Candice Windham Design Studio

I want to let you know how much your friendship means to me. I know I don't post as often as I should, although I'm getting better. (Of course, when my previous track record was once a year, it's pretty easy to make an improvement!) For 2009, I wish you all a year of prosperity, love and lots of creative endeavors. May you have all the stamps and supplies you desire, all the time to make art that you need and the joy of like-minded individuals in your corner. Happy new year!

I just love these elephants! This card was so easy. Stamps from AO's Circus plate, inks are Ranger Tim Holtz Distress inks and cardstock is from Stampin'Up!®. 1. Stamp elephant across white cardstock with Spiced Marmalade and Walnut Stain inks. Sponge Shabby Shutters, Faded Jeans and Mustard Seed inks around edges. 2. Wrap and adhere dark green rayon ribbon (www.rockcandystudios.com) around card. 3. Sponge white cardstock with same inks as edges. Stamp circus with Walnut Stain ink. Trim and round corners. Edge with Krylon Gold Leafing pen. Mount label to cardfront with pop dots and add gold star brads (These brads were navy blue, so I painted them with the leafing pen as well). 4. Mount all to green cardstock. Check out all three new plates as well as specials from Artistic Outpost at www.artisticoutpost.com. You'll be glad you did! Have a fun week. It's almost Christmas! WhooHoo!

Our River City Stampers Christmas party was held yesterday at Michelle Murphy's 135-year-old home in Arlington, Tennessee. The house was beautifully decorated, and Michelle and daughter Stephanie were the perfect hostesses. We had lots of good food, a great Dirty Santa swap and Secret Stamper pals were revealed. Today, Larry and I are about to put up our Christmas tree so we'll have time to enjoy it before we take it down! He's watching some sort of sporting event, so I'm taking a break to post. This is another Artistic Outpost card from the Fortune Teller plate. Here's how to make it: Inks: Ranger Tim Holtz Distress inks Cardstock and patterned paper: Stampin'Up!® 1. Stamp the fortune teller image on a sage green patterned paper. Use an Aqua Painter to add Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade inks to the background. Add violet and sage green to the fortune teller image. Layer onto More Mustard Cardstock. 2. Run a piece of Vintage Violet cardstock through a Cuttleb...

This card is from the Artistic Outpost Fortune Teller Plate. Cardstock is Stampin'Up!® and inks are Tim Holtz Distress Inks. The patterned paper is a ledger-style paper from my scrap box. Here's how to make the card.: 1. Sponge white cs with Spiced Marmalade, Shabby Shutters and Mustard Seed inks. Stamp the background stamp with Black Soot and attach to card base. 2. Stamp the hand image with Shabby Shutters ink on a scrap of patterned paper. Sponge edges in Shabby Shutters and Aged Mahogany. Layer onto green scrap and attach slightly off-center to card front. 3. Stamp magic in Aged Mahogany and sponge edges as above. Layer onto scrap and set aside. 4. Cut a scrap of patterned paper 3" X 5.5" and tear and sponge long edges. Wrap around left side of card. Tie ribbon and attach magic tag under knot. After a week of one of the worst colds I've ever had, I'm off to the River City Stampers Christmas Party this morning to hang with my stamping friends, eat yummy foo...

I just love this little Cutie Pie from the new Valentine plate from Artistic Outpost. These images are sooooo 1950s. They remind me of the style of the Valentine cards I shared with my friends. All inks are Tim Holtz Distress Inks and all cardstock and embossing powders are from StampinUp!® 1. I started with Whisper White cardstock and stamped the heart image randomly with embossing ink. I then added white embossing powder and heated. I then applied Lipstick Ink with a sponge over the entire background. I also stamped the image again on a separate piece of cs and applied red embossing powder. I trimmed the red heart closely. 2. I stamped the majorette image on white cs with Black Soot ink and colored with an aqua pen and several ink colors (Fired Brick, Lipstick and Aged Mahogany). I applied Krylon Gold Leafing pen to the fringe on the shoulders and added the dog tag. I trimmed it out and mounted it to the background with pop dots. 3. I trimmed a small piece of red cardstock and attach...

