News and Notes from the Happy Shack

Project 365: February 8-14

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:38:00 +0000

It's been a difficult week around these parts, so I haven't been able to shoot much. So in keeping in the spirit of my weekly post, I thought I'd share seven more shots from my most recent classic car shoot and edit. Classic cars, whether bright and shiny or covered in rust, are by far my favorite thing to photograph. They just have so much more personality than today's cars do!

February 8: A 1934 Ford Roadster

February 9: A 1939 Buick Century 88

February 10: A 1948 Buick Super Convertible

February 11: A 1955 Buick

February 12: The rear panel of a 1957 Chevy Belair

February 13: A 1957 Ford Thunderbird. This was my favorite car at this show!

February 14: A 1965 Chevy Corvette

I hope to have more day to day shots for you next week! To view all my Project 365 posts, please click here.

Time for February Free Bling!

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:15:00 +0000

Time for my monthly Free Bling Friday giveaway! Random.org picked comment number 17 as the winner of my January Free Bling, so congratulations to Kayla from from Logan, Ohio!

For February, how about a pretty little red flower for Valentine's Day? little something to brighten up a cold winter day? Here is my Breathe photo sized down to a 1" glass tile pendant. To be eligible to win, simply visit either of my Etsy shops (here for jewelry and here for photography) and leave a comment in the comment box below with the link to your favorite piece along with a way to reach you and where you’re from by midnight March 1, 2012. Want more entries? Tweet, blog or Facebook this giveaway and leave another comment with the link. The next winner will be drawn via random.org Friday, March 2.

Don't want to miss a single Free Bling Friday? Click here to sign up for free weekly email updates or subscribe in the reader of your choice over there in the right column. And be sure to join my Facebook Fan page for specials. Thanks for stopping in! Giveaway open to US and Canadian residents only.

Project 365: February 1-7

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:38:00 +0000

February 1: I spent Wednesday and Thursday last week in Tallahassee with my students. Here's some fun Tallahassee graffiti.

February 2: A little more Tallahassee graffiti...

February 3: A day relaxing in downtown Fernandina Beach poking through the art galleries and antique shops. This is the clock tower downtown.

February 4: From a lovely walk in the 100 Acre Wood, a sweet little heart leaf popping up from the middle of the trail. It was actually only about the size of a nickel!

February 5: I spent Sunday editing all my photos from the Amelia Cruizers car show last fall. Glad I finally got to this! I'm really happy with this set! This is a 1955 Studebaker Commander.

February 6: A little daily dose of awesomeness before heading to school Monday morning...

February 7: Just a tad blurry here...this is the red bud tree that just exploded into bloom on campus. These little flowers are about dime size.

That's all for this week? What's your favorite for the week? Click here for all my Project 365 posts.

Getting Ready for Spring!

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:48:00 +0000

Happy Monday! Well, actually it's already been pretty darn spring-like here in North Florida! The weather's been beautiful! I've been taking a break from jewelry design the past couple of months to play with book arts and art journaling, but it's time to spend some more time at my jewelry bench again (I finished this Springy beauty recently). My first spring arts festival is just three weeks away! I don't usually start up again until late March, but this year, I finally have the opportunity to participate in the New Smyrna Beach 50th Annual Arts Fiesta. New Smyrna Beach, just south of Daytona, is a great arts town! Every year, I've looking longingly at this show, but up until this year, it's conflicted with our annual student government conference. This year, our SGA schedule changed and the Fiesta dates moved back a weekend to February 25-26, so I applied, and yippee, received my acceptance letter early last week.

Last night as I was trying to find a hotel room, a sneaky little piece of reality called the Daytona 500 smacked me upside the head. It's the same weekend! Those of you in Florida or even remotely interested in NASCAR know what that means: about 200,000 people descending upon the Daytona area. I couldn't find a hotel room within a 100-mile radius for less than $200 a night! Thankfully a sweet art friend who lives in Port Orange, just a skip away from New Smyrna Beach, came to my rescue. Now to get busy creating new work!

