Valerie's Got Talent

My daughter Valerie made this little 4" x 3" by wood burning her own design then painting it. I fell in love with it the minute I laid eyes on it, and then she gave it to me! Thank you, Val!

I have it out in my craft studio where I can see it every day. Maybe one day we'll be lucky enough to have a peaceful view like this from one of our windows.

I Miss My Sister Constantly

I picked up this Stamping Bella stamp at the Sacramento scrapbooking expo earlier this month. It reminded me just how much I'm missing my sister Martha. So I worked it into one of the playing cards from the deck I've been playing with the last few months.

As usual, I started with a coat of white gesso, glued on pieces of torn brown paper (to represent clouds or haze) I saved from some packaging, gave it a coat of gel medium, colored it with Distress and Copic markers, then tried to make rays of sunshine from Stickles glitter glue. I wanted to write that I miss her, but while looking for words, "unconditional" spoke to me.

I had intended to color and save this piece for a greeting card, but my Copic decided to take a leak all over my work. Why does an $8 maker even do something like that?! (No, I do not refill my pens, it came this way.) So I cut out what I thought I could save and used it in my mixed media piece. I'm glad I did.

My sister loved me unconditionally. I miss her constantly.

Prettiest Sunset Ever

Dawn and I couldn't believe how gorgeous our skies were the other day. We took pictures out back and in front. This one was taken from our front yard.

This one was taken in our back yard That little dot is a helicopter that kept circling our neighborhood along with an airplane. There was a bad guy holed up in a house a few blocks away. They finally got their man.

Molly doesn't care for bows. I think this one lasted about 10 minutes, if that.

Grown-ups Are Allowed To Color

We had a great night of coloring, watercoloring and feeding our faces with pizza-pizza! We all met at a pizza parlor where we had a room reserved so we could get down to some serious coloring. It was such a relaxing time, I didn't even realize 2 hours had passed before I even looked at a clock. Crafting sessions like this are the best, especially when shared with those I love.