a different person

we started the biggest loser in our office on february 14. i participated and lost fifteen pounds in 2005. this year weighing in at 147 and 3/4 i have a goal weight lose of 30 pounds. i may seem totally crazy, but if you only knew. honestly i am not even five feet tall. and in highschool i weighed 100-110 pounds. i have done very much in last eight/nine years or so. i've just kinda let my image lay waste, sloth style. i hadn't owned a full length mirror since 2004 and did truly see myself until christmas 2005, which is when pic left was taken. i'm not exactly photogenic, but i rarely feel the need to hide my averagity (not a word, i'm sure). i have nearly never worn make up and have only recently begun making strides at becoming or looking more like a thirty year old woman.

i struggle with making my appearance the most important thing ever. so i error on the side of not trying and not caring. it comes down to being rebellious about looking nice. geez, i was a teenager in the grunge era. my little sisters have no idea what the grunge was like. times oh they've changed. so far in my weight lose this year i've dropped seven pounds. i probably won't win the money, even if i'm currently in a tie with three other people. i have until the day before memorial day. four weeks isn't it? i picked up two pound weights for my legs and arms and wear them whenever i walk. i have become more motivated and energetic about my appearance, whereas before i'd shrug the responsibilty. i think i can tell the difference between the two photos. i am not trying to brag or boast. to me it is a serious thing. it scares me and makes me think about how quickly i became obese. and i know that the older i get the more difficult it will become to lose unhealthy weight.


a nice new haircut helps a whole lot too. i like the whole short style in the back and long in the front. helps me feel feminine, afterall. so onto other things, supposing a little less personal. but before i move on i must say how much i love the grey shirt. it maybe the shirt of the summer for me. oh and i know it's not self portrait tuesday. i'm just a little...i don't know.

i worked on my bicycle painting last night. i think i like how it's coming along. can't wait to show it off. how did you all like the links yesterday. and have you all be catching and keeping up with all that is the news. man i suppose it's been forever since i watched television. i got my swap partner for the vintage love swap and i'm super excited about gathering the goods. she totally seems like this ultra cool girl. i especially like her blog. check it out here. see what i mean? that's probably all i've got in me. i'm working tonight and this weekend so i'm kinda blah. but the weather has been absolutely wonderful and i've had two nights open window paint times. so i shouldn't be complaining. i'm not complaining.

freezing tree & more

this morning i woke up tired and less than willing to work. on my way to the office the sun broke and the temps were cool. i rolled my window down and let fresh non humid air wake the motivation. i am working on a couple of paintings simultaneously. i am really excited about these new things. i think i'm going to beable to build up my amount of finished work easily, especially if i stay focused. freezing tree is still a work in progress but i may be finishing this one up before i even feel comfortable taking pictures of the bicycle i am working on. kate called me the night before last and told me that der hund was a feature item on the etsy's opening page. i never was near a computer so i totally missed it, but i have noticed the "views" increase immensely. i noticed the other day that etsy was have a townhall meeting re: changes they were going to be making...blah blah blah, nothing i thought that would really effect me at this point. considering i've not sold a thing. but what interested me was a comment made by someone who said that etsy should work harder at advertising their sellers. i suppose i have got to find my nitsch (sp?). i'm not worried, artistically i feel things are moving forward now.

a view of my station, my motion toward making and completing art. i went last night to hobby lobby and bought four more tubes of paint. working on freezing tree may just open a whole new level of work. i so appreciate artist's like:

blaine fontana

i mean how could i not be inspired. this guys work is incredible, if you get a chance you should watch video too. tell me, does he switch the paintings or does he just paint over a whole bunch of what he's already painted?


come on now there's kathie olivas i've actually contacted her and she just recently had an exhibit up in atlanta see other artists showing at the alcove.

here's another resource for great inspiration, say ah juxtapose's link-age page. um?

and the top drawer of my desk slash studio work station. i am a huge lover of pencils, pens, tape and glue. i love organizing and reorganizing this drawer. it is a simple task that allows me to feel like i've accomplished something. i realize more and more that i need space to make my work. i oughta really look into renting a space, but i'm oh so lame about it. i also shall be getting on the fest ball-34/84 aka legacy is in october, but i'd like to enter early. i'm tired of posting today.

oh where art here there everywhere

i just finished whipping up this little photograph ala mode. i have noticed while frequenting my favorites that this sort of whimsical style graf-design is hot on the street. i have not gotten around to creating my own font, not that i said i would be or had the time or moolah. although one day...let's just say i hope.

this past weekend was a blast, for the most part. on friday night, in which i actually didn't have to work but it poured, stormed terribly. i went to a bridal shower for d. at t's house who happens to be the owner of blueskies. what a wonderful, absolutely enchanting experience and home t. has. amy gast was there and we hit if off, after not having seen her in probably like a year. she's a dear, so sweet and loving. creative too...i hope to get together with her very very soon.

