Nest Feathers and Twine - Formally Artist's Block Studio

The things that make a house a home and the stuff that holds is all together.

Years ago I started this blog with a mindset and goals that I have found have changed direction over time. I am excited to say that this blog has a new name.....Nest Feathers and Twine. I hope you come by and visit often. Feel free to get comfortable and kick off your shoes and join me on this journey of metamorphosis.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

finally, huh?

yes, finally there is something new posted here! i have got a million and one things to add, but there has not been time, so today i made time....some quick ornaments i soldered to send out to some people, i did knubbies for the first time with solder, not too bad for the first time. by the time i did the last knubbie i was getting the hang of them.

oh, and a thought.....did you know if you eat a chocolate cookie after brushing your teeth with vanilla mint toothpaste, it almost-kinda-sorta-in a way-maybe tastes like a girl scout thin mint cookie?........well, now you do!

hope to post again very soon..........time to tell the elves their coffee break was over ten minutes ago! Posted by Picasa

Friday, November 17, 2006

altered cabinet cards

a couple of altered cabinet cards i did earlier this year that i just realized i had not scanned in!

i do not have the heart to use the real thing, i hate the thought of destroying a part of history. using the originals of this particular photo would never be an option since they are my husbands relatives... part of the boone clan....daniel boone that is. he is also part northern cherokee indian, but no photos from that part of his history. Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

happy happy birthday 2 u !

13 years old. i can not believe it. where does the time go? i can not wait to see what the next 13 hold!

not only does he look just like his daddy, but he is just as laid back as well.

then there is the seriously silly side of him. he has a dry wit, one minute he is serious, the next he is just plain goofey. he wants to get into drama, and one day when he does he will be wonderful at it! quite the actor he is! and almost a straight a student......i am so proud of him!

he has come so far in his life and overcome some huge hurdles with a bravery i admire. sometimes he is too smart for his own good, and for mine!

13 years ago, just minutes after he was born, he was fussing his big sister sang twinkle twinkle little star to him, just like she did when he was still inside of me.....he knew her voice in an instant, tried his hardest to focus on her and stopped fussing. that memory is so clear that it seems like it just happened, i can not believe it has been 13 years.....13.......wow. today if his sister would sing twinkle, twinkle (not that i believe that would happen, though) it would not be received in the same sweet, gentle way it was 13 years ago that is for sure. oh, how they grow, and change.

i miss those days, but hold the memories of those days close to my heart as i live out each day of the present knowing they too will become a memory, and i look forward to the future trying hard not to be in a rush to get there any faster than what we have to, as time already seems to move to quickly.

happy birthday my sweet sweet sam. Posted by Picasa

Saturday, November 11, 2006

two years ago......

today was the last time we got talk to each other.

two years ago the 13th was when we lost him.


i miss you daddy. Posted by Picasa

Thursday, November 09, 2006

2 days.....

what a difference it makes. 2 days ago i took a picture of the
bradford pear at the corner of our front yard.
this picture does not do the colors of the leaves justice.
they were so vibrant that you could feel them, taste them, smell them........


the whole neighborhood got to hold on to the beauty fall brings just a bit longer since the bradford pears , wanting to be the star of the show and not wanting to blend in with all of the other trees, waited until all the other trees were done displaying their fall colors to show theirs off.

now, 2 days later, everytime the wind blows these faded beauties twirl like a troupe of well trained and choreographed dancers as they drop from the branches, then gently land in a puddle on the ground below.
Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

looking back

on an evening of fun while digging through the nights rewards of begging door to door!
 Posted by Picasa

time to relax

the decorations are up, the costumes and make up on.....while the guys go gathering candy we girls get to sit down and rest, finally! steph is on the left, me on the right, all bundled up with the essentials....candy for trick-or-treaters, blankies and coats to keep us warm, flashlight for blinding or assulting any real boogeymen that might show up, phone - an essential at all times for any girl, and portable dvd player with 'over the hedge' playing! we are all set.....and freezing in the 39 degree weather! Posted by Picasa

a few

decorations
 Posted by Picasa

so this is what happens when

a child does not get enough sleep......



 Posted by Picasa

what a bum

our youngest has become......


 Posted by Picasa

and they're off

for an evening of candy gathering.......

 Posted by Picasa

pumpkins transformed

into jack-o-laterns Posted by Picasa

even molly was alll dressed up




for halloween! Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

art...finally

i have been jabbering on this blog endlessly, but now, finally art! this is the 4x4 that i made last month for redleads favorite color chunky.

as usual, i have to bend and stretch the rules a bit. notice there is not just one color! nope...couldn't do it. i don't have just one favorite color. so, it is natures palette. you can't tell, but the flutterby's are not glued down to the page, and you can not see the twinkle of the twinkling h20's on the background and on the flowers and flutterby's.
so, still cleaning my studio. i decided to put the 'fun' back into the functional by rearranging my studio, yes, once again, and putting all the things i love in my studio on my actual work table.......pretty soon i will be able to post pics of my studio with no shame, and this time I AM KEEPING MY STUDIO CLEAN.....AGAIN.....
Posted by Picasa

Friday, October 20, 2006

my inner 'dharma'

today i am cleaning, yes, still working on cleaning my studio. i have this bad habit of sometimes bringing a bag home and not unloading it right away.

well i have a few of those bags in my studio that i am in the middle of unloading and i came across a target bag with my halloween pencils. the top half is a plastic tube that holds bubbles. when i found them last week i was excited to add them to my bubble container collection.

i did not start out with the intention of a collection, it has just started happening! so, i have just gotten in touch with my inner 'dharma' and blew some bubbles. now i am relaxed, and ready to tackle the rest of the studio......or maybe just a few more bubbles........

i was going to take a picture of these beautiful colorful floating orbs.....but then realized that if i posted it everyone would see just how messy my studio really is.....that would be embarrassing....so i will take a photo when everything is tidied up a bit.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

ok, so i promised that i was

going to keep up on my blog after my long absence awhile back. so, the fly was still alive and driving my nuts yesterday, and i just realized i have not had the annoyance of the darn thing landing on me yet today.....i am hoping that he 'flew' off to heaven!

yesterday i got all ready, and as soon as bill got home from work we got in the car to drive to the city to Wash U to see a couple of specialists...and thank goodness before we drove all the way down there we realized that the appointments were not until today!

today we got all ready as soon as bill got home from work and drove to see the docs. poor bill, he works third shift, comes home so tired he can hardly keeps his eyes open and then we had an hour and a half wait to see the first specialist that only handles hands and elbows. during the exam with the chief resident bill was dozing off. while we were waiting for the doctor to come in he dozed off again and started to talk in his sleep and asked if i broke the lead off my pencil. i messed with him a bit, and then i got the giggles so bad he woke up and by the end of the visit with the first doc he was wide awake. we were both starving and had hoped to have time to grab a bite to eat before the second appointment with the shoulder and neck specialist, but nope.

the news is not good. and we are looking at several surgeries. lots of pain. and who knows what a few years down the road.

i do LUV the docs at Wash U! they are wonderful!

on the way home my hubby said, so now i guess we gotta call the lawyer to see what is next....this translates into " so can you please call the lawyer tomorrow honey"

figured out how to resize my pics for mmca. that made my day. i have been futzing with that for over a week. yeah me!

trying to get the kids in a routine of doing rotating chores. holy moly you would think we had maids all their lives, and now we don't.....well, i guess when mom is a stay at home mom they kinda did have maids. now that i am trying to get a couple of businesses up and going and working fulltime, even though it may be at home, the kiddos have gotten a crash course in some basic house keeping skills. hmmmmm....now they know why mom gets a tad bit irked when they show up with an armload of dirty clothes after it was thought they were all done....or about another bazillion things......i only wish now i had done this sooner!

we have also decided that each child has to plan and cook 1 meal each week.....they love the idea this week, we will see what next week brings! i am a little scared what some of the concoctions are going to turn out like......eeek could be scarier than some of the best halloween costumes!

i have a piece of art to post...it is my 4x4 for redlead. i just glanced over at it and realized i had not yet done that! first i have to check out the freezer and fridge. the kids are whining there is nothing to eat, which translates into the momish language as " there is only healthy and nutritious food items in our cold storage facilities, and we do no wish to partake in such foods this evening"

so off i go....will try to get that pic uploaded, and do some more cleaning up in the studio. it seems as though my muse sat on her butt eating bon-bons all day watching tv!

