Let me start with the great news...i went to the surgeon yesterday and he told me that my hands are healing very well. In fact, the strength and dexterity in my hands are better than he was expecting. Yeah!

I've been busy working on my i-cord rug this week and sadly, I don't have a picture of it. Ugh! I keep forgetting to photograph it. I'm in the process of knitting i-cord and sewing the cord into a round to make a rug for inside my front door. I love the look of crocheted rag rugs but wanted something slightly different. I can knit i-cord for hours without looking at it and carrying the yarn and cord in my purse takes up next to no room. I promise I'll get pics up soon.

I've also done some more scrapbooking this week and I'm making ATC's for a swap in one of my Yahoo groups. I just haven't felt like taking pictures.

I do have some images to decorate my blog with. I made Signature tags again last night. This week I have a different partner and the theme was blue.

What a weekend it's been! I had a wonderful artist date with my husband Thursday morning/early afternoon. Than disaster hit Thursday night, I was sick. It seems I was the host for the latest stomache bug convention. Yippee! I hate being sick and I really hate being sick with anything that forces me to sleep all the time and not be able to eat. Dreams while I'm sick are always interesting, I seem to tap into the Sci-Fi Channel movie of the Week. For those who are wondering, according to my dreams, I have helped save the world from the invasion of a computer virus come to life, uncovered a ring of body snatchers, and became a member of a secret vampire hunter society in Paris. Don't ask me where the dreams come from, all I know is if I could figure out how to write them into novels, I would be a very rich woman. Oh, and did I mention, in addition to the wack dreams, I was unable to eat or drink for 2 days. Rice and ginger ale never tasted so good.
The good news is I'm fully recovered, except I can't stomache coffee yet.

I missed a few days of art but if you consider my highly detailed, elabotate dreams art then I'm ok. I was playing around with digital scrapbooking last night. This is one of my favorite pictures of myself. It was taken 31 October, 2004. The handsome gentleman in the picture is my husband who was dressed as a vampire for the evening, this was taken before the fangs sprouted. We dress up every year for Trick or Treat and sit outside for the evening. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.

I share my art to grow, please feel free to leave feedback and comments.

Dandelions in January
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My daughter was outside playing in the yard, enjoying the unseasonable weather when she found two dandelions blooming. Being that she is my daughter and loves to bring me picked flowers, she presented me with the dandelions she found. I know that they have a picked shelf life of minutes, os I grabbed my camera and snapped two pics of them. One if a full color photo that captured the sunshine color of them very well and the other was a sepia toned image that just captures the fragle beauty of the flowers. I decided that these little flowers needed to be imortalized. I used Paint Shop Pro and made this little scrapbook -style image of them.

The inscription reads: "Dandelions in January/ Picked by my daughter/ From a yard that should be/ covered in Snow!"

Everything has Beauty Collage.
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I just love doing collage work. This little 7 1/2 by 5 1/2 inch collage was based around one of my favorite Confucius sayings. I liked the look of this piece so much I decided to post it on eBay. If anyone is interested my seller ID is Earthmoonandstars. I'd love for it to find a loving home.

Crochet Rose Pin
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I love roses. They are just such intricate and beautiful things. I also love to crochet roses. This little beauty will be a pin as soon as I sew the pinback on to it. The rose was made from a soft wool/silk yarn that was recycled from a sweater and the leaf is two-tone cheneille recycled from another sweater. Trust me, both yarns look better as rose parts than they did in the sweater.

Cotton Candy Bracelet
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I wish the picture on this would have come out clearer. I'll have to repost a pic after I've had the bracelet to the photo studio and take the formal pics of it. This bracelet is pink glass beads with rose quartz and freshwater pearls. It's a nice romantic piece. I have earrings to finish yet for it, but I love the bracelet. My only complaint about it is that I sized it for a smaller wrist than mine. It will look lovely on some petite woman's wrist. The colors are just so yummy, they remind me of cotton candy.

Celebrate Beauty Faux Postage
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After reading everyone else's posts about the joys of making faux postage, I decided to give it a try. Each stamp features a vintage image that celebrates the beauty of woman. My biggest challange was finding images that looked good when they were that small. Faux postage is harder than it looks. They are not perfect and there are parts of them that I'm not thrilled with, but it was fun. I made them using my PSP because I'm battling a cold and my left hand is still in a splint from carpal tunnel surgery.

My Reason for Getting Out of Bed
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Until my hand gets out of the splint (I had carpal tunnel relase surgery), I will be working a lot with my PSP. Digital work seem easier right now.

I was in a silly mood when I created this piece. I found this really cool retro slide frame yesterday and the first thing it made me think of was the art on the wall of my favorite Starbucks. The idea's seems to flow from there. I'm thnking about printing out this one and hanging it in my kitchen.

I love coffee. I started drinking the stuff when I was a senior in High School and I had to open my sister's store at some un-godly early hour of the morning. Coffee quickly became my best friend. In college, I kept a coffee maker in my dorm room. Truth be told, I'd rather go to a coffee house than a bar. For the record, my favorite dessert is tirimisu.

A Moment of Sadness
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The recent news from West Virginia broke my heart. My prayers and tears are with the families that lost loved ones.

Happy New Year ATC- 1 January, 2006
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Happy New Year wishes to everyone. It's a new year and a new beginning. Time to leave our self-imposed hinderences behind and pursue our dreams.

This is my first piece for my year long exploration of my art. This is my New Year's ATC. This piece was collaged digitally using Paint Shop Pro. The lovely lady in green is from a Vargas pin-up.

Simplicity ATC-2 January, 2006
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Simplicity is a great theme for me for the beginning of the year. Like many artist, I tend to be a packrat. I save stuff because I never know when my art will need something. My studio is often cluttered and a mess. One of my promises to myself for the new year is to clean and organize my studio. I don't have to throw things away, but I must find a home for everything that I keep.

This was a challanging ATC for me to make. The idea of keeping everything simple and clean seems easy enough until I start working on it. I often refer to my work as lush because I love to have many layers and many textures. For this card I drew upon my love of Asian art and kept the lines and theme clean and without clutter.