Soul Lilies

Together We Can

2010-04-21T13:04:00.000-05:00

Fun stuff - I finished my "Kitty Love Shrine" for Fancy Feast and Friskies, and shipped it off on Holy Saturday. Evidently it made it - I found it in their gallery here. Click the link and I'm the first on the left on the 4th page. Woot! Since I am such a brat, I'm including my way better picture with this post. Since it's online I don't think I'll get in trouble, right? Too late to worry about that now!

I will say it was a lot of fun doing it, but wow was it a lot of WORK. And stinky! I apologize to the person who opened the FedEx box on April 7th - I used some powerful adhesives to keep all those cans together!

Speaking of togetherness, my good church friends and I have been working on a fun get-together for women on Friday night. You can read all about it on my friend Dipsydoodle's blog! Dipsy & I have spent a lot of time making gorgeous crafty goodies for the chicks who are coming - last count was 50 people! We will be doing this 4 times a year - next one will be in July and I hope we get even more women next time.

Shameless Pimping

2010-03-30T22:56:00.005-05:00

Well life moves along and I'm trying not to get bowled over by it. What's new? I have a few things going on. First, I am the new Kansas City Craft Shop Examiner on Examiner.com. So far I've published two articles and it's pretty much a lot of fun although a bit harder than writing a blog - in a blog there are no rules, really. Now I have to knuckle down and play by the rules. So far I've made 14 cents - woot! Click here to see the site - and if you'd like to follow me I'd sure appreciate it! Also, please email me if you'd like to write for them as well - again, shameless pimping for moolah here! I do what I can!

Speaking of cans, I've been selected to submit some art for the Together We Can art show by Friskies & Fancy Feast - making art from cans. Cat food cans, of course! They are everywhere in the house. I teased the Deacon that we would all have to eat cat food for awhile - I don't know if he really believed me, but Mrs. Deacon has been cooking a lot lately - hmmmm.

Well it's Holy Week, I'm tired and ready for bed! I'll leave with a couple ATCs I made for Katilady's Virgin Mary Swap last year. Hand drawn; prismacolors on watercolor paper.

Cheeka's back - again!

2010-03-30T00:07:00.010-05:00

Here I am again after a long hiatus. It's funny, I've lost pretty much everything. My car, my house, but not my self respect, sense of humor or my faith. I'm living with the Deacon of my church and his wife - in the basement. Some days I feel like a kid living with mom & dad. But as I often say, it's all good. I'm blessed - I have a place to live, food, and thanks to my ex-boss keeping me through the 1st quarter of last year, another unemployment claim to keep me going! Woot!

First, a few things I need to say...to the women with children I see on the bus in the evening, wow. I'm so impressed. I could never do what you do! I can't imagine getting home at 7:00 pm with two or three children and still having to cook dinner, give baths, say prayers, etc. Sheesh!

To the Methuselah's dad who I helped over a snow drift - how do you keep going day after day? I hope when I am that old I do not have to take a stupid bus!

And finally, to the men who are as tired and worn out as I am after a hard day's work who give me their seat just because I am a girl - THANK YOU! I am happy to leave equality behind when I am tired. And I always appreciate a kind gesture. Thank you so much!

At any rate, you ask, have I at least been creating? Of course, although not as much as you'd think...but that is changing! Here's a few of the latest swaps I've done - I dropped out of a few, too depressed some days, too lazy and I did have a lot of moving around of my art space in the last year.

Katilady's Queerious Swap:

There's alcohol inks on transparencies, book scraps, paint, paper, the whole works! Lots of fun!

RobbyGirl's Cheshire Cats - Get Your Grin On swap

Now that's enough to wet your whistles for now, okay? Rest assured I will be blogging regularly now. I'm through hiding. Great changes are coming - I'll talk about that tomorrow.

Soooo.....

2009-05-10T22:53:00.008-05:00

Here I am again! It's been a wild ride, believe you me. I don't even know where to begin, so I'll probably start in the middle. I traveled a lot in my job through March - came back from a trip and was let go for whatever reason. It was weird. The week before, not only was my work "perfect" but one of the attorneys was taking me to lunch he was so happy with my performance but I had a client meeting coming up that day and had to decline. Not sure what happened after that, but color me jobless! It's a drag, there's so many people competing. But I trust that God has the perfect plan for my life, you know?

Obviously I never finished the Soul Journal - I might get back to that soon. You know, you'd think I'd be creating like mad with all this free time, right? Au contraire! First of all, I was going to have a roommate, so with the help of many, my art studio got packed up, orgainzed and started to move to the garage. Then potential roomie moved all her stuff in, went to visit her mother and I haven't seen her since. We've texted a few times and she got salty with me when I suggested she get her stuff outta the house - including the two lizards. I worry about those dumb reptiles every day, her boyfriend occasionally comes and gives them water and crickets, but I am too scared of them to give them anything and I'm terrified I'm gonna look in there one day and have dead lizards in there. Ugggh. so all my art supplies are spread all throughout the living room and I realized halfway through that the garage is too hot for most of my supplies except maybe colored pencils and beads. Everything else will mold in this humidity! Onto plan B - I'll tell ya about that tomorrow.

