Christmas Present

Hi all - I'm here amongst the living. Things have been really busy lately, getting all my swaps done so that I can start on making my Christmas cards. In the meantime, I made the two pictures for a present for my lovely sister-in-law. The little boys are my husbands (and hers) Father (Earl) and Uncle Fran. I have always loved the pictures, so does she, and I decided to make something for her with the images. They are two ATC's that are put into a picture frame, that is clear. I created the background using scrap booking paper, and I distressed it along with the colored paper under the ATC's. The background of the ATC is from an old spelling book that I have. Hopefully she will like them.
Hubby has given me the pictures from our vacation, I just have to figure out how to upload from the CD. I will ------
My lovely friend Lou has asked me to fill in on a swap that someone had to drop out of at the last minute, and I said I would. The ladies in the group have given me the most warm welcome that I ever had from any Yahoo group ever. I whole heartily thank them for their kindness. Most groups now seem to be going by the wayside.
Have to get buy and put more of my old Christmas Decorations on E-bay.
Until next time. - Darlene

Well I have put a few photos on the blog today of the wonderful class at Stamplistic, which was taught by TIM HOLTZ - He is a wonderful teacher and we all had such a good time. Five of us from Art Gang Ohio attended, and what a good time we all had.
The names of the ladies that attended are from left to right, Lou, Alice, Betsy, Darlene and Sue.

When hubby finishes the organization of our vacation photos, I will post a few of them. First time for me out of my comfort zone ( USA) and found much to my surprise, that I had a fantastic time in Europe.

Until then ----

Hi All - well the countdown is under way, 3 days from today - I will be flying to Barcelona to get on a cruise ship. This is a really big undertaking for me, as I always told hubby I did not want to go overseas. But I had some time (30 Years) to think about this, and said to myself "Stop being so selfish". So for our 30th Wedding Anniversary, we are going to Spain, France and Italy. I really am looking forward to this.

Also made this Art Mail Post Card, and sent it to my friend Dawn. Hope she likes it. Probably will be delivered to her in today's mail.

Darlene

Well yesterday - my wonderful hubby surprised me with a very special birthday gift, and that was a ride in the Goodyear Blimp. Many, many moons ago, hubby received an award from Toyota for excellence in quality from a vendor (Dunlop) and part of the reward was a ride in the blimp, which he did not know of ahead of time.
When I saw the pictures and heard his description of the experience, I made it one of my life goals to go up in the blimp. He was able to get this dream fulfilled for me. It was a marvelous thing. No hesitation on my part to do this, mainly because I am not an easy flier.
When I saw that huge air ship of close, it took my breath away, and I was able to ride up front with the pilot.
One more thing taken care of from the bucket list, and this was out of my comfort zone on so many levels. This is why I try to do these things, many wonderful experience can be had from this.

Hi - Well today I went clothes shopping with my good friend Lou, and we found some good bargains. Of course we did not "need" the items that we purchased, but then again, what does need have to do with it.

Later in the day I was thinking, which can be a very dangerous thing, just ask my husband. I thought about the need that our souls have, which is to be constantly reinvented. If one becomes stagnant, you cannot reach new heights. I fully believe that this applies to our art work. We need to sometimes go outside of our comfort zone and try new things. Very many times we surprise ourselves with what we create when we do this.

What we gain by doing this can be absolutely wonderful, and the piece of art can be fabulous.
So my goal for the week is to make something outside of my comfort zone and see what I come up with. Also, I need to finish my art for the many swaps that I am in. Time is closing in on me, as I will be going on a trip with my husband for our 30th Anniversary in a few weeks.

Darlene

The charms are one that I made for Ties That Bind - which is a group of artists that have come together to raise money for ovarian cancer. Please check out the site, it is wonderful. Also there are many links to the artists' blogs.


http://www.projecttiesthatbind.blogspot.com/

Book I made

This is a book that I made from the swap I participated in with Artchix on line group. There are 76 pages in total, and was titled "unbound chunky book". The theme was ' BY THE SEA ".

Hello World!!

Well this is a first for me. I am welcoming myself into the blogging world. Never thought that I would have done this in a million years, but never say never, because here I am.

I am a self taught