She Watches Over

I should be downloading and sharing the photos from my trip to Florida last weekend, but instead, I spent the day binge-watching the videos from an online class I've been taking. It's taught by Juliette Crane and it's called Serendipity.  The class ends on March 1st, so I've been busy watching and re-watching as many of the videos as I can and taking notes. And of course, painting.  Here's one I made today, which I call "She Watches Over":

I'm really pleased with how this turned out. It looks like Juliette's artwork but it is also very much my own.  It was exciting to see some of the concepts she talked about in her videos actually happening as I created it, especially the ones about following your intuition and letting the painting reveal itself. That's how those houses and the sun appeared, several steps before the girl did.  It's a thrill to see it happening on the page in front of you, just like the teacher said it would!

Happy (Belated) Valentine's Day

Tried to post this yesterday and in the midst of putting this post together, my computer decided to install not 1 or 2 but 18 updates - yikes!  It took so long, I ended up going off to do something else and forgot all about posting.

So here I am, a day later, sharing photos of the cards I made for my family for this Valentine's Day using the February card kit from Simon Says Stamp.

I made these cards last weekend while having an artful play date with friends.  Because we gathered a friend's house, I challenged myself to make these cards with just the contents of the kit, scissors and glue, because I didn't want to carry a whole bunch of stuff with me and I wouldn't have items like my die cutting machine available.

The black and white background on the card below is actually from a set of cards I picked up somewhere for $1.00 a piece.  I had been meaning to do something with them, as the B&W by itself was a little much. I think it works perfectly here as an edging for these other papers, don't you?

I made this one for someone's parents who are celebrating 70 years of being married. Can you imagine? Quite the milestone!  Did you know the traditional wedding gift for that year is platinum or iron?  I had to look that up, I've never heard of anyone celebrating that anniversary, the diamond 60th was high as it went, I thought.

 Here are a few more.

Hope you had a lovely Valentine's Day, however you celebrated!

Talking About Money

My sister and I went to a free seminar last night featuring financial guru, Gail Vaz-Oxlade.  She is doing a book tour, promoting her latest volume entitled "Money Talks".

The talk was held in a small theatre in the Fairview library. Believe it or not, as you can see from the photo below (taken with my iPhone since I forgot my camera, so apologies for the overexposure, it was the best I could do with that lighting), she did the whole session in her bare feet!  She explained it this way:  "Women of a certain age travel with their own heating systems. Some of you out there know exactly what I'm talking about!"

If you've ever watched one of Gail's TV shows ("'Til Debt Do Us Part", "Princess" and "Money Moron"), you know she is very much a "tell it like it is" kind of gal. She is even more so in person, when she doesn't have to edit herself for a television audience!  Lots of laughs but also lots of straight talk.  She spoke for about half an hour and then answered questions from the audience (who numbered about 200) for the next half hour. All too soon, our time was up but I certainly could have listened to her talk for much longer, it was that interesting and enjoyable.

I took this picture at the book signing afterwards (I didn't buy her latest book, I got one of her earlier ones, called "Money Rules").

Her signature is just as exuberant as she is!

My sister took the photo below. She was very friendly and courteous to all who came up to her to say hello or have a book signed and graciously posed for photos, all while keeping the line moving quickly and calmly.

Thanks for a great evening, Gail!  I definitely left feeling like I needed to rush home and get to work looking after my money!

National Doodle Day

Did you know yesterday, Friday February 5th, was National Doodle Day? I didn't, until about 11:30 p.m.  I hastily sat down and sketched this girl with an ornate hat.  I don't quite know why, she was just who showed up when I put pen to paper.  I used some glitter pens to add the colour, although the sparkled doesn't show in the photo.

When did you last draw a doodle?