Egad...it's 2011!

Not only that...it's MARCH! How did that happen? Sigh...

Where to begin...

My beautiful grandchildren are all in school now...the youngest two started kindergarten.  One in 3rd grade and one a freshman in high school...egad...well...I suppose life does trudge along whether we are aware or not...lol...

The 2010 Pink Ribbon Turtles successfully sent $423 to the American Cancer Society.  The title of the drawing piece was "Protecting Future Generations"...beautiful art and jewelry work from several artists around the world were auctioned...and there are still a few for sale at www.atawhisper.etsy.com ...

The 2011 turtles are already in process...inspiration struck early this year...they will be a bit more whimsical...and include a great deal of embroidery in the background...

Presently the piece for this year's drawing is untitled...but I am in love with it already...the little moonshell above sits next to the starfish in the upper righthand corner...the turtles have yet to be beaded...but I'm accumulating the needed beads and will begin soon...

I've been doing some quilting...and some beadwork...and using my new camera to have fun taking pics...Canon PowerShot with a 35x zoom...I only usually get about 1 out of every 30 or so pics that I like...but hooray for digital...you can take as many as you want and you don't have to pay to have them processed to throw out the 29 that were yuk...you can just DELETE!

Here's a few that turned out pretty well...

Don't you love the gators?  SO glad I have a good zoom...
That's about it for now...will try not to take so long...you can find me on Facebook!

Have a lovely day!

Happy New Year!

OK...so I'm a little tardy with my Happy New Year wishes...but they are sincere...I wish you every happiness in the coming year.


So why am I so late?


Well...for one thing...I've been trying to clean my house...what an ordeal...I made myself a 12 item list...you know...things like: my closet, under bathroom sink, my dresser drawers, my craft closet...etc...wow...I'm actually almost done...only 4 of the original 12 left...I did my closet yesterday...it's amazing what you can find in a closet...ha...still have a few things that though they ought to be tossed or sold in a yard sale I'm just not ready to part with...but that's alright...you should see the stuff I've either thrown out or is crammed in my garage to wait for the condo association's yearly garage sale...I had even more...but gave it to the local senior community center in their rummage sale...which I was going to participate in...but had grandma duty (what a shame...spend time with the grandkids instead of sitting around in a rummage sale...ha...it was a very easy swap to make)...


Which brings me to the second reason I've not posted...my dear son-in-law had emergency surgery a couple of weeks ago...gave us all a bit of a fright...but he's now home after 10 days in the hospital...and is resting and healing...praise God...


Other than that...well...I've been working on a couple of things...one being a bracelet that will be auctioned on ebay/MissionFish in the fall when we do the "Pink Ribbon Turtles" Project...it's nearly finished...and I really like the way it turned out...I'll post a picture when it's done...

I also finished a piece that I am going to hang in my bedroom above one of my dressers...might also enter it in the contest for the Space Coast Art Festival...which if it wins it will be used as the design for the coming year's festival on the shirts, bags, and promotional posters...that one I can show you...I haven't named it yet...so if you have any ideas I'd love to hear them!

Living on the beach, and a barrier island (ocean on one side and river on the other), we have all manner of aquatic flora and fauna...so I tried to incorporate as much of it all as I could...if you look closely you will see a crab, fish, mermaids, birds, manatee, coral, freshwater pearls, seashells, turtles, and sandollars.  It was fun to make...it's at the framer's now...and is about 14"x15"...I can't wait to hang it up in the bedroom...

I have also finished my January project for the Beaded Journal Project...this year I'm doing feet...inspired by a course I took in reflexology...you've seen the hands I've done...so I'm doing matching feet...

Today is a day of rest...then I will tackle one of the other items on my list...but wanted to stop and share the blessing of my son-in-law recovering nicely from his ordeal...and a few of my newest projects...

Have a happy day!