One World One Heart Giveaway

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Okay! Here it is! My giveaway for the One World One Heart Event in Bloglandia!

Here's how it works. To be eligible for this giveaway, you must leave a comment on THIS POST (not any other) and have an ACTIVE blog. If you don't have one yet, it's easy to start one so go ahead and dive into blogging! And remember to visit the OWOH blog for all the other giveaways. There's is lots of beautiful stuff being offered out there so go look.


The prize: an altered slide mailer! This is the main prize as I plan to add little bits to the package but I don't know what yet (probably one of my paper spool collages of course!)

So again, for a chance to win, leave a comment on THIS POST and have an active blog. The winner will be picked on February 14th and announced on an UPDATED version of this post AND a new post.

Good luck and thanks for participating!

Edit on Feb 11th: There will be three winners for my giveaway. I'm in the process of making two more slide mailers (colours and images will vary) and will try to post pictures before the weekend.
Also, regular blogging will return after OWOH. I need more time to create for myself!

Edit on Feb 5th: Those who comment and don't have a blog listed on their Blogger profile, please make sure that you leave a link to an ACTIVE blog since this is an event to meet other bloggers. I started visiting the blogs listed and will continue to do so even after the event. This is NOT a giveaway just for "giving's sake." If you've already commented without leaving a way for me to see your blog, please email me a link at sophietousignant[at]videotron[dot]ca. Thank you.

Art Cards

Busy times. I've been asked to fill in for one of my coworkers yesterday and today morning. It's only one hour each time I do it but it's that much more money on my paycheck too! Plus, today we had an extended meeting (an hour and a half instead of the usual 30 minutes so even more money!) This morning, as I was on my walk, I kept thinking that this week is a great week for extra money (no particular reason other than I would like to have a bit more money these days.)

Yesterday was Catherine's Open House for the new Stampin Up! line and catalog. Lots of people showed up. It was fun. I saw an ex-coworker I hadn't seen since almost a year (we used to work together at the store) so that was nice.

A lot of busy days/weeks coming up. I might not be able to blog as regularly as I have lately but I will be creating daily! And I'll definitely blog for the OWOH giveaway. I know what I'm giving away now I just have to complete it! And I'll do that as soon as I put this post to bed. ;-)

Images for today are art cards from the last few days. The first and second one are my Daily Art Cards and the third is my fourth entry for the Deck Of Me Challenge. The theme was "a symbol you love" and I chose the fleur-de-lys, a symbol of my heritage (being french canadian and all...)
And apparently I have a thing for hearts these days!


Thanks for looking and come back before the weekend for the giveaway!

Art Cards, WIP, giveaway and life

So I've had this post open for 10 minutes and don't know what to type.

I slept in late today. I was exhausted apparently. It felt good. So far, I haven't been very productive. I did go grocery shopping. And not much cooking. I prepared a chick pea salad (dressing on the side) for the next few days. And the only actual cooking was wild rice to which I added canned tuna and whole kernel corn. A bit of lemony spices and olive oil and I had a simple yet delicious meal. No muffins today. I'll have time tomorrow morning seeing as I am filling in for one of my coworkers in the morning and will come back home afterwards.


I finally decided not to order from ArtChix this time around. Instead, I'll be ordering rubber stamps next week. I got a new DVD yesterday while shopping with mom: Moulin Rouge! One of my favourite movies. Ewan McGregor singing... Mmmm...

The first two images are my Art Cards for Friday and Saturday. The first one using supplies from ArtChix and the second one was done very quickly last night using rub-ons, a piece of newspaper, watercolour crayon, permanent marker for doodling, white acryclic ink with dip pen and gel pen for colouring the heart.


Finally, the last two images are works in progress. The first one is for Valentine ATCs and the second one is for my "connect" page for Emily's art journal challenge.

I finally decided what I'm giving away for the One World One Heart Giveaway. You'll get to see what it is and sign up for it some time this week. Be sure to visit the blog to have access to other giveaways. Some people already have them up on their blog and there's lots of interesting stuff!

I'm thinking of signing up for a Chunky Book Swap on the ArtChix Yahoo Group. Haven't made up my mind yet though. I still have time to think about it.

Well, that's it. It took me nearly one hour for this little post.

I went on a date...

... with myself, that is! Ha ha! Got you going, huh?