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

sleep, who needs sleep....

life around here is always happening. there are not calm, still, quiet days or nights, and well it is just life and we live it.

monday the kids went back to school after cycle and fall breaks. as always they all have a hard time getting to sleep that first school night. needless to say sleep did not come easily or quickly for me or the kids sunday night, and max ended up crawling into bed to snuggle with me and finally fell asleep about 1am. yesterday he was sooooo tired he fell asleep on the bus ride home. now if you know max, you know that is almost unbelievable!

last night all three kids climb into bed early and watch tv. i thought for sure everyone would fall asleep early and breathed a sigh of relief. i can go to bed on time tonight and all by myself....yeah right!

10:15 wake bill for work
10:29 & 1/2 - kiss bill good bye after all the kids have and send him off to work
10:29 & 3/4 - tell steph to get her butt in the shower, again
10:30 - tell the boys to get back in bed
10:30 & 1/8 -tell boys go to bed
10:30 & 3/8 - tell boys to be quiet
10:30 & 5/8 - tell boys to quit goofing off
10:31 - i crawl into bed.....set the alarm for midnight when everyone should be fast asleep so i can get up and feed the birds and change their cages......someone forgot to wash the bird bowls earlier in the evening so i could change cages at a decent hour
10:32 - tell boys to be quiet and go to sleep
10:35 - tell boys i will make them wear a pink tu-tu and high heels to their bus stops if they do not quiet down
10:39 - tell boys if they do not go to sleep I will wear the pink tu-tu and high heels and sing and dance with them at their bus stop
10:50 - princess steph is finally finished with her shower and emerges from the bathroom engulfed in the midst of fog that indicates that she took her shower on the 'could melt glass' setting on the hot water.
10:51 - steph gives me hugs and kiss and tells me goodnight
10:51 & 1/2 boys complain that it is not fair she is not in bed and they are
10:51 & 3/4 - i tell boys she' s going, she's going
10:52 - boys come into my room to wait for her to leave.......oh give me a break

so, by 11:00 everyone is settled into bed......then the light in the hall bathroom light goes on. NOW they go to the bathroom

