My friend used to say to me: Everything happens for a reason.

There's a reason I haven't updated my blog lately. You'll find it here:

Please join me on my new adventure!

Some things I try to remember.

This is one of those easy-peasy ATCs: A pic of a staircase out of a magazine with stamped phrases on the steps. I added a button and some Distress Stickles. I think it looks neat and I love the colors.

Been incredibly busy around here. I hope to fill you in soon!

We went to the local Botanical Gardens yesterday - it was a beautiful day. They have a butterfly house there and although it was the end of the butterfly season, we did get to see some lingerers. (Click on the photos to get a bigger image.)

This beautiful guy (girl?) posed nicely for me, so I obliged by taking several pics of him.

I love his polka-dotted head!

And here's another Christmas card I did a week or so ago. Things have been hectic here, so there's only one.

I've been digging out my Christmas stamps and decided to use this cute bow stamp for a card. I only did one, since I had to fussy-cut the bow out and I'm really not into that. My hands usually give out before I'm done.

I used some paper ribbon I found on sale at Hobby Lobby over white cardstock for the "ribbon" and put the bow on top. If you click on the pic to make it bigger, you'll see where I watermarked the red cardstock with the bow image to give it a little interest.

I've got a few more Christmas cards to do in order to get my monthly quota in, but this seems to be working much better than waiting until the last minute and rushing to get all of my cards done!

I love brown. Maybe because it's the color of chocolate and coffee, two things I love. Brown is often thought of as a drab color, but I disagree. There are as many shades of brown as there are any other color and beautiful things can be made with it.

As a teenager, I once painted my bedrooms walls brown - and my parents let me! (That was the surprising part.) I loved that room.

It's no surprise that I like to use brown in my art. Paired with other colors, or even plain white as it is here, it can create depth and interest in any project.

Images from Judikins and The Angel Company.