Very Cool Wheels

Isn't this about the cutest bike on the planet?

So artsy and colorful! 

I spotted it in two different Target stores, and in both of them, it was in the clothing section.  I Googled it and found out it's an Alice and Olivia Bike, a Neiman Marcus Designer Collector Limited Edition.  It's regularly, $499.00 but on sale for $249.00.  I love it but not $249 worth of love!

Here's the pic from the Target site.

It is adorable though.
The belt on the basket rocks!

Tootles All,

D~~~~

December Photo Project ~ Days 8 thru 12

~~ Day 8 ~~

I spy with my little Christmas eye--

this cool vignette at Frisco Mercantile.

I love that place!

~~ Day 9 ~~

Frisco Mercantile again.

A very unique and cool wooden Christmas tree!

~~ Day 10 ~~

One of my Christmas mugs.

Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la! 

This one is my favorite too.

~~ Day 11 ~~

Another Christmas mug.

Tis the season...

~~ Day 12 ~~

The final Christmas mug next to

a cute little snow guy!

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas...

Tootles for Now,

D~~~~

December Photo Project ~ Days 6 & 7

~~ Day 6 ~~

Our festive pink and white bathroom.

~~ Day 7 ~~

My second Christmas music journal page.

All I Want for Christmas is U 

(or You)

(Regular, metallic & glitter acrylic paints, markers, 
colored pencils, stamps, construction paper)

Vince Vance and the Valiants is my
very favorite version of this song!

It rocks!

Tootles,

D~~~~

December Photo Project~Days 4 & 5

~~ Day 4 ~~

I spy with my little Christmas eye...

This festive entry way at Pottery Barn.

~~ Day 5 ~~

I love glass ornaments and

this is one of my favorites.

Tootles,

D~~~~

December Photo Project~Day 3

I love snow and the Christmas season is a glorious time for it!  Nevertheless, it was 79 degrees here in North Texas today so if any snow is coming our way this winter, it doesn't appear it'll be any time soon.  With that in mind, today's photo for the December Photo Project is a snowy one.  Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?  

It was actually taken in Durango, Colorado in May, 2011.  I treasured this snowy Colorado day, and it is forever etched in my mind!  

Of course, this won't be my last snowy photo.

Vicariously Walking in a Winter Wonderland,

D~~~~  

December Photo Project~Day 2

I spy with my Christmas eye...

Little cuties

at Kirkland's in Frisco, Texas

Many Fa-La-La-La-La's to you,

D~~~~

December Photo Project~Day 1

THOSE RECKLESS REINDEER ROLL AGAIN!

(Roll Grandma that is!)

I posted this the other day but I think it's perfect for Day 1 of the December Photo Project.

Christmas songs have been galavanting around in my head like reindeer so I decided to do some Christmas song journal pages, and here's the first one.

It happens to Grandma every year!

  (12"x9" ~ Created using mostly colored pencils, Sharpies and acrylic paint.)

My lesson learned:  

Add the text before the 3D glittery snow paint.  

Otherwise, it's one very bumpy (and ugly) writing event.

Which song will I do next?
Even I don't know the answer to that question.

Hoping Christmas Songs Make You Smile,

D~~~~

Friday Fill-Ins

It's time for Friday Fill-Ins! 

1. If you catch a falling star, you certainly won’t be able to put it in your pocket because the catch will kill you!

2. I won’t be singing la la la or anything else out loud because I don’t want to scare my hubby or the dogs! 

3. I have to ask you if you think Thanksgiving has rapidly snuck up on us? 

4. As I age, I have fewer vices; More good habits. 

5. I didn't have time to finish turning my painted canvas (with a leaf on it from Daisy State Park in Arkansas) into an art quilt yesterday. 

6. Cooler weather is something I love beyond all reason.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to getting my two grandsons for a few days, tomorrow my plans include taking them to the movies if that’s what they want to do and Sunday, I want to make Italian goulash and watch football of course!

If you'd like to participate in Friday Fill-Ins, click here.

Tootles My Friday Friends!

D~~~~

Caterpillar Cuteness

We just returned from an RV trip to Daisy State Park in Arkansas.  On our last day there, we discovered an excellent little Mexican restaurant in the nearby town of Murfreesboro.  This colorful guy (or gal) was resting on the window sill next to our table.  I just love it!

