I recently finished these ATCs for a swap. The theme was “zettiology” which is a style developed by artist Teesha Moore. Check out her website to see her artwork and journal pages. These were so fun to do. Really anything goes, and it’s so fun to let loose an create.

Another view of my studio…kind of to the right and below the previous one. Click to enlarge so you can read the writing. Thank you for all the comments on the previous drawing. I am glad you are enjoying seeing my studio a little bit at a time. Check back for view #3 drawing in a few more days.

Blind contour drawing, color added in photoshop.

My sister recently came over and cleaned and organized my studio and helped make it a place where I actually really enjoy being and creating in. I decided to draw a series of drawings of my studio space. I started at the door. I will work my way around from here and hopefully you can get a good feel of what it looks like.

My birthday present from Sam and my awesome, talented babysitter (babysitter isn’t really the right word…she’s more like a nanny, or a part of our family…Karson calls her mama), was this beautiful photo of my kids playing in the leaves blown up to a poster size and framed! Plus a collage frame of individual shots of the kids mixed with close up shots of orange leaves against a bright blue sky…absolutely beautiful! Jasmin isn’t a professional photographer, but I bet you would think she is by these pictures. She definitely has an eye for a good composition and good lighting and a really nice camera which probably helps a lot. Sam helped with his Photoshop expertise and getting the poster printed on a huge inkjet printer. I just really love these and I couldn’t imagine a better gift! Thanks, you guys.

My mother in law gave this to me one year for Christmas. It is a brass candlestick…the mouse, reading a book, has a tail that becomes the support for the candle holder. I love the character and it has a nice patina to it, little hints of green, and has drips of wax down his ear and left arm. Unfortunately, you are looking at a blind contour drawing of it, which is not a good representation of it at all. Regardless, it’s one of my favorite little things on my shelf in my studio. I rarely burn it, but I was thinking, it just doesn’t look right with a brand new candle in it, so maybe today. Why not? I have nothing else to do. This is my fourth day home from work. I haven’t left my house since Tuesday night! I actually got sent home from work on Tuesday, and then spent the rest of the week in bed and on the couch trying to recover from a really bad case of asthmatic bronchitis. The doctor said it was close to pneumonia and I have to go back next week, just to be sure it hasn’t gotten worse. I am sure I have nothing to worry about. My 3 perscriptions are doing their job. I have never taken this many sick days in a row! I hope I don’t regret using so many. I am sure I could have gone to work today, but I probably would’ve been miserable, and grumpy…so Sam said I needed to just call in. So I did. I talked to my sub this morning, who is different from the sub I have had for the past 2 days. He said that my plans were confusing. Hopefully he will do ok. I just feel guilty staying home from work…do you ever feel like that?

This weekend my parents came to visit and on Saturday, my dad and I raked and blew the leaves out to the street. Since we live in the city, they pick them up. Anyway, it was so windy this weekend that you can’t even tell we did anything in the front yard…luckily the back yard is all fenced in so the leaves mostly stayed out of there. As I was walking into school today I noticed little twigs and branches laying all over the ground…so I picked up three of them and today (shh! don’t tell) during some of my planning time and lunch, I drew them.

After I added color: (updated 11-18-05)

I was at Target tonight, browsing in the scrapbook section…which I had NEVER looked at before (in Target)…and found some really neat things. The coolest is this deck of cards, There are 2 cards for each letter in the alphabet, and 2 blanks and the colors and designs are really great too. I can think of a ton of things I could do with these. I am pretty excited about finding something I have never seen before. I might just have to go out and buy another deck!

A blind contour of my birthday present – an altered book…see scan below.

When I got home from work today, there was a HUGE package waiting for me on the counter! I was so excited. I had forgotten my art pen pal had said she had sent a birthday package for me…and then there it was. I ripped it open with the excitement of a little kid…actually, I should mention that my “little kids” were just as excited as I was, as I tore apart the layers of bubble wrap, and carefully unpinned and unwrapped it from it’s packaging. My friend sent me this AWESOME altered board book. It’s way cool. I wish you could see every page. I have been wanting to do an altered book…I even recently attended a workshop (which was only 2 hours long – and I barely started it there) but haven’t made one yet. This book is so inspiring. Thank you, Tammy! I also received another great birthday ATC from a friend from ATC_World (that makes8!). It is so fun to get all these surprises! I haven’t received so many fun gifts since I was a kid! Birthdays are fun…even if it does mean you are a year older.
And when I tell people I am going to be 35, they all say I’m still so young. I feel like I am getting old…especially in the last few years. But I hopefully still have many years ahead to enjoy with my family and friends.

Another cool thing that happened…Last night I put the boys to bed, and feeling a bit guilty since parent/teacher conferences because Savannah only knows 7 of her sounds, we came downstairs and spent about 20 minutes practicing letters and matching words and pictures beginning with B, a game that she brought home a few weeks ago. Savannah was so into it, and celebrated with a big cheer everytime she formed an “a” just right. We had a fun time, and I noticed that she was having trouble hearing the ending sounds, which I guess is normal for that age, according to a kindergarten teacher at my school. I didn’t realize that they learn beginning sound, then ending sounds and then the sounds in the middle of the word. Anyway, (sorry about the unrelated details) I guess today Savannah amazed her teacher, because when Sam picked her up, Mrs. Clevenger remarked about how well Savannah did with her letters today and trying to sound out words…she wondered what we had done. I was totally blown away that taking 20 minutes before bed to work on some of her stuff made such a huge difference. I knew it was important, but I haven’t really done it on a consistent basis, actually one night a week if we are lucky and sometimes it is just in the morning before school on Friday, trying to finish up her homework page. I am going to try so much harder at being consistent with spending time working on reading and writing. I really didn’t realize it would make such a big difference in how she did at school.

I have had a hard time finding time to get anything done lately. I spent last weekend with some of my art teacher (girl) friends in Frankenmuth at the MAEA Conference. We had a great time. Learned a lot, and got tons of ideas. But the best part was hanging out together. It was a nice get away. I am glad my schools pay for me to go to this conference. I look forward to it every year. On our way home, we stopped at Bronner’s and I found this really cool artist ornament. I finished up these two more ATC’s…thought you might like to see them. I also have just completed this Fiber ATC. It was a lot of fun to make. I am supposed to make 4 more. It kind of took a while, but I enjoyed it. It was relaxing and I loved that I didn’t have a plan for how it would turn out. It just kind of became what it is. I have some vintage fabric laying around…I am going to see what I can do with it.