She never quite leaves her children at home, even when she doesn't take them along.
Even the flowers raise their hands to praise and worship the King. There are two lasting bequests we can give our children: one is roots. The other is wings.

Come, "Follow" Us

Blogger has a new feature that we're trying out. We've added an element to our side bar over on the left enabling our loyal readers (if we have any, we want to know!) to sign up to "follow" our blog. What this means is that if you go over to the left and click on "Follow this Blog," our blog will show up on your dashboard page, along with any of your other favorite blogs that you frequently read. At a glance, you can look at all your favorite blogs in one place, and you'll quickly know if we've posted anything new. (You can add other favorites by going to your dashboard under "Reading List" and clicking on "add.") It's handy, saves you time, and keeps you coming back to visit us! Plus it helps us to know how many people out there actually read our posts and enjoy our artwork. It's a win-win situation! If you elected to follow our blog publicly, your profile picture will be displayed on our blog with a link to your Blogger profile. You'll be able to link to the other people who "follow" us and might make a new friend! If you look over there you'll notice that so far I'm the only "follower" (I don't really like that word, I'm a lover, not a fighter. And the more I use the word "follow" in quotations, the more I feel like Dr. Evil saying the word "Laser." Now I've said too much.) - so anyways, come join me!

From Plate-Mates to Frames

I recently found these plastic "plate-mates" at Goodwill - 7 of them for $2.38! The empty hole in the middle looked perfect to me to become a frame, although I'm guessing by the name that the original use was for holding your plate! New use: hanging on your wall.

MUSE......SCHMUSE!!!!!!

I am in a mood today. It is bold and frisky and, I hope, purposeful. For some time now I have been bothered by artists use of the word "muse" like they really believe they've got one. I'm like, What the heck? I'm really missing out here. Somebody send me one - quick! I have come to the conclusion, well, maybe not a complete conclusion, but maybe a hypothesis (ooooooh, big word for me!) that muses might be for people who don't know God. I am not sure, mind you. I could get alot of flack for saying that. Won't be the first time. This morning I got out my Webster's dictionary and under muse with a capital M it says --- one of the daughters of Zeus, a divinity who presides over the arts and inspires mankind. hmmmmmm OK, not so much into Greek mythology. Then muse with a lower case m says --- the source of an artist's inspiration. hmmmmmmm, well, I don't mess around, I guess. The source of my inspiration has a capital J. Jesus. I'm not ashamed or afraid to say it. No leaning on false idols for me. I'm going right to the top - the source of my creativity, the source of my living and breathing and my everything. I love being inspired by other artists, because I know it is God at work in them - even if they don't realize it themselves. Without Him, we are nothing. Amen. I am done for now. bye. I love all you artists out there in blogland!!!!

Journals

Here are the journals I have available. Each one is one-of-a-kind! They are 4.5x3.25 inches, 80 sheets. They are $8, plus $2 shipping and handling. I'm trying something new and have set up a paypal system of payment.

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And the Winner Is....

Time to announce the winner of the journal giveaway!


I enlisted the help of my trusty side kick to make sure the drawing was fair and square. We wrote everyone's names down on EQUAL sized pieces of paper and put them in a little bucket. My side kick got to pick the winning name - it was SUPER EXCITING!!!

And the winner is (drum roll, please)....

Congratulations, Shadley!

To those of you enquiring about how you can purchase a journal:

I am currently in the process of setting up a Paypal option of payment. Hopefully, I'll be able to get that squared away over the weekend. The journals themselves are all one-of-a-kind, so there are no more exactly like the one I gave away. However, I will soon be posting some individual pictures of other journals I do have available. I need to do some research on postage costs before I finalize a price.

Thanks to all who entered the drawing and for your kind comments. Keep checking back with us for more give-aways to come!

Halloween

These are the only two Art Dollies I have left at the moment, but I am planning on making more very soon! They are a hit with girls of all ages. And people are asking for them.
Here are a few Halloween pieces I have laying around, the deal is we aren't doing a show until November, so I don't have much way to sell them, so thought I would show a sampling here. Right now I have 5 bats all the same as shown. I have 10 cats and 5 pumpkin head dolls in various colors of clothing. And I have 4 stuffed pumpkin dolls (the skinny ones) in various fabrics. The bats are $5 and the others are $8. What a deal, huh!? e-mail me or comment if interested. -Connie

Riverssance

Here's the view we had behind our tent at Riverssance - a beautiful view of the Mississippi River. Here were some snippets of our day:

Good times - very accomodating hosts - great weather - a shaded spot - nut dropping squirrels who seemed to have a vendetta for our mom - fabulous customers - awesome sales - it was darn near perfect!

Don't forget to sign up for our give-away which ends Friday!!!!!!!!!

GIVE-AWAY TIME!!!

The time has come!

We will be giving away this little Paper Prayers journal, made by me, in celebration of the awesome time we had at Riverssance this past weekend. To enter all you need to do is leave a comment. We will have a random drawing and send the winnner this little lovely. The winner will be announced on Friday afternoon. Good luck!

An Award?! For Moi?!

We received this thoughtful award from fellow artsy blogger Stephanie at Fantastic Figments awhile back and we got so busy getting ready for Riverssance that I'm only now having time to acknowledge it. Thanks Stephanie! You made our day!

Give-Away

Because we had such a fabulous time at Riverssance this past weekend and we wanted to celebrate, we will soon be announcing a give-away as a way to celebrate!

Check back soon to enter our drawing for a special artsy somethin' made with love by yours truly!!!!!!!!!

You don't want to miss it!

Exhausted & Elated!

We are back from Riverssance! Wowie Zowie! What a fun weekend. The weather was beautiful, our space was under a large oak tree and overlooking the Mississippi River, and sales were fantastic! We could not ask for more. The art show staff was so friendly and funny. Hopefully there will be more about this along with photos in the next day or two! In the meantime, zzzzzzz, that's me snoring!!! good night!

Riverssance!

If anyone's interested in coming to Davenport this weekend for some art, music and family fun, we'd love to see you!

Riverssance

Saturday September 20th, 10-6, Sunday September 21st, 10-4

Lindsay Park (Click for directions)
Village of East Davenport, Iowa

We are in space #16, in the last row furthest south.

We've got LOTS of fun new things!

There will be 100 juried artists from across the U.S.

Affordable art for every taste and need

Great live performances all day

a fine food court

Free children's art projects

Free shuttle bus from Bucktown in downtown Davenport

Admission is $3, children 12 and under are free

Houses

I'm starting to get super excited about this upcoming weekend. We'll be doing a show we've never done before: Riverssance in Davenport. Hope the weather cooperates with us! I've had lots of fun making these sitting houses, which stand about 9 1/2 inches tall. I especially like how the "grass" trim turned out. I'm anxious to do something else with little pieces of decorative trim. Don't know what yet. My hubby was nice enough to cut up the 2x4 and the trim pieces for me, he's so handy.

I have this little plastic disposable cup that I pour glue or gesso into whenever I'm creating. When I'm finished I pour the excess back, and wipe up a bit with my brush, but I never wash it out. Hence, layer upon layer of stuff has dried inside of it, creating something strangely awesome. The other day, just for fun I pressed on the plastic until I'd loosened the inside and out it popped! Now I have two containers! I know that there are some sickos out there just like me, who are just as intrigued and fascinated as I was, who are very glad that I took a picture.