decorative, altered book... a dream is a wish that your heart makes

It's Thursday and the morning is quiet.

I'm listening to the soothing music of Eva Cassidy.

She has a voice like a songbird and 

the songs are very soulful.

It fits my mood this morning. 

I'm always tired after our evening of music.

It's so fun but you know that fun is usually work, too!

I've done my watering which takes

 about an hour and half.

The morning is beautiful and being out 

is one of my first loves. 

Just listening to the birds,

collecting squash from my garden and 

watching the butterflies flit about.

Liberty follows me around like my personal body guard.

Oh, how I love that sweet dog!

*****

Today, I wanted to share a couple of pictures from 

this altered book.

It's just an old book that I picked up from the Thrift Store.

I have made these to sell and they are gone 

so I'm making some more.

This time, I tried tone on tone and I love the way it turned out.

I'm sorry that my photos are not very clear. I even checked them in my

editing program and zoomed in.. They were clear. I wonder if it's blogger.

Anyone else experiencing this?

Here, I'm trying to sort out my layout. I used several different

mediums. Which is my favorite way to create. Colored texture paste,

gesso and rubber stamps.

I used an old library card to create the lines. 

I am very fond of the grunge look. 

The ragged edges with smudging and distressing.

I have learned to use a splattering technique 

and try it whenever

it fits a project.

Here is the finished book.

A DREAM IS A WISH YOUR HEART MAKES

What wish is your heart making, friend?

Life should be filled with dreams and wishes

and of course, seeing them come true.

And we know that takes sacrifice, hard work and holding on 

like your life depends on it! 

And in some ways it does..

Isn't there SO much more to life than just breathing?

And what is life without that hope of our dreams in our hearts?

It's NEVER too late to reach for the stars. 

So we keep it ever in our sights.

Here's a link to Eva Cassidy singing

SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW

What a bunch of lovelies I'm with here. We were out for a movie.

We have a s historical theatre here in our town.

It was built in the early 1900s and we try to

 support them  as much as possible.

And of course our family is a little movie crazy!

It has a tiny concession area and the bathrooms 

can barely fit two people.

But aren't those places special?

They have history and character.

I'm so happy that the new owners didn't

do too drastic of an update when they bought it.

Just think of the lovely people that have 

gone on first dates there and

taken their kids for their birthdays.

Oh... What a magical thought! 

Brutus would like you 

to think that he's always working in the gardens but 

here is proof that he does nap sometimes. 

Haha!

What a cutie..

Do you love this brilliant color of Blue Flax?

I have always loved these in the wild and 

was thrilled to find them for sale in

a local nursery last year.

Celebrating life's special moments.

 Jeff surprised me for our

anniversary and made us both appointments for pedicures.

What a thoughtful and unique gift! 

Hello Beauties! 

I just love seeing these majestic elk. 

We see quite a few when

we drive to Alpine every Wednesday to play music.

Not a great picture; I took it on my phone.

Life is so full. 

I'm learning to navigate it without carrying guilt for the 

things or people that I can't get to.

I hope it's that way for you, too.

We do our best don't we?

And, knowing that, we have to let the rest go.

That's so healthy for you and I.

Clink.. clink..

HERE'S TO YOU!

Here's to HAPPY~

AND...

 here's to a lovely day, a wonderful weekend and

doing whatever is in your heart to do.

Enjoy

Relish

Celebrate

My heart is overflowing with gratitude for all that life is.

Thank you for coming by and s special thank you to those who take

the time to say hello!

Peace and blessings~

Tamara xo

Art Inspiration: My Quest ....A Winter Canvas Collage and Keeping Inspired

 I hope that your week has been happy and inspiring. 

Inspiration is one of the staples that I live on.

It's so easy to get in a rut with everyday things. Not that we aren't thankful but it's good to have new experiences. 

I like to work at conjuring up happy thoughts 

and fresh things to do.

How do you keep inspired?

I am trying to work hard at learning new things

and today I wanted to share my winter canvas

with you. It started as a Christmas project but quickly was

set aside for seasonal activities.

So, I turned it into a winter project.

Isn't that one of things that is so lovely about art?

There are really no rules.

Allow yourself a lot of grace, flow with the 

circumstances and  follow your heart.

It's one of things that keeps the inspiration coming.

And how amazing to not have any boundaries or rules but full

freedom through creativity!

This is just one of the wonders of it all.

This project was inspired by 

Vanessa at A Fanciful Twist.

She is an artist of many talents! Lovely, creative and

whimsical. A person who celebrates life at every turn

and shares her inspiration with such generosity of spirit

through her beautiful photos. 

Thank you, Vanessa!

I saw one of her canvas' in a magazine and decided to 

try my own with a little different approach.

 How magical it was to enter this little world of make believe

with pretty papers, glitter and colorful paints to create 

a fairytale story through my imagination and art!

