Welcome 2012! Have fun!!

Happy New Year's Eve everyone! 

What a year 2011 has been. For me, personally, it will forever remain the toughest year for me personally for the loss of my dear mom is something I will feel every day for the rest of my life. Losing her has taught me so much about life. She leaves me not with tears but with smiles..that is one of her lessons. 

I'm not going to be lengthy in my post here, but I want to end the year with this....

...there is a start to every end. It's interesting how an ending can endure for a short or long time. Once the end comes, there is inevitably a new beginning. Tomorrow is a new beginning and I welcome it with open arms. I will squish my family, pet my dog, call/email/blog to my friends and family and wish them a happy and healthy new year ahead. Our world is so complex..politics, environment, relationships, economics, safety and health issues can burden us with stress and worry each day. Each year we have the yin and yang/ups and downs..it is the way it is. I wish for you a year of more ups than downs, more smiles than frowns, more time to enjoy what you do than worry over worries, and lots and lots of laughter and fun. Wishing you this for 2012 my friends and above all peace. ~ with many thanks for your wonderful visits, a very happy new year! Shirley

The Messenger of Peace

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, happiest of holidays and the warmth & peace of family and friends close, far away, and within your heart.

Thank you so much for your kind visits this year..they truly mean a lot to me and I am looking forward to visiting you all in the new year ahead! ~ Shirley

Love from Monsieur Olivet...

A gift has arrived...please visit here.

A question for you...

A most wonderful gift...thank you Ces!

One of the most special things to me is when I hold a handmade, original piece of artwork. A few days ago, I became the recipient of a most wonderful gift..from my dear friend, Ces.

A few years ago, when I started this blog, I was visited by a smart, smart, witty, and fun lady..and I was delighted to peek at her world, Cesandherdishes. I was overwhelmed with the intricacy of her fine black and white penwork, and after a few comments back and forth, I also discovered her love of dishes, which now make so much sense to me as I can say that her gorgeous oil paintings show great love of color, much like her dishes. I've often visited Ces and contemplated what to say in my comments, as her posts make me think. She is a critical thinker, and I am so grateful that Ces is there to keep asking the tough questions, and stating her mind, as well as granting us with views of her beautifully intricate works of art.

I am so honored to have this piece, Shirley's Ant Brigade, hanging in my home for all to see. My daughters, as well as my daughter's friends, my husband, and friends and family have all stopped to peer into the world she has drawn..for there is much to discover each time you view it. I love that about Ces' work. It is multifaceted..much like Ces is herself. I am so happy to call Ces my sisterfriend - for she has been truly that as we go along this journey here in blogland as well as life...painting, creating, and thinking. A heartfelt thanks to you Ces. Tsup!

Please visit Ces and her lovely, lovely post about this most wonderful piece.

Sharing Our Notebooks

 I would like you to meet Amy Ludwig VanDerwater - a lovely lady who I first met while participating in Kelly Light's Ripplesketches last year. Amy was one of the two people who purchased my artwork in support of the relief efforts to the wildlife affected in the Gulf. Amy is a writer, teacher, wife and mom and her poetry book, FOREST HAS A SONG, will be illustrated by Robbin Gourley and published by Clarion in the spring of 2013. Congratulations Amy! Her work is delightful and full of color and life..I invite you to visit her Poem Farm, as well as her wonderful new space titled: Sharing Our Notebooks.

 

Amy contacted me about posting my sketch process - and I was so happy to share this with her in hopes that it encourages children to put their work out there, sketch and create each day and find the process that works for each of them. I've found that there is no "right" way to "get there" as you work towards your goals, and I think that this idea of Amy's is wonderful. It encourages you to put it down on paper..any which way, and perhaps by visiting the blog and seeing how others work on their craft, it will inspire you or give you an idea you may not have thought of. Thank you Amy, for allowing me the interview..it was great fun to share my process with you.

Happy December everyone!

Wishing all of you a great holiday season ahead..however you celebrate, I wish you time for friends, family, and time most of all for yourselves to create, reflect, have fun, enjoy great food, and all the things you do to relax for there truly should be time to relax during all of this hustle and bustle! Isn't that what happens in winter for the animal kingdom...storing for the winter, hibernating, and flying south? : )

I want to also thank you all for your very kind visits here recently..it really means a lot to me that you take the time to do so, for I know that time is precious! A heartfelt thanks from me to you...now for my little gift! Here are some of my favorites....

~ My little gift to all of you! ~

a page of little characters that you may use to decorate scrapbooks
or cut out to use as gift tags...

download here

(The ladies at www.welovetoillustrate.com and our wonderful guest artist, Brad, have done an amazing job of creating their fabulous pages which are also being shown at the scraptus blog)..swing on by for more! I had a great time with these and I hope you enjoy them!

Happiest of holidays to you and yours! ~ Shirley