A Few Items I Recently SOLD in my Etsy Shop :)

Hi All :)

I hope you are all doing well and having fun in the Summer Sunshine :)

WOW!!!!! I really can't believe how long it has been since I blogged :(  But I guess given everything that has been going on in my life it isn't really much of a shock that I haven't been around. I apologize for not commenting as regularly as I have in the past :( Hopefully, life will sort itself out here soon and I will be able to get back to some of the more fun things in life like blogging more regularly, YAY!!!! :)

Briefly, My Hubby and I are in the middle of a transition from Oregon to California, I would call it a move but.............well.............I think I will have to come back when I feel up to it and fill you in on all the details............................

So, in the meantime, I thought I would share with you a few of the items I have sold in my Etsy Shop recently :)

"POPPY" Throw Pillow 

"WINTER BEAUTY" Throw Pillow

"SURFER BOYS" Throw Pillow

"CALIFORNIA COAST" Throw Pillow

"TRAIN YARD" Throw Pillow

"LOVE LOCKED" This is a custom order from this listing :)

"LADY" 

I Hope you enjoyed the collection :) 

I am truly grateful that people like my work and buy it :)

I Hope your Week is off to a Great Start :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

Shredding Papers

Hi All :)

I hope your Week went well and are now enjoying the Weekend :)

I am :) 

Because my Hubby just came home to celebrate my Birthday with me, so sweet. :) It seems weird that we are doing the whole B.Day thing backwards this year, we usually go to San Diego to celebrate but as I am in the middle of getting the house ready to sell, it was easier for K. to fly back to Oregon from San Diego, at least we get to be together for the Sunny, if chilly Weekend in the Northwest, YAY!!!! :)

So, I like to think of myself as a very organised person but there is one thing that always gets the better of me and that is the amount of paper that arrives at our home every year. :(

Thankfully with the advent of  paying bills online the stack of paper bills has lessened but still all the credit card application offers that arrive is ridiculous, plus the catalogues and the junk mail that has our names and address on it, etc., my poor shredder has its hands full (well, I guess teeth really, lol :) dealing with all of it. :)

Anyway, for most of this past 2 weeks I have been doing my "Filing" :(

I only file once a year, this is where I "File" things to start off with, in my "Pending" bowl, (also occasionally used as designed as a Pasta serving bowl, lol!!! :)

"Pending" Bowl :)

Then, once a year as the bowl starts to overflow, there is a defeated sigh on my part and a scurry to sort all these papers into "file-able" piles (that is when having a pool table comes in very useful :) (oops! I forgot to take a pic. of the pool table covered in paper, oh, well, you get the idea right, lol :)

As I take out each file from the filing cabinet to put this past years bills/papers in (in reverse month order of course, lol :) I take out the oldest years bills and shred them. 

trusty old filing cabinet, full to bursting point with files and papers

But this year as we are planning on moving home in the next few months I am going to be shredding more than one years worth of paperwork, I really hope the shredder can hold up to the 
challenge :)

One thing I do like to do, but maybe it is depressing to do so, is that I have kept just one bill from each past year. It is amazing what we used to pay for different things, like 25 years ago our cable bill was $25.00 a month but of course we didn't have a bundle package with internet (what internet?!?!) and phone and TV but seriously, I would LOVE to go back to that simplicity :) 

No On-Demand, pay per view, Streaming, Netflix or Hulu.

 Going to Hollywood video to rent a movie was a fun family excursion and picking up a pizza on the way home just added to the fun of Family night :)

But I digress................

Anyway, so even though I am organised I may have been holding on to more paperwork than necessary and so after clearing out the filing cabinet and then going thru all my art files and several drawers full of  the "kids" school phone directories and school paperwork in different places around the house here are the piles of papers I am going to have to shred :(

and I have recycled maybe 4 times this amount as well, I am so glad we have curbside recycling :)

Shredder and the piles of shredding to be completed before the movers arrive

My shredder is nearly 2' tall, I can not believe I have so much to shred, it appears that even organised people might be paper hoarders after all, lol  :)

Fingers crossed my paper shredder is up for the challenge :)

It is a good job I find shredding a peaceful and cathartic pastime, lol :)

Here goes :)

I hope everyone has a Wonderful Weekend :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

I Won a Lovely Giveaway :)

Hi All :)

Hope your Day is off to a great start :)

I wanted to share with you this wonderful thing that happened to me just before Christmas :)

Yep, I know again, I am so far behind on posting events but this was really such a lovely thing that I wanted you guys to know about it :)

Like most of you, I have a list of blogs that I follow and also, like most of you, I have my fav. bloggers who I go to check out on a regular basis and of course comment as much as possible, which I know isn't a lot right now but............anyway, I feel like over the years we have become good "Blogger Buddies":)

