Color Book

Probably a whole year ago I started a color book after reading about one in Visual Chronicles by Linda Woods & Karen Dinino. After seeing a little book that Ayesha had made I was inspired to return to this book and finish the remaining pages. The idea is to make a book that shows what color each of your friends reminds you of along with their personality traits. You can then use this book for inspiration when you journal and it can also help you journal in code. For example, I could just do a primarily purple page with the word inspiration and it would mean that Ayesha inspired my to finally finish my project with out having to spell it all out. Here is a sampling of my color book pages.

Reaasons Why I Can't find my Cell Phone in My Purse

my wallet
checkbook
iPod
cell phone
Weight Watchers Calculator
camera
*camera battery charger
sunglasses
home keys
school keys
mini lotion
*Cloraseptic Throat Lozenges
*Zicam Spray
Carmex
*Icebreakers mints
2 packs of gum
unsharpened thick lead pencil
*3 pair hair clips
calendar
notepad
skeleton pen
3 unused Weight Watchers food trackers
*2 sets of directions to Weight Watchers meetings other than my own
index card of quotes
*unkown phone number
*2 reciepts
*11 gum wrappers
*directions to Vicki's house
*back of a Weight watchers name tag
*Fez buisness card
*Christmas angel tag
broken WW key chain

* items removed from my purse

I Don't Want to Scare You But...

I promise this post has a very happy ending.

I was driving towards work this morning when I got the phone call no one ever wants to get. It was Jim, "Honey, I don't want to scare you but I think I am having a heart attack." Jim was on his way to the emergency room with nausea, dizziness, tingling in his arms, and heart palpitations. Luckily I had planned on stopping at my mom's house on the way to work and she drove me to the emergency room. Luckily, Jim was not having a heart attack but had an infection that was showing symptoms that turned into what the doctors think was a very strong panic attack. Talk about scary! It's hard not imagine how life could change in an instant.
After a lot of sleep, some antibiotic, a fever scare, and a second very yucky round of nausea, Jim is starting to feel better.

Now, for the very happy ending! My anniversary box arrived from Amazon today. There is nothing better than a great big pile of new books to pour through except knowing that they all get to live with you! I am so spoiled check out all of these great books that came today.
Rex Ray: Art + Design Rex Ray
Inspiration Tricia Guild
True Colors Kathryn Bold
Found Art Mosaics Suzan Germond
Artful Paper Dolls Terry Taylor
The Art of Personal Imagery Corey Moortgat
Mixed-Media Collage Holly Harrison
Mixed Emulsions Angela Cartwright
If I Did It OJ Simpson
I will have weeks and months worth of reading. I am so happy!

2nd Favorite Things in Fabric Chunky Book Page

Someone dropped out of my mom's Favorite Things in Fabric chunky book swap. When no one new signed up to fill the spot I volunteered to make a second page. My mom already had her hands full doing two pages and the cover. When I started I felt like this page was going to be lame only because I was so happy with how the first page had turned out. In the end I love this page too. If you look closely you will see a clear letter f on top of the j. Also, the shiny spot is a dog tag with a word on it. This particular one says light but they were all different.
I made and important discovery on this project. I usually leave the back and sides for the end being so excited to do the front. I think that in the future I will do the sides and back first. That way the paper will still be flat and easier to stamp, collage, etc. I love when a project leads me to a new discovery about how I prefer to make art.

The Internet Order Jinx & The Christmas ATC

First, lets just say you place and order online and after giving all of your payment information, address, and life history you recieve a confirmation number and a little thank you screen. Would you think your order was placed? How about if you went back to this web site entered your order number and it told you your order was in progress how about then? What if you called, waited 25 minutes on hold just to talk to a sales representative who told you the computer systems were just backed up that's why your package could not be tracked yet but not to worry your order would be on time? Would you believe the sales representative? If you answered yes to any of these questions you would be wondering where the heck you Nintendo Wii is just like Jim and I! Ugh, idiots! Should Fry's Electronics really have been surprised by the volume of sales on Black Friday? Hasn't this been the busiest shopping day of the year for eons now? Was yesterday the first day ever selling items on the web? If I had only known how much pleasure I would derive from Wii bowling two weeks ago I would have been fine. I could have just walked right into a store and bought the stupid game system, but no, I had to make this discovery during the busiest shopping time of the year. Now I'll be contending with all of the parents wanting to make their child's Christmas wishes come true and all of the people who are trying to buy them at store prices so they can jack up the price on ebay to help fund their own Christmas spending. (How's that for Christmas Spirit?) Anyway, I will find a Wii and I'm not paying $100 more than SRP either. I don't care if it takes months, but I can't promise I won't be irritated about it.

Second, lets just say you ordered a book form Amazon.com on October 31., would you expect to have it by now if it said it was in stock? Oh, no not me, I'm still waiting. After two phone calls they are finally reshipping it to me. It should be here in a week. Irritating, right. I must just be jinxed on mail order this week.
On a happier note I finished my Christmas ATC's. I naturally avoided normalcy like the plague and did pink and lime cards. The most fun part was that I did not have a plan when I started. I used my stamp from the dollar bin at Joann and just saw where it took me. I am happy with the way they turned out and I love the back. Debby, from Frenzy Stamper, had the coolest back on her October ATC and it inspired me to get more creative on the backs of my cards. See, she stamped an ATC label on the back of her card and then showed total disregard that it was even there by adding more stamps and her own self-sticking label . I loved the idea. It changed the way I think about backs of ATC's and Chunky books. They deserve to be fabulous and funky too!

The Christmas Tree AHHH!

Okay, I really didn't want to post two times today but AHHH! The black and white tree is done and oh so fabulous! Ayesha and I decorated the tree together today and had so much fun! It is hard to understand its true beauty without seeing it in person. When it photographs it just looks like little white lights but I had to share a few pictures of before, during, and after.

Thanksgiving Adventures

Ah, Thanksgiving. This year Ayesha and my mom joined Jim and I on the adventure to my sister-in -law Vicki's house in Chandler. Vicki's house is always the meeting spot for Jim's mom and the crew. Part of the adventure this year was that traffic completely stopped on the freeway for several minutes. While this is not a shocking detail the two teenagers making out in the car in front of us and all of the men who either got out of their cars or stood on their cars to see what was going on was a little unusual.
Dinner was yummy and we, of course, ate way to much. Alex, my nephew, does not like turkey and opted rather for chicken nuggets. My mom had brought Alex a chocolate turkey from See's candy and during dinner said, "Alex, I've got a turkey you'll like." This naturally brought on a no I won't, yes you will conversation until my mom said, "What do you want to bet?" Alex decided he would bet $1 even though I warned him it was a trick. After cleaning up the kitchen
my mom said,"Hey Alex, let's finish this bet." We all gathered around. My mom said, "Okay , let me get this straight. I am going to give you a turkey, you are going to try it. If you like it you are going to give me $1. If you don't like it I will give you $1." Alex agreed, sat at the table, closed his eyes, and waited. This of course gave all the grown ups great pleasure. When Alex opened his eyes he picked up the foil wrapped bird and said "Okay, I'll try him." He unwrapped the foil bit off his head. His eyes got really big and you could see him thinking, what am I going to do now. With a big smile he said, "Okay, I like it." The moment was priceless. After my mom told him he didn't have to pay up on the bet he was relieved and happily ate the rest of his turkey.
After dinner we played with Alex's Nintendo Wii. Oh my! Ayesha warned me it was fun. I should have listened. Jim and I ordered one online today. (We couldn't find a store that had one.)
The last crazy thing that happened was late last night. The dog and I were sleeping by 8 and Jim was out at Santisi Brother's watching the ASU game with his friends. I heard him come home but fell back to sleep until I heard him calling to me. "Girl, wake up, can you come here, I need you." I walked in to find him holding his shot glass case to the wall. He explained that it was making a loud noise and he was sure it was getting ready to fall. We quickly unloaded the shelf unscrewed it from the top and took it off the wall. Luckily everything was safe and even luckier my dad was already planning to come to our house this morning to look at our washing machine which was acting weird yesterday. 4 toggle bolts, 4 more wall brackets, and 4 wall anchors later we are back in business with the shot glass display and Jim is happy again.

Elf Yourself

Have you ever wondered what Jim and I would look like as elfs? How about Bentley and Harley? Even if you said no Click here. You won't be dissapointed.

The Third Anniversary!

Ah! After three years I am still super cheesy every time I talk about Jim. If you have read my blog at all I am sure I am super cheesy when I write about his as well. I can't help it he's just so darn cute!
This year for our anniversary I got him a case to house his shot glass collection. This turned out to be a very good choice and provided a lot of entertainment as well. First, when I ordered the case on a Monday it was on my doorstep the next Wednesday and I did not pay extra for shipping or anything. Jim happened to be off work when it arrived and carried all 52 pounds of it into the house. Next, he called me, "A really big box just got here. It has your name on it but I think it's something for me." He continued asking all kinds of questions about the box although I was certain he had figured out what was inside. Really, how many things could one person want that were that large? I told his, "You don't pay any attention to that box, Christmas is a long way off." He replied, "Christmas, you've got to be kidding me our anniversary is next week." -I warned you he was cute.
After the second day of Big Box Questions" I just let him open it already. After it as opened we had to empty out the closet in the dog's room to have a safe place to keep it until my dad could come over to hang it for us. After my dad got it hung on the wall It was adorable to watch both of them washing the glass doors and mirror over and over again. Granted it did still have streaks but watching them try to get them all off was priceless. Later that evening Jim found some heavy duty glass cleaner in the garage that finally got the case clean to his standards. Today we washed all of the shot glasses and he organized the case. It really is a lovely case, it is fun to watch him stare at his collection, and I got to recycle the cardboard box the glasses used to live in.
Jim got me a black and white nutcracker to compliment my black and white Christmas theme and a big fat box of books from Amazon is on it's way! I love books from Amazon.
I had an early release day so we got to eat a late lunch at Red Lobster, and our favorite, we vowed to stay up really late goofing with no school or work tomorrow. Small thing amuse us.

The Dia De Los Muertos Chundy Book Is Done!

I was so excited to bind my chunky book pages for my Dia De Los Muertos pages that arrived a few weeks ago. I had been trying to think of a way to bind them that was out of the ordinary when it dawned on me Friday in an art teacher's meeting. I learned how to construct a portfolio using cardboard for a cover and colored Duct Tape as a spine. Next, you sew thin signatures into the Duct Tape and glue the pages to those signatures. If I've lost you all you need to really know is that is worked and is oh so cool! I loved the way the covers came out and have been starring at it since I painted it yesterday morning.
And, speaking of Dia De Los Muertos Swaps I have not yet mentioned my ever so fabulous charm swap bracelet. My mom surprised me by signing up for a charm swap because she knew how fascinated I was with Mexico's Day of the Dead. The charm swap worked like the book page swap. Each artist made 25 beads all alike, sent them in to Linda, the group moderator, who sent each artist one of each bead. The bead arrived on Halloween. My mom quickly attached them to a bracelet, that converts into a necklace by the way, So that I could wear in November 1-3 to celebrate! Although Jim's photography skills are stunning in this photo I was not able to get a picture that really shows how cool this bracelet really is. I got tons of compliment when I was wearing it and may wear it at other times of the year just for fun. It is big, loud, and commands attention, it's just my style.

Thankful ATC Swap

Yesterday was the November ATC swap at Frenzy Stamper. Our Theme was thankful. I didn't want to go with a Thanksgiving card, I wanted mine to be a little different. I thought about all the things that I was really thankful for and the thing that stood out most was my mother-in-law. Most people complain about their in-laws but I don't have one complaint. I know, I know, it's like I struck gold finding Jim and his family. Lela is kind, generous, loving, and she did one heck of a job raising Jim. And, just for the record, she never leaves the path when hiking.
I made my ATC alla Claudine Hellmuth. The bottom text reads: "Thankfulness is having a mother-in-law that deserves to be adored as much as her son."
After the swap Dawn taught us how to stamp and color on Dominoes. Keep your eye out for my cool ornaments coming soon!

The Baggie Swap Arrived

After all of the anticipation my baggie swap cards arrived n the mail yesterday. It was interesting to see what people had done. I hope that all of the cards will be put on our yahoo group to see what the group did as a whole.

Black And White Christmas

How can you not be happy when you walk past the black and white Christmas isle at Walmart? This picture does not do the isle justice it really is breathtaking. Who would have thought Walmart would be the ones to have such a unique and formal Christmas color scheme? Now I must have a black and white tree. I bought my pretty little beaded tree skirt today. I couldn't risk the lovely skirt being sold out. Finding black ornaments is a fun challenge and I can't wait to see the tree all together.

A Few of My Favorite Things Fabric Chunky Book

This weekend I finished my chunky book pages for the fabric book swap These Are A Few of my Favorite Things. I had to incorporate fabric in some way and also show a few of my favorites. Collageing with fabric was a new one for me but very fun. Actually this page made me consider doing a whole book of favorite things.
I know reading the back is a challenge it says:
A few of my favorite things:
being married • my wedding rings photographs • ribbon • collage
black and white fabric • flowers decorative brads • rhinestones
sewn paper • making pages for a swap using only what I already had in my studio

Hair Alert! Hair Alert!

Check out the photo below carefully. I mentioned in an earlier post that my hair would never be as long as Shannon's. With Shannon's new cut I think we may be tied! With everyone else going shorter and me going longer I may have the longest hair any day now.

Hair as Art

I love hair days. Once every 8 weeks or so Mom, Buffy, Baby Kakes, and I venture out to meet Shannon in Mesa where the amazing Lori Lash performs hair miracles. (You too can see Lori if you live in Arizona. If you are interested leave me a post and I'll email her number.) I look at Lori's hair styling talent as an art. When she asks what I want I tell her the length and give her artistic license after that. This visit was especially fun when we tried adding magenta to the middle layer of my hair. It was shockingly magenta at first and then balanced out. I love my new punky doo and that Lori tries colors on my hair that she would not just try on anyone.
For lunch we ventured to c-fu Gormet for a little Dim Sum. If you have never experienced Dim Sum you should check it out. Small metal carts are pushed around the restaurant hawking tasty oriental delights. A tally sheet is kept at your table of the item that you have selected yet when you are offered dishes you never know how much they cost. Also, you rarely remember what you have just eaten in a sometimes fast paced selecting process. Dim Sum is definitely a fun experience.

Making a Disaster

I love making a disaster in the name of art. I desperately need to clean off my desk and work area in the studio but each time I start to clean a new project calls to me. I found my self working on my desk and sewing on the floor today. Oh, what fun!
I was excited when I discovered that my Diet ATC swap arrived in the mail today. It is always interesting to see other artist's interpretation of a topic. I loved the idea to put them on a ring and they can packed in a cute red bag with drawstrings. It was a nice surprise.

Saving the World One Piece of Paper at a Time

The city of Peoria finally caught up with the times and delivered a brown recycle can to my street late this week. When Jim and I went outside to check it out we discovered the cutest little recycle basket (If recycle baskets can be cute) for inside out house hiding inside the large can along with a list of items that could be recycled. While both Bentley and Harley were very disturbed by the arrival of this new garbage can, barking loudly for way too long, I was excited. I immediately read the list of items to be recycled to Jim and started locating items that were hanging around the house that would be perfect for recycling.
Four empty laundry soap containers, old newspapers, phone books, junk mail, and magazines, empty QT and Mobil cups (Plastic #2), empty cardboard boxes, toilet paper rolls, tissue boxes, you get the idea. The item I was most excited about discovering was my shot packaging. Both the individual shot packing and the needle plastic are made from plastics #1 and #2. This means that over half of the garbage created from each shot is recyclable.
As I was sorting through my garbage cans in the studio last night Jim said, "Honey, what are you doing?" I replied, "I am recycling and it's a lot of fun." Jim said, "That's my girl save the world one piece of paper at a time."

I Heart Kelly Kilmer

Kelly if you are reading this please ignore my gushing, thanks!
I noticed today that I had a second reply to my little random blog from Kelly Kilmer just yesterday. As if that were not exciting enough when I returned to Kelly's blog this afternoon, I left off leaving it to go to bed last night, she has a link from her blog to mine! I'm sure you are thinking Jeane, how did you just notice this? Well, it's just that Kelly has all the best links on her page and I like to visit not only to see what she is working on but I have also been visiting all her links. Check out Kelly's blog today.

Catching Up & Baby Kakes

After going out of town for the art conference, which was great by the way, I still feel like I am trying to catch up on everything. I realized this afternoon that I left my camera cord in my laptop bag at work so I will have to upload my pictures tomorrow for a few entries today.
I did get a chance to go to the mall with Buffy and Baby Kakes. We discovered the cutest store called Pumpkin Patch that sells great baby clothes loads of them with birds. (I love birds) Kakes had to try on this hat and she was so darn cute that we had to take her picture.

Baggie Swap 3

My Baggie Swap ATCs are done and in the mail. Some of my Baggie items were quite the challenge. But, like I tell the kids at school , "Artists are problem solvers." I ended up with a few cards that were not my usual style. In the end I was happy with how they turned out and a challenge is always good. Naturally, the one for my mom was my favorite. This is in part due to the fact that we have similar taste in art embellishments. The ATC for her is the one that has my wedding picture and all the Asian flare. Surprise Mom!

Dia De Los Muertos Chunky Book

My Dia De Los Muertos Chunky Book pages arrived yesterday just in time for the holiday. The Pages were very cool and I am excited to make a cover for them and bind them but I can't wait to show off the pages. My favorite pages were done by Stephanie Romero, an anonymous artist and Juana Martinez-Neal. I love how Juana's page folded out, and I am fairly certain she drew all of her pages by hand.

Spooky Dinner

I love Halloween. Not so much dressing up anymore, although it ranked highly when I was younger, but the treats and surprises. For several years I have made Spooky Dinner for a few of my friends. This year's spooky dinner had two shifts. Mom, Buff, Baby Kakes and Deb first and then a second round with Deb and Ayesha. The menu included bat's blood punch, spaghetti with eyeballs, spider web, bread, and spooky salad bar including weeds and grass (lettuce), vampire eyes (cherry tomato), ogre curls (broccoli), witches teeth (sunflower seeds), mummy bandages (Shreded mozzerella). For dessert Deb brought a bleeding eyeball cake and of course we made roasted Peeps. They were Ayesha's first roasted Peeps, a moment I'm sure she will not soon forget.