This is my favorite card made with the new Vintage Circus plate from Artistic Outpost(www.artisticoutpost.com). This is a new release, along with Fortune Teller and Valentine. I love all the new Artistic Outpost plates and will be posting a new image daily for the next couple of weeks. Here's brief description of the Vintage Circus plate from the AO website: Vintage Circus: Everyday is a circus in the Artistic Outpost studios. All we are missing are the wild animals and the three rings. This collection features vintage images from circus posters and advertisements from the 1900's. For our card makers, the main circus collage measures 3.75" x 5", a large stamp perfect for creating backgrounds. The entire collection comes in either an 8.5" x 5.5" unmounted sheet of red rubber OR mounted on EZMount cling foam, trimmed closely, and "mounted" onto a clear plastic printed index sheet. FREE shipping for USA orders of $50 or more. Here's how I made ...

Way back in June of this year, there were several of us who attended Artiscape in Jackson, Tennessee and stopped at a local eatery for dinner before the trek back to the Memphis area. We were talking about all the wonderful people we would like to learn from, and an idea was born. Robyn Sharp, Michelle Murphy (Wilkerson), Roxi Phillips and I pursued this idea and it has come to fruition. Now, we need help from you. Mixed Media Mélange (M³) is excited to announce a three-day artist retreat to be held September 2009 in LaGrange,Tennessee. We are currently searching the globe in a quest to find talented artists/instructors to offer a variety of dynamic mixed-media classes. If you are interested or know someone who you'd like to recommend, please email us at mixed.media.melange@gmail.com, and we'll send the proposal forms. I'll be posting some photos of the area tonight, so check back.

It's 4:22 a.m. and I have been awake since 2:45. I don't know why I couldn't sleep, but when I can't, I get up and go to the computer. A quick game of Spider Solitaire usually does the trick, but this morning it didn't. I went into my e-mails and found the sad news that our dear friend Mozelle Smith had passed away. Now all I can think about is her dry wit, her tiny little shape and her quick smile. She was a joy to be around and brought sweetness everywhere she went. She was a wonderful stamper, always wanting to learn new techniques. She was also a world traveler. I remember her trip to Egypt and her ride on a camel. She always brought treasures back from her trips for her friends. I still have a packet of bits of flotsam and jetsam from that Egyptian trip - some papyrus paper with a King Tut image, a couple of postage stamps, just little things that may not have been much to anyone else, but they were symbols of her letting us know that she thought about us on he...

I know that Vermont is beautiful in the fall. I've been there. I know that New Hampshire is drop-dead gorgeous in the Fall. I've been there. I know that Maine kicks butt in the fall. I've been there. BUT....have you ever seen such a beautiful autumn in Tennessee as this year? I have taken about 300 pictures of the sugar maple tree in my front yard in the last week. I can't walk out the door without pulling my camera out of my purse and snapping a few shots. When Larry and I leave the house, no matter where we're going or how late we are, we always take the long way through the backroads surrounding our neighborhood. The colors just take my breath away. That's it. Just wanted to comment on what a great artist God is.

I'm not sure if this will come through. The colors were off the last time I tried to post. The blood is really red, not purple as it may appear, but you get the idea. Also, the Diamond Glaze doesn't show up, but it makes that Ruby Red blood really pop! Thanks to Cynthia Jerkins for coming up with the idea for this swap!

I did a little creative work this weekend, bought a great filing cabinet for my office, went to a family reunion, went to a surprise party and heard missionaries from Nepal at church today. The creative work: I was in a wonderful swap that was due today. It was a paperdoll swap and the theme was "Wicked." I have been thinking about this for a while and had thought about using my face on the doll, but nixed that idea. I ended up using Lizzie Borden, the forty whacks lady. I found a photo of her from the waist up and created the lower half in Photoshop for the paper doll. I then made an extra outfit that was a long white gown, kind of like a butcher's coat and added a hatchet and photoshopped in her hands from the original photo. I used the Stampin' Up! air art tool and my SU Ruby Red pen to splatter blood all over the coat, then dripped the Ruby Red reinker on the chest area and down the hatchet blade. I finished it off with Diamond Glaze on the red drips for a tru...

I just finished a 12 X 12, 72...count em'...72-page scrapbook in 48 hours. It is for a local dignitary and I am scrapped out.

As I understand it, the Orphan Works bill (see Oct. 3 post) has been tabled until next session unless they decide to come back for a short one and sneak it through. Please continue to contact your people in Washington. This is an outrage.

