STAND BY ME

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

OKAY!!! THAT DOES IT!!

Sir Tim and I are going to have to have a little chat!  What is UP with this man!!!?  Does he not realize that he is single-handedly destroying marriages, ruining financial positions, causing bankruptcy??????  Does he not GET it????

So, Mr. Brilliance has now decided to expand his fiefdom with even more amazing "must have" products!  So unfair!!  How does one keep up?????  And of course you KNOW we have to have all things Tim!

Uggh!!  Okay, okay, so it's gorgeous!  What can I say???? Gotta have it!

Without further ado...... introducing.....
 
TIM HOLTZ DISTRICT MARKET LINE!!!  Geez!@#$%

JULIE NUTTING!!

"Get comfy, grab a cup of tea and bring out your pencils and paintbrushes!"

That is how the wonderful Julie Nutting starts her book, COLLAGE COUTURE.   Just the first few pages makes you want to invite all your girlfriends over to play in their PJs!  A slumber party!!!

I wrote a while back about Julie's book - COLLAGE COUTURE.

I originally wrote about it on this blog because I fell in love with her work.  I then had the privilege of having Julie stay at my house and teach us her wonderful dolls during Keys 4 Art 2011 and I fell in love with HER!  She is not only wildly talented, but sweet and fun and unfailingly generous.

Well, I got her book today!!!  WOO HOO!!!  I LOVE it!!! It is such an incredible book!  I started reading it thinking I was just going to glance through it today since I am totally and utterly exhausted and find that I can't put it down! 

Not only is the writing friendly and fun, but her instructions are easy to follow and the images are beautiful and, well, I just can't say enough about it.  Not only does she teach you step by step how to do her glamour girls with tons of different girls, but she teaches you how to do these totally adorable shadow boxes and paper dolls!

If you love art - if you love dolls - if, like Julie says, you want to be girly... you MUST have this book!

Monday, May 16, 2011

NEW VIDEOS FROM KELLE BELLE STUDIOS

I received these two videos today and really liked them a lot.  I hope you guys enjoy them as much as I did!  Hope you are all having a wonderful, creative and relaxing Sunday.









Have a great week everyone!!!  Start off Monday with a smile and a nice gesture toward a total stranger.  Your week will only go up from there.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

TV Show COMING HOME

I dont watch TV. Never have. Too many things I want to do to waste time sitting in front of a box.

But I LOVE this show. It is about bringing dads back from Iraq or Afghanistan to surprise their kids (and sometimes the wives).

It makes me cry like a baby! Those babies miss their moms and dads something horrible and my heart goes out to them.

You should see it (Sundays at 10:00 pm on Life). Make sure you have Kleenex!


-Posted from Elena's iPad

Saturday, May 14, 2011

MICHELLE WARD'S CRUSADE #51

GPP C51 HomeSweetHome

Check out her blog and follow her crusades. They are always fun.

Friday, May 13, 2011

GREAT book Alert!!

I just received my copy of Surface Treatment Workshop.  What a GREAT book!!!  I first heard of it from Tee when she did her video on one of the techniques in the book.

It has 45 techniques and I don't think there is one of them that I am not interested in trying!

I buy tons of art books and this is one of the best ones I have seen in a long time.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Journal Pages for Tracy

I have been working on journal pages for my round robin projects and really haven't posted anything for a while.  These pages were made for Tracy's Artistic Evolution journal.  I think Elizabeth Taylor is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen and Tracy loves her so I used her for these pages:


How Was Your Mother's Day?

I have to say mine was peaceful which is a blessing lately!  I spent the day at my brother's house with my daughters, my mom and my grandchildren.  My sons were both working so I didn't even see them.  I left before they got up and was in bed by the time they got home!  But that's okay.  They are not on my "favorite people" list right now any way!


My Mom is doing so much better!

Julio and I with my mom.

Ms. Attitude

My daughters.  Kristina is a clown!  


2 of my nieces and my grand babies!

Leonor is a daddy's girl.

Julio and Jacquie

Derrick, my son in law and Maddie.

A little too much sun block!

Talk about an attitude!!! 
At the end of the day, no matter how crazy they make you, your kids are all you've got.  And besides, they give me grand babies to spoil!

Saturday, May 7, 2011

EARLY HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY EVERYONE!

I will be at my brother's house tomorrow with my kids, my grand children and my mom... can't get any better than that.  Charlie and Pipo are both working tomorrow so they wont be there but that's ok.  They are working and that is a good thing!

I am so looking forward to seeing my mom tomorrow.  I have not seen her walk in almost two years so the idea that she is now walking is amazing.

I have spent yesterday and today playing with paint, glue, paper ... nirvana!  It's crazy what can make you happy sometimes!  I have spent the past hour or two sitting with all my distress pads and re-inkers and just adding ink to them all! Something that can sound so tedious put me in a very happy place!  Of course I have 5 of a few of the re-inkers and not one Walnut but there you go!

I wish you all a wonderful Mother's day.  Some of us will wake up tomorrow with pain in our hearts over children we have lost or children that continue to make very bad choices... but we were blessed with the ability to have children and that in and of itself is a blessing - no matter what.

I wish every woman out there a marvelous mother's day.  You don't have to have children to be a "mom" - as women we are mothers to our lovers, our brothers, our pets....  Being a "mom" doesn't necessarily mean singing a child to sleep - it is loving the way only women can.

When you wake up tomorrow morning feel proud of the fact that you are a woman - and that there is nobody else like you.

Cyber hugs to all of you.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

WEIGHT WATCHERS UPDATE!

I have not cheated yet!  I have actually not gone over my daily points (even though you can go over by 49 points in a week).  Yesterday made one week.  I said I was not going to weigh myself until a full month and I'm not.  But I am quite proud of myself right now.

Okay!!!  So it's been only a week!  But the cool thing is that I am not hungry.  Not at all.  With everything on my iPhone it's easy to make sure I do what I need to do.

I have also gotten rid of things I shouldn't eat.  For example I only bought Weight Watchers ice cream and snacks.  I only buy skim milk... only buy fat free... well... everything!  I bought whole wheat bread... whole wheat pasta... brown rice.   If I don't have "bad" things in the house I can't eat them right?

Lunch is easy because I love salads and here in the Keys you can find salads - really good salads - at every corner.

Yep... so far so good.  I have given myself permission to each McDonalds once a month if I want it!  But I really think this is doable.  We will see how it goes!

HE IS SURROUNDED BY ANGELS

Well, he didn't lose his job.  I really thought (and he really thought) he had lost his job.  When he finally "surfaced" out of his sleep yesterday, he was full of regret.

He apparently thinks he is a lot stronger than what he is.  Thinks he can be around people who do drugs and not do it himself.  It hit him like a ton of bricks that he is not as strong as he thinks he is.

I don't think he really understands that he is an addict - that he will always be an addict - that this is not something that is "cured" - that this is a demon he will have to fight every day of his life.

He was so upset yesterday when he realized he had not woken up for work.  Everyone here tried to wake him and he just would not or could not wake up.  It was so hard for him to find a job - especially one that he really loves.  It would have been a huge blow to him to have lost it.  But today they called him and told him to come in.  That they needed him.

The power of prayer.  It just never ceases to amaze me.  My friend Bea - you know Bea - the one I've always said has a direct phone line to God - has been praying for him for a very long time but especially so when I called her yesterday and told her what had happened.  I know Bea.  I know that she is praying for my son as if she were praying for one of her own; with all her love and all her heart.

This morning, early, she sends me an email telling me that she felt God's "peace" today.  That "peace" encompassed me all day today .... that "peace", brought on by her love and prayers, once again protected Charlie.

He is working this evening in a job he loves.  I can only hope that this weekend taught him something.   That, if nothing else, he realizes that he is NOT "cured" - that he is NOT safe from drugs.

I can only hope.

Maddie's Portrait

Kristina took Maddie for her first year portrait. She is such a great kid. Just seeing her face makes me smile!







The pictures are not great quality because they are pictures of the original pictures sent to  my phone.  But how adorable is this baby????????

