Hey it's Me!
It has been a long while as usual between posting,
 but I am gonna make a go of this blog again and hopefully...       
LIFE won't get in my way again!
My boys are back home with me and its a long story.....
 that I won't go into right now but its been a bit challenging getting used  to them being back home!
Things are getting better every day and  Life goes on!


I have been  following a multi media Ustream, and  doing swaps, and Challenges!
My form of therapy! LOL
Today's post is about a Challenge on Tracy Weinzapfel's blog-
 March challenge:
 You were to take a song and do a multi media item of your choosing!
Mine went into my art journal.You were to incorporate the song and use buttons! You can find it here at: Tracy Weinzapfel Studios

I chose an oldy but goody by John Denver, "Sunshine on my Shoulders"!
I grew up listening and memorizing word for word his songs!
 This one seemed appropriate at the time for Spring and my mood the day of choosing it!

I have really loved getting back into art journaling as an outlet for me! Thru Two Tracy's and  One Susan....I am hooked again!
One is Tracy  Weinzapfel and her wonderful Ustream on Mondays on TWStudios
Two is Tracy Pounds and a fav hangout The Little Blue House in Keller Texas
 and the One Susan is Susan Tidwell One of Tracy Pounds instructors.
Tracy and Susan are longtime friends...check em out at The Little Blue House In fact I have a Miss T Pickers class tomorrow and will post on it later after Easter is over!
I think I used most of the yellows and golds in my paints! along with a tad of orange. I also pulled out my supply of yellow and orange buttons! I took an ad that came in the mail and cut me out this gal from it and deco-pauged it to the page! wasn't having good luck with my stamping on the slick surface so second half of my words are with my little labeler!

On the parts without the buttons just paint on the rays of my sun I doodled with a clear dimensional paint and did dots with a metallic gold!

Here is the song and Lyrics from You tube for you to enjoy! The Pics are where I can get lost in my little dream world!

 

Life continues in the Cook household and so the saga continues!

I really so plan to get this back and to post more art and other things as I am in the midst of making Life choices right now that will change me this year! Hopefully a healthier me!

Happy Easter and God Bless till next week

Create something beautiful!

Neisey

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Day

S0..so ready to be done purging and living with total chaos in my studio. For last couple of weeks been going through everything I own and trying to downsize to put it all in Caroline's Hoarders garage sale at The Crafty Scrapper this coming weekend! The community of Waxahatchie is also that weekend having a "Junk in the Trunk Sale" on the square. Sounds fun for someone to load up on stuff after she purged HA HA not! Picks to follow soon of the boxes! Thank goodness Jami helped bag and tag last two days! yeah for my Daughter the helper!

 

 Recently did my first swap that wasn't in person with a sweet gal named Loren, she recently moved from Texas to California. Well I won't hold against her for that....Just kidding! Usually do swaps with close group of friends or at an event I am attending!I'm spreading my wings! I did this box with a vintage flair! We were to decorate a box and share at least 15 items from our stash with at least 2 handmade by you! O and I had to do vintage things!

 

 Made her some denim flowers with The tattered flower die from Tim Holtz and then sprayed with some Tattered Angels and then attached em together with some blingy brads from Close to my Heart!

Also did some crinkled seam binding flowers and trim in green and while I was crinkling mad more trim for her! Also threw in some white from when I was making flowers for SB local scrap store!

I filled her box and  I think she was pleased with it!

 

Here is another journal page from when I started doing pages from Tracy's ustream show on Mondays , this is what I chose for my word for the year.....Have to hold close to my Faith in order to " Let Go and Let God"

Been a semi rough week and I have elephant ankles where I have been swelling ...NOT pretty folks

 

Be back soon with more hope you are having a great start to Wonderful weekend!

Get up and create something !

 Hugs Neisey



Weight Loss and Life!

Okay this is not the most flattering picture but I have a T-shirt that has been in a plastic bag in my studio that I was unable to get into for almost a year since orderin it! And I finally got into it a couple of weeks ago and I had the Leader of Create Joy ...Tracy Pounds snap the pic of the first time I am wearing it...Just one of my short goals in a long journey to weight loss. Last nights weight loss with last weeks adds up to -3.8 more pounds off for total thus far of -55.5 lbs lost! I will get a new pic soon of progress!

These are pics from the scrapbook in a day class I took, they are of my album I finished!

then this months Scrapstashers class ..Tracy asked for used dryer sheets, a cereal box and

T-Shirt's with words. Huh I said! but cool 2 page layout with my stuff I took to class!

The T shirts were for the words we all cut each others up. The dryers sheet made ruffles and roses and the cereal box was for the banner to use as chipboard, I will be doing this again , the flowers were so cool in whatever colors the classmates chose , we really had a variety!

Amazing what a dryer sheet some paint and glue and then stickles can make!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy to My Youngest son Casey today!

he will shoot me for posting this but he is my baby and he shouldn't wake up with bed head when he knows I do things like this!

Kinda glad he is living with us right now to celebrate his 25th BiRtHdAy today! Love you Sweet BoY!

and Happy birthday to all my sweet friends who have March birthdays......Cindy , Donna , Jacque, Hannah, and Debbie! Hope you have wonderful things in this new year!

Well till next time and me trying to be a better blogger

...Create something!

Denise

Long time and no posts!

Well it has been a long time since I have posted and not sure what has been up with me except just coping with everyday life. Lots has been going on .....The boys moved back in to tidy up some business and are rooming together in one of their old bedrooms for awhile.

Just took some great classes from Create Joy team at Anthologies, and the one I chose to share today is the Scrapbook in a day class. took it with some old friends and some new! And I am way bad on names, so very sorry if I don't post a name by classmates!

