Art Journaling

I cannot believe that I never uploaded a picture of my art journal before now.

I made it out of half of an old leather folder that I found at Goodwill. I've been in the process of embroidering the strap and have other plans for decorating the outside of it, but of course, that is slow going at best. lol

I apply white gesso on the pages and give them a light sanding before I use them. Here are the latest two pages that I've done:


I started a new page this morning, but wont be able to finish it until tonight. Keeping up with my art journaling is another of my New Year's Resolutions. Wish me luck!

Recently I joined Milliande's Art Community for Women and she has a section on Art Journaling that I am anxious to be a part of. I think it will really help me stay on task with my own journaling. Wish me luck!

'Till later...

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2010

Happy New Year!

The picture is out of my art journal. While it looks like it is a Zentangle, it is only in a similar style to one. I've been doing these types of drawings for many years, they help me to relax my mind.

About the drawing, I'd done the page with a wash of watercolor awhile back, then I put a coat of white gesso over it and sanded it just a little so I could draw with my black, ultra-fine tip marker. Occasionally, I used a couple of other colored fine-tip markers as well. :)
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So this is the start of a brand new year! I've been working on a totally new idea that I'm Very Excited about and can't wait to unveil it! I'm hoping to unveil it at the end of next week. That's all I will say for now. ;)

One of my resolutions for this year is to blog at least three times a week...daily would be better, but I have a better chance of keeping that promise of three times per week. lol I'm going to give it my best shot.

Must get back in the studio now...Happy New Year!

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Look What's New in the Thicket!

There's a new widget on the top right with a form to sign up for the Twisted Thicket Newsletter!

There's going to be a lot of new things coming out of the thicket soon and they will be unveiled in the newsletter first! The newsletter is free and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Would you like to receive updates and news about Twisted Thicket? Updates about the venues, the new items, the studio, and the fun? How about tips on gourd crafting, rock painting, and pyrography?

As a newsletter subscriber you'll get all that plus, be able to take part in contests, specials, and even more exciting things that are for subscribers only.

Your email address will always remain private and will not be shared or sold. The Twisted Thicket Newsletter will publish on a monthly basis.

Sign up now!

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He Stole the "Who Pudding"...

but, not our Roast BEAST!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

The beast (24 lbs.) has a couple more hours to go before he is done, then we can eat!

Hope you're having a great Thanksgiving!

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Holidays, Ornaments, and Food, Oh My!

This ornament above is the next in the custom order I mentioned yesterday. Unfortunately, I didn't check the photos before shipping it out and they didn't turn out right. Wish I would have checked them first so I could have retaken them. This one has a paisley design with one heart.

I'll be showing the third one in tomorrow's post.

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Last night for dinner I made a Cranberry Glazed Pork Roast in my slow cooker and it was fabulous! I didn't get a picture of it before it was attacked, but I will share the recipe with you so you can give it a try. :) My daughter, who is not very fond of Cranberries, absolutely LOVED it!

Ingredients:

• 1 (16 oz.) can jellied cranberry sauce
• 1 (16 oz.) can whole cranberry sauce
  
• 1/2 C. white sugar
• 1/4 C. Dark Brown Sugar
  
• 1/2 C. cranberry juice
• 1 t. mustard powder
• 1/2 t. Rosemary
  
• 1/4 t. ground cloves
• 4-5 lb. Boneless Pork Blade Roast (or other cut)
  
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• salt to taste

1. Combine cranberry sauces with a fork, mix well. Stir in sugar, cranberry juice, mustard, Rosemary, and cloves.
   
2. Place pork roast in slow cooker. Pour cranberry sauce mixture over the roast.
3. Cover and cook on high for 6 to 8 hours.
   
4. Using a ladle, scoop out about 2 Cups of the liquid and put into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Blend cornstarch and cold water and add gradually into boiling liquid stirring constantly. Continue cooking(and stirring constantly), until mixture thickens. Add salt to taste. Serve with the roast.

Enjoy! I'm going to use this same glaze on our Ham for Christmas this year too.

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New things about to come out of my studio! I'm so excited! I've been working on a couple of secret projects lately and can't wait to share them with all of you! I will be announcing their unveiling here in the blog, so be sure to check back here.

