First Snow

Well it finally happened...

...after an unusually warm weekend Maple Hill got its first snow...Miss Gwendoline was definetly not sure about going outside!

2 hour delay for school openings this morning - which meant hubby had a little extra time to get to work

and lovely photo opportunities around the wood lot

I love watching the birds against the white - this morning everyone showed up for a good feed (mourning doves, chickadees, woodpeckers, nut hatch and squirrels....)

Despite the amount of snow covering up their source

The day is sunny so all that snow is going to melt away

Which will make my snowmen look sorry...

They were enjoying the view!

Enjoy, Jewels

Gluebook and Travels

You may recall not too long ago I started Mary's Christmas Gluebook class (which by the way you can still sign up for). Being the over achiever I am I decided to make a Vintage and a Retro version. Well I've managed to get the pages done for the first, though I still need to "bind". Let me know what you think - I tried to use as much "original" material as I could (primarily my stash of old Christmas postcards)...

This is the Back and Front cover...

Pages 2 and 3 - I have the original photo of the lovely lady on the right - this is a scan I made of her.

My centerfold - pages 4 and 5. The Christmas definitions came from an old Universal Encyclopedia.

I like how pages 6 and 7 turned out - splitting the graphic and framing each piece seemed to work really well! All in all I am pretty happy how it turned out (despite all the glue on fingers, in my hair and on my countertop...)

Hubby and I are off to Canada for American Thanksgiving (yep, we celebrate both) so I'll be offline a little bit. Not many more artsy things planned for the rest of the year - but plenty of ideas (and things I do need to get done) starting in January! Safe travels to those of you on the road this holiday. Cheers, Jewels

All I want for Christmas....

...is a new frackin computer!!!! When hubby noted ours was 7 (yes SEVEN) years old it explained a lot - and the versions of different software are about the same (argh). Just think Lenna, I could be following you on your super duper version of your blog :)...

It's slowly been having a melt down the last few weeks so we've started looking - any suggestions? I need to replace soon before it goes kaput. The "all in one" are intriging but not mature enough for me to trust them. I could get a laptop but I would still need a decent keyboard and monitor for the artsy stuff...

So would love to hear what you like/dislike about your current technology - let me know. Thanks! Jewels

Turkey Wrap

November's Mail Art theme is "Turkey Wrap" - the only rule is to have turkey (dead, alive or cooked) in your art. What a hoot. I really enjoyed this one. My Peeps have received mine so I know I can share with you.

I knew pretty quickly what I wanted to do. If your a certain age you remember TV dinners fondly (kinda). I was lucky to find some great ads on the Internet. These are the two I used.

And here is the finished product - like Leslie says, it just feel so Leave it to Beaver. Can't you just hear the one boy saying in a sing song voice "allllll yearrrr longgggg" (snort). And seriously, the other one wants to watch the news! I just laughed when I read this (you should be able to double click and see a larger picture) 

I used this graphic on the back. Don't think the sentiment would be considered politically correct these days...Enjoy! Jewels

Painful as it may be...

...I hate back spasms, I really do. Unfortunately I inherited my Dad's bad back and every now and then it just decides to "go" - some times I can explain it, some times I can't. Needless to say, when it goes it goes and there is not much I can do about it but continually stretch the muscle and work it out. It does make it difficult to go to work as a. I have to literally stand most of the time and b. I would get funny looks regularly hitting the floor either in pain or in an effort to stretch.

Today was one of those days - I did manage to get work done standing at the kitchen counter and regularly taking breaks. The worst thing I think you can do is go to bed (just makes it worse for me). When I finally did finish for the day I decided to take my mind off of things by working on Mary Green's newest class - Christmas Gluebooks. She provides the instructions and graphics but I decided to use as much original material as I could. This first book "cover" includes old sheet music, a vintage stamp and a graphic from an old card - the green background (I confess) is scrapbook paper.

I also have a pile of more retro Christmas cards - 50's and 60's - that I wanted to use. Totally different colour palette to work with. I used the sheet music Mary provided which has a real pink tinge to it. The background paper is old gift wrap. The card has "sparkles" on it (I think most of my old cards do!). Anyway will be interesting to see how different the two books turn out! Enjoy - and you can sign up for Mary's class if your interested....Jewels (p.s. I'm thinking I'll have recovered by tomorrow...fingers crossed)

Going Gothic

Well Halloween has passed us by once again. Living out in the country we don't actually get little visitors at our door (which saves me buying candy every year - what a meanie)...I do like to have pumpkins but the last couple of years our friendly woodland critters have been dining on them! But we are on to Christmas decorations now...(say what! when did that happen...)

Keeping with October, this (past) month's mail art theme was Going Gothic. First up, Beth's lovely rendition of Mona Lisa as a goth girl. How funny - on the back of the postcard she talks about her "research" into goth. Love the make up and the Gargoyle (which apparently Mona hates).

Next up is Leslie's hilarious "gloomy obituaries". Apparently it took her awhile to come up with something for our theme, but then it just all came together. Personally I think she had the most fun writing the obit...another great postcard to add to my Mail Art collection!

Thanks ladies - unfortunately I forgot to get pics of my contribution before I got in the post so hoping one of you will share mine! November's theme is Turkey Wrap (need to incorporate the big bird, dead, alive or cooked - LOL). Enjoy, Jewels.