Each team at the table had a layout to work on at a time and I buddied up with my pal Linda.

We all completed our books before the day was over and it had allot of steps and techniques to accomplish as we worked on each page!

My pal Joni below was at my table also and she buddied with herself ...Just love her!

We got to play with the sewing machine again on this years class which I love doing in the books, and such fun fabrics!

Linda Meaux on the left sat across from Linda Hahn and I!

And on the table with us was Linda H's daughter old coach which so sorry cant remember her name but she really did a gorgeous job on the butterflies on her pages! Which were painted , stickled and outlined!

below is a cover in progress!!

And here is our paint station across from the sewing machine station! We even Masked and misted on pages this year!

Well the next pictures I chose to share are from the crazy Texas weather this year!

We have had more snow than I can even remember seeing around here this year. It snowed Christmas and then the record snowfall came just before Valentines Day in February which is what these were taken from.

A tree in my front yard over my car!

The grandsons snowman!

The bush by front porch!

Tyler the oldest grandsons Igloo he built!

And I have stayed faithfully on my diet although I am craving fruit and veggies bad!

these were taken at a friends birthday crop Feb 3rd, was so happy because was first time to fit into the jeans I have on....from a 30 to a 22 and I am now 51.7 less lbs as of last weeks weigh in and tomorrow am hoping for another good loss.

We all wore Lynn's favorite color pink at the crop but sadly she was sick this night and did not get to stay. She just now came back to work after having Bronchitis that went into pneumonia then pleurisy. We are all so glad to see her doing better!

Slowly the side view is getting to where it doesn't offend me as much now that it is somewhat shrinking.....LOL!

We also had pictures taken for the church directory and they arrived just a couple of days ago and here are a few of them!

this one they doctored my scar on neck out !
My dear hubby Jeff really hates getting his picture took!

But the guy was doing a good job getting him to grin! And how I love how my sweetheart looks in this one! Well I promise to really try and to get my act together and post more , and will get some picks of the projects been doing on here soon. and have some picks to post yet that need to download from the ole camera!

Till next time which should be shortly Have a good time and create something!

PS.

Lost and old friend Husky Forbes today. sadly he will be so missed but he is free of sickness pain and old age aches, because I know he is with Our Wonderful Lord and Savior at this time and loving it! He was a wonderful Christian Man who lived a good and long life and wonderful Steward of the Church! I have many wonderful memories from all the mission trips and Wednesday night suppers that I got to serve to he and Catherine!

Forgotten pics of things I finished before surgery!

This is some things I found at Michael's in their kid decor and thought they looked like paint brush and paint bottle holders to me.....Whatcha think?

covered in Ten Seconds Studio's old Red metal before I bought the new red .

Painted all with a sea foam type green then used some distress ink over some of that that wasn't papered or metaled..You can see some of the papers I used in next pic below.

The next pic is back of big bird holder....Left back of bird plain, Just did the outer box part.

Boys had been after me to finish some of the bigger items for their apartment so did it before goin under the knife.....Papers used in their cross collage...largest canvas I that was square maybe 30x30 and don't remember the dimensions of second canvas but do know wooden cross was like 4 1/2 x 6, really not sure but took rosette off of it , thought this metal cross that was white and I distressed with black to go with the rock star black metal looked more like my guys.Papers were a line from Bo-bunny I believe, but don't quote me on that.

Got to use some of http://tensecondsstudios.com new Kabuka molds on this with some cuttlebug folders added in they were really happy with it the day I had them pick up their things.

Really do like the way the cast iron cross that had been painted white looked on the wooden one once I distressed it back to some black in it.

The next item is the first class I took from Tensesconds studios and had never finished and surprised the boys with pis of their grandparents on them.

And when Cheryl was cleaning out the studio over flow and bought this old plastic sign from a store front that had silver plastic in center so pieced some molds and rock star metal for the guys to figure out where they would put it since Casey and Matt are both Cooks but then Casey's name starts with C also. Hope to go see where they have hung all their things when get to go out more.

got some other pics but they did not get the finished items to go with them so will wait. Can't wait to get back into craft room, Casey brought me Three somerset Mags to get me thinking 90 t0 nothing , and already have several things wanna try. But energy level isn't up with the speed of my mind yet.

Have a creative Day tomorrow!

and thanks for the prayers me....

PS ....Wesley is having surgery again tomorrow at Cooks Children's at 1PM We just found out tonight ..think that is why I am not sleeping yet, Not as bad as last surgery but still in brain area ....

In God's Hands

Denise

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Living Christmas Tree and too much shopping!

This a frame I metaled for Jami for Christmas so that it would fit in to the front rooms decor, think she will like it I hope? The pick is of Mom before the alzheimers took over.

This is plate rack turning into sword holder...Sanded finish down then painted it Glossy black now gotta add some black and silver metal to cover the heart on it so it will manly for him

Man was trying so hard not to go anywhere in the mall with all those people and my son in law sent me after some things for the grand kids that they did not even have after he told me that they did.

It felt very claustrophobic to me ...Me no likely! Way tooo crowded in there....

Casey , my hubby , and I all went to the Living Christmas tree at church tonight and it was awesome our multi media crew the choir and the hand bells and the orchestra really sounded great...The music and the message was fantastic...Miss being in it maybe next year I will be feeling up to all the rehearsals and the standing in the tree that long, but it was wonderful to see our choir and director do such a great job on it and hopefully it touched alot of people over the last two nights and tomorrows Matinee performance!

Gotta work on Tylers sword holder tomorrow and get it finished and wrapped....Along with a bunch of others...Got the boys rope chains for their charms I made them for Christmas gotta get the bails done on the charms.