FEb atc backgrounds

These are the colors for the February swap: Red, yellow green and blue green. I had to do some splatter ones-I love this color combo!

January atcs-Blue and Orange and Pockets

These were the themes for this month's swap on the byhandartists yahoogroup. I still love this splatter technique from Tim Holtz and how black stamping looks on it. I especially love the one I used the trees on. I used the lantern and fish Asian Cuttlebug embossing folders for some. I do love this set of embossing folders and highly recommend them. Other background is broken china distress ink and Ginger Peach twinkling H2O. Enjoy!

Rock Star photos

A few pics of the show, but not very good quality.

A super fun night

Last night I took my whole family to see Dark Side of the Wall, a Pink Floyd Tribute band, at the Brown Theater. My son, Brian, plays rhythm guitar and is lead vocalist. It was an incredible show! Strobe lighting, background videos, excellent sound from a bunch of talented musicians and some rockin' music. Two and a half hours of incredible good time.
My 81 (you'd never believe she is 81) year old mom, Amy, Jim and I went to dinner at Mayan Cafe as soon as it opened so we could get to a pre-show party before the show, too. Dinner was fantastic! I hadn't been to Mayan Cafe in a long time. As I've said before, we are spoiled having many of the top restaurants in town within an easy walk for us so we rarely leave the neighborhood for dining. I had wonderful empanadas and a delicious carrot and ginger soup. We shared a bread pudding with Mexican chocolate sauce, tiny scoop of cinnamon ice cream topped with pomegranate seeds and blueberries. I'll be returning soon for a repeat.
We left there, parked at the Brown Hotel and went to Fourth Street Live, another venue I rarely go to so it was nice to see it to be a happenin' place. Maker's Mark was a sponsor of the show so they had an area set aside for anyone associated with the band. I met a small group of really nice folks, some who had come from out of town, like Amy, for the show. It was fun to see them again at the theater at intermission and after the show, too.
We walked the six blocks back to the theater to meet the rest of the group and pick up our tickets. Our entourage included, Mom, me, Jim, Amy, Eric and his wife, 3 of their children (one was sick and one too young), my children's aunt and uncle, two family friends of theirs and our good friends, Dave and Karen. I bought two boxes of ear plugs! It is a loud show, but I took mine out. I couldn't stand to miss a thing!
Brian met us outside and we did some picture taking. He chatted for a while then had to go backstage to finish preparations. Everyone got their tickets and we settled in, all seated within a few rows of one another. Amy had a blast sitting with the niece and nephews (13, 15, and 16). Mutual admiration abounded-they thought she was "cool" and she thought they were "cool" because they knew all of the music and loved Pink Floyd.
At the intermission I saw people I hadn't seen in 25 years! My mom thought it was fantastic and was so glad she came. She did leave after the first half- I gave her the option of me picking her up and taking her home because of the late hour or if she wanted to leave after the first half, she could meet us downtown, which is what she chose. Jim escorted her to her car at intermission, so she didn't get to chat with Bri afterwards. The first half included Dark Side of the Moon, Animals, Wish You Were Here and is my favorite because it is their earlier music and Brian does almost all of the vocals, so she saw a great show. The Wall is the 2nd half.
After the show, Brian came out to chat with us before putting his equipment away. It was so fun to see people come up to him and tell him how much they liked the show, how good he sounded, have their pictures taken with him, etc. He wears himself out on the stage- always moving. He even jumped so hard on one song that a technician had to run out on the stage to pick up his sound monitoring system and reattach it to his pants! The technicians must watch them every second, he was out there in a flash!.
Brian's been going through a rough patch and it was a real treat to see him enjoying himself, getting a lot of positive feedback and surrounded by friends and family.
It was a great night- I smile just thinking about it.
Brian Knopf-superstar.
Me- proud mom.
You can read the article the Louisville Courier Journal wrote promoting the concert here. And see a couple of photos.

You can hear their Live Lunch concert and interview on WFPK 91.9 in their Live Lunch archive, there is a link for the audio for Dark Side of the Wall as you scroll down.

I hope to post a small movie on my mobileme later.

Winter Market

A big change in weather brought a lot of folks out to the farmer's market today. We missed last week so were in need of chicken, buffalo, eggs and whatever else we might find. Today there were watermelon radishes! Don't they look yummy? I can't wait to try them. There were turnips and rutabagas, honey, lots of meats and poultry, eggs, potatoes, apples and winter squash. I'm so glad we didn't miss our chicken farmer since he won't be back for a month. He was out of cut up chickens but had whole ones so a roasted chicken is in my future. It's my turn to make breakfast for my Wednesday morning prayer group, so I'll use the eggs for egg muffins, which are always a big hit. Amy is making a quick return trip for Brian's show and to see her grandfather one more time while able to still have some interaction, so she enjoy the eggs and radishes, too.
We stopped in at Sweet and Savory, which was closed for a week for some remodeling. I like the new color scheme, light buttery lemon walls with a chocolate brown ceiling and exposed pipes. The chair seats had been recovered in a nice geometric circle pattern in the yellow, brown, brick and sage green. The bench seat down one wall was covered in brown fabric. Some new pendant lights were hanging over the bar area which is used for drink prep and credit card processing. The carpet hasn't been replaced but I'm sure it is coming. The new owner always remembers us, which is nice. She had replace the little covered containers of strawberry preserves with individually wrapped jelly. I LOVED the preserves and told her I would miss it. She still had some and brought me a dish! It is Smucker's so I can buy my own now that I know the secret. (Smile).
Ah, a nice preview of coming attractions!

