Dreamland

These are pictures of the view from our cottage - back and front. Yesterday it started snowing in the morning and everything looked so pristine and beautiful. Unlike at home in the city where soon after the snow falls, it starts to look dirty and slushy. Things stay pure and white for a much longer time out in the country. We spent the weekend painting again. All doors and trimwork are finished now - on the first floor at least. Next time we will be staining the railing and newel post. We also now have a bed! No more sleeping on the floor on air mattresses. That is a HUGE improvement. The place is starting to look more like a home everyday. Sometimes it is hard to leave and go back to our home to our other house. It still is hard for me to believe this dream has actually come to fruition. What seemed like such an impossible dream, one that would never actually become a reality, has now been attained. The lesson here is to never give up on your hopes and dreams...when the time is right, everything will fall into place.

Getting To Know You...and Me!

A friend of mine sent me this "Getting To Know You" survey to fill out, so I thought I would share it with all of you. Maybe you'll want to try it too. If you do then post your link in the comment section at the bottom of this post. I'd love to see how other people answer these questions.

1. What is your occupation? Full Time Artist/Designer, Part Time Office Manager
2. What color are your socks right now? Navy Blue
3. What are you listening to right now? The Dr. Phil Show
4. What was the last thing that you ate? A Granola Bar
5. Can you drive a stick shift? No. My husband tried to teach me when we were dating and I've never tried it again.
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Any shade of green
7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My Friend, Sybil
8. What is your favorite drink? Starbuck's Caramel Macchiato
9. What is your favorite sport to watch? At the moment, football....Go Bears!
10. Have you ever dyed your hair? I have added highlights to cover the gray!
11. Pets? A 13 yr. old black cat named Midnight. We've found him by a loading dock when he was a few days old and abandoned by his mother.
12. Favorite food? Stuffed French Toast
13. What was the last movie you watched? It's been a while....But I think it was Little Miss Sunshine.
14. Favorite day of the year? The First Day of Spring.
15. What do you do to vent anger? Clean the House...Weird, I Know.
16. Your favorite toy as a child? Barbie Dolls
17. What is your favorite Season? Definitely Spring.
18. Hugs or kisses? Hugs
19. Favorite Meal? Breakfast
20. Living arrangements? House on a half-acre in suburbia
21. When was the last time you cried? During the Christmas Program at Church.
22. What is on the floor of your closet? Shoes
23. Who is the friend you have had the longest. Nancy - We've known each other for 47 years....Yikes!
24. What did you do last night? Watched the State of the Union speech on TV.
25. Favorite smells? Freshly mown grass and new born babies.
26. What inspires you? Books, Magazines, Nature, Fashion, Other Artist's Work, Quotations - I could go on and on.
27. What are you most afraid of? Failure.
28. What country you would most like to visit? France
29. Favorite dog breed? Beagle
30. Number of keys on your key ring? Six
31. States you have lived in? So far only one - Illinois
32. Favorite holiday? Christmas
33. Ever driven a Motorcycle? No, but I rode on the back of one when I was in college.
34. Where do you work on your art? In a spare bedroom dedicated for all things creative.
35. Favorite Artist? Monet

Weekend Work Zone

We went up to the cottage for a long weekend and spent our first nights there. How exciting! What wasn't so exciting was sleeping on the floor on air mattresses. I have come to the conclusion that we are way too old for that kind of discomfort! After spending one night on the floor, we made a beeline to the mattress store and ordered one to be delivered this Friday. I can't wait! We had hoped to wait a bit on any big purchases until we replenished our savings account a bit after building the cottage, but we both gave in and agreed that a bed is sort of a necessity.
We spent most of of time at the cottage working. I made a simple crisp white curtain to hang in the bathoom window for a little privacy. My DH cleaned out the crawl space as he wasn't too impressed with the builder's quality of cleaning. I also put down shelf liner in all the kitchen cupboards. For a tiny kitchen it certainly needed an awful lot of shelf liner! I ran out once and had to go buy more and that still wasn't enough! We hung a bamboo blind in the kitchen window. I like how the wood adds a little warmth to the room. Then we started to fill nail holes, sand and repaint all the wood trim in the house. The carpenter installed the wood trim, but we elected to do all the painting in the house to cut down on costs. What seemed like a good idea back when we began this process, has turned into somewhat of a boring chore now. But if I think of all the $$$$ we saved, it makes the whole thing a lot less painful.

Due to our trip to the cottage, I am now two days behind on the Cabinet of Natural Curiosities challenge I signed up for. Yikes! Sorry Kari and Bonnie....I have lots of catching up to do now! But check out their websites to see what truly amazing work they have done for the first two prompts.

Show and Tell

Thought I would share this collage I did in a shadow box frame for my soon to be 95 year old aunt. That is her in the photograph along with my uncle who passed away several years ago. She misses him a lot and I thought this would be a nice remembrance for her to look at. They were married in 1938 and the white card in the lower left side is their wedding invitation (back when the bride sent engraved invitations to their wedding).

Here is another shadow box frame that I did for a baby shower gift. Simple and sweet. I love making things like this to give as gifts, but sometimes I hate parting with them. After creating them they become almost like offspring. But just like children, eventually you must set them free.

The Door to a New Challenge

I am so excited about a new challenge that I am going to participate in starting January 18th. Kari and Bonnie are hosting it and you can read about it here and here. If you are like me and need to jump start your creative juices you may want to join in on the fun!

Just a Quick Hello

Gee, it's been a while since I sat down at my computer. So this morning I took my cup of coffee and forced myself to fire up the laptop and check my email. Wowee!! It's amazing how much stuff accumulates in your "inbox" when you haven't been online for a while. So after I answered all the email (and deleted all the spam) I thought I would enter a post here just to say howdy! We have been so busy with the cottage - closing with the builder, shopping for essentials, on the phone setting up accounts for electric and gas service and homeowner's insurance - plus my DH has taken some vacation days and my daughter is on break from school, so my normal schedule has been totally out the window. I haven't even had time to work on any artwork since the new year began. Yikes! So thought I would let you peek at some of my favorite places to get inspired...like here and here and here. Oh and here too. And I can't forget my all-time favorite here.

Nearing Completion

It's almost finished! Hard to believe that soon we will have a place to go to recharge, relax and maybe retire to. A dream brought to fruition. Somebody pinch me!!