At the beginning of the week, I had decided that tonight, I was finally bringing my two very full and very heavy garbage bags of clothes to donate to Village des Valeurs (a second hand store.) And after that, I was to go have a nice latte at Second Cup. Well, I did exactly that! Except that while at Village, I decided to look around, see if there was anything interesting for me. I found quite a few things but put a lot back on the shelves including a nice leather carrying case for a camera. What I did buy is in the next picture...


A basket-type bag (been looking for one for a while... will be great to go to the market come summer time), 2 old books dated 1929 and 1931 and a pair of shoes (been looking for a pair like this and could never find the right ones... these are perfect!) And the big total was??? $17.55 including taxes. Not bad, huh? And I even used the bag to carry everything out so no plastic bag for me!

I left my new belongings in the car to go to Second Cup. It was quiet when I got there (a little after 8pm) so there was plenty of room to sit. I got a medium latte and something to eat that the girl called an apple pudding. It resembled a muffin but was heavier and not as sweet. Very tasty. While enjoying my latte and dessert, I doodled and scribbled in one of my journals that I had been neglecting. The coffee shop filled up just before I left so I guess I had good timing. It was fun and I'll definitely try the experience again but next time maybe I'll actually create something more than doodling... It's one of the things I want to work on this year: creating in public and not hiding myself.

Today's art is the Art Card I did last night. I used a piece of Bingo paper, a mini loteria card and part of a playing card. The rest is watercolour, oil pastels and ink, plus a label courtesy of Hanna.
Now, I'll leave you with a photo of my dear Diesel... This one just cracks me up! Goodnight!

Synchronicity

Remember when I was saying that I've taken the No Stuff challenge? I'm really struggling right now. My favourite online shop just got some new goodies and I am SO tempted to treat myself. Maybe I will... just a little bit... I'll keep thinking about it until the weekend.

I've been noticing a lot of synchronicity (or synCROWnicity as Pam puts it!) lately. I've been having a lot of strange dreams and I'm sure there's a message somewhere in there. Recurring themes and images. One word that's been coming back for the past couple of days is Renaissance. As in rebirth (and once it was as the historical period.) It was even in one of my dreams. I remember that it was written on a black board in a classroom (I've been dreaming a lot about being back in school lately.) It said "entre deux renaissances" which basically translates to "between two rebirths." Hmm. Interesting. In my quest to living a greener life, I've had the idea to make my own net bags for fruits and veggies instead of using those flimsy plastic bags they have at the grocery store. A few days after I had that thought, JoyceAnn was talking about the same thing on her blog. Little things. Big things. Lots of synchronicity. I'm loving it.

So far this week, I've really been watching what I eat. Not counting calories or anything like that but I make sure to eat enough from all food groups and especially fruits and veggies. I'm doing really well. Also, today was my fourth day in a row that I've been walking, and not just the walk back and forth to work. At least 10 minutes each day. I'm feeling good. I'm enjoying it. Life is beautiful.

Before I go, I want to direct you to Lisa Vollrath's upcoming countdown. And today's image is last night's Art Card. Made with Stampin Up! papers and Amercian Crafts rub-ons. Using up that stuff I have on hand.

The sound of snow

Full moon tonight. My cat's been acting weird yesterday and today so I'm hoping that is why. It snowed steadily all day. The kids were really happy about that. I decided to enjoy the weather (it wasn't too cold) after work and took a detour to walk home. It usually takes me 5 minutes when I take the shortest way, tonight I took the 15 minutes way. It was so quiet all around. I love the sound of snow falling. Only people who have been standing outside on a snow day can understand what I mean by that. I'm beginning to enjoy this winter. In a few weeks, we have a family get-together on my father's side. We meet up in the country, in one of my uncles' cabin in the woods. We haven't done this in probably 15 years so I'm really looking forward to it. My mother and I plan to go snow-shoeing in the forest, like we used to when I was a kid. Should be fun!

I only have my Daily Art Cards from yesterday and today to show you. The top one is simply doodling on cardstock. The bottom one is watercolour, Black Indian Ink, wax crayons and Conte pastels (it's like chalk) on cardstock. The colours and theme for the bottom one is from a challenge extended by my dear friend CeeCee. Visit this post for more information about the challenge. I did knit last night and plan on doing more knitting before going to sleep. I find it very relaxing.

