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...

Read more...

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. :)
____________
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!

Read more...

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.
______________
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.
_______________
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!

Read more...

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......

Read more...

It's Earth Day! Silence in the Thicket ;-)

Read more...

BlogFire on Blockhead Radio Tomorrow Night!

Blogfire, which is a guild of verified members of ArtFire, will be featured on BlockheadRadioLive tomorrow night, April 21, at 8pm EST!

Blockhead radio is a 24/7 Independent Internet Radio Station featuring music from Independent Musicians and Talk Shows on Aritsans, Family, and Life.

Stop in, listen to the show and visit with some of us artists of Blogfire!

Please check out Blockhead Radio's blog as well!

Read more...

A Hilarious Explanation of Twitter!

Hilarious and Oh So True! Click the photo to view this video

Read more...

Blogspot (Blogger) Comment Problem

To those of you who have a blog on Blogspot (Blogger):

If you have your comment area set up where the visitor has to select a profile (from a dropdown list) and then has to type a code (usually letters) before their reply will post...Please be aware that it is not working. Every blog I've visited between yesterday and today that had that set up, would not let me get past the "enter the code" part. It is stuck on "Loading".

Just wanted to mention this in case you are all wondering why you aren't getting any comments on your posts. It can't be happening just for me. I really hate that after I type a reply I find out it was time wasted. I don't have this set up here on my blog, I use the old fashioned way.

Read more...

Tweet with Tr.im!

I'm not sure why I haven't had much of anything to say lately. Some days it is so hard to think of something to write along with all of the other work I am doing, that my blog just gets pushed to the back burner and set on a low simmer. Things will hopefully pick up again soon...who knows, maybe with this post. :D I hope so.

The other day I came across a new site to shorten urls, http://tr.im/ . This site, Trim, is very similar to http://Tinyurl.com but it makes your urls shorter than Tiny does. Not only that but, it also tracks traffic and lets you know who is visiting your link, if you get any comments (from Twitter) and where they're from, etc.. Here is an example of how much shorter a Trim link will become compared to Tinyurl.

This is the link I am going to reduce:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7910337

After using Trim:
http://tr.im/moj

After using Tiny:
http://tinyurl.com/58amjt

Trim ( http://tr.im/ ) works along with Twitter very well since you are only allowed up to 140 characters, including spaces, every time you post. Plus, when you Trim your url you can also post it to Twitter right from the Tr.im site! Can't beat that at all! I hope you give it a try next time you tweet!

Want to follow me on Twitter? You can add me here: http://twitter.com/airbrshldy

Read more...

Brillante Weblog Award!

Woohoo! So, my blog was nominated for the Brillante Weblog Award by Brenda from Under the Compass Moon on July 19, and I somehow missed her post back then until now. Go and check out her blog after you visit mine and say Hi! Oh, and be sure to stop by the blogs that I've nominated below too!

Thank you so much Brenda!

And now, I'm happy to pass this on to my seven nominees for the Brillante Weblog Award:

1. Violette's Folk Art
2. Backwoods Creations
3. Art 166
4. Moth to Flame Studios
5. PaMdora's Box
6. Dr. John's Fortress
7. Because I Said So

Congratulations everyone!

Directions for Nominees:

1) Put the logo on your blog, logo can be found in the upper left of this blog.

2) Add a link to the person who awarded you.

3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4) Add links to those blogs on yours.

5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

Have a great day!

Read more...

Spring is in the Air!

Introducing Candace!, originally uploaded by avision4.

Spring is here, well almost, and with it comes new beginings!

New fish from the depths of the Thicket Pond are slowly making their way into my shop. They usually find new homes very quickly. The one pictured here is "Candace". You can read more about her in the Sold section of my shop.

As far as gourds go, I am working on something new right now that involves the new and increasingly popular trend of "Steampunk"! There are two new pieces that will be listed in my Etsy shop within the next couple of weeks. So be sure to keep an eye out for them!

Speaking of new beginings... I'm also in the process of moving and this is taking up a lot of time that I didn't normally have. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by it all but, when things get to be too much, I settle myself down with my tools and a gourd or two.

