Greetings,

Remember this?

This is the back of a ceramic tile.

My orange tulip is now mounted. No, not on the ceramic tile. It's mounted to a piece of foam core board. I liked it but then remembered that I had some of these tiles.

This yellow "pastel paint-over" (thanks Lisa for the name) is now mounted to the ceramic tile. Isn't it fabulous that the tile is blue? Hubby suggested the word. I have still to figure out what to do with the back of the tile. Leave it plain or paint it or what?

And here is a purple tulip awaiting a word or words and to be mounted. I am not sure if I will use coreboard, a ceramic tile or maybe try a piece of wood this time. What do you all think?

Tomorrow is TGIF and my last day before a week long plus a day vacation. Woo Hoo! We'll be doing home repairs and cleaning out stuff. woo hoo.... And I plan to paint more tulips. I love my artists crayons (Thanks again Tristan) and am having so much fun with them. I want to try using book pages so that words will show through the flowers. And I want to make another mounting on a tile but cut the paper the exact size of the tile. Not sure though. I need to get a better roller. I used the side of a full bottle of glue and I don't think it worked as well as it could. I used pressure but not as much as I could have. I sprayed the painting with workable fixative first and used mod podge to glue down the painting and then put 2 coats over it. It's sealed pretty good. Do you think these should one day show up in my Etsy shop?

You all have a wonderful Friday. I'll be back here Sunday if not sooner.

Be Happy, Be Healthy, Be You,

Tess

Insomnia Rocks....Not!

Hello Friends,

Seems the rains we've been having has decided to make my degenerative joints act up. I had leg cramps all night last night and a bad case of insomnia. I hate sleeping one hour maybe two and then waking wide awake. I did put my awake time to good use though by experimenting with some art techniques. I bought Cutter Bee cutting board and cutter from Crafty Steals and it came in yesterdays mail. I love that little cutter. It fits great in my hand and I like that I don't have to touch the blade to use it. It came with two cutter bees for piercing paper to sew also. I'll be trying them out later today or tomorrow. As for last night, I made this:

Original Picture (Above)
4X4 Paint-Over (Below)

And this:

Original Picture (Above)

4X4 Paint-Over (Below)

And This:

Original Picture (Above)

5X7 Paint-Over (Below)

These are my first attemps at paint overs and of course I had no idea how to do it. I used the water soluble crayons I received a while back in a giveaway from Tristan over at Enchanted Revelries. A wet finger was my brush. I love finger painting!!! I am pleased with how they turned out and the tulip will be entered into Lisa Bebi's Orange Challenge on Face Book. I still have to figure out refining the edges better. I cut out the tulip and created a water color background to glue it to before painting over it. The same with the Fire and Ice painting. That one took on a life of it's own as it is not what my original vision was. It was fun though and a quiet project. Mustn't disturb the hubby's beauty rest just because I have insomnia. LOL!!

So there you have my newest experiment. I plan to try this again. I think the tulip will be mounted on a piece of wood. The Fire and Ice will go into my journal with explanation to myself of how I did it. The roses are on just plain copy paper. I'm not sure what I will do with it. Maybe just add it to my journal too with journaling about hows and whys while it is still fresh in my mind. I'm thinking I should have colored the tulip before gluing to the background. Or maybe I should outline it with a black pen. I think I'd rather leave this one be at this point as I like it as is. I can always work on refining the edges on the next one. I'm thinking a purple tulip would look pretty. Maybe a series of tulips from this same picture is in order. This little tulip comes up all by itself every year in my front yard. I did not plant it there. Hubby wants to dig up the bulb and plant it somewhere else but I won't let him. One lone soldier stands alone every year to announce the arrival of spring.

I'm off to a Dr. appointment and then motor vehicle to register my new van. Yep, We bought a new vehicle and now I'm kinda sad as I drove the same vehicle for over 10 years. Butt...I love my new minivan. (The AC works without slamming the hood!!) It's a 4 door - just what I always wanted. Woo! Hoo! We took a loan out against ourselves (Savings Account) and I set it up with the bank to make a transfer from checking to savings each month to pay ourselves back. No interest to pay out to the bank this way. A big plus! We picked our own payments. Another plus! And we'll be able to pay ourselves back even faster once we sell the old van. Gotta be thrifty like this now days.

