Life's a Circus...

Well I haven't been able to keep up here the way I want to, but I will be back to posting regularly, soon. I am busily working on the home remodel project. I painted several panels of the ceiling this weekend. Being as how I am afraid of heights this takes me much longer than it should. I slowly climb the huge ladder holding on for dear life, and paint slowly so as not to loose my balance, then creep back down for more paint. The fact that these are vaulted ceilings only adds to the production. I am no high wire queen.
I also got some more washing of woodwork done.
Today I tore up carpet, painted the closet and removed tape from ceiling.
I am hoping that the flooring will be laid on Nov. 14th.

I did have my ATC group over yesterday and I had a wonderful time. We had chosen the theme Circus for this month. I got several cards done. Here are just a couple.

Dangling Kewpie

Well most of the week so far I have been scrubbing walls and ripping up more carpet and tack strip.
I am so tired of all this mess, and still yet have more scrubbing to do. I am ready to begin painting!!! At least that way I see progress. It is supposed to be very warm here today and I have to paint the flaps from the radiators and the shelf to the closet.. I will do that outside today. Brian never showed up to put the cabinets back on the wall so I am disappointed about that. Now they sit on the floor in the kitchen and I have to walk around them all the time.
Everything is going to look so fresh and new when all is said and done, It will be worth it.
The prize is just out of reach for the time being.

I was able to take a bit of a break last night and work in my art area. It was a disaster and I only intended to clean up for Sundays club meeting. But I got to having a bit of fun with stuff I had laid out to work on and also cleaning to boot. So I killed 2 birds with one stone ; )
Finished some stuff from last months ATC club. The theme was spooky creepy, so don't think I am a nut case. I couldn't help myself with the Kewpie Doll.

Vacations Over

Well it is good to be home. Being away for over a week takes it's toll. I feel like an old woman!
We had a fabulous time at Disney, but the constant walking and running for buses has my hips and knees aching. Coming home to cold weather is no fun either. I am freezing.
It was gorgeous there, in the 80's every day.

My first plane ride went off without a hitch, but I don't think flying is for me. I was quite nervous the whole time. It just amazes me that man has mastered flying. It seems completely impossible that a vehicle of such weight should be able to lift off the ground with tons of people aboard. I was thinking the whole time, that the plane was just going to drop out of the sky and fall to the ground.

We kept a tight schedule the whole time, not a moment to rest. We saw all the theme parks available. Epcot was my favorite park of all. I loved the countries and the food sampling.
The all time most popular ride was also at Epcot. "Soarin" a most amazing simulated ride across the state of California in a hang glider. So beautiful and peaceful. It was my favorite ride of all. Scariest ride was the "Tower of Terror"

We took a drive to the ocean one day and that was also wonderful. I had seen the ocean once as a child, but hubby and the kids had never seen the ocean at all. It was a wonderfully fun day of playing in the waves and collecting shells.

So all in all we had a fabulous trip and now I must get down to business and get this house project finished.
Goal for the week, is the wash the ceilings in the kitchen/dining room and paint the ceilings there.
YUCK! but it must be done! I will be so happy when all is done.

It's good to be home!

Primer is on!

Great progress yesterday, the carpet and the flooring are here.
(In my house) yippee.
I am very excited. Only thing is, now the pressure to get the painting done.
I did get a coat of primer on the fresh texture job and now to apply color!
Of coarse my Dad was by yesterday, before leaving for the winter, he left instructions to go a lighter shade of yellow ; ) and no wheeled chairs for our dining set.

I guess he is preparing the house for when he moves in, when he is no longer able to fend for himself! Even though I have told him, he will be stuck in the attic with no women, or cats! hehehe I suppose he thinks I might let him come down for meals ; )
JUST KIDDING!

We are getting increasingly excited about the trip and I must get a coat of paint on those walls before we go. I don't think I will get it done tonight, but plan for tomorrow.
We are doctoring a bit of sickness right now. As usual I am feeling a nasty cold and Mandy has woken up today with a sore throat. I imagine that Friday we will all be sick! It is some sort of law that if you travel you must be sick! Fingers crossed I can nurse us all well in time. I have home made chicken soup simmering on the stove as we speak.

Marshall's last football game tonight, Jim talked to the coach yesterday, we will see if Marshall gets some play time?

Christmas came early

Well the texture job got done today! The dining room/kitchen was a hoot as I had Christmas wrap all over the ceilings. I am so glad to have that mess done, now to get a bit of paint on there and the cabinets back on the walls. I want my dishes back in place and not all over everywhere! This project sure is taking a while. I just hope it will be done by Christmas!
It was a wasted day waiting and trying to take a nap.

