Check out my Slide Show!

Merry Christmas!

Tried to post yesterday, but had problems, so i'm a day late.

here are a few pictures from our celebration-Went to mom's Christmas Eve for

dinner and gifts. Will post addison's picture when i figure how to get rid of the red eyes!

Today's Faux Pas

Gary drove me to walmart-i had been their earlier and when i got home a bag of canned
goods were missing. He dropped me off front so i could just go it. I got my business taken
care of and came outside to leave. I walked up to the car-yanked on the door and looked in the window since it was locked-THAT was when i saw some stranager pointing across the way to MY car...
yes, i felt stupid all right. Can't imagine what that other guy thought...

Houston Bound

On mon Dec 10 Gary and I headed to Houston. He had some "mystery shopping" to do-and I wanted to visit Texas Art. It was foggy on the way down-cold here but when we got into houston, it was warm. I killed time while he did his shopping-we went to check into the Bates Motel. I mean Baymont. Rm 128-this room had no power on one side-which meant no lights in the bathroom so we called the office and they were sending maintenance. We left to go eat at Auntie Chang's chinese. love the lemon chicken! Did some running around and when we got back to hotel at 10 pm-no one had fixed the room. We were then moved to room 228. Got all our stuff in when we heard it. Chirp. 30 sec later, chirp. the smoke detector was going off (usually due to low battery) We then got room 229. I noticed not much hot water when i washed my face, but was too tired to care. I did have to get a picture of this "sign" on the bathroom wall-if only they had one of these when i was in Cleveland!

Then came morning. Gary took his shower-the one that started lukewarm and got colder. I didn't bother. (gross i know.) I spent about 2 hrs at Tx Art. love that store. picked up some things i'll take to artfest~and some things to play with when i do art again~ he did his shopping, i killed time and got a few Christmas presents too-We rode the shortest ferry i've ever been on and went to see(long enought to take a picture) the battleship Texas then the San Jacinto monument. We almost got locked in the park area as it was closing time. We ate dinner in the Woodlands and headed home-got in after midnight and had to be up for work around 5am...i was very braindead on wed

Happy December

no picture to post today, but thought i would at least change the colors on here to look
a bit Christmas-y. Can't seem to get into the mood this yr, but when we get the tree up,
will post a few pictures~

A Week Late

Couldn't get the camera to upload for some reason~so belated Happy Thanksgiving.

We ate at my moms as usual. Lots of great food. All the usual turkey day fare.

Here gary and i are-every picture i took today has red eyes-od'nt know why but oh well. We had a bit of snow too~here is patrick trying to catch a flake on his tongue.

Finally here is gary, riley, jack and nala-after they finally realized they were not getting any

of his pie... :)

I'm an AUNT! (again)

But this time, it's a girl! yea-the first girl in the family~won't she be spoiled? :)

No name yet, entered the world sat night at 10:08 weighing 7 lbs, 9 oz and 20" long. she is beautiful...Got to hold her tonight when Gary and I went to see her.

Didn't get a great picture yet, but she is pretty if i say so myself...

Creativity

Finally-after what feels like months, i did a little bit of "art" so to speak. I bought this painting-frame and all at a garage sale last yr for $5. After my micheal deMeng class thought i would do something "caulky" with it and started this: layers of caulk and bits of paper. Decided i didn't like where it was going-ie, no creativity these days-i'm sure i could have done something-so last night i changed direction, ripped the canvas out, bought some masonite and started my new chalkboard. I've been wanting to make one for the house and so i did. I still have to chop out the wood glue that is stuck in the grooves so my board will lay flat-i've glazed the frame w/a bronze glaze and when it's hung, i will post that.

I also painted a spread in my journal for future use and started a canvas~more later!

Crazy Life

Finally getting on here to update. Last thurs night/fri am gary woke me up to tell me "not to worry" but he was going to the ER-didn't want me to go-and he went..i was 1/2 alseep 1/2 awake after that and went in to work before my usual time-had to be there since the boss was off-anyway, long story short, He was admitted to the hospital then placed in ICU as a precaution. Ended up having colonoscopy on sat to rule out any problems-given a clean bill of health-other than the low blood pressure from losing so much blood. He came home on sun-dr said good thing he did come in or he could have bled to death.

Mon i managed to start painting the pink in my future niece's room (still no name) fri my sis nixed any black paint for the time being-such a chicken... :) For some reason she thought i was doing a black wall-i planned to do a "chair rail" height black diamond stencil around the room. oh well. So that is life in the Joy household-will post more later-some pages i've started in my journal.

Halloween

Here are some pictures of some of what we created at work for the guys' halloween dining "pleasure"...Here is the "poop" we made for the kitty litter cassarole.

Here is the finished product. Next are some of the bleeding jello hearts i made for their dinner-didn't get pictures of that since i wasn't there, but heard they really enjoyed the dinner-said it looked bad but tasted great...

Halloween...

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbI-eC44eSGxbTGf8-56x5uBLFcUjdqUI5KWWQHD72DZOu1bxL-xiraS_N1oSUWB9YdVeAhoerRrbqj12y-9vpmkA02nHGcGjAytC6UDLJLSBX22-Mx6cqGu44cfo1HGpi7AIl/s1600-h/badge.jpg

Fall is HERE!

It's been a bit cooler this month-just a tiny hint of fall-except maybe that 90 degree day, but today it hit full force! Yea. It's rainy, but i don't care, it's also cool-high of 59 today. I love it~can you tell i hate the heat?...

The Shower

Saturday was the baby shower for Suzanne & "the niece." Gary came up with a gift for her also which i had her open first. "a Black light?" you say.
One day she said "what am i going to do with a girl?" I told gary this and he said, teach her to be an elvis back-up singer. So the idea was sparked.
When we were in elementary school, my dad took me to the mall to buy her a birthday gift. I picked out a black light and an Elvis Presley album. Well, come sat night, she and i would put on funky pj's that would look cool in the black light, put on that album (or another of his) and sing-we were the "back-up singers" (she was usually Candy Cook) and when the concert was over, we took turns being the "girlfriend" of Elvis when we went to dinner after the show. (pretend of course) (we had great imaginations!) So here she is opening the light-and knew there was a cd of elvis music too~too bad i didn't address it to "candy." This was the first time my mom had ever heard the story~

Baby Shower

Tomorrow is my sister's shower for the "surprize" baby. Gary made something for her-but i can't say what until tomorrow. I really doubt she reads my blog, but just in case :) Tomorrow i will post a picture as she opens it-and tell the story behind it all...
just been dealing w/puppies this week between work, naps and all else. Did go over to
suzanne's today to start moving Pat's stuff out of his room so i can paint it pink for the baby..

Check out my Slide Show!

And yet another Guest...

Yes-another puppy abandoned at the dog park. Gary couldn't leave him there either-i think they are same litter-this may be the runt. I've got a home for him-the person who was going to take the black one will get this guy-gary is leaning towards keeping the black one...we'll see, but we will find homes.

Poor things~spay and neuter those animals!

Our Temporary House Guest

This little thing was found abandoned at the dog park last night. Gary took nala for a walk and found this guy-alone and whimpering. He came home w/them and got food and water. We are looking for a home for him-have two possibilities right now. He got a bath today-smells so much better. Cute affectionate little thing~

Canton Wkend

After spending the past wk feeling sick from sinus crap-decided to go to Canton sat morning. It's still warm, but there was a breeze to help keep it tolerable. I love canton for the thrill of treasure hunting, but also for the people watching. I mean, where else can you see 55+ yr old women wearing little jean skirts w/a tube top? Not to mention the leather looking tanned skin~or that wedge hanging between said skirt and top? Do some just not look in the mirror? do they think they look decent? Or do they have hellatious self esteem? Makes you want to stop and ask them.

Went in the "back way" and got my good parking spot (ie, one close enough to drop off stuff when bag gets heavy) and started the hunt. Found some old rusty looking things-old lamp base that will look cool when i actually use it. Found some old ice cream spoons-rusty and all. The guy said they would clean up w/sos pad, but he didn't know i love rust. I think my bargain was the phone shelf i found-for $15. They sell for 45-50 in dallas. My gram had one in her house. It had the virgin mary in it...mine will have something funky someday.

The license plate will be cut up for the numbers/letters. The Junk ladies (ki and sue of Country Home mag) were at canton. They had a booth and were promoting their book and the mag. The had cut up license plates and each letter sold for about $3. i can do it myself... I do love their ideas though.

The Rat House

Catchy title huh? Well, back in jan i was at a funky antique kind of store when i came across an old wooden box-i love old wooden box-type things, so i had to dig it out from under other stuff and check it out. It had a tiny tag that said "rat house." I kid you not-it's in my journal for proof. How could anyone pass THAT up? I knew none of my friends could boast of having one. I would be the only one with a gen-u-ine rat house. Well, i have grand ideas for said house, only it sits for awhile...i finally made a "rat nest" to put in there for starters. It sits some more. Last week while checking out the halloween stuff at michaels i find the perfect rat! ugly, hairy brown, dirty looking thing-perfect for the house. I can put a halloween hat on it for now-change it up at christmas...etc...

I bring the rat home-and nala-who must inspect every bag you bring into the house makes no exceptions with this bag. Within 2 min of arriving home i see her run off-i knew she had something-and sure enough, the rat is in her mouth w/a piece of "fur" alreadt torn. I had to hide it for few days, then when she wasn't home, put the rat into the box.

