Blogging from A to Z April Challenge 2014 - Letter A

Hello, Old Friends and New and Welcome to

April

and my 3rd year of  blogging in the Challenge. 

I love cats. I can't remember a time when there weren't cats in my life. Sometimes one or two, most times lots more. My husband, Gary, and I seem to be magnets for strays. Consequently, I have many photographs of cats and kittens that resided outside our houses and of those who, by the luck of the draw or paw, made it into the inner sanctum of feline luxury, our home. I have also written poems and stories about cats that I will share for the next 26 days with you. I am also looking forward to visiting your blogs to see what interests you.

A is for Active, Agile, Athletic...

Night Life At Our House

Ralph, who was named Rachael at birth.

When the lights go out at our house,

And the night has settled in,

It’s not the mice that come out to play,

But the cats that make the din.

Night becomes Olympic time,

With all the thumps and bumps

Of slalom runs and toboggan rides

And contests in ski jumps.

You lie awake within the bed,

And listen to the noise.

You begin to wonder who will win,

The girl’s team or the boy’s.

Somewhere close to midnight

The players lose some steam.

But, now they’re fighting under the bed

As you just drift off to dream.

Rachael soon become Ralph when it was evident

When the morning sun comes shining

And you stumble from the bed,

You’ll find the jolly contestants

In the kitchen waiting to be fed.

You rush about to leave for work,

Grouchy from lack of sleep

And notice that your feline friends

Are curled up not making a peep.

Cats are very athletic

And seldom come to harm

They love to be active when the sun goes down

And sleep after they hear your alarm.
By Suz

that she was a he.

Thank you for stopping in and I hope you enjoy my pampered cats.



Blogging from A to Z April Challenge - 2014

Goodbye cold, cold March...

Just dropping in to say I am happy to see March leave and very excited for April to arrive. But, before March leaves us, I promised I'd show my March calendar page without a cat on it, so here you are. Only have today to fill in and it is done. The plant reminds me of philodendron, one of the indoor plants that always does well for me. I'll  get my new assignment for April's calendar tomorrow morning, however, I have an idea of my own if I don't like Joanne's.

Joanne Sharpe's 2014 My Awesome Year Journal Class.

This is the beginning of my Trips and Travel Pages.

On the Travel page, I used a few Stamps by Judith to create my shore along the Hudson River and the train track.

I will be back tomorrow to start the Blogging from A-Z April Challenge. Hope you like cats because I will be featuring them in many forms for the month. Till then, thank you for stopping by.

Organizing, again....

Hi, Everyone,

My stamp organization project is nearly done. Everything is where I want it (this time) and I just need to take photos of sets and put them in my inventory book so if I want to stamp that particular sunflower I know what box to look in.

However, everything is on hold in that organizing department until I get my posts created, organized  and scheduled for the Blogging A to Z April Challenge. I plan to travel to Buffalo to see my sister, Alison, in the middle of the Challenge so I want to be ahead of the game. I don't want to worry about posting while I am gone.

Hope you are all working creatively on your ideas.

See you bright and early on April 1st.

Organizing.....

Hi, Everybody,

I mentioned earlier that I've been watching 2 organizational challenges this last month or so.

I would be the first to say my craft area was organized. That was before I started to listen to all the ideas  Get Organized Scrapbook Storage Solutions by scrapbook.com and Get Organized Challenge by TheScraprack.com have about how to store all your goodies. Lots of good ideas and now I've torn my place apart to take advantage of these cool ideas just before I have the AtoZ Challenge. What is wrong with me.
Here is a picture or two of what I consider chaos.

Good excuse not to ride the bike.

The top of the island is normally cleared off.

Fall on the floor awaiting a storage bin.

Even the cats got right into it, although they were more interested in the outside happenings than the inside ones.

From the left, Max, Linus, Lucy and Goldie.

Still quite a bit of snow in the yard. They were watching a robin.

That was yesterday. Today is worse, stuff strewn all over, but I do see an end to the tunnel. I am reorganizing the stamps by theme or subject no matter the brand. I am tired of looking in 3-4 places for a birthday saying or a stamp of a tree. Yes, I have the drawers and bins labelled, but you still have to look. Now all birthday related stuff will be in one drawer, including bows, cakes, cupcakes. All wedding and love stuff in one drawer no matter who makes it.

