Torchwood, "M" and Noodle Bowl Supper

Torchwood

     I have discovered "Torchwood." It is a sci-fi British television show that is currently available on Netflix. At first I thought it was a little cheesy and risque (hope that is the correct word here), but it got better and I admit, I am hooked. There is a new Torchwood series starting in a few days and if I am lucky, I will get to watch it on Netflix, otherwise, I'll just have to wait till it eventually becomes available. Netflix keeps telling me that based on my current likes, I should like "Dr. Who," but I don't know. I tried to watch one of those episodes a while ago and it seemed extremely campy, which I don't usually love. I may have to give it another shot though, since one of my favorite tv personalities, Craig Ferguson, loves it. I'll get back to you all on this.

ATC "M"

     As part of my new commitment to creating art everyday, I did make a new ATC very early this morning, during a particularly intense period of insomnia (no sleep till 5 a.m.). It is a little tribute to the letter "M," my first initial and all of "Mmmm," which is usually connected to food, but not always. I uploaded the image to Facebook and it is taking forever to show up, so I may end up publishing this post and adding the ATC image later tonight. I don't know why I think that creating an ATC will only take me a half hour or so, when it always takes me at least 3 or more hours to create one. I can only attribute it to my horrible sense of time, it is legendary, just ask my husband.  

Cashew Ginger Chicken Noodle Bowl

     I did get bonus points for cooking today though. I uploaded this image first and it showed up right away. It is a noodle bowl. Cashew Ginger Chicken udon noodles. I made it up. It has tempura shrimp, baby bok choy, carrots, snow peas (from our garden!), and gingered chicken. All covered with a cashew, ginger, garlic sauce. I feel so happy when I get to have a noodle bowl. I love all the little treasures and mix of flavors and textures, all in one bowl. Basically, happiness in a bowl. Tomorrow I work at the Cherry Festival, but I am hoping to make some gnocchi, we'll see if I can get to it. If not, I'll make it on Thursday night. \
     Tomorrow is Fab Find Wednesday, and I have pics of my estate sale and garage sale finds to share, along with some art...stop by and visit if you get a chance.
  

Everyday Art: Day 2

i love summer

     Alright, day two and I'm getting the art for today in just under the wire I think, at least for my time zone. It is an ATC, "i love summer." We have had some glorious days and I wanted to commemorate them with an artful keepsake. So much sunshine, I wish we had it all year. I will probably continue to add to this piece, I can't seem to stop messing around with collage based art. The details: created with CARAN d'ACHE  Neocolor II Watersoluble artist crayons (I am sooo addicted to these, wish I owned every single color!), Sharpie markers, PITT markers, gel pens, a transparent bingo marker and a rhinestone. Also scraps of magazine pages for the edges. It measures the same size as a playing card, which is the typical ATC size. It did take some time to create, so I realize that I will have to create other pieces of quicker art some days. Wheels are spinning...

Fresh Veggie Pizza

     I also made a wonderful fresh veggie pizza for dinner, and it was very creative, so it is my bonus "art" today. I love the ones that are always made at the Pampered Chef home parties, which I have not been to or even been  invited to in years. I decided to make up my own recipe, but it started the same as the ones I've had at the parties, with refrigerated crescent roll dough, unrolled, but kept as a sheet and baked. I added an herb cream cheese and sour cream topping, followed by lots of fresh veggies. It satisfied a huge veggie craving and I didn't feel too guilty since the topping was made with 1/3 less fat cream cheese. Tomorrow I know I'll be making enchiladas and Spanish rice, but have no idea what other art I'll be creating, wish me luck!
   One last thing, I read a wonderful book yesterday, "City of Thieves," and it was incredible! A great summer read if you are looking for something exciting, fun, and sad with great historical content. I couldn't put it down and stayed up late just to finish it. There are a few "difficult" parts, but necessary to the story. I can't say enough good things about this book, but I don't want to give anything away. I can't wait to pass it around to family and friends, 5 out of 5 stars!

Too Early for Valentine's?

Valentine ATC

     With most of my homework finished, I had some time to play with photoshop and create a new digital ATC. My mom and I have a thing for hearts, so this holiday always has a lot of meaning for me and all the hearts make me think of my mom. I'll have to make another ATC just for her with lots of red, her current favorite color. Perfect for the holiday, too. This was created with several photoshop brushes and a couple of my own photographic images. I dropped the opacity on one image to let the other details in the background show through. I placed a color overlay effect over the other image, the blue flower, which I duplicated a couple times. Photoshop is so much fun, I do hope to take the Photoshop II class someday, or maybe I'll just work through the other half of my Photoshop Classroom in a Book.