The House of Representatives has sneaked a bill onto the floor for approval after telling us it would not be voted on this session. I, for one, intend to find out who did this when we were all paying attention to budget deficits and debates. It is probably being voted on as I write but here is the gist: As I understand it, if the Orphan Works bill passes, any art you create and publish is no longer yours unless you pay to register it with every government entity, and then it still isn't safe if you miss one. Anyone can use your images, including your licensed designs, rubber stamp art, paintings, musical compositions, EVEN PHOTOS OF YOUR CHILDREN for any purpose they choose, whether it's printed material or porn. They just have to say they tried to find the owner and couldn't. If we let them slide this one through, what is next? Here's a comment by one of the CHA Designer members. You may feel that you are not affected by this because your business is creating projects...

Today is the day! You can order your own set of Bluebird and Snowy Woods, and AO has some great specials. Check them out at www.artisticoutpost.com. This card was made with Snowy Woods' beautiful door stamp. I stamped it in Basic Brown ink on Confetti Cream cardstock (Stampin;Up!), then colored the image with Derwent watercolor pencils and my Aquapainter brush. I added base color then used the Aquapainter to blend. I don't know how many layers I have on this, but the final hard details for the branches and wreath were added with the pencils alone. I used Stampin'Up!'s white pen to add the berries and branch highlights. Antique brass hardware corners are from RockCandy Studios. The little sentiment was stamped in SU Blue Bayou. The background swirl paper is from a slab I bought a couple of years ago, but I spritzed it with Patina Glimmer Mist (yummy stuff!) to get it close to the color I wanted for this background. I'm off to drop hubby off at his friend's house ...

...and it's a good thing, since I have them everywhere. Thank you, Artistic Outpost, for creating this lovely sheet! This card was made with Stampin'Up!'s Blue Bayou and Whisper White CS. The yellow gingham and green border where scraps from my stash. I stamped the image in Blue Bayou, then colored it with watercolor pencils and an Aquapainter. I added a bit more length to the branches with brown wc pencil as well. The birds were stamped on a large brad (Basic Grey or Bazzill - can't remember which at the moment) with Blue Bayou ink and heat set. I layered the image onto the green scrap, then tied the ribbon around the yellow scrap before I attached the bird image. All was layered onto Blue Bayou CS, with a bit of inking on most of the edges. Here's a ribbon trick or two: 1. This ribbon was black and white gingham, but I needed blue, and not that wussy light blue. I wanted a strong blue. I inked the ribbon with Blue Bayou to match the card. If you have black and wh...

Haven't posted to this blog since August and now, three posts in three days. Is the world coming to an end? I made this card with the new Bluebird plate from Artistic Outpost, which will be released Wednesday, October 1. I hope you are enjoying these cards as much as I enjoy making them. They aren't fancy, but they're quick and easy. I used Stampin' Up! cardstock (don't I always?) in Old Olive, Basic Black, Lavender Lace, Blush Blossom and Creamy Caramel, and SU Basic Black and Lavender Lace Craft inks. Stamp the bird image in black on Lavender Lace cs. Stamp the boy in black on Creamy Caramel. Ink edges of the Lavender Lace cs, the boy image and a scrap of Old Olive trimmed to frame the boy. Cut a piece of Basic Black cs to 5 1/2" X 2 1/2" and run it through the Cuttlebug to texturize. Use a copper- colored Rub-on to highlight the texture (available at www.rockcandystudios.com. ...... such shameless self-promotion!) I tied a raffia scrap though the butto...

I just love this Santa. He looks just like the real thing, which as we all know, is alive and well and currently sunning in Boca Raton or points south. I think the RockCandy Studios Brown Baroque Border (try quickly saying THAT three times) really sets off the sentiment and works beautifully with the vintage look. To make this card, I used Stampin'Up! cardstock (Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink, Blush Blossom) and SU's Basic Black, Purely Pomegranate and Apricot Appeal inks, a couple of antique brass brads and RCS Baroque Border. I stamped the Santa image in black, sponged on the Purely Pomegranate and Apricot Appeal inks and tore the lower edge. I stamped the sentiment in Purely Pomegranate, sponged the edges of the sentiment card and layered it onto Chocolate Chip. I used a Cuttlebug background to texturize the larger Chocolate Chip layer. I added brads to the sentiment card and attached the border above and below. I layered all onto the Pretty in Pink. I really like the ...