The Impact of Your Words...and a Passing Moment

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:44:00 +0000

I've been a writer for as long as I can remember. When I was in middle school and high school, I wrote long letters to myself as well as poetry filled with the typical pre teen and teenage angst. I had dairies full of those words, though I have no idea what happened to them through my moves. I don't write many long, "deep thoughts," type of posts here on my blog, but I have been moved to share a few. I guess the two that have been the most revealing and most moving have been my post about losing my mother and what I've learned from it and my post about Franklin Fung Chow.

I shared with you before the holidays that Franklin passed away, and since that time, several of his friends have reached out to me, having found my story about him here on my blog. Today I received a letter that left me standing in my kitchen with tears running down my face. They were sad tears from the reminder of the loss of Franklin, but they were also happy tears to learn just how much my words touched both him and his friends. This letter was from Lois, Franklin's next door neighbor of 30 years:

"Dear Ms. Warren,

I'm sorry to tell you that Franklin Chow passed away in November. He had been ill since July 2010, and in January 2011 moved to the San Francisco Bay area to be near family. Franklin and I were neighbors for 30 plus years. I was one of the friends who worked on cleaning out his apartment preparing to be sold. In all of the stuff he had, and Franklin was a bit of a pack rat, I found and read your letter. I was very moved by the letter. It is such an accurate description of my old friend and is so beautifully written.

On January 8, we had a memorial service at the church where Franklin had been a member since coming to D.C. I read your letter at that service. As I read, I would glance out at the assembled group. There I saw smiling faces and nods of agreement as others recognized the friend they knew in your lovely description. Afterwards a lot of people spoke with me about your letter; some even asked for a copy. I've given the original letter with the photograph and the drawings done by your daughters to Franklin's brother Roger. I've kept a copy for myself and shared copies with others. I consider finding your letter amongst all the other stuff in Franklin's apartment to be a miracle.

I'm enclosing a program from the memorial service. Thank you for writing such a beautiful letter. It touched a lot of hearts the way Franklin had touched yours."

When you send your words out into the world, you often never know the effect they will have on others. I know that my family received a rare blessing that day we met Franklin, and even in just a brief exchange, he made a huge, lasting impact on my life. I'm very grateful and very touched that, just as I've kept the things he gave us (still in that little pouch in my purse), he kept the letter and things I sent him as thanks, and they've lived on to touch the hearts of his friends and family.

When I thought about including one of my photos with this post, this is the first one that popped in my head. I'm not exactly sure why. I think that maybe it's the simplicity and openness of Olivia's little hands holding out those flower buds, like sharing a small little gift from the heart, just as Franklin did with us. You can read my original letter to Franklin here. Thank you again, Franklin Fung Chow, for blessing my life. I know you are looking down on us from Heaven above, smiling that same sweet smile you had as an angel on earth.

Project 365: January 25-31

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:35:00 +0000

January 25: Took the girlies to Chick-fil-A for dinner. Have you ever noticed the pretty yellow flowers on all the tables?

January 26: My yard is currently in need of some work, but it is producing some nice sweet dandelions. Does this one remind any one other than me of Horton and Whoville?

January 27: Sarah taking a twirl in the back yard. I love the movement in this shot. :-)

January 28: We went to Gainesville this weekend to visit my former student and sweet friend/adopted daughter Courtney (I have quite a few adopted daughters!). While there, we visited the Florida Museum of Natural History and its beautiful butterfly garden. This particular beauty was rather attracted to Sarah's bright purple shoes and hot pink laces. It crawled all over her foot, and she eventually had to swing her leg to get it off of her. It was rather attached!

January 29: Another shot from our weekend visit to Gainesville, this one of a pretty little camelia in Livvie's hand. This is at the Dudley Farm, a great little place to visit!

January 30: We pass by this cow pasture on the way to taking the girls to school every morning. Some of the cows are more interested in having their photo taken than others! When we pulled up to the fence, there were three black cows right along the fence, but they took off right as we pulled up. This brown gal, however, gave us a nice pose. The sky was really hazy so I added one of Kim Klassen's wonderful textures to this shot.

