SPRING IS HERE!

It's the first day of spring! Here in our neck of the woods...it's 59 degrees. That's a heat wave! The snow is melting! How excited am I? SO EXCITED! Before long it will be time to plant our garden. I've been daydreaming about Spring & Summer since the first of February. Here's what I found in my back yard:
This is the last of our wood. I'm SO grateful that it's getting warmer!

Our tulips & daffodils are pushing up to see the Sun!

That's BLUE sky folks! Yep! REAL blue sky! Haven't seen that since September!

Quinn's Hot Springs

Tony & I got away for one night. He surprised me with a text asking what kind of wine do you want in our room. I love surprises! We went to Quinn Hot Springs in Montana. It's between St. Regis & Paradise. We'd never been there before, but they were running a special & it was fairly close to home, so off we went! The room was great! The food was amazing! The bottle of wine in our room was really good. The hot springs...very relaxing. The staff, so helpful & so very nice. It was as if we had been there before & they were happy to see us. We even made new friends that live just over the boarder in Washington. Here's some pics:

Me Taking Pictures Of Me

Here I am just playing with my camera. This is my shadow in the snow.

Like my artsy hairdo & my pirate shirt? Hey, sometimes a girl just hast to be a pirate! Hee hee hee...

Laundry Room Ceiling

Just thought I'd share a picture of my laundry room ceiling. I painted it myself & then rubbed a butterfly decal on top. After all, who'd mind doing laundry under the watchful gaze of a butterfly, fluffy clouds & a blue sky ;)

Lemonaded Twice!

Wow! Another award & from two great people! Thank you Sarah & Crystal! Ok, so I'm nominating the following:

Crystal & Sarah...I have to tag you back. Seriously, you both are amazing, have great blogs, & uplift me in so many ways. How can I not smile when I visit your blogs!
Psyche Connections I'm always finding something on her blog that make me smile.

Bairbre Aine, I smile every time I get a chance to peek at your blog!

Monique at Cake & Cappuccino. Every time I look at Monique's blog, I want to bake something & tidy up just for fun. How cool is it when someone inspires you to take a task that may seem like drudgery & instead you feel good about it! Now that's magic folks!

If you've been nominated and you want to pass on the award, here's what you do:

1. Display the logo on your blog.
2. Nominate up to 10 blogs that show great attitude.
3. Link your nominees with your post & let them know via comment that they're lemonaded.
4. Link the post to the person who gave you the award!

An Award! For Me?

My dear friend Sarah passed this award on to me. I'm thrilled! This is my first one! Sarah is an amazing artist that inspires me all of the time. She has always included me in things that she thought may move me forward & that has been an amazing gift because it has moved me forward. I love that! I value her advice, adore her energy & sweet spirit & I'm honored to know her. She lives right here in the same town too! We've had coffee. How cool is that? Thank you Sarah for thinking of me & passing on this award! Ok, so here's the 7 things that I love:

1. My husband Tony. He has been amazing! I was diagnosed with CFS/FM soon after we were married...so he's had to be my caretaker as well. Things were rough. No matter what happened, he loved me through it & saw the person that was inside of me...not the 'sick' me. He believed in me when I didn't believe in myself. He believed in me so much he converted our garage into my studio. He's my superhero ;) Now that I am doing MUCH better, he's getting used to having hobbies & interests again! LOL

2. My daughter. She is the light in my life. Watching her grow up has been a beautiful thing. I'm so proud of her! She's so smart & I could brag about her all day. She reminds me of what it is to be young & fearless & of all the possibilities waiting just around the corner.

3.My parents. They've helped me/us through the dark times of the CFS/FM. Many times they helped with my daughter when I couldn't. My dad, always cheering me on & believing in me. Anything that may help my recovery to health, my dad has been right there saying don't worry about the cost. He says health first, then art. My mom just listening to me when things were hard.

4. My friends. I know some of the most amazing people & I'm honored & thrilled that they are my friends. I've had many an adventure with friends & gatherings are never dull! Pirate parties, Witch's tea parties, & Fairy parties just because, Sister Sunday brunch, Drumming circles, Chinese New Year, & don't forget Halloween! My life is never dull! They've been there to celebrate all the big stuff in my life. They've come to anything that has to do with my art & been so excited about it that I felt like a rock star! LOL

5. Autumn. There's a vibe, a feeling that goes with Autumn. For me it actually starts in the Summer. One day there's a Summer vibe...then out of the blue it feels like something shifts & changes...the energy is a bit different...something is in the air, the light changes a bit, even though the calendar says it's still Summer. I love that feeling & I hold on to it as long as I can.

6. Halloween. Seriously, I'm not even kidding here. I have 6 large tubs of Halloween stuff. That does not count the things in my collection that I love so much they are tucked here & there around the house. My witch dolls sit on the bed in our guest bedroom & my crows are still up. My corner cabinet is full of my favs. The haunted house Tony built me is still out, but it's too cool to put away. I have a big Halloween party every year. The house goes through quite the transformation! It's like magic!

7. Vintage clothes. I have quite the colleciton! Lots of black & velvet, lace & jewelry. I don't get to wear them all the time, but they are just to beautiful to not have! How else do you think I end up with such a cool Halloween outfit? I have a collection of kimonos & vintage bathrobes too. I just have a knack for finding them at the thrift store & they are gorgeous! It's kinda like someone put them there just for me!

Ok, well to pass this on:

Sarah, back attcha on this one! I love Sarah's art! Visit her at http://rowenleaf.blogspot.com/

Crystal at http://funkyfiaryshoppe.blogspot.com. I love everything she makes! Her handmade incense is amazing! I made her logo for her shop & I'm thrilled that she aksed! Thanks Crystal! On top of that, she's a great friend & I'm very blessed that she's part of my life.

Phoenix Springwater at http://phoenixspringwater.blogspot.com/. I love her work & she's an amazing friend! She's inspired me more than once to get my art out there. We buy & trade eachother's art. Her painting, The Dreaming Tree, graces my guest bedroