Theme Thursday Challenge - Black & White

Zentangle - Emotion, Happy
My imaginary Aztec animal friend

Zentangle - Emotion, Frustrated

Here are my original entries for the Black and White challenge at Theme Thursday. I learned about zentangles from a group I was once in and fell in love with the concept. I've been doing them ever since. It's a great form of art therapy and helps to release the emotions from within.

As far as my made up Aztec friend - well, I've been drawing imaginary animals since I was a little girl and when my kids were old enough to draw, I taught them how to draw those too. My son asked me to morph a hippo with a bear once. I have to say it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Bears and hippos are both large bodied animals so it took a bit of drawing and erasing before I got it pretty close to where you could actually see the two animals merged into one. For Christmas I bought a Morph program and Spore. I still haven't downloaded either one but I do keep sketching my imaginary friends.

Now here is the fun part of this blog post. As I have never had the opportunity to do a give-away, I thought this would be a good time to do one. I think of it as a really belated anniversary to my one year of blogging. So what will you receive? Hmmmm...I think I'll keep that as a surprise for now. Oh, I'm such a tease! Heh heh

So, you know what you have to do if you're interested in winning, right? Yep, just leave a comment here and then check back on May 21st (Endangered Species Day) to see if you're the lucky winner. Ooooh, what an appropriate day for a good win, don't you think?

Oh, and don't forget to check out the Theme Thursdays challenges at:

http://themethursday.wordpress.com/

Mandala Swap

Ok, this is my final set of ATC's that I recently mailed out for the current mandala swap going on over at the artists trading cards group. I've been fascinated with mandalas for years and own several books and a kit purchased from Amazon. Although I love the traditional mandalas I wanted to go outside the box into the more modern mandalas and the above is what I came up with. I hope you like them! Thanks for taking the time to take a look! Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think. Comments are always appreciated.

A Case of the Blues Swap

Here are some of my blue ATC's - four of which were recently mailed for an ATC swap. Or was that six for this swap and four to the other swap. Or was that five to this swap, six to another, and four to the last swap? Oh me, Oh my! I'm sure I mailed the appropriate amount for each of the three swaps! And I know I have enough started for the next digital swap. At least I think I do. LOL Well, considering that my house is half way through it's renovation, I'm surprised I even know where my head is at lately. : ) Actually, all kidding aside now... I've really had fun working on new swaps. I really needed this "art fix" to get me through the second half of the renovation. Wish me luck?

PURPLE - my favorite color!

ATC's for a Purple Swap

I'm going to try like heck to get these all finished for an upcoming swap in the Artist Trading card group. It's been quite a while since I've been able to participate so I'm really looking forward to it. I have all the cards ready for two other swaps as well but like the above, I still need to finish the backs for them all. I guess time will tell if I can complete them all. If not...I can still swap them out through Elinor's digital swap from the same group.

Theme Thursday Challenge - Red and Black

Here I have three new images for the challenge at Theme Thursday. My favorite is the one with the birds. You can view more images at: http://themethursday.wordpress.com/

Hammy Potato Soup

Sometimes I just can't find the recipe I'm looking for so I "wing-it"! Yesterday was one of those days. So...here's what I did.

In a dutch oven or stock pot:

2 T. Olive oil
1 Med minced onion
1 Minced jalapeno
A few minced mini carrots
4 Minced garlic cloves
1/8 t. chili pepper flakes

Saute until tender then add:

6-8 Peeled and cubed potatoes
Enough water to cover the potatoes
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
Dash of cayenne
3 Bay leaves

Boil for 15-20 minutes

Add:

1-2 C. minced baked ham
3 T. Ham stock from the ham
2 Cans of cream corn
1 Can of drained sweet corn
3/4 C. Milk

Heat thoroughly but DON'T boil and serve.

My next recipe creation will include chicken, pasta, onions, garlic, and herbs in a wine base reduction. I'll need some luck with this one since I've never tried to create anything like this before! Perhaps I'll split the chicken in half so I can try creating a fiesta chicken dish as well. That would include chicken with jalapeno, onion, lime juice, tequila, cilantro, and chili pepper flakes served over seasoned rice. And with that...I'll just say...To be continued! ; )

Mind Wide Open Challenge - Magical

"A Magical Imagination"

Here it is April already and time for another challenge from Mind Wide Open. This one is especially for Birgit as she worked her magic on me to enter! Oh yes you did Birgit! So...here's my creation and I hope you all like it. : )

You will be able to view the challenge entries and vote on which one you love most on or around April 10th at http://www.mind-wideopen.blogspot.com/

Easter is my Favorite Holiday

"Easter Twins"

Since Easter is my favorite holiday I sure wish I had more time to create but it looks like I've run out of time once again. I always have a ton of ideas and I suppose that is good so I can work on them all at a later date. With the time constraint for an Easter completion I decided to finish this cute little bunny card that I started last month for a challenge themed twins. I was trying to get a head-start on Easter and that theme just fit the bill. Yep, you guessed it! I ran out of time and didn't get this finished by that deadline but at least I managed to complete it before Easter!

AND with Easter in mind and with a thankful heart, I would like to say Thank You to my friends, family, and followers! AND an extra thank you to all who leave comments! They are much appreciated - more than you know!

I wish you all a spectacular weekend and a wondrous Easter! : )

Sharing some Dover Publications Samples

Here it is just days before Easter so I thought I would share a few images I’ve saved from Dover Publications Samples. You can receive free samples too!

Just go to: http://doverpublications.com

Happy Easter Everyone!

It's Pink Saturday with a Twist of Yellow!

Hello to all Pink Saturday Fans! Now who couldn't be that? This week we are using pink and yellow together. I think the yellow really helps to remind of us of warm sunny days to come. The wind chill today made it brrrrrrrrrrr crazy so I'm really looking forward to warmer days...and a little less mess to clean up from storms!
I was hoping to be able to take a few shots of my pink tulips for this week - unfortunately they just didn't want to open yet and it seems that everything else that has managed to bloom so far has been white or purple. I guess I'll just have that to share at a later Pink Saturday. Oh, did you catch that? I've finally learned how to use my digital camera! Yay! I know...it's about time! So here are my contributions this week for a Bloomin Pink Saturday...

"Chives in full Bloom"

(An oldie but goodie)

Just a few flowers I painted a while back using aquarelle's. Hmmmm...perhaps there was a challenge theme at one time using pink and yellow. I do so many challenges, I can't remember which creations were for what. However, I can tell you the two single flowers were done in a pen and ink style and I used watercolors for the two tulips. : )

Enjoy your Pink Saturday and thanks for looking!

You can view more at: http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/