11:01 - everyone back in bed
11:03 - steph is asleep
11:04 - sam tells me he loves me and will see me in the morning....that is his way of checking to make sure i am still there....
11:05 - sam again.....still checking
11:09 - sam again......ugh......i am still here! and i am tired......
11:10 - sam is finally asleep, and i assume max is too.......hmph...not!
11:10 & 1/2 - max crawls in bed for night number 2
1:00.....yes......1:00 he finally is able to settle down. oh, i can not believe this.
1:01 - i set alarm for 2:00 am to get up and change bird cages.....just a little nap......i will just lay on my left side......no, the right........nah, maybe on my back......arm in the face.....on my left side.......knee in my back......eee....eeee....eeee..eeee..eeeee.....eeeeee....eeeee...eeeee (that is how you spell that horrid noise the alarm clock makes, just in case you were wondering)
geez it is 2 am already.......max...where are you going.......max come lay back down....max you are at home......max come lay back down.......max is talking in his sleep and trying to sleep walk....something he does when he is stressed by school. or in this case just wound up going back to school and not being able to wind down to go to sleep.
2:10 - he is asleep, but who knows for how long before he tries to sleep walk, again.
2:11 - give up cleaning bird cages, will do tomorrow after the kids go to school and hope to make it before the trash guy gets here.
2:12 - oh, geez i can't go to sleep......
2:13 - nope....still not
3:00 - still awake
3:01 - dozing
3:15 - max trying to get up again
4:00 - i think i fell asleep
4:10 - gotta pee
4:11 - back in bed
4:12 - its chilly, turn up heat
4:13 - dozing
5:30 - eeee.....eeeee.....eeeee.....eeee......eeeeee..... time to get steph up
5:31 - crawl back in bed
6:00 - wide awake...give up on sleep....get up and check emails
6:05 - go downstairs to get cup of ice in storage area of basement and step on soaking wet towels from a minor leak in basement from rain all day yesterday. and the water seeps into the holes of my fake crocs....eeek is it cold
6:30 - steph on bus
6:31 - hmmmmm maybe a little nap before sam gets up
6:32 - dozing....yes finally
6:33 - molly (stephs chee-wah-wah) barking her brains out in the kitchen
6:34 - still
6:35 - still
6:36 - still
6:37.....6:38....6:39........still
6:40 - hmmm, maybe i should see if someone is trying to break into the house
6:41 - turn on kitchen light to see molly wants to kill something outside
6:41 & 1/2 - turn on back light to scare off said something and shut molly up
6:41 & 3/4 - back in bed
6:41 & 7/8 - i am drifting off
6:51 - the bed is shaking......is it max trying to sleep walk...no, great....what dead family member have i made so mad that they feel the need to haunt me. i raise my 'good ear' up off the pillow and i hear BANG kkkkkkk EEEKKK BANG kkkkkkk EEEKKKKK BANG kkkkkkkk EEEKKK
oh, for the love of all that holy they are tearing up the street in front of our house.....
7:00 - eee.......eeee....eeee....eeeee......WHAM! ( that is the noise of me hitting the snooze)
7:09 - eee..eeee....eeee....eeee....eeeee.....eeeee.....eeeeee....eeeee......eeeeee.
7:10 - eeeee......eeeeeee.......eeeeee......eeeeee......eeeeee........'all right already!" WHAM!
7:10 & 1/2 - get sam up
7:11 - try to sneak back into bed for attempt at a cat nap
7:12 - 'mmmmmmooooooommmmmmm' it is sam, i give up
7:38 - sam is out the door to wait for the bus
7:45 - ......where is the bus
7:50 - ........great....it is late again
7:50 1/2 - BANG kkkkkkEEEEEEKKKK BANG kkkkkkk EEEKKKK.....etc, etc, etc,
8:00 - finally, 20 minutes late the bus is here
8:00 & 1/2 crawl in bed, reset alarm for 8:15
8:00 & 3/4 - why did you even try
8:15 - wake max up
8:17 - wake me and max up
8:19 - gotta get up bud
8:21 - crawl back in bed for just one minute
8:23 - i am dreaming
8:24 - bam! bill is home, getting the dumpster from the backyard
8:25 - my heart starts doing one of its funky rythym things and i have to go through the whole this, that and the other routine to get it to return to normal. it would be nice if the docs could figure out the why and how to fix.....but after 6 years, it is just part of life.
8:27 - lean on wall in hall way and tell all of this to bill
8:40 - max and bill go out to wait for bus........on the way bill and i talk about horrid smell that has been in our laundry room for the last week......i ask if he looked behind the door or in the vent because i had not thought of it......he says no....i go off to check....we have already torn the laundry room apart top to bottom, twice in the last week, and have burned to the base about a million scented candles.....
8:42 - after literally, no lie, no kidding, a solid week of trying to find this horrid smell that has been in our laundry room i found it....i have a super sensitive gag reflex.....OMG oh yuck! i am gonna heave last weeks dinner.........

the thing causing the smell was not actually 'in' our laundry room. it came from a bag on the door handle leading to our garage. on that door handle was 3 wal-mart bags. 2 of them had my soy chips in them (MMMMMM yummy) . i bought several bags in did not have room in the storage bin, so i just left them in the bag and hung them from the door handle. WELL, someone hung a wal-mart bag with a few potatos in it on the door as well, and the bag kinda slid behind bags with the soy chips. sometime during the night, or the wee hours of the morning it all exploded out of the bottom of the bag and oozed out....oh geez there was this sticky, stinky, gooey mess all over the bags, the floor.....and the smell has now escalated to lethal levels....even molly was gagging......i open the bag............and looked inside to try to identify what this gunk was while trying not to puke and make a worse mess and i see what appears to have been 3ish potatos....i was wondering where they went a few weeks ago........and things flew out of the bag......and there were squirmy things in there........OH..........MY.........G............so i dropped the bag in the trash can and ran for the bathroom.