She discovered it. She laid in front of the box and growled at it. alot. Then gary caught her chewing on the box. NO, no, bad dog. Fri i wake up for work, and notice something in the living room-turn on a light. It's the rat. Or what is left of it. One million pieces of it. The box was on the other side of the room-with the plexiglass door open-a chunk of it is gone. just gone.

Nala owes me one rat.

Treasure Hunting

After a day of miserable nausea (compliments of the day off effexor) i was much better sat. (just being able to stand up w/out feeling like i would die was an improvement) anyway, decided to go to the Cattle Barn and Buchanan's flea mkt today in fort worth. Never made it to Buchanan's. Found so many fun things at the barn that i didn't "need" to go to the other. The cattle barn (this wk actually the poultry barn) is always hit or miss. Vendors aren't always there-the booths covered in sheets-or roped off (usually when there is something cool) so i don't usually hold alot of hope of finding alot. Today was a junkers mekka! The first stuff i bought was at a booth where it was all at least 1/2 off. For $3 i got a book, powder compact, shoe and old tin w/most of it's original box. This will sit on a shelf in the bathroom-appropriate i think.

I found a booth with a table of old stuff~the guy said if you can find 3 things, it's a $1. I managed to find 9 for $3-then another 2 in a different area.

i also found 2 photo's, but the bargain of the day was a box that said all for $10-i debated and finally went back, too cool to pass up. i have plans for a few things already. ..

Wedding

Sat I attended the wedding of a long-time friend. 2 other friends and I made the trek out to McKinney to see Traci and Eric say their vows. She was beautiful in her dress-with the silver design sparkling as the sunlight caught it. Her neices had on the cutest dresses-looked like pink flower petals~and i loved the cake topper-the crown. The happy couple are in Jamaica now...congrats!

Book Signing, & a Class

I had the opportunity to attend a book signing w/Rice Freeman-Zachary, James Michael Starr and Michael DeMeng last week. The discussion before the signing was very enlightening. It's good to know that even they have the same good and bad days that the rest of us do. No matter what your level of art, you have your insecurities.

On Fri, i took a class with Michael DeMeng. If you ever have the chance to take one of his classes- do! It is fun to be in a room with him-not to mention the class itself is really good. I took a light box shrine-loved the whole concept of the layers. Can't seem to get a good photo to post, but will try again soon. Suffice it to say, they were all really cool in person!

ArtFest registration time...

Today's the day! time to mail the registration for artfest '08~
When i left for the post office it was appropriately raining...reminded me of seattle. I bought my postage, however no telling WHAT time it will be postmarked as the lady wouldn't do it-actually she looked at me w/a "huh" look on her face...i just don't know where they find these people...
so my fingers are crossed-it's out of my hands now.

Wkend Art

this is what i worked on this wkend. Had the idea when i saw the printers block on ebay-and when i won it, had to make this piece.

She now sits behind glass in a shadowbox frame~

it's Up!

I finally put some things on my etsy shop. I have more to add, but this is a start. Need to add a banner and some other pictures, but for now, it's a go. Feel free to stop by~

Musings

I want to try to post more often-and more art. Last sept when i went to work for my mom at the seminary, it was just m-f part time-and temporary. Well, almost a yr later, i'm still there and agreed to stay-almost full time. I go in early, so i get off early which gives me time for art-or so i thought. Now i come home and sleep every day-finally realized it's due to my meds-and once i get off them (soon i hope) i'll have more energy and create more. In the meantime, i fit it in when i can and when i feel like it. I'm trying to clean up the art room-and purge some things-narrow down my mediums (yea right) :) So i'll throw in pictures of "stuff" as well as art. This wkend i made this little piece that will be going into my etsy shop. As soon as i get a few more things photographed, they'll go in there too. The book below i made at the first Artfest-in a class w/Albie Smith-great teacher and wonderful book. I finally decided to use it to write down childhood memories-something to pass down.

Update

Pictures are finally uploaded so i can update a few things. Received this wonderful necklace in trade from Tonia a few wks ago-i love it's uniquenss! Mom and i went to canton sat (not for the big flea mkt) went to the home decor store she wanted to hit-got a few things for the house. (the birds i plan to paint) Finally finished reading Harry Potter-Only let myself read a bit at a time to make it last :) Now i can just look forward to the last 2 movies.

I also see that HBO will be coming out w/a new series based on some books i read by Charlaine Harris. Should be interesting since Alan Ball is writing.

that's it for today. HOPE to get some things on my etsy shop this week...

I Give Up

First, couldn't get pictures to upload, then blogger wouldn't let me sign on, and now i get an error msg when i try to post a picture...i promise, there IS a cake picture :)

will post later this week what's up around here-hopefully with pictures. ok-so here's the cake after all...