Simply Skinnies

I found this new challenge blog called Simply Skinnies. It's a spanking brand new challenge, and welcomes all forms of art expression. I hope all my blog friends decide to participate in Carole's undertaking. Here's my last witch of this season, just for Carole!

Witch from Irene Alexeeva, recostumed a bit. Fence from JenU Designs, and cat from Kubivet.

Make a Moo or Two

The theme this week at Moo or Two is "party". What bigger party than Mardi Gras? I visited New Orleans many years ago, and it was a magic city, steeped in tradition and history. Thanks to the indominitable spirit of its people, it's recovering from Katrina and on its way to restoring the old magic. Viva New Orleans! Let's party!

Theme Thursday - Vintage

Vintage collage is my favorite thing to do, so I was glad to see the Theme Thursday challenge this week is vintage. Meet Lizzie, and some bits and pieces of her life! Ephemera from CR Designs, and a couple of blended overlays from Liam's Old Books.

MAN OF COURAGE

I've written poetry off and on for as long as I can remember. When the geese are flying south and it's autumn harvest time, my thoughts always turn to home and to my father. This is a poem I wrote many years ago, as he neared the end of his life.
***
A MAN OF COURAGE
As we rode through summer breezes
The man of courage and I
He taught me still another lesson
As he had since I was just so high
For the years had left their burden
And now he walked with a cane
And the body once strong and strapping
Now faltered and gave much pain
I heard him not once complaining
As we passed fields of grain on our drive
But commenting on God’s bounty and sunshine
Saying “It’s a good day to be alive”.
Now, when I’m feeling sorry
For the problems and troubles I’ve had
I look to my model of courage
With humble gratitude....I love you, Dad!
***
I have a little slate in my kitchen on which I've written "Count Blessings. Choose Happy". It's the lesson I learned long ago from my father, who found something good in every day. Thank you for stopping by!

Crazy Amigo Challenge - Buttons

This was great fun! The wheels, the tree, the "porthole" window and the doorknob are buttons, so of course the house is located on Button Hollow Road! Thanks, Crazy Amigo for the challenge!

Artygirlz Challenge - Fabric

The artygirlz have chosen "fabric" for this week's challenge. I hope silk flowers and a bit of lace, digitally applied, qualify!

Tag Swap

These are my tags for the tag swap at my local art group (Indiana Altered Arts) in November. A little cut and paste is a nice switch from digital once in a while.

A CHALLENGE AT DAQ

I was tagged to author the Quirkle challenge this week at digitalartquirks. The idea is to select three elements necessary for the challenge. I chose tone-on-tone, a bit of wisdom, and use of an overlay. You might like to visit the DAQ gallery to see the stunning results submitted by my quirksisters. This is mine, using a stone angel from Above the Mark, an Indian proverb, and an overlay by Bernie Datema at SBG.

THINK MONDAY, THINK ATC - Boo Who

Still into things that go bump in the night. I dare you to walk the dog in this district!

Thanks for daring to look!

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - Lock and Key

I think I'm still in Halloween mode! The topic here is "lock and key". Background is from a Poe book illustration for the "House of Usher". The gentleman and the raven are from Graphics Fairy, the key was Googled. I promise to do something cheerful next time! Thanks for looking.

SUNDAY POSTCARD - WITCH HUNT

The background for this one I painted using Corel Painter 3, the witch is from Graphic Fairy and the overlay is by Bernie Datema at Scrapbook Graphics. Other elements harvested from the web.

ARTE Y PICO AWARD

I've been selected by my friends, Kimmie and Faye, to receive this award. Thanks so much for my first blog award!

This Arte y Pico award has a few rules:

1. You must pick 5 blogs deserving this award for their creativity, design, interesting material and for contributing to the blogging community.
2. Each awardee must have the name of the author and a link to their blog.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her the award.
4. Award winner and the one who has given the prize must show the link of Arte y Pico blog, so all will know the origin of this award: Arte y Pico.

Here are my award choices. Please visit their blogs!

Donna

Suzan

Mar

Bianca

Kris

ANOTHER HOMESPUN MEMORY

Long ago and far away, when I was a child in middle Illinois where the cornfields stretched to forever, the ritual that is bathing was quite different from that of today. Every Saturday night, my mother poured a few buckets of rain water from the cistern into our galvanized tin bathtub, added a teakettle full or two of boiling water to warm it up, put out a bar of homemade soap, and a bath towel made of feed sacks. I was first, my brother was second, then Mother, and lucky Dad was last. It was a ritual repeated in every farmhouse in our part of the world. In winter, our bathing area was set up beside the wood burning cook stove in the kitchen so as to stay toasty warm for our ablution. In summer, the tub sat in the “wash house“. The “wash house” was a small separate building just next to the house, where Mother did the laundry in her wringer washer. From Saturday to Saturday we washed daily in the washpan in the sink in the kitchen, where Mother cautioned us to “wash down to it, up to it, and then wash ‘toit.” In some of our model homes today, which I call temples of excess, the bathroom is called the “spa”. The Jacuzzis are nearly as large as Mother’s kitchen, the showers are multi-level with adjustable water jets. I love to see these luxurious bathrooms, and I think to myself “I’ll bet they still wash down to it, up to it, and toit”!