my hubby, my hero, came back in the house about this time and finished cleaning up the mess and said he was very proud of me for making it as long as i did.........then he ran the bag out the door, gagging the whole time .

we are both grateful today is trash day.

the trash guys will not be as grateful.

bill tries to get me to lay back down, with him.....now i am wide awake aint gonna happen.

we both realize we, which translates to I, have several phone calls to make to gather medical records for an appointment with hand and shoulder specialist that is coming up way to quick.
so we, (i) made the phone calls, begged and pleaded with one dr.'s office to get the records ready for today.....eeeewwww make a copy of a report....geesh, why does it have to be so hard...so while the girl is talking to me like it is such a big deal she is pulling up the report, and by the time she is done whining.....it is done. now see, was it that hard?

now i need to clean 8 bird cages, play with 4 parrots, take a ton of stuff downstairs and put away for the businesses i am working on starting, oh, but first i have to empty the washer and dryer so i can clean up the wet towels in the basement and put them straight into the washer.......work on re-cleaning my studio....i am hoping from help from my muse for this one....i love makin' the mess, hate cleaning up afterwards.....make about a dozen more phones calls, shower, figure out what is for dinner that will cause the least amount of 'ewww not that....again' comments, get the hubby up and showered, run all over creation to pick up scattered medical reports, mri's.....blah blah blah.....oh, and we are FINALLY going to decorate for halloween....2 1/2 weeks late, tonight....and i had planned hot chocolate and homemade chocolate chip cookies for the festivities.......

i am so glad this is going to be an easy day since i did not sleep!


ok, so here is an update.......got phone call from neighbors daughter....their tire fell off their car....can bill come put it back on. i ask....can this wait till 2 when i wake him.....nope need him now. so wake bill at 12:05.......he has had exactly 3 hours of sleep. it takes him almost 2 hours to fix the damage to her car so he can put the tire back on and discovers auto ________something gave her the wrong cap and lug nuts......

so he comes home we both clean bird cages.....water mess almost cleaned up downstairs....swear i saw a spider in a row boat out of the corner of my eye.......hallucination from lack of sleep. laundry going....check...birds done...check......emails checked....check....phone calls made....checcccccc....well most of them. so now at 2:16 we are 16 minutes behind schedule....off to the shower, will skip a few chores until we are done picking up medical records....so both of us are sleep deprived. this should be an interesting day.

now i am tired! figures!








Monday, October 16, 2006

i'm gonna kill.........

this fly some how! this thing has been in my studio for 2 days and always seems to land on me just when it would be the absolute worst time....say while there is an exacto knife in hand. it seems the more i shoo this thing away the more determined it is to land on me!

that's it. all i have to say today. today has been quiet. ALL 3 of the kids went back to school today. peace and quiet. ahhhhhhhh......

Sunday, October 15, 2006

words that changed my life

several things have had a profound affect on my life.....there are the obvious, and public things......marriage and children which i mention quite a bit. then there are the private things which i don't talk much about, if at all. like, when i was in my late teens, life was taking me down a path, and i let it, that was not good.....i was a scared, hurt and confused kid who gravitated towards those who accepted my unconditionally, but this does not mean that those people lived what i would call acceptable lives. one day driving down the highway with a group of these people in my car, kinda sick to my stomach that i was where i was in life and feeling like i had no way out, i looked over and saw a family, they seemed to be financially challenged, but there was a mom and dad and three kids, they were happy and loving and a family, they were laughing and having fun, there was so much love you could feel it jump from their car to mine.......that is what i so desperately wanted and from that day on i started a very long process of re-inventing myself so that one day i could have just that, what i wanted so very much.

