A Winter's Night

The lamp is burning low upon my table top

The snow is softly falling

The air is still within the silence of my room

I hear your voice softly calling

If I could only have you near

To breathe a sigh or two

I would be happy just to hold the hands I love

Upon this winter night with you

The smoke is rising in the shadows overhead

My glass is almost empty

I read again between the lines upon the page

The words of love you sent me

If I could know within my heart

That you were lonely too

I would be happy just to hold the hands I love

Upon this winter night with you

I used HGD Laurie Ann November Road and No Place Like Home, SherrieJD's Junkyard and Dianne Rigdon's Feed The Birds, all from Scrap Artist

Hop on over to Scrap Artist and check out the new altered art zine the altered art team has put together. It's free, and you can sign up to access and play in the altered art forum with lots of great challenges and hang out with some really creative altered artists! Click here to learn more!

Your Buddy Misses You

Life is a book that we study,

Some of its leaves bring a sigh.

There it was written, my buddy,

That we must part, you and I.

Nights are long since you went away,

I think about you all through the day.

My buddy, my buddy, your buddy misses you.

I've hit a speedbump on the road of life. I've been thinking about my friend Claire a lot lately. She passed away unexpectedly this past June. This is the time of year we would be talking of going on a roadtrip to New Orleans. It was one of her favorite places to visit (mine too). We always had a dream of going there and listening to Dr. John play the piano and sing our favorite tunes. Because we'll never get the chance to go (dying has a way of derailing future plans), when I saw this kit "Old Town" by Joe Designs at Oscraps I decided to take us there anyway.

The song "My Buddy" was one Dr. John sung on his "In A Sentimental Mood" album, and a personal favorite of mine. I thought it would be very appropriate to use here.

I used Joe Design's kit "Old Town" and Holliewood Studio's "All Hallows Eve", both from Oscraps

Daydreaming and I'm thinking of.....

A bubble bath! I LOVE a long, hot soaking in a tub of bubbles! I would love nothing more than to be on my own secluded island and go sailing in a tub of bubbly bliss!

Tangie Baxter and sherrieJD have a wonderful new collab kit coming out this week called "The Ultimate Art Doll Collection". I have had the priviledge of working with it the past few days and it is absolutely wonderful! The beauty in the tub is from the kit,(sssshhhhhh! Tangie let me post this piece early on the Scrapbookgraphics weekly altered art challenge....don't tell anyone!) so don't waste any time getting on to Scrapbookgraphics or Scrap Orchard later this week to pick this baby up!

In addition to Tangie's kit, I used Lorie Davison's "Ticket to Dragon's End" and "Little Fishi Island" both available at Scrapbookgraphics.

Lily Design's "Paint The Ocean" "Summertime" and "Baby Elf" from After Five Designs.

Laurie Ann's "Splash On" from Scrap Artist

Shakespeare's Atoms

Here's your geeky science fact for today. Inside of you there are over 200 billion atoms that were once a part of Shakespeare.......and dinosaurs.....and everything else in the Universe since the beginning of time. Who would have thought?

I used Glam Fairy's "Gone Too Soon", Lorie Davison's "Flying Dreams" and Phong's "Prehistoric- a Dinosuar Kit" all from Scrapbookgraphics.The background is from Lily Designs "Summertime Cafe" and "Baby Elf" from After Five Designs.The recycling symbol is from Vinnie Pearce's collab kit "Ecofabulous".

Monday was "Wash Day"

Growing up we lived far out in the country. We didn't have a clothes dryer for a long time in my early childhood (We did our laundry in an old tub machine with a wringer on top. At least the wringer was electric and not hand crank! Bonus points for anyone old enough to remember what a mangler was) Every Monday was "wash day". My Grandmother, Mom, myself and anyone else in the family old enough to help hung the wet clothes out on clothes lines to dry. We washed clothes for 9 people, and there must have been at least 20 drying lines strung across my Grandparents side yard. Sheets and towels in front toward the street, underwear on the back lines so nobody could see the "unmentionables" as they drove by. Needless to say, Tuesday was ironing and darning day.

These days I have a one-line "solar dryer" in my backyard for sheets and blankets. I guess old habits are hard to break!

I used Holliewood Studio's kit "Junkyard" available at Oscraps. The shirt and dress are from istock, with a lot of altering done by me. In doing this piece I found out what a wonderful tool the warp transformation is!

My Lost Weekend- Part 2

Tangie Baxter has a phenomenal new kit out today called "Wonderland". I spent all weekend lost in creating the type layouts I love...a little Tim Burton, a little mind-stretching, a little bizarre!

Created with Tangie Baxter's new kit Wonderland, available at Scrapbookgraphics. Alice is from istockphoto and The Mad Hatter is a preview photo from the movie.

What a Wonderful Weekend!

I had an absolutely wonderful weekend scrapping! All weekend long I created, ate junk food and simply vegged out in Photoshop. I had the pleasure of working with an absolutely killer new kit Tangie Baxter will have in her shop at Scrapbookgraphics tomorrow. I encourage everyone to stop by and pick it up.....you'll be glad you did! This is a page I did for my art journal. It is one of the happier pages in there right now. I hope to add many more positive pages in the future, and I think this is a good start down that road! :)

I used Tangie Baxter's Curious Adventures and Chronicles of Imagination from Scrapbookgraphics, Lorie Davison's Bunnies, Bees and the Bird's Big Balloon from Scrapbookgraphics, Glam Fairy's 3-D Alpha from Scrapbookgraphics, and Holliewood Studios Techno Times from Oscraps.

Dinosaurs are.....

Not something any rational person would associate with insomnia, but they seemed to work for me in the piece. I hate it when I go through bouts of insomnia, and I guess this too shall pass.

I used Phuong ton's kit "Prehistoric- A Dinosaur Kit" from Scrapbookgraphics

Glam Fairy's "3D Alpha#2" and "3D Frames" from Scrapbookgraphics

Lori Davison's "Flying Dreams" from Scrapbookgrpahics"

Flerg's "INDUSTR*E" from Scrapbookgraphics

Jofia Design's "The Bright Night" from The Shabby Pickle

The "Bee"52s

I LOVE the B52s! Hollie at Oscraps has a new kit, "Queen Bee" that seemed to fit them perfectly! I just LOVE this kit! There are so many pieces to play with, and the black/white/yellow color scheme is just killer!

I used Holliewood Studio's new kit "Queen Bee" available at Oscraps.

Getting back to "normal"

If there is such a thing for me. I have been working on some killer new pieces for Hollie at Holliewood Designs that I should be able to post tomorrow. I did some Art Therapy today at work (shhhh....the Boss is out of town) and this is what popped out of my head.

As an artist, I've always felt that you just have to throw your stuff out there and see what sticks with people. I personally think DaVinci must have thought the same!

I used Tangie Baxter's collab with sherrieJD "Brown Sugar", Tangie's "DaVinci" and "Museum Frames", Maya's "Art Noodles and Doodles", all available from Scrapbookgraphics.

The cubes were made with PanosFX's "Cube Action".

You Must Have Left In A Hurry

I'll be gone for a few days. My best friend since childhood passed away yesterday. This is for you Claire. Don't think you can walk away from 40 years of friendship by dying. Nope, it's not gonna happen. We have one more trip to New Orleans left.......promise. You always said that you felt peaceful there and wished you could stay there forever. I'll do my best to make that happen.

Love you.

Tangie Baxter has some wonderful weekly challenges at Scrapbookgrpahics. I love participating in them when I can. I love her new ATC kit "Brown Sugar". The colors are perfect for the way I think and scrap. Here is my entry for this week's challenge. Davinci knew the power of a woman. Just look at his paintings and drawings of women and tell me he didn't know he was in the presence of greatness. This is my small way of acknowledging his keen insight into women.

Last week my piece "Got Milk" was chosen as the "I Can Scraplift That" challenge piece of the week at Scrapbookgraphics. I waited all week to see what the other scrappers at SBG would come up with based on my work. I waited for someone to post a layout.....and waited.....and waited. Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nobody took on the challenge to scraplift my layout. Oh well, I guess at least I'll never have to worry about imitations!

Got Milk?

So yesterday I wore my pink Crocs, and this was the result. My pink shoes always lift my spirits and put my head in a much better place to do whimsical creations that have no rhyme-nor-reason......other than they make me feel good! It feels good to let go sometimes and see where the creativity takes you.

