Pages

This Month's Audio Story: "Johnny Lingo and His 8 Cow Wife" Length 11:17

After receiving a number of requests from blogging friends and visitors to record this story, here it is!

Hope you enjoy this telling of one of my favourite stories. Oh, I know, I say that about every story (BIG FAT GRIN).

Sharon

Inch By Inch

Last weekend I did something I have never done before. I took a stab at making "inchies". When I cut out the one inch square, I gasped. I had never realized just how SMALL a one inch square is. I am not into THAT small. "Hmmm," I said to "self", "there are "twinchies" too... why not try that?" My next background base was two inches square. Yep, that was more my size!

Being a "sewing" fan, I decided to make "vintage sewing" my "theme". I made an extra one... the sunflower with a quote on it ... so I would end up with nine twinchies and balance the photo I would eventually take. (Oh dear, can't have an unbalanced photo you know. LOL) The results of my lazy Sunday afternoon efforts are below... and I apologize in advance for the poor quality of photographs... my camera and I are in "cahoots" right now and not getting along all that well.

I am (no, make that was) tearing my hair out yesterday cursing at my camera because I keep getting underexposed photos no matter what I seem to do to change the settings. Not to worry, I have thick hair so no need to worry about going bald and no I am not into "real" trichotillomania (obsessive hair pulling).

It's pretty obvious I am doing something wrong but I'll be darned if I can figure it out. To make matters worse, I need a magnifying glass to read the camera's instruction book., The print is so small. you'd think Canon was selling these expensive cameras to 20 years old who can still read fine print!

After practically a full day of trying to take photos of my twinchies and some other stuff and having them not turn out properly, I was UBERfrustrated. In retrospect, it was obvious what I needed to do but of course I didn't. No, no, I braved on until I was ready to smash something! To top it all off, I inadvertently closed a file on my computer that I hadn't saved. That did it!! The message finally got through to my thick brain loud and clear: STOP! DO SOMETHING ELSE DUMMY!

I turned off the computer, put my camera away and went upstairs to make myself a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich (always good for what ails ya! and besides I had made 8 bottles of grape jelly yesterday morning for the "winter larder" and wanted to have a "sample"). Lordy, Lordy, when will I ever learn to just quit when I am ahead? LOL And yes, the sandwich was yummy and "comforting"!

That said, here finally are my "twinchies"...



Wondering what the "quote" on the sunflower is? It's a favourite reminder for me from Helen Keller: "Keep your face to the sun and you cannot see the shadows. That's what sunflowers do!"

Making these twinchies was fun! They don't take long to do and they gave me my "art fix" for the day! I'll have to remember that for those days when I want to do some art but I am either "brain dead" (oh yes, I have those days LOL). don't have a lot of time or don't want to get into tackling a larger project just yet. Twinchies are art pieces for "instant gratification"!

If you haven't tried making them yet, DO! They don't take long and could make some rather nice embellishments for a larger piece of art or a scrapbook layout.

Thanks for stopping by today. Thanks for "listening" to my rant! Have a great weekend, inch by inch,

Sharon

Cash for Clunkers

Do you ever feel like you're a clunker? I sure do! My ongoing battle with sciatica that seems to come and go with the weather annoys me to no end. It hurts like the dickens, curtails my activities and tires me right out! I can't sit for more than 15 minutes, I can't stand longer than a half an hour and I can't lie down for more than an hour. Trying to get a good night's sleep or anything done is virtually impossible some days!

Art and storytelling are my saviours... I actually let paint dry now instead of using a hair dryer. I learn stories as I walk up and down the stairs or along the walking path behind our house. Humour also helps to take my mind off the pain. Right in the middle of another nasty "episode" this past week, my dear sister, who is a nurse with a zany sense of humour that is very appealing, sent me the following email:

"Dear Sis... how's the pain in your **** doing? I was thinking about you today and let me tell you what I am considering. It might be something you want to do to.

If my body were a car, this is the time I would be thinking about trading it in for a newer model in the Cash for Clunkers program.

I've got bumps and dents and scratches in my finish, and my paint job is getting a little dull.

But that's not the worst of it.

My headlights are out of focus, and it's especially hard to see things up close.

My traction is not as graceful as it once was. I slip and slide and skid and bump into things even in the best of weather.

My whitewalls are stained with varicose veins.

It takes me hours to reach my maximum speed. My fuel rate burns inefficiently.

But here's the worst of it Almost every time I sneeze, cough or laugh, either my radiator leaks or my exhaust backfires.

CASH FOR CLUNKERS..........I QUALIFY - How about you?


*****************

P.S. The "Cash for Clunkers" program is an actual program currently offered by the Canadian Feds as a stimulus program for newer vehicles and to get old cars off the road. It is similar to the program for trading in old cars for newer ones in the U.S. but not nearly as generous!

Have you stopped laughing yet? It was just the medicine I needed! Thank you Sis...

See you later on this week...

Sharon

Celebration Gifts from Me to You!

It's time to celebrate... myStoryART's FIRST birthday (somewhat belatedly...) ... nearing the milestone of 25,000 blog visitors (won't be long now).... and the publication of my jewelry in "Jewelry Beyond Time" as a contributing artist (available at Createspace... with a $5.00 (limited time) discount for blog visitors and friends).

Thanks to everyone for their continued support! I enjoy every comment left, every email that you send and it's a ton of fun sharing my art, my stories and "stuff" with you! The past year has gone quickly... but it's been a blast!

I never thought I would enjoy blogging as much as I do. It's been a very enjoyable year. I just love the interactivity of blogs. It's the one thing I always wished had been there when I was running about four websites some years ago. It took awhile but I finally got my wish with the introduction of blogs!

So all that said... what a better way to celebrate these milestones than to share some of my stuff with you! Here's some goodies I hope you enjoy... a little bit of something for everyone!

1. A new month... a new story! Many of my blogging friends and visitors who enjoy this feature on my blog have written asking me to record the story of Johnny Lingo and the 8 Cow Wife... I love this story and never tire of hearing or telling it. If you've never heard the story told, it is a much different experience hearing it as opposed to reading the story.

Storytellers need story listeners so I hope you take a few minutes to check it out either today or sometime during September. You have a whole month to have a listen. The recorded stories change at the beginning of each month and they are NOT archived. Just click on the MP3 player under the "header" at the top of the blog posts to begin your listening adventure. Enjoy!

2. Sometimes when I want a change of ART pace, I fire up my graphics program and have some fun creating digital paper backgrounds to use in my digital work. I like pretty paper! As I found out (once again) last week when I was putting together a vintage piece, a lot of my background paper can be printed and used for non-digital projects too.

Just a hint... when you are printing out paper or graphics, increase the saturation somewhat in your graphics software program before you print. It will then come out pretty much as it looks on a computer screen. Most monitor screens are not calibrated and that's why you often have a printed image that looks much paler and less vibrant printed than what you see on the monitor.

I played around this past weekend and here's a background package that I came up with to share with you. Please be patient when downloading it... it's a big file!


3. I love old images... as I know many of you do too... so I went through my "public domain image file" on my computer to pick out three I'd like to share with you. As far as I know, these images are all in the public domain so you can use them in any way you like. The usual disclaimer... (sigh) Use at your own risk! I usually make a note of where I find pd images originally but I guess I forgot to do so with these. If you know, let me know!

Right click to save the images to your computer.




I'd love to see what you do with them. Send me a link to your creation(s) so I can have a peek!

Thanks for stopping by for a visit. Have a great week making ART!

Sharon