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For those of you waiting to see before and after pics of my studio organziation...It is still unorganized, but it is getting there. While I was working on it, the ideas started to flow in my head which has led to the secret projects I mentioned above. You know how it is, you get a great idea and before you know it, you are happily working on it every chance you get. :)

Right now, I must get to the kitchen and start the preparations for tomorrow's feast! My Son and his family will be joining us tomorrow for a day of fun and food!

'Till later...Have a great day!

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What's So Funny?

I walked into my living room yesterday and found Sam relaxing on the couch, watching TV.
The funniest part about this, is the way he was sitting and I just had to get a couple pictures of him. Notice his little arm, resting on the arm of the couch?
I had my daughter walk into the room to get his attention and try to keep him from moving or jumping off the couch while I stood in front of him and got another shot. The photo below is of that moment.

Now I find him sitting on the couch this way a lot more often. I think that he thinks he is human too. lol Does your dog do things like this?

I'll have some new photos of the second custom gourd ornament that I recently finished to post a bit later today, so I hope you will stop back by.

'Till later then...Have a great day!

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Don't You Just Love Circles?

I sure do! This custom ornament I made recently is all about circles. The family circle, our circle of friends, and circle of life--or is it cycle of life(?).
Anyway, this round ornament is made up of many circles, and one of them encompasses a heart.

You can view the rest of the photos (3 more) of this ornament in Flickr.

Starting with this ornament, I'll post one of the ornaments a day, so be sure to check back!
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This is Thanksgiving week and in my house, the holiday baking begins! Tomorrow we'll begin by baking some cookies. MmmMmmm

Have a great day!

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This is a test post

I just joined ArtFlock.com and am trying to make sure I added the correct url for my blog feed to be imported there.

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A Mystery & the Changing of the Blog

Well, it's a start!

I've begun changing colors on my blog to brighten it up some. It's difficult for me to go with an all white setting, baby steps. :) I'm not too sure I like the light greenish color as a background for my posts, but after toying with it for the past hour or so, this is what I settled on...for now. It's a work in progress.

This photo on the right is of a painting I've done entirely in coffee. It is one I did to demonstrate my latest article on Empty Easel, "Give Your Next Painting a Caffeine Boost - and Paint with Coffee!" It is not finished yet, but will be soon enough.
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I've been filling up my Etsy shop again and now have 25 items listed. I haven't done much with it or the other one over the summer. I basically just let it go on its own. There will be some brand new things coming out soon. I'm just not too sure where I am going to list them, ArtFire or Etsy, or a combination of the two.
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Lately, I've been very inspired by space. I watch the skies quite often these days, there is so much to see. There's been a lot of very strange activity taking place up there that I've managed to catch since mid-June through the present time. I only wish I had a decent camera, recorder, and even a night vision set up in order to show you all what we've been seeing. My digital camera is a Kodak Easy Share 4.0 Mega Pixels. I have no idea how to be able to catch these at night with the camera I own.

One thing I noticed though, is that during the day if I zoom it in and point it at the sky, it sometimes catches things that I can't see with my eyes. For instance, here is a photo I took just like I described:
I couldn't see anything on the screen when I shot this photo (above). It just looked like clear blue sky.

Five minutes after taking that photo, I took another the same way, and in the same place. This next photo is the second one:


When I uploaded them to the computer, the white dot appeared in both pictures.

That white dot did not move in the time between the first and second photo, so it is not a plane. Also, we do not get a lot of air traffic up here and when we do, they rarely fly over in this area. The flight path is behind me.

I stare at this photo a lot and don't know what to make of it at all. The strange activity we've been seeing late at night however, is also in the direction I'm shooting these photos. It's very frustrating being able to see these strange things and have no way to record them so someone else can investigate this. I do have witnesses though that have watched these things with me.

The blurriness is from the zoom. In case you're wondering why I chose to take those photos there in the first place is because that is the area where we keep seeing strange things (mostly at night).

If anyone has any tips on how I can take pictures (or even a short video) in the future, please let me know. I'm very open to suggestions. :)

'Till later...

Have a wonderful weekend!

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Feels Good to Stretch!

Changed parts of my blog's code this morning to see if I could increase the size of the post width and remove the left sidebar and it worked!. (I only wanted to keep the three on the right that were already there). I also removed three of the ad bars on the bottom.

I'm so glad I did this, it was really getting too busy looking.

What do you think, is it a good improvement?

'Till later......

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