MOO - Tone on Tone

This week's theme is tone-on-tone, so of course I turn to my favorite blues, and a lovely stone angel I found among the freebies at Above the Mark. I hope she is praying for peace, and for our young men to come home safe and sound.

Theme THursday - Sun

Background for this piece is the Lena Delta Reserve in Russia as seen from satellite, from the Earth as Art collection. Overlay is a Wysocki image, and the sun is from Kubivet. I'm not sure how this came together.....perhaps my muse on the loose??

GOTHIC ARCH - PATCHWORK

This week's theme at Gothic Arches is "Patchwork", and here's my interpretation. The bits and pieces of the lady's patchwork of life are from CR Designs, and she is from Art-E-Zine. This was a fun challenge!

Artygirlz Blue and Orange

The ladies at Artygirlz have challenged us to do blue and orange.

Background and flowers are by Lorie Davison, (altered a bit), and the charming lady is from Art-E-Zine.

THINK MONDAY, THINK ATC

This week's challenge at TMTA is to create an ATC with a Halloween/spooky theme. I guess you could say this one is more "spoofy" than spooky, but I simply could not resist the play on words! I hope it gives you a smile. Thanks for looking.

A WEDDING IN ILLINOIS

This Sunday, in a university town in Illinois, Jesse and Amanda got married on the lawn of a lovely old house in the historic district, across the street from a park filled with hardwoods dressed in their very best autumn regalia. Guests walked through the falling leaves to the white wedding tent where the string quartet played, and vows were exchanged. There were tears in the eyes of the groom as his bride, radiant in her simple white gown and short veil with just a hint of sparkle here and there at the hem, walked up the aisle on a carpet of rose petals. Once vows were exchanged, with faces aglow with the exuberance of youth and shining with excitement of young love, they turned to face the gathering of family and friends for the first time as Mr. and Mrs. In this world filled with turmoil, war and financial upheaval, may God smile on these two as they set forth on their joint life journey. Godspeed, Jesse and Amanda!

SUNDAY POSTCARD - MARIE ANTOINETTE

Sunday postcard challenge features Marie Antoinette this week. My Marie, the fan and the map are from the WWW, the gargoyle, and "Paris" are from my friend, Mar, a very talented and generous artist in the Netherlands. Thanks, Mar!

MOO TIME !

This week's challenge at Make a Moo or Two is "arrows". Hamlet's slings and arrows came to my mind, so I've honored The Bard. I don't know about outrageous fortunes, but I've certainly suffered the slings and arrows from time to time!

TIMES ARE A-CHANGIN''

My grandchildren recently visited. I have one of each kind, and they are the light of my life. They came replete with their electronic tethers, --I-Pods and cell phones. The dexterity of the thumbs of our next generation is amazing! None of them will be able to spell, of course, but they are whizzes at the art of texting shorthand. I am reminded of the old duck joke …..MRDUCKS, NOMRNOTDUCKS, SMRDUCKS, CMWANGS. To add to my confusion, their cell phones don’t ring, they just vibrate. In the midst of a conversation they will zone out, reach in their pocket, read their screen and thumb-text an answer whilst you’re left in mid-sentence. On an errand with my grandson, I was driving along imparting grandmotherly wisdom. Receiving no answer I looked his way….to find him with I-Pod in hand, earphones in place, humming merrily to the music streaming into his teenage head, hearing not one word I spoke. When my children were their age, I could hear at least one end of a phone conversation, giving me some indication of what was going on in their lives. In MY era, the only phone was on the dining room wall and we were on a phone line with eight other people. Our “ring” was a long and two shorts, and my parents (as well as all the eight other members on our phone line) could tune in to my conversation. Times they are a-changin’ ! Do U C wht I mean?

THEME THURSDAY - THINK PINK

The challenge at Theme Thursday was to create something in pink, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness.

The lady is from a 1906 Colliers magazine cover, the frame is CR Designs, and bling Irene Alexeeva. Swirls are Zakirah. The quote is by Ian Fleming.

NUMBERS

So, I thought I'd try a challenge over at the ArtyGirlz Challenge Blog. This week's focus is "numbers", and I had a little fun with that. It isn't exactly a quantum leap from numbers to the stock exchange, but my guy is negotiating troubled waters a couple of generations ago. Thanks, ArtyGirlz!

Background and embellishments from ScrapArtist Ophelia.

IDLE THOUGHTS

Sometimes, when I think of the span of my life, it seems an amazement to me. I was born in the vast prairie corn belt in northern Illinois when Franklin Roosevelt was president. I went to a one-room country school grades 1 through 8. It was heated with a pot-bellied coal stove, and the boys’ and girls’ outhouses were at opposite ends of the schoolyard. I remember the excitement when electricity came to our rural part of the world. I’ve seen the advent of air travel, television, and the internet. I’ve lived through more wars than I care to enumerate. I remember when there were no credit cards, and people practiced the odd habit of getting something when they could afford it. I was a stay-at-home Mom, a room mother, a chaperone, a scout leader, and church secretary. When my children were grown and I was widowed at 45, I became a career woman. I had the best of both worlds. At retirement I explored the internet, became interested in digital art, joined a local altered arts group and a journaling group. I am blessed with a circle of friends, strong women with common interests with whom to share life's journey. I still savor the first crisp autumn morning, the beauty of fresh-fallen snow, the earthy smell of spring, and the long, lazy days of summer. God’s been “real good” to me!

"Ophelia" is the challenge this week at TMTA (Think Monday, Think ATC). This ATC features Ophelia as seen by the artist Anna Lea Merritt. I'm partial to her pensive look. She's thinking of Hamlet, no doubt! Poppy is courtesy of Natali Designs at ScrapbookGraphics.

Incidentally, I learned entries with black background fade into the black background of my blog, and need a white border to differentiate them!!

Inspired by Signac

The featured artist this week at the ScrapbookGraphics frameworthy challenge is Paul Signac. This piece is inspired by his many-hued cityscapes, with a tongue-in-cheek addition. Background is painted in Corel Painter Essentials 3, cityscape was given to me by a friend, and the gentleman is courtesy of Flickr CRF images. The frameworthy challenge is one of my favorites, and has introduced me to the work of many artists, which I've enjoyed. Thanks for looking!

Postcard Sunday

I'm having great fun responding to some of the wonderful challenge sites that are "out there". The subject for Postcard Sunday this week was "men", and I decided to feature this man-in-training from Art-E-Zine. Just look at those biceps!!

Background papers are from CathyAnn at Color Line Designs.

Theme Thursday

At Theme Thursday, the challenge was to create a 4x4 page in purple.

Background for my page and corner embellishment is from Booland at Color Line Design. The image is courtesy of Terra

Galleria, and the font is Edwardian Script.

The lady appears to be deep in thought while sewing.

Indiana Altered Arts group is having an Altered Altoid Tin swap tomorrow. On the left is the inside of the tin, on the right the lid. This is my first try at altering a tin. I need to learn how to treat the tin outside. There's so much about art I don't know! What I do know is that I love to do it!

My friend, Kimmie, introduced me to the Make a Moo or Two site, and I find these little pieces of art great fun. This week's challenge topic is "Dance".

This is for the Scrapartist Altered/Collage challenge, which was to create a magazine cover. The "lady" is a Harrison Fisher creation. Her hat I fashioned from bits and pieces of Oscraps' Charmes collection, and her dress from bits and pieces of CR Designs. Multiple fonts were used. This was such great fun!

Here are some scenes in and around the old farmhouse where we had our lumch. The road was, indeed, winding and the leaves just beginning their autumn splendor. The farmhouse was charming with mismatched chairs, vintage tablecloths and chandeliers, and delicious food. It was a wonderful day spent in the company of good friends. I count my blessings!

Time to Boast a Bit

After some fumbling about, I seem to have figured out how to post photos and comments. Next, of course, will have to come a fancy blog banner. However, it is autumn in my world, and tomorrow my friends and I are heading to the hills of Brown County, Indiana, where we'll take a meandering country road to an herb farm and a hundred-year-old farmhouse which serves wonderful "lady" luncheons. Wish you were here!

The Make a Moo or Two web site has a weekly challenge for these little 1.1 x 2.8 bits of art. This week's topic was clocks, and I thought of Jim Croce and his "Time in a Bottle", which I loved.

A heritage fashion challenge inspired this one, which was great fun to put together!

This Annie Oakley collage was inspired by Debbie Trotter, the artist featured in the frameworthy challenge at Scrapbookgraphics.

Vini Vidi Vlog

A blogspot....a place to put my thoughts and my art. At the moment I feel somewhat timid and uncertain, both most unlike me! We'll see how this unfolds.