That's all for today. Thanks for visiting. Oh and if anyone has an idea or suggestion on what I could put up for the upcoming giveaway (see post below), let me know because right now, I have no idea.

One World One Heart

I'm participating in the One World-One Heart Giveaway. I don't know yet what I'll be giving away. Click on the image to see what it's all about. I'll be back later with another post.

Stuff... and No Stuff...

I've known for a few months now that 2008 would be a year of changes and challenges for me. Positive changes that is. And fun challenges. I'm doing great on my artistic challenged so far. In fact, I think I've been more creative in the past three weeks than in the whole summer of 2007. And I'm not stopping now. Here's proof: my Daily Art Card for yesterday. And below, a journal page done in my spiral journal. I took the "Feel" theme again, used the same words but went about it in a completely different way. For details on how I did this page, go here. I loved doing this one and kept looking at it the rest of the evening and all day today.



Changes. A lot of people are going through them, whether positive or negative. I've always believed that there is a reason for everything that happens. Even bad things have a reason for being. I've come to realize that I've changed a lot over the years. I've matured quite a bit. It was ten years ago that I started my love/hate relationship with the internet. I was barely twenty, still naive and bit foolish. I got sucked into the chat life. Fell in love (or at least that's what I thought it was) with men I have never seen or even heard. I did stupid things. I actually bought a plane ticket to meet a guy from chat, in the USA (I'm in Canada for those who still don't know.) And I did this, not once or even twice but THREE times! My mother nearly had a heart attack every time but I was legally an adult, in both countries, and she knew that I wouldn't listen anyway. I was lucky. The guys I met were sweethearts. But the long-distance thing really wasn't for me. So I started going out with friends a bit more and getting away from the chatrooms. Until I moved out of my parents' house, five years ago.

I was living alone, bored, lonely, you name it. So I got sucked back into chat. And I guess that's when I hit rock bottom. I reconnected with a guy from chat I had know since the beginning. Fortunately, this one lived in the same country as me. I went to meet him. He came over for a week. He got what he wanted and I never heard from him again. I got depressed. I didn't know what was wrong with me. Blah blah blah. Eventually, I decided it was time for forgiveness. Not for him. For me. I forgave myself. Why am I telling you all this? Because I only recently realized that I had to live that experience in order to move on beyond the chatroom. It made me a stronger woman. So yes, bad things do happen but they can lead to good things. Now, I know that the next man that will come into my life will be a good man because I won't have it any other way. And seriously, I'm hoping that 2008 is the year that I will meet him! Because this year is MY year!

And before I go, let me tell you about the result so far of another challenge. This year I'm taking the No Stuff challenge after seeing this little film, which is to buy as little as possible, to reduce the amount of stuff I have and to buy in an intelligent and eco-friendly manner (less packaging, reusable bags, buying local, etc.) Since January 1st, except for groceries and other necessities like that, the only thing I have bought is ribbon by the yard, because it was 50% off that day and I used a cloth bag instead of plastic. I am SERIOUSLY proud of myself! No magazines, no art supplies, no books, no CDs, no bits and pieces from the Dollar Store... nothing! nada! niet! rien! zero! And what I do plan on buying, eventually, will be from thrift shops, second hand stores and garage sales. Hopefully, by the end of the year, I'll have saved a nice little amount of money and I'll be that much closer to my dream of being wealthy! Heck, I found a quarter this morning on my walk! Not a penny, a whole quarter! Ok, it's nothing like Violette's daughter-in-law who found $100 but still... it's better than not finding anything at all, right?

Alright, enough of this. I'm off to do my Daily Art Card and then a bit of knitting before bed.

Art Cards and a tag

Yesterday was definitely a fun experience. I met my brother for brunch before we set off on our little photographic adventure. We spent a total of 3 hours walking the Biodome and taking pictures. I haven't uploaded them to my computer yet so you'll have to be patient if you want to see them. There were a lot of people there, mostly families with young kids but everyone was polite. There was no pushing or shoving. Everyone was there to have fun and enjoy the view of wild animals. My favourites are always the small monkeys. I dream of one day having my very own little monkey! (Hey! Who said dreams can't come true? Not me!)