I've also started a new blog today which will more than likely just echo this one to get more reach on the web. This blogging program, Moguling, is new to me. I've always used Wordpress and Blogger (Blogspot) but, this new one is terrific so far! It is also in BETA right now and from what I've been reading, they will be adding a lot more. Check it out when you get a chance, I think you might like it too. :)

My Moguling blog link is http://twistedthicket.ireporter.tv/ , I chose to use the three-column template with a sidebar on each side. There are many other templates to choose from as well.

The boxes beckon, so I must get back to work.
Have a great day!

Read more...

A Good Sign!

I finally found a fix for my template!

Well, actually it is basically a new template. I found this blog post , by Pam Blackstone of "Random Bytes" this morning and have been working to customize it for Twisted Thicket. So far, so good! What do you think??

Now that I have found a template that will suit TT's needs things should move along very well.

---

In for a super-hot week! Temps in the high 80's and 90's with no rain expected until maybe the weekend. Not looking forward to it at all. We need a new cord for our old air-conditioner and cannot use it until we get it replaced. :(

Early yesterday evening, we had a few unexpected storms pop up out of nowhere. The photo above is of a double rainbow, out above my front yard, that I caught on my camera.

Time to create!

Have a great day!

Read more...

TAPS is back!

Today marks the first episode of the new season of !


I LOVE this show! It's been a long, long wait for the new season to start. If you click on the link, it will take you to their homepage, The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS). They have a lot of information on their site including forums, show information, TAPS family bios, videos, articles, chat, and more! If you haven't seen their website yet, take a look, it's terrific!

Starting at 6 pm central time on the Sci-fi channel, you can watch two of their great, past episodes with the Season Opener starting at 8 pm central time! Woohoo, can't wait!

Still needing a solution to this problem:

If any one of you that stops by Twisted Thicket happens to know why the content of my blog reduces in size as you scroll to the bottom of the page, please let me know. It has to have something to do with the code for the table/background I put in the middle, but for the life of me I cannot figure out what went wrong.


Please leave a message here if you know the answer. Thanks!


Heck, leave a message either way....I love messages! :)


Off to create! Have a great day!

Read more...

Sailing on in a Dream

Memorial Day weekend was nice, quiet, and filled with movies. I loved each and every minute of it!



I watched the movie "Houseboat" with Cary Grant and Sophia Loren. Oh, how I would love to have that houseboat from the movie! You can see it somewhat in the picture above. I tried to find a really good picture of it online and this was all I could come up with. I was hoping to find a picture from the scene where they both see the boat for the first time.

Can you imagine, how much fun it would be to fix it up, live on it, and have your studio in that houseboat? Ahhh, I know, silly, romantic notions of mine. Still, I would love an opportunity to live that way even for a short time.

____________________________________

If any one of you that stops by Twisted Thicket happens to know why the content of my blog reduces in size as you scroll to the bottom of the page, please let me know. It has to have something to do with the code for the table/background I put in the middle, but for the life of me I cannot figure out what went wrong.

Please leave a message here if you know the answer. Thanks! Heck, leave a message either way....I love messages! :)


Ok, time to paint!

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Read more...

My First Time

Good Morning!

As you can see, I've been working on the formating of this blog. Things are coming along quite well I think. Still a lot to do here and more to be transferred...all in good time.

SUSHI!!

Last night I made sushi for the first time in my life! It turned out great! Of course, you can see I may have placed a little to much filling in them so the rolls aren't as small as the ones in the store, but they sure were good! Of these pictured, some have a combination of crab, cream cheese, green onion, green pepper, and cucumber in them.

The only sushi I'd ever had in my life was the sushi that you can buy frozen in the Walmart Superstore. There isn't one single diner up here that makes sushi so my choice was very limited. After trying the frozen ones, I looked them up online and found amazing recipes too! Last night I made them for the first time and loved them. Problem is, the recipe for the rice makes a lot and no one else in the house will eat them so they are all mine. Muhahaha!

Have a great day!

Read more...

Classic Style!

Now we're getting somewhere! I have reverted this blog back to the classic blogger style because of some link issues and a couple of other things that I would like to do here. The widgets were creating a problem and while they are really nice to have, they do limit you somewhat. For instance, one of the things I was unable to do by using widgets for links, was to have each link automatically open in a new window. I was also unable to transfer all of my links at one time and would have had to do them all individually.

Now that I am set with which version of blogger to go with, it shouldn't be long before I have things all transferred over and fun, new posts as well.

Have a creative day!

Read more...