What else? Hmmm. Had a boyfriend, let him move in. Dumb mistake. Suffice it to say that said boyfriend ate like a sumo wrestler and did play a lot of playstation, but mostly annoyed me. Isn't that awful? When he finally left, I felt nothing but relief. No crying, no nothing...just peace!

Okay - art - have I done ANY? Well yeah! Lots! Right now I'm hosting a swap on AFA called Six Word Memoirs - it's a chunky swap and the point is to tell part of your life story in six words. So here's a few I've done - one completed, one completed except for the chunky goodness and one started...enjoy!

Good Sex Is Worth The Drama

Scary Childhood, Nervous Adulthood, Finally Free

My Mind Is Full Of Art

Of course, the 12-year-old boy in me sees it now as My Mind is Full o Fart - and now you will too! Har.

Okay I will stop for now. Blogger is getting ready for a scheduled outage and I have so much art
to share, it's amazing. But don't want to like overwhelm everyone and all - grin.

Hugs and kisses to everyone! Life really is divine...

Where Have All The Cheekas Gone?

2008-09-16T00:08:00.004-05:00

Okay, when I started this blog I swore I would never mention why I missed posting for awhile - because that is so lame! However, I will admit I've been stymied by the paper doll part of the Soul Journal project. It didn't occur to me till the other day that I could just SKIP IT! So that's what I'm gonna do till I get inspired to make paper dolls. Expect to see a big fat update in that arena soon!

So I've been creating like crazy - mostly ATCs, with a skinny book and a chunky book thrown in for fun.

First up - a coupla swaps! Here's the cards I made for the Sock Monkey swap - where you ask? AFA (atcsforall.com) of course! No hostess card but I did send a gift - drawing is hard!

Then some digital cards with transparancies - wow I love those! Of course, these also were for a swap on AFA.

I really enjoyed these! Transparencies RULE.

Enough for now - hugs all around! And if you get a chance, check out my girl katilady's blog - it kicks ass! As does she. I now own 4 atcs of hers - I am a lucky duck. She's very deep (unlike me) but still a lot of fun - like she's not a dorky loser or anything. And sexy, too! So enjoy!

Aww Hell

2008-08-15T07:07:00.006-05:00

Okay, so like, I'm really, really behind on the Soul Journal now! I got so exited about that, I neglected my swaps! I think I broke some kinda rule or something! Rest assured I am caught up and ready to rumble! Thanks for all your nice comments the last two weeks!

I only have a coupla things to post art-wise, but believe me after this weekend I'll have lots!

Here's a skinny page I did for a swap on the art techniques group on yahoo; the theme is summer. One of those commitments I made back in June I think. I made 25 of them - ack! It was good practice, however, because I joined a techniques fat book swap and need to do 120 pages for that one! Sheesh! What was I thinking?

The poem on there is one my gramma (waving! hey gramma!) sang to me when I was a kid - hell, when I was an adult, too. My gramma was always singing some silly song. Too bad she's not here to sing them to me anymore - I'm glad I listened although some of them were horribly racist and I can't sing them these days. Even in the privacy of my own home, that stuff embarrasses me now - amazing that we didn't think a thing of it back in the day! When I think nothing's changed really, I can remember stuff like that and say, well it has changed a bit. But as usual, I digress...

Then I made this lil ATC for another swap on atcsforall.com. For some reason my friends are calling me pickle (or dickle when I'm being feisty). So to honor my new nick, here's a card.

It was suggested to me that she looks preggers, and perhaps if she wasn't such a boozy slut, she'd know who the father pickle was - I'm not sure how this all came through in an ATC! All I have to say is - "don't hate, man!." Pickles need love too and maybe she's just ummm chubby. I know in my case an unfortunate clothing choice can make people ask "when's your baby due?" although as I get older that happens less and less! Good thing, too, that sure embarrasses a person - not me, because hey I know I'm a chubette. It's all good.

Thanks to all my fellow Soul Journalers for leaving nice comments - I read all of them even though I was busy at work and all and no time to respond. I treasure every comment I receive! So here I go, back to the art grind, if you can call it that!

Wow - Christian the Lion!

2008-07-28T01:02:00.003-05:00

Okay - uggh. I HATE crying. This was so worth it. Nuff said. Stupid YouTube won't let me autopost to my blog so I'm just linking. I promise you'll like this.

Christian the Lion

Just watch it, okay? And bring Kleenex!

Soul Journal - Days 8-9

2008-07-27T22:42:00.002-05:00

Whew! I am so far behind! Not my fault this time, though. BossMan sent me to Nebraska for a few days - I did have fun although it was a completely different world. And wow - FARM WIVES! They are the BOMB. These people eat the biggest lunch I've ever seen - and mashed potatoes and bread at every meal! Talk about heaven on earth. I am in love. But as usual, I digress...

Day 8 we had to paint our taped pages - I don't like mine AT ALL. I saw some other soul journal sisters' pages and I am horribly jealous. But I'm just going to go with the flow and hope we cover up this mess quickly because this ugliness is ruining the whole thing! Grumble.