on saturday i went to mom and dad's for brunch. a nice time was had by all. including my mommom and poppop from the great northeast-new jersey. we sat in the newly paint brightly china blue sun room. emoore and i helped mom pick out the color. thinking about the trends re: blue and chocolate brown. she ended up finding these fantastic wicker chairs that are blue/mustard yellow with a table. oh gosh. so gorgeous, so cath kidston!!!! hi five mom on the decor! i had a wonderful time catching up with the gparents. and then headed out to ava's four bridges fest. i did a very quick walk thru and found things to be quite-crowded. i saw friends and great, really good artists. lucinda and nick were hanging out at her booth. carolyn k. and lisa norris. i didn't know lisa had site, but it's a must must must see: madebyonegirl. such a sweet booth setup. i brought my camera but felt too sheepishly about taking any pics. come wednesday i'll have some great links, but for now i'll leave you with that.

i don't remember, but at some point on saturday my key to my apartment broke off, thankfully matt plied it out and we raced to get dups right o way. i literally went a little ape-poop on the situation. i regained so composure and felt entirely embarassed. and truely what it all came down to was that i so so so need a freak n cigarette. how stupid and ridiculous does that sound? i got my fix and was fine until much later that evening. i tend to need the smoke when i'm about to go to sleep. i'm still working on quitting. it's the hardest thing ever.

i cleaned this weekend. and painted too. i just entered ellia's second swap. this time it's all about the vintage. you should join, if you're up to it! i'd like to know who's reading, especially the person in saudi arabia or iraq...do you know who you are? totally curious in chatt. i'm calling out the csi!!!

thursday love

recently we celebrated my little sister's twentieth birthday at my mom and dad's home. i think i have an incredible family and couldn't imagine what our lives would be like without the addition of suzanne and emily. like most families when we all get together it's a rowdy round up. i love how different we all are. i love how we have grown to accept and appreciate each other. i like how both my brothers either talk like my father or act like my father, but also have their own ways. i love how suzanne, my dad and brothers tend to gather and talk. in the past i had often thought of what my life would have been like had i a sister. now i have four! both of my brothers are married, so i have two amazing snl's. ironically both of the snl's are nurses, i too work in the medical field. mc and i have the same birthday even. and aaron and laurie have bdays three days apart. we are blessed to have each other. god has given me two more younger sisters. they were adopted one/two years ago and three years ago. my mom and dad went to court to get emily last year and god saw it fit for her to join her older sister with our fam. they are both older (20 and 16) but nonetheless our favorite baby sister's. they are little joys, little spirit builder uppers, little happinesses, and little big hugs and kisses. i am so thankful, over and over for suzanne and emily. my mom always said she wanted six children and we joke about how god has indeed given her just that. the really cool thing is that i am the oldest of the siblings. i'm also the smallest of all the siblings. i am not sure that my brother's and sister's look up to me like an older sis but really i haven't been that great of an example. we are all so different we tend to lead in our own ways. so the love i have today is for my great big fam. my thankfulness feels like extending to the far reaches.

were you sure? & pixel

for the first time in a really long time, i spoke with kate on the phone. i was at home last night after work, feeling completely blah, really very horrible about the whole smoking thing, especially having kept it a secret and lying about it to matt. i have a real problem in my dependence of cigarettes. i have not felt like carrying the burden of quitting, meaning i haven't completely quit, just cut back. which is not good enough. but i must and i will and i have to. that's the end of that. my apologizes for lying. i hate hurting the people that love me the most, by keeping such a stupid, idiotic thing a secret.

kate on the other hand was oh so very busy steeped in a productive night home alone. i'd say we chatted it up for close to two hours i think. i felt so much better after talking with her. we talked mostly "art", but also touched on her recent and very exciting coversations with andrea, my new "vegan" eating-style, and smoking. i think it really helped me to be able to thin the air and verbally express myself to kate. we'd been emailing for so long that i could feel the air growing thicker by the techimins. i was excited by all of her new arty venturings, seem to lift my spirits. and i was really happy to know that all of this time she's had a few more images (scanned) of mine on her flickr account. so i've snuck them back and hopefully they'll get a little bit more wiretime. the above entitled "elephant puzzled" or "elephant pieced" mixed media-acrylic on canvas. i sold the original to jen and she has it in her safe keeping, but i had a nice little print made and i sold it at mjb last month. woohoo! i will be making more cards and prints in the future. so far my most popular but at this point pixel piece ever! i have done several in it's likeness-birds/bicycles.

here's another one

again these images have been scanned and transferred several times, giving them a pixeled look-uck! but heck at least they're here where you can see them. this was the first painting i did after my housefire in 2002. it actually no longer exists, i covered it up with an ncf mission poster project that i did, which is now hanging in the library/conference room over there. i think it's an obvious house on fire. the middle part is painted in gold which you won't aren't able to see from this pic. but i so love these colors and could really see myself doing a painting like this again one day.

the next one is " i work so hard." this piece really has meaning insofaras i drew the face and bird mobile above it. i drew the bird on the left and it all means that often we work so hard for the moolah and often feel hit over our heads with a blunt object after which cartoon birds flutter above.

that's about it. i know i'd usually do a no waste wednesday. i actually think someone else should pick it up. i mean there are other bloggers who post links all of the time and don't have a reason, but wednesday's can be their reason. and if i were cool and collected i could corner a button/link to all the no waste wednesday links. maybe when the fat lady sings.


i also thought i'd see if you knew what yesterday's post title meant. i have been loving the thesaurus lately and wanted to post about having been gone on "break" so long. so i put break in and whalah! i get that word. kindof reminded me of the word seizure. something real medical.

i don't have to say this i'm sure but if you are interested in any of this work or work like it, please let me know. i'm able to do cards and look a likes. and of course your friendly, positive comments are surely welcome. tin foil can make or break a really great collage. see left< after this piece was made into cards i went back and did colored dots all over it. it's so much better looking now...i'm tired.

one small caesura

not too terribly long ago my little sister went on a school trip to japan. she was entirely too generous and brought the whole family some wonderful little things. before leaving she asked me what i'd be interested in having. i being a paper fiend(er), told her of course! of course! ORIGAMI. i also mentioned chopsticks, stickers and fun stuff of the sort. i was thrilled to see these as she presented them to me. they are the most perfect chopsticks ever. and if it were love thursdays, they'd be on the list for sure. it's too bad i don't know how to make a avocado roll or two.

i was away from blogging and haven't got a whole lot to mention. i ended up having a fairly nice week and holiday weekend. this was the first year that i attempted to do my taxes on my own and ended up needing my father's help anyway. i am going to have to adjust my w-four(s). i don't feel as smart as i would like to be about the whole income tax thing. on saturday i finally went to get my hair cut n colored for the summer or at least until uoha's annual gulf shore's trip. i'll have to take pictures, just to show off my adventurous hair spirit. as a teenager i always wanted to dye my hair bright colors and never really had the balls to do so. once i went to little five in atlanta and bought a bottle of electric blue dye. at the time i had no thought or desire to bleach my hair out first, so for a few months my hair held a hazy lazy blue tint in it. now that i think back, it was sort of gross. lately the whole being a girl thing has led me to this extreme experimenting. i've got the red and carmel highlights to prove that youth is still at the core of my being and that i too can maintain a unique style all my own. i still don't really desire to stand out in a crowd, never my intention. but now that i'm thirty and all the insecurities have slipped away and i am not trying to fit in to a crowd. i'm over trying to look the same as everyone else.

on saturday afternoon i headed out to chickamauga for an afternoon with jen. we had a pleasant time with eachother. laughing our heads off at her baby girl, lavendar zoe. i had this month's mailorder to deliver to her and to show off my swap goodies. we also discussed the ins and outs of website design. and i showed her andrea's site and ellia's and shashi's too. i know how much blogging has given me an outlet for the input/output of a massive amount of "stuff". i thought it might be good for her to see all of you. abrubtly jen got a call from her mother, jen's brother's little boy fell out of his second story window and was rushed to the er. i am glad to say, he is completely alright. no broken bones, no concussion, no nothing! an absolute miracle! praise god, huh!!!

sunday i went to the best church in the world, my church! calvary chapel. i learned so much from being there for two hours, i was filled so much from being able to rest and be comforted, confronted and reminded of the blessed gospel. kate emailed me with some disappointing news and so i have concluded that i must be in the body of fellow believers and in the word or else i will inevitably fall. i have thought it just my "leanings" of personality or character, being an artist, having an artist's mind. but i believe i was created, given the gifts for a purpose. not to slip into disillusionment or dispair. i could easily slip into needing uniqueness, individuality, and isolation to create, but as a believer i've got to stay in the midst of life and not turn against god's life and art direction.

monday it was back to work and boy was i worn to a thread. i have a cool thing developing, a "showing my art" opportunity. i have got my work cut out for me. i let you know about these things along with pics of my newdo in a day or two.