about 3 1/2 years ago i almost died. i learned a very valuable lesson, too. always trust your instincts, just because people have a college education and 'm.d.' behind their name does not mean they are right, or that they know everything, even if they try to convince you of just that. had i listened to my 2 doctors i would be dead. a year later i nearly died again. i also learned that life is short and it does not matter how many appointments and things- to- do lists you have in your planner life could end at any moment. live life. live life to its fullest. get in touch with your inner dharma. (did you ever see the show dharma and greg?) dharma is who i would have been had i grown up in a family that allowed that type of behavior......
stop and smell the roses. stop and think of all of the things you have to be thankful for and quit thinking so much about the material things you don't have, but want. simple is wonderful.

on the 13th of november my daddy will have been gone for 2 years. he will always be my daddy, no matter how old i get to become. this man who was strong, determined and did not count on or rely on anyone for anything, a man who stood on his own 2 feet through alot of hard times, i watch this man flat on his back hooked to machines, with tubes coming out of him everywhere, i watched him as he lay dying in an e.r. . i will never forget as i stood next to him telling him over and over that i loved him and i was 'petting' for lack of a better way to put it, petting his head....through all of the drugs and trauma, an oxygen starved brain, he still had enough of his wits about him and managed to try to reach up and push my hand away. see, my dad had very thin hair. he would style his hair and then hair spray the begeesus out of it and no one, i repeat NO ONE touched his hair after that! they took daddy to surgery, and as soon as they opened him up, he died. my world was forever changed that day, and every day since. i miss his big hugs, and i miss our long talks on the phone. our relationship was a very rocky road, but we had been becoming so close. while my mom was off at a meeting here or there we would talk for hours on the phone. someday i will see him again.

a couple of years earlier i watched my grandma die in an e.r. . we thought that woman would never die. 30% lung capacity in each lung from emphazema for over 10 years. smoked like the great fire of chicago everyday in a little box of a house with no ventilation...so she also breathed in second hand smoke all day. honery as all get out. if she did not do herself in health wise enough, she would get people so mad at her that i am surprised no one killed her. but she loved me......unconditionally. she loved me for me. and for that i loved her. i use to joke that my grandpa was paying off God and the devil to keep her here on earth, and that God and the devil were playing a game of 'no when she dies you keep, i don't want her......' trust me she was a piece of work. watching her dying, then watching as she passed, it was life changing. i wish i could talk to her again. someday i will.

the next thing that changed my life was reading a passage from T'AO, 22 which was on a journal page from the True Colors book. I read and re-read this over and over and let each word sink in to a place deep within me. i use to read it daily, then weekly, then monthly...as time wore on in my heart i knew each word and meaning of each line. what i wrote about a few days ago, below prompted me to bring this book out again, and post it for those who never noticed it before in their copy of True Colors or those who don't have a copy.

my hope is the words will inspire and move you the way they did me.

the woman of T'ao
holds oneness in her heart
and her world is at peace
does not try to please
and therefore shines,
does not seek attention
and therefore excels,
does not justify herself
and therefore is trusted,
does not imitate others
and is therefore herself,
does not compete
and therefore
no one in the world
can surpass her.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

ouch, it still stings.....

while blog hopping today i came across heidi's blog and read her 'ghosts of the past' entry. boy it brought back memories. i was such a geek as a kid, well, according to the other kids. i was hearing impaired, had undiagnosed learning disabilities, big bucky buck teeth, and due to a hard childhood i learned life was easier if you sat quietly in a corner. i was picked on, teased, and suffered terribly from what i have always called 'rudolph syndrome'. remember the song from the rudolph movie...and all the other reindeer never let rudolph join in the reindeer games.....

well, after reading her blog entry i did some housework, took a shower, and all along kept thinking about it. i could feel her hurt. should i comment on her blog?....should i not since we don't really really know each even though she is in my yahoo group. i know i would love to know there was someone else out there who could share in that feeling.

i have worked so hard over the last couple of years to put the past in the past and lock that door. keep all of the sorted monsters out. as i get older i learn more and more to accept and love who i am, who i am becoming, and who i will be someday. i thought i had so conquered the beast and it would never haunt me or hurt me again.

