The Gypsy on Adventure

Heart of Gold

My friend Gina Bee sent me her heart! The bigger one is going in a shadow box for a vampire theme!!!
Bonus was the delish skull pin and heart ring!!!!

I have ornaments dancing in my head...

I joined up for a swap and I just have to do SIX...but now I am trying to figure out WHAT to make! Eye like this idea!

 

Wow

Today I received my trade for the Altered Cabinet Card! Hysterical that I got Miss Luna's card! Lisa said ours were Wonder Twins! LOL 


Here is his back story:
Virtuoso:
REAL IDENTITY: Victor Virtue, mild mannered music teacher in a small Midwestern town middle school where he struggles to make music available to all children in spite of apathy and government cuts to funding of the arts in schools. On school breaks and holidays he travels the world over hobnobbing with writers, artists, musicians and has been credited with numerous muse like inspiration of those individuals. 

Altered Cabinet Card Super Hero Swap

I was in a Swap in FreakWerks SO nervous! These are major artists! But I am finally after several mock ups happy with my unconventional Super Hero!

Here were the instructions: Based on this idea by Alex Gross: http://www.alexgross.com/mixed-media/index.html Find a vintage cabinet card. These can be found at antique stores, or on eBay. Make sure it's a cabinet card, and not the smaller carte de visite, trading card size. Cabinet cards usually measure about 4¼ by 6½ inches. Please use a REAL cabinet card, and not something printed from the internetz. Alter your card to turn the figure into a super hero. These can be modelled after comic or graphic novel super heroes, or made up. Please be sure to include somewhere on the card, front or back, your name, and the name of your super hero.

Artzy Gurls Retreat

I was lucky enough to attend the first Artzy Gurls Retreat in Idaho...what a great time! It took two days of driving where I saw the most beautiful sights of our vast country...and which made me wonder HOW some people eeek out a living on our land...some places were very remote.

It was a whirlwind retreat! If I had to say anything bad about the retreat, could you believe too much art! We started at 9 am and went to 9 pm...so that left no time for playing on the beautiful lake or venturing out to any boardering cities...I think we would have done better at 2 classes a day verses the 3, just for sanity.

BUT saying that I have to tell you I loved every minute of the art! AND trying new things as well, like working with Gourds! Gourds! Me! Can you believe I even tried using the wood burner for the first time and didn't hurt myself with it!? It was awesome with all the things we did.

I wasn't too thrilled with making art for some one else, although I totally understand why we had the exercise. My personality is such that I get high anxiety for making things for others....and when you don't know some one the pressure is on! I had a mini melt down and cried in my room for a bit and then got back to work. I enjoyed learning about my awesome person, but I didn't like the anxiety of the exercise!

I will upload photos to the photo album titled Artzy Gurls Retreat and you can see the photos there! 

It took us two days to drive home, but we went the quickest route through NV, which during the day is a rather boring trip, however, I enjoyed seeing all the colors come out at dusk, the purples and pinks, the blues of the dessert! It has its own beauty...that day was hard on the body we didn't stop much...so I was a bit dehydrated from not drinking anything for fear of NO BATHROOMS in NV! So by the time we got to Winnemucca at 830ish my body was swollen and I tired and hungry and THIRSTY! woooosh we made good time! From Worley Idaho at 8ish am  to Winnemucca at 830ish pm.

The next day was a mere 4 hrs to get to Chris's house! Then we mostly relaxed after splitting our new paints...and having a treat at the local yogert shop! YUMMO! Chris made an awesome dinner and I fell into bed early to get home by 11ish today! Whirl wind fun! 

I love spending that much time on art with like minded people, meeting new life long friends and sharing my life with Chris! I really do enjoy her!

On the way home my son texted me that my daughter has had a stroke or an aneurysm in Texas where she moved...that is not an easy thing to learn while on the road...especially when there is nothing you can do about it...

Surprise Mexican Fiesta Lunch

Today was the surprise gift and luncheon for Lucy! It was hard to get up this morning, I didn't sleep much last night with the tattoo, just amped up and a little burning when I moved my arm, but nothing major. I got up early like 6:30 and had some lemon tea, showered and got things together. No anxiety today!

It went off well, I got there by 9:30ish made coffee and enjoyed a cup before Lucy arrived.

It was a great day! And I could tell it meant a lot to Lucy. I think every thing went well. She was so surprised about the story of the wallet! When we bought it was LAST May in SLO and she had no idea!

We were going to do a fabric book but we started the Habu scarves with Lucy's roving and my Habu, and it took too much time. If we had all spent the weekend like we had planned it would have been all done...but things changed and we all left.

 

      

Knitting...catching up...

Today I knitted up one full arm warmer AND started the second one. I have a completed mittens and scarf that are mini.  I worked on a couple of swaps...Christmas Exchange and the beginning stages of the Valentines Charm swap.  Worked on the clutter...and put away my clothes that I did laundry on yesterday. Boxed up my shoes that don't fit to take back to the store, sigh...

I don't feel like I accomplished much with my days off...

New Necklace

Ah today I rearranged the necklace...these charms are from a swap I did with Angela's group including some Flickr friends! It was stressful for me but I ended up doing ok...next time I would use claw clasps on mine for easy use on a bracelet or necklace! And I used my silver crown clasp! LOVE it! This is fun...

My Muse showed up!

I am in a charms swap and the muse FINALLY showed up and this is the beginning stages of my charms! They are really hard to capture! AND now I am such a happy girl! At least I will be done on time! To view them up close just touch on each photo.

Finished Bracelet

Well had to share the way the bracelet turned out! We traded two a piece. I added one more of mine to fit my wrist! I tried to figure out how to put beads in between...but gave up and only used the tiles! I am happy with it! I really like it!