Spring... for inspiration avenue's challenge

here's my idea of spring!
to see more inspiration go to
http://inspiration-avenue-team.blogspot.com/

The rest of this week..

I got so much done this week I started this post on wednesday, and here's what I got done since or got photographed since (helps I had a snow day off on wednesday too!)...

Didn't hide a hope rock this week but made this little watercolor bookmark for LilleDiane  who's just had surgery and could use some hope. If I can get her to give me her address I'll mail it right out to her...
http://www.woodstocklily.com/

I made these little pen and marker gift tags using "tweet", my needlefelted friend as a model. They're for sale on my etsy shop for 2 for $1.50. My co-workers are buying 'em up right now!

Here's tweet and Miss Petunis'a twins, flim and flam, and in green is their crazy Uncle Ned. They're very tiny, but here's the whole family! For sale in my daughter's shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/barefootbananas

And here's some pics of my yard from our snow day... before we played in it and messed it up!

And last is the painting I finished last week...

Thanks for stopping by!

This week so far...

For all the what's on your workdesk wednesday followers... this is what's on my desk in between actual day-job work:

It's the current painting I'm working on in 2 stages of completion.... should have her done by friday maybe.

See more workdesks here:

http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/

Made this little diorama in an altoid tin this weekend after being inspired by Susan Faye at:
http://365catladies.blogspot.com/2011/03/my-inner-child-is-alive-and-well.html
After you check her out you can see more whimsy at dthaase's site here:
http://dthaase-lines.blogspot.com/p/whimsical-wednesday.html

Also just wanted to thank the handmadehomemaker of
http://forrestdweller.blogspot.com/ for this great giveaway I won from her blog. It's beeswax and smells sooo nice! Check her out at her blog or her etsy shop!

Lastly, my mother's wisdom for today was "Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life"--Picasso. and she tells me she should give credit for her idea of the jar of folded origami stars to ...
Creative Kismet's blog.
Thanks for stopping by!

Illustration Friday submission for Cultivate

These ladies are cultivating sunflowers, friendship, summer feeling and all that I'd love right now...

Don't you just want to wear a big hat and walk through a field of sunflowers right about now?

This week

This week I made some more needlefelted stuff.... and broke the needle!

And I finished a painting or two...

And made some custom order pendants for a co-worker...

And made the treasury at the top of my page for the nonteamchallenge 23.
You can go to their blog to see the rules here:
http://treasurychallengenonteam.blogspot.com/2011/03/nonteam-treasury-challenge-23.html
Anyone can join, and making treasuries is so creative,,, you get to play with themes and color and possibly get picked to be feautured the next week!

Nest

Here's a cute little nest I needlefelted for the creative everyday challenge...

Illustration friday submission for Stir

She's stirring the pot.... and all that that implies...

This week's stuff

This week I made a painting for the challenge at Inpiration Avenue, which was pink and black. So this lady ISN'T falling ...she'sjust enjoying the Storm Moon in march with the wind whipping up her pink hair ribbon!

And of course I had to do some nedlefelting... here's my little bunnies...

For more inspiration go to

http://inspiration-avenue-team.blogspot.com/2011/03/black-white-and-pink-is-this-weeks.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2Finspiration-avenue+%28Inspiration+Avenue+-+blog%29   and
http://naturalsuburbia.blogspot.com/2011/03/creative-friday.html  and
http://www.wonderwhyalpacafarm.blogspot.com/ and
http://ourjourneytoasimplerlife.blogspot.com/

What's on your workdesk wednesday!

This is a gift from my mother, and is just the greatest thing! It's a glass jar full of bits of wisdom that she wrote herself from all different sources and folded into small origami stars. She even decorated the jar up and put on a little metal tool for opening the stars. I love it and so do most of my co-workers, and has become known as "your mother's wisdom". It looks about like a jar of candy sitting so pretty on my desk.  I've shared some fortunes with my friends as there's enough to last almost a year she said. Today's was "forgive eveyone everything" A hard one but I'll actually give it a shot, (which was really hard after my neighbor, a large young man, kept shoveling his walk 5 feet from me the whole time I was stuck in my driveway before work and had to go get my 15 year old to help push me out. My neighbor never once said a word or offered to help us. I'm normally pretty forgiving but that was pushing my limits. Anyway... according to my co-workers I need to heed my "mother's wisdom" so I'll try.)

You can see other workdesks here:
http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/

Giveaways!

I have won a few giveaways lately and wanted to show the really great things I have received!

This cool guy is from Messyfish in Australia, where I won a giveaway of hers! Don't you just love it?!
http://messyfish.blogspot.com/

This is from the OWOH giveaway I won from here:
http://randomthoughtsdoordi.blogspot.com/
I am so enjoying carrying my stuff in it!

And lastly, this I just received from the pay it forward  idea I posted about awhile back. I love the card and keychain! you can check out Jane's blog here:
http://jane-janesjournal.blogspot.com/
 Thank you all soooo much!

Hope rocks again!

This week I left another hope rock for someone to find.... for the full story behind this go to Lillediane's blog by clicking on Woodstocklilly to the left, and/or read my previous posts. This is the 6th rock I left... I put it in the burl of  a tree in front of a library. Since it's white and the tree is dark I think someone will find it! Hope it brings them a smile!

Then My Mom and Dad read the posts and decided to leave a hope rock for someone to discover as well. My Mom painted her rock and crocheted around it and left it near a lake, (funny how we found such similar hiding spots!) Hers will really be quite the surprise for someone to find!

Sunday sketches and books

I was using this great book by Linda Revenscroft lately. I love her art and she has great instructions on how to paint faries and their clothes. Even though my ladies aren't all fairies, it has helped me. You can see that this sketch in my idea sketchbook is influenced by her...

To see more sketches by others click on the sunday sketches thingy at the right!

this week's stuff...and Illustration Friday

This week I finished a few more needlefelted things with my daughter. These are fun and easy to do at home, unlike the painting that I do at work. I finished Miss Petunia, who is Tweet's girlfriend... and you can see they're very much in LOVE!. I keep thinking of all sorts of stories for them. Maybe I'll make a little 'zine up for them. Not sure yet. I also finished Maybeline's butterfly for her to ride!.

At work I made this painting, thought it was done then as I kept looking at it I just wasn't happy with the amount of contrast so I added black leaves. Which do you like better? Did I ruin it or help it? It's this week's submission to Illustration friday as it's my warning girl... It's also a warning to me to sometimes leave well enough alone and not to go back and rework a painting... but actually in this case I like the second one better.

 

Check out these friday creative challenges:   http://themagiconions.blogspot.com/ for their nature table

http://naturalsuburbia.blogspot.com/ for creative fridays

http://www.wonderwhyalpacafarm.blogspot.com/ for fiber arts

and the little square over at the right for crafty fridays...

and of course illustration friday's link at right

I'll try to get the picture links for all  of these soon...

Thanks for stopping by!