emulate:

to try to equal or surpass somebody or something that is successful or admired

Well I am not trying to surpass anyone, just using their wonderful ideas to spur my creativity. I found this color palette on Pinterest and fell in love with it for my balcony. It is evolving into a mountain rustic shabby chic area that I adore and I guess I have been working to this moment for quite awhile.  I have been collecting really old dilapidated bird houses and I have some great rustic pieces that I have been able to work into the plants. It is covered from the elements, gets a little morning sun and then I have shade on it for a large portion of the day. I love my porch.
Anyway, this is the color palette:
If you click on the picture it will take you to the blog from where it came from.
( Always recognize and give credit )

Now the first project to receive this delicious color palette are my garden bunnies. They have, since 1999 existed in the garden ( hence the name ) and they would get pulled out once a year ( around Easter, you guessed it ) washed and then white washed, and placed on the front stoop of the house to greet everyone. And sometimes they might have an Easter egg tucked beside them or a pot of flowers.

But usually that was about it. I forgot to take a picture of the "momma" bunny before I renovated her, but here is a picture of the "baby" bunny and you can tell they led a hard life out in the garden regardless of the once a year "bath" and white wash.

But now, their status has been upgraded, they now are porch bunnies and instead of just a bath and white wash, they got a deluxe spa treatment. First I washed them in warm soapy water, dried, and then began with 2 coats of gesso. Then taking the colors from my palette I applied a light grey coat of  paint, followed with some shading from the dusky purple tones and then highlighted with the muted pink, finished momma bunny off with a pretty Really Reasonable Ribbon satin sage colored bow with a Prima flower and baby bunny got flower and butterfly rub ons. Both have had 3 coats of clear acrylic spray to keep them looking pretty.

Entering this in Really Reasonable Ribbon challenge: #44 Spring with ribbon!

And it is pouring down rain, definitely a March shower coming in like a lion, thundering and lightning to boot. I wish it wasn't lightening cause I love to sit out there when it rains, but my chairs are metal and I don't feel like chancing it!! My next project to tackle is going to be the water can that has stonecrop in it, Need to paint it before it grows! And to figure out a way to show it off, I am not liking the way it looks....any suggestions?

OK, now over at It's on the tip of my tongue, Sarah is asking everyone to post the projects that they create having been inspired by Pinterest! Cute, huh? So take a moment while pinning to actually create something that made you feel all creative and wishful and let us see! I can't wait to go look around and see what everyone has been up to!

Giddy: adjective

extremely happy and excited

OK, so most of you Cricut people probably will smirk at this post. Someone that doesn't own a Cricut may smile.

I have been using the small Cricut Create for the last 4 years, happily too I might add. It's been a great little machine for me and I never thought I needed a larger one. I don't have a lot of space and it just fit perfectly into my life style.

This is my current set up, on my childhood desk of 45 years ago...time sure flies doesn't it....

Then little over a year ago I began to get published...I began to miss my printer....things changes....we all have to change, don't we?

so yesterday I received this in the mail, and I bet you can kinda guess what it is too:

it also came with these ( been wanting the flower shoppe cartridge for awhile too ):

and many may be disappointed that it's not the Expression 2, but for me this has bonus's that I really want like cutting on a larger mat, being able to re-cut one die so I can cut through heavier material, little flip up viewer...hee hee.....yeah, I'm a happy camper!

Well, there goes my kitchen table space...::sigh::....and on a happy note I will be buying a printer which will go ( see top photo ) where the Cricut Create use to be. As for my small trusty friend, he is getting donated to my friend Jamie who discovered while visiting me here last time that she loves playing with it too!

striving: verb

to make strenuous efforts toward any goal

You too?

( photo taken by me at the River Arts District, text added on my editing program, and frame using this fun and easy program called Pixlr-O-Matic, that a fellow WOYWW lady hooked me up with.  Thank you, sorry I am so bad and forgot who sent me the link but it's been fun playing with it! )
UPDATE: It was Needlewings!!

