Happy Valentine's Day !

With LOVE to all on this Valentine's Day.  I hope your day is special...and don't forget to hug your furry 4-legged friends, too. 

Crying into their Terrible Towels...

OK...so we weren't crying...don't even like Pittsburgh here in Clevetown...but The Super Bowl is a good reason to party with fun little appetizer type foods.  And it turned out to be a good game.  And it's a lot less stressful when you really don't care who wins.

But this post isn't really about football at all.  This post is about the yummy little morsels pictured above.  I took a pic immediately out of the oven because soon there would be little evidence these even existed.

EVIDENCE:  Bacon Wrapped Jalapeño Thingies, courtesy of the recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

So my fingers burned for the entire game because while jalapeños usually don't bother me, there were some powerfully hot & stubborn veins in these.  It was worth the pain, however...as the end result was soooooooooooooo good. 

I suffer for my art & my food!

The game is over...The Green Bay Packers won...and all of these little yummies are now just a fond memory.  We also had some great chicken wings with Panda Express Orange Chicken sauce glazing them...thank you for the sauce, Kimber!  Oh and beer...gotta have BEER!  But the little bacon wrapped cream cheezy bits of peppery goodness were definitely the star of the show.  The good news is that there are jalapeños, bacon & cream cheese left in the fridge...as well as some uncooked wings...so we can have another evening of grazing soon. 

My sympathies to my on-line friends Bev & Joy...Steeler fans for sure.  Y'all will get over it...and it could be worse...your hometown team could be the Cleveland Clowns...or Browns...nope...definitely Clowns!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy New Year!  It's the start of the Lunar New Year and this year is the Year of the Rabbit.  From what I have read, Rabbit years are usually calm, creative & positive, which is a welcome thing for all of us, I think.

My sweetie,  Phil & one of my best friends, Dianne, are both Rabbits.  Rabbits are said to be private & a bit reserved, but also enjoy the company of good friends.  They do need their private space.  They are usually quite calm and avoid confrontation.  That is Phil for sure!  I'm the confrontational Dragon...so I guess we're Yin & Yang there.  Rabbits are also talented & artistic, which describes both Phil & Di. 

I know my rabbit image in the card above is really a Japanese rabbit...but I've taken artistic license since I do adore that image.  It is from Hero Arts back in 2000 & is called Haiku Bunny.  The Chinese zodiac charm is from SkyBluePink, one of my favorite websites for great embellishments & unusual supplies at great prices.  Tell Queen Xina that Lady Debbie sent you!  The charm actually has Dragons on the other side, so I need to get some more to use next year in my Year of the Dragon artwork.

Here's to a happy & prosperous & extremely creative Year of the Rabbit to all!

My new Etsy shop is now open!

I have finally taken the plunge and opened a shop on Etsy.  You can find me at KittenCreates.

Right now, there are some of my handcrafted bracelets for sale, and I will be adding more items as I go along.  With the gloomy winter skies, my photography is somewhat "light challenged", but I'm doing the best I can.  I will also be listing individual charms, some necklaces, vintage treasures & destash from my bursting at the seams studio. 

I would love to have you visit and let me know what you think.  My book thongs are still in my Artfire shop, but I will be moving them over eventually. 

Thanks for your time...and maybe you'll find the perfect gift for a loved one or for yourself in my shop.

A Swap for All Seasons...a Mini Fabric Collage

I have not been able to participate in art swaps for a few months now due to personal health reasons.  I'm still being extremely selective as to what I choose to play in.  One major requirement for the swaps I do this year is that I do NOT need to purchase specific items to participate in the swap, as medical expenses do not allow that luxury.  Well, one swap I had to pass on due to my health was A Swap For All Seasons.  The holiday swap deadline was when I was unable to even sit at my art table due to the pain in my legs, so I had to pass on it.  The Winter Swap is a different story, however.  All the words in the swap title are interesting to me...Mini...Fabric...Collage.  What's not to like?

One thing I have lots & lots of is fabric.  My first buying job at Halle Bros. department store was as Buyer for Fashion Fabrics, Sewing Notions, Patterns & Art Needlework.  Be still my heart!  Buying fabric is an inherited family affliction...I have fabric & laces & buttons & all that from my Mom's stash.  I even have pieces of very vintage cotton fabrics that my Grandma purchased...she would buy 6 yards at a time of cottons...they were 36" wide at the time & she knew she could make what she wanted to from 6 yards.  I am lucky to have laces & buttons from Grandma, too...it all has been passed down through the females in that lineage...and I'm the lucky one now.  Of course, over the years I have added MY favorites to my stash..I mean I simply HAD to...it was "research" for my fabric buyer job...yeah, that's my story & I'm sticking with it!

So...I signed up for this swap right away.  What a delightful way to use some of my special stash...creating a mini fabric collage.  Sign-ups continue until January 15th...or until the limit of 100 swappers has been reached.  In less than a week, 55 of us have signed up...so if you are interested, the details are in the links above.  Linda, our hostess with the mostess, does a great job of organizing these swaps & matching us each up with a partner to swap with.  Thanks, Linda! 

I have all sorts of ideas floating around in my head...but the big fun of this swap is in getting to know your swap partner through emails & visiting their blog...then creating something you think they will like.  I'll wait until sign-ups are complete & I "know" my partner before I start pulling out inspiring bits & pieces to use for my collage.  I may post a sneak peek or 2 here as I go along, but the final piece will not be revealed until after I know my partner has received her package...I sure don't want to spoil her surprise.

I now return to dealing with medical bills & such...can't ignore that task.  See ya later, alligator.

My word for 2011

I often see that other artists have chosen a word for the year...for some reason, a single word has ever hit me to make me want to make it my word for the year.  Well, this year, a word jumped at me as I was sitting in my mess of a studio working on multiple things but not getting a single thing accomplished. 

My word for 2011 is FOCUS. 

EEK!  That's going to be a tough one for me...I have always been one to have too many irons in the fire...too many ideas at once...I've always been good at multi-tasking.  Had to in all my retail planning/management jobs.  Juggling way too many balls at once, yet somehow being able to prioritize & get the most important ones done.

Fast forward to now...with no one even wanting to talk to me here about employment, it seems I've lost my ability to juggle & accomplish things.  So...for 2011 I'm going to attempt to...

FOCUS on my goals & figure out new ways to make money & contribute to our expenses.

FOCUS on the art that satisfies my soul.

FOCUS on learning new things and completing projects, not just starting things that sit around.

FOCUS on getting healthy & staying healthy.

FOCUS on relationships & friendships.

FOCUS on organizing my studio...and the rest of this place.

FOCUS on selling many of my vintage collectibles.

FOCUS on purging the rest of this stuff through freecycle & more donations to charity.

FOCUS on attempting to be happy here in Ohio...although I don't hold much hope for that one!

Thankfully, Phil makes me very happy...and Sophie the Cat has both of our hearts...I'd be going insane here without them & my other best friends.  Now if I could only find a gay boyfriend here...this is the first place I've lived since college where I haven't had a gay boyfriend or 2.  Even in Dallas...at a macho building supply company...I had a gay boyfriend.  Guess they're too smart to live in Parma, OH. 

Do YOU have a word for 2011?  I'd love to hear what it is.  Add your blog address to your comments, too...maybe you'll get lots of new friends visiting your blog.

BTW...the wonderful eye & see the artist within image is from Red Lead Paperworks.  If you haven't visited there, you should.  The alphabet images are both from Stampington. 

Happy 2011...and the 122nd Tournament of Roses Parade

OK...if you've been here before, you know how much I miss Southern CA.  And even though they are colder there than we are here this morning (what's with that???) I really miss SoCal on New Year's day.  One of the LA TV stations, KTLA, plays the Rose Parade over & over again.  All day long.  So...you can just have it on & catch bits & pieces of it as the day progresses...and sit & watch once if you want to. 

Civilized...as it should be.  Oh...they're the BEST station for coverage of car chases, too.  Miss the regular programming interrupted for coverage of car chases in SoCal.  But I digress...

You can catch the Rose Parade here.  Bob Eubanks & Stephanie Edwards do the play-by-play...that's MY idea of the Rose Parade.  Here I'll be watching that very handsome Ahmed Hassan on HGTV..but later I'll need my Bob & Stephanie fix.  It's great that now I can watch KTLA online.  Paula Deen is the Grand Marshall, too.  Yea!

We always do the pork & sauerkraut thing on New Year's Day...and even with my Austrian/Hungarian heritage, I hate sauerkraut & have to choke down the smallest fork full...always have.  Well, to mix things up this year, our pork is coming in the shape of BBQ Baby Back Ribs...and the nasty sauerkraut will appear as Sauerkraut Balls...an appetizer thing I've only seen in NE Ohio.  Even bought the balls from our favorite butcher, Thayer's...MUCH better, I think.

Be sure to check back here in the next day or so...we're also making the Astro Weenie Christmas Tree that Charles Phoenix introduced on his website...we even have little cocktail weenies to make it authentic.  Ours are Cheddarwurst...hey, if you're eating all those veggies, you can have one unhealthy thing!  Phil wants to make the Cherpumple...I'm not real excited about that one...but his Inchiezonya sounds good.  heheheeheee!

Happy New Year, Y'all!