January 31: Sarah and Olivia participated in the 2nd and 3rd grade music program tonight! Their class did a skit that included a salute to Steve Irwin. I love this little sideways glance Sarah gave me.

That's it for the week! Click here to view other Project 365 posts.

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Day 20 ~ The End!

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:34:00 +0000

Well, here it is....my final page in the long-suffering Sketchbook Project Fun Journal. As a reminder, I started working in this journal waaaaaaaaaaay back in December of 2010, with the goal of doing a page a day in time to finish and actually submit it to the Sketchbook Project by the January 2011 deadline. Oh well. Such is life. I realized now that it's done, I'd have a hard time setting it free anyway! I have a few empty pages at the end where I'm going to write some notes on what I learned over the 20 pages.

On this page, the bottom half is actually a painted and inked up scrap of deli paper. I used deli paper as my palette paper or just the paper below whatever I'm working on to protect my table. I save most of them because they end up with such juicy color on them. Below is a slide show of the whole book. You can definitely see a difference between my early pages and my later pages!

Art Journal Play

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:02:00 +0000

I've been making some long-stitch sewn books using Arches Text Wove 100% cotton rag paper for the signatures and decided that before I made too many using this paper, I better see how well the paper holds up to wet media. I'd say rather well!

This was a scrap piece of the paper left over from making my signatures. I used Adirondack color wash spray inks, acrylic paint, pigment stamp ink, and Dr. Martin's acrylic ink (the yellow), and the paper seemed to hold up rather well. I don't think it's heavy enough to use for a book cover--I'm using inked and painted watercolor paper for those--but it looks like it'll work great for the signatures. I'll share some photos of the books with you as soon as I get around to photographing them! Lately, I've just been sewing them, taking out the sewing, and then sewing them again just to get the stitch pattern ingrained in my brain. As I was cutting one set of stitches out last night, Sarah came running over and yelled, "Mama! What are you doing!? Why are you ruining you book!?" All in the learning process, my dear!

Project 365: January 18-24

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:36:00 +0000

January 18: Sunrise over Heckscher Drive at Brown's Creek, taken from the parking lot of Chowder Ted's (in my pajamas...)

January 19: Power lines on Heckscher Drive at Blount Island entrance. I am very often stopped at this spot due to train crossings...which are an ongoing joke on my Facebook page.

January 20: We had a lovely day playing in the backyard...Olivia...

January 20 bonus shot: ...and Sarah

January 21: I had a book arts group meeting at the Island Art Association in Fernandina Saturday. This is a piece of the mosaic wall on the side of the gallery. The Island Art Association gallery is a must visit!

January 22: This is my "Mama needs a break to go sit and think and breathe" spot, right where Fort George Inlet reaches the Atlantic Ocean. It's thankfully only eight minutes from my house!

January 23: The tree from which last week's red heart leaf fell from. Even in the midst of changing colors and shedding its leaves, it's already shooting out new buds.

January 24: Did a little scouting with a friend during lunch today. I knew I needed a "big guy" to go with me, since this building, Public School No. 4, also known as the Annie Lytle School, can be a bit spooky and inhabited by things you might not want to come across, so I asked my friend and student Chris Lamm to go with me and give me a guided tour (knowing Chris as well as I do, I knew he'd probably been in many times...probably at night...). We couldn't get in since it was just freshly boarded up after the fire last week, and I was not appropriately dressed to do some climbing, but we're making a second attempt soon... Because as my photo below captures so well...

And no, Chris, I'm still not going in the basement... :-) Here's a little history on P.S. 4. I've been wanting to investigate for years (so yes, you are correct, I am not above trespassing in a creepy, haunted, old abandoned building in the name of a good photograph).

Thanks for checking out this week's shots! Click here for other Project 365 photos.