     I should mention that if it were not for the current weather conditions, I would probably have been out and about today and yesterday. But it has been close to 0 degrees and windy, so the windchill is well below zero, no thanks. I'd rather stay home, in front of a lovely fire, enjoy the fabulous brownies my daughter made, and cocoon with my family. And I also get to play Scrabble and Lexulous online with my Facebook friends, my biggest guilty pleasure. I am addicted to word games. However, my family refuses to play with me. I feel like a junkie sometimes, I need my word games, need! If you are one of my Facebook friends and like to play, I'm always up for a new game...
 
And just for the record, I feel creative and I feel wonderful!

"Potential" Digital ATC

Potential ATC 2011

     The day started with a bit of anxious insomnia, but that was to be expected. I was still up and raring to go at 7:15 a.m. I left early to get my books, and holy moly, my C#, aka C sharp, book is the size of a metropolitan area phone book! Only slightly intimidating...and of course it was full price being new, as were all my books, sheesh, no breaks this year. I meant to order them all on Amazon, but ran out of time. Live and learn, again.
     It was nice to have just one class today, especially considering that it was my C# class. The instructor is very knowledgeable and has a great syllabus along with a solid timeline for the class. I enjoyed it, even though I am so taken aback with the size of the text. Overall though, I think this is going to be a great class, learning to write programs in C#, using Microsoft Visual Studio. I'll keep you posted...
     I actually had time to create an ATC tonight. Using Photoshop, I  built it in layers, using several brushes along the way. I made my virtual stitches blurry somehow, so I will have to go back in and figure out what I did and undo it. Troubleshooting is a good thing though, I need lots of experience.
     Can't wait for my new classes tomorrow, so exciting!

Bad News

     I am so bummed. Just found out that my Blissful ATC Swap partner for the August "Orange" swap got her envelope from me and it was already torn open with the ATC removed!!! What an awful surprise for both of us. Now I have to figure out what kind of lesson I'm supposed to get out of this incident...after I get over my sadness and anger, of course. Sheesh, why, oh, why? Well as I posted on my partners blog, I sure hope whoever stole it loves art and the color orange! Glad I took a photo before I sent it off...at least I have a record of it...big sigh...

Orange ATC Swap Part ll, End of Summer and School

     This is the ATC I sent for the Orange challenge this month. I created it using all the visual journal techniques I learned in Teesha Moore's class in July. Lots of layering of paint, collage, artist crayons, markers and gel pens. I had a ball making it too. As I said earlier, I was not a big fan of orange when I was younger, which is an understatement. But I love it now and love working with it in jewelry, beads, visual journal and now ATCs.
     Summer has been flying by, but I feel that way every year in August. It actually came early this year, started at the end of April, which is normally unheard of in these northern Michigan parts. I'm grateful for it, the winters are hard on me. I don't have arthritis or other physical health issues, but mentally, I seem to get somewhat depressed. And this is in direct correlation to the length of the winter season and lack of sunlight. Some years are worse than others. I've got my fingers crossed though. I'll be in school this winter, like last winter and that made a huge difference.
     And speaking of school, classes start today, I'm soooo excited, feel like an 18 years old college student again instead of a 44 year old. I always loved school and learning, that hasn't changed a bit. Today, I have and art class, "2D Design." Got the required art supplies, parking permit, bottled water and even a snack bar. I'm prepared and spinning like a top, mentally. So more about today later, time to hit the road and get my education on!

Orange ATC Swap

      I received my ATC from the Blissful ATC Swap two days ago, but haven't had a chance to take a photo till yesterday. My swap partner this month went all out! First I opened the envelop and there was a gorgeous handmade card with lots of layers and stamped sunflowers, so cool! Then I opened the card and inside there was another lovely handmade "tag," with ribbon, rhinestones and machine stitching with a pocket that was holding the ATC. And then I pulled the ATC out and it was just beautiful, as you can see. "Orange Dream" is the title and I just love it! Thank you so much Linda R.!!! She wrote that this was her first ATC, if you can believe it, I can't, it is just perfect. I've only made two, so she got my second ATC ever...so fun to be trading with others that are new to ATCs like me. I photographed each component of what Linda sent me so you can see how fun it was to find so many treasures in one envelop!

      I will post a photo of the ATC I created for Linda after she posts it on her blog, which is in keeping with the rules of the Blissful ATC Swap. Orange use to be one of my least favorite colors, but as I've grown older, I find myself drawn to orange and using it often. Orange brings out so many other colors, like purple, blue, green and yellow. I love to mix it with pink and red too. Having once avoided orange like the plague, I now find that I can't live without it. My favorite color is still white, followed closely by turquoise, but orange is in my top five now. Melon, pumpkin, 

mango, carrot, peach, squash, sunset... there are so many shades and tones of orange, what's not to love? Of course, I don't wear orange very often, hard to find orange clothing in the right shade and style for some reason that doesn't look "Halloween." I should also mention that although the tag with the pocket that Linda sent me looks rather pink in the photos, it is actually a lovely shade of peach and orange, don't know why it photographed so pink. I'll play around with it in Photoshop and see if I

can improve the color without wrecking the other pieces.
    If you are interested in joining in the swap, there is a link in my sidebar, check it out, they are welcoming everyone to participate, isn't that cool?  So do something with orange today, play around and see if it doesn't make your favorite color "pop!"

Scoping and Subconscious Battling

     Yesterday was filled with nothing but clear fluids and my colonoscopy prepping, so if that doesn't sound remotely interesting to you, I advise you to skip my blog for the next couple of days, since I'll be consumed by my scoping procedures and gall bladder removal. Fun stuff...
The procedure this morning, scoping top and bottom made me anxious all week, even though I heard that you don't remember it at all and feel no pain after, usually, but still, seems so invasive to me. Anyway, I was a good patient, followed the prep to the letter and arrived on time this morning at 9 a.m. They got me right in, gowned up and placed the IV port in my arm. Then I walked to the room where I would have the procedure, and was given a "shot" to knock back of anesthesia for my throat. I had to gargle with it first and then drink it. It was a clear thin liquid that tasted like anebesol, delish! Almost couldn't swallow it! There were two nurses in the room and one called the other the "bartender," the one who handed me the shot, so I told her "no tip!" Then I lay down on my side, feeling like there was a lump in my throat from the nasty anesthesia and trying to swallow anyway. When the Dr. arrived, he squirted some cherry flavored anesthesia on my vocal cords, twice, since I didn't open up wide enough the first time, and I gagged both times on that stuff...but it was at least cherry flavored right?
     Back onto my side, they hooked up the anesthesia to the IV port and I don't remember anything else about the procedure. The next thing I know, my hubby's face is close by and it is time to go home, yeah. I was sooo woozy! He had to help me big time. As soon as we got home, I went to bed and slept for at least 2-3 hours, I'm not sure. Next thing I know, my nurse is quietly knocking on my door, my mother actually, she came to take care of me this week while hubby has to work. I got up and still felt very woozy. Spent the day sitting around, trying to let the slightly drunk feeling pass, without much success. No pain whatsoever though, would never know I had the scoping done today. The results: colon is all clear (yeah!)but they found a paraesophogeal hernia and some polyps in my stomach. Of course I've never had any problems with my digestion or heart burn, save for during my pregnancies after the fourth month, so don't know what's next regarding those things.
     And now to my incredible subconscious battle. My hubby tells me that the nurse told him that because my gag reflex wasn't quite under control and that I was gagging, I was trying to get off the table! Yup, even sedated, out of my head, my body knew something wrong was being done to it and it tried to fight back. I was so glad to hear that,  you have no idea. My self knows to get itself out of a bad situation, even under sedation. I, of course, have no recollection of this insane event, me in my gown, with a plastic thing stuck in my mouth to protect my teeth, hooked up to a pressure cuff on one arm, an IV on the other, doing my best to overcome two nurses and a Dr...wish they had videotaped it. I'm so proud of me!
     Getting ready now for my 5:30 a.m. curtain call at the hospital for my gall bladder removal. Special soap I have to shower with tonight and tomorrow morning, no food or drink after midnight(I'm not a gremlin!), and then getting up with the sunrise, so that makes two from my list of four that I want to see on my list of "44 things I want to do before I turn 45." I think I'll add "have something removed from my body" too now...
     And lastly, the photo up top is the ATC card I sent to my partner this month. Created with water color, acrylics, gold leaf, collage and marker.

Blissful ATC Swap update 2

     So today my very first ATC arrived in the mail! I love it, thank you Francie!!! And guess what? I have lost my camera...I took it to a restaurant on Tuesday evening and haven't seen it since that evening. I think I left it in my hubby's rental car, which is with him, and it is probably under the seat. I called the restaurant and no camera...oh say a little prayer everyone, even though my flash is on the fritz, I do love my little camera. The photo is with my phone camera, not too bad. Our theme this month was "sisters."  The back of the ATC says "Sister by birth or by bond we travel lifes road together." It is an acrylic painting, isn't it just wonderful?!

