Ahhh...The gifts have been given

I finally get to show you the collage I made for my daughter for Christmas. Because I became inspired by all of you folks who cut and paste, paint and draw the beautiful journal pages and colorful collages, I decided that I would make some collages too. I made two, one of which I shared in a previous post, and both made for the daughters in my life...Maria (my daughter) and Tabitha (my fiance's daughter). They are both lovely young ladies and in their early 20's. I wanted to do something special for them. A gift that they would have for a long time-something more meaningful than store bought gifts. I think they turned out well, what do you think?

Here are a few details of the Maria collage. I used oragami paper, magazines, watercolors, glue and a few sparkles. I included a quote on each collage that seemed perfect for that particular daughter. The words that I used on each collage were descriptive words-qualities that each of the young ladies has. I found a neat internet site where you could look up names and their meanings.

In case you didn't see the post of the collage I made for Tabitha...here are the photos of it again...

Joy To the World!

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

Luke 2: 1-14

Merry Christmas to you All and Blessings of Joy, Hope, and Peace today and Always!
Joy to the World...Christ is Born!

Leslie

Many Christmas postcards later...

Here are some more postcards that I have been working on for presents. I've already given away 5 and whoops, I forgot to take photos of them~ oh well. So, here are 3 more ready to wrap. I've photographed them all together so you'll get a better idea of their size-they really are the size of postcards.

And here they are close-up. Wish the photos were better and showed all the sparkle that they have.

Soooo, if you're still hard at work in your studio, at your kitchen table or in your workshop~here's to you-we all deserve a round of applause!!!!!!

Christmas Give-Away

My dear, dear friend Amy over at The Heart of A Seed, an absolutely wonderful and talented artist is having a Christmas Give-Away! Believe me when I say that her work is beautiful and any one should be so lucky to purchase, have or win one of her pieces. The angel above is a piece I purchased from her earlier this year and have it hanging in my living room year round-everyone needs an angel in their living room!

The portrait below is another piece she did. An oil painting of 2 of her children. I would liken her painting style to Mary Cassatt or Jesse Wilcox Smith. Her brush strokes are magical and she is an artist through and through.

Please visit her site and you can win one of her wonderful handmade ornaments by putting your name in the comment section. You'll be sorry if you miss out on this give-away!

LOVE YOUR LIFE

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

Mother Teresa

Everyone is so busy getting ready for Christmas-I know I am. There seems hardly enough time to do everything before the big day.

And so I was thinking that we should all just stop for a moment with the hustle, bustle, hurry and rush and just remember...

Love Your Life

Love One Another

and Believe that you can make a difference, no matter how big or small in someone's life, in your own life, by spreading LOVE everywhere you go. It's easy to do, and it doesn't cost a thing...

Give someone a SMILE, or even a HUG and let them know that you care!

The print above is by artist Catherine Andrews

I am an Angel...

Not Really! Here is a photo of my watercolor... Peace and Faith with 2 birds. I know the photo sucks, but here is what it's all about...

A while back I wrote a post on Chemo Angels, but when I went back to look through my old posts, it wasn't there anymore. I'm not sure what happened to it, but none the less, I'll tell you about it again.

Chemo angels is an organization that supports patients going through the cancer treatment process. Anyone can sign up to be a Chemo Angel. Your comittment will be to send a weekly letter a long with some little trinket, art, poem, or whatever you feel so inclined, to the person that is assigned to you. You will receive the person's name, a little bit about them, their family, and their interests through an email once you have signed up. It is your job to make sure that you lift them up and provide encouragement as they go through this difficult process.

My person is Ted, and he has stage 3 pancreatic cancer. He is having a tough time of it. He has a wife and 2 boys that are dealing with his illness too. I am leaving out the personal information to keep this confidential, but you will recieve the patients full name, address and any other relevant information that you might need in order to begin your angel journey.

The watercolor that I did last night for Ted is in the mail today. I ususally write a typed 1 page letter to send with my gift and I almost always include a prayer in closing. So far I have sent, 3 pieces of art, some mardi-gras beads, a jamaican woven bracelet, a small book of encouraging thoughts and prayers, some Halloween candy for the 2 boys, a Virginia is for Lovers bumper sticker, 3 Christmas ornaments...you get the idea. Each week I write about something different...things happening in my life with a focus on the positive.

I will not hear from Ted or his family unless they so choose, as it is not a requirement for the families when they sign up ( Can you imagine all that they are going through?). I do get emails from Chemo Angels and they give me updates on Ted's progress and sometimes notes are included in the email from his wife expressing her gratitude and appreciation to the angels and all they are doing to add joy to her life. I began this process in May and continue to send my weekly package.

So, if being an Angel is something you would like to do than just click the link in this post or on my side bar for Chemo Angels. You can be an angel too! It's a wonderful way to help someone feel good and it makes you feel good too!

Here is the 1st piece I did for Ted!

Thanks for signing up if you do! Help spread love and joy throughout the World!

All About LOVE

Dear God:

The person reading this is beautiful, classy and strong and I love them. Help them to live their life to the fullest. Please promote them and their cause, help them to excel above their expectations. Help them shine in the darkest places where it is impossible to love. Protect them at all times, lift them up when they need you the most and let them know when they walk with you, they will always be safe.

I Love You!

I received this beautiful prayer via email and I want to share it with all of you. Please feel free to pass it on to others and spread the love.

I also want to share this bible verse because Love is really what life is all about.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Oh, and one more thing...

Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.
Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, and kindness in your smile.~Mother Theresa

My Attempt at Collaging-Another Christmas gift

I have been inspired by so many. The beautiful collages and journals that embrace color, images, drawing, painting and design on the many blogs that I love to visit, well I'm impressed. Soooo, I decided to make my own collage (it's been since grade school that I used scissors and magazines to create art), and I had a great time creating this piece for a beautiful young lady for her Christmas prezzy!

I hope she enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it. Today I will create one more for another lovely young lady-another Christmas gift.

Yippee!!! I'm off to begin my day of creating. Joy of joys-I love to make art!

Wooden Christmas Postcards

Full steam ahead on getting some Christmas presents completed.

I painted these last night. They are painted on small wooden plaques and remind me of postcards. I painted directly on the wood and I'm not sure that was the best idea-so next time I think I will try some gesso first and then do the painting.

You can't really see the sparkle they have, but I used a new glaze on them in certain spots and it really makes them shiny! They are very Christmasy-is that a word?

MERRY CHRISTMAS :)

All The Little Birds

"Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them." Matthew 6:26

These 2 pics are of my desk at work (yes, this is how I earn a living) so that you can see my view each day. It's a perfect view for having to work inside crunching numbers all day on a computer. And because I am lucky enough to look right outside the window, I put a bird feeder there so that I could see all my little birdie friends all day long!

I quoted the verse above because it says so much about trust. If we just TRUST- All things will work out just as they are supposed to.

You see...the little birds outside my window don't know that I'll be filling up the feeder, yet they still come each day!

Firefly FUN

Growing up in a small rural town back in the 70's, my family lived in an old farmhouse. My brother and I each had our own bedroom. Our house was set back off a winding road in the mountains of Virginia.

The stained wood floors creaked when you stepped on certain boards. There were all kinds of noises that the old house made on it's own.

My bedroom; upstairs, had a secret closet with hidden nooks and crannies. It was a wonderful room with large windows that stretched nearly ceiling to floor. The thick panes of glass had bubbles in them- a method of making glass from a time in the past. Inside the window casings were bricks and ropes that allowed the windows to be lowered and raised.

It was a nice room and a nice place to live. I was a lucky little girl to awaken to a view of mountains and trees from every window.

But when the sun went down and bed time was upon me, my room took on another dimension. It was BIG, DARK and SCARY to me. I imagined ghosts and witches hiding in my closet and under my bed. My room was the perfect spot for the "boogie man" to reside. There were no street lights to light up an outside view. I was scared and felt so small in my bedroom all alone.

On one particular Summer evening as I frolicked outside, I had a fantastic idea. I would collect fireflies, as many as I could possibly catch in the old mason jar my Mom let me use. I filled it up with the glowing creatures and secretly hid them away in my room.

After the bedtime stories were read and I was all tucked in for the night, I quietly tip toed to my hidden glowing treasure and opened the jar. Each wonderful glowing bug flew out into the room, flashing, glowing, flashing, glowing. I had finally found a way to overcome my fear of the dark.

So, here is the watercolor I painted to commemorate that wonderful glowing night in my bedroom where I was set free by the little night lights from above.

Colours For Children Christmas Give-Away-I NEED YOUR HELP!

Sooooo, do you want to win some original Art? Well, here's your opportunity! I am proud to announce an Art give-away that starts today! COLOURS FOR CHILDREN CHRISTMAS GIVE-AWAY. All you have to do is click on the hummingbird and you could win weekly prints and an original watercolor in the final week of the give-away!

