I'm ready to paint my wall

Hi all, okay, the project has begun. It is really just a small project but I have been meaning to do this for a couple of months now. I have one wall in my living room/dining room area that I want to repaint and redecorate. And for my birthday I picked out this gorgeous old shabby chic head board at a local shop that has been made into a blackboard, as my gift (thank you mom and dad). I'm actually staying with my signature color of Creamy Brie for the wall because I already have the opposite wall painted in a golden yellow faux finish and I don't want to compete with that so......
I should be finished with the painting in a few hours so I'll leave you all with the beginning photos here and then later I'll post the finished results. Wish me luck, lol.
talk to you soon,
deborah

Blooming flowers in my garden

Hi all,
I was just out in my front yard garden watering the plants around my little pond and lo and behold one of my late summer flowers was in full bloom. I've been keeping an eye on it for the last week because the pods are getting huge and I could tell that any day now they would open up and announce their glory and sure enough they didn't disappoint.
I don't even know the name of the plant! I planted it last year when we had just put the little pond in and it was beautiful. The tag had said it was a perennial so I hoped for the best that it would survive our winter snow and sure enough it did! Then on my birthday my sweet hubby gave me a fountain to add to the pond and it added just the right feel to the whole yard.
Also our trailing vine over our gate arch is showing its color. Last year was it's first year and it only blossomed a couple of flowers but this year it is more established and is giving us an abundance of red trumpet flowers!
I am getting such joy from our little pond. It is not very big but we added gold fish last year too, sadly not very many survived but a hardy handful but they make me smile whenever I sit at the ponds edge and watch them swimming here and there looking for their daily food. The bees also fly in and out sipping their fill of cool water. Such simplicity and calm in such a crazy mixed up world.
Hope you enjoy the garden photos.
Talk to you soon,
deborah

Back to my usual posting!!!

Hi all,

I am still trying to figure out this photo editing thing and cannot for the life of me get it right!!!
So I will leave it all behind for now and just post my regular way!

Last week I entered one of my collages into the local fair and I wanted to show you all what the collage looks like.
Lately sunflowers have been permeating my vision everywhere I go. So, I decided to create a sunflower piece and called it "ode to van gogh".
I really like how it turned out and hope that the fair goers enjoy it too.

I used a bright blue for the background because van gogh loved his blues and then added some crackle over yellow ocre to give it a peeling vintage look.
I also added tiny glass beads to the centers of the stamped sunflowers and loved how it came out! Kind of looks like real seeds.
The main sunflower is made out of vintage wallpaper pieces and a bit of corrugated paper and then I added a fringe tassel, fluffed up, for the center of the sunflower.
The stem is a piece of olive green vintage fringe.
and of course I couldn't stop myself from adding a few vintage buttons here and there!!! lol

That's my van gogh inspired collage! Hope you enjoyed the photos and maybe next post I'll get the photo issue settled, ha!
Talk to you soon,
deborah

Excuse my insanity post!

Yes, as you see there is nothing here on this post, that's because I cannot for the life of me figure out how to use picnik or picassa on my blog, soooo......
empty space is all I can figure out at the moment, lol

talk to you soon,
deborah

French dress form lovelie, my newest creation

Hi all,
Here's my latest dress form creation! It's all about the French, oooh la la.

and more to come.....
on Glitter & Grunge
deborah

My new lovelies!

Hi all,
Oh my goodness, I haven't blogged for a week! Have you noticed?
It's always a toss up of spending time on the computer or creating at my art table. I guess that means that the art table won over the computer this last week, lol.

I've recently joined up with a online selling site called "Glitter and Grunge". I met the owners when I had gone to the ZNE retreat back in March. So, I checked into their site and I love it! So now I have a shop on there called Starrydeborah the same name as my etsy shop, but I sell different items then on etsy. I started a line of dress form lovelies that will be my main focus on G & G.
Mainly french themed dress forms, but foo foo kinds too, lol. Some of the forms will be stand alone designs and some will be attached to containers.
They are one of a kind creations and take a bit of time to make them but I am loving them!
I start off with a cut out wooden shape that I order from a great shop on etsy called "popalicioustoo". And then I just start creating from there.

