Tarot Eye Candy

Here are a couple of tarot card s that I created using some collage, acrylics and fabric paints. (As always, the art on this site is copyrighted so please don’t take anything without permission.)

The Fool

The Magician

101 Things and a little eye candy

So I have a couple of art pictures that I would like to upload but I am having some trouble doing that.  So in the meantime I will just give a quick update on how my 101 things are going.

So far I have completed 30 things off of my list with one or two more slated to be completed soon.

This summer I visited two new states, including my trip to Feri camp. I read a bunch more books bringing my total to 39/100 so far. I have another trip and some surgery planned for this fall/winter so I should increase that number soon.  I went on a first friday artwalk with a fried which was a lot of fun, I am pretty good with the trying new foods too.

I have been to the Western Slope of Colorado where my friend and I did some Bouldering, and she and I found a few more letterboxes on the Lariat Loop.  With the weather changing and the upcoming surgery, the rest of the Loop may have to wait until spring.  J and I did, however, take my neice letterboxing on our trip to IL this summer and so I got a letterbox in another state also. While I was home visiting family I also got the christmas cut out cookies recipes from both of my aunts so I am looking forward to trying them out this holiday season.

The 14er has once again been postponed so it is a good thing that I still have some time to complete this list!

And finally, we have donated money to four organizations this year, Colorado CASA, Humane Society of the Boulder Valley, Rocky Mountain Raptor Rescue and my neices school in IL, so that’s four on the list and also goes towards sending our “found money” out into the world to do good.

While I have been posting we have discovered the secret to uploading photos, so while I go get the pictures off of my camera, here is a pic of the handmade ritual cup I received from a friend in Oklahoma!

Books to read

So I am going to be having some surgery in December and I will be house bound for a while. So I have solicited some suggestions for some books to read while I am recuperating. I also added a few that I have come across myself that seemed interesting.

As you can see, I like fantasy, fairy tale, myth & legend

The List - In no particular order

Audrey Niffenegger (Recommended by Pixie)

• The Time Traveller’s Wife

Kij Johnson (recommended by Raven)

• The Fox Woman
• Fudoki

Paulo Coelho

• The Valkyries
• Eleven Minutes
• The Pilgrimage
• The Zahir

Katherine Neville  (my BFF’s favorite book)

• The Eight

Michael Scott

• The Alchemyst
•  The Magician

Carol Berg (Recommended by Sif)

• Transformation
• Revelation
• Restoration

Katharine Kerr (Recommended by Raven)

• Daggerspell
• Darkspell
• The Bristling Wood
• The Dragon Revenant

Robin McKinley (Recommended by Raven)

• Beauty
• Rose Daughter
• Spindle’s End

Stephen R. Donaldson (Recommended by Sif)

•  Mirror of her Dreams
• A Man Rides Through

David Gibbons

• Crusader Gold
• Atlantis

Compliation

• Out of Avalon - started it, I am unimpressed, returning it unfinished to the library

Laurell K, Hamilton

• A Kiss of Shadows
• A Caress of Twilight

Frank Beddor

• The Looking Glass Wars
• Seeing Redd

Michelle Moran

• The Heretic Queen

Yasmine Galenorn

• Dragon Wytch (4th in a series)

Stan Nicholls

• Bodyguard of lightning
• The Covenant Rising
• Legion of Thunder

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Brandon Boyd (I need to figure out how to get my hands on these lol)

• White Fluffy Clouds
• From the Murks of the Sultry Abyss

Alan Moore

• Watchmen (compilation of series)
• Promethea (graphicnovel series)

101 things update - Spring Edition

Its been a little while since I posted so I thought I should post a little update on my progress. So far I think its going really well. I have 21 things crossed off of my list so far and I have several in the works.

#15 - I am up to 22 books read out of my 100 book goal. Some are audiobooks for my drive to work, some are rereads, and some are longer than others but regardless I am up to 22!

#17 - First Friday Artwalk is coming up. I am planning to go to the June one with a friend

#26 COMPLETE - i have now paid for two people at Starbucks, much to the delight of the Starbucks workers lol, and hopefully the people who got free coffee too.

# 37 - We have plans to hike our 14er in July when our friends are in town from Houston.

#40 - My recent trip to Texas was half of my goal of visiting 2 new states. Theother half will happen at the end of June when I complete #30 and Go to Feri Camp.

#52 - I have definitely been trying a new food every month. This month was an adventure at a Nigerian restaurant. It was easily the worst dining experience I have had in a very long time. lol my husband said it should count for June too.

#70 - My HooDoo correspondence course arrived last weekend! I am working through it with my covenmates so we will be getting started on it in June I think.

Lots more going on but I think those are the major highlights!

Gimme Your Stuff

So I have crossed 18 things off of my 101 things list!

Today I received my swap package from #60 - a swap on gimmeyourstuff.com. My swap partner was Vickie from England. She sent me all sorts of fun goodies!

Candy, cute pink socks, a little notebook, a phone charm, funky tissues, a British fashion mag , and a tote bag that folds up tiny to fit in your purse!

