FRIENDS THROUGH THE YEARS

At the kitchen counter, along side the sink, sit these two friends that have been with me through good times and not-so-good times. The gargoyle came into my life first sometime in the 80's when my son Ryan came back from Boston with him as a gift to me, explaining that this particular gargoyle watched over the Queen. He spent several years with me in Connecticut and I made sure that when I packed up a few precious items to travel in my VW to Arizona, he was there. As I took him out of his tissue paper I remember a bittersweet feeling washing over me as I was beginning a new chapter of my life far from the familiar comfort of family and friends. There he was, ready to take his station of guardianship. My old friend. A few years later, more drama, more choices, more change. A new companion joined us. A tiny little angel with a sense of whimsy now sat next to my guardian of many years. She and he moved with me several more times....always lovingly wrapped and placed in the special box that would ride in my car with me to the next stop, the next nest, the next beginning. Never left in the hands of movers. Never.

Now as I look at them, my companions over the years, I am reminded that there have been others. Special people that have also moved with me in spirit. Friends and family who have been an ear or a shoulder during difficult times with each and every move, with every difficult decision. Special souls that have encouraged, made me laugh, filled my world with art, and sage advice and who celebrate each delightful adventure and comfort when the tunnel seems long and dark.

I am so thankful.

DECORATING EXCESS

It's difficult to capture the excess in this yard. Jim patiently drove me to several places to stop dead in the road (Fountain Hills is a pretty quiet place, so this is not a dangerous thing to do) so I can take photos....and this was one of the most lit up. My camera is just a little thing and at night the pics become quite fuzzy I'm sorry to say, but if you can imagine that this was only one third of the whole scene!! I am pretty sure you can see the whole yard from space. There isn't really a theme, unless you count "crazy brain effect" as a theme. But it's fun and I am so sure the kids in town love riding by. And that's what it's all about, isn't it?? Kids of ALL ages.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas one and all!!
These yummy trees were just a fewJim and I enjoyed during our window shopping trip to the Biltmore shops yesterday. Such "Eye-Candy"!! And, what a glorious and sunny Christmas Eve. After walking about and enjoying all the decorations and people, we had a delecious luncheon at Steamers. Crab and Ahi Tuna. I had my first Cosmo which was a delight and a bit powerful. On the way back I did my best to take some photos of the various, over-the-top house decorations which will follow, but I could not get the whole feeling in and many were blurry. All in all, it was a really sweet day together.

THANK YOU TO ALL THAT COMMENTED RE: BLOGGER

Thanks so much for all your comments after my frustration. I've experienced the missing items several times since creating this blog and have been tempted to switch to another blogger venue. The past few days have been o.k., so maybe I just experience a hiccup once in a while.

I have not done any artwork for many days now. When I get home from work there are cafe issues to deal with and creativity is gone. I will be off during the holiday week and may get a moment to do a piece or two and catch up with all the art groups. I've been such a missing link when it comes to the groups.........they all may forget who the heck Rella is!! :)

I'm also going to experiment with taking digital photos at night of all the crazy holiday lights on neighborhood homes. I guess when there isn't snow people go nuts with holiday lights on their homes to help foster the spirit. Some of it's gorgeous.......some of it's too over the top. If I'm successful I will post here and let you decide. Ohhh, and just so you know, it DOES get cold here sometimes. I had to scrape frost off my car two mornings in a row.........and we don't have ice scrapers!! But a CD jewel case works really well. :)

I AM SOOOOOO FRUSTRATED!!!

Most of yesterday and all of today there is so much missing from my blog!!! Do any of you experience this??? I am at a loss as to what to do. What do YOU see right now as you are visiting? Does everything look normal? Can you see all of the side bar, like all the sites I visit?
If you have any ideas or similar problems, please share. Thanks so much ~

I'VE BEEN TAGGED BY AMBER=SIX WEIRD THINGS ABOUT ME

Hmmmmmm, only six, eh?? This may be tough.

1. My sense of smell is extraordinary so with that I cannot bear the house to smell like food. Like on Thanksgiving eve you will never find me cooking my turkey slowly all night because I would NEVER sleep. If I wake up and smell food it drives me crazy. It's just daffy.