Now on our magazine pages, again, painting on top and rubbing off and I like the way this one turned out. I used a baby blue which worked out well to soften the purple. Then I took my trusty Sharpie and drew dotted lines, broken lines, messy boxes and words on the pictures. I like the way it turned out! So that makes up for my ugly tape page.

Well kids, that's all for now - I need to prep some pages and get a whole mess of photo profile cards ready to send tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Till next time, Cheeka.

Soul Journal - Day 7

2008-07-22T00:52:00.010-05:00

Wow - I'm like 3 days behind - but not for long! I think I can catch up by tomorrow! But life catches up with me and dang I need to get my photo profiles cards OUT and I have a few swaps to catch up so I can breathe and the rest are due in October. Skinny book pages due in 10 days and I HAVEN'T STARTED YET. I need to quit making plans on the weekends! Grrr. I'm making candles with my friend Misti on Saturday and then I'm going to make her some risotto because I am practicing to get on Hell's Kitchen. And if I've learned nothing from the previous seasons, I've learned that Gordon really likes risotto. It's like cinnamon toast to him. To me, I don't understand why they sell cinnamon sugar to sprinkle on toast - can't everyone make that? I mean, c'mon - if you can't make cinnamon toast you might as well just get the eff outta the kitchen cuz you don't know jack and you never will. It's hopeless, give up now before you poison someone or worse. Okay, where was I going with this???

Oh yeah! Soul Journal, day 7. Honestly, I have been dragging my feet because this involves journaling (I don't know why I'm surprised, isn't this just getting gluey fingers and paint in my hair - I thought that's what this was all about!). Anyway, the journal prompt is "I forgot to tell you..." and I'm all like, I don't forget to tell nobody nothin - seriously, people are always saying "okay, tell me how you really feel." I just don't believe in hiding stuff - and hey, if you stick an ugly baby picture in my face, I will tell you that baby is ugly. Like my friend showed me a picture of her granddaughter and I said "dang, where'd she get that nose? It's taking up the whole picture! I sure hope she is really smart, because she sure is - oh crap, sorry." But really, that schnoz was humungus! Seriously! And she tried to tell me it was the camera angle - please.

Anyway, after thinking on it a bit, i did think of someone I don't remember to talk to enough - God. So hence more foot dragging, because I really suck in this area. I'm quick to shout "Oh Lord, help me, please" but do I remember to say thank you? Or, I'm sorry I missed our prayer time, I know you were waiting? Nope, I figure, well God knows everything, so what's the point. He knows all the hairs on my head, and how many there are without counting and all. So I had to do it. Here's a few excerpts of my journaling before I cover it all up with tape! I'm only putting the first line of each paragraph because well, this is private stuff, y'all. Quit being so dang nosy!

Lord:

I forgot to tell you I love you.
I forgot to tell you I'm sorry.
I forgot to tell you I'm grateful.
I forgot to tell you a lot of times I'm scared.
I forgot to tell you that I'll try to be better.
I forgot to tell you I'll listen more.

But there's a whole bunch more but you'll just have to guess cuz I'm going to blur it all out in the photo! Hey and the cool thing is, we were sposed to journal with a ball point pen - like who has those anymore? I left mine in the drawer with my QUILL, okay? But somehow I found a purple ball point pen! That made me VERY HAPPY. Check it out!

So anyway, then we had to find all the tape in the house that was not transparent. As I mentioned in a previous post. I have a lot of adhesives. Lots of tapes, too. Most of which are transparent! But I did have some black duck tape (yes, hussies, that's how it's spelled on the package, duck) and some metal repair tape which ROCKS. Check out my book now - betcha can't read a thing!

Yeah, me neither. Then we had to sand it. Okay, I am such a girl! All I have for sanding are manicure blocks. Whatever works, right?

So the journaling part made me cry a little, which makes me mad because I do not cry. I'm tough! And mean! And scary! Well I was scary when I had my mean glasses but I had to get new ones and evidently they don't have mean ones in bifocals. Sigh. So I had to go back to looking friendly. Anyway! I got that done and I'll tell you a bit about day 8 now - I had to put gesso on it then wipe it off. It's drying right now!

Till next time - Cheeka!

ps - any weird layout choices are Blogger's, not mine! Just so you know!

Soul Journal - Day 6

2008-07-20T02:33:00.005-05:00

Okay so like I'm a day behind now - it's all good! I am enjoying the journey and that's the best part, right? Screw the destination! I'll get there at some point. Anyway! Day 6 was to gesso over page 4 if we hadn't already (nope, hadn't done that) and then put the wash of a dark color on. I chose purple - of course! No blah old brown for me! I did buy some walnut ink at Urban today so I'm all set for when ever I need some. One thing I loathe (obviously - you've seen my studio and it's only gotten worse since last time I shared) is not having something when I need it. I mean, the adhesives alone take up a whole drawer. I have plain glue sticks, embellishment glue sticks, repositionable glue sticks (they effin rock, too) and super tacky glue and YES paste (which is awesome, especially for gluebooks and bigger collages) and spray adhesive and ummm fabric adhesive and liquid nails and well the reason that drawer is so full is I put all the other boring stuff in there too, like extra foam brushes (sorry Mother Earth, I won't buy anymore of those evil things - I WILL wash my brushes) and toothpicks and spackle and caulk - hey those are legitimate art supplies! and oh tapes - magnet tape and scotch tape and metal repair tape (rocks - makes me SING to think about it!) and real duck tape and well that's all I can remember right now. But you get the picture. Okay, I'm straying from the topic at hand - back to the art journal.