A day off

Today was an expected day off but I'm viewing it as a snow day! There IS snow on the ground and I plan to go exploring with my husband who has an unexpected day off since the college is closed. I'm reading blogs, watching the Today show, which turned me on to what looks to be a perfect book for my year of mindful living (more on that later on the other blog), coffee, and sitting in my wicker chair with my lap desk and computer. A yummy start to the day.
My goals are always more than I can manage but that's ok, I go into them knowing that. Today's list? Art-do some backgrounds for an art journal, work on atcs for the month (Orange and Blue and Pockets), make progress on my bookkeeping, visit Bill (I'm just calling him my father-in-law, former father-in-law is too long and confusing and "friend" is not accurate either), celebrate our 6th anniversary with Dave and Karen at Macaroni Grill, where the official ceremony took place. Original spot, original attendees. We try to get the same table. Isn't that fun? I may go by and get a slice of our wedding cake at Helen's. Who doesn't want some dense, rich chocolate raspberry cake? I may get a cup of drinking chocolate from Coco's with a grating of cayenne pepper in it. It is too good for description.
I love the winter garden with snow on it. Nandina brightening my winter landscape. I have it in front, side and back yard.
ooo, can this icicle be good? We turned off the outside water.Yikes!

Another venture

I love that my friend Sue picked a word for the year 2009, at the beginning of the year, and I can't wait to hear what she has chosen for 2010. I decided that it was fitting for some of my personal goals for the year. So I have started another blog related to art in a different way- the art of living. I'll be posting more personal observations there and this will continue to be the site for art endeavors and sharing the art others share with me, though I'm sure some of each will find themselves on both blogs.
My additional blog is
A Year of Mindful Living
Hope you'll stop by from time to time and I hope an art journal will be involved.

Happy New Year!

I invited my bridge group and significant others to my house to celebrate New Year's Eve. Only half of us were there, but it made for an intimate, relaxed evening. I made up my mind that I wouldn't stress over preparations and didn't. I spruced up the house enough, cooked more than enough wonderful lasagna, a recipe of things I thought sounded good. There was enough sauce left over for a dinner for Jim and I, which went into the freezer for a night he doesn't feel like cooking or when spaghetti sounds good. I also made a pan and a half. We didn't even touch the 2nd pan! (Jim had a slice for breakfast).
Janet made a big, delicious salad of leafy greens, chopped pear and apple, dried cranberries, tossed with poppyseed dressing. She offered cashews and walnuts on the side as a kindness to me, I only like peanuts and in recent years-a limited amount of almonds. The smell of cashews makes me nauseous. Linda brought a delicious beer cheese, crackers and celery, Barb provided the dessert, a pineapple nut cake, and an assortment of cookies. Some wine and bread and we were set!
All but two of us were at a New Year's Eve get together at Hope's 10 years ago at the turn of the century.

Hope had saved unused decorations, napkins, hats, horns and blowers in a box which she passed on to me. I used the table cloth she had used-nice vintage touch. I added unused things back into the box, added some horns and blowers I had bought and napkins. So, we'll have items from both events for the next one. We may do one in 5 years, now that we are aging a bit. Jim is the youngest at 51 and Hope the oldest at 69. In 10 years, Hope will be approaching 80!

I had two activities for us. I printed out a 5x5 clock face and drew hands on it, put the date and each person's name as place cards. They were to write predictions for 5 and 10 years from now, could be personal, political, world, local, etc. And, I cut up scrap printer paper and we wrote down things we wanted to rid ourselves of to put in the fireplace. Some had lots to write and others only one. Linda brought the game Life Stories, which we really had fun with.

In a corner by the furnace in my basement, was our time capsule that I'd been holding on to for all of this time. About 36 inces of PVC pipe with end caps. Like so many things, my memory of what might have gone in it was wrong so it was interesting, but not as personal as I'd hoped. I thought I remembered writing predictions of where we'd be in 10 years( I still think someone has an envelope of those). But, alas, no such notes appeared. One of group, Janet Johnson, was diagnoses with Melanoma after that party and sadly, died two and a half years ago ( She would be a likely person to have gathered the predictions). But inside was the Courier Journal from 12/31/99, which proved to be a big hit. Looking at the price of cars and the summary of the decades, including stock prices, was great fun. Also, there was a Time magazine, a poem about friendship all in attendance signed, party favors from that evening. I replaced the paper and added yesterday's, included our clocks with predictions (not peeked at), the goofy jokes and paper crowns that were in the Holiday Crackers we popped just before midnight, and I'll add some pictures. We decide the other Bridge Babes ( who we missed) need to add predictions, too, before I seal it up again. We play bridge next week.

I kept a scrapbook for a good many years and hauled it out to look at the pictures for 1999. I've probably got 5 years of pictures not scrap booked yet.

Sadly, the adults didn't play with chalk as much, but Janet left this little chalk message.

I wish all a prosperous 2010. I have thrown away some things in the fire I hope stay permanently gone and welcome the possibilities of a new year and decade. It's like a blank piece of paper or a winter garden awaiting new creations and life.
Can't wait to see what it becomes.