To get lost in it all was simply blissful.

Here are a few new things that I learned..

*large collage piece

*planning a story to tell in the picture

*drawing with detail

*painting animals with acrylics

I learned so much and it gave me confidence to keep moving forward.

By some miracle, I inspired myself.

Isn't it a good feeling to have dreams in front of you and 

to accomplish something that brings you one step closer?

Even if it's just a tiny step?

Most big things are accomplished through small steps.

Have you ever experienced that?

Please..

I would really love to hear about yours!

Thank you..

________________________________

Below are just a few photos of my life..

A bear sighting! :)

I was picking this up for my daughter at Christmas.

One of the ways to get inspired is to do something out of the

ordinary fun or even

a little crazy; like push a bear around the grocery store 

while getting your groceries. 

Smile..

That is a very large grocery cart with a very 

large bear inside!

Reading this Renoir book has been very inspirational.

I learned that many of the artists 

of his time carried their knapsacks 

to the fields and forests to 

paint because having a studio was a luxury.

One of the most fulfilling, inspirational ways to stir up creativity is to be someone else's inspiration and then help THEM accomplish

what you inspired them to do. 

I made a pillow.

My grand daughters saw it and wanted to make one, too.

So the other day, they spent about four hours learning how to hand sew these little pillows.

They did a beautiful job and were so pleased with their work.

It made me so happy to be a part of this 

fun and enriching time! 

Thank you for coming by.  

I hope you find some very lovely inspiration

and then have a wonderful time inspiring someone else.

I find so much creativity on many friend's blogs.

So thank you for sharing your talents and lovely ideas

so that others can be inspired and learn new 

ways to enrich our lives.

Wishing you a happy weekend!

Tamara XO 

Another Year Has Begun...And Some Random Art

 Hello everyone!

How I've missed you.

What an amazing holiday it was..

It seems that we're still partying with family every chance we get.

Celebrating life every day is what I often talk about

and I think I'm finally getting the hang of it.

Last evening, two of my daughters and myself stayed up late watching

Persuasion. It's a Jane Austen classic, period drama and one of our favorites!

If you're interested, you can watch the trailer here. 

(I have yet to get my pictures together for our December trip. The cord to the camera

was lost and though one has been ordered, it's coming from overseas and must be on a slow boat!

I still have a few more holiday pictures to share besides our Nutcracker holiday.)

***************

I hope your new year is off to a wonderful start with many promises

of good things! I find the HOPE that a new beginning offers is

 such a treasure. And the possibilities of 

achieving the dreams that sometimes lie obscured by cares and responsibilities,

seem to make themselves known as I reflect and search for deeper meaning.

Do new beginnings bring you to that place too?

Here is one of my favorite quotes by Mary Oliver.

 I wrote this out for our New Year's party.

  POM POMS!

 They are fun, easy to make and so festive for special occasions.

The white ones edges weren't trimmed. I forgot but I loved that it

 turned out like a beautiful rose! It was made of crepe paper while the others

  of tissue paper.

If you'd like to try them, there's a tutorial here on the 

beautiful blog White and Vintage. Christine is very sweet and

and very talented! 

The shy one... Burliose~

or.. SIR or Mr. Dainty Paws.

Have you been doing any baking in the New Year?

My granddaughters, AKA, the GIGGLES..

helped me make pizza dough last week.

There was a little leftover and so I made some

little cinnamon sugar monkey breads...

We all enjoyed those with some hot cocoa!

They are the hot cocoa princesses! Oh my..

Here we are working on phonics. It's 

one of the things that I do when my grand daughters come.

I help them with their school. 

We homeschooled our kiddoes and now our kids are 

doing the same. 

 I have mentioned my winter canvas that I'm working on.

Here's a small part of it.

It's my first attempt at drawing and painting, so I'm a bit timid.

Like my little mouse.

It's coming along though and I should be done in a couple of weeks.

It would be sooner but I'm going with my husband on his business trip 

to San Diego and I will leave my friends and all the glitter behind.

Do you ever have a word for the New Year?

I don't every year but sometimes a word just keeps coming to me. 

Right now it's CONTENTMENT. 

This is a page from my journal..

I had done this a few weeks back. Then after the new year, Fox shared the word flourish 

 for a good word. I liked it. A lot! I was envious and thought, Oh! I'll change my word.

But I told myself no.. That's cheating. Haha!

And then I read my journal and I had actually attached the

word FLOURISH to contentment.

I had forgotten. So I'm excited to see how the year will go and what

loveliness God will allow to flourish in my 

"one wild and precious life" 

as I seek to learn more about being content.

I do wish you Happiest of New Years, my friends.

(I'm sorry I am tardy.)

Filled with love peace happiness and fulfillment.

Thank you so very much for supporting me and being my friends.

You are all such jewels and I feel so blessed!

Hugs and blessings to you

Tamara~