Wassup in "the Wood"

Cottonwood, that is. I am happy to say that I live in a Northern portion of Arizona. I am happy because this means we have it a bit easier in regards to heat than does the rest of the state. A few days ago we had our first, and most likely last, snow of the season and I was reminded of the first time I ever saw snow on a Saguaro cactus-what a sight! Just seems very unnatural when you consider that these cacti thrive in 120 degree weather.

Not much new here, so thought I would show you some random photos. I have been practicing my photog skills, so bear with me as I learn.

Look at all these scrumptious trims! I have belonged to the best-ever artsy paper kit club for a few years now. Each month I receive a kit just packed with wonderment and I had years worth of a few yards of this and that. I decided the only way I would ever use it would be to make it easy to look at. My solution was to wrap it around these strips-doesn't it look cool?

I mentioned that I am participating in a book swap (photos to come). This is a page I made for a swap called the "Funky Chunky Book Swap". It was comprised of a zentangle I made and copied onto a transparency. Then I attached the transparency to a piece of unprimed canvas, added some fibers (stitched onto the canvas) and painted on the edges. It was only the second piece I have done in B&W. The book ended up with 20 different pages and it's definite eye-candy.
Remember all the sweet goodies I received from my New Friend in Italy? This was my work table when I was putting together the gifts I sent her. She has not yet received them, but that's another story. Help us put out vibes that will get the gifts to her doorstep.
I have been so taken with all the little vignettes I have seen on the various blogs I visit. This is one end of my Valentine's grouping in our living room. It sits on a sofa table directly placed behind my, uhhmmm...sofa!

The other end of the table.

My newest swap is a book based on "The Wizard Of Oz" How cool, huh??? This is a sneak peak of the page I am making for The Wicked Witch of the West. I felt so lucky to get her for my page. I am also doing a second page for the Rainbow. I am a bit regretful of signing up for 2 pages, as that actually equals making 40!!! I wanted to make 2 so that I would end up with 2 copies of the book. My plan was to give one to one of my very favorite artsy friends, but I found out she was a late sign up. I have a new plan for the second book, but it's a secret. Shhhhh.....

A pretty picture of our little town after a rain. This was about 2 weeks ago and the air smelled heavenly. I noticed after the rainfall that my little doggie's feet didn't have to be washed after her walk. I love the rain...

Another peek at the Witch page. These are silhouettes that I cut out and then embossed with black embossing powder. Hard to picture the final product, no? They look pretty sinister all lined up here. And curled up too!
I started making these tiny picushions right about the time I sent my parcel off to Italy. Guess I wanted to keep going with the Valentine's theme. This one turned out OK, but you shoulda seen the first one! HA!!!!
Our bedroom. Notice the floppy sham edges. I have since stuffed them so they stand upright. Took me a minute to figure that one out, but they look much better.
Our living room fireplace. I am working on "framing" the photos I shot, and you can tell it is still a work in progress. But this gives you an idea of what it looks like.

And last is the canvas I made in my Tim Holtz class a few weeks ago. It started with a blank canvas to which we applied old dictionary pages, aged and distressed them and then used various techniques on his Grungeboard letters to form whatever words spoke to us. When I saw this on another website I wasn't all that taken with it, but it ended up being fabulous and I love it now that it is home with me. If you ever get the chance to take a class with Tim run, don't walk, to sign up!

CIAO for today!!!