I am excited to get going. So that is all for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Only 13 more days until we start the Challenge. Whoopee!!!!

A New Year.... Part 2...

Goldie decided to nap on March while I got set to take the photo.

Hello Everyone,

I'm back today with a photo of my March calendar. We have quite a few cats in our home and there is no shortage of helpers whenever my husbnd, Gary, or I try to do anything interesting or even just sit there doing nothing. Anyway, as you can see by the above photo, Goldie thought the picture was too plain so she put a little life into to it. When the month is more filled up with memos and notes, I'll post another shot, misus cat or maybe with another cat.

Intentions, Goals, Wishes.

First of two travel layouts. I'm using this one to keep "track" of my visits to my sister, Alison, in Buffalo.

 Right now I am a little short on intentions, goals and wishes so I am leaving those pages blank for the time being. I am filling in the Travel page. I have been to Alison's home in February and I'll be there again in April. I'll have plenty to record.

The next time I blog, I will show you some of the work I've done for the Journal 52, then The Documented Life. Both of them are weekly assignments and you can use any media you want and use stamps, embellishments, etc., much more like making up a scrapbook page.

What I like about all three of these programs is the freedom to do the pages when you want. You are working at something for 52 weeks.

Thanks for stopping by, see you next time. Don't forget to sign up for Blogging A to Z April Challenge. I know you'll find some interesting blogs to follow.

A New Year... What am I Doing...

As any of you who follow my erratic blog know, I take a lot of classes on line. Simple watercolor, drawing, mixed-media and art journaling classes.

This year is no different. I am taking a wonderful class from Joanne Sharpe called Draw Your Own Awesome Year, part 2 of a Twinkling H2O paints class from Dion Dior, and two classes on art journaling from Journal 52 and My Documented Life. Plus, I am working with 2 organizing programs to get my craft room into tip top order.

I'd like to share some photos of the art work I've done so far. Sorry that some photos are on their sides. They are fine in Photoshop and then switch to laying down on the job when they get here.

I'll start with Draw Your Own Awesome Year.
Joanne suggested a watercolor journal with 60+ pages in it. She had us number the pages and put washi tapes on the page edges to give some rigidity and support. The beginning of the book introduces the theme and ourselves to anyone who might read through it. Table of content, your word for the year, a mantra, etc..

My first page.

A quote from Mark Twain about setting goals and dreams.

The table of contents.

Adapt is my word for the year. Adapt to my new retired life. Adapt to Gary and my limitations and our abilities.

Second page of January.

Then come monthly pages to fill in as a grid form or in loose hearts, leaves, etc., whatever goes well with the month. We fill them in with daily happenings.

February came out very well.

First page of January.

Behind the calendar are pages dedicated to celebrations, inspirations, goals and wishes. More pages are to illustrate our trip(s) for the year. Then toward the back are pages of drawings and stuff. I haven't begun to draw any of that yet. Got all year to work on the book.

This class is a challenge for me. Joanne wants us to draw, letter and color everything. I am still a very basic drawer. It takes forever and many erasings for me to get something on the page that I care for. Arthritis has also invaded my thumbs making it hard to letter as well as I did a few years ago. I am used to incorporating stamps, ribbons and embellishments in my work, however I will make Joanne's way my style right now and go with it. I did cheat and resorted to using a painted page from another project that I punched 28 hearts out of for February. I will keep with it, but I have to get more creative with my drawings.

I'll show you March and some of the pages I've done in the back next time.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to sign up for the Blogging A to Z April Challenge.

Working with the Alphabet again...

Hi, Everyone,

I have joined up with that wonderful group Blogging from A to Z Challenge once again this year. The Challenge is to encourage people to get on their blogs and shine for the month of April. The rules are simple, share something with the world for the 28 days of April (Sundays off for good behavior)-

 -visit here for the actual rules.

You can blog just about anything (even adult content if you label it as such) as long as your first day's subject is about A, the second B, etc. Your blog content can be photos, poems, writing, your artwork, other people's stuff that you admire, music...

Then you go to other participating blogs to look at what other people are posting. You meet new bloggers and see sites that you'll want to visit again and again.You'll get new visitors to your site the whole month, too.

This is my third year and I love it. Working on my blog content now. And, this year I am a helper. I'll blog a little later this month about what my "Job Duties" are.

Thanks for stopping by and go sign up.