Then we were to cut the 24 pictures out that I discussed last post, and cut the image into an inch square. I was going to steal a tip from ruby claire at ruby.clair.x and outline my pix with a black sharpie, but I forgot! I heart sharpies! This picture looks a little whack because the gel medium is still wet and is bouncing the flash.

So next is to journal on the next two pages without any gesso or nothin on them, with a ball point pen - I'd better do as Sarah sez and use a ball point - I'd hate for that to be important in the next step and I SCREWED UP. And small letters - I think she's onto me - grumble. Dang. So I'm off to hunt for a ball point pen so I can journal to the prompt: I forgot to tell you... Honestly I don't know what I'll come up with for that - it sounds hokey and dumb - ugggh. Kinda like sharing with a large group which I have to do a lot but don't like to do! Blah. I'll get through it and probably find out it's like mowing at church - something I dread but enjoy when I'm finally doing it.

Okay - till next time! Cheeka

Soul Journal - Day 5

2008-07-18T00:44:00.005-05:00

So I've DONE NOTHING today - here's our task. First, put some gesso on page 4, then put a wash over the page, something kinda dark. Then grab some magazines and cut out the following images:

1. A smile
2. Something beautiful
3. a chair
4. something red
5. something blue
6. something comfortable
7. something exotic
8. a leaf
9. a color you love
10. a pattern
11. a flower
12. a bird
13. something you want
14. something you own
15. the letter R
16 something that smells good
17. something that tastes good
18. A circle
19. the letter A
20. An eye that’s the same color as yours
21. a hand
22. the letter T
23. a butterfly
24. a number

Then she says, put them aside and I'll tell ya what to do tomorrow. Arrrgh! Then Ms. Confucious says: "Part of not knowing what the end result will be is learning to enjoy the journey." Grrrr. Well I know what I'll be doing instead of lunch tomorrow - clipping magazines! Maybe I'll go gesso before bed. I'm also working on 8 profile cards! I think I owe 5 or 6 and this is getting pretty big so I figured I'd get ahead. Then the devil INTERNET caught me up in looking at other blogs. I can feel smug about it as I was only going on my sister soul journaler's blogs. Not wasting time at all...grin.

Till next time - Cheeka!

Soul Journal - Days 3-4

2008-07-17T01:25:00.003-05:00

Wow this is not only fun, but a total learning experience. First, I thought I'd share the front cover of a diary I kept in junior high and high school. Doing my Soul Journal brought back some memories - and this is soooooo cool! It says (among other things) that "Only cool people may read this, and they are:" with a list of my cool friends' names. I've come a bit further these days but not much, I'm thinking. For one reason I STILL USE THE WORD COOL! 33 years later, and I can't stop saying it! What's up with that?

The next step was not only to find a picture of a knight or protector of some kind, but:

"I want you to think about what you need to protect and nourish your creative spirit. Think about the things that sustain you. What’s needed to shield you from outside criticism and your inner critic?Today we will be constructing our own Soul Armor!I want you to think of strength and protection. Think about what you turn to when you are “under siege”. What does your creative spirit NEED more of? How do we keep all those critical voices from crippling us in our crusade?"

So here's what I did to express all that...

I will say this - for some tough guys, it was hard to find a knight who didn't look completely GAY. Seriously! What's up with that fluff on his hat and the horse's hat? This was the best I could do. Now y'all know I am totally down with the gay boys, and a lot of them are extremely tough, but the knights I was finding honestly looked kinda nellie. I did NOT feel protected. But the big horse with his big horse eye - how freaky is that? - looked very protective. So there you have it. I'm not quite done coloring in his horse coat, and I put a lil silver leaf pen on the knight, but not too much because I was afraid he'd turn into a big shiny mess. Just to gay it up some more, I put silver glitter glue on the horse's hooves. I just couldn't help myself! Sorry, big protector horse.

Till next time, Cheeka.

Soul Journal - Beginning the Journey

2008-07-16T02:42:00.006-05:00

Somehow I stumbled upon Sarah Whitmire's blog, Caspiana, this weekend. She has come up with the most amazing concept she calls Soul Journaling. She is journaling along with us, and you can see the first post here. I decided to play along...here's my journal.

I neglected to photograph the first day's assignment, which was to take your journal, paste dictionary pages on the first 3 pages, then journal on the pages for 5 minutes. Honestly, I just journaled till I had filled the pages, and I used a big fat Sharpie to do my journaling so it filled up the pages quickly! We were to start each thought with "Today I feel" and fill in the rest. It's funny the myriad of feelings I have every day and hardly realize it.