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Hi there WOYWW ladies from the states and beyond the pond! How was your week? I hope it has been as great as all of you are! I just love Wednesdays, it's so much fun to skip around the world and peek, nose, spy, stalk.....errrr.....check in with everyone!! And I have designated Wednesdays to be:
drum roll please
Progress of the Altered Book day courtesy of Elizabeth's AB class!
and to bring out my painty, gessoey, mod podgeyness in me is definitely a goal for 2012!

So a shot of my desk, it got so messy last week that I had actually cleaned it up, but it's already back to its normal look, lol!! I am struggling with the current pages and learning things along the way, some good and some not so good, lol

And last week you may remember my showing you the niche from my AB book, but last week's picture wasn't that great and I've done more work on it since then.

I really worked on her hair, adding small micro beads ( and I used the wet eraser on the end of a pencil trick to pick up individual micro beads and place them just where I want them! ) and stickles, and then adding a layer of H20's to really give it some luster. I also took the blonde-ness of her hair down a notch and gave it a green tint with the H20's.

And I added a little more sea weed; highlighted with stickles. You can see how the sea weed looks really 3-D by being glued in front of the sea shells. I think the niche is the best part about the AB, and it's going to be a let down from here on out! lol

( Confession alert: I actually open the book to the niche just to look at it!! )

Well, let's go visit each other, have a giggle, give out some hugs and generally have FUN!!
It's WOYWW!
And on Wednesdays, it's OK to be nosey ;)

timing - noun

a dimension that enables two identical events occurring at the same point in space to be distinguished, measured by the interval between the events

We had a little birthday party at our monthly meet up for Hiking With Cameras for our leader Wendy. We all brought a little something to eat and I had volunteered to bring some fruit and I chose pineapple.

Now the problem in bringing something to a party is getting it back home, will it be forgotten? Would someone mistake it for their dish and take it accidentally? Will it get broken? So I always try and go the safest route, but leaving it in that container would be...well.....safe but very unattractive, right?

So add a little paper and...voila!

And, of course I volunteered to make a birthday card for everyone to sign for her:

I used some printed Kraft paper for the background, layered with an inked plain kraft paper and then used a pine tree paper on top. I cut the tree from my Cricut but need the trunk to be longer so I hand cut that out. Tied it up with some cute twine, and used hiking boot stickers as charms, pop dotting one up for some dimension.

And the inside of the card reads:

Happy 29th Birthday AGAIN!

Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday Challenge - Kraft paper

Winter Wonderland cartridge

Really Reasonable Ribbon twine

My Little Shoebox sticker letters

Kraft paper,stickers, pine paper- stash

motion: noun

The act or process of changing position or place.

We went to River Arts District today for our field practice for our camera class. We were suppose to study motion, stop motion and panning. I think my best picture for showing the first 2 were taken inside the restaurant!

1/3 second shutter speed ( cannot see the blades )

1/15 second shutter speed ( the blades look see through )

1/30 second shutter speed ( blades becoming opaque )

1/60 second shutter speed ( just a little blur in the blades )

But my favorite picture of the day was this silver tub which was just reflecting all sorts of goodness. The wall is reflected in the water and also the wall on the tub itself.
( taken on automatic, shhhh don't tell anyone, lol )

and a picture that my friend took of me during lunch, teasing me that I can't put my camera down long enough to eat! :)

I love my photography class and the friends I have made there. We laughed so hard mainly making fun of ourselves! What a good day, I didn't even mind that the battery had died in my car today!

patience: noun

capacity for waiting ( not something I possess )

Well the above statement pretty much sums me up when it comes to crafting. Elizabeth says it's hurry up and wait....hmmmm Hard for me to do, hard to do! But she is correct, there is a lot of waiting.

Anyway so I almost hate for Elizabeth or any true AB peeps to read this post, so I am just going to tell the truth and the let the paper fly! lol And please do go over to her site ,Altered Book Lover and follow her directions to do it correctly...I'm just impatient and cheap...I do not recommend doing it my way.

First thing to admit is that I didn't have the gel medium but as I was creating my sand dollar I kept thinking that the embossing paste was kinda gel like....hmmm....but first let me tell you about the sand dollar.