Here are a few shots of the crazy way my kitchen was looking today.

MEN (complicated like a can of SPAM)

Well I had some fun today working up the second spread in that Zetti RR book. Now I can't decide which one I like better ; )

Mandy had her soccer game today and had her second win this year. Yippee for her team, this is the first year they have ever had any wins at all!
I pretty much wasted the day on artwork since the house is a real pit, due to renovations. Gosh I hope that the texture job gets done tomorrow. Not sure I can take much more of this mess.

We all worked on some packing for our trip coming up. OOOOH we are getting very excited now. Less than ONE week!

A Wise Woman

Well I just finished the Altered book spread for a Woman's book who's book theme is - how to mend a broken heart or how to find prince Charming.
I had a blast working on it and cracked myself up in the process. hehehe
I even forced my hubby to find the humor in it. He just looks and me wondering what has happened to his sensible woman.

Now to come up with a second idea equally as good. I have an idea, but not sure of how to work it yet.

I also worked on a few ATC's tonight so a very good art night.

Mud

Well the mud guy showed up today and applied a prep layer of mud prior to the texture job. That made me quite happy, as I was having a bit of an anxiety attack this morning, after I had to move the silverware tray for the like the hundredth time. It seemed like we were going nowhere, but now I feel like a bit of progress is being made. Hopefully tomorrow a piece of sheetrock gets hung and also the texture job. I taped off and covered most of what needs to be protected for the job. Perhaps I will even get some priming and painting going this weekend.
Oh Joy!

Anyway I squeezed in a bit of artwork, I have a swap due before we leave for vacation, so I need to get going. The swap is the the Zodiac goddess swap I have been doing each month. This month was Libra.
The image I chose for the goddess is not as clear as I would have liked, but it does remind me of the scales, which is the Libra symbol.

Got Milk?

I had a good time yesterday playing with more postage stamps. A friend of mine is hosting a swap for painted backgrounds and postage stamps. Pretty simple, but lots of fun. As luck would have it, I was cleaning out a storage cupboard yesterday and came across some rummage sale oil paintings. I had bought them for the frame, but had not removed the paintings. I decided they would be perfect to cut into ATC size and use for backgrounds. Interesting and part of the work is already done. I feel like I was cheating. But that is the great part about collage work, you can incorporate found treasures. These make for really nice sturdy cards. The postage ATC's are very addicting. Just try some and see ; )
Progress on the kitchen has pretty much come to a halt till we get our hired hand over here for some of his share of the work. I am hoping he will get over here this week to texturize the walls. He is one of those family members and you need to keep hounding him ; )
In the mean time, I guess that gives me some art time.

Took a wrong turn...

The day went so fast today. Good thing I got a small bit of art done this morning, as that is all the time I got today. Went to Mandy's soccer game, then home to sand walls and scrape up the floor around the door jams. The floor is looking really nice. Hopefully the walls will shape up this week. Picked up the paint tonight, I chose 2 shades of yellow. Hoping it will look good. I have heard that yellow is the hardest color to choose for walls. It never seems to look the way you think it will?
By the way, Mandy lost her game. We ran Errands when hubby got home and did some shopping for our vacation. Only 2 more weeks now. We are getting very excited. We got disposable camera's, fanny packs for all of us, snacks...
I am just exhausted.
We will be working on a postal challenge on my collage group, so the cards I did this morning used postage stamps. Here are the two I got done.

Queen "T"

That's me. hehehe Well it is in my book any way. I have been working on that fun Zetti book and I finished the sign in page last night, so that I could ship it out today.
It should turn out to be a fun book. I am excited! They are always fun to start and extra fun to get back.
We are still scraping and scrubbing in the kitchen, and tomorrow it will be some sanding as well. I am sure hoping to get the walls textured next week. Would be great to have all the creepy work done before we leave on the trip. Then when we come back the fun can begin.

Number one son gave us quite a scare tonight, we thought he was missing for a short while. Perhaps I am too much of a worry wart. Anyway he called after football to say he was ready. He is always waiting in the same spot no matter what, well tonight he wasn't, after waiting a good 15 min. We drove back home, thinking perhaps he started to walk. Nope, so back to the school and he was still no where to be found. Finally we started to search the school. He was up on the third floor in the computer room working on some homework! UGH. Kids. Like what made him think we would come looking??? I was very relieved!

Lots of running around tonight so no artwork for me. Even though I was craving some time in my studio.
Here is the sign in area for the Altered Book Round Robin.