Blissful ATC Swap update

Orange Inspiration

    I had so much fun creating my first ATC over the weekend, can't wait to see what comes in the mail this week! Our theme this month was "sisters." Next month it is "orange," a color that has become one of my favorites the older I get, isn't that strange? Orange was one of my least favorite colors for years, but over the last ten years, it has become one I love, so vibrant and happy, and it looks great with blues, purples, yellows, greens...you name it. Although I have a bazillion things to do now that I'm home, I will be making time to start the new ATC and to work in my new visual journal!!!

     I have another photo from the workshop this past weekend. One taken at Thai Chili, it is a group of students I had lunch with. I met Bailey from Paw Paw, Michigan at the workshop and we had lunch together a couple times. It is hard when you take a workshop for so many days and don't know anyone, thankfully Bailey was happy to get to know me and risk having lunch with me too...we always had good food and fun.

Teesha, Thunderstom and Page Updates

     Day three of Teesha Moore's class and we worked on lettering and actually writing in our journals. I was still wrapped up in "collage" mode and had a hard time switching to writing. I wanted to write on my pages after I got home, when it is harder to do collage but easy to write with the time and space I have. Teesha was very kind and gave me lots of positive feedback, so I feel like I am on the right track. She very tolerantly allowed me to have a photo taken, something she does not enjoy, lol, but I can be a pain in the patootie when I want something. The woman with us is Sue. We are both staying at the bed and breakfast and met there the first night. We have been sitting next to each other in class and working on our journals back at the B&B each evening. She has taken a bazillion classes in all sorts of collage and visual journal type

techniques. She knows all the teachers and has participated in ATC swaps for quite a while and has a big collection. I really enjoyed hearing about all her experiences. A very talented and generous person I'm very glad to have met!
     I'm posting a few more photos of journal pages that I further embellished. It was fun to add the pen and marker details, though I always feel like I am not "done."  I only wrote a few things on a couple pages, so they will still develop further after I get home. If you ever have the chance to take a class with Teesha, I highly recommend it. She is a little on the shy side and does not really socialize with students over lunch or dinner, but she is very generous with her gifts and talents and shares it all. What more could a student ask for?

     After we got back to the ranch, a storm blew in over Lake Erie. It was very cool, though I couldn't catch any of the lightening with my camera. The clouds were still very scary though.  I could see the sheets of rain falling over the lake in the distance, like curtains, it was very cool. The front that came though brought a big wind too, knocking over the lounge chairs that were empty next to us. But did we run inside? No way, didn't want to miss the show of course. After the storm moved on, there was a fabulous rainbow and a stunning sunset. There is something so magical about a colorful sunset. It is awe inspiring as well as creative soul food. I wanted to swim in the colors that appeared tonight, though that may sound silly, that is the thought that popped into my head at the time.

     Lastly tonight, I finished up my first ATC, artist trading card, for my first swap, which has to be mailed out tomorrow! Talk about cutting it close. I had fun with it and will post photos next week. I have to wait till the recipient receives it before I can share a photo. So all in all, a tremendous day full of art, fun and beauty...life it good.
   

     And a Happy Birthday to my brother Rick!

First ATC Swap!

     I signed up to participate in my first ever ATC swap this week. I bought a couple decks of cards at a garage sale to play with, but when I stopped at an Utrecht's art supply store in Royal Oak to get my Bookbinders Awl, well they had prepackaged ATC blanks for watercolors and other mediums and I decided to spring for a couple packages. Since I brought most of my art supplies with me and there is nothing on the itinerary tonight, this is what I am going to work on. I also have a Bloggerette Sorority rush piece to create, so that may be what I work on as well in the evenings here at the lovely B&B. If you are not familiar with ATC, otherwise known as Artist Trading Cards, check out the Wikipedia explanation. I also have a wonderful book I mentioned in an earlier post, (at least I think I did), called "artist Trading Cards" by Bernie Berlin, that explains them very well and is full of fabulous techniques to use to create your own. The thing I love about ATC's is that you don't buy them, at least you are not supposed to buy them, you trade them with other artists. They have to be the 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" size, but can have lots of depth and can be made from any materials, isn't that cool?  I think so and hope this ATC swap will be the first of many in my future. The only thing about this one is that I have to mail it out by the 19th, yup, that is Monday! Don't you love working under pressure? I do, seriously, I do my best work then, at least that is what I tell myself...lol.