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Day 19

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Happy Monday! One more page in my Sketchbook Project Fun Journal. The center rectangle of this is actually a baby wipe. I use baby wipes to wipe my hands and stencils and such when I'm playing with other projects and straighten them out and save them if they have some pretty color in them. Funny that you can see the little bear face imprint just a little right of center! I learned with this page though that the baby wipes are difficult to write on, so I kept it short and sweet, using a Sharpie paint pen. Before adding the baby wipe, I just smeared some paint around on the spread and then after gluing down the baby wipe, added some stenciling and some flower punches and some outlining.

We had a nice weekend around here. I had Friday off with the girls, so we played most of the day. Saturday morning, I headed up to Fernandina to meet with my book arts group. We practiced more long stitch patterns and worked on coptic a little more. I'm definitely hooked! Sunday, we loaded the bikes on the back of the Trooper and headed over to the park to ride. The girls took their first spin around the skate park and did very well! I can't believe I didn't have my camera with me! Next weekend...

I Have a Songwriter on my Hands...

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

I have a knack for song lyrics. I can hear a song once, and then the next time I hear it, I can pretty much sing along with the whole song. Being the family chauffeur, I've noticed that Sarah has this same gift. I hear her singing in the back seat behind me all the time. Now the funny thing about this is that not only can she sing the kind of music I primarily listen to (country and lite rock), but she can also sing the current bubble-gum pop she hears at school and her father's hard and classic rock. (Picture a cute little red-headed eight-year-old singing AC/DC's Hell's Bells!)

I've recently discovered that as she's been assimilating all these lyrics, she's also been absorbing the flow of song lyrics and how to put a song together. And, TA DA!, she's written her first song! She sprung it on me recently. It's not completely finished yet (I'm still teaching her the benefit of a "bridge"), but she's well on her way. Here's her first verse of "Walkin' Across." (Warning: If this Mama sees these words stolen by anyone, she will hunt you down and shoot you BEFORE she hires a lawyer to sue you. And then she will feed your dead body to Bigfoot. I hear he's been spotted quite a bit recently in NY. :-)

I'm walkin' across the bridge

I'm walkin' across the sky

I'm walkin' across your heart

Now can't you see me fly.

I'm walkin' across your soul

I'm walkin' across the seasons

I'm walkin' across everything

Can't you feel me breathing.

Taylor Swift may soon be seeing Sarah in her rear-view mirror.

Project 365: January 12-17

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:06:00 +0000

January 12: In January, in Florida, some leaves are just now turning. This was in the parking lot at school.

January 13: Ever wonder just how close those planes come to each other in the sky? Kinda freaky sometimes, isn't it?

January 13 bonus: A Daily Dose of Awesomeness shot.

January 14: Sunset from our back deck. I wanted to capture that one lone star top center along with the colors in the sky.

January 15: Baking cookies with Olivia, the Cookie Monster

January 16: Yummy navel oranges, irresistible.

January 17: Morning pinecones, caught just before we hopped in the car headed for school.

Click here to see all my Project 365 2012 posts.

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Day 18

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:29:00 +0000

Happy Tuesday! Oh, how the days they pass! At long last, I finally got around to a few more pages in my long forgotten Sketchbook Project Fun Journal. This is spread 18, a hot mess. A while back the girls and I played around with some coffee filters, and when we were working on this page, I put one in. Pretty cool how it just melts into the page. It's actually the largest circle. This page seems a bit dark and space-agey to me, but for some reason, I really love my little tree at the bottom. Subconsciously, I must have added it in there to bring the page a little more life. I have a couple more spreads of this book to share over the next two weeks, and then I do believe I'll call this one done.

One of my goals for this year has been to work through all the online classes I've signed up for over the past two years! Thankfully, I know thyself well, so I only sign up for classes that are open ended; otherwise I'll just be wasting my dollars. There are just so many wonderful classes out there that I see them and squeal "Oh! I want to do that!" and immediately sign up. And then the reality of my day-to-day schedule kicks in, and I think "Now, when am I going to find the time to do this?" :-) I just signed up for Donna Downey's Canvas Create this weekend. I really enjoy watching her Inspiration Wednesday videos, so I figured I'd enjoy a longer version. Thankfully it's also open ended!