2. Speaking of sleep. I have to have white noise in order to sleep. I think it began when I worked third shift for several years back in the late 80's, early 90's. In order to sleep during the day I would put the T.V. on a channel that did not come in and the shooshing noise helped me block out the normal day sounds. I loved the sound of the airconditioner or fan, also. Then I switched to finding a station on the radio that did not come in. That worked most of the time, except some mornings when short wave radios seem to suddenly wake me with a start as a voice would be in my room! Now I have moved to the extreme of having a white noise machine AND a radio. When I travel I have to make do with just the white noise machine that I pack in my suitcase (along with an extension cord as most hotels don't have enough outlets close to the bed). Nuts, I say.

3. I often love to have a little cold diet soda in between sips of coffee. Can't figure that one out.

4. I only like the toilet paper roll to roll out from underneath, NOT over the top.

5. I love to put potato chips inside sandwhiches.

6. I have not gone without painted toenails since sometime in 1996 I think, but I seldom have my fingernails done. I prefer them bare and rather short.

Well, that was easy finding six odd things about myself. All in all I think I AM a bit quirky.

I don't know about tagging anyone...........run with it if you'd like.

PLAYING AROUND WITH MY 'PINK HEARTS' DECEMBER CHALLENGE

The challenge was an ATC incorporating hearts and the color pink. After creating the little piece and loading it into the computer, I then played around with the Picasa program a little and filtered the color to black and white with a sharp focus of color around the faerie. It kind of jazzed me so I thought I would share it in that very format with you here. The image, Paper Whimsy. The background is a bookplate with a touch of pigment inks, mulberry paper grass, butterfly wings with added hearts. Pretty simple, but PINK and HEARTS it is!

That will more than likely be it for the weekend as I simply must tend to the mundane of cleaning, laundry, etc. I was so acustom to being alone on weekends that with Jim here now working on business in the little third bedroom/office (for the new cafe that has not opened yet) I don't seem to function the same. My "game" is off. I'm distracted in an odd way. I have a bit of a short attention span the past several years to begin with, so it doesn't take much to throw me off. It's like walking around in circles. A little of this a little of that and nothing much is really accomplished at the end of the day. Geeesh.

JOY

Created for a Secret Sister Swap in one of my Yahoo Art Groups, this sweet Paper Whimsy image does not exactly look exactly joyous, but she is darling, nonetheless. How I wish I could magically extend the Chrismas time or season for another two months and actually get more things done. Or, more to the point, enjoy it instead of watching it fly by me. Far from the East coast the magic of the holidays is so elusive. My attempts at surrounding myself with the music of Christmas is a small fix. I don't FEEL it. The country houses lit up with candles in the windows and the warmth from inside pouring out, is not something we have here. In fact, you cannot even see inside these homes, really. You mostly see the garage first. No sign of life. I remember taking the time about 4:00p.m. every day and plugging in the almost 20 candles and then the tree. How I loved driving by the house at night, a fairytale standing there at the top of the park. Because we were on a corner, I knew that everyone passing by-coming home from work or wherever-also enjoyed the twinkling of our home. I miss that. It's gorgeous here in Arizona in winter, but it doesn't fill the heart like Connecticut did. Sometimes moving on is a physical accomplishment that is not totally followed by one's spirit all of the time. But there IS joy, and thankfulness that I have wonderful children who are delightful adults and make me so proud to be their mom. Who loved Christmas in Connecticut and still talk about it to this day. My memories are their memories. It's all good.

AAO ANNIVERSARY ATC

This wee bit of whimsy (yes, I seem to be favoring this one image of Paper Whimsy lately...I MUST move on!!) the challenge was to use the number one in celebration of the one year anniversary of the yahoo group Altered Art Obsesson. We will all make quality copies equal to the number of players and mail in to the hostess. She in turn will make tiny little books out of them and we will receive then a copy of everyone's ATC page. I so love little things (an obsession since I was quite young and worthy of a separate post) that I'm very jazzed about having a tiny book of everyone's art. This piece feels a little more "cutsie" than I like to do, but something just led me to add the kitten and flowers. Her dress is make-shift for sure..a torn piece of mixed media paper and a cut out from another piece of art paper I think I picked up at Michaels a long time ago with words all over it. "One of a Kind" is all over this paper and it came in pink and blue. Legs are Zetti, of course, and wings are cut from butterfly postage. The door is Paper Whimsy. Speaking of which, Gale has recently put out some new images that are just darling and truly no one has such gorgeous image paper.
You really ought to take a look

HERE