The Fine Art of Recycling--Faux Metal Wall Art (It is Awesome!)

These are fantastic pieces of wall decor!  Great for any wall because you make them yourself so you can adapt the size to the wall space you have...and the price cannot be beat!  Like the site where I found this post originally (Totally Tutorials), I am not going to share the base material--see if you can guess...(I sure didn't).

Suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sitcom has some other fascinating "faux" tutorials-- and go check out what she does to make her beaded Faberge eggs (I bookmarked it for Easter decor--older kids could even do these, I bet).

Now, I just need to sort thru my recycling...

Boss' Birthday Card (and a Challenge Entry)

My boss' birthday is today, so I threw together a quick card that had nothing wintry on it--when you have a birthday so close to Christmas, it's easy to get tired of red and green or winter-type cards.  These are the Stampin' Up! In Colors for 2010-2012--Peach Parfait, Pear Pizazz, Concord Crush and Poppy Parade, along with the Flower Brads and the Circle Circus stamp set on a plain Whisper White card blank.

I used a font on my PC (Matisse) and the Modern Label extra-large punch for the sayings which are edged in Poppy Parade (one of my new favorite colors).

I seriously need to learn to set up and use my light box properly--the Concord Crush circles are a beautiful rich purple but they sure look almost navy here, while the Poppy Parade items resemble a pumpkin orange color.  Oh, well, the card looks much better in person.  A quick FYI--with the weight and size of the brads, I mailed this in a padded outer envelope--and it required extra postage.

Then, as I was blog surfing last night, I realized one of my favorite challenge blogs, Stampin' Royalty, is celebrating their first birthday!  How cool--they are some very talented folks over there and I had wanted to play last year, but we all know where that idea went in 2010, LOL. So, I took to heart the fact that their challenge this week is for a birthday item, and I am entering this card there (if I can figure out how to link this post onto their blog).  Happy Birthday to your blog, ladies!  Go on over and get inspired ;-)

Reading is for Everyone...

One of the blogs I frequent posted this not long ago, and I just have to share (go visit Karen when you get a chance--her Wordless Wednesdays are wonderful as well...)

I have been so very Blessed to always be able to find books--even when I was recovering from various less-than-pleasant periods of my life and moving around a lot, I would continually find the closest library. Of course, without an address, you cannot have a library card, so how do you get reading material to carry with you?

This book club is such a cool idea--as I remodeled, I donated books to Goodwill and to my local Friends of the Library group (and of course, listed and traded many on Paperback Swap).  My next stack may go to our local homeless shelters (Dallas actually has several...the need for them makes me sad, but the fact they are there is a good thing).  Another place that may need books would be our local shelters for abused women and children (again, our area has several but I wish the need for them could be eradicated).

What about you?  What do you do with the books you no longer wish to keep but which could still be read and enjoyed?  Are there shelters in your area that could use them?  The holidays are over--many of us are reorganizing our lives and our homes...perhaps our library shelves could be cleared and shared?  After all, words are food for the mind and soul...

(off to call some shelters and see if they could use some books...)

Historical Fiction--A New Reading Challenge for 2011

Found this on a blog I already follow--Historical Tapestry, a great blog for fans of historical fiction--and since the top level, "Severe Bookaholism" only requires 20 books for the year, and since I write historical fiction and since I already read one in 2011 (THE EXILE by Diana Gabaldon), how can I not sign up for this? 

So, yesterday's post regarding THE EXILE--AN OUTLANDER GRAPHIC NOVEL will serve as my first entry for this challenge and I only have nineteen more to go LOL!

100+ Book Reading Challenge 2011--I Have Begun!

 

I mentioned this challenge in yesterday's post, but because I subscribe to the old adage that what you do on New Year's Day is what you will do all the next 364 days, I wanted to ensure I read for pleasure on 1/1/11--and I did.  Sign up and join us--all the details are on the sign-up page linked above and my reading list is currently housed at the bottom of my blog (until I can learn the art of setting up pages in Blogger).  There are other reading challenges listed here as well (the library challenge looks quite interesting and with as much research as I still have ahead of me, I may try that one as well; a book read for one challenge can also be counted for another).  But now to my first review of 2011--

I've never read a graphic novel; I tried comic books when I was younger but never got hooked.  However, when my beloved author Diana Gabaldon announced she was re-telling the story of Jamie and Claire Fraser from Murtagh's POV, I knew the time had come to "go graphic".  My autographed copy came during NaNo and I reluctantly put it away but I made sure I took time to honor it as my first read of 2011.  Once more, Diana did not disappoint.  Covering about the first third of OUTLANDER meant that it was a quick read (after all, the graphics are supposed to overshadow the story line, right?), but it was still superb--and the artist's renderings of Jamie and Claire and Black Jack are wonderful.  I will re-read this again simply to enjoy the drawings and also to catch the nuances between the depictions of Dougal and Murtagh and Kenneth.  OUTLANDER fans will not be disappointed, and newcomers to the series may enjoy a short peek into the saga.

So, one book down and 99 more to go...