ok, well, i am human and sometimes the beast is stronger. 2 years ago i came up with an idea to do a CHARM BRACELET round robin. I brought the idea up to several local artists and all of them seemed to love the idea. that november we lost my mother-in-law on the 1st, my dad on the 13th and my husbands uncle on the 14th. the idea was put on hold for a year. last november i started a yahoo group and listed on the groups homepage that we would be having a charm bracelet round robin. many people joined. many expressed a great deal of interest. one artist who loved the idea ended up not joining in and i wondered at first as to why since she was so interested and then let it go.

now i know that we creative types can come up with the same idea and even at the same time, i also know that when an idea is copied it is a form of flattery, i know that if the artist who first put wings and a crown or party hat on a vintage picture of a child ran around and screamed to every other artist who did the same HEY THAT WAS MY IDEA FIRST.....she would be a very busy person...and an attention needy whiny thing! after my yahoo group got the round robin going i came across several other groups who started doing there own.....it made me feel kinda good, even though no one ever said hey this was christine's idea......i thought how cool even if it was just me that knew i was the one who provided the inspiration......even several members of my yahoo group had taken this idea to other groups, and i felt a little like....hey why didn't i get asked to play....but that was that little hurt child who whispered that i think. i am ok with that now. but...........................................

what cut to the bone and will sting for a very long time was the artist who loved, loved, loved my idea of a charm bracelet round robin. she quickly joined my group and listed all of her links on the links section.....hey another place to advertise her artsy-ness for free. then *poof* she disappeared. never participated in anything. turned her emails from the group off. so a few months later i am blog surfing and i come across her entry. she has made oodles of charms for a charm swap. right away i felt like i had been stabbed in the gut. i tracked down the group and joined and then found the post that described how this group was the ONLY group doing such a thing! now, i felt like i had been stabbed in the back. i quickly went to the members list........many people are very well known amongst us in the artist community, and published a bunch.

she took my idea to another group and whether anyone else was aware of it, it was presented as an original idea by the groups moderators.

so my idea was good enough, just not me, or my group! wow that hurt, bad. it still does. so i try not to get angry about it, or feel hurt, but every once in awhile those oh- to -human emotions creep in the back door before i realize it and can shoo them away.

i had a couple of friends who had told me in the past that she very two faced, i refused to believe, she had always been nice to me....i had never seen any evidence of this. they warned watch your back. i did not feel the need. i really thought maybe they were just jealous of her talent, or how many people just loved her. yes, i was naive.

a couple of other artists said they, too, had their ideas swiped by her in similiar fashion.

so, now i learned.

the hard way.

i hurt.

and someday i will get over it.

at least when i lay down at night i can sleep with a clear conscience.

my art is just that MY art.

my art is from my heart

my art is from my soul

maybe this person is missing her heart. her soul. or they are damaged from her own personal issues. sometimes i feel sorry for her. maybe she has needs to be filled so bad that she would do whatever she had to, no matter the cost, just to hear words of praise.

sometimes the monster sneaks in the backdoor and i just think KARMA will bite her in the butt someday.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

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these are couple of charms i made recently.
they are vintage appliques under glass.
the pink flowers have a fence i soldered onto the glass, and soldered a bee charm on the corner
the flower basket has a wire wrapped bead and wire wrapped swarvoski crystal danglies
these two are mine! (i tell my honey that i must 'test drive' new creations before i offer them for sale! ha!) i was given a ton of the vintage appliques by a wonderful
friend with her blessing to make charms to sell!
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finally, some art...these are cones i made. the idea for the glitter birdies came from sharon w. i walked into redlead one day last year to see her up to her elbows in paint, gluel glitter and birdies!
i have a few more to assemble in my studio......one of those unfinished projects that will probably not get finished until after the holidays! the next couple of months are going to be nuts! Posted by Picasa
seems like just yesterday i took this!
eek! i am sooooo not ready for this!
but it is just 'round the corner i fear!
it is pretty though.....
according to the wooly worms we have seen
it is going to be a bad winter......
wonder who will be more accuate this year?
the wooly worm, or the weather people?
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Quote for the moment



"Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."

Harriet Beecher Stowe

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