Its been a while....

It really has, hasnt it? We are finally moved into our new home. We love it here,its so much better than our previous locations AND I am back to health thank goodness. I really am thankful to all of my friends who kept us in your prayers over the last month.I dont know what I would do without all of you (you know who you are!)

We actually adopted a new furbaby during our move :) We were in the mists of transfering a few items when we stopped by the cable company to arrange things at our new home and low-and-behold the cutest little black kitten came out of hiding and jumped right into my lap whileI was waiting in the car for Tim. He purred and layed in my lap the entire way home, made not one sound.He was really thin and had fleas really badly so it was obvious that the little guy was fending for himself outside all alone. Anyone who know's me knows that I am a sucker for animals and will do anything to help one in need. So we went to grooming him and feeding him as well as we could, we treated him for fleas and actually round worms/parasites since he was outdoors and now he's a part of our family. We named him Raven.... at first it was Midnight but I thought it was such a common name and we are so close to Halloween (which is so very odd because Honey's (our dogs) birthday is October 31st) that I decided Raven would suit him :)He is a really loving kitty, and he loves our other furbabies. He really gets along with everyone... He's doing a lot better now and has gained quite a bit of weight :)
Here is a picture of the little guy huddled up in a blanket his first night home after his bath :)

I would have been online alot sooner if it wasnt for our crazy telephone company! It took them 2 weeks to pencil us in to their schedule and get everything installed and fixed for us *sighs* But while I was offline I did work on a few items.

I created 2 Gothic Arches, actually the firsts that I have ever made...

This was my first attempt to make a halloween themed one. I was happy with the way it turned out in some ways but not so much with the glass effect on the actual main image. It really doesnt show up well in a photo w/ all of the glaring and everything. I used handmade paper with a fork technique I created and a few stamps and tearing... its simple but I thought it turned out ok.

My second attempt at a Halloween theme turned out much better... this was for a swap in the yahoogroup ArtJunction....

My friend Indi sent me some really nice halloween images and this was one of my favorite's of the set. I spritzed the base of the arch with black and purple acrylics and then placed the image in the center, I then took a few inchie stamped faces and spritzes them with purple and black acrylic using my mini-misters and attached them. I used black ribbons of the 3 corners, and stamped 'They all return on Halloween' for a creepy little quote effect... I thought it turned out nicely its my favorite Halloween creation so far and I think the final one of the season :)

Other than these creations and 3 new pieces added to my shop Altered Whimsey I havent really created much new... but I think for the time I have been away that I did well with all the moving and everything. I will say that Im glad to be settled and hope to start creating more soon! Hope everyone has a lovely weekend and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Halloween Chunky Book Tip-in's

I thought I would share my creations from a swap via a cool group called Absolutely_Everything_Swap_Central. The project is for 18 pages in size 4x7, in a halloween or day of the dead theme... for a chunky book that each member will receive in the end with the art from all the other participants. This swap has lasted forever it seems! WOW! I had no idea that it would turn out to be soooo big! I will be honest and say that I am ready for different projects and themes other than Halloween now after creating these pages! Wouldnt you be *chuckles*
This is going to be a large post with ALOT of scans... there are 13 pages in total (so far) there will be 18 pages when I am finally completed with this project! Because of my illness and now our moving its going to take me another week I am sure to complete the last few pages that I need. Enjoy gandering at my creations... and please please do leave me comments, feedback, and constructive criticism. Its welcome! :D Comment back with which is your favorite, or even your least favorite.... It really interests me to hear people's thoughts and to learn from these types of situations... its truly a great way to learn how to improve yourself!

My favorite pages are #2, #4, #6, #9, #11 and #12

To choose just one thats my all time favorite is difficult for me! I think that #4 is my favorite of them all and then #12 would come in a close second. I enjoyed making all of these and really hope that my tip-in's for this project are ok :) Every page has a handmade background paper on it. I tried to make sure to create my own personal pages and spend as much time on each pages as I could. Btw- you can click each picture to enlarge it... :)

Newest Creation.... Kids Trio Challenge ATC & Update

I thought I would take a moment to share a little update on me and my life/health at the moment and also my newest and first creation since I became ill... I'm doing a lot better, I still have a few more days of taking the antibiotics but they seem to be helping tremendously. The infection is almost gone, and I am feeling more energized, but not 100%. You should see my left arm from where they were trying to give me the iv's and blew the veins, I'm so bruised there. Its almost a perfect circle around my wrist. :( But I am thankful to have gotten the medical help that I needed so I wont complain too awful much. The pain is almost obsolete now which is wonderful... every now and then when I get cold or something the pain will pop up a little but not anywhere near as horribly as it was earlier this week/last weekend. I do have some wonderful news about moving! I was feeling a bit better yesterday so Tim and I met with this lovely lady in a town called Oceana about 30-40 minutes from here about a home there. We got to tour the place and speak with her. We both fell in love with its location and everything! Its larger, and has 3 bedrooms, a nice yard.... The river is smaller and right across the street from the house and I made sure to ask about flooding and she said that it hasn't flooded before. Plus there is a church 2 houses down from there that is really lovely and everyone is super nice. It's really a dream home for us and we filled out all of the needed paperwork there on the spot because we loved it so much. The greatest part is that its in a decent sized town (sort of like Madison) and there are vintage shops, pharmacies, restaurants, and everything we need right there instead of us driving 45 minutes to go anywhere... I'm really excited and praying that we get accepted into this place. If we do get accepted we could start moving anytime this month and be in our new home by November 1st! Isn't that wonderful! We aren't really happy with our location, or our landlords here where we live. We went to speak with them yesterday about possibly moving and they were very rude and said 'when can we expect you out, we have someone interested in a place and we need to call them back to make the necessary arrangements for them to move in' Its like we are being FORCED out! Like they want us to move. I'm really not sure what we ever did. We always pay on time and are quiet and keep to ourselves.... I just don't understand... but I would rather be away from folks like that anyway!

I will definitely update when I find out more information from the lovely lady we spoke with yesterday! :) I think that's all the news for me.

Last night I decided to try to create a small piece just to do something and sort of jump back into creating but not overwhelm myself... so in the group AlteredDesigns I printed this weeks challenge image and created a halloweenish styled ATC from it. It turned out nicely. I got to use a stamp that I just purchased from Purple Onion Designs of an old tree that really gave the wicked Halloween feel I was going for. Then I used my favorite twinkles watercolors for the border and the clouds and added a shiny black bow. :) I know its simple but I really didn't want to overdo it and wanted the image to still be there with out be totally overlooked with embellishments etc. It was nice to create something again... its a good start to getting back into the groove of things! Just thought I would share! Hope everyone is doing well! Happy Crafting to you all!

Not well...

Sorry I havent been here to blog everyone... I've been really sick. I decided to close Altered Whimsey temporarily for the next week or so until I am better.

I had this lump show up on my neck about 2 weeks ago, and it continued to grow larger and more painful over the days that past. This morning that pain was so severe that I went to the ER. I couldnt take it anymore and nothing seemed to help. I havent really slept in 3 days or ate very much because of it. The lump grew to gigantic and was from under my ear to almost my chin and I couldnt even touch it, it hurt for air to blow on it! It even had my eye irritated and turned birght red. So this morning at 6:30 am I went to the ER and found out that both glands in my neck were infected severely and that the infection had went through out my neck and up the side of my face. The dr. told me that I waited too long and it could have traveled to my brain if I would have waited my longer. They put me on an IV with lots of fluids, pain meds, and a very strong dosage of antibiotics. It took them 3 trys to get the IV in. My veins collapse and its always been hard to draw blood etc. On my left side they tried 2 times and both times they got the needle in but the vein blew. Then finally they got it into my right wrist after digging for it... it was very painful. After giving me 1/2 of the fluids the dr ordered a cat scan. She was worried it may be the mumps. Luckily its not, but it did show all of the severe swelling etc. When I first arrived my blood pressure was 156/96 and when I left it was 135/93 so I have to go to a dr. and get my blood pressure and things checked. Hopefully it was just from the anxiety of being there and the pain and everything. Its the first time I have ever been in the hospital for me since I was a little girl and had my tonsils removed. So I was at the hospital until 2:00 pm and the dr gave me 875 milligrams of antibiotics and also Lortab for the pain. Hopefully this helps. The pain isnt there but the pressure and swelling are still there. Im really praying this goes away. The dr. classified this as something called Cellulitis (sp?)
I really thought that it was like a boil or something and nothing major to worry about but the longer I put it off and waited for it to amazingly disappear the worse and worse it got and the more pain I felt until I couldnt stand it any longer. My advice is dont ever wait last minute when it comes to your health... get checked out. I havent been to a dr in a very very long time.... the last appt I had was for the gynecologist.... but for other health things... its been years... probably since I was 15 or before! Thats not so good..... so I think I've definately learned my lesson. Please keep me in your thoughts and pray that this thing gets better soon.....

My newest drawing... 'Preparing for the charge'

Hi folks :) I thought I would share my newest piece with everyone... this one I call Preparing for the Charge... as well you can see why. It reminded me of a knight and horse preparing to charge during a jousting match. I used a reference photo from a renaissance festival that was shared on WetCanvas.com. I thought I would share the reference photo along with my piece just to show how my piece turned out, next to the 'real' thing I guess. It was a fun piece, and an interesting subject to work with. Im trying to really get my shop moving and create as much as I can... I decided to create this piece to add to the shop in hopes of more traffic and not waiting for commissions and such. I would love to hear your comments on this piece! :) Thanks for taking the time to take a gander :D