So, I'm not a big one for entering giveaways, unless it is for something I am truly interested in, call me picky, I know!!! :)  But when one of my "Blogger Buddies" was hosting a giveaway of her beautiful artistic work I couldn't resist :)

So the giveaway was for a set of five sheets of Western Red Cedar print gift wrapping paper :)

Isn't it beautiful!!! :)

Photo borrowed, with permission, 

from Clare at TIGER FOOD PRESS

Clare, with the help of Clea, the studio cat, picked my name in the Giveaway you can see in this blog post :) (clever kitty)

I was (am) so excited :) 

I felt like I was being welcomed home to Oregon (after the long, long wet and cold drive from San Diego to Portland, yep, still milking that one, lol :) and there was a gift waiting for me :)  

Then I got to wrap some special gifts in these beautiful pieces of creativity. It was perfect for me; I will admit to keeping one sheet, I couldn't part with them all. So when I do eventually have another studio up and running I will be able to hang this lovely work of art on my studio wall and see it everyday which will remind me of our beautiful, beloved Oregon, that I am so going to miss when I leave next month.

Thanks so much Clare :)

If you want to see more of Clare's work you can go to her website; 

TIGER FOOD PRESS

Some of Clare's work from her website HERE ;)

or

Visit her Etsy Shop Here  :)

(BTW, I have also purchased some work from Clare in the past and plan, in the near future, to purchase more, she is an Awesome Artist :)

I Hope everyone has an amazing Weekend :)

My Hubby is coming home, yay!!!! (long list of jobs for him to do though, shhh.........don't tell him :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

HAPPY NEW YEAR :)

HI ALL :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR :)

Am I a little late, just a bit but life happens, so I am hoping for "better late than never, yeh!?!?" :)

I know I haven't been around much in Bloggerville the past year and I won't be around too much in the next few months either (but I promise to pop in from time to time :)

So, It isn't a terribly big mystery as to why I haven't been around but it is terribly stressful for me :(

Exactly a year ago my Hubby started another job in another State. 

It doesn't sound too dramatic really if you look at the map given that the State he got a job in is California and we are next door neighbours in Oregon. But when you look at the distance between Portland, Oregon and San Diego, California (1,000 miles) you realize that it isn't a simple commute. :(

We have been trying to bridge it for the past year with our home in Oregon and an apartment in San Diego; 1). because our Sons needed a roof over their heads and 2). we were not sure that we were one hundred percent on board with moving to California, esp. Southern California. 

I had lived in L.A. for a while in my early 20's and had absolutely HATED it. :( I was a LONDON Girl thru and thru, a BRIT thru and thru and L.A. was foreign and really weird!!! I have been back on a few occasions and my opinion really has not changed, you have to be a complete weirdo to live in L.A. lol :) 

I guess it is just one of those places you either Love it or Hate it.

But I have spent a considerable amount of time in San Diego; it is where we go every year to celebrate our Birthdays in March (esp. to get away from the cold and rainy NW.) and we have some good friends who live there too, so it is like a home away from home :)

Anyway, to cut a very long and possibly really boring story short, we have decided, lock, stock and barrel to up sticks and move to San Diego :)

So, now the real fun begins :)

All the prep to selling a house, the movers, the looking for a new home in one State while trying to sell a home in a different State; juggling all this fun to move forward is overwhelming, esp. if you are dealing with multiple chronic debilitating illnesses, yep, the joy of my life, but I try not to complain too much, although leaving our home of 18 years and our Sons behind and also my beloved Portland is gut wrenching to say the least but hopefully the benefits will eventually outweigh the negatives (I am telling myself, over and over, lol :) and so we strive forward :)

So, my Dears, if you don't see me here often know that I am busy dealing with all of the above, phew!!! :)

Oh, and I dropped my lovely camera, again, with my zoom lens attached so they are both in camera hospital getting fixed; So, no new photos yet in 2015 but as I didn't post many photos last year I will try and post a few in the next few weeks :)

Here are a few photos I took on our LONG road trip from San Diego to Portland the week before Xmas. It pretty much started raining in LA, of all places, and hasn't really stopped since :(

Hope you enjoy them :)

click on photos to see larger images :)

Beautiful moss covered rocks exposed at low tide and the start of a Sunset glistening on the water - La Jolla, California - Dec. 2014 :)

La Jolla, California - Dec. 2014 :)

Sunset at La Jolla, california - Dec. 2014 :)

Stormy clouds - Northern California, Dec 2014.

Stormy clouds - Northern California, Dec 2014.

Shot of rolling hills in the mist (Northern california) but you know this could be many other places in the world, isn't it amazing how landscapes can be so similar and so different too, just like people :)

And here we are back in our beloved Oregon - Dec. 2014 :)

We were Home for the Holidays :)

I Hope everyone has a Wonderful Weekend :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.