Go over and say hi to Tristan and Lisa, they love visitors.

Be Happy, Be Healthy, Be You,

Tess

Groovy Giveaway

You don't want to miss this one. Go visit Tristan and see the Groovy Giveaway he's offering...http://tristanrobin.blogspot.com/

Pinewood Derby, Doctor, Enchanted Revelry and More Snow

Greetings Folks, I woke up to more of this today as did this little guy that lives in my rose/rock garden. He loves the outdoors, can't you tell?!

I've been a wee bit busy this week. Too busy I think. And I've been so enjoying my few peeks in every chance I get at the wonderful blogs along the OWOH magic carpet ride.

We held our pinewood derby with one Pack I work with here this last week. These cars are made by 1st through 5th graders. Some were pretty creative. I just love that "pink e-racer". Great imagination....

Check out the car on box#2, a hot dog on a bun. So cute....

Daisy Duke never showed up but her cousins car did, do you see it?....

I also had a long awaited doctor's appt. this past Tuesday. I spelled it all out for him literally. I wrote down all of my meds and what I take when and then told him about my physical condition (and emotional). I described all of the different tests I've had done over the past 2 years plus and still no answers and no long lasting relief. He was very attentive and went over my medical records and test results with me. We've stopped one med and will try replacing it with another, plus adding two more that will be temporary to help me get some night time relief and to calm my nerves and legs. I've got to get some quality sleep. I am also being tested for Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus. I have another appt. in three weeks. I don't want to wish anything bad on myself but I do want them to find something, an answer - anything, as to why I am always in such pain and when I do get it to ease up in one area it develops in another. (He assures me I'm not crazy, this I doubted.)

I did have a wonderful surprise in the mail this past week that truly made my day. Took my mind off any ailment I may have as soon as I seen the box. I new immediately I wanted to share it with you and I apologize for not having made the time to share it sooner.

I love all of the luscious colors of tissue paper that came stuffed in this box. Even my hubby knew to help fold it carefully to set aside for art projects. :) (He was as excited as I was to see what was in the box!)
A bit blurry because I was so excited I could hardly contain myself.

I tried to get Frankie to help me with unpacking the box but she wasn't interested. Cats are like that, always lounging. :)

This wonderful box of goodies came from a fabulous, stupendous, funny, artistic, talented, entertaining and creative blogger. If you have not found him yet you must visit Tristan over at

Enchanted Revelry

Tristan's blog is eye candy of the best kind and on top of that he is hilarious. He recently celebrated his 300th follower, 200th blog post and 40,000 hit. Wow!! You have to see his blog to understand. He is so full of life and his blog posts will never fail to make you smile/happy/feel warm and fuzzy inside. He is one of the participants in Lisa Swifka's One World One Heart event also so please do stop by and say hi. Just for fun tell him Tess sent you. :)

(Here is a link to his Enchanted Revelry OWOH post)

(And here is mine, I've added a second prize.)

And to Tristan I would just like to say

Thank You So Much...You Made My Day!!

Be Happy, Be Healthy, Be Yourself,

Tess

Giveaway at Enchanted Revelry

Tristan is celebrating with a giveaway. Hop on over to Enchanted Revelry and congratulate Tristan on his 300th follower, 200th post and 40,000th blog hit. Wow...that's a mouthful, try saying that 3 times fast. Tristan is celebrating his blog success with a super cool, awesomely sweet giveaway. Paints and crayons and inks, oh my!!

I can't wait to win it all. (Thinking positive here.)

Do stop by his blog and congratulate him. Oh, and enter his happy giveaway.

Be Happy, Be Healthy, Be Yourself,

Tess

A Fellow Blogger is Having a Give-away

I follow several bloggers around and find that clicking on links of other bloggers that have left comments on favorite blogs is a great way to meet new people. I did just this again today and had to share with you all the wonderful news. Tristan has 50 followers in just a few short months. Isn't that great? "Who is Tristan?" you ask. Well click on over to his wonderful blog and find out for yourself. Have fun and join in on his give-away while you are at it. Oh, and he has an etsy shop too.

Happy Tuesday,

Tess