Distinctive Touches

Life is Full of Surprises - Big News!

Well... life is good.  

If you have followed my blog for any amount of time, you know that we move a lot.  We started out years ago and have lived in Green Bay, WI; Waverly, IA; Waterloo, IA; Kansas City, MO; Green Bay, WI (again - three different locations); Longview, WA; and Muskogee, OK. 

And now... we are headed to Atlanta, GA! 

I couldn't be happier!  I'm so excited to be headed to the big city!  

Nate was promoted and now has an office... WITH A VIEW!!!  Ohhh-La-Laaaa!  We knew it would happen some day... but this was a bit sooner than expected... so came as a slight surprise.  But a VERY, VERY pleasant one at that.

We are excited to be moving to a place where we can easily travel, we can soak in some culture (the symphony, the theater, the pro-sports events, the fine-dining), and we can find LOADS of activities to suit our creative and technological needs. 

I'm pumped to think that there will actually be CRAFT and ART stores!!!  What a joy and a treat for me!

We are in the early stages of what I'm calling "The Big Move" and it will be crazy and nutty around here for the next few months... (and you are asking how that is different than normal for me?)  but I hope to still blog as often as I can and be crafty every chance I can sneak some time in. 

I just wanted to share the good news... life really IS full of surprises!

A Pile of Fun!

Wanna hear a story? 

We have a dog.  His name is Takeo.  He is 3.  He likes to bark.  A LOT.  He can open our shades.  

One night (wee in the early morning hours actually) my husband and I were startled awake by Takeo's terror filled barks.  He had opened the shade and was furiously barking at something outside.  By the tenor of his yowls and yips and snarls there must have been something HUGE lurking in the back yard. 

We both jumped out of bed fully expecting the house to be broken into by large, brutish thugs at any moment. 

Takeo was just about bouncing off the walls as his barks echoed through the house at this point.

Silently (and a bit terrified) we crept up to the window, turned on the outside light and peered out...  

The terrifying beast that met our eyes?

A turtle! 

Wasn't as cute as this pile of turtles from Hambo, but pretty darn close! 

Darn dog!

Hambo Stamps (one of my all time favorite stamp company for funny images and quirky sayings) now offers digital stamps as well as the regular red rubber ones.  I was THRILLED to snag this "turtle pile" image (along with a few others that you will see soon).  I used it to create this card for my mother's birthday.  I thought it was fun.  Turtles make me laugh... especially when they are creating a well-balanced cheerleader-like pyramid!  (I'm sure THIS would really set Takeo off...)

I used my Copics to color the image (printed the image onto Georgia Pacific card stock with a Kodak ink jet printer.  No problems with smearing or smudging. 

Speaking of Copics... I want to thank the wonderful ladies that welcomed me to Amarillo, TX this past weekend.  I taught my Copic 101 class at a sweet little shop called The Paper Garden.  It was such a super group of gals... full of questions and ideas and joy about coloring.  It was a blast!

Thanks for stopping by!

My First Fabric "Face"

The world has just gone crazy people!!!  I am sick for a few days and when I come back to post on my blog I find out that TypePad has changed it's look!  (Maybe I should have payed attention to all of those "We're Changing Our Look" posts that I kept getting...) LOL  Anyway... I'm tootling my way around the new layout and hoping for the best!  

Speaking of changes... I have a project to share that is a change from my ordinary!  I've spent the last year stamping and coloring and coloring and stamping... and I wanted to try something new.  So I went Textile! 

On a whim I signed up for a course called Faces On Fabric with Terri Stegmiller.  Create a painted and quilted, fabric wall hanging with my face on it... okay sounds cool... but did I fail to mention that I've never quilted before in my life?  Have I told you that I DON'T really sew?  Oh... who needs to know what they are doing... just jump right in.. that's MY motto!

So I did.  And I LOVED every minute of it! 

Here is how my FOF quilt started... okay... the drawing part wasn't so scary... I can do this!

And here is how my FOF quilt ended up.  Well... I'll admit that I'm no Martha Stewart... but hey... I'm pretty darn impressed with myself!!!  (Just don't look too closely at the stitching... that was a bit more scary than the drawing!  LOL)  It turned out EXACTLY like my drawing... I'm so PUMPED!  It's 15x15 and is just the perfect size for a small wall hanging. 

Even though I REALLY didn't have time for this course... I'm SO glad I took it!  I learned SO much and I'll definitely be creating more of these fun projects.  

Hope you enjoy seeing it!  Hopefully I'll be back sooner rather than later.