Zentangle Challenge #24 “String Theory II”

Here we are, String Theory II.  This time, we drew rows of strings, and completed our tangle:

Lampwork Bracelet In My Favorite Color Combination

I love the combination of pink and green:

This bracelet is made up of my handmade lampwork rosette beads, vintage pressed glass flower beads,  swarovski crystals, more pressed glass beads, fresh water pearls, seed beads, and finished off with Bali sterling components.  Great accessory for the spring and into the summer :-).  You can find it in my Etsy Shop.

Saturday Morning Market And Coffee

One of my favorite things to do is to get up early on a Saturday morning (when the family sleep in), and hit the farmers market with my dear friend Lisa.  Of course, we follow it up with coffee at our local/quaint coffee shop.  It’s  so nice to sit back for an hour or two, sip coffee and just chat:

  What’s your favorite Saturday morning activity?

My Very First Online Chat

I recently received an e-mail notice from Digishoptalk regarding an online chat with their featured designer, Liz Tamanaha of Paislee Press.  Considering I am practically glued to my computer these days, I popped into the chat.  It was an experience since I had never been in a chat room before.  At first, I was a bit confused.  It seemed like Liz was fielding a bunch of questions all at the same time, and the answers and questions were all over the place.  After a while, I got the hang of it.  I even put my two cents in once :-).  Anyway, the part I wanted to share and am excited about was at the end, when they played a trivia game.  I actually answered one of the questions right and won a gift certificate to Liz’s shop! How fun is that! And here is what I got:

Liz has a very unique style.  I have several styles that I am partial to, and hers is definitely one of them.  They are refreshing, and elegant.  This kit reminded me of Japanese design, so I got it too:

And here is a layout I made.  Since the family are camera shy, and I feel a bit self conscious, I found an old photo of myself taken in Paris a very long time ago.  A bunch of us from the Institute spent our winter break in Paris.  For some reason, I thought after I finished graduate school in the Netherlands, I would not have the occasion to go to France so I made an effort to go. Well, I ended up getting a job in Paris! – go figure:

Bird A Week Challenge: Week 21/52

Well, here is another owl this week. Like I said, they are everywhere.  I found a really cute tutorial some time ago at Indie Fixx and decided to finally make it:

The pattern is very simple and easy to make up.  I  used some fabric from my Blythe doll dress stash, and the buttons from my big button bin.  I think these buttons are left over from an outfit I sewed back in the 80’s.   And I thought he looked really cute with the Eiffel tower backdrop :-).

Drawing Lab 2011: Fantasy Creatures

This weeks lab was to build on last weeks drawing of a face.  We were to draw a fantasy creature.  I thought about all kinds of creatures, but I didn’t want to creep people out. So, I stayed within reason and drew a mermaid:

I’m really enjoying drawing, and doing these labs.

Lampwork Bangles

I have been so obsessed with digital arts and graphics, that I need to make an effort to tear myself away from my computer these days.  I thought it was time for some lampwork jewelry.  Here are a couple of “refreshingly summer” bangles:

The above is an encased white bead with outer swirls and dots design, and below is one of my favorite beads I make, an encased floral:

They can both be found in my Etsy Shop.

Coolscrapdigital May Scraplift Challenge

I am really loving digital arts and scrapbooking.  Coolscrapdigital has a monthly scraplift challenge.  From what I can gather, they select a layout, and you are to use it as a sketch to make your own page.  This months layout is “A Day From The Past” by Jean Ann:

And here is my layout.  I used one of my favorite photos of DH’s maternal grandparents:

 For my page, I used  the kit “Aura” by Chili Designz.

Zentangle Challenge #23 “String Theory”

This week, we were given a string done by the Diva. It will be interesting to see the different tangles everyone comes up with.  Here is the string:

And here is my tangle:

Digital Whisper 100 Themes Challenge #4 Dark

When I saw this photo, I immediately thought of the word “Dark”:

This is  an x-ray photo of a cargo truck filled with human beings.  So many thoughts, emotions and feelings went through my mind.  I could only imagine the darkness of their situation.

Credits:

x-ray: Yahoo Image

Overlay: Unknown

Iris Festival And Rock Show

You do not need to go very far to find interesting events and activities to do within driving distance.  Yesterday, I met with my friend Aki and visited the annual Yucaipa Iris Festival.  We managed to see the rock show and vendors, but for some reason, we missed the iris part:

The Yucaipa Valley Jem and Mineral Society was represented.  I have yet to go polish rocks this year.  It seems other things in life get priority for now.  But, I do miss it, and before the year is out, I will make a consious effort to do so.

We have also had a colleague of DH’s from when he taught at the university in Sydney visiting.  It’s always nice to see old friends that we haven’t seen in years.   It brought back good memories of our life in Australia.  Now if we could only manage the time and finances to make a visit down there…

Coolscrapdigital Quick Page Contest

I participated in Coolscrapdigital’s Quick Page Contest.  We were given a kit called “Suprise” created by Jill, which we used to come up with a Quick Page design.  It was fun so I made two.  I submitted the first one.  Both QP’s can be downloaded for personal use from here or at the Coolscrapdigital site: