe that Lady Gaga has recently been sainted as the Patron Saint of Pork, but man – it was just TOO funny!! It was really nice to wake up laughing!! and this has since become my anthem for the day, seeing that if it was good enough for that little kid, it was definitely good enough for me!!

Today has been a pretty good day! My sweetie made us breakfast, we have taken the girls on a couple of walks, I took the world’s L-O-N-G-E-S-T nap with our girls, while my sweetie went fishing, I spent a long time organizing my comp site “art studio”, which was fun! My husband assured me that having an “art studio” was sheer insanity, but that was alright because I am an artist – isn’t that sweet??? Uhmmm…I think! 😉

Anyways, tonight, we are going to go forage for food – probably eat at a local restaurant, go back to the campsite, and I am sure to at least try and kick my husband’s booty at some game, or at least not try to pout when he kicks mine!! HAHAHA!!

Oh, and I hope you enjoy today’s pictures! This is how we “rough it” while camping!! HUGE tent, two queen sized air mattresses covered in oodles, and oodles of sumptuous blankets, a thick red carpet underfoot, and the tent’s mudroom turned “art studio”!! Mama can’t help that she is spoiled!! LOL! 😉 I’m worth it!! 😉

Anyway, I should have pics of lots of art pieces in progress tomorrow – this camping trip really is all about having a mini artist retreat to just practice some of my mad-skills!! and yes, I do mean crazy! LOL! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!

And We’re Off!

Good afternoon!!

After a somewhat bumpy start this morning, Jason and I FINALLY have the minivan packed to the gills with waaaay too much camping stuff, waaaay to much art stuff, and waaaaay too many books!!

WHOO! HOO!!

MAN I LOVE CAMPING, er…I mean GLAMPING!!!

I will take tons of pics of our campsite this afternoon and evening and make sure to share them all with you tomorrow!!! The weather is supposed to be ABSOLUTELY PERFECT this week in Newport, so that makes me a VERY happy girl!! Faye and Sophie know that something is going on, and they are spazzing out because even though they don’t yet realize we are going camping yet, which they LOVE, they can tell that they get to go for a ride in the car because I just came back from putting their fuzzy blanket in the car, and THEY ARE EXCITED!!

Right now we are waiting for our friend, Don to get here – Don has very graciously agreed to house sit for us while we are gone, and I am sure that he will enjoy the air conditioning, and peace and quiet!!! 😉

Ok, back to the whole art supply thing!! OH MY GOODNESS!!! Do you know how hard it was to decide what to limit my art supplies down to??? Well, let’s just say, I didn’t do a terribly good job, but I will take pics of what I brought and show you tomorrow, I am sure it will at least make you smile, because in all honesty, I am thinking I can’t be the ONLY girl with this problem!!! HEE! HEE!! 😉

What else? Oh yes, I have a bag full of books – I never can tell what I will be in the mood to read, so I wanted to make sure that I had options, and we also have a whole armload of games to play together, which should be a TON of fun!! 😉

My goal this week is to relax and recoup my energy, nap often, take lots of walks with my sweetie and the girls, play at arting A LOT, and make sure to blog at least once every day, which means a trip into town every day, which we do anyway, Papa loves him some Starbuck’s – so I think I can be accommodating!! 😉

I think that just about covers anything, and this point if I have forgotten anything I am either going to have to without, or I am gonna have to go buy it at the coast!!

YEAH!! It’s time to go!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!

Burlesque!

Good evening!

Tonight my sweetie and I spent a lovely evening with two of our best friends this evening! Erin made us a lovely dinner, and I had fun hanging out with Dawn and Sammy, while Errin and Jason put together Dawn’s eliptical machine – oh, BTW 0 so jealous!! Anyway, Sammy is quite the talented musician and her mama just never ceases to make me laugh!! 😉

Dawn is going through a kick right now where she is watching the movie Burlesque quite often, so I decided that I would sit and watch it with her tonight. I see what the appeal to her is. It is uplifting, visually stunning, it has great music, costumes, and dancing, and the lead woman goes from having nothing to having had created the life that she had only dreamed of!! What more could a girl want – right?

This movie is about a small-town girl (Christina Aguilera), down on her luck, who ventures to Los Angeles  and finds her place in a neo-burlesque club run by a former dancer (Cher).

Anyway, I thought I would share some pictures from this fun movie this evening!  I loved every single one of the sets, and I could decorate every room in my house off of the inspiration I got from this movie! I LOVED it!!

 

Christina Aguilera is absolutely beautiful, and she can sing for days!! Cher is stunning, and she has still got it!! Cam Gigandet is all hunky as all can get out – Grrrrrr!!! LOL! 😉

Anyway, I am keeping tonight’s post short as I have some last minute packing tonight before we head out tomorrow morning for our camping trip!! I really can’t wait!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!

Vacation!

Good evening!
Ok, so it is officially the first full day of my vacation isn’t going too well. It started off alright, matter of fact, I spent the ENTIRE morning in bed reading. I read the book The Power of Six (The Lorien Legacies), and it was really good!! When my sweetie finally got off of work, we got ready to go, and, well, long story short, our evening plans fell through so we decided to have a nice quiet evening out, just the two of us. Tonight Jason is out being a good friend, and I am just so ready to get out of town, and go hang out on the beach!

There is still so much to do before we actually head on Sunday morning, and to be honest with you, it is a little daunting, but I know that it will be worth it!

However, instead of dwelling on the fact that today didn’t go as planned, I thought I would share some pictures of one of the local antique/salvages stores I had gone to a while back! I have been saving these pics for just such an occasion!!

Enjoy!

I just love spending an afternoon looking at all sorts of interesting finds in architectural salvage shops, this place is no exception. I can’t remember the name of the place, but is a little place up in Aurora, Oregon.

My sweetie has just gotten home, so I am off to go spend some quality time with him before it is time for bed!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

The First Night of Our Vacation!

Good evening,

I would LOVE to tell you that I have all sorts of plans for the first couple days of my vacation, but if I was being honest – I got NOTHIN’!! I have a really hard time with vacations because I have a really difficult relaxing.

Ok, am I the only one?

I am so used to being a go-go-go kind of girl, so when I FINALLY give myself permission to take some time to rest, I have A REALLY, REALLY, REALLY hard time actually doing it!! So, it always takes me a few days before I realize, OMG I am on VACATION!! So, I am not there ye,t, but I will be!!

Tomorrow, after having the alarm turned off, and hence giving myself the chance to sleep in,  I think I will take myself to a couple of the thrift stores around and see what treasures I can find for collaging; or maybe I will just stay home and spend some serious time arting – that would be SO FUN!!! 😉 Tomorrow evening, after my sweetie finally gets off work and he is able to join me on our vacation, and then we are going to go over to my bestie’s place and we are going to have  BBQ put on by the boys!! I hear we are having kabobs, which should be yummy!! GO BOYS!!

Then on Saturday, Jason and I are cleaning like fiends so that when we come back next week we come home to a clean house! Our friend, Don will be over one Sunday to house sit for us – thank you very much, Don! and then my sweetie and I are TOTALLY headed for the beach!! WHOO! HOO!!

On the artist front, I wanted to tell you that I have found the BEST collage book, and I really wanted to share it with you!! This book is called, Collage Discovery Workshop and is written by Claudine Hellmuth. This book has a bunch of great collage ideas, especially in techniques to not be paralyzed with fear at the prospect of staring at blank canvas, which can be daunting to any artist, especially a newbie like me!! I will have some pics of some of the new techniques that I have been trying tomorrow!!

So, on that note…

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

Motivational Quote of the Day!

Here is your motivational quote for today!

“Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get — only what you are expecting to give — which is everything. What you will receive in return varies. But it really has no connection with what you give. You give because you love and cannot help giving.”
~Katherine Hepburn

Have a FABULOUS afternoon!! ;-)