Garage sale find,garden,Beagle Bailey and 1 ATC

I'm hosting a Nick Bantock "around the world swap".My country is of course France.This is my practice card.....

Bailey,our grand-Beagle!!!!!

This year the castor bean plants are out of control!!!

I finally got my very own white picket fence last year for my birthday!I love it!

Another back yard view.Our yard is a jungle this year due to all of the heat and rain!!!

A view from the back deck

My garage sale find of the week!A really nice OLD jar that has been turned to deep  purple by burying it in the Arizona sand for several years. Rarely do you find glass of this deep purple here in Illinois...guess we don't have as much magnesium in our soil. 

ArtChix Turquoise inchie contest entry

Since I'm on an Artchix roll(having won a contest  earlier this week),I thought I'd enter this one as well. It's a word bingo.One would call for example,B little star...I abundant...N radiant...etc.etc. All images are from Artchix! Just for fun...

my newest journal pages

This are  my newest journal pages,done in my  current favorite

Moleskine journal. I really love working on those soft,creamy pages. I liked this layout so well that I did a similar one for Lori O's JOD page. The gypsy image is from an antique engraving that I photocopied;a friend of mine has a whole series of them.It's the gypsy in me!

WOOOO-YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Yippee!!!thanks to Helga's cat Bruno,I just won a drawing for a $20 Artchix shopping spree!!!Too much fun!!!!!!!In this contest,you just had to make ATCs using Chinese drink  umbrellas and post the pix.And it was)so much fun!Below are the 2 I entered. What fun to win!!!!!!!(don't you just LOVE to win stuff?!?!?!?!?!?):>:>:>:>:>

(Can you tell...I'm easily amused?!?!?!)


If you don't follow Helga's blog on Artchix,you should.She does LOTs of fun stuff!

Last ATCs for Bernie Berlin study group

For the last couple of years,I've been in a Yahoo group where we took Bernie Berlin's ATC book,and went through it lesson by lesson from beginning to end. I cannot believe that these are the last! The group was hosted by the wonderful Cristal Wooten. I'm sure that all of us who stuck it out for the entire book would agree that we have really learned alot.Some lessons were huge successes,some were huge flops! But everything was a learning process.

Fantaisie Enfleurie 1

                                          Fantaisie Enfleurie 2

Turquoise photos for ArtChix contest

• Helga of Artchix is sponsoring a contest with turquoise photos.These were some I took on a Greece/Turkey cruise a few years ago. How I love that area of the world.Just looking at all the pix makes me want to go back! Helga always gives away GREAT stuff...so I'm crossing my fingers! 

• Santorini Sentinel



Mykonos doorknocker

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   Turkish quilt

   
   

ArtChix Butterfly ATCs

I made these for the new ArtChix Butterfly Wings contest. I don't care what anyone says:I LOVE putting wings on things,especially ones that are this pretty!

Birthday Trip to Chicago

Mary Sue and I celebrated both of our birthdays last week with a wonderful trip into Chicago.A scenic architectural boat tour on the Chicago River,drinks on Trump Tower,dinner at the Grand Luxe Café,and Elton John's Aïda.Our gift to each other!Fabulous molten chocolate cake at Grand Luxe Café.We waddled out of there!

Toasting with champagne from Donald Trump's beautiful 16th floor bar.What a view!

The Trump Tower.
Reflections of Chicago.
It was great playing tourist in our "home town"!Happy Birthday to us!

Ingrid doing a demo of Down the Rabbit Hole

photos of Whispering Woodlands

The beautiful backyard at WhisperingWoodlands

Our view from the studio!