The next day's task was to dry-brush gesso over all the journaling. It was quite liberating (actually I knew it was coming because I got started on day two so I journaled quite honestly).

Okay, I so blurred it so no one could see what I'd written! Private stuff here, guys! Now the fun begins! We had to gather all our favorite writing tools, and write "This book belongs to" and then write our names over and over and over. The assignment was actually to write full names, but I loathe my full name so I only wrote it once. The coloring, glittering, doodling, all kinds of fun stuff came next! Check it out!

As I said earlier, I'm a day behind, but luckily the third task spans two days, so I will be able to catch up. Looking for a knight or something to paste in the book - you'll have to wait till tomorrow to see!

Till next time...Cheeka

Sometimes You Just Gotta Say WTF

2008-07-14T09:37:00.011-05:00

Okay, so like I'm driving home tonight and this person in front of me actually THREW A PAPER PLATE OUT THE WINDOW. It had food on it and I was like - oh no he din't [sic]. And ya know, it's hot, I'm pissy anyway because it's Monday and I just want to GO HOME. I mean, hello, didn't we all see the commercial with the Indian crying and all when we were like 5? Don't they show that anymore? So I started honking my horn and chasing the person, ready to flip him or her off and scream - "ya stupid litterbug MF" (sorry Mother Pat+, it's true, I totally would have said MF and I would not have said just the letters either). Lucky for me the person pulled onto a different off ramp than I was taking, so the whole altercation ended with me feeling like a goober. Which is okay! So I thought to assuage my anger, I would write a psalm in honor of the occurrence. I had to write one before in first year EFM (Education for Ministry - it ROCKS) and I used my experienced getting robbed at Church's Chicken for my psalm (getting robbed - don't worry about it - crap like that happens to me ALL THE TIME. Seriously).

Oh Lord, behold your worthy servant Cheeka
Who would never take your trust in vain.
I have always put my trash in the proper receptacles.
And tried to be a good steward of the earth as you directed.
Behold those evil litterbugs!
Smite them, Oh Lord, smite them!
And cast their bones to the dogs.

Whatcha think? It has all the basics - I'm a good person, I love God, my enemies suck, kill them all and scatter their bones! Ya gotta love a psalm - although I'm a bit puzzled why people could say it's their favorite part of the bible. Takes all kinds, right?

So anyway - what have I been doing? I've been busy! I finished my cards for the "Holy Cats" swap on http://www.atcsforall.com/. And here they are!

Buddha, Father McKitty, His Holiness (the Pope ya big dummy heathen you) and Swami. The background technique is just plain old oil pastels and I had a ball doing them. Check out the stick-on cat eyes I got from http://www.skybluepink.com/, what a fun store!

These two are just a couple I made this weekend. I don't know why I'm allowing them to sit next to each other - especially Carrot Top with that lascivious grin on his face. But surely the Holy Mother's spiritual powers will vanquish the evil Carrot Top. The background technique is various papers collaged on (phone book, sheet music, and mulberry paper scraps) and then a coat of yellow acrylic glaze brushed on. On Who Would You Do I lightly DTP used red cats eye stamps and on Holy Mother I brushed on some Lumiere paints. Lots of fun - I'm diggin the glaze thing.

Okay, so like, I totally lost track of Saturday. I had a 6 HOUR MEETING starting at 9:00 - when it was over, came home, relaxed for a bit and then decided to take a nap which lasted until 10:00 PM. I couldn't believe it! So I did not get much done Saturday and on Sunday after church, went to Road Princess's house. As usual, fun was had by all, and we had some more Chinese food. Is it okay to call it that instead of Asian food? Cuz while it was Asian, it was also Chinese. I actually worked with a woman THIS YEAR who called it slanty-eye food. Seriously. She didn't even crack a smile when she said it, either. If I'd known I was gonna get fired from that job (this is the job before the job I got downsized from - I'm telling you, my luck SUCKS DONKEY) I would have told her how awful she was but hey, she'd been on the job for 38 years so what could I really say?

That's all for now - I'm going to put up another post in a bit or in the morning about Soul Journaling - I'm starting that now - do I need another group to join or swap or whatever? Noooo but this sounded like something that would be good for me to do. So - till next time! Cheeka

Creative Art Designs

2008-07-05T18:37:00.001-05:00

This is a fantastic video showing how these guys make completely recycled paper. Hope y'all enjoy it as much as I did!

Do You Know Me?

2008-07-04T09:25:00.003-05:00

Wow - last night I'm like trying to sleep, it's around 3:30 a.m. and the dogs start whooping, stomping on me, the whole bit and then I hear some hooting back. I look out and here is this little tiny dog. Of course I go out and call him, he comes running up to me. Poor little man was all muddy and thirsty. He is feisty though - got Hank to back the eff up immediately. But between us, Hank is kind of a wussy, especially for a Rottweiler. Zeke is unimpressed with the new foster dog - especially I think because he's so small and more of a "baby" and Zeke is totally the baby of the family.

So anyway, this morning I took this picture - by myself! You can see my hand in the picture, yes I was holding the dog and held the camera in my other hand. He's too bouncy otherwise and I kept getting pictures of his butt and whiskers only. While cute, they probably won't help identify him to his parents. I'm pretty sure he's lost and not dumped as he has had a haircut recently. So hey if you're in the Kansas City area and know this dog - leave me a message! You all know I don't need another dog! I just found a home for Fiona!

I decided for lack of a better idea to call him Tommy. Tommy and I went for a walk and posted flyers around the neighborhood and then stopped off at Benetti's Coffee Experience which is close by and had a great vanilla latte and a cinnamon roll as big as my head - seriously! Oddly, I could not finish more than half of it and had to have Ben wrap up the rest for a treat later. I am really, horribly embarrassed to admit this is only my second visit to Benetti's - definitely will not be my last, especially since they have expanded their hours.

I'm off to continue my fabulous Independence Day celebration my way - by getting a massage at Solaris Massage! I cannot wait! More later, Cheeka

Happy Independence Day Eve!

2008-07-03T22:50:00.004-05:00

Wow is it really July? Freaks me out! So far this holiday weekend is awesome! I got off work at noon (thanks Boss-Man!) and went directly to Road Princess's house. We ran off to have some Chinese food at Panda Express (okay not the epitome of authentic Chinese cuisine, but quick, good and no eyeballs or nothin weird in it). I'm weird about Chinese food - I don't like a lot of odd veggies. Like, the other day I went to a drive-thru Chinese restaurant and got Mongolian Beef which I really wanted to get from Bo Ling's but I was too lazy to park the car and walk all that way and I was about late to get back to work. For some reason I am always optimistic about drive-thru Chinese. I have yet to get something edible from any of the many drive-thru Chinese restaurants, but I perservere. I was encouraged by the large crowd of people there. Trust me, it was SO NOT WORTH IT. Horrible! First of all, I loathe bamboo shoots - hey I am not Yule Gibbons and I don't eat bark. I mean, seriously, we don't have to eat stuff like that for real anymore so why bother? Like, I would never eat a barbequed squirrel unless I was like starving and that's all I could get and well I probably wouldn't because I would be all grossed out from skinning the squirrel. Anyway! I get this purported Mongolian Beef back to the office and open it up and seriously, there was approximately one cup of bamboo shoots in the mess. I know this because I picked every single one out, trying to find something edible. I also picked out the horrible chunks of onion. Now when it comes to onions, I am not a hater. Onions and I are friends. But really, does it have to be a big chunk? You know, have some pride in a job well done! Just because you're a big loser working in a big loser yucky Chinese drive-thru restaurant, can't you bloom where you're planted and cut the stuff small like God intended it to be? Sigh. So where was I going with this?

Oh yeah, my day! Road Princess and I tried to hook up her sporty new router and failed. So instead we went outside on the porch and talked and enjoyed the day. On the way back I not only found Archiver's by myself (I didn't want to be an enabler and it was a whim when I left her house) but then topped it off by a small side-trip to Urban Arts & Crafts. I think I will have to go back on my slimming hot dog and boloney diet now till next payday. You didn't know Cheeka's secret to a beautiful curvaceous body, did you? Hot dogs and boloney. Seriously. Ice cream helps too, if you can afford it. Also lunch many times is Cheetos and an ice cream cone - wonderful stuff!

More ATCs follow - these are for the Recycle It swap on (guess where - duh) http://www.atcsforall.com. Take an old greeting card, postcard, calendar, whatever and make it into a brand-spanking new ATC. I am getting caught up on my swaps! Next up is Holy Cats! I will try to work on those tonight.

Shoes ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~* Sing Praise

Recalcitrant Mermaid ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~* Butterfly Dreams

Why Santa Chose Elves series:

Dwarfs ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~* Gnomes

Flying Monkeys ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Trolls

Happy almost Fourth-of-July! Till next time, Cheeka.

It's Good To Be A Princess!

2008-07-01T22:00:00.004-05:00

So what have I been doing you ask? Well since recovering from Rain Garden Day which made me late to work on Monday - I decided to really whoop it up and give both the dogs baths on Sunday so by Monday I could barely move. However, my unmoving self did get some art done on the weekend so it's all good!

First up are some picture profiles I did for a couple of chicks on atcsforall.com . One had asked that I portray either my favorite flower, bird or animal in the profile - and it must be 4 x 6 so it fits in a standard photo album. Well, y'all know how I feel about birds - and if you don't, well I'm terrified of the creatures - especially if they take a notion to touch me with their freaky little bird hands. It's been suggested that's why I loathe the winged children phase some people are into with their art.

In case anyone missed the tiara on my head - and if so, just know I am getting a bigger one! and a sceptor (sp?) - I make sure i write "I am a princess" on every card. Being a princess is way better than being a queen - less responsibility and you don't get your head chopped off often.

Then I HAD to finish some ATCs for the Grimm's Fairy Tales Swap on atcsforall.com. Silly Cheeka had written down August 8 for the due date and on Friday I noticed it was JULY 1. Crap!

These were to depict the real Grimm's stories - not that namby-pamby Disney pack of lies! If only I could have done The Juniper Tree (linked for your reading pleasure!). There's so many ways to go with this, from the evil stepmother chopping off the kid's head, to cooking him up into a pudding to his dad chowing the pudding like he was starving to....wow! I'm not sure what lesson was being learned by the kids hearing that beauty - perhaps it was a warning to stepmothers! Anyway, as much as I wanted to depict that one in an ATC, I had to fall back on some old standbys. Each story is linked in the title of the ATC.

Cinderella

Donkey Cabbages

One-Eye, Two-Eyes & Three-Eyes

If you're ever having trouble sleeping, these stories should ummm, keep you from sleeping at all! Grimm's ROCK.

Till next time, Cheeka

Cheeka In The Garden

2008-06-29T02:27:00.004-05:00

So today was a workday at church in our rain garden. Boy did it look sad when we got there! Today's task was weed eating (well really weed chopping as we had pizza for lunch, not weeds - I even stayed away from the salad - bad memories), weed pulling and mulch spreading. It was VERY MUDDY! I had taken a sweat towel which quickly became my situpon - remember those from girl scouts? A BIG FAT SPIDER CRAWLED OVER ME. So that ended my weed pulling sojurn.

I turned my attention to mulch spreading - that is hard work! By the time I left I had a blister which had popped and is probably getting infected as I type, scratches, bugs had been biting me and I was hurting all over. I'm sure at some point I was unconscious and someone rolled over me with a wheelbarrow. Can you tell I'm not exactly the outdoorsy type? MW was there which made it all worth it. Oh and when I got home my tired self fell up the stairs and cracked my leg just for good measure. I'm sure my whole body will be one big bruise when I get to church tomorrow. Very attractive.

Okay enough of the whining - although I do enjoy it! For your viewing pleasure I submit four ATCs I made the other night. . .

Radiance

Transform Yourself

Longing

Sweet Dreams

(starring Zeke)

I've made a bunch of cards, etc., for swaps but they are drying right now so you'll have to wait till tomorrow. That's of course, if I am alive by then.

Till next time! Cheeka

Artist Trading Card Ideas

2008-06-27T13:45:00.002-05:00

Just a quick post to pat myself on the back for being the Artist Trading Card of the Day on the Artist Trading Card Ideas website for this card. How cool is that? And to my winners - getting the goodie bags out this weekend! Well except for Mary's as I've never heard back from her - Mary, where are you?

Cheeka Revealed!

2008-06-18T18:46:00.004-05:00

Okay we have two winners! Carolyn & Mary both gave it a go and although Carolyn was 100% correct - Mary was very close. Plus, as she pointed out, I did kind of cheat by saying I was wearing a sleeveless shirt. Well I was, under my cassock! And ya know, before the service and all. Yes, I am one of the robed beings. I am privileged to be an acolyte in my church. Kinda like an altar boy except well I'm a girl and it's been awhile since childhood. So thanks for playing, thanks for reading and I'll get your goodie bags out to you toot sweet!

I have been having so much fun trading ATC's, I haven't had much time for ART. That needs to change because I am almost out of stuff to trade! Nothing new to post today, but hopefully I'll get busy tonight.

Weekend Wrap-Up

2008-06-17T06:31:00.013-05:00

Wow what a weekend! First off, I had a meeting at church for the Cursillo coming up in November! If you don't know what Cursillo is, feel free to ask me! Basically, it is a movement in the Episcopal Church to prepare us to be apostles and leaders in the church - which is scary to think of me that way!

Anyway, I left the meeting early to go have an art play date with Road Princess. She made me the bestest birthday lunch ever - meatloaf, au gratin potatoes (from a box - that is important! none of that nasty homemade stuff for me - I want the dish to be made the way God intended - dehydrated potatoes, powdered cheese and water), black cherry jello with no lumpy stuff in it, biscuits and chocolate cake for dessert. Also from a box. I can appreciate a home made cake, but hey, Betty Crocker and the Fatboy have been perfecting these things for years and can make a mean cake.

Okay so I'll admit it - we didn't get any art done, but we did head over to Archiver's because they don't have one in my neighborhood. OMG!!! What a cool place! And how come nobody's told me about Stickles before? Seriously!

So that was a great time - I didn't want to leave (the guest from HELL). We brainstormed and shared and talked about our lives with Christ - it was a glorious day!

Sunday the Bishop was at church. Here's a picture of him and his wife, Mrs. Bishop, getting food at the brunch before the service - they look like ordinary people, right? The amazing thing is, I didn't do or say anything particularly stupid! Awesome! I didn't drop an F-Bomb, I didn't trip in the middle of the floor and maybe hit the Bish with my overflowing pile of bacon, nothing! Mother Pat I'm sure is proud. Although I was wearing a sleeveless shirt and everyone could see my tattoos. I always wonder if I should cover everything up when the Bishop is here, but then I figure he has worse things to worry about than my body art. All sorts of important Bishop stuff.