.

I used a brass embossing template, spread the embossing paste on, when it dried I used my brown ink pad over it. It now feels almost like leather! I then strung the brass word dream onto the sand dollar which I slid into a slit in the beige material. The material was an after thought as I was trying to find something suitable to strengthen those front pages. I also glued suede strips as seaweed. And as a side note, I love liquid glue, and have used liquid glue all through my steps. It does mean waiting in between steps but I'm addicted to the stuff.

Now the niche...it was truly a pain in the you know what, and here is another confession: I do not have any clamps. So I used the heaviest thing I knew of to weight it down while drying: my Big Shot!

So I covered the longest side first with the embossing medium and weighted it down with my Big Shot, I also used cooking parchment paper as I didn't have any wax paper in the house, but that worked very well. Then when it dried I alternated the other sides, again weighing it down as I went along. The embossing paste did very well, it sealed the pages, gave them a smooth finished and filled into gaps on the inside cuts. I was stoked....err...pleased.  ( I did do a little bit of sanding just to get my corners better but I did know I would be using tissue paper over everything so a lot could be forgiven using that medium.) I pop dotted my glass dolphin and painted the sides to the pop dot with blue paint so it wouldn't be seen.  For the tissue paper, I laid a thick layer of glue down, crumpled the tissue paper and  laid it over the book, and then gently patted it down with my finger. Twisting or pinching the tissue together as needed. Now the glue feels damp through the paper and at this time I applied my powdered Jewelz.

You apply this iridescent powder with a brush only using very small amounts by swirling and brushing it into the paper. It needs the tacky-ness to stick. This is also a good time to check your paper for any lifting edges and making sure everything is laid down tight. (I am sorry this picture is not very focused! ) I am a wee bit tired after visiting a billion blogs today on WOYWW and also working inbetween on a submission for Cricut Magazine. My head hurts from all the eye strain!

One of my favorite parts of the niche are the sea shells I used from a necklace I had since going to Hawaii. I also added the brass starfish and a pearl, There is seaweed over on the right hand side but you can't see it too well in the picture. I added some glass beads to the paper for just fun! I also enjoy making the front title and the last title of the book go together...I dream of the sea...and the sea dreams of me.

So I didn't follow all the directions, I veered from them, but that's me, lol The paper renegade!

hee hee

:P

Oh, I never officially stated my theme, but I think everyone knows, lol

MERMAIDS

niche: noun

A recess in a wall, as for holding a statue or urn,  A cranny, hollow, or crevice

First off, I would like to say hello to all the wonderful WOYWW ladies who have stopped by to check in on me! I have truly loved visiting each one of you ( that I make it to ) every week and I am also appreciating the friends I am making along the way!

So first, my peek at my desk, which I had to actually clean off a tad ...it was beginning to over power me and I couldn't find things! So I still have sticky notes up, and drawers that never seem to close...the usual stuff, lol Oh and my AB book which is 61 years old, I know cause there was an inscription on the inside cover of to whom it was given and the date!

Today my desk is all about my Altered Book that I am doing through Elisabeth's Blog called Altered Book Lover. If you look up at the top bar on my blog you can see the tab marked altered book syllabus and can check out how she has laid out the class. She goes slowly and gives detailed explanations and she is wonderful about answering any questions you might have. And if any of you ladies are taking her FREE class, then please let me know in the comment section as I really would love to visit, see your progress and your thoughts as you work your way through the steps!

This week we are on lesson 3:

I was able to skip the first step and went straight to prepping the inside end pages and the creating the start for my book

Then creating the niche....yikes....I wanted a deep wide niche and that meant a lot of cutting but I made it through, quite proud of it actually! lol Although my finger is still red from the pressure of my Fiskars finger tip knife. Of course I didn't have to do it all in one sitting, but I am so enthralled with making this book. It really is consuming me!

If anyone wants to come back tomorrow I will be going more in depth to some of the techniques I used and hopefully a better picture of the niche, I realize that most of you are doing some serious snooping blog hopping and don't want long posts to go through!

Happy WOYWW!