Artistic Outpost is releasing two new stamps plates on October 1, Snowy Woods and Bluebird. I will be posting new images daily until Oct. 1 so you can have a little sneak peek. Today's sample is from Snowy Woods. I just fell in love with this Santa, and the phrase is from one of my favorite poems, so what's not to love? The technique involves a stipple brush and my favorite color combo: Stampin'Up!'s Old Olive, Cameo Coral and More Mustard. The image was stamped in Basic Brown, then the colors are stippled on. I inked all the edges in Basic Brown. The papers are SU Very Vanilla and Chocolate Chip, plus a Cosmo Cricket from last Christmas. I have no clue what the base paper is, but that's a little strip of RockCandy Studios' Leaf and Flower Border in antique gold on the edge of the sentiment tag. Roxi and I are off to the West Tennessee Christian Women's Retreat this weekend in Olive Branch, Mississippi to peddle our wares and hang out with some great people,...

Yesterday afternoon, we were in our backyard and witnessed the most awesome sight. Those little highlights in the photo are dragonflies. This pic doesn't do it justice, because there were hundreds of them. Every time they flitted by, the sun would hit their wings and they looked like pure copper....my favorite metal, of course. Most were low to the ground and you could really see them in the shadows, but a lot were in the tree tops. It was around 5:30, so I assume they were having dinner at Windham Acres. Sometimes we could see the bugs in the air, and if they didn't move fast enough, they were gobbled up by a copper-winged creature. This morning, I woke up early and there was a beautiful doe in the back, down near that shadowy tree line you can see in the photo. She kept looking toward the house as she grazed, so I don't know if she could see me or not. It's about 700 feet to the area where she was. Not being a hunter, I'm not up on the distance a deer can see. I j...

After much pulling of hair and loss of hours and hours of sleep, www.rockcandystudios.com was launched at 11:59 last night. Here's a little background: Roxi Phillips and I met through rubber stamping. We were both Stampin'Up!® demos. When Eclectica Scrapbooks and stamps opened in Memphis, TN, we both began teaching there. Our styles are similar, so although Roxi taught book arts and technique classes and I taught cards, scrapbooking and 3D art, people began to confuse us. I can't tell you how many people - even people who knew us both very well, called her "Candice" and me "Roxi." Now we're RockCandy. When we went to the Craft and Hobby convention in Chicago last summer, people started asking if we were sisters. One vendor even thought we were twins. We thought maybe we had been spending too much time together...you know: like people who begin to look like their dogs. When we began team-teaching and wanted to use lots of funky materials in our classe...

Roxi's Book with side-opening glassine envelopes. I finally got a little breathing room to add the other photos for our upcoming class at the Memphis Botanic Garden on July 26. For some reason, I can't get my pics to upload. Any advice?

We leave for the Craft and Hobby Association convention in Chicago next week. There are four of us going together: Roxi Phillips, Ronnie Goff, Tricia Martin and me. We're driving from Memphis, with a detour to St. Louis for a stop at Red Lead, one of our all-time favorite stores. Roxi and I are in a tizzy trying to finish everything to get our online store going by August 1. We also have a paper arts class on July 26. For those of you in the Memphis area, here are pics and class info from the Memphis Botanic Garden website: July 26. Paper Arts Class. Join 2 of Memphis' best paper arts instructors in making a customized book in a decorative box. The book will be bound using the Japanese stab binding technique. Collage, painting techniques, and embellishments will personalize each participant's book. All supplies will be provided except personal mementoes. This class is designed for beginning as well as experienced paper artists. The complexity of the project will be determin...

I am not so stupid that I spell words incorrectly! I promise. Iwasinahurry! Now I can't figure out how to go back and edit out the typos, so they will live forever in cyberspace! AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!!

I adore Prismacolor pencils. I especially love new ones. They have that same sort of scent that a new box of Crayolas has. And while we're on the Crayola subject, I must confess that I bought five - count'em - five big boxes when they announced that they were changing colors. haven't touched them. The tips are just a perfect as they day they came off the assembly line. But I digress.... This morning I saw a post on Technique Junkies about Prismacolors, so of course I had to throw in my 2 cents. Those of you who know me personally know that I always have an opinion. May not be a good one, but it's all mine. Anyway, I got several e-mails about a technique I described so am posting a down and dirty, quick and rough sample in a mini tutorial. Please excuse the rough coloring. I was in a hurry (That's my middle name – Candice Iwasinahurry Windham). Step 1. This is just the basic stamped image. The image is a retired Stampin'Up! stamp. Step 2. I colored the darkest p...

Don't know what the posting problem was, but here are two tags and a Christmas card made with Artistic Outpost stamps. The images from AO are soooooooo cool! Gotta love 'em!

I can't believe my last post was April 30. What a terrible blogger I am! In all fairness, things have been hoppin' here at the Windham household. Larry has been on a world tour...well, Minnesota anyway, and is now in yet an another band, which means we see each other only in passing during early evening. Roxi and I had a soft opening of our new online store, RockCandy Designs, at Artiscape in Jackson, Tennessee this past weekend and it was a great success. We'll be up and running online at www.rockcandydesignsonline.com on August 1. We carry hard-to-find items for the mixed media artist and are stocked with the trinkets and treasures we use in our own art. Roxi and I will also be teaching a cool class at the Memphis Botanic Garden, Saturday, July 26. The all-day class will feature a two-part project which will include a beautiful book made with glassine envelopes and tags with a collaged cigar box to hold it. Check out the class list at www.memphisbotanicgarden.com. In my s...

Artistic Outpost (www.artisticoutpost.blogspot.com) is having a great sale and a preview of two new rubber sheets. Check it out! I'm off to work at the Rivertown Gallery today in downtown Memphis and will post again later, but wanted everyone to know about the AO deals. It's a beautiful day here in Brighton, Tennessee. Hope yours is great!

I am totally in love with Beacon Adhesive's Quick Grip Permanent Adhesive. This stuff is similar to E6000 as far as holding power, but it's a less dense adhesive - great for getting glue into rough surfaces for better holding power. Last night I was trying to finish a project that was on a rough surface - woven straw - with a curved edge. I was adhering flat floral marbles, one of the heaviest embellishments for the size that you could ever find, and I wanted them to sit right on that edge. ( Of course, I always have to make things difficult!) I adhered 20 marbles in less than 2 minutes and not one slid off the mark. I do have to admit that I tried squeezing a little out onto a scrap and trying to use a toothpick to add the glue to the marbles, but it dries so quickly that by the time I got to the third one, a film had already formed over the glue puddle. This stuff dries very rapidly. Those of you who know me know that I hate to wait, so Quick Grip is perfect for me! I used it...

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I posted (no comments from the Peanut Gallery, Roxi). Since then, my team did not win the National Championship. I attribute that to poor officials in the first half and poor playing in the last two minutes. However, I am so proud of the University of Memphis Tigers and Coach Cal. They represented themselves well and showed the nation that all the people in Memphis are not thugs or Beverly Hillbillies, contrary to reports in the media. Enough said. That's the death portion of this post. Taxes....oh, taxes. I always say I will not procrastinate. Ha! Dropped them off at the accountant on Saturday and picked them up late yesterday with 14 minutes to spare before they had to be mailed. Small town living has its charms as well as pitfalls. The pitfalls come in when you actually have until midnight to mail something and the post office closes at 4:30, come hell or high water. Since I didn't want to drive to the bulk mail center in Memph...

My Tigers have one more game to win, and no, being the jinx that I am, I did not watch one second of today's game. Our son came over for dinner, and we had a nice, quiet evening. Well, a nice quiet evening until 8 p.m. when he left and I knew the game was over. It took forever to find out who won, and I didn't actually know until they interviewed Coach Cal at the halftime of the Kansas/North Carolina game. Here are the words to the U of M fight song for those who did not get a copy from me via e-mail: Go, Tigers, go, go on to victory, be a winner, through and through; Fight, Tigers, fight, cause we’re going all the way— Fight, fight, for the blue and gray and say— Let’s go, Tigers, go, go on to victory, See our colors bright and true; It’s fight now without a fear, Fight now, let’s shout a cheer, Shout for dear old Memphis U. I expect to hear a rousing rendition Monday night from all you Tiger fans. And since I have such willpower to not watch the game, I still have that Pazzl...

It's the last day of March. This month has flown. Seems like yesterday that I was just returning from February's cross-country jaunt and now my University of MemphisTigers are in the Final Four. I have yet to watch a game and trust God to take them all the way. Altogether now, Go, Tigers, Go! Go on to victory, be a winner through and through..... Tomorrow is April Fool's Day and also the day I started in my graphic design job at MLGW about 30 years ago. I've always thought that was kind of appropriate. :) I do love my job, though. There are just some days when I'd rather be playing in garden dirt or washing my car or stamping something or creating art or writing in my blog. Or finishing all those projects so I can open the Pazzles box! Yep. Still sitting here mocking me. I know you're thinking, "How does she have such will power? What a strong woman!" What a stupid woman! What was I thinking when I swore to get those projects in the mail before I opene...

