Postcards from the Studio: Artistic Results

Where in the heck did the month go???Seems like just yesterday we were traveling back from Vegas. All I can say is there was no relaxing going on in my life. My mother had some very different plans for me. You see she has early stage Alzheimer's and basically can no longer live alone. As fate would have it I'm the only daughter so therefore the one she wants caring for her. So I had to move in with her to take care of her. Unfortunately we have a love hate relationship. We really do love and care for each other but we are as different as night and day, she's a homebody content to sit and watch tv and I'm more socially involved, so she hates that I'm not there every day, all day long and I hate just sitting there not being able to do anything I enjoy doing, like working on art projects, gardening, cruising the internet and spending time with friends and family. For almost 2 weeks all I did was take care of her, read and watch tv. She doesn't even have internet!! Talk about withdrawals, lol.. But I don't regret any of the time we spend together. If no one is there she will forget to take her medicine, which adds to the confusion, then she doesn't want to eat, dress or bathe. All she wants to do is sleep. Last Wednesday we finally had a sitter service start and I was paroled from prison, lol. Not that I'm not still involved but can sleep at home and have some time for my hubby. So what have I been up to since I returned home.... completed swap items that I committed to before all hell broke lose.

For the Blissfull ATC swaps: The monthly Theme was Spring in Paris and Darlene was my Partner. She has a wonderful blog which I really enjoyed. Here is the ATC she sent to me. I absolutely love the title. It reminds me of one of my favorite songs.

I took a different approach to the theme, as usual, I thought of places I would like to visit and after seeing Midnight in Paris thought of the Paris of the past. What do you think?

I also participated in the Winner Takes All swap at Blissfull ATC and this month's winner was Melanie. Melanie wanted Buddha's so here is her Buddha from me. Its hard to see but the background is very textured and painted with metallic paints and glazes. I just hope this was an okay Buddha. I didn't realize that different countries had different Buddhas and I liked this one the best.

Last month I started participating in swaps over on The Altered Paper Blog. Tee had another wonderful ATC swap this month. The theme was Queens and I was partnered with Elysia over at Mischievous Crafts. Elysia was my first international swap. You really need to drop in on her blog, she has some fantastic art on display. Here is the Masterpiece I received.

Isn't she beautiful And Elysia, I was not in the least offended by the reference to religion. I loved it!! She is beautiful and very thought provoking. Below is the ATC that I created that is winging its way to Canada and Elysia. I enjoyed making this ATC. Love the dimension that the Dresden foil arch provides.

Lastly Wendy and her friend, Kim have started a new yahoo group called Blissfull Art Swaps The link is actually to the blog which supports the group. How fortunate that the first swap I participated in was called Where's my Crown. I thought, Fantastic More Queens! The queen theme is close to my heart, every since I was lucky enough to reign as Queen Hera the XIII for our Ladies' Mardi Gras Krewe. I almost scraped a picture of myself but then thought better of it. There are definitely better images out there of queens then me, lol... Soooo here are my ATCs. This swap was either a 3 for 3 or 6 for 6. I elected, because of time constraints, to create 3 cards.

I also decided to send a little something special for our wonderful Hostess, Wendy. The title of this swap reminded me of the old "Where's Waldo" picture puzzles, so I thought I would make a Waldo inspired card for Wendy. Can you see all the crowns that I glued to the card then covered with metal. I then put purple, green and metallic gold alcohol inks to represent my beloved Mardi Gras. Hope she likes it.