More Ornaments and a job

I did some more ornaments for Christmas presents. I really am having fun doing these and hubby is ready to swipe my stuff off the kitchen table into the trash, lol. But merry merry I always say (at least until the 1st of Dec. when I go bah humbug, lol). I used images from Artchix studio and Retrocafe Art. The angel and the baby ornaments are soldered. The baby has a bale on the back for a ribbon or to wear as a pin.

Well, hubby and I were fortunate enough to be hired on the 1st interview we went on. 7 am in Bismarck which meant getting up at 5, good thing I am a morning person. Rud Oil hired us both. We will be driving brand new Mack trucks hauling crude bulk oil in tankers with 2 trailers, the back trailer is called a pup which just means not a full length trailer. 2 loads a day, 5 -12 hour days so 70 hours a week. Time and a half over time after 40 hours. $23 an hour starting, medical -they pay half- and 2 weeks vacation after 1 year. We will be driving separate trucks and will have the same hours and days off. 5 days on 2 off 5 on then 3 off. We will have to buy a trailer to live in but will be able to park it in a heated shop. We have been wanting a trailer for some time so that's not all bad. Going to go look at it on Monday. Hopefully it is like the ones we have been looking at at the RV-trailer sales places. It's a 04 or 05, not sure yet if it has slide outs. We also go for safety training on Monday. Have to learn how to breathe properly through a gas mask just in case there is a leak at the oil well or pipeline. Then we get fitted for fire retardant suits that we wear when loading and off loading, also get new hard hats, wheeeeee!!!I already have 2 but a girl can never have enough hard hats, right?Kind of like shoes. I got approved by TSA(National Security) on my background check so I can go take my hazardous material test(ICK!!). Studying for the tests ,hazardous material(haz-mat), doubles/triples(2 or 3 trailers) and tanker(hauling tankers), has given me several headaches. The hazmat is the worst of course. Lots of chemical type things to learn. Lance is still waiting for his TSA check to be completed. With the weather we have in ND, I am not totally thrilled with having to drive hazmat loads in the winter but I am going to buck up and do it. At $23 an hour each, we should be able to get all of our debts in a year or so and I won't have the headaches of doing all the paperwork I did when we ran our own trucking company. Yippee to that!!!!! Also someone else pays the trip permits, fuel, road taxes, etc. Yippppppeee to that too, lol. So thank you to all who prayed. It worked.

Now for a new prayer request. My daughter, Candice, is pregnant and due in Jan. She was just diagnosed with gestational diabetes. They aren't sure if they caught it in time for it not to stay with her after the pregnancy. She is freaking out and getting very depressed. She has had a few bouts with dizziness in the past couple days and had her sugar checked last night and it was ok but she is still worried. She doesn't get much exercise despite having 3 kids to run after and she has been very tired. I keep stressing how important it is to get some sort of activity going but I know it's hard when you seem to be tired all of the time. Anyhows, she could sure use some prayers. I have been taking the kids as much as I can just to help out. Her boyfriend isn't much help around the house or with the 1 year old. Men don't seem to understand how much a pregnancy can drain a person. The grandkids and I are going to the nursing home this morning to see Great Grampa and visit for a bit. We went to Winter fest celebrations here in town yesterday. Mother Goose story time was a big hit. Lisa makes a great Mother Goose, lol. We made cards for soldiers with glitter and glue. Trevin and Arianna loved that. We had popcorn and hot chocolate(much hotter than Nana Cheri's hot choccy at home). Carrie brought her Pynchon horses and a hay wagon converted into a seated cart for wagon rides around town. We had our snow pants on, so with the blankets provided, we were toasty warm. That was fun. Then we met Santa and Mrs. Claus and the balloon man and had our faces painted with snowmen and snow flakes. After eating BBQ's and kraut and knephla for supper, I took Trevin home for a much needed nap for Nana, lol. I had planned to be back for the ballet at 7 and light parade at 8 but slept to 7:30 and by the time Trevin got through going potty, we missed them both. He said it was ok as the next time it got dark we could see the light parade, lol. What a sweetie. It was pretty windy so we didn't walk all the way around town to see the lights as our faces were getting cold. We only live 1 block from down town so we just walked back and forth all day. Arianna stayed with friends for the ballet(she loved it) and the parade of lights. There were only 4 floats this year which is why Trevin and I missed it by minutes, lol. Big town ya know.

Ok off to see Grampa. Have a blessed weekend. Hugz, Scary

Christmas Ornaments

My grandddaughter, Arianna, 7 years old, and I have been making ornaments for friends for Christmas. We used match boxes and poker chips and images from Artchix studio. We think they turned out pertty nice if we do say so ourselves, lol. I used alphabet noodles for the noel on the poker chip. I colored them with a gold leaf pen. Arianna's is the blue match box in the middle and it is going to an internet friend of mine's granddaughter. Thanks for looking.