All of this came about because of my LOVE for the island of Jamaica and her people! FOJ- or Friends of Jamaica is a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to improving educational opportunities and medical care for the children of Jamaica.

I am a member of a message board called Negril.com. I was led to their site and have come to know many members. During one visit to the board I read about a benefit that was taking place in Illinois to help the children of Jamaica and I inquired if I could donate some art for the silent auction. This is how I came to know FOJ (Friends of Jamaica). Marcia, the director has done so much to raise awareness and raise contributions for the children of this third world country.

If you read some of my previous posts you will find out more about my connection to the island and how I try to make a small difference there!

And I have a SPECIAL FAVOR to ask of anyone that comes to my site... Would you please copy and paste the hummingbird at the top of this post with the link to the FOJ website and put it on your blog where it will be seen for the next 5 weeks? I need all the help I can get in trying to raise awareness and donations for the Jamaican children. You can enter the give-away too! A donation is not required in order to participate but for $5 you can get a really nice print or an original watercolor painting.

I would like to THANK YOU and THANK YOU again if you do put this on your site and PLEASE leave me a comment to let me know that you did. I appreciate your help with this!

Please enter as many times as you want! Remember the give-away is FREE to enter but you can also enter by making a $5 donation!

The Spirit of Christmas Continues...

Here's another watercolor I completed last night!

And another from today... I'm calling this one " A Cardinal Day" ! What do you think?

I'm in the Spirit

The digital camera I am using to photograph my Art isn't the best, but I'm hoping Santa might bring me a better one!

We'll see... Anyway, here are some recent watercolors that I have completed for Christmas so far!

More are on the way...

Well Wishes to Lady Roots-Voice from Jamaica

I love my LadyRoots-my beautiful and soulful friend that lives on the island of Jamaica!

I have been traveling to Jamaica since 2000. I fell in love with the island and her people on my first trip there and continue to return year after year. There is something about Jamaica, her people, the music and the spirit of this place that touches my very soul.

Prior to my most recent trip (July 08), I was searching the Internet and was led to "Voice From Jamaica". As Lady Roots later reminded me this was not a chance encounter my stumbling across her blog, I think she said something like "The student is always led to the teacher."

I started to communicate with LR via email, asking questions and probing her for information. She was always gracious in her responses but was equally direct with them.

We actually got to know one another fairly well from these emails and felt comfortable in our Internet friendship.

Long story short, prior to my trip, we decided to meet while I was there. She lived nearly 5 hours away from where I would be staying and I had no transportation. She was willing to come to me so that we could meet. I was so excited about this and so was LR, even though our husbands were somewhat reserved about the idea. We (LR and I) both knew why; being cautious was most of it but, what it was more about was that neither had ever developed Internet friendships before and really couldn't get a grasp of that whole concept.

That didn't deter LR and I and we met on that beautiful day in July. We shared a meal together and a wonderful swim in the beautiful warm Caribbean.

During my visits to "Voice from Jamaica", I was amazed at all of the beaded creations that LR made. I stopped by my local beading shop and selected some beads to bring LR as a small gift for taking the time to talk to me and for believing in our destined friendship.




One day, I received this beautiful gift from LR-made from some of the beads that I had given to her. I was so amazed at the beauty of the gift but more importantly at the beauty of the giver.

Lady Roots is my soulful friend forever and I love her for her thoughts, beauty, inspiration and the very kindness she exudes in just being herself. As I write this, I would like for all of you, my friends, to say a prayer for LR as she has most recently broken her ankle and will require surgery next week. You can also visit her blog and lavish well wishes, love and prayers on her there!

"Bless up" as she says and "Heal up" as I will say now! LadyRoots-you sweet and lovely soul-my friend FOREVER! I LOVE YOU! xoxoxo

giRLS NiGHt

And this is the cast of characters for our Girls Night 11/14/08.
We met after work and headed out to the country for the evening. My girlfriends-artists and women that I have known for 20+ years.

We had a wonderful meal, great conversation, a few brews and a lot of laughs.

After dinner we made some yummy coffee drinks and spent some time soaking in the hot tub.

It was an excellent evening together, just girls-fun, food, and friendship. An evening shared together as women, artists, sisters in LIFE.

Last Saturday-This Saturday-MURAL Progress!

What Do You Think?