On the Tenth day of Christmas...

On the Tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...LOL

How fast have the days gone by since Christmas?

I just logged on to do my WORD for 2017, and mercy, I found this post I did on the 28th, and never finished it, so, being one not to WASTE things, I am going to share this.

Our Team on Etsy, FAAP is having an after Christmas Sale.  I have been blessed to sell 4 items and I am grinning from ear to ear!  I thought I would share the 20 items that I still have listed at a discounted price.

Remember, that Holiday items make GREAT Wedding Gifts!  One of the best wedding showers I ever attended, was a Holiday Shower.  Most people get every day items, but when the holidays roll around, they have to go shopping, which, isn't a REAL problem, but just something to think about.

I sure do love that I get to create things with my hands.  All those days that Mother did her best to keep our hands busy, I never had any idea the seed she was planting for the direction of my life.
I KNOW, she was doing her best to keep me and Brian from fighting, but what great skills she was also implanting in my world.

IF you have children, PLEASE teach them to love the arts, and the joy of doing work with their hands.  Yes, game playing does teach them skills, but to CREATE something is a gift.  Teach them BASIC skills they will need for life--to cook, to repair things, to grow things (yes, I guess mold on food in the fridge is a lesson, too), to organize their toys/books/possessions, to HELP with chores--not EVERYTHING we do deserves MONEY to get it done, because service is a vital part of living.

I am so thankful for the lessons my Parents taught me, even when I didn't know they were teaching me!  WOW--what a blessed child I was.

Check out my teammates items, also.  

I am surrounded by talented artists!

Click here to magically pop into my etsy shop!

Thank you to each of you that has encouraged me.

You have no idea how much it means!

BUT you have ONLY yourself to blame 

for seeing more of me--LOL

I am simply blessed to create~charlotte♡

The Gift of Love Continues...

I have a few more gifts to show that I got from my friends around the world!

I do not show these things to boast, but to share how generous people are and what can happened if you take just a few moments to say HI to someone.

The first thing I want to share is the dip mix I got from the dip, shoot, I mean, from Ramona...

I  love dips...again, apologies, I  meant to say that I love DIP.  I was already thinking that Charcoal and I would enjoy it watching the Super Bowl this year....YUM!!

The next awesome gift, that made me cry, came from Jolanda who lives in the Netherlands...

Isn't it beautiful!! She "fussed" at me because I didn't have a good picture of Charcoal for her to use, but it looks like him, anyway!

Usually, I  grab my camera in the dark to take a picture of Charcoal being silly. He does NOT sit still for long,  but I will make it a goal to get ONE good picture of Charcoal before the year ends! We will see how that works out...

You know, thinking back to Ramona, she left the price tag on the gift! hmmmmm...

Back to Jo...she and I met in a painting group when she shared a picture of a rolling pin she had painted and I commented...she had no idea what I was talking about because they called it something different...we laughed about it and became friends who joked, which, by the way, is what I like in a friend! 

Mother said that if I teased someone, it was a sure sign that I liked them! 

(Wonder why Ramona sent me dip but sent our other mutual friends something she painted...I thought she liked me just as much...sigh...)

The other gift came from my scroll saw buddy in Canada...she is a mis-placed Chicago girl...Sesame Street Smart, she is! LOL  I will use her picture to show what she sent me.

She designed and cut them! She is amazingly talented!

(Don't get me wrong about Ramona...I appreciate that she sent me the dip because she sent it out of love...I think it was out of love...it is hard to tell with Ramona...she is a stinker! )

Sheila also gave me several little sheepies with yarn wrapped around them...so pretty and colorful! I love colors!

Oh my goodness...they are the sweetest little things EVER!

We had a close call with Charcoal thinking this sheepie was for him...ugh...

Look at the detail!

I  just can't stop thinking about that dip...I guess I need to see what I need to make it because I only shop about once a month for groceries and the Super Bowl will be here soon!

The dip reminds me of a Christmas present that my brother got one year. He had just moved in with a bunch of his college buddies and so he got this gift that was in a box that said: Avocado Green Chip and Dip Set.

He sarcastically said: "just what I ALWAYS wanted--an avocado green chip and dip set!"

He opened it to find: (say it with me) An Avocado Green Chip and Dip set!!

Boy, was he embarrassed! We kidded him mercilessly! The next year, he got a cross-stitched sign that said: Just what I ALWAYS wanted!

In my house, we take gifts to be what the box says they are!!

Back to the dip...I got the ingredients listed in my smart phone grocery shopping list....I wonder what the mix looks like...

Wait....that isn't any dip!!!

She DOES love me (ok...we are sticking with this)! ! I  got 2 of her hand painted Nickelettes! I'm so excited!!

But now....I have no dip for me and Charcoal to make for Super Bowl Sunday...heavy sigh...ROFL

I have shed true tears this Christmas with each gift I have received. I am amazed at the generosity of friendships.

I  have wasted far too much time protecting my heart from any more hurt, but yet, these friends have taught me and reminded me more about friendship and how vital they are to living a complete life.

Once again, I have reaped far better than I have sown! Blessings drop like rain as I am reminded that we are NEW EVERY MORNING!

