An absolute moving update...

Hi everyone! I guess I have been very evasive when it comes to my move. Now is as good a time as any to get it all out.



After 2 1/2 months on the market, my house sold this past week (for an amazing price!) I have had a tremendous amount of traffic in a real estate world of nothingness and foreclosures. Gary and I have put so much of ourselves into this house because we thought we would be staying here forever. I never wanted to stay in CA. I'm such a NY-Brooklynite-Jewish momma type of woman. We never saw this great job opportunity coming (it side blinded us) and we both agreed that this is as good a time as any to "go home".



So, after screaming, yelling and mega tears from our children, we will be moving in 5 days. My 2 younger sons (ages 16 & 12) are coping with it much better than I ever thought they would. They realized that they must move with us, but I also think they are ready for a new adventure. I would like to think that I have instilled in them that sense of "moving is OK" since we have done it every 7 years. They say that they are ready...only time will tell. I worry about my 16 year old, David. He has emotional issues that take a LOT OF PATIENCE on our part. But he seems to be the most excited about moving. A FRESH START...



Then there's my 18 year old, Jacob. He's coming with us because we are his financial institution. He keeps telling us that he's moving back to "da Bay" as soon as he can. I keep telling him that he'll need much wealthier parents than he has. Damn, it's so EXPENSIVE to live in CA! And since he is not the prodigal son, my guess is that he'll fall in love (again) with Manhattan since that's the closest big city he's gonna see for awhile.



I'm going to try to keep a visual diary of this experience. First I need to delete the beauty contest photos from my digital camera that my sons have taken of themselves. Wish me luck.



And now to wish a Merry Christmas to all my non-yiddishkeit friends. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday filled with love, joy, and the stability of a permanent residence.



Happy New Year as well....you all rock my world!

with much love,
sandee

Ohh...I just love this journalin' thang!

I had so much fun with Daphne the bird! I'm enjoying journaling WAY TOO MUCH!

Wow! My 100th Post!

I can't believe this is my 100th post! I didn't think I had that much to say-LOL!!! I have been busy arting; just too lazy to upload. I'm moving in 9 days and with everything that I have to do, uploading is not a priority...

Here are my Golden Arches for the Paper Whimsy Gothic Arch Swap.

I loved working in Kathy's Journal for my Altered Pages RR Group. Her theme was whimsical...what a joy to have a theme like that! The pages are not side by side so I had the freedom to come up with 2 different layouts.

4 x 4 Friday Challenge

OK...I'm on a challenge roll! This piece is for the 4x4 Friday Challenge (see link under ART Challenges). This week's challenge is Silver and Blue

I also did last week's challenge which was Mona Lisa. This piece is called "The Real Mona".

Gothic Arches Challenge

This week's challenge theme was "Joy of Christmas/Children".

I'm getting into this journaling thing!

Unfortunately, I had a slight fever yesterday and really felt like crap. But it didn't keep me from my promise of trying to journal (or working in my journal) every day. Here's my creation from yesterday!

My attempt at journaling!

I keep looking at everyone else's journaling and asking myself if I could do it. I've always wanted to but I'm such a chicken! Anyway, yesterday, I took the plunge. I walked into Borders and bought myself a large, unpretentious scrapbook album (it was $2.99; plain green cover and LOTS of empty white pages). I saved the image of the woman (below) because I just loved the expression on her face. I knew that I wanted to art and journal based on this picture. Here is my first attempt that I completed last night. I'm VERY happy about the way it came out!

I know this is late...

but Go Make Art is having a count down to Christmas giveaway of images. Here is the link in case you are interested.

http://countdown.tentwostudios.com/

Enjoy!

I've been tagged by Jodi!

I've never been tagged before, but I do know that I have to leave 7 random facts about myself. Hmmmm.....let's see:

1. I'm 46 years old and have very few gray hairs.
2. I'm a rock & roll freak married to an NPR geek. (But I do listen to NPR with him...I guess that makes me a geek too!)
3. I LOVE to listen to my ipod and dance around my house where no one can see me.
4. I've never taken an art class so I'm learning by trial and error!
5. I was born cross-eyed and have had three corrective surgeries.
6. I'm addicted to coffee.
7. I'm really short!

I'm too tired to tag 7 people at the moment, but BEWARE!!!!!

The Gothic Arches Challenge is...

sparkling wings! This piece is called "Pray for Peace".

Theme Thursday (on Friday LOL): Playing Cards

I FINALLY had the chance to do a Theme Thursday ATC. Check out the link under challenges!

I have too much time on my hands!

The cover of my tip-in didn't seem finished to me. When I started working on the inside of the cover I decided to add the beads. I liked the way it made the cover look. So now I think the cover is finished.

My tip-in is on poets. Someone asked me to explain how a tip-in works. Instead of your journal being mailed to someone new to work in every month, an assigned artist makes the pages for your journal according to your theme and mails them directly to you. You get to watch your book grow! Each month you are assigned a different person and you make the pages according t their theme. The upside is that you get to see your pages right away and it saves A LOT on postage. The downside is that you can't see the other participants work in other people's journals.

I've only done RRs and they are wonderful except the postage is a killer. It's also really awesome to get your completed journal back at the end after it's been gone for a LONG time. This is my first tip-in so I can't tell you how I feel about it yet. All I know is that I'm very excited for it to begin!

So different from what I usually do...

I'm participating in a Tip-In with the Altered Art Swap group. For those not sure what it is, it's like a Journal RR, except instead of sending the journal from person to person, the pages get sent to you. Anyway, my theme is "Favorite Poems and Poets". I tried to do something new with my journal cover and I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. I collaged with different papers, covered it with gel medium, painted the cover with 2 different paints and then rubbed it off with a paper towel, used old book pages, glaze pens, rub-ons. It took me all day! And no vintage image...that's a first for me!

ANother Gothic Arch for Altered Designs...

It's amazing what having some free time can do for a woman! This is my second out of three for a mingle on Altered Designs.

"Sisters" challenge for Altered Designs

This is this week's photo challenge for Kelly's group. It's a darling photo...

My Altered Designs Gothic Arch

We are having a Gothic Arch Mingle in Altered Designs. Now that I'm a lady of leisure, I joined and made my first one. The theme is romance...