I hope everyone is enjoying a great Easter weekend. Don't you just love this time of year? My friend Debbie Dennington, a Texas transplant to Tennessee, now living in Bull Shoals,Arkansas, always said there's nothing prettier than springtime in Tennessee. She's right. I have the most beautiful, wonderfully scented Jonquils growing in my flower bed, and this afternoon when I was gazing out the front window, I spotted an purple iris about to bloom under our sugar maple tree. I always forget what bulbs I planted in the fall, so there are always surprises, although those irises have been there for at least 20 years. My fiend Kathy Conner gave them to me when we built this house and they have multiplied and multiplied. A few years ago, I finally dug a lot of them up and threw them into the organic trash pile in the woods. The next spring, I spotted them happliy blooming. They just keep spreading. I spotted tulips and Easter lillies pushing up through the ground as well. No sign ...

I was tagged by Queen Roxi to share seven things about myself and pass that on to seven bloggers...not sure if I know seven bloggers, but I'll do the first part anyway.... 1. Born and raised in Memphis with a slight detour to San Antonio when I was 13. That didn't last long, but SA is a beautiful city. 2. Won my first art award in the second grade, although I had to share it with Mrs. Tutor's entire class. I made a bird out of clay for the spring portion of our science fair exhibit about seasons. We won the Science Fair for Longview Elementary School. Still have the photo. That's me in the center right with long dark hair and, of course, a red dress right behind the project. That's Carol Hopkins, my elementary years best friend, with the blonde curls at center left. I still count many of the children as good friends today, although they're a little older now. 3. My record for most 35mm photos taken is two 36-exposure rolls in a two-mile stretch at Acadia Natio...

...but tired of messing with it. The Snow Pix post is whomperjawed but you get the idea. Stay warm.

These are some of the pix I took this morning. 1. The first is the snow date. 2. My flower bed, looking much more beautiful when It's covered in a white blanket. 3. Pete, the Speckled-Butted Monster, begging for a treat. 4. Sam, the Wonder Lab, trying to figure out if the camera is a tasty snack.

I love snow. I guess if I lived up north, I wouldn't be so crazy about it, but it's such a rarity here. Another thing: I doesn't usually last a long time. The snow we received yesterday afternoon and last night was heavy at times, but mostly small flakes. The only problem was the wind. If we hadn't had wind to blow it off the trees, it would have been a perfect snow: 6-7 inches of soft white powder that has just enough moisture to make it good for snowballs and snowmen. Larry was like a child. "Let's go out and build a fort! Let's build a snowman! Let's make snowcream!" All this at 9 p.m. last night. Needless to say, I just snuggled a little deeper under my quilt and pretended to be engrossed in a really bad tv show. I went out early this morning and took lots of photos. Here's a tip: when you're taking snow pix, they can all grow to look alike over the years. The first thing I do is write the date in the snow and shoot that. If my photos s...

I've done all those things that we Southerners do when there is the slightest chance of frozen precipitation: been to Kroger for bread and milk and wonderful ingredients for a month's worth of hearty soups and stews; made sure my pups have a nice warm, newly-filled-with-hay shelter; put on a pot of coffee and am making a list of all the things I need to do away from home before noon when the stuff is supposed to hit. Sitting here blogging is not really one of those things, but since I haven't posted in two weeks, I decided to git'er done. I have almost reclaimed my studio space from the CHA tornado I created before Feb. 4. One conclusion I have come to is that I either need more storage for odd-sized items- Krylon cans come to mind - or I need to light a match and start all over. Don't guess I'd better light a match - those Krylons would turn into little heat-seeking rockets and one would find me. They wouldn't find Larry though. He's been frozen for ab...