Thank you, my friends for helping me to see the MAGIC of the season...of the generosity of people...of unconditional love and of the JOY in encouraging others!

I am humbly blessed...Let's keep Christmas alive all year!~~charlotte♡

Embrace Life, Thursday, November 5, 2015

I fear I will have to apologize in every post until I do better, for the poor pictures…Taking a picture without being able to SEE what you are photographing is quite adventurous, but it is what it is and it will do until I find a new camera…so Use your imagination that the colors are bright, vivid and have no glare!

It started on an unseasonably warm November Day in Middle Tennessee. 

Everything was going well when I decided that I wanted to give Tracy’s stamp that I had won a try.  I just had a simple project in my mind and knew it wouldn’t take too long.

I began to read the directions on the back of the stamps, and that is when I took a turn down the daisy hole (sorry, there were no rabbits in sight)…

The directions said to  “stamp on scrap paper the very first 2 or three times to prime the stamps”.  I had no scrap paper where I was sitting, so I just decided to try them on my 8x10 canvas that was in my lap and I would just paint over it~~no biggie.

  

I stamped and stamped and stamped, and then ONE MORE stamp for good measure…I got up to go wash off the stamps because I was not going to use them until I had, in my mind, covered the canvas in pretty bright colors and then I was going to STAMP on top of that for a hippie-style daisy…it was going well…

I came back and pulled out the white gesso and painted it in criss-cross patterns to give some texture….still going well as I pulled out ye olde hairdryer.

Things suddenly took a turn…not your normal style of painting…after all, I have been creating something since a little kid, and I am now OLD and know that all projects have a proper logical order and in painting, one should always paint the back ground FIRST and build from there…yeah, Momma said that since I was a baby, if she said the sky was BLUE, I would say, “No, it’s (insert color here)…”  I am saying that I knew my colors as a small child and THAT is the story I am sticking to (it had nothing to do with me being a disagreeable child who argued since she learned to speak…heavy sigh.)

I thought I would just pull out a color and paint the petals and the center and it would give me a direction to go to when I would place the flowers at their proper time~~LAST.

Diarylide Yellow filled the centers/leaves/stems and  Pyrrole Orange colored the petals (ok…I painted 38 pumpkins for an order yesterday and I needed to know that Orange could be used for more things than just a pumpkin!)

Ok…I kinda like that…so I pulled out some of my favorite colors and just started painting in the background  (careful and don’t get on my petals, the mind YELLED!) with Quinacridone Violet (what is wrong with just saying VIOLET??) and then Quinacridone Magenta (really?  I’m Southern…what do you think that is going to sound like when I attempt to say it???)

Next came some Cobalt Teal Hue and some Blue Green Light on the leaves/stems….OH YES…Pretty colors…see how they change colors as I add layers…I love playing with these paints!

 I roughly dry-brushed my favorite color, Phtalo Turquoise (again???...what is that word…ok…so, I am at least familiar with this word from my one watercolor class in college…see Mom, I did learn something other than to burp on command!)…Look how it changes colors with each color I paint over…isn’t that the coolest thing ever!  Can I tell you how much I love COLORS!

I thought I might as well go with it now, so I pulled out the Carbon Black and outlined the flowers…I really should have taken more time with this, but I was just playing…still learning how to do this style…

This experiment sure had taken a dark tone, so I pulled out the drywall tape and scruffed in some Titanium White and added the word to the top…added some curly q’s and I am calling it DONE and you know what…I LIKE IT!!  I did attach the “embrace Life” with Matte Medium.  I had stamped it on the envelop that my stamp came in…I need some more work on stamping the words…so I went over the words with my black pen…

OK, Tracy, I will absolutely understand that the next time you have your husband pick a number, that you will tell him to pick a number between 1-100, but stay as far away from 79 (or whatever my number happens to be) as possible…I’m sorry…I KNOW this isn’t how we are SUPPOSED to use stamps, and MAYBE one day I will do better, but I sure am not going to promise that!

Thank you, Tracy, for the inspiration that you give to me and to countless others…your caring heart shines in your creations and I am so glad that our paths have crossed…

If you don't, Please follow Tracy on her website/blog to learn the PROPER way to do things!  =)  This will take you to Tracy's website.  You can also join her on many Monday Nights to see her create a project in about 1 hour (find them on You Tube)...You can LIKE her also, on facebook...she is EVERYWHERE and of course, she is the DecoArt Education Coordinator...my FAVORITE products and I am so happy to be a Helping Artist with DecoArt!!  Yippie Skippie!

I know, Tracy is thinking “please, don’t let anybody see this, please, don’t let anybody see…OH HI, everybody!”  but you are far too kind to ever utter what is going on in your head out loud (well, most of the time.).  Thanks for letting me play with some of your toys.

Tonight, I embraced LIFE…I LOVE life and am so blessed to simply create…I wish Blessings to YOU…~charlotte

My supply list: I apologize for any misspelled words...

DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics:

Diaryliade Yellow,

Pyrrole Orange

Quinacridone Violet

Quinacridone Magenta

Cobalt Tea Hue

Blue Green Light

Phthalo Turquoise

Carbon Black

Titanium White

Gesso White and Matte Medium