Weekend Stuff

Well, I have a new baby!  Yep, it's a Nikon D90.  Isn't she beautiful?  She was a present to myself for my 34th birthday.  I think it's time I step it up a notch.  I haven't had much of an opportunity to play with her since I've been sick and all.  However, I have snapped a few pics here and there. 

I wanted to thank my bestie, Marion.  She spent the past few days with me and I wasn't really any fun because I was sick, sick, sick.  But she stayed by my side and I completely appreciate that.  One of my favorite things was our time by the water.  We sat on the edge of the pond - bundled up in blankets and watched the sun set.  It was relaxing.  :)  Here are some pics from yesterday evening.  No, I did not use the Nikon.  These were shot with the Sony Cybershot.

This picture was shot later in the evening.  I love it - it's so Marion.  Always tapping away at her iPhone.  :D  This particular photo was shot in low light with the Nikon.

My birthday is in a few days.  I was excited.  Now...well, I dunno.  Not so excited?  A bunch of us are going out to dinner on Saturday night to celebrate so I look forward to that a whole lot.  :)  Hopefully 34 is better - 33 was a complete bitch.

Tying the Knot

I went to a friends wedding this weekend.  I wasn't the official photographer but I did capture some nice little memories for them.  Or as I like to refer to them - "stolen moments".

In this picture the groom is watching his bride walk towards the barn.  Yes, they got married in a barn...but it was a really cute barn!

I do...forever and ever, I do.  ::cried::

I hope you dance...

The happy couple...

Some gorgeous guests.  HAHA...

Have a fantastic week...because I said so!!!

Maya Road CHA Challenge Projects

Well, I’m officially exhausted from staying up late last night working on my Maya Road CHA Challenges.  But as I mentioned in my previous post, I did get them done.  Want to see????  Of course you do!

First up is this 8x10 canvas.  It is SO NOT ME!  But I’m sure there is a girly girl out there that would love this canvas.  Maya products include:  all flowers, buttons, dress form, letters, leafy pins and ribbon.  There was a whole lotta distressing going on including some stamping and let’s face it…I’m addicted to crackle paint.  Although I am very upset with Ranger Industries for their sometimes dried up bottles, I just can’t stay away.  It’s like crack – like crack I tell you!  The page in the background is from an old book – I think it was a literature book from the 1920’s.  So here it is – It’s a wonderful life.  Yes, I know I need to go home and add an apostrophe to this.  Will do!

This is a close up of the flowers.  Look at all that beautiful crackle!

The most unique thing here…and I don’t mean to toot my own horn – but I’m about to start a trend with incorporating the tins into projects that buttons and embellishments are sold in.  This is the lid off of one of the tins…it just adds a little flair to the grouping, don’t you think?  I’m pretty sure people will start using these after seeing my project.

The next project is again – a tin!  This time I did something that again, has not yet been done.  I converted the tin into a necklace!  The bird and the bird cage are by Maya Road.  I dabbed the cage in gold paint and I misted the bird in Maya brown and then used the Maya opalescent mist over it.  Once it dried I used Maya Rub-ons to add a little design to the birdie.  Clever, huh?

And the last project I made was this miniature canvas.  I believe it’s 3”x3”.  It’s really tiny!  The tree, the owl, and the stamped sentiment are by Maya Road.  I covered the tree top in patterned paper and then misted the tree trunk in brown.  I then outlined both with a black pen.  The crown is also by Maya Road – misted in gold.

And here is a close-up of this cute little fella…

Hope you enjoyed my projects!

On the visual arts front - well, I went to a friends wedding this weekend.  I wasn't the official photographer but I did capture some nice little memories for them.  Or as I like to refer to them - "stolen moments".

In this picture the groom is watching his bride walk towards the barn.  Yes, they got married in a barn...but it was a really cute barn!

I do...forever and ever, I do.  ::cried::

I hope you dance...

The happy couple...

Some gorgeous guests.  HAHA...

Have a fantastic week...because I said so!!!

Oooooh

It's 1:11am and no one is awake and I just have to get this out...I COMPLETED THREE CHALLENGE PROJECTS TONIGHT!!!!

Maya Road is hosting a challenge right now - submit work using their products and they will choose a handful of projects to take to CHA.  Of course I realized at 11:00 that the deadline was tomorrow.  Slacker.  So Dee Dee (my creative friend) and Caroline (owner of Maya Road) encouraged me to participate. 

I made one miniature canvas, one 8x10, and a button tin necklace.  ::sigh::  Yay! 

My friend Tracey always hounded me about entering challenges but I've never really had the drive.  Hmmmm - time to step it up my friends!

NEXT CHALLENGE!  Okay, okay, my next challenge is trying to sleep when I'm so wired up.

Bleh...pictures of the projects tomorrow. 

Night!

Intention

My intention tonight was to get some work done in the studio - however - I had Margaritas so those plans quickly went out the window.

However, I did edit a couple of pics an let me tell you, they are definitely some of my favorite.  :)

Enjoy...