Studio Girls collective "Impressions of Whimsy". Lorie Davison's "Drifting Snow Dreams" and

"Flying Dreams". SussieM Design's "Tea Party. "Tangie Baxter's "Sunshine ATC Kit. "All available at Scrapbookgraphics

From After Five Designs:"Le temps de Cerises" collab kit and Bisontine's "Truth from Falsehood"

From Oscraps: Holliewood's "Topiary Garden"

The cows and giant hand are from istockphoto

I'll Be Waiting

One of the most gut-wrenching things for me during hurricane clean-up and recovery is seeing the thousand of children's toys laying everywhere. It's so sad to think that every toy belonged to a child who may or may not return, and the thousands of children's lives that have been shattered by the storm. I worked with a group after Hurricane Ike hit Galveston that brought wheelchairs and home health items to disabled people displaced by the storm. We also brought food and water to remote areas where many people had chosen to ride out the storm. There were many children in the pockets of people we found, and all they asked for was water, food, some clothes and wanted to know if we had seen their toys anywhere. There were not enough buckets to hold everyone's tears. Grown men cried like babies. Last Christmas we threw a Christmas party for all the children of nearby Bridge City and the Bolivar area and distributed new toys to them to replace some of what they lost in the hurricane. I never knew the power of a teddy bear or a doll......but I do now. The house in the photo was the only house left standing on the Bolivar Peninsula after the storm. The entire town was swept out to sea, with the exception of this one house. It is still pretty much the only thing on the island. Recovery will take a long time there, but there are some positive signs. Godspeed residents of Bolivar, my heart is with you.

I used Holliewood Studio's "Toy Box" available at Oscraps

Lily Designs "The Boy is a Boy" and "Paint the Ocean available at After Five Designs

Catherine Designs "Boys Retreat" available at After Five Designs

Road Trip!

Last weekend my best friend in the world (hope she is reading this!) and I went on a road trip to Galveston, Tx. I really have to start taking trips outside the hurricane devastation zone that the Gulf Coast from Galveston to Biloxi has become. I don't remember at what point seeing 15-foot high debris piles of mobile homes, houses, giant trees and the remnants of peoples lives no longer had any effect on me. An overturned truck, 15 feet in the air on top of the shell of a convenience store with a dining room chair sticking out the drivers side window......pffffft! Is that the best ya' got? I've seen worse. Anyway......while crossing the bay on the ferry from Galveston to Bolivar I glanced at my GPS screen and saw that my vehicle was apparently gliding across open water. I don't know why that struck me as somewhat odd, since that was what we were doing on the ferry, but I felt it was picture worthy as something you never want to see on the GPS.

I used Holliewood's "Old School" from Oscraps. Photo of car interior is from istockphoto. Scene outside the car window is Galveston Bay.

Edward's Passion

I love topiaries! The first thing I thought of when I saw this kit was "Edward Scissorhands".

No happy dancing bunnies, no beautiful Spring garden, no dancing children with smiles on their faces......no, not me. I thought of Edward Scissorhands.

I used Holliewood Studio's new kit "The Topiary Garden" available at Oscraps

She Seeks Escape.......

I spend a lot of time surfing the web. I have this area in my head that is filled with useless trivia and unusual information, and the web keeps this area filled to overflowing. One of my recent searches led me to a book published in 1937 by palmist Nellie Simmons Meier called "Lion's Paws: The Story of Famous Hands".

She had collected hundreds of inked impressions of famous people's palms, and analyzed the subject's character by the size, shape and lines of their hands. One of the people she included in the book was Amelia Earhart.

In her analysis of Earhart's palms, Meier wrote this line: "She conforms to restrictions for a certain period, then the urge for physical and mental activity becomes so strong that she seeks escape by a flight in her plane."

Amelia Earhart vanished during a flight six months after Meier's book was published.

I used Lori Davison's "Ticket to Dragon's End" available at Scrapbookgraphics and Lili Designs "Paint The Ocean" available at After Five Designs. The photo of Amelia Earhart and her plane and the copy of Meier's manuscript are from The Library Of Congress.

Let's ponder the universe

Ok, I admit it.....I'm a physics geek. I LOVE theoretical physics. It's the only science you can never be proven wrong in.....in fact, none of the stuff can be proven, so it's a GREAT field! You can theorize and dream all you want, and nobody can dispute you! My favorite TV show is the History Channel's "The Universe". I have a secret crush on Dr. Michio Kaku (shhhh! Don't tell him! :) ) He's my favorite physicist on the show. With the Hubble space telescope just getting repaired, I thought since I had nothing better to do this weekend, I would make a piece using some Hubble photos and ponder the universe. The photos in the marbles are of other galaxies in the universe taken by the Hubble. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is on the bottom left.

I made the marbles with the bubbles in Birgit Kerr's "In Dreams" from Scrapbokgraphics.

The backgroundn is from "In Dreams", overlayed with a Hubble photo.

Dr. Kaku's photo is one of his publicity shots. The tabletop is from istockphoto.

A Day At The Beach

I'm sure many people must be headed out to the beach this weekend over the Memorial Day holiday. I too enjoy the beach, except I like it when it is cold and/or rainy, and I have to wear my jacket. Beach season for me starts in mid January and goes through the end of March. I went to the Mississippi Gulf Coast this past February, and the temperature was in the mid 20's the nights I was there and the wind was blowing around 40 miles per hour. Perfect beach vacation weather! I had a wonderful time!

I used LilyDesign's Paint the Ocean and The Boy Is A Boy from After 5 Designs

Gimme Shelter - 40 years too late

Man, there are some edgy new kits on the market lately. Skulls, crumpled beer cans, booze, cigarettes, chains, everything a bad girl needs to let her mind go wild. Add a little Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (whom I always found rather attractive in a sick, twisted kind of way), and you're set to go! Your mission today while you are inside my head is to figure out why I find Keith Richards attractive. Discuss among yourselves.

Background is from Flerg's freebie kit "Helter Skelter" available at Digiscrap Addicts. Other pieces from Holliewood's "Old School" available at Oscraps.

What to do with a dead armadillo?

So this is your "What's up with that?" layout for today. There is never any way of telling what is in an artist's mind. Some people look at the dead armadillo and see a mug handle. Some people look at the dead armadillo and see.............well, just a dead armadillo.

I used Lori Davison's Bunnies, Bees and the Bird's Big Balloon from Scrapbookgraphics. The photos of the woods and dead armadillo and from my friend. The mug on the windowsill is the one my friend made me from a cast she made of the armadillo's tail.

Katrina Goodbye

Out, out darn Katrina crap! You have been in my head long enough. It is time for you to move along so new, potentially explosive unresolved emotional issues can take your place.

Bye-bye now!

Studio MGL's Urban Life for the background, blended with a background from Lorie Davison's Flying Dreams , both available at Scrapbookgraphics. The bubbles are Birgit Kerr's In Dreams available at Scrapbookgraphics. Background photo is New Orleans City Park. Guys with the boat is from the Historic New Orleans collection.Photos inside the bubbles are ones I took shortly after Hurricane Katrina.

Don't try to reason with hurricane season

Inside my head right now: Hurricane season.
I really hate this time of year. It's hot, it's humid, it can potentially kill you. If it doesn't kill you, it can leave a multitude of emotional "issues" that can effect you for years to come. Or, nothing happens and you can get a really nice tan!

Lorie Davison's Flying Dreams from Scrapbookgraphics. Kasia Designs Play Kitchen and Twilight from The Shabby Pickle.New Life Dream's 1001 Nights and My Dream World from The Shabby Pickle.Jofia Devoe's Smells of Summer from The Shabby Pickle.Catherine Designs Chic Spring from After Five Designs.Lily Designs A Boy Is A Boy from Scrapbookgraphics.Lauren Blavin Wishing Pool from Digital Scrapbook Place. Floating girl is from on old Disney movie poster for the movie Captain Hook.

Welcome inside my head

Sometimes I can't figure out what is going on in there, so I decided to start a blog to see if you could help me figure it out. I always thought of myself as being "relatively normal" (cue up the Einstein's Theory of Relativity layout), but sometimes I have questions. This blog will be the place where I can share some of my more interesting layouts, and share a little of what is going on in my head at any given moment.

Scrapbookgraphics:
Berna Datema - Light Blue Alpha
Lily Designs - The Boy is a Boy - One way sign
Laurie Davison - Flying Dreams - background, airshipRough to the Touch - phone, motorcyclePrairie Gal - Flying key, Aladdin's lamp
Catherine Designs blog freebie: Add on for Chic Spring - floor
Shabby Pickle:
Jofia Devoe - Smells of Summer - earth, tables, pinwheelsThe Bright Night - Books, mobile frame, clocks
Digital Scrapbook Place:
Laura Bavin - Wishing Pool - whirlpool
Photo of Einstein: Princeton University Library