Wouldn't it make a cute art quilt?
I think so and just might have to pursue it!

Tootle Loo,

D~~~~

Dog Neckerchiefs

Stitch Craft Create Magazine had an article for making Dog Neckerchiefs.  (I like to call them bandanas.)  

I made four for Halloween.

Daisy and Sally look mighty spiffy wearing them too!

They slip through the collar.

Halloween girls ready for trick-or-treaters 

(so they can look pretty barking at them--LOL!)

Happy Halloween!

Tootles,

D~~~~

Frost On The Pumpkin

A quick yet fun journal page.

Tootles,

D~~~~

Friday Fill-Ins

1.  Oh that wind I hear blowing outside my door is wonderful!

2.  It's a sure sign of Autumn when I'm worrying about the Dallas Cowboys' season.

3.  Are we having satellite troubles again.

4.  My heart is loving our new RV and the adventures that go with it.

5.  Do you believe in God?  I sure do.

6.  I'm a lover of Autumn!

7.  And as for the weekend, tonight I'm kicking back, tomorrow my plans include hubby time and making art, and Sunday I want to watch church and lots of football.

If you'd like to play along, click here.

Tootles,

D~~~~

Spectacular Attention Grabber

While meandering on the River Walk in San Antonio last week, we spotted this gorgeous art glass in the Hyatt Grand.

It's Garcia Art Glass.

Color and shine always grab my attention!

I love it!

Tootles,

D~~~~

RV Art Quilt

I finally finished the art quilt for the RV, 

and here it is hanging in the RV.

I wanted to add color to the RV's 

black, tan, and grey color scheme.

I believe I succeeded.

Here's a close up of the colorful RV.

Here's the real RV it's modeled after.

I used canvas, commercial fabric, thread, mizuhiki, paint, a Sharpie, dowel rods and buttons. 

Tomorrow we're RVing to Port Aransas.

We'll be in the REAL RV of course!

Tootles All,

D~~~~

A Glimpse of Progress

I've been working on the art quilt to go between two of the windows in the RV.  See the previous post if you want to see where it will hang.

Here's a glimpse.  

It's coming along nicely.  

I wanted to add color and this ought to do it.

We're going out of town for a few days this week so I don't know if I'll get it done this week--maybe.  I'm still trying to make a few design decisions though and that can slow me down too. Decisions, decisions!

With Colorful Smiles,

D~~~~

An RV Work in Progress

I'm designing a wall hanging for our new RV which is chock-full of wood and mirrors. The dominant colors are tan, brown, grey and black. I really love color so I want to add it! There isn't a lot of obvious wall space in the RV but I'll start with the areas that are obvious.

This is the location where 

I'll put the wall hanging.

It's 12-3/4" wide and 32" long.

Right now, these are some of the 

materials I'm working with but

 it's always subject to change!

We're taking my sister Jeanne on an RV trip to Galveston on Wednesday. She's visiting from Indiana! I would like to finish this by then but I doubt that will happen.  

Tootles All,

D~~~~

Handy Dandy Journal Page

Remember this journal page 

from a couple posts back?

I'm calling it done!
It looks like this now.

I created it in my 11" x 17" journal.

I was not liking it so I tore it out of the journal and added glitter circles. Then, I sewed down ribbon and mizuhiki using a zigzag machine stitch. I like it much more now!

Tootles All and Have a Happy, Creative Day!

D~~~~

A First Art Quilt

My sister Sue has been visiting from Indiana with her 10-year old granddaughter Lexus. When Lexus saw my studio, she wanted to make something so I helped her make an art quilt.

We picked out fabrics, cut, and fused.

She has never done any sewing before 

so I showed her how to sew on my machine. 

She took off with it and did a great job!

She sewed all the zigzag stitches around the 

butterfly and to close the edges of the quilt!

She also did the orange trails below 

the butterfly using a decorative stitch.

She named it Colorful Donna 

because I helped her with it. 

How sweet!

I loved every minute of it, 

and she did too, especially the sewing.

Even my sister Sue enjoyed the process. Perhaps they'll take a likin' to it sometime in the future and pursue it. It sure would be nice to have some family interested in art quilting even if they do live all the way up in Indiana. 

Or interested in art journaling. 

Or mixed media. 

Or, or, or!

Tootles All,

D~~~~

Works in Progress

Rummaging around in my studio the other day, I stumbled on the top three canvases in the picture below.  I started them awhile back.  I'll work on them some more next week. 

The hands drawing is a journal page that I started a couple of weeks ago.  We're about to take a four day RV trip, and I'll take the journal with me.  Hopefully, I'll have some time to play.

Tootles All,

D~~~~

Picture Issues and a Blurb Book

I was trying to change my profile picture on my Smiles for Many Miles blog but it wouldn't let me.  George and I bought an RV recently and I want to change that blog to be our blog now and not just my blog since the name is perfect for journaling our RV travels in addition to the usual stuff.  With this in mind, I was trying to upload a picture of the two of us.  The message I received said that I reached the limit in Picasa Web where the photos are stored so I went to Picasa and saw that the photos for all my blogs are there.  (I have one old blog and three current blogs although only two of the current blogs have pictures.)

I have always wanted to make a book at blurb.com so I figured that now is the time because, as I make books, I can delete.  My SFMM blog mentioned above was started in February, 2008 so right now I am thinking that I will make a book for each year but of course this could change.  I went through each 2008 post, reread, edited, deleted and re-formatted some of them.  After deleting some of the posts and photos, I still could not upload a new profile picture.  I went back to Picasa Web and the photos were still there so I manually deleted some but I still cannot upload a profile picture!

Now I've decided that perhaps my first book attempt should be with my old blog.  For one, once I get it into the blurb book area, I can delete the entire blog and hopefully free up lots of space.  For two, I'm not interested in this book being perfect so I think it will be a good practice book.  In fact, I may not even have them print this book but we'll see.  You don't pay for it until you have it printed.

I have read about other bloggers who printed their blogs on Blurb and were very satisfied.  It looks user friendly and interesting!  If you're thinking about printing your blog into a book, here are two videos that I watched.  They gave me a good idea of what to expect.  It looks very cool and the books are awesome!

Video #1 is 5 minutes and 30 seconds long.
and
Video #2 is 3 minutes and 58 seconds long.

I am off to work on my first book now!  I hope it goes well.

Happy Creating All, 

D~~~~

Happy Ampersand

I added purple dots to the ampersand.  

It looks happy now and I really like it!

Many Smiles,

D~~~~

Absence and an Ampersand

I cannot believe that it's been so long since I last posted!  There has been a lot going on so I haven't been able to do much creating.  I've missed it, and am trying to get back in the groove.

One of the things that kept me busy was that hubby and I were on a quest to find our first ever RV.  We were either on the go or the Internet before finally finding the one that makes our heart go pitter patter.  We both love it!

If you'd like to see it, click here to view pictures of it on my Smiles For Many Miles blog. It just occurred to me that because of the name, that blog will be perfect for posting our RV adventures too.  (It originated as a spin off of a newsletter that I did for family and friends.)  Many of our travels will be weekend trips around Texas and Oklahoma for now but there will be times when we can take off.  I look forward to it all!

Now for something artsy.  This dark blue ampersand is sitting on my worktable.  I got it at a nearby antique mall.  

I didn't like the color and it was much 

too dark for the wall I have in mind.

I collaged it with dictionary pages, and 

painted it with diluted acrylic paint.

I like it much better but I'm trying to decide if I want to add three fairly large, dark purple dots down the center or perhaps I should call it done. The dots would match the wall it's going on.  

Any thoughts?

Have a fabulous day!

Tootles All,

D~~~~

What If?

In the February/March issue of Quilting Arts Magazine, they announced a "What If?" challenge where participants were to make a 12"x12" art quilt based on our "what if" curiosities. For the challenge, I made this art quilt named "What If I Could Sing?".

I wasn't picked as one of the challenge finalists but I'm am positive that I was next in line! Tee-hee! I had fun making it though, and that's all that really matters.  It's all about the joy of the process for me!

The dress was Mondo inspired (from Project Runway and Project Runway All Stars), and is made of burlap, dryer sheets and fabric. The bird, my favorite part, is needle felted with various yarns and has a sequin eye, Mizuhiki legs, and a mini decorative Christmas light ornament for a beak. She's a yellow warbler.