I just want back in your head...

I feel like I’m dating my gay friend, Frank.  He requires all this attention that I have to send him text messages wishing him a great day and telling him that I love him.  And just now I asked him to go to lunch next week.  Man, this is hard work!  LOL.  

But this all ties back to part of my resolution for the new year –to be more thoughtful of my loved ones.  I tend to forget birthdays and anniversaries and whatnot and I really need to be better about that.  And also, I send a lot of thank you cards to people, but I really need to make an effort to make them little handmade gifts.  I have so much stuff at home that I really do need to get busy and share my art with the people I love. 

So first up – I posted a challenge on Facebook which I took from my bestie, Marion.  The challenge was to make handmade gifts for the first five people that responded.  Only four responded, but I will be making them all a little something.  My first recipient is one of my favorite online friends, Genie – aka as pookahbot to those of you on the LJ circuit.  So Ms. Genie gets a mini canvas and this is what it looks like:

As you know, birds are my favorite so I try my very hardest to use birds in most of my projects.  And I just love the way this little guy turned out.  Crackle paint is by Ranger (don’t get me started – they are on my hate-list right now), then I dabbed black soot distress ink over it.  Isn’t he beautiful?  He’s all yours, Genie.  Take good care of the little guy.  :)

I want to make everyone mini canvases but here’s the problem – I haven’t been able to find them in my local Michael’s stores which is normally where I buy them.  I may need to look online if they don’t get any in sometime soon.

I am brainstorming on a project for a new friend.  This person is older than I am and I don’t know all of her likes and dislikes but she left the sweetest note for me.  Probably one of the most touching notes I have received in a while.  It said that my friendship was one of the most special things that happened to her last year.  ::tears::  You don’t understand, I’m really crying.  That is incredibly moving to me –that my friendship could touch someone like that.  So her birthday is the end of January – the 31^st to be exact.  So I really need to think hard about her gift.  Maybe canvas – or maybe even a collage of the photographs that I took last year.  She is a huge supporter of my photography and has even displayed three of my pieces in the office.  They are hanging in the hallway and it’s funny to hear people ask where the photos came from because they think that they were purchased.  But nope, they are mine.  Makes me feel good.

Anyway – I worked pretty late last night so my goal is to be out of the office today by 5:30ish and get in some playtime in the studio.  I can’t wait!!!  It’s such an awesome feeling to have my creative drive back.  Thank you, Lord!

Scrapbook Revelation

This past weekend I attended a crop day at the Crafty Scrapper in Waxahachie, Texas.  I normally take stamps, acrylic blocks, distress inks, and other things of that nature, to work on altered art such as tags, shadow boxes, canvas, etc.  However, this past weekend I took scrapbook kits.

Here's the thing...I joined Studio Calico in 2007 and was receiving their monthly kits.  I absolutely love their kits...by far some of the best out there.  However, I wasn't using them because scrapbooking just really isn't my thing.  I mean, sure, I started out as a scrapbooker but I am really no good at it.  I make pretty "okay" pages, but nothing that needs to be sent to a publisher!  In fact, I only made ONE page the entire time we were at the crop.  I know, pretty pathetic.  But I didn't have the pictures that I was desiring so that's my bad. 

As I sat there feeling disappointed with myself - I thought "gosh, what am I gonna do with all of these beautiful kits?"  Then I had a revelation.  USE THEM.  No, really.  I have decided that from here on out, I will ONLY take scrapbook kits to crops and retreats.  It is next to impossible to take everything I will need to create altered art because I will always be lacking something.  So altered art really needs to be done at home.  But these are "kits" and essentially have everything that you will need to create projects.  So, I guess I'm going to start scrapbooking once again.  :) 

Pretty clever, huh?

With that said...here is the ONE page that I created this weekend.

The floral pieces are from a patterned paper - don't remember who makes it though.  I cut out the designs and used them as embellishments.  Notice the scalloped edge above the pictures mat.  It's an acrylic stamp!  Most of my work has to have a little distress to it so I took the chipboard letters which are brown and then sanded them down a bit.  Just a little something I like to do.

I like the way this turned out for the most part.  :)

Let's Play!!!!

Through These Eyes is currently looking for one or two beauties that would like to model pinup style clothing or other cute/edgy clothing in the first ever “Shoot to Thrill” photo shoot.

Hopefully I will have some people come forward and hopefully they will be what I am looking for.  How crazy, it's almost like having a casting call.  I already declined one person.  I hate doing that but yes, this is my portfolio and it's free and I'm going to be particular about who I'm shooting this go round. 

Of course I love to shoot myself.  I'm not feeling very pretty these days so when I can capture some nice shots, I like to play with them.  Kind of like dressing up a doll. 

I like this one - but I look entirely too thin.  Must be my facial expression.  It is very slimming.  You know I have big cheeks --a lot of ground to cover.  :D

Time for bed.

Peace, Love, and Happy New Year!