Hope you like seeing my little works of art.
I'll be making many more designs as time goes on and if you get a chance check out Glitter and Grunge and see all the other wonderful artists on there.
Talk to you soon,
deborah

Kayaking with my sweetie.

Hi all,
last Sunday my hubby and I took out our Kayak to the local lake and had a nice leisurely peaceful afternoon on the water. There's something so wonderful about a non engine powered boat, so calming.......
The sound of the water lapping up on the shore and the lulling of the motion of the gentle waves make you so relaxed and happy.
Of course, I was in total Queen mode because my husband did all the paddling, lol. All I had to do was sit back with my feet dangling over into the cool water and enjoy!


Here are a few photos of our day.
Ahhhhh, the dog days of summer...... hope your summer is bringing you relaxation and fun with your loved ones too.
Talk to you soon,
deborah

Enchanted Makeovers event!

Hi all,

About a month ago I blogged about an organization called Enchanted Makeovers,
a wonderful non-profit created by Terry Grahl that transforms shelters for women and children into places of peace and possibilities.
They had emailed me out of the blue asking if I would like to donate my teacup cards
for their Celebration of Cooking event that they were putting on for the girls and I just

was so honored to have them ask and I jumped at the opportunity.
Well, their event was held a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to show you a quick

video of the day.

There's even a shot of my teacup cards and it just makes me smile to know I

got to be a part of this wonderful event.

Hope you enjoy the music and the happy day :)

Enchanted Makeover video


talk to you soon,
deborah

I just love this photo! Old teacups

San Francisco bay view!

Hi all,
Last weekend I went down to the San Francisco bay area for
a family reunion/going away party for my nephew.
I caught a ride down with my son and of course we couldn't
let the opportunity pass us by to stop for a minute at Treasure
Island and take in the view of the city of San Fran.

Hope you enjoy the scenery.

Talk to you soon, deborah

Tour de France Stage 6 Preview with Lance Armstrong and Dedication | LIVESTRONG.COM

Hi all,
I just found this short little clip of Lance while on his tour de france race and I couldn't resist
posting it here for all of you to see.
talk to you soon,
deborah

Tour de France Stage 6 Preview with Lance Armstrong and Dedication | LIVESTRONG.COM

Shared via AddThis

Michael, we'll miss you

He was not a king, he was not perfect, he was a human being who had a gift
of dance and music that touched the world.

I'll miss you Michael.

Lance Armstrong! For real!

Hi all,
Sunday on Fathers day I had the best opportunity!
Our little town was holding their annual bike race and lo and behold Lance Armstrong decided to take part this year!!!
I've been following Lances career and life over the years but never
thought I'd get to see him in person, so this was very exciting!
(He's the rider to the right of the motorcycle, in the gold yellow and black, his livestrong colors)

Lance Armstrong has won the Tour de France seven times now and is the current record holder for that event, he's now going to try for an eighth win soon. And if I were a betting woman, I'd place my bets on him, that's for sure!
I've heard the comments here and there that Mr. Armstrong is not always such a polite and sweet guy, but anyone who can raise millions of dollars for cancer research, fight with all his being to survive testicular and brain cancer and also win the Tour de France seven times is an amazing human being and I am without a doubt sooooo thrilled that I got to witness him
in his element.










Thank you Lance Armstrong, for never giving up and giving us all a super Fathers day afternoon.

talk to you soon,
deborah

Thank you Cinderella Moments!

Hi all,
Caroline from Cinderella Moments sent me
this lovely blog award today!
I adore the photo, and it was such a nice surprise to
see that she visits and enjoys reading my blogging
words.
She has a lovely shop on Etsy, so check it out when
you get a chance!
Caroline also creates these amazing art buttons
that totally make me oooohhhh
and ahhhhhh.









Thank you Caroline
for such a wonderful award!!!

talk to you all soon,
deborah