'Deep in the throes...' Thank you, Sting and George Lucas!

by Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes

Howdy and welcome!

I'm deep in the throes of re-organizing and purging in my 'winter' craft studio. Not much fun, but I'll sure be happy when I can focus on making art. While I'm busy with that task and up to my neck in errant art supplies, here's a spread I created in an altered book art journal - from last fall.

"...growing up is optional!'
Inkjet transfer/transparency, gel medium, Acrylic wash, gel pen,
colored pencil, vellum, rub on, custom embossed foil tape with acrylic paint

My 60th birthday is rapidly approaching and the sentiment on the left page reflects my feeling perfectly this year. (Sting and I are nearly twins - his 60th birthday is a few days after mine! I'm a big Sting fan - and going with another couple to his concert in November. Sting is releasing his 25th anniversay CD collection on my birthday. I'm also a huge Star Wars fan - and George Lucas is releasing his Blu-ray collection of the Star Wars saga on on my birthday. Isn't that so nice of those guys to give such great 60th birthday presents? :-)

The past few weeks I've been assembling a list of 60 items (places to go, things to buy) - one item for each year on planet Earth! I'm also adding ideas to the back half of an altered book art journal that I started in May of this year - to chronicle our 35th wedding anniversary celebration.

What do you do on your milestone birthdays? Do you plan to do anything special to celebrate your milestone birthdays? I'd love to hear what you've done for your milestone birthdays.

Thanks for stopping by. Please take some time to look around my blog - there are all sorts of neat things to see - and come back again soon.

Peace,
LuLu 

'Summer Slips Slip Slipping....'

by Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes

Howdy and welcome,

I'm back for a hot minute. This summer has turned out to be busy, with ups, lots of downs - and some fun too.

One of my recent activities was our annual family reunion. My father and I are co-coordinators every year. We had a huge turnout this year at the picnic. And I actually had help at the checkin/registration table. Dear hubby was off work so he came and took lots of photos. This is one of Daddy and me!

 'Daddy and LuLu  - Family Picnic'

August 2011

Chicago, IL

Hope to be back here soon with more artwork and posts - probably after my 60th birthday in late September!

Peace,
LuLu

'...Still Life...'

by Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes

Howdy and Welcome,

In case you're wondering, I've been on vacation with hubby, went to my baby brother's last minute wedding, then spent most of the July 4th holiday week with my sister and her kids in Wisconsin. Just a 3 hour drive from our house - easy, peasy.

Next weekend my other sister and I are taking a road trip to visit my niece/her daughter before she goes into military training - she joined the reserves...

Earlier this week a severe storm socked my area of Illinois. Hundreds of thousands of households were out of power all week - many tens of thousands still are out of power. But our house managed to squeek through unscathed - just a couple of flickers. I'm so grateful we didn't get hit. We're still cleaning up from the June 9th rain storm!

I need to get back to working on my Sep 17, 2011 art gallery show - which is rapidly approaching! But I want to see Harry Potter: 7b flick tomorrow night...

Original photos of still life

(heirloom glass, metal, embroidered fabrics, fruit, heirloom pottery, stone, heirloom silver, laminated paper)

tweaked with Microsoft Digital Image Editor

What do you think of these still lifes? I had great fun gathering the elements from around the house on Dec 27, 2007. These photos were some of the photos entered in a contest. Another view of this photo won! Would love for you to leave a comment.

Thanks for stopping by - please come back again soon.

Peace,
LuLu