The great studio clean out of ‘08

Here are some photos of my studio taken in Jan of 07. (Bear in mind that this was right after cleaning it and it got messy again over the year in between)

Now… for months I have been saying that I wanted to declutter. That I had stuff in there that I knew I wouldn’t use again, etc. etc. etc.  But for some reason I couldn’t seem to get myself to actually DO it.  So I suppose I wasn’t really ready.

Finally, I knew I had to do it. I was stagnating and disheartened everytime I walked into the room. Not a good feeling for a place that also serves as my meditation spot!

And now…. after weeks of stress and a few tears…. *drum roll*

The Studio Now!!!

YAY! It feels so much better in there. I was fairly ruthless about it too. But I only kept the stuff that I am sure I will use. And I have also accepted the fact that art and crafts are something that I will probably only do sometimes so I didn’t need all of that stuff taking up space.

And once I was done with that, I was able to finish a project that has been sitting for a couple of months

Spring is springing up all over!

It’s supposed to be 70 today and I am hoping we can get a little yard work done. It’s sunny and gorgeous and I was treated to this when I walked out the door !

101 Update for February

Well things are really movin and shakin on my list! I am really happy with that. I have 12 completed items so far and a bunch that are in progress. So let’s see…

I have read 10 books out of a goal of 100 (#15), I have several in process and a long list of books that I would like to read. In the last couple of years my reading time kept getting smaller and smaller. I decided that this year I wanted to carve out time to read every day and that is happening! I am also trying to read a mix of entertaining and intellectual stuff so that I don’t really get bored with anything too quickly.

I performed my 2nd RAK this month (#25). I was looking on the main 101 Things site, trying to round out my list (which I did so scratch off #75!) and came across a girl who had a thing on her list about getting a tarot deck, so I sent her one of mine! I also sent a book on tarot. She seemed pretty excited to get them and it felt good to share something with someone just starting out.

I am gathering things up for my swap off of Gimme Your Stuff (#60). My swap is with a woman from England and I am looking forward to packing up a bunch of scrapbooking supplies and other goodies to send off to her. and of course to see what she sends me!

I have two trips planned for summer which will cover visiting 2 new states (#40)

The decluttering work around the house is moving faster than planned in some areas (slower in others) so I changed Complete a decluttering project once a month to Complete the Decluttering list (#62). I just don’t think I can wait a whole year to have my house cleaned out

And finally, what is probably the most satisfying “thing” of all is that we have been able to pay off 4 out of the 6 debts listed in our financial section (#’s 68,70,71,72)!!! What a relief. # 67 will be paid off hopefully this week and #74 will be 1/3 paid off this weekend. YAY!

Many more things to do and goals to reach but I am really happy with the progress I have made in just a couple of months!

Home Makeover Cheap Edition!

So we have been wanting to spruce things up around our house for a while. So yesterday we headed to the fabric store and got to work.

First up was curtains for the bedroom and the office area (which is actually part of the livingroom). We need a larger curtain rod for the office curtain so I dont have a picture of that one but here is one of the bedroom curtains.

They are made from a maroon satiny fabric with gold swirls that we got on clearance! It’s almost like adults sleep there!

Then we moved on to the next project… the couch

We have had this couch about 7 years and its made of a canvas that used to be chocolate brown. As you can see it has faded a TON and the cushions are squishy and misshapen. The big cushions across the back are also too big for the washing machine and the actual cushion inside has torn apart so all the stuffing falls out if you take it out of the cover. Not exactly helpful when something is spilled, or the cat takes her revenge, etc. (interesting note: the couch is now almost the same color brown as the bedroom!)

Now we have 7 smaller pillows across the back (which also punch up the color a little bit) and the couch looks WAY Better.

The 2 brown pillows are made from the old back pillows, the stripey ones we bought fabric for yesterday and the green ones are made from a length of canvas that we randomly got from grandma and yesterday we dyed it green. We kept the 2 small armrest pillows but they are in serious need of restuffing!

101 Update

Ok so I have crossed off 4 things so far! One of the first things I was able to cross off was to get a flowering plant for my office.

Here it is. It is a christmas cactus with awesome pink and white blooms. Good for my office because I don’t have a ton of natural light in there.

I also learned how to purl a couple of weeks ago while I was in the mountains for a work retreat!

I took a Nia class when I got back from the retreat and I loved it enough to go back last Thursday! I have plans to go again this week with my BFF!

And finally, yesterday was day 30 of taking my multivitamin. Go me! I never thought I would be able to make that a habit. I have added to the list the task of making it a habit to take a flax seed oil capsule everyday in the same way.

Some of the tasks on the big list include smaller lists. So I have now read 4 books so far. I finished Auntie Mame this weekend. Its just as great as the movie, which I love! I am also close to finishing the audiobook in my car as well.

And of course the previous post full of art is month number 1 of creating something and posting here every month.

So far the list is working great for me! I love the feeling of crossing something off.