Anyway, not much else to say. I have a bit of a cold but nothing major. Just a bit stuffed up so I'm drinking plenty of fluids, eating fruits and veggies and getting some rest. Today, so far, I've only been outside to go grocery shopping (it's cold!) and I baked muffins. I tried a recipe my coworker gave me and it smells yummy. I still have plenty of Vegetarian Spread left for the beginning of the week and I plan on doing something with barley... Found a simple recipe I'll try after I finish writing this post. I'm really enjoying cooking and baking for myself even if I don't have the best kitchen. This is the 3rd Sunday in a row that I do it and I'm not giving up! So many recipes I want to try... so much potential for yummy discoveries...

Today's images are of my Daily Art Card I made last night which is mostly doodling and my 3rd card for the Deck of Me Challenge. Visit my Flickr for more info.

Before I forget, Violette tagged me. I'm supposed to say 5 odd things about myself so quickly here they are:

1. I once spent a whole summer eating almost only dairy products.
2. I love the smell of skunk (not on me though.)
3. I used to be a goth girl.
4. I don't like ketchup, which leads me to
5. I eat my shepherds pie with mustard. Lots of mustard.

I'm not tagging anyone but if you feel like playing, please do so! Off to cook barley...

Edited at 5:45 pm to add: The barley recipe is delish! It's Barley Pilaf and it's a great alternative to rice... I just goggled "barley pilaf" and there seems to be tons of different recipes for it. Follow my lead and try something new! Oh, and you can view my Biodome pics here. Have a peaceful evening!

A little bit of this

And a little bit of that...

Today's Daily Art Card. One of my girlies again. Very simple this one. I started with the rub-ons by 7Gypsies, painted over it with a watercolour crayon (I scribble first with the crayon then I go over it with a wet paintbrush.) Drew the girl on a piece of Newsprint paper (just found this again this week after a bit of cleaning up!), coloured her in with colour pencils before glueing her on the card. Smeared oil pastel around the edges of the Newsprint and then doodled the borders with Sharpie and PosterPaint Marker (for the white.)


This next image is something different. I had already done Kira's challenge for the first week on a loose cardstock to be swapped but never actually did a page in my own journal. So that's what I decided to do with this one. I picked random bits of paper (mostly Japanese papers from a little package I had received before Christmas.) I stapled and glued them on the page and then dry-brushed some white acrylic to give everything a more uniform look. Punched 2 holes on the right side and set 2 eyelets with my Crop-o-Dile. Threaded a ribbon through them to make a bow. Glued an envelop on the left side and cut a piece of cardstock to fit into it. Attached a little cardstock tab to the piece. And then I re-wrote my goals for the year. You can see them here since I didn't change them. This page isn't like any of the others I've done so far but I like it.




And last but not least, my page for Emily's second word prompt. This time the word was FEEL. There was so much I could have done here, so much I could have written. I decided to keep it simple. Focus on the positive. I try to do this as often as possible. It's not always easy. There are days where I want to give up and just stay into bed all day and cry but what good would that bring me? Not much really. I do let myself get sad, when I need to. But I don't dwell. I don't wallow in it. I used to. Now, I always try to look at the good side of the medal. I don't ignore the bad side but I don't acknowledge it like I used to.

I really should go to bed. I've been feeling a bit under the weather today and I don't want it to get any worse. Tomorrow should be a fun day: I'm going to the Biodome with my brother so we can both practice taking better pictures with our cool cameras (and to try my tripod!) I'll show you pictures, if there are any good ones! Goodnight!

For your viewing pleasure

It's been a strange day...

It started quietly enough as I took my sweet time getting out of bed, stretching, being lazy and warm under the blankets. Lately, I'm making a habit of drinking a tall glass of water first thing in the morning before eating breakfast. I do so while writing my morning pages. So that's what I was doing when I saw some movement outside my window on the electrical cable that runs right next to my window. I looked up and there was a Red-Tailed Hawk! Not even 6 feet from where I was sitting! I was in awe. I looked at it the whole time that it stayed there (not even a minute.) It was beautiful. Judging by the colour, I think it was a young one though.

At work, kids were acting weird. I don't know if there's a snowstorm coming or what but they were wild.

