Happy Memorial Day weekend to you all! I hope you’re getting a chance to honor those we have lost and also enjoy the freedom of this special day. (And let’s face it, a picnic and some family time are a nice way to spend it.)

Here are your artsy blogging links for this week.

Beading Arts
A tutorial for simple but elegant earrings is featured this week!

Eileen – The Artful Crafter
Pearl stretch bracelets make the perfect accessory. Eileen made 3 in 30 minutes for less than $2 each. Here’s the how-to. No beading tools required!

Mo(o)re Whimsies
Sakura Hobby Craft and Terri Sproul Mixers Redo a Cheesebox

Remember the red, white, and blue house I painted recently? I wanted to do something more with it, so I decided to add a little note inside of it. Nothing too elaborate, just a word that went along with the house. I choose the word “freedom” and printed it out on a piece of paper.

I cut it out, and jammed it in the little hole with my favorite, overused, paintbrush, and some glue.

And viola! See, when you look close, there’s the note:

I thought it was pretty fun. I asked Gen and she said, “Do another one. And give me a treat.”

For the next one, I wrote the word “love” on a piece of music paper, and again jammed it in the hole. (Which really sounds so not crafty or elegant, and it isn’t, it’s actually very messy, but crafts are that way sometimes.)

See it in there? So then I painted it, and added a few others to the mix.

Not sure what I’ll do with these right now, but they were fun to do and very relaxing.

Here are your artsy blogging links for this week.\

Beading Arts
We’re celebrating everything to do with wire this month! Come and visit with some fabulous wire artists and try your hand at working with wire yourself!

Eileen – The Artful Crafter
Do you know how to repair cracked ceramics? Eileen shares two methods.

This week I started playing with backgrounds, and as soon as I put down the colors I knew what type of picture I would paint over it. I could see the beautiful white and grey hair of a woman set against the background. There’s something about that kind of silver hair that really makes a statement to me. You see an older woman like that and it just gives her a strong, competent vibe.

As I was painting, I was thinking about a poem of mine called “On Trial” (from my book A New Dish and also New and Selected Poems). The poem basically talks about how differently you might feel from day to day as you make your way through the battles of life. Sometimes you’ll feel strong and youthful, other times you’ll be tired and feel every year of your age.

Specifically, the lines I’m using are: “Some days I’m an old woman, with a lifetime of memories past, and sometimes, I’m a child, with a smile that will always last.” I named one picture “Sometimes I’m an Old Woman” and the other “Sometimes I’m a Child” to match the lines of the poem.

I painted each picture with the idea that you wouldn’t really know whether the woman was young or old. The beautiful silver hair wouldn’t tell you, and her face wouldn’t either. She could be young or old depending on how you saw her.

When it came time to add the lines from the poem, though. I hesitated. I really wasn’t sure how I wanted them on there. Sometimes I write them or stamp them on, but that didn’t seem right for these pictures. So I’m not sure. For right now, I decided to do it digitally and play with it before putting the words on there permanently.

Both pictures are for sale at Fine Art America.

Here are a few new articles I’ve written recently.

• Happiness Quotes
• Review of Quiet: The Power of Introverts In a World That Can’t Stop Talking
• Honoring the Other Women in Your Life This Mother’s Day
• Great (Really) Last Minute Mother’s Day Gifts
• Fun Questions to Ask Mom About Her Life
• 5 Out of the Box Ways to Feel Better About Life
• Living With Friends Like the Golden Girls
• Moving in With a Friend
• 10 TV Shows That Will Help You Make Small Talk
• Small Talk Ideas at an Event
• Small Talk With Strangers

Oh, and sleepy Genevieve says hi too.

Welcome to the artsy blogging links for this Saturday. May they inspire you to make great things! Also, hope everyone has a wonderful Mother’s Day tomorrow.

Beading Arts
Here’s a great way to stretch out your more expensive beads to get greater impact!

Eileen – The Artful Crafter
Eileen has been at sea with creativity while making mementos of the trip of a lifetime.

I must be looking forward to Memorial Day, because I’ve been making all kinds of red, white, and blue things this week.

First, the paintings. I made this one I called “Freedom Flag,” which has the preamble to the constitution in the blue part, with special papers and words in the red and white:

Then I made a house (which I swear has to be my favorite thing to paint next to the strong women pictures and still life) in that same style, with the words “life” “liberty” and “pursuit of happiness” in among the clouds. There are layers and papers beneath the stripes and stars in the house as well.

There’s two things I’m loving about mixed media. One is that it’s so much fun to uncover the picture from the layers below it, and the second is that after you’re finished, there is so much to look at afterward. The closer you look, the more you see.

While I was on the patriotic kick, I also made this little house.

I took a dollar store house I had, and covered it in music paper. Then I whitewashed over it and painted the stars and stripes. I wanted it to look “rustic” but I think I might have gone overboard. It looks a little sloppy to me.

Gen wasn’t impressed either.

Covering the dollar store house was a lot more time consuming than I thought it would be. It was messy and hard to get the paper where I wanted it. But, naturally, that won’t stop me from trying again. I do love to make those houses.

Both paintings can be purchased as prints or edge wrapped canvasses at Fine Art America.

Welcome to the Cinco de Mayo version of Artsy Blogging Links! What are you working on this week?

Beading Arts
Beadng Arts celebrates “Wire Month” all throughout May! Grab your pliers and come join us!

Eileen – The Artful Crafter
The Artful Crafter shares free clip art sources to publicize neighborhood fun.

Mo(o)re Whimsies
An unusual paperweight made using Amazing Mold Putty and Resin

We’ve been having tons of thunderstorms and terrible weather lately, but I’m happy to say that the glass mushrooms I painted have held up! The paint hasn’t budged (so yay for Martha Stewart’s paint product) and the glass has all stayed glued properly together. Love that. Of course, now that only encourages me to make some more. That, and DH says he wants to see a “whole patch of mushrooms” on the ground because he thinks they look cooler as a large group. You don’t have to ask me twice.

I always try to follow the contours and patterns of the glass when painting, and this time I went a little too crazy on one of the bowls. I painted red flowers (over a red flower pattern on the glass) and it looked really stupid. But oh well… I did like the rest of them. One mushroom top had hearts around the edge, and the other had swirls. I used each as a guide on what to paint, and just chose colors I liked regardless if they really went together or not. (I’m going for a whimsical look on these and a lot of color and pattern will help.)

Just as I did before, I painted the dessert cups and bowls. I also had one small vase that I used.

Then I glued the bowls to the dessert cups.

I went to the Dollar Store again, and found some more glass beads for just a buck a bag. Aren’t they pretty?

I added some randomly to one of the mushrooms.

And viola! Another set complete.

But the true test is to see what they look like with all their little friends.

I may move these to another part of the yard, where there is grass instead of bark. I think they look better on grass. Plus, that blue one really bugs me, so I may take it inside again and redo the paint. We’ll see. In the meantime, I’m leaving them be and searching for more glass.

Did you ever develop a catchphrase that you don’t know where it came from? “Boom. Done.” happens to be mine. It comes about when I have to belabor over a decision either by myself or with someone else. Like me and my hubby or me and a coworker (or, my hubby and I and my coworker and I – little grammatical fix there) belabor over a decision. It doesn’t matter whether they make the final choice or I do, when we’re done talking about it I say, “Boom. Done.”

I noticed that it’s not just during my own decisions that I say this. A friend of mine emailed me about a choice she had to make. We went back and forth with info, and finally I said, “I’d do this. Boom. Done.”

She’s actually the one that pointed out the fact that I said “Boom. Done.” often lately. Where did I pick this up from? I have no idea. Usually I can pinpoint it. I get a lot of catchphrases from my hubby. I have finally gotten over my “dude” catchphrase, which I picked up from him. I even said to my mom one day, “Dude, you gotta try this.” She laughed at me. “Dude?”

**Embarrassed**

Boom. Done. makes me feel like I’m brushing off my hands with a “decision well made” attitude for some reason. Like, we had this choice on our backs and now it’s off. Ahhh. Let’s go have a cup of tea and celebrate.

Boom. Done.

Do you have a catchphrase? Where did you pick it up?