swap o rama catchup

i am glad to be back from a few days of nonblogging. i wish that i could have participated more last week with colors but felt a tug o' war last with the work piled upon my desk. this week i shall start of on a good footing. as said previously and having collected my self enough now, i recieved some incredible sweet pea swap items.i couldn't have imagined someone figuring me so well. yet shashi so thoughtfully, beautifully and stylishly gathered some favorite favs. who could resist loving snow & grahams gorgeous paper. shashi was incredibly sweet to send a set of cards in blue and brown that were, as she put it, inspired by my koi photos in flickr. i must say though that her cards are much more beautiful than my orange and black pictures. thank you over and over again shashi! and then the sweet ellia sent a surprise package to me which i had no idea was coming. the coolest paper and bits ever. i especially love the cut flower and heart shapes. i am thinking spring paper mobiles and spring flower wreaths. although by the time i get to all of the things i wish to do, the season has passed beneath my nose. the end of the day is near and i haven't caught up with half as much as i would have liked, so hopefully i'll be back tomorrow with further thoughts on the weekend all of the life of cat.

no waste green

you might think i am crazy. just because i am digging like many of you through your old photos for monochromatic-coordinated color schemed day pics. this on isn't necessarily a nice shot, but you get the idea. cilantro is a favorite, herb added to just about anything if i could or cooked more often than i do. i mostly just use it in my salsa & guacamole! yum

sewing paint chips together on my europro sewing machine was a bit of a hassle but it worked out really well. if i must say so myself. i was fortunate to have these bright green chips from wally world to add to the sewn landscape. i just adore paint chips anyway, we're so blessed to have all the many shades of green to pick from. i just remembered that one of my best friend's last name used to be green, before she got married. she's going to be on my list today too. even if she's not exactly the color:)

here is a photo of my favorite green...i took this photo of her little league baseball card. it's a bit of a blur but the girl was serious, seriously cute. i actually talked with her last night (tuesday) on the phone and she told me that i could make an annoucement for her. last month i mentioned that my best friends were both debuting their new domains, jenn's is finally up and you must go see, right now!!!

i haven't posted a great amount of no waste wednesday linkage in sometime and i wanted to do that. i also should finsh the meme. i think it is time for spring cleaning and yard sales, replace the old with new. i haven't had much time to look around but i found this through someone else's blog and it just beautiful. i'd like my home to be adorned with cath kidston things anyday.

you've probably seen this site before too, but here's your second chance to link and save as a favorite. check out doe. when i start shopping online i end up looking at where the homebase is for these places, i think i'll end up moving to san francisco or portland. my dream would be to open a shop of my own someday. would that be fun or what? i really appreciated lisa's bit on pricing artwork there at whip up. but let's move on.

i don't remember where i got this link but heck it seems so neat. wishingfish.

this might just be my favorite see it here and beware of having your eyes come out of your head and your jaw drop to your knees.



well i have got to get back to work...i'll have to post the rest of color thursay and meme later on this evening or something...owell:(

blue tuesday & meme

"the blue light of live at five." can anyone guess the band with which this lyric has been sung? i must admit today might be the only day i participate in this week's great idea. only because i've been limited in my computer time here.

i must say i love love love the blue and the aqua. the new blue and new aqua. first, i was messing around with my camera and got a bunch of average light/blur shots. the one on the right is good enough for me though. second, i'm in love with my blue sleeping bag. even though it's a cheapo it's more about the color than anything else...and i must say or admit to taking photo after photo with manual feature, while the auto feature sucks a bright flash washout. i end up getting a whole lot of orange tinted pictures. the outcome, after putting the pic into paint and inverting the colors, are these great blue tinted pics. try it! as if you haven't. i don't know if i do it all on purpose, it's just more of a habit sort of instinct thingy. thirdly, lamp would be the best cowboy paraphenalia that i have ever have had in my possession. it was actually (help me out mom if i am wrong) my dad's lamp when he was a young lad. i have it in my kitchen in the corner by the microwave and it gives off a rare non halogen orange-y vintage glow. for some of you, that may be hard to imagine but it's more about the feeling. you know?

i must add that this morning i went to the post office and picked up the most exciting packages ever!!! and i'll be taking lots of photos to share. i must say that my swap partner pinned the tail on the donkey when she picked out and sweetly sent the precious things...she's a genius in color!!! even though it's not surprise for me any longer i'll keep you surprised until i get pics. also ellia sent a surprise my way. geez! i am overwhelmed and overjoyed. i have put packages together but haven't sent, so you all keep your eyes peeled! :)








top 5 must-haves:

in my fridge:
1. veggie products
2. individually wrapped bags of mini carrots
3. soy yogurt
4. rice milk
5. tofutti cream cheese (a definite must)

in my closet:
1. hoodie's-even in the summer
2. skirts-of ever shape and color, my favorite are the a-line type. but i have a thousand skirts now that are actually too big for me. i refuse to wear shorts in the summer so it's skirt's-a-gogo.
3. scarves-that is winter knitted type scarves. i have several and cannot wait until winter time to wear them.
4. if john kerry were a shoe, which would he be? the answer to my fourth must have is flipflops. i have a bunch and my favorite are the reef's i got last year in the gulf.
5. the martha stewart mesh laundry basket

in my purse:
1.

continued tomorrow...

in my car:



on my TiVo: