Productive Day

I created this ATC for a swap and I got some things packed and ready to ship out.
Put some things on SALE in my Etsy Shop and We dismantled the window display yesterday so I put away all the collages I had down at the Green Spot on display. Looking back at all of them I must say they are pretty good. I am not sure what I will do with them now I am mostly doing collages for tins. Maybe I will have a give away!


I was going to create a new background and banner for my blog but I got sidetracked in Photoshop and ended up with this piece. I used a masquarade mask and music sheet background and then added the paper shoes and did the corners with Anika Von Holt brushes and lastly I added the girl on the swing and changed the opacity on her.
Never did get my background and banner created. There is always tomorrow right?

This is my granddaughter Abrianna Ciella. You may have seen her art on my sidebar.

Her Mommy home schools her and her brother and makes sure they always have fun things to do during the day. This is her first try at felting. She is in to owls right now. Isn't he cute?

Strange and Funky

I was going through some old photos today and ran across this one. I took this last fall when my step daughter was visiting and we went down to the bay to see the tall ships. It is a post in the bay with moss growing on it from the wet weather here and what is that one it...a chicken egg?
Now I am certain that chickens do not lay eggs on a post in the middle of the bay. I had to laugh when I took this photo and again when I found it today. Someone was pretty clever that's for sure :)

This is my latest steam punk collage. I will probably be making a tin with it. Kind of funky huh?

A Sneek Peek

Okay I finished 8 tins and one steam punk altered jar to put in my Etsy Shop.

The problem with creating these tins is deciding just what I want to put on them.

This is just one of the tins and of course it was inspired by the hottest trend, Steam Punk.
I created the digital collage first and then glued it on the lid of the tin.


Then there is the decision of what to do with the inside. Should I leave them blank or embellish them in some way. This one has a metal key with the word "Dream: and a couple of gears to steam punk it up a bit :)

For the jar, I first created the collage and then glued it on the entire jar.

Then I accented it with metallic paint and sealed the entire jar to protect it.

Then I bent the copper wire to make the little heart with the cork screw dangle. I am happy with it....well...I might add a gear or two here and there.

I will have it finished and in my shop tomorrow.

Work In Progress

OMG! I cannot believe it is almost February already.

I need to get some Valentine Tins on Etsy soon or it will be too late.

Take one tin at a time...don't panic!

So I started creating yesterday and finally am seeing some progress tonight.
So many ideas flood my mind when I am creating. I get lost in all the thoughts

Gosh... my desk is such a mess when I am creating...normal right? Please tell me it is normal.

I would love to have a studio where I could just make a mess and have all of my embellishments and papers and stickers and glue, paint and trim right at my finger tips. As it is now I am working in a small office on my granite top desk with things in drawers and boxes and forget half of what I have because I can't see it easily.

Now I need to take those individual photos of each to post in my Etsy Shop. You know that is the hardest part of posting things in my Etsy Shop. If I only knew how to take a good photo. I am horrible at photography and I do not understand the settings on my camera even when I read the instructions!

Okay, okay enough complaining, back to work. Hopefully tomorrow I will have completed 8 tins, a jar and a tall tin. I will let you know when they are all complete.

MEMORIES OF MY TRIP

Four Generations. Me, my son David, his daughter Melissa and her daughter Ava June

My granddaughter Melissa and her husband Justin, parents of Ava June who is not too happy in this picture!

My three sons, D'Angelo,my middle son, David, my oldest son and Tony, my youngest

Ooops! Cut the top of Davids' head off....gosh I am horrible at taking pictures!

My oldest son David and his wife Lisa holding Ava June and my beautiful granddaughter Melissa

This hunk, Justin is Melissa's husband and the father of my great granddaughter

D'Angelo and Tony

Tony my soon to be minster. He has a little over a year left before he graduates from seminary.

My beautiful daughter in law Lori. She is amazing and so beautiful inside and out!

Me with two of my beautiful daughter in laws

Lori and Mica

My granddaughter Abrianna. She is the daughter of Tony and Mica and she looks alot like me !!

Vince, my first born grandson and Abrianna's big brother. He is so talented!

He plays piano, guitar and sings and is a wiz on the computer...many times he has helped me out of a jam. I bonded with he and his sister last year. It was so fun hanging out with them.

Donovan, my grandson. His daddy is D'Angelo and his Mommy is Lori. He is so into the civil war it is amazing to watch him pretending to me a blue coat soldier!

This is Chase, my husbands daughter's son.

Hubby's granddaughters Riley and Alex

Hubby's daughter Cathy and Teri his daughter in law and mother of Riley and Alex

Donovan in is cute little hat. He is such a smart and grown up boy for 8 years old.

Okay okay, are you ready? Here she is....my first great grand daughter Ava June!




So there you go...my family.
I had a wonderful time with good food, lots of hugs and conversation. I bonded with Donovan as I have not done in the past. Heart to heart talks with my boys and my daughter in laws and lots of love with my grandchildren. I miss them already.

A NICE SURPRISE

Returning home yesterday I found a surprise waiting for me. My swap partner Anna from Blissful ATC Swap sent this beautiful card. Thanks Anna, I love it !

I'M HOME !!

Yes I am home from sunny California. I had a wonderful visit with my children but the entire trip was against me.

First of all I was scheduled to fly out of North Bend at 3PM Friday Jan 7th. My plane was delayed for three hours. Okay my dear friend Brenda dropped me off since my hubby was out of town for the weekend so I had no choice but to wait. After about an hour the announced over the loud speaker that the flight had been canceled due to fog in San Francisco.

Okay I called Brenda and bless her heart she came back and picked me up and took me home. Saturday I called the air port to make sure the plane was on schedule and leaving at 3pm. Yes they said it was on time. So I drove my car and left it in the parking lot of the airport for 8 days costing me 58.00 ! I was taking no chance of the same thing happening again.

I was scheduled to fly in to John Wayne Airport but that got changed too , why?, not sure but instead, I had to fly into Ontario Airport causing yet another problem. I had rented a car at John Wayne so I had to reschedule that so I would have a car when I got to Ontario. I arrived in Ontario at 7:30pm and picked up my car and drove to Corona where all of my children and their families were waiting to meet me for dinner.

It was a wonderful reunion with my sons. My granddaughter was there too and of course my new great granddaughter Ava June. She is the most beautiful baby girl in this generation. We took pictures of the four generations and had a wonderful dinner. Since I got in so late, this took away the plan to spend 2 and 1/2 days with each son. I lost an entire day.

After dinner everyone split up and I went to my youngest sons house in Temecula. We went to church on Sunday and spent the day in old town Temecula after church and had a nice lunch, walked around the antique section and then returned to his home where we had a good visit but it was cut short due to my rescheduled flight.

On Monday afternoon I had planned to meet a couple of friends from my old job on the way to Anaheim where I would spend 2 and 1/2 days with her and my grandson Donovan. We had planned to have lunch and then go visit our old boss and his new showroom. We called before we got on the road to make sure he was in and he had to leave. He had an emergency at home so I missed seeing him.

I headed for Anaheim and got in a bit to early to go directly to my daughter in laws house since she was still at work so I waited for her for about 2 hours in the Target parking lot. Finally she called that she was on her way home so I made it to her house around 7 pm. We went to dinner and had a good visit talking most of the night. She was unable to take any time off work so I spent the next 2 days with my grandson and I am so glad I did. We bonded more than when I lived there.

I had planned to spend 2 and 1/2 days with my middle so D'Angelo but he was working out of town and I didn't get to Placentia until Friday evening so I spent an extra day with Lori my daughter in law in Anaheim. We again talked all night and she was so tired she came down with bronchitis ....I made her sick.

I finally was able to go to Placentia and visit my son D'Angelo on Friday evening and all day Saturday. He is the son that has the flesh eating disease in his leg that keep rearing it's ugly head. We had some deep heart to heart talks and it was so good to see that he is okay but his leg is still swollen and a little red.

So here is the last straw...
I thought I was scheduled to leave out of Ontario since I flew into Ontario . I went online to check in and it said that this flight was not available to confirm...what? So I had to call to find out what was up. They had not changed my flight for my return so I was scheduled to fly out of John Wayne. Oh this was not right! It is in Santa Ana CA and I am in Anaheim. I had to modify my flight. Done! So I ask if the plane was going to be on time and if there were any problems or perceived problems with the flight to San Francisco going home. Oh no, everything was on schedule and on time. Great, I will get home with no problems.

My flight to come home was scheduled to leave at 1:10 pm. I left my sons house at 10am to make sure I got there in time to turn the car in and give myself a little time in case there was traffic on the freeway. I arrived at 11:15am. I get to the check in counter and they tell me the flight has been delayed and will not be leaving until 3pm. What! I just called to confirm the time and they told me it was on schedule!!

So here I am sitting in the airport for 4 hours. The plane finally got there and I got on and then the pilot comes on the loud speaker and says..." there are high winds and low visibility in North Bend and we are not sure we can land there, we will try but if we can't land we will have to fly you to Eugene and we will keep you posted as to what will happen from there, you will be taken care of , this is just a warning"
Oh great, Eugene is 2 1/2 hours from North Bend /Coos Bay....wonder how I will get home. It is dark and raining and windy? Okay, calm down take a deep breath it will be okay.

We get to North Bend, the plane is being blown around and it is raining and it is dark. I can't see the ground and we are descending. I can't see the ground and we are descending.... I start to pray for God to make a path through the wind and fog for us to land. The pilot tried three times and he could not land. So he gets on the loud speaker and says "well as you can see, we were not able to land in North Bend so we will be going on to Eugene. Stand by for more details, we are talking to Eugene airport now"

As we start to descend in Eugene the same thing is going on...high winds, lots of rain, low visibility but suddenly I see the lights of the city and we landed! We were bused back to North Bend/Coos Bay and I finally arrived at the airport at midnight. I am home and safe and very tired and oh so frustrated with the airline.

We are stuck here in North Bend/Coos Bay. We only have one airline that fly's out of here . Want to know which on? My advise would be to stay as far away from it as you can. Every time I have had to fly on this airline I have been delayed for one reason or another. The reason is that it only fly's to SF from here. When we had another airline it flew us to Portland to change plans. Portland, where there is no thick fog or high winds or low visibility. I will NEVER again fly on this airline. I will drive to Eugene and catch a direct flight. This whole thing wasted 2 days I could have been with my family. Shame on them.

The air line ?..... UNITED !

Stay tuned for pictures of my trip, I am pooped tonight.

SUNNY CALIFORNIA HERE I COME !!

Tomorrow I will be on my way to sunny (I Hope) California to see all three of my sons. My son Tony the minister lives in Temecula so I will spend three days with him and his family then head to Anaheim where my middle son D'Angelo lives and also my BEST friend Lori and Grandson Donovan. I will be spending time with both and have a whole day with my grandson while Mom is at work. My oldest son David and his wife Lisa will be coming from Vegas to see me while I am there too. I got a surprise earlier this week and that is my Granddaughter that lives in Vegas also is coming so I get to meet my Great Granddaughter Ava June.

I have been waiting for this for a long time. This past year has been a hard one for me and I cannot wait to see my kids and hug them all. I have lots of hugs built up. I am sure there will be tears of happiness too.

I also will get to visit my old boss who is the best boss ever and a couple of friends. I am so looking forward to this visit.

I have lots to do yet to get ready but wanted to let you all know I will be gone until Jan 17th.
Believe me....there will be lots of pictures when I return to share with all of you.

Hugs to all of you.

ALAN AND HIS 121 LB LAP DOG - ATC SWAPPERS 2011

I was in my office working on some new tins and when I came out for a break this is what I saw.

This is not an uncommon sight here at the Koosed residence. Sampson has always thought he is a lap dog and continues to get up on Alan's lap at least twice a week. Petey has never been a lap dog so he just stays on his bed. Makes me giggle every time I see this.

I actually made 5 tins today. These three and two more for my grandchildren in CA who I will be seeing next weekend. I am so excited!
This one is a baby owl face. You will find this cute little guy in my Etsy Shop. Icon on my sidebar if you are interested :)

This one is trimmed with wool. It will be in my new Etsy shop today.

This one is trimmed with polk a dot ribbon. If you are an owl lover and want to add to your collection, he is in my Etsy Shop too!

Oh and since this is a brand new month and a brand new year January's ATC Swap is open.
Please leave a comment that you would like to swap and I will be partnering you up when I return from CA on Jan 17th. I would love it if you could post your partners ATC on your blog for all to see.
Okay just leave a comment and lets have fun creating in this brand new year.
THE THEME WILL BE "TIME"