My Mornings in my Nest

I love my life in St. Louis and adore my backyard. Having NEVER owned a single dwelling home in my working life, I was surprised that I bought the small bungalow for retirement.

After living in apartments and condos, taking care of the "outside" was new. Yes, I have my yard mowed every two weeks - but I have a small battery operated lawn mower for the "off" week to use in the back yard.  My grass grows fast and KokoBean is small.

He can terrorize squirrels, bunnies, and birds. He storms out first thing in the morning to announce to all that his day has started and we are on our toes until it is time for him to have a nap. I have been able to get some creating in. 

I have now created another "small book" inspired by my Seth Apter class and am sending it off to an Instagram friend.  I called it "Secret" --

 Just a sample of the pages.  I'm trying to keep these posts short here in the beginning as I get use to playing with the Blog again. The days during the Pandemic has been like a sci-fi movie I have seen in the past - especially in the beginning when we panicked in our search for toilet paper, sanitizers, etc. I also did a class with Quinn McDonald entitled "DiaryMay2020" - all about keeping a diary during Covid 19 days. It really helped and I am still using the book I created to write my thoughts in - who knew - the need to reactivate this blog is a result of this class with Quinn.

One my recent posts in this diary:

"When the time is right and be the grace of God, 2020 will realign for the better good of all the Universe." We can hope! You all have a wonky doodle rest of the day - we have had rain on and off all day. I leave you with a look of my craft table.  ;  )

Hugs and puppy kisses, we will get through this!😘

The Dark Side

Surprise! Here I sit in my recliner typing on my new little iPad and my little keyboard.  This offers some exciting possibililities and much easier than doing on my iPhone.  I have been fine and have also been creating. Yes, I gave gone to the Apple Dark Side.  The iPhone sucked me in Oh No.  But I love this iPad.  This is a quick post to see how it would go.  Been missing you all!

Been immersing in my SmashBook which I am finding to be very freeing.  Been extremely busy at the office in anticipation of preparation for meeting the end of June. I finally admited I had to let some things "rest" for a while such as my workouts and tennis.  Yes, I still play tennis but not getting up at 6am on a Saturday moring to go play. I was working out three times a week mostly right after work and called a half to that since there were more times than one that I needed to work a little later.

All in all this has not been a bad thing and three weeks out I feel very calm and good.  Sleep is fantastic LOL.

You all take care and I will be back soon! I know, promises promises!  *wink*

Ramblings and Art and Soul

It has been a busy month since I last visited with you in February.  Thank you peeps for checking back and leaving comments. I was under some deadlines on several fronts. But that doesn't mean I haven't been having fun and creating some art which I plan to share with you.

It is amazing how quickly time passes. Last week I had a wonderful experience. I attended my very first Art and Soul Retreat in Virginia Beach, VA.  I signed up for two Lesley Riley workshops.

I also met up with some very good friends. We all talk about how we have our blog friends and believe me - it makes no difference if I have ever met laid eyes on some of them - we have already connected via our blogs and Facebook. We are "old" friends and it is so much fun to meet up with them face to face. At Art & Soul, Jan and Terri (sitting) showed up and we had marvelous fun between chatting, eating, classes, shopping, and creating together.

One class I took which I am raving about was Lesley Riley's TAP - Transfer Artist Paper - OMG is it wonderful. I printed images onto TAP prior to class and then we started transferring images. (Yes, Patty and Lovey, you two have told me all about this product and how great it is, not that I didn't trust you, I am just transfer-handicapped.) A shout out to Lesley - we knew you were sick one day but thought you had recovered. You covered it up, get well soon (nasty flu bug is still making the rounds).....

Yes, below is one of my favorite clip-art from ArtChix. My little Cute Hannah. I use her a lot. Here she is transferred onto an old French page..... such a cutie,

Yup, scary clipart (transferred onto muslin).... oh oh..... the clip art below the muslin is transferred into the "Lost Chord" book which I am still working on....

And a sneak peek at the next blog post on the second class I took with Lesley - kind of (remember she was sick) - stay tuned...

This page was begun in class and then created in my hotel room...... from the page - My 15 Favorite Words, (two young girls are PaperWhimsy clipart)

The view from my hotel room (posterized LOL),

For the time being, I will be here at home and not travelling until later on in the month. Oliver pup comes over next week for a few days. So what does all this mean? I have decided to do some fun stuff and tell you all about it.  Saturday a trip to the National Botanical Gardens with a friend. I will take my camera. In all the years I have lived here I have never been to the Gardens. Can you believe it? Well, I can't either.

And, I did ease up on my workout schedule so I have a little more time to myself. Interesting stuff churning and it is fun and exciting to go with the flow. My new word right now is "spontaneous" - and that is what it is. Still loving my iPhone and my pink boxing gloves.  Need to fix dinner and then will be back with you sooner than last month. I know you don't believe me and I will have to prove myself, and yada yada.  Hugs, peeps, hugs.

Thursday Stop By

Wanted to share my Note from the Universe this morning...... just because:

"There is perhaps no more empowering belief, Marlynn, than understanding you're always in control of how you feel. 

Similarly, understanding that just because you're not always skipping through tulips with joy doesn't mean that something's wrong with you. 

You rock,

    The Universe

PS: Because, Marlynn, nothing has ever, ever, ever been wrong with you. Lots of grown-ups still like animal crackers."

 

Yup, that is my Universe! WhooHooo.  

Getting ready to go and play tennis tonight but wanted to show you one of my "Ah Ha" moments while cleaning off my coffee table.  Found a strip of music from the music book I am using for my ATC card exchange and I happened to lay it on the Lost Chord (yes, I named it) book,

Not sure where we are headed with it but I'm loving it. 

 Also got a new iPhone cover......

Loved the Great Gatsby and it is one of those stories from my younger days that all I can do is "giggle" remembering a Great Gatsby Party I went to once upon a time....nuh said...Enjoy your  Friday tomorrow! Hugs to all and to all a good evening doing whatever you are doing. 

Puttering Around

Good Afternoon on this Super Bowl Sunday.  Wanted to stop by and say hello my honeysuckle peeps. I have been busy and having a lot great days.  Loving my boxing cardio exercise on Tuesday evenings,

my tennis on Thursday evenings, and my two workouts with my trainer the other days.  Today has been a lazy Sunday.

Was able to finish a cover for my upcoming "next" creation first mentioned to you on the December 30 post. The interesting "mention" here is I did create the cover FIRST.

I love listening to and reading Wayne Dyer and he will always tell you he creates the cover of his new book before he begins to write it. When showing the images to you on December 30 was not sure that I would create the cover at that time.

But as the weeks have flown by and it has set upstairs and had many applications of gesso and paint and regesso I finally said, enough is enough!  LOL And finished it today.

Also working on the next ATC for February titled "Joyful Noise" - thinking it will work. The word for February is "Joy."

Also been playing with my iphone camera and some apps for editing photos. I am really enjoying this creative outlet. This is how I played with the little girl cover:

Love the "light" elements and if I let myself I could certainly use this way too much. LOL. On another app (PerfectPhoto) I can posterize my iPhone photos:

Not even me is safe from my posterizing...... not much more one can say, huh?

And so my little honeysuckle breezers - I will let us all go get ready for the Super Bowl --- commercials for me! Not sure who I am rooting for - geeze the New England Patriots are usually my team to "hate" since that scandal years ago with videoing practices.... Giants are cool. Hmmmm, I am sticking with the commercials.

 See you soon,

And next up is......

wishing all of you honeysuckle peeps a happy upcoming new year. I am getting ready to go upstairs and slap some gesso on this naked book. Not sure what is developing but we will soon find out.

I am still reading slowly Miss Peregrine's home for Peculiar Children and some of the PaperWhimsy gals are doing an exchange on the peculiar children and the results that I have seen are spectacular! They are such a talented bunch of artists. Anyway, I thinking of something like the Peregrine Children. I read up on the Peregrine Hawk and it is an amazing bird.

So we will see. I have this paper from a pullout section in Somerset Studio and I would really like to create this paper onto the cover using paint and the silhouette of the young girl. Stay tuned for updates.

Also this year I have "signed" up for an ATC exchange - one a month. For January the word is "Hope" - so I will also be thinking about where I want to go with that. "Your ATC should reflect what hope means to you or what visual the word gives you."  Hmmmmm... Nope, Harley won't cut it for the "H" - back to the drawing table. Be safe over the next few days if I don't get back before New Year's Day. Don't drink and drive. Find a designated driver or take cab companies up on free rides. Whoop Whoop!