After the lunch period, I came back home for my lunch. I made myself a yummy sandwich with the Vegetarian spread I made Sunday and added Tuna to it. So tasty! Diesel, of course, hearing me open the can of tuna (same kind of can as her food) came running and wouldn't leave me alone so I dropped a little bit of tuna in her bowl. Believe it or not, she didn't want to eat it because there was lemon juice in it! She's so finicky! And even tonight when I mixed her regular food in it, she still wouldn't eat it! So I threw it away (I hate doing that but if she's not going to eat it at her regular meal time, I'm sure she'll never eat it) and gave put her regular food in a new clean bowl.

After dinner, I had an appointment to give blood. I'm O negative so I try to give whenever I feel well enough to do so. The last two times I wanted to give I couldn't: one time my iron level was so low the nurse kept asking me if I was feeling okay and the second time my heartbeat was way too fast. So before going, I made sure I wasn't stressed, I had eaten plenty to iron-filled foods this week and I kept telling myself "my blood pressure is perfect, my heartbeat is perfect, my iron level is perfect..." until I got there. Guess what? My temperature was slightly too elevated! Good thing they give you a second chance for that so I sat down and tried to "cool down" for fifteen minutes, removing my vest and then went back in. It was right on the limit so I was able to donate! Yay!


Now this may sound weird to some people but here goes anyway. I love to donate blood. Yes, it is a bit painful, mostly when the needle goes in, but I feel so good doing this, knowing that I will be able to save lives and at the same time, I see it as a way to cleanse myself... When you give blood, your body then has to make new blood which is clean and pure. I don't know how else to explain it.

The nurses who took care of me were all smiling, making jokes and making the experience even more enjoyable. The volunteers (this was in a private school so students were there to help) were all very polite and one girl kept coming back to chat with me, clearly enjoying meeting all the people and admiring that so many were donating. She was sweet and made me laugh quite a bit.

I spent the rest of the evening in front of the computer, relaxing, visiting blogs, etc. The images you're seeing in this post are my Daily Art Cards for the 15th, 16th and today. The last image is a page from my journal. I particularly like the second image, the "clean slate" one. It came out exactly how I had envisioned it. Inspired by Keri Smith's collages. I like the messiness of it. For more info and details on these pieces, go to my Flickr page here.

Chasing away the worries

It's always the same story. I think I can finally breathe a little easier, save up some money or pay off the credit card and then something else comes up... I try not to think about it, not to let the worrying thoughts enter my brain, my heart... but it's not easy. I'm not asking to be a multi-millionaire... I just want to have enough money to pay my bills, pay off my credit card, buy a house (doesn't have to be a big one) where I can have a studio/work room and have enough left over for a little trip once in a while. Is that so much to ask? *sigh* It'll happen... one day... I just have to have faith...

I didn't have anything new to show you so I looked through my pictures of last year. These pictures are of a little book I made last summer. I had all these triangle-shaped pieces leftover from another project and decided to make a book out of them. The title is "Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice" so everything inside has to do with little girls. I used things I had on hand: stickers, rub-ons, printed images, scraps of ribbon, flowers, etc. It's no major work of art but it's cute and it was a good way to use up things I already had and which might have never been used otherwise.

I'm off to do my Daily Art Card... Goodnight!

Pieces of me

A few images tonight... First, Daily Art Cards number 13 and 14.

The first one is really simple. I started by picking the flower image from my "junk mail" pile. It's from a Home Outfitters ad I believe... The next piece of paper I picked was the Romeo + Juliette phrase. Following the romance theme, I looked for something else to fill the side and the tea lights were perfect (from an article on Enya that I had kept from years ago.) Everything just came together. The only thing I added that isn't collage is the "romance" written with a gel pen.



Second of these cards is just as simple. I sifted through my stash of paper scraps (you know those tiny little pieces you just can't bring yourself to throw away...) and just glued and stapled pieces on an ATC sized piece of recycled cardboard (I think this was from a box of tissues.) The ribbon is something I've been holding onto for over 10 years. My best friend had given it to me, knowing that I loved butterflies. I finally decided to cut a piece of it and use it (finally accepting the fact that she no longer wants me in her life.) And, last but not least, I stamped with StazOn.




Finally, the last two pictures are of the journal page I made for Kira's Swap. The prompt for this week was Words and Pictures. We were to take a picture (or find one) and describe it, how it makes us feel, etc.