Miss Wobbles loves her close up shot!

It's all on canvas and the window is a separate piece of canvas. The floor and microphone are fabric with the exception of some rick rack as you can see. The wall is painted and reminds me of snowflakes which is not surprising since I always have snow on the brain! I foresee more snowy visions in the near future too since the temps are already in the 90's here in north Texas leading me to believe we're in for one very long, and overly hot summer!   

I have always wished that I could sing but as the saying goes, I can't carry a tune in a bucket.  Frankly, I wouldn't be able to carry one in a change purse! Or a thimble!

I always belt out rockin', country or bluesy tunes in my mind though. They are show stoppers too but it's the singing out loud part that seems to be a huge problem. I sound like a cross between a cricket, a donkey, and very old windshield wiper blades.

I usually sing in the car but I confess that I have an increasing fear that I am going to cause a massive, multi-car pileup even with the windows up! I am certain that my voice is beginning to rust the entire car from the inside out, and I'm convinced that the engine is slowly melting. I just know that it will soon die forever and ever if I keep subjecting it to my vocal vibrations!

I have considered singing in the shower but I'm sure the water would freeze in mid-stream and who needs that! Or possibly the water would rapidly ricochet like bullets off the walls, back and forth, back and forth, up and down, up and down.  My life could be in peril folks!

I tried taking my voice into a Jiffy Lube and Tune shop for a Tune Up and they looked at me like I was loony.

So I sang!

Every employee quit!

I won't do that to those poor people again!

I guess I'll just suffer in singing silence.

Have a great day my friends!

Tootles All,

D~~~~

For the Birds

Isn't this a cute little birdhouse?

We purchased it at Hobby Lobby.

I love the faucet!

I think it needs some 

further embellishment though.

Tootles,

D~~~~

Freedom

This is a project I recently completed entitled Freedom because I felt so free while painting it!

Acrylic paints, ink, white Signo pen, lock washers, machine stitching, and ribbon were used.  The substrate is a 12" x 16" canvas, rotary cut with a decorative blade, and mounted on 1/8" thick birch board.  At least, I think it's birch but I need to ask my DH because I can't remember.  He helped me select it.

I finally figured out how to remove the background!  This is much better than my previous attempts but I need to perfect it.

Tootles All,

D~~~~

I Won!

Leslie McNeil is a blogger from Great Falls, Montana. Not long ago, I discovered her blog, and I have been following her ever since!  Leslie recently had a give away on her blog, and I won a very cool pin/brooch!

It arrived in this Dayspring Greeting
card (cool piano), and there's a
wonderful Max Lucado quote
on the front.  I love him! 

My photo is not the best so in 

case you can't read it, it says:  

There are things only you can do, 

and you are alive to do them. 

In the great orchestra we call life,

you have an instrument and a song

and you owe it to God to 

play them both sublimely.

The pin is 3" x 3", and as you 

can see below, it's very cute!  

The colors are very much ME!

I love it and look forward to wearing it! 

The pin is attached so that it can 

be worn in this direction.

 Perfect!

I suppose it can be worn other ways 

but I like the way Leslie attached it,

and I will wear it that way.

Here is the link to Leslie's blog: 

 MarveLes Art Studios.

If you like this pin as much as I do, 

you will love her blog!

Thank you so much Leslie, 

and many blessings to you!

Tootles For Now,

D~~~~

New Project Materials

I'm starting an art quilt for the "What If?" Reader Challenge in Quilting Arts Magazine.

I'll start with canvas, burlap, 

and these colorful dotted fabrics.

Oh and these painted dryer sheets.

Of course, that's the plan right now but materials

and ideas can be altered at any time.

Yes, it's been known to happen.

Does it ever happen to you?

Tootles My Creative Friends,

D~~~~

Leap Day and Art

In this Leap Year, it's Leap Day!

Billy Blue sits in the garden wondering if 

this will be the day he finally leaps

out of it.  I don't think so Billy.

Yes, Spring is near, and I've resorted

to watching the Weather Channel

just so I can see snow.

Heavy sigh...

Two projects that I'm working on:

I need to update my daily art journal

This project is almost complete but

I've been sidetracked with other things.

Tootles For Now My Art Friends,

D~~~~