So much going on!

Wow, I can't believe it has been 4 months since I posted. I am not very good at this am I! I am still working on getting better and remembering to take photos to post as well. So much has been going on since the last time I posted, a few important things are....My oldest son returned from Aghanistan on July 9 after a very long 1 year tour of duty. I can't tell you how happy we all are to have him home. He is a 1st Lieutenant in the Army reserves, he was in the Army for 7 years prior to that. He was welcomed home at the airport by his family with signs, flags, balloons and lots of hugs, kisses and tears of joy, as well as 3 television stations and a "welcome home from the war" group of about 5 volunteers who were also there to give him a plaque and have him sign a giant flag. It was so beautiful to see these volunteers that come to the airport on their own time to welcome our men and women home from the war just because they want to show their support for our beloved troops. It really meant alot to us.

Alex, his son in front of the sign hanging on the garage.

All of us at the airport waiting for him to arrive

Chris on right, his brother (my younger son) on left

Flag of Honor that Chris signed

I have been trying to get my new studio set up but is has been so unseasonably hot here that I haven't done too much, I am waiting for cooler weather...which I really hope comes soon!! I can't wait to get everything out there from my old studio (extra bedroom) and have everything in one place, right now half is still in the old and half in the new so I never know where things are and spend way too much time hunting things down. And I really don't like that, I am use to having everything organized and in one place so I can find things when I need them.
I have also been doing alot of gardening, adding new mulch and topsoil, replanting and giving away plants to my future daughter-in-law. But is has been too hot to work outside, so I am not doing as much as I would like. I also have my younger son helping us put a deck on the carriage house, on the side with my studio and helping me with some yardwork and painting too. And he brings his 7 year old with him, so I have been spending much more time with my grandson and it has been wonderful to have them both here.

As they matured they turned the pretty dark pink you see

Statue in front of house

In front of house by mailbox

Hydrangea in the front right of the house

So I have been very, very busy. And I have been creating every evening from about 7 or 8 pm to about 11pm. I love it. I have been working on Halloween items, and I am also working on setting up an etsy account so I can sell some things. I will have Halloween items galore, as well as great paper crafting supplies, seam binding and inspiration packages, I have alot of vintage lace that will be included too. I have made so much already and am now working on the etsy side to get that set up. It is taking more time to set that up with the photos and verbage, way more time than what it took to make the products, and not nearly as much fun!! I am really hoping to get that opened in the next few weeks so stay tuned.
I hope you are enjoying your summer!
Hugs...Catherine

New gadgets added

I added a flickr photostream to my blog, and I will be adding more photos. I hope you enjoy looking at my gardens from 2009, can't wait to begin 2010 and post them! I will be adding holiday creations and the artist group I joined, Artist Class Garden Party which is posted in the side bar if you want to take a look. Registrations are still open. They have a wide variety of projects that keep you busy, it truly is wonderful to belong to this group, you certainly get ALOT of information, new projects, mini projects, never a dull moment. The women that created these projects are absolutely wonderful, they did such a tremendous amount of work to provide all of us with the tools and directions and information for making these. I give them alot of credit, they worked very hard to produce these projects. And Mary, from Green Paper, coordinates it all, posts everything, provides more useful information, images to copy, keeps us on track, and always answers our emails very quickly...wow, she is wonder woman and must never sit down a minute!! I am having so much fun making these projects. I have made two so far, I just need to take some photos and post them. I hope everyone is enjoying this lovely spring we are having. Off now make another Artist Class project....
Hugs Catherine

Artist Class Garden Party

I really would like to get more involved in my blog and blogging but have been very lax in doing so. I have been so busy working on lots of fun projects, but when I am almost through I realize I should have taken photos along the way to post...I really need to get used to doing that. And I would like to meet people and socialize more with all the wonderful bloggerettes who do such a great job of posting on their blogs. So I took a small step today in the hopes of doing so, I joined the wonderful Artist Class Garden Party blog. It starts Apr 4 and goes thru May 1 and has 12 different projects to learn and make, how exciting! I can't wait to begin. There is a link on my sidebar, please be sure and check it out, it maybe something you may enjoy too! Right now I am working on name badges for a Hospice Wine and Chocolate Fundraiser that takes place Saturday evening. I will post how they are turning out. I hope you have a great creative day!
hugs...Catherine

Happy New Year!

Better late than never! Whew, I have been away so very long, I can hardly believe time has passed so quickly...with the holidays that flew by so quickly to the new year already well into January. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and that you are starting out the new year with gusto. I am trying to! I am busy working on my 2010 goals and hoping that I can make them all come true and I hope you are able to do the same. I have lots of new ideas for creative ventures this year and for making lots and lots of wonderful art pieces and being able to share them with you. I am busy working on a few Valentine's Day art pieces that I will photograph and post for you to see. I am also planning to visit my mother next week, we always have fun making jewelry together so I am sure we will create something fun to share with you. When I visited with her in November we made some really cute snowladies on wooden spools. My mother loved them, and she really enjoyed making them..pretty good for someone that is 80 years young!! She follows instructions very well and did a great job! I hope each and everyone of you has a wonderful artful day. So long for now.
hugs...Catherine

DaVinci Graphics

Good morning everyone
I will not be posting the dresden images I have just yet. Each files is huge, over 16Mg, really huge! I think the best way is to use zip it and do it that way. So instead of those images, I have something else that is really beautiful and I think you could use for the your holiday creations. I have several DaVinci books and I scanned many many pages so here are some to get you started. I will post more through the month. I hope you enjoy these beautiful images and if you use them in one of your artful creations please send me a photo so I can post it!

Happy Friday

The dresden images I want to share with you are too large to upload. I will redo the images and make them smaller and will (hopefully!) share them with you in another post. I have 17 pages of images I need to redo so it may be a few days, but the wait will be worth it, they are really beautiful images. I hope you enjoy your weekend and have a "creative" Friday!
Catherine

Graphic for you!

I had great ideas for posting on Halloween, but I ended up under the weather Friday thru Sunday so I didn't post them...oh well...there is always next year. Now I am taking the halloween part down and leaving the fall up. I have been working on Christmas and I need to take photos to share, will do that soon when I have a few things finished. But for now I wanted to share some beautiful artwork for you to copy and maybe use in you holiday creations. These are pages of German dresden angels, santas...etc. that I purchased a few years ago and scanned, and now you can use them too. I hope you enjoy and if you do make something using them I hope you send me a photo so I can post it on my blog for everyone to see. Have a wonderful "creative" day.


Sorry, but after 20 minutes of running I wasn't able to upload just 1 scanned image so I need to take a look at my scans and see if there is something wrong, or perhaps there is a problem with the network, I don't know and it is so frustrating. So please stay tuned, I may not have images until tomorrow.
Catherine