Yep, the only good thing about having children sometimes is the fact that you get all these beautiful babies.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

MY MOM

I have not seen my mother since last week - have not had a chance to drive to Broward County to see her.  Will be seeing her on Mother's Day.  My brother and my nephew went to see her yesterday and sent me this video


She is WALKING!!!  My mother has not been able to walk in over a year and a half.  I know this seems like nothing... but if you had seen her before the surgery you would understand.  I can not BELIEVE it!

Over the past year and a half she had been getting increasingly worse and worse.  She could not walk.  She could not sit up - she would fall to the side.  Her affect was awful, her memory was awful.... We started to think she was developing Alzhiemers (my grandmother had it). And ALL these things were caused by an accumulation of water in the brain!  The human body is just amazing isn't it????

And you know who figured it out?  Or at least sent the doctors in the right direction??  My AUNT.  My mother's sister.  She met someone who was talking about her sister having all the same symptoms my mother had and how the shunt in the brain had changed her life.  My aunt spoke to my mother's doctor and the rest, as they say, is history.  Isn't it scary that not one doctor out of all the ones we took her to even THOUGHT about this possibility?  I don't know about you... but it scares the hell out of ME.

BRAVE GIRLS CLUB

I belong to a yahoo group called Soul Journaling.  The moderator posts these letters from the Brave Girls Club regularly.  I really liked today's letter and thought I would post it.

"Dear Authentic Girl,

Your heart will mend, it will. It always always will, no matter how many
times it has been broken. Sometimes our hearts have to be broken to be made
into something newer, stronger, and wiser. Sometimes the cracks that a
broken heart makes and leaves are the very portals to the greatest light and
love and learning that we will ever experience.

Having our hearts broken is a part of life. It just is. Anyone who lives and
loves with all of their heart, or even with parts of their heart, is
destined to experience the breaking of that heart at one time or another.

Be with those feelings. Don't rush the healing time. Let it go at its own
pace and certainly don't shove those feelings into some faux hiding place,
believing that what is out of sight is out of mind.

Broken hearts have a lot to say, and the more patient you are to listen, the
faster your heart will heal. Listen to what your broken heart is saying
about how it wants life to be in the future.

Be patient and gentle with yourself. No rushing. Rushing a broken heart is a
bit unkind and impatient. You don't want to treat yourself that way!

You are so loved. You are so wise and wonderful and amazing.

You are healing right now.

xoxo "

-Brave Girls Club

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

The Road He's Chosen is Not an Easy One

He is using again.  He's been on a four day binge which he is now sleeping off.  He probably lost his job.

All I can do is sit here and pray.  Hold on to my faith and my family and friends.

I just wish I could understand.  I wish I had insight into addiction; insight into the hold that drugs, alcohol, ANY addiction has on people that drags them back over and over again.

"This too shall pass"... that's what they say and I know it to be true.  But the road that we travel is so very hard.

Great Background Technique



Came across this video of a fantastic background technique.  I found her blog which has a prompt for each day starting January 1.  Her name is Tee and I think she is pretty damned cool!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Jen's Marie Journal

I am the last one to work in Jen's (Jennifer Rogers-Daniels) Marie Journal.  Every page in this journal is just amazing!  I can not WAIT until Jen sees it!

Obviously Marie Antoinette involves a lot of silk, lace, bling... very girly girly.  Unfortunately, that is not my style at all.  And although I really did intend to do a frilly page, I really couldn't! This is my contribution to Jen's Marie Journal:

Beautiful!

I came across this during a blog hop.  No idea where I got it from but I think it's beautiful.  It is amazing how William has all his mother's expressions, her smile...  They had forecast strong rain and winds for the wedding day.  Yet the sun shone on the royal couple.  I truly believe in my heart of hearts that Diana made sure her first born had sunshine on his wedding day.  I know that she is happy to know that this child that she loved so very much married a woman he truly loves.

MY MOM WALKED TODAY!!

WOO HOO!! She is not ready to run a 5K but she got out of bed and was able to walk holding my brother's hand!  That is an amazing change from even yesterday!

The surgery appears to be working!