So the next picture is me and the Bishop, chilling at the altar - okay there are some more people, but I am in the picture (the only one of the MANY that my friend took with MY camera and they are mostly of some stinky kids getting baptized. HELLO???? My camera! Like I need all those pictures of children? Giggle - hey we had 3 baptisms - Thanks be to God! New children in Christ's kingdom! Right on! So the first person who posts a comment and correctly identifies ME (and no fair if you already know me - you can't play this game) will receive a goodie bag of groovy stuff off one of my work tables - you've all seen the pictures and know that's a veritable treasure trove!

Finally, a picture of the Bishop leading the service. Check out that hat! I wish I had one! I asked him if I could hold his big hook thing for him, he said no. Probably would have burned my sinful self anyway. Hmmm.

So like I said in the last post, this week was another collage-a-thon. My muse was taking a nap this weekend - she might have been a little hungover too, I'm not sure what she was doing most of the weekend. But the hateful B was not there when I needed her, and did not show up till about 10:00 on Sunday - then I didn't want to go to bed, I couldn't stop creating! Most of these are traded!

Till next time! Cheeka

Blog Jewels

2008-06-09T11:35:00.002-05:00

This deserves a seperate post! Princess Matilda at her blog is doing a give-away and wants to spread the word! In her post Blog Jewels she tells what she's giving away and how to get it. I'm going to participate as well - but will edit this post later to say what I'm giving away - we all have too much stuff, don't we and getting more is always fun! So let's all clean out our studios and spread the love!

Cheeka

Collage-A-Thon

2008-06-09T10:58:00.009-05:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, I participated in part 1 of the 2 part collage-a-thon on http://atcsforall.com/ this weekend - I had a blast! The collaging and trading starts at 5:00 p.m. Friday in whatever time zone you're in and ends at 11:59 pm on Sunday. The trading can be fast and furious - it is all arranged by private message. You do need to be a member of the board, but that doesn't take but a minute to set up.

First of all, I took an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of glossy white paper that someone saved for me at work (my friends are learning to throw NOTHING away - unless they want me to ask them if they are perhaps smoking crack when they throw away a postcard that came in the mail or well anything - I recycle as much as I can!) and I did an alcohol ink background with the adirondack line from Ranger. This is so awesome!!!! Then I cut the paper into 2" x 3" rectangles and adhered them to my ATC blanks.

Cool, huh? I really enjoyed the process! Then I just made my ATCs - here they are, all traded except for one!

This really was so much fun and two people I traded with twice! Since this was my first time participating, I was amazed at how open people are to trading! There is another one next weekend, again, it starts Friday night at 5:00 pm and ends Sunday night at 11:59 p.m. in whatever time zone you reside. I am so going to be prepared this time, with plenty of backgrounds already made. I think the only rule in this CAT is that there should be some kind of collaged image on your ATC. I am so down with that - I love collage! By the way, the vintage images are all from vintage sewing patterns - aren't they a hoot?

I hope to see some of you there this weekend - trust you won't regret it, except the lack of sleep - Friday night I was up till 4:30 a.m. I was so excited and having so much fun. Since I'm not a good sleeper anyway, it was okay - I was up at 6:30 because I had a church meeting at 9:00 and well you know the rest regarding MW. Blush.

Peace out! Cheeka

Today Is The Best Day EVER!

2008-06-07T17:43:00.005-05:00

So could this day get any better? First off, I met Mr. Wonderful (who will be known as MW going forward) for coffee - he is a great conversationalist! So I am tickled PINK about how that turned out. You never know! I also learned that his hero, Jacques Cousteau, and I share a birthday - who woulda thunk it? I picked up some KFC on the way home, which was great! Got on the computer and found out I'd won the May challenge in the Not Just Charms category on the Latest Trends yahoo group. Score! I won a $10 gift certificate to Crafters Cafe! Then I had a lovely nap. Now I'm kicked back, drinking a diet coke (which must be what God gave the Jews in the desert - I could live on this stuff, for real, y'all). Life couldn't be better.

Last night kicked off a Collage-A-Thon on atcsforall.com - come and join! I've already made two trades! You can check out the 6 cards i made last night - I had a blast with my new adirondack alcohol inks from Ranger. I gave one to my friend at church, Mary Beth, so I only have 3 left.

Yesterday was my last day at my job. It went okay, it really did. Everyone there is so nice - it's only the evil clowns in Chicago that made this happen, not my homies there. Thursday the secretaries brought wonderful food for us and had a party and one woman made each of us a beautiful centerpiece which was a birdcage with a plant in it. Very pretty!

Time out for a little Godspeak again - I'm not sure why I was there for the 3 months, but I'm so glad I had the opportunity. I met so many wonderful people, and several I know will be lifelong friends. I am truly blessed. To see tough female attorneys with tears in their eyes about the whole situation was very humbling. So it's off to the next adventure - I won't say my bumpy ride is ever very easy, but it's always worth it!

Namaste!

Cheeka