Burning Cold Beer

A recent birthday present project went very well. It involved my burning tool, wood pieces and a fun font. Take a look!

I traced and transferred my chosen phrase via pencil rub. Nothing fancy here.

I traced as carefully as I could finding out those E's are maybe a little too curvaceous.

Add shading and distressing and a hanger on the back.
Happy Birthday Dad!
He's leaving the less finished one to sit in the sun for a while. We'll see how it looks later on.

Create a Graphic and Sentimental Piece of Collage Art

I've seen this Helen Keller quote illustrated a lot on Etsy. I decided to do my own version using some of my Alaska papers (guess I hoard paper a bit!) I've got a few Anchorage Weekly's, tourist mags, news articles, etc. etc.
I bought this frame for a poster and it didn't fit so I just used the cardboard backing and placed clippings from some of my fave places while living in Alaska. I used acrylic medium to affix the papers and let dry. I then placed my text and painted it, threw it back in the frame and hung it on the wall. Total time = 2ish hours. It's amazing how much this energized the room. 

Supplies needed:
Acrylic Matte Medium
2 Paint brushes (one for matte medium, one for painting) 
Fun papers, pictures, etc.
Frame
Cardboard
Acrylic Paint

You could also paint a background and cut out letters and paste on. The next one I do will be on canvas. I think the cardboard will hold up for a while but it did warp a little bit, fyi.

My digital camera review

Ugh, I knew the day would come when my little Sony DSC-W80 would quit me. I complained a lot about my cybershot but now that I'm shopping around, I must admit, it wasn't a bad little camera. Not great in low light, very noisy, but it did take some nice pictures.

I jumped for a Canon DSLR for $350.00. BUT, I got it home and started opening it and realized it was HUGE! Maybe I didn't like photography as much as I thought. I took it back.

Next I grabbed the Canon PowerShot SX150 for $180.00. It was smaller, still a Canon, and reasonably priced. The pictures it captured were nice, very nice really. BUT it runs on two AA batteries which lasted for maybe fifty shots. It has a manual flash that is anything but convenient to open. Extremely slow flash recharge time and its too big for my pocket. (I realized that I need a camera that I can stash in a pocket.) Camera return number 2!

At this point I needed to read some reviews. I wanted a camera that took low noise pictures, even in low light. I wanted it to be small enough to cart around in a pocket if needed, and it needed to be fast! I've got two preschoolers for goodness sake!

My top 3 picks were:
Sony HX9V
Canon SX230HS
Nikon Coolpix S9100

I passed on the Sony because I've had two break on me now. They were decent cameras but even though they boast their Carl Zeiss lens, that is what stopped working.

Honestly I wanted to buy the Canon, but no one local has them in stock (and I want it now). Apparently they are popular for some reason. ugh.

I bought the Nikon for $199.00 and have been using it for 13 days now. I need to take it back tomorrow if I'm not going to keep it. The pictures are great, its fast and compact, and overall, not bad. However! When I review my pictures the lens stays open and I don't like this. And the delete menu scares me a bit. I almost deleted all the pictures on my camera because the controls are a little too sensitive. I don't know yet. I'm going to sleep on it and decide in the morning.

Strawberry Shortcake Costume

So I'm a little late but have to share how my kids' Halloween costumes turned out this year. I'm a wee bit cheap when it comes to costumes. The thought of spending so much for a packaged costume that doesn't last bothers me. We did a Black Widow Spider and Strawberry Shortcake. All the pieces came together pretty well but I was most excited about little Shortcake's hat.
I found a cute white hat at Goodwill for a dollar! It was perfect. I bought some pink Rit dye, felt, and ribbon. 

Thrift hat and Petal Pink dye

We (meaning my mother-in-law) added the green and white polka dot ribbon and a handmade felt strawberry. . .

I love pink and green!

We had the skirt and tights, bought a pair of hot pink glitter mary jane's. The t-shirt was my very first applique project! If you don't look too close you'll be very impressed.

Halloween Party

Black Widow Costume:
This was an old Ninja costume that was never used. I sewed red felt eyes onto his hat (another dollar purchase at Goodwill) and bought some wide black ribbon to make the legs. He didn't get as much recognition as the Shortcake girl, of course, but both stole the show in my world :)

This is me calling myself out!

OK, SERIOUSLY! August! That was my last post. Now I'll say I got lazy over the summer but I've really picked up the pace on my art projects and listings in my Etsy store. Now for a remodel here. Change is in the air!
Come back soon and check it out, seriously!

Moab to Colorado

I'm so glad we stayed a little longer in Moab so we could see more of Arches. Definitely worth the trip. I could see a family trip in the future, camping in the park for a few days and then hitting some trails. I burned a back up disc of my photos and inadvertently screwed something up in iPhoto. As soon as I figure that out I'll post pics of Arches. We ran out of time but still managed to get some amazing photos.
Here is one more of Dead Horse Point:

We took the same route home because I wanted to stop in a couple of mountain towns for photos. Of course it was Sunday so no stores were open. Still got a few interesting photos.

These shelves reminded me of a store in the Pike Place Market in Seattle. Nothing but collectible salt and pepper shakers and figurines. Shelves and shelves of them. 

Quaint local bread store. I couldn't imagine being sandwiched between a mountain and an interstate. This rustic main street is holding on, I'm so glad we stopped.
One more fun stop on the way home, I'll tell you about it next time!

On the way to Moab. . .

Had a nice road trip to Moab for the wedding. Made some fun stops on the way. Once I hit Denver it was all new territory for me. I can't believe I've never travelled 70W out of Denver. I've gone north, south, east, but never west. Wow was I missing out! Idaho Springs and Silver Plume gave me many lovely photos. Lots of old buildings, mines, etc. What I really loved though, was getting stranded in Grand Junction for a few extra hours while our vehicle's wheel bearing was replaced. (scary)
Their downtown is adorable. Reminds me of Eugene, Oregon, but on a smaller scale.
Found an awesome little vintage/thrift store down there that I could've spent hours in.

A Haggle of Vendors Emporium

Everything was organized in collections like the teapots above. Kinda wishing I would've grabbed that light blue teapot on the left. Been thinking in reds and blues since the wedding. Here's a group shot of all of us, it was really windy. This is at Dead Horse Point State Park.

http://www.utah.com/stateparks/dead_horse.htm