4th and 5th Fabric page

whew all done, just have to get them to the mail once they get the streets plowed. I made tags for each page and have them safety pinnned to the backs so the other artists can remove them and mount them different if they want to. I am sewing mine together when I get mine back but how I sew them depends on how they have have names displayed. Here are my final 2 pages with their tags. I took some of the design from the front and did the back. I am not posting the tags for the other 3 but you can get the idea of what they might look like. I was very happy with the tag idea.

A friend of Candi's came over yesterday to borrow a chain to help pull out some gal that got stuck in the snow on Main street, lol. Our first blizzard of the year.

Hubby will be happy that I finally can get my stuff off the kitchen table again. That is until my next project of course, lol. While I was trying to come up with ideas for the pages, Arianna and I did little turkey ornaments made with a folding paper fan. A kit we got at a rummage sale this summer. Very cute and will try and get pictures later. We also made an angel ornament from a kit. Her teacher had them do paper plate scarecrows at school and I asked Arianna to find out where she got them. She was sweet enough to send an entire kit for me so I got to make one too. Arianna showed me how they had glued it together. So fun and what a sweet teacher. So for a Halloween treat I hugged a couple of candy bars for her with some teacher paper(PCCrafter is the hugware site) Very cool pictures and craft site. I just lost my HugClub program in a computer crash so have to reload them all which totally sucks as I have been a member for a couple years and have quite a fdew programs from them but they have the coolest stuff so will get it back soon I hope.

It looks like the trucking business is still slow so hubby and I are loking for jobs. He wants to go oilfield as they are looking for CDL drivers right now so we might be relocating to a different part of the state. Our house is paid off, thank God, so we will probably be buying a pull type camper to live in. In ND, in the winter, I am not sure of the wisdom of this as pipes frezze quickly b ut we will see. We have been working this week on getting resumes and cover letters done. Wish us luck and say a few prayers if you have time. He has been hogging computer but ill try to get on when I can. Not sure how long we will have internet on the road but I suppose we will have to finish our 2 year contract with Sprint.

Hugz for now, Scary

Altered page

working on a new book because I misplaced the older one, lol. This technique is from Bev Braselton's book, Altered Books Workshop. I tea stained the pages, then sprinkled instant coffee on and let it dry. I thought it was very fun. I used various stamps, Distressed ink pads from Tim Holtz line, black card stock behind the main tags on left page, thebutterfly bit was done on a piece of manilla folder and then torn out. I need to decide what ribbons to put in the tag holes yet but was kind of impressed it turned out as good as it did for my first one, lol.

Eyelet Give away

was just checking out this give away at Kristin's site. Very cool!!! If you win, you will get:An eyelet setter, THREE leather punches, and 1200 unique eyelets (these are EZ set aluminum eyelets that set beautifully and don't split on the backs)
the types and shapes of eyelets include heart mixture, angel mixture, triangle mixture, teddy bear mixture, halloween mixture, pastel yellow, star mixture, diamond mixture, lavender mixture, square mixture, butterfly mixture, and holiday mix.
I am an eyelet freak. If you would like a chance to win go to her blog Here for details. Also check out the blog entries lower on the page. The pieces she does are outstanding. She also has a supply store that is listed on my links to the right under favorite online supplies. RetroCafeArt. That's it for now. Working on 2 new altered book techniques today between feeding Hubby and Wayne who are putting in a shower at our rental. Will try and get them posted later this week. Got a call about hauling bees for our favorite bee guy but they are going to CA and we kind of took CA off our to do list of places to go in the truck. So not leaving as of yet.

Zentanlge Journey

My first attempts at Zentangle. If you haven't heard of them, search the word. Amazing art on the web done by way more talented people than I. My doodles have always been pretty boring. This elevates doodling to art. I would love to have the kit with all the fancy paper (deckle cut)and pens and the die to roll is a neat idea, but as I am too cheap to spend $49 for it, I go with searches on the web. Here is my first and 2nd attempt. The first is in my journal Miss Fannie sent me, the 2nd on white card stock cut to 3 1/2 inches square. Card stock was not a good choice as the pen bleeds into it too much. Arianna was here and had fun with one too. Will definitely be doing more of these in the future. I am making a "legend" of designs for when I am stumped on what to do next. That's what the die is for in the kit. You roll the number and look on the legend for the design and doodle away. The legend has numbered doodles. Hugz for now, Scary

1st pages in art journal

My first try at journalling with art. These are the first 2 pages from my journal I got from the marvelous Miss Fannie. Doing a lesson from arttradermag.com/issues/ArtTrader_Issue4.pdf (awesome mag) on how to funky draw by Sal Scheibe. I need more practice but this is my first page trying to draw. It was fun but definitely need more colors of pencils. Trevin kept helping me with colors, lol. I used Prismacolor pencils 24 count water soluble. I thought they were artist quality but they don't blend like I thought they would. I did forget to add the clouds to my lady drawing too. But all in all was happy with my first try. I also need some better black to draw with. Need to research that. Maybe will ask Sanna for some imput. Very Fun so far. Hugz, Scary