The picture I chose is one I took last week of my foggy street. I played a lot with this page. Background is watercolour crayons to which I applied just a bit of water with a brush. That was done after the photo had been glued down and the journaling had been done (with Micron pens.) I doodled with the Micron pens some more and a bit of white (grid next to the picture) with a white-out pen. Added a piece of 7Gypsies paper then rubbed some oil pastels on it and around the picture a bit (I smudged it with my fingers.) Stapled a vellum quote at the bottom and attached another piece of vellum over the journaling with eyelets (my favourite tool to use eyelets is the Crop-o-dile.) And last but not least, I used my "office" date stamp just below the picture with StazOn ink.

On this last image, you can see the journaling that is otherwise hiding under the vellum.

We had a beautiful sunny day today. A bit cold but then that's what I asked for, isn't it?

Oh, and Artbrat asked about the crown in my latest shrine. I made it from pieces of German Foil Paper Borders and Gold Decorative Harware from ArtChixStudio.

A quicky

It started snowing today... after a week of mild weather. Even though I'm not a big fan of winter, I like every season to be what it's supposed to be.

Made muffins earlier tonight and now I'm getting ready to settle down in front of the television for a light movie and some art journaling maybe.

The picture is of my second shrine made for Violette's e-class. I had fun making it and really like how it turned out.

Creativity abounds

Okay, where to start. I guess with the images...

This first one is my first page in a new art journal (6.75" x 8.5") done for Emily's challenge. The theme was Commit. This year, I commit to being healthy and happy and to get closer to my perfect weight of 135 lbs (which I was at 17 on this picture.)




Image number two is my second card for Emily's Deck of Me Challenge. The theme for the second week was :What is powerful to you? Positive thinking is my answer. I've noticed in the past months that positive thinking really is powerful. So far mostly small things have happened but a lot of small things leads to bigger things.







Finally, the last two images are my Daily Art Cards for Friday and Saturday. They are quite simple. All drawing is done with permanent marker. Backgrounds with watercolours. Wax crayons and Glossy Accents on the "FUN" card. Oil pastels, Signo pen and PosterPaint Marker on the girl + bird card.

Friday night, mom and I went to CeeCee's for a night of crafting and chatting. We always have a lot of fun together and time flies by!

Yesterday, mom and I went shopping. We were unsuccessful in our attempts to find a Wii (which was supposed to be my dad's Christmas present.)


Today, for the second week in a row, I cooked! There was a vegetarian spread I wanted to try so I bought all the ingredients I needed this morning and made the recipe tonight. It's yummy! Kind of halfway between a vegetarian spread and a vegepate. I also prepared a cabbage soup which should last quite a few days. Tomorrow morning, I'll make a new batch of Maple Syrup Muffins but this time, I want to add dried cranberries to the mix. I only wish I had a bigger kitchen to work in, with a bigger freezer. (I have a small fridge with one of those metal ice box that needs to be thawed at least 3-4 times a year...) In due time...

Weird Things and Art Cards

So my dear friend CeeCee tagged me and I have to tell you 7 weird things about me. Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you
2. Post 7 random/weird facts about yourself on your blog
3. Tag 7 people at the end and link to their blog
4. Leave comments on each blog that you tag so that they know!

And here are the 7 weird things (even though I did this back in November!)

1. I hate taking showers. And my bathtub is too small (and the water too rusty) to enjoy a nice soak.

2. I hate falling asleep AND waking up. But I love being asleep and dreaming.

3. I love the smell of fog.

4. At one time in my life, I had about 30 pen pals all at the same time.

5. I used to be addicted to online chat (and I mean literally addicted.)

6. I talk to animals. Even in public. Yeah, I'm THAT girl!

7. I dream of growing old to be that crazy artsy lady who lives in the big house with all the weird lawn ornaments and the neighbourhood kids play pranks on, pretending that they are scared of me but really, they just want to play with me and my cool weird toys!

Ok. Well, it's the best I can do at this hour! And now I am tagging the following people (if they so wish to participate):
1. Kate
2. Mahala
3. Lisa (only because you tagged me the first time around :-p)
4. Pam
5. JoyceAnn
6. Brandy
7. Hanna

Here are the two latest Daily Art Cards. The first one is a little tag with the "Cheer Up" mounted on and which fits in the Lipton Peppermint Tea pocket which is in turn mounted on a piece of painted cardstock. The second one is a piece of patterned cardstock with scraps from a coordinating patterned cardstock, a leftover from the altered canvas and some raffia. I'm still doing the ATC format but I think that next month, I might try another format. Maybe 4" x 4". Or bigger. I don't know yet.


Today, I started a page in my art journal but haven't finished yet. Only did the background. I also started a new journal for Emily Falconbridge's new challenge. Different size. I like it. Will post pictures some other day. I also have the second shrine to post here. I really like how it turned out. Tomorrow night is art/craft night with CeeCee and my Mom. It promises to be fun!

Goodnight and have a great Friday!

Daily Art Cards 7 & 8

Not much to say tonight. I haven't been sleeping well lately and I have no idea why. And when I do sleep, I have weird dreams. Like this one: kittens and birds chasing one another in and out of a tree and an eagle or hawk (not sure exactly) swoops down to catch the mommy cat in its talons to keep it from attacking baby birds. See? Weird.

For your viewing pleasure, here are Daily Art Cards number 7 and 8. See here and here for descriptions. I'm too tired to type it out again. Off to bed. Goodnight!

A shrine and an award

I took an e-class during the Fall which was taught by Violette and was about making shrines. So far, only the first shrine has been completed but I really had fun making it. I had to make papier mâché for the first time ever from flour, water and newspaper! I love getting my hands dirty with paints and glue so this was a lot of fun for me. I will start working on my second one this week.

On this one, you can see my Buddha and there's also a little frame with an image of the Virgin Mary with Baby Jesus (can't see the image because of the glare of the flash.) Now religion is something I don't really talk about. Mostly because when I do talk about it, I get a lot of weird looks. People don't always understand that I can believe certain things from one religion and not the rest. I pick what I like from many religions and make my own, if you will. For a long time, I thought I was Wiccan but then I realized some things didn't fit me. It's hard to express my true beliefs but at least I know what they are, I feel them and I am not ashamed of them. Does this all make sense?

Anyway... On to a lighter subject... My dear friend Lisa gave me this award!

Isn't it thoughtful? This my very first official award and I am proud of it. There are so many people I could send this award to but it's hard to choose. So I'll simply present this award to everyone who takes the time to come here and read my blog, whether or not they let their presence be known. Anyone who takes time out of their day to stop by my little piece of the world-wide-web deserves this award! Take it! It's yours!

Many thanks and tons of love going out to all of you. You DO make my day by being here and being you!

Back to work it is then...

Today was the first day back to work. Starting with a ped day can be fun and hard too. Luckily, today I was working with Anik and we always get along great.

Yesterday's cooking was a fun experience for me and I plan to do it more often. I used to by frozen dinners or pre-prepared meals. No more (well, I'm not saying never but not as often as I did before.) I plan to use my Sundays for cooking and baking. Now if only I could have someone to share my cooking with... ;-)




Daily art cards 5 and 6 are what you see here. Very simple. Painted background. Patterned paper on the top one and Perfect Pearls dusted over the whole thing. Doodling and watercolour on the bottom one. Now I'm off to do tonight's card which will be the 7th so my first goal will be accomplished. Now to see if I can make it til the end of the month with these cards...

Art Cards and a Journal Page

Here are the 3rd and 4th cards for the Daily Art Card Challenge. I'm really enjoying doing these. So far, my favourite is the 4th one, the roller-skate one. I like the colours I used and the way it all came together.









I'll definitely try to do these as long as I possibly can. A week, a month, a year? I don't know. Time will tell.









This little card here is from my "Deck of Me" which was a challenge done on Emily Falconbridge's blog in 2007. I only read about it in the last month and decided to do it this year instead. I had a deck of playing card I didn't want to use for play so they were perfect for this. I still get to keep it as a souvenir from my trip to New York City years ago AND it will now be a work of art as well. The first prompt is Something you are proud of. I decided to do it in french... I'm proud to be french canadian (quebecoise to be exact.)





The journal page was made for the Journal Page Swap on Kira's Yahoo Group. AND it is also a good response to Nicci's Creative Juices Challenge.


Today, I baked! Unbelievable I know! I made Maple Syrup Muffins (mmm mmm good!) and a "all in one" casserole which consists of meat (or usually I use mixed beans), rice, veggies and broth with spices. So, technically, I've already been creative today! But I'm still going to do my daily card tonight.

There was something else I wanted to write about but right now I don't remember what it was... oh well, too bad.

I guess I'll go eat my yummy casserole now.