Friday, May 18, 2012

This is my newest "Made To Order" Creation and it is in my Etsy Shop

 Recently I received a special order request from a young lady in North Carolina. She is attending a couple of Steam Punk Conventions and wanted a special box to carry her credit cards in. Her costume has no pockets so this card case can be carried on her wrist and she won't have to carry a purse What a clever idea!

This tin was inspired by her and created in a steam punk style, especially for her.

This beautifully altered tin box measures 3.5 x 2.75 x .50 inches and is a made to order piece.
There may be a slight difference in your piece as each one is custom made and hand embellished. Please allow 24 hour creation time.

It is covered inside and out with special order fiber paper. Trimmed and accented with two different sized chains, both brushed antique silver and embellished with a metal clock face and metal bronze and brass gears. A brushed antique silver chain measuring 5 inches is attached to the box making it easy to slip on to your wrist.

Sealed on all sides for protection.

This lovely tin can be used as a little hand created piece of art to sit on a desk or dresser or as a special place to keep jewelry, stamps, paper clips, buttons, barrettes, keys, medication, change, business cards or give it as a gift with a gift card inside. The possibilities are endless.

Would make a great gift. Fill it with candy, a special piece of jewelry or a love note.

Send one to your steam punk friend !

Signed and dated by the artist.

All Rights Reserved © 2012

To see more Steam Punk tins click here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/AlteredStateofTin?section_id=8019377

Altered State of Tin will be happy to take custom orders. Please contact me with details.
A small fee may be charged on Custom Orders depending on what it is that you want.

With your purchase you will receive a 10% discount card to use on your next purchase. Please mention this on your second order.

FREE USPS SHIPPING to US and Canada
PRIORITY USPS SHIPPING add $5.35 (per your request)

Insurance is optional. Your invoice will be adjusted at the time of your purchase if you decide to add insurance. Convo me before the final purchase.

Have any questions? Contact the shop owner.






Thursday, May 17, 2012

Donna Summer the Queen of Disco

As some of you know or maybe you don't know, I was a disco dancer back in the 70's and 80's. 
My husband and I competed in many competitions including The Victor Drew Dance Competition at the MGM in Las Vegas before it burned. We won first place in New York Hustle, East Coast Swing and Salsa there as well as many other dance contests during the disco days. Disco was a wonderful era. The disco's with the disco ball and the strobe lights, the clothes, the music, the dancing...I don't have my dance partner any more so I found a substitute for dancing...Zumba. the closest thing to disco without having to have a dance partner.

Donna Summer was a big influence in the disco era. She was a beautiful person and had a voice as smooth as butter. I am saddened to hear of her passing. Another Great America Icon gone.
Rest in Peace Donna


Donna Summer, the R&B songstress known best for her far-ranging voice and late ’70s dance floor ballads, who was dubbed “Queen of Disco” at the height of the genre’s popularity, died Thursday, from complications of cancer. She was 63.
Famous for her singing abilities as well as for her songwriting talents, Summer scored consistent hits at the height of her career with tunes that still get frequent radio airplay like  “Hot Stuff,” “Bad Girls,”  “MacArthur Park,” and “On the Radio.”
(MORE: Donna Summer’s Best Songs)
A source from Summer’s family confirmed her death midday Thursday. She had been living in Englewood, Fla., with her husband, musician Bruce Sudano.
Born LaDonna Andrea Grimes on Dec. 31, 1948 in Boston, she grew up in a working-class household with six siblings and began singing in church choir, developing her voice as a fan of gospel legend Mahalia Jackson. As a teen she moved to New York so she could find work on Broadway, and at age 18 she landed a role in the touring company of Hair, moving to Europe with the production.
While living and performing in Europe, she met and married actor Helmut Sommer, with whom she had one child before divorcing in 1976. During a recording session, with Blood, Sweat, and Tears, producers Pete Bellote and Giorgio Moroder (with whom she would go on to record several classics) fell in love with her voice and quickly convinced her to work with them. Summer’s first single, “The Hostage,” became a minor club hit in Europe.
But her clear breakout was a 1975 17-minute slow, but bumping soul groove that all but simulated a sexual encounter — and featured Summer’s own moaning — called “Love to Love You, Baby.” It hit the top of U.S. charts by 1976.
(ARCHIVE: Gaudy Reign of the Disco Queen)
From there, Summer began to ride the worldwide disco wave and became arguably the most well known female performer of the genre, rivaling the Bee Gees in popularity. In 1977 she released a hit that served as a precursor to modern techno music entitled “I Feel Love,” which made her among the first female artists to use synthesizers in a recording.
Despite her appearance in the flopped disco film “Thank God It’s Friday,” she still won a Grammy for the most popular song on the soundtrack, “Last Dance,” which also earned her an Oscar for Best Original Song.
“Music just evolves, people just get tired of it, and they move on to something else,” she told The New York Times in an interview. “In that period people were in a dance mood. They wanted to be lifted up, they wanted to have fun, they didn’t want to think.”
The 1980s brought further success for Summer who by then was married to Sudano, when she released The Wanderer, which did not chart as well as her previous albums. But producer Quincy Jones collaborated with her on the self-titled Donna Summer. She was still required to do one more album for Cassablanca records, which she was attempting to leave. The title track, a working woman’s anthem entitled “She Works Hard for the Money,” charted at No. 3 on U.S. in 1983.
Her last major hit came in 1989 with “This Time I Know It’s for Real,” which reached the Top 10 on U.S. charts. She did however have some continued success with a 1994 collaboration with Moroder on 1994′s “Melody of Love,” and 1997′s “Carry On,” earning the first Grammy for Best Dance Recording.
Summer continued to tour and perform through the 1990s and 2000s. She was diagnosed with breast cancer, but remained private about it as she was preparing a new album. “If I can do it at my age and put myself on the line, I don’t know what will come of it, but you know what, I’m going for it,” Summer told ABC News in 2008. “I’m going to kick this ball as far as I can and hopefully I’ll kick it out of the stadium.”

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Happy Mother's Day


 
“As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children” (1 Thessalonians 2:6b-7).
 
A mother’s love reflects the love of the Lord, deep in its capacity and generous in its application. She awakens in the middle of the night to nurse a hungry infant or care for a sick child. Her intuition injects love at points of pain and in situations that require extensive encouragement. A mother’s love lingers long in conversation and understands with her sensitive heart. She loves, because Christ’s love compels her to love like Him.

Moreover, a mother’s love is loyal and longstanding. A child may be in trouble, but Mom is always close by, full of compassion and acceptance. Her love can be blind in its loyalty, but her offspring never doubts where they are welcome. Jesus was rejected by angry, jealous men and abandoned by His closest friends, but His mother was waiting with Him to the bitter end, “Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother…” (John 19:25a). 

A mother’s love even has the capacity to be a mother to those who are not biologically her own. Amazingly, she can informally “adopt” people for a season and love them emotionally, physically, spiritually, and relationally. She opens her home, shares her food, gives her time, dispenses her wisdom, and encourages obedience to follow Christ. Paul experienced this. “Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too” (Romans 16:13). Moms sometime mother greatness not their own.

Lastly, a mother’s love is gentle, the way God is gentle toward His children. He calls us to love and to lead like Jesus. Love serves people and does not rule with rigor. “God's servant must not be argumentative, but a gentle listener and a teacher who keeps cool, working firmly but patiently with those who refuse to obey” (2 Timothy 2:24, TM). 

Prayer: Do I model gentle and patient love? Do others feel safe to share their sorrows with me?

Related Readings: Genesis 47:12; Ruth 4:16; John 21:15-17; James 3:17

Post/Tweet this today: Moms sometime mother greatness not their own. #mother #love

Taken from Reading #13 in the NEW 30-day devotional book, “Wisdom for Mothers”… http://bit.ly/InvUdR

Monday, May 7, 2012

Harlequin

Harlequin

The theme for Digital Whisper ATC Swap this month is Harlequin.
This is my latest creation for that swap.

I think summer has finally arrived here in Coos Bay Oregon.
The sun is shinning and has been for four days without rain or clouds.
I mowed my grass and worked in my yard planting bulbs and seeds and just puttering around all day Saturday.

It is strange how the weather affects ones mood. I feel full of energy and happy. I might even take a chance and wash the car this week!
I need to do some house cleaning but missed spring here so I guess it will be summer house cleaning. Closets, drawers, tops of tall furniture, ceilings and ceiling fans, silk flowers and blinds. 

I am getting ready to go to Las Vegas in three weeks to meet up with my oldest Son and visit my granddaughters and great granddaughter. Then we are driving to Temecula, CA to attend my youngest Son's graduation from Seminary. This has been his life's dream and after years of hard work and dedication he will graduate. Then the suspension will begin as we wait to see what church will call him to pastor. It might be far away or it might be in the same state. He won't know until they call. He has several on the list waiting for him to graduate. The one he is most interested in is in West Virginia. That is far far away but I will just have to plan a trip to where ever he is because I will miss him too much. 

As one of the administrators of Digital Whisper I have been asked to create a page for a magazine we are publishing. It will be an article titled "What is an ATC"? I also did an interview with one of the DW artists for the magazine. I must say it was a challenge because I do not know anything about a "clipping mask" in Photoshop and the corners of the pages had to be rounded. I still don't know if I get it but it is complete and ready for publication in June. I have been asked to create the magazine cover for the next issue coming out in the Fall. I love Digital Whisper because there I am always learning.

So that is what has been going on around here. What have you been up to?
Have a wonderful Summer!