..and I can't sleep. Those moments of creativity that hit me in the middle of the night are becoming more frequent. I've been dreaming of making art, taking photos, writing instructions...and when I don't go to bed before 1 a.m. and then wake up, wide-eyed, at 5, that's not good. I laid there until almost 6, gave up on more rest and got up to make coffee. I'm still wrestling with my post-CHA mess in my studio, so I decided that was the best place to start. When I opened the door, yesterday's 45° high hit me in the face. My studio is an enclosed patio room we added to the house. It's air-conditioned, but we just leave the door open for heat, since we don't have harsh winters here, only steaming hot summers. Someone shut the door last night and this morning, you could hang meat in there. Since there are only two people who live here, and I know it wasn't me, I can only assume that Larry did it or one of the dogs used the thumbs he only grows when need...

Forgot to post our photo. This is Roxi, Ronnie and me at Disneyland. Our knees were jammed so tight in the center! You'd think we would have gotten a bigger teacup!

...it wouldn't have made any difference. My Tigers lost anyway, but they're still #1 in my heart. I am skipping church this morning in the interest of public health. I surely do not want to share this crud with my church family. It's been 10 days and shows no signs of subsiding. Every time I think I'm better, I get a coughing attack that leaves me breathless. Enough of this Oh-Me-Poor-Me mentality. More CHA info... I purchased a new Pazzles Inspiration at the CHA convention and am so excited. This thing cuts all types of materials including paper, fabric, cling vinyl, rubber stamp material and a host of other items. It also embosses, distresses, engraves and hasa pen tool that will hold any regular sized pen or marker. It's no bigger than an all-in-one printer. It cuts paper up to 12" wide, and I think the paper length is unlimited, but not sure and too lazy this morning to get up and hunt through my bag o'crappage from the convention to find the brochure...

I am so glad to be home. We drove more than 4,000 miles and saw a lot of wide open spaces. Lots and lots of wide open spaces. Trust me. Southern Texas is not pretty in February. Now, I don't want all you Texans to get upset. I lived in San Antonio, one of the prettiest cities on earth, when I was a teen. It was one of the highlights of our trip this time, but that stretch from just west of San Antonio to El Paso is downright dull. Just sand and cactus, as far as the eye can see. I'm sure that when the light hits it just right, it's really pretty, but in the words of Dudley Moore from Arthur, "You can't always depend on that light." And the wind! We were hauling an rv and when we stopped Saturday night in El Paso, the wind got so bad that we were afraid to open the door of the camper, for fear it would be ripped off the hinges and a wind gust would come through and overturn the whole rig. We're very thankful God got us through that one safely! We went to Di...

We had a great time this weekend at the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America (SPBGMA) - boy, that's a mouthful! -convention in Nashville. We got to catch up with old friends and made some new ones. When we weren't pickin' and grinnin', we were visiting with our friends, some who we only see at this convention every year. I think we got about 8 hours of sleep from Friday morning until Sunday night. These bodies are getting too mature for that kids' stuff, but we really had fun. Wayne and Janet Southards were so nice to open their bed and breakfast to us. I don't know what we would do without the wonderful friends God has allowed us to have. We're off to CA for the CHA convention this morning, and I don't now when I'll get to update this hit-or-miss blog again. I'll post when I get the opportunity. I do know that by Friday night, I will have been to Disneyland!

I have to work at my other job today..the graphic design one. Somehow, it the midst of the hurricane, well tornado here in the Mid-South, today and is proving to be a calming point. I have to have almost everything finished for CHA and be packed by Friday morning, so I'm eliminating some of my larger pieces that didn't get finished to my standards and just getting on with my life. There will be time when I return for that stuff. On a happy note, it's pouring down rain here, but the temperatures are not low enough for the stuff to freeze, praise God! You gotta find the good stuff in everything and warm temps in January when it's raining are a very good thing. I got to thinking about how my Saturday went so good as far as completing projects, and then Sunday was a diaster. I had serious issues with a product I have been in love with in the past that shall remain nameless. I tried every glue I had to make this stuff stick and finally ripped it off and threw it in the trash...

Got my Swarovski (try saying THAT three times!)Crystals yesterday and have covered everything in the studio with them. Even Larry and the pups were afraid to stand still for very long.I finished most of my Fashion display last night and have almost completed my two pieces for the Terra Bella challenge. I'm feeling much, much better about my CHA displays and made my (hopefully) last trips to Michael's, Hobby Lobby, Eclectica, etc. last night. Larry had a gig at Gridley's barbecue last night, so I went in to Memphis with him and did my shopping, then went back to Gridleys for some of the finest ribs I've ever had...meaty and smokey and dripping with sauce, just the way I like 'em. Those of you in the Memphis area need to check out this place on Hwy. 64 at Summer Ave. Doug, the owner, is a good Christian man, a transplant from Greenwood, Mississippi, who makes the most awesome yeast rolls...about the size of a ladies' seven shoe. And the sweet beans and sweet tea a...

Does anyone out there ever get way-cool ideas in your dreams? When the pressure is on, I come up with some really great design ideas. I don't normally work at my graphic design job on Fridays and get to sleep a little late, but I got up at 5:45 this morning with all these great ideas buzzing around in my head. Happily, they were dragonflys and not killer bees creating the buzz. On magazines... I have to confess: I'm a magaholic. I love 'em. Let me clarify that: I love beautiful art mags, Nat'l Geographic and Smithsonian, old Life, Saturday Evening Post, Look (now I'm really showing my age) and anything to do with altered arts, sewing, crafting and fine art. I allow Bass and American Hunter in my home for Larry and occassionally use one of those for reference when I need to know how a deer or a fish looks for realistic painting. I do not, however, read sports mags geared to a specific sport, although I do love baseball and football. So why did my new subscription to...

Well, not really. I'm ready to go, but my projects aren't all finished, so I guess I'll wait another week and a half. One thing I have learned in the last 24 hours: Spray paint and cold weather do not mix. Trust me on this one. I'm about to clean up my clutter from the last wave of projects so I can complete the next round. Am I the only one who gets creativity blockage with a cluttered work area? I don't mean a cluttered studio. I think there's something a little strange about having a perfectly neat work area. I'm talking about the kind of clutter that covers the 20 feet of tabletop area where I create, with stacks of dangerously piled acrylic stamps pushed against boxes of wood-mounted stamps with Glimmer Mist and acrylic paint and Distress powders and inks and heat tools and scissors and every Krylon pen I've ever owned spread all over creation. Right now, the 12" square I usually work in is covered in 3/4" circles that I glued on to the r...

I finally finished the velvet purse I've been wrestling with for two days. Then I started digging through the crappage in my studio and discovered two more projects that I can include in my designer showcase at CHA. Unfortunately I have to work today at my part-time job that makes it possible for me to play. At least it's still creating. It's just in graphic design. You don't get to use a lot of Glimmer Mist and Grungboard in graphic design, although I do manage to squeeze the fun stuff in occasionally. Be sure to check out the Paper Creations website for a RockCandy Designs project using Artistic Outpost stamps. (And check out the AO website for Robyn's new stamps. Way Cool!) Roxi Phillips and I had a fun day creating this frame for the hero in your life. Speaking of heroes, I had a flat on the way home Tuesday night. It was dark and on a two-lane road (Austin Peay for those in the Memphis area). With all my mega-problems with my back, I knew there was no way I cou...

I have published 2 additonal posts to this blog and apparently, they have gone the way of the unicorn...nowhere to be seen. If you have seen any of my other posts, let me know where they are hiding.

The CHA deadline is upon me and I'm starting to panic. I have lists, I have deadlines...I can't find die-cut swirl grungeboard, which is an integral part of two projects, anywhere. I'm taking off work to purchase new tires this afternoon and plan to spend the downtime on the phone tracking this stuff down. On a lighter note, I have finished 4 HUGE projects that were blocking my creative muse, all graphic design projects that have been hanging over my head like the Sword of Damocles. Saturday is our dry-run for our CHA Fasion Display. I know that afterwards I will feel more confident and more inspired to get my hiney in gear. I don't mean to sound so negative. Those who know me know that I'm not usually like this. I thrive on tight deadlines and come up with my best work in time crunches. Now if I could only figure out how to add a photo gallery to this blog.....

I have been shamed into creating this blog since I started my other one more than a year ago and can't seem to remember the address, how to add photos, delete them or just remember to take time to post in general. This is not to say that I'm a stupid woman, just a very busy one. I know, I know: We're all busy. I just feel the need to start fresh. I have resolved to simplify things for 2008. My teaching schedule has been pared down, I am trying my best to not work at my graphic design work more than 3 days a week, and I am trying to devote more time to doing what I love best: spending time with my hubby and friends and just making art. In the coming weeks and months, I'll be posting new art. Keep in mind that I'll be gone to CHA and away for a little R & R for most of February, but will hit the ground running in March. So there, Roxi. Are you happy?