And yesterday, Kim Klassen's Beyond Layer's began. This one I think I'll be able to keep up with since I think it aligns well with my Project 365. There is a bit of logic to my craziness, anyway. Of course, these two classes are only the tip of the iceberg...

Sweet Gifts from Kristin Dudish

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 23:25:00 +0000

Last year, I took Kelly Rae Robert's Flying Lessons course, and through the course, we formed a group. And though that lovely group I met the lovely Kristin Dudish! We were paired for a Flying Lessons swap over the holidays and had a great time getting to know each other through Etsy convos. Kristin sent me a whole list of great questions and then answered the same for me. So when she learned I've grown up around the beach and my favorite animal was a giraffe, she sent me these "just perfect for me" gifts she created. The hands in heart is just perfect for our beachy house, and the giraffe cards are the cutest! There are four in the set, all hand-colored.

Kristin is one of the wonderful artists behind Paint Party Friday! Go check out her blog and be sure to read her Oprah story! What a great experience! Thanks again Kristin!

January Free Bling Friday!

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 03:14:00 +0000

Time for my monthly Free Bling Friday giveaway! Random.org picked comment number 13 as the winner of my December Free Bling, so congratulations to Janet from Fort Lee, New Jersey!

For January, how about a little something to brighten up a cold winter day? Here is my Happy Azaleas photo sized down to a 1" glass tile pendant. To be eligible to win, simply visit either of my Etsy shops (here for jewelry and here for photography) and leave a comment in the comment box below with the link to your favorite piece along with a way to reach you and where you’re from by midnight February 2, 2012. Want more entries? Tweet, blog or Facebook this giveaway and leave another comment with the link. The next winner will be drawn via random.org Friday, February 3.

Don't want to miss a single Free Bling Friday? Click here to sign up for free weekly email updates or subscribe in the reader of your choice over there in the right column. And be sure to join my Facebook Fan page for specials. Thanks for stopping in! Giveaway open to US and Canadian residents only.

Project 365: January 6-11

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 01:19:00 +0000

Friday, January 6: Daily Dose of Awesomeness. For those of you connected to me on Facebook, you know that we take a picture like this almost every morning before we head to school. Thought I'd share one here!

Saturday, January 7: I found this spider web stretched between the back and arm of my green chair on our back deck, glistening with water from the morning fog.

Sunday, January 8: The Remains...little petals that fell on the front porch steps as I was dead-heading my geraniums. Yes, it is January, and yes, I still have four pots full of blooming geraniums on my front steps. I had to bring them in when we got our first freeze last week, but they are still hanging in there very well!

Monday, January 9: A little peek at our first day of class at the college.

Tuesday, January 10: A very special journal I'll tell you more about next week!

Wednesday, January 11: This morning, the view from Chowder Ted's was these gray skies over the marsh. Chowder Ted's is our great little neighborhood seafood restaurant, which is literally about 100 yards from our house!

So what's your favorite for the week? Click here for other Project 365 photos.

New Book Class!

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:56:00 +0000

Long stitch book (bottom) and coptic stitch book (top)

The Island Art Association in Fernandina Beach (about 20 minutes from me) offers great classes, but most of them I can't attend because they're offered on weekdays. As luck would finally have it, I got to take an artist books class up there this past Saturday with the lovely Eliza Holliday.

Pamphlet stitch practice (top) and ink and gesso cover for long stitch book (bottom)

The main thing I wanted to learn from Eliza was coptic stitching (which I must now practice daily to remember!), but I also learned another new fun technique for paper decoration using inks and gesso. The group was very interested in doing more classes together, so I'm hoping I've finally found a book arts group!

Eliza Holliday and me

Ink and gesso covered long stitch books made by the class

Joyfulness, Hope and Excitement

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:05:00 +0000

This shot just screams pure joy to me! This is my sister Kim and my nine-month-old niece Maxine during Maxine's first trip to the beach while they were visiting here over the holidays. It speaks of the joyfulness that can be felt during the holiday season as well as the hope and excitement of starting a new year. My sister hasn't seen this shot yet, and if she manages to not see this blog before her birthday, I plan to send her this for her birthday. (So Kim, if you are reading this, act surprised!)

As I've worked through this first week of Project 365 postings for 2012, I think I've figured out a good plan that will work for me and allow me to still post other things on my blog! I think my plan will be to do a Project 365 post every Wednesday, including pictures from the previous Wednesday-Tuesday in one post...kind of a weekly thing instead of posting daily. Notice I keep saying "I think." :-) Gives me a little wiggle room, right!? We'll give that a shot! I hope you stick with me! Click here for Project 365 photos.

Christmas Morning Sprinklers

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:50:00 +0000

After opening gifts on Christmas morning (and then waiting for the sun to come up...) our tradition is to eat a quick breakfast and then take the dogs to the beach. Usually we go to Big Talbot Island, but the weather and tides did not cooperate with that this year. We had a bit of rain and were at a high tide when we needed to get out there (so that I could get on the road for my surprise visit to Aunt Livy!), so that beach was underwater. Not to be defeated in our goal, we snuck in the north end of Little Talbot and took our chances battling a few raindrops. I kept my camera put away for most of the visit, but I did catch a few shots of the fam playing on the rocks. In this particular image, they are the "doing the sprinkler." How my eight year olds know about "the sprinkler" I've yet to figure out. They blame Just Dance!

Of course my husband's fondest Christmas morning beach visit was the Year of the Drive By (said with much sarcasm) a few years before the girls were born. You see the "drive by" was carried out by Toby, one of our many dogs. We'd just had a nice run down on the beach and came back up to the parking area about the same time some poor unsuspecting man dare come out of the pot-a-let. Toby darted that way and took a nip at his jeans without slowing down or missing a step. He never bit the guy, just scared the heck out of him in that one drive by moment. Then Toby headed off down the road with his typical "come on, guys, I was just funnin'" look. Oh, and I guess I should confess I stole Toby from a family that was abusing him (and that's a whole other story). So call me a thief who stole a dog who did a drive by. Classic. Click here for all my Project 365 photos!

Cute Little Owls and Project 365 Cute Little Legs

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 23:49:00 +0000

Late last week, Benny came home early so I could get an afternoon of shopping by myself. He and the girls made a trip to the 100 Acre Wood and these were Sarah's shoes and socks of choice for the trip. I couldn't resist them! The girl's got style! Click here for the rest of my Project 365 photos.

And as for these cute little owls, we painted these on Monday at Yes You Canvas, one of my favorite places to play here in town. That's my friend Dana with us. We love our little owls!

Project 365 - Reading with Papa

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 23:02:00 +0000

Christmas Eve, Benny's dad, Papa to the girls, came over and spent some time with us. Papa's health has been failing pretty rapidly over the past year and he's now living with Benny's brother, no longer able to live alone. While he was over Christmas Eve, he was sitting out on the back porch when I encouraged the girls to go outside and read to him. Sarah sat with him the longest, and I don't think either one of them ever knew I took this picture they were so engrossed in the book. I thought it was such a sweet shot of a tender everyday moment. Click here for the rest of my Project 365 shots.

Happy New Year and Project 365, 2012!

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 23:19:00 +0000

Happy New Year! I hope you've had a wonderful holiday season and are looking forward to a happy, healthy new year ahead of you. This year, my main goal for my blog is to participate in the Project 365, 2012, sharing 365 new photos in 2012, though given 2012 is a leap year, that mean 366 photos! Now, I know my track record for daily projects is not very strong (stinks actually...), so I'm not going to guarantee a photo a day, but my goal is to share 366 new photos none-the-less. (I realize this may mean 10 photos in one day with my natural tendency to procrastinate epically, but what the hey, I'll give it a shot anyway...) I'll still be sharing snippets of daily craziness as well as various art, jewelry and artist book projects I'm working on, so, whew!, that means I may be posting more than once a day at times.

I'm starting the year with my five favorite shots of the holidays, and what better way to kick it off than Olivia running into the new year while chasing a flock of birds. I took this shot while my family was visiting for the holidays, and we took my nine-month-old niece Maxine on her very first trip to the beach. I'll have a very sweet shot of her and my sister later this week. So please keep me on track and shooting daily!

Wishing you the best in 2012!

A Special Visit

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:14:00 +0000

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! My girls were up at 5:15am, so we had a LONG morning! After opening gifts (and once the sun finally came up), we loaded up for our annual Christmas morning visit to take the dogs to the beach. I'll share a few pictures of that later in the week, but today, I wanted to tell you about a special visit.

I've talked here about my Great Aunt Livy quite a bit. My last visit to her was in August for her 90th birthday. Since the annual birthday visit has grown from just being me, to being me and the girls and Benny, to now being me, the girls, Benny, and my sister, her husband and daughter AND my father, the August trip has gotten a bit hectic. As we were leaving in August, Aunt Livy quietly told me she missed spending time with me. We've always been each other's favorite! My birthday was earlier this month, and for the first time that I can ever remember, I did not receive a birthday card from Aunt Livy. I called her a few days after my birthday just to check on her, and as soon as she answered the phone, she said, "Oh! I'm so sorry I forgot your birthday!" I told her that was fine! I was just calling because I was worried about her! After that conversation, I started thinking about driving back to up to visit her for Christmas.

Even with the hectic pace that the holidays always bring, I still couldn't get that thought out of my head. So! Christmas afternoon about 2pm, I got in the car and drove up to North Georiga. She's in Rock Springs, about 20 minutes south of Chattanooga, Tennessee. I got up there about 9:30pm, and in dense fog, found a hotel. Yesterday morning, I called the nurses at her home (she's in an extended living facility), and told them that I was coming but wanted it to be a surprise. They said, "No problem! We'll make sure she's up and dressed!"

I told them I'd be there around 11am, and when I arrived one of the nurses greeted me at the door and said, "We have her all ready for you! We told her she had a surprise coming, but she thinks we were just trying to get her out of bed!" When I walked in, she was sitting next to the Christmas tree reading some mail, and I snuck up to her and said, "Merry Christmas!" I think if she hadn't had already been sitting down, she would have fallen down!

We spent about three hours together, talking and telling stories, and having a nice lunch in town, just the two of us. One of the things we talked about was my mom, both knowing the time of the year. Today is the 12th anniversary of her death. I know that the reason I am so close to my Aunt Livy is because my mom was so close to my Aunt Livy. I remember so many times with her growing up, and it was so special for the two of us to have this time together alone to share stories and, yes, share some tears.

It was a wonderful three hours, and worth every bit of the nearly-18-hour round-trip drive. I promised Benny I'd get back on the road by 2pm, so that I did. The drive back home took more than nine hours with all the day-after-Christmas traffic, but I'd get in the car and go back tomorrow if she needed me to. Every one needs an "Aunt Livy." I hope you have someone like that in your life.

Notes to Santa...

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 15:29:00 +0000

The girls wrote their notes to Santa earlier this week, and they've been taped to the door ever since. I couldn't get a good picture of them on the door because of the glass, so I gently took them down and laid them on the porch for these shots. Aw, the innocence of childhood. I so hope they still believe for years to come. And I can say that I've had a little talk with Santa, and his elves have created two little Sarah and Olivia look alike American Girl dolls. :-)

Here in our home, we celebrate Christmas as the birth of Christ, so Merry Christmas to you, in whatever way you and your family celebrate the day.

Eight-Year-Old Computer Graffiti Art

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Warren) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 01:12:00 +0000

Sarah has discovered the Paint program on my new computer! Here's her first shot at her graffiti art. In case you can't quite read it, it says "Sarah and Mommy Warren." My last day in the office and the girls' last day at school before the break was last Friday so we've been enjoying our time at home. My dad, his wife Kathy, and my sister Kim, brother-in-law and baby niece were here this last weekend, so Kim and I spent a good bit of time in the kitchen baking. The girls are I seem to be subsisting very well on Snickerdoodles, Molasses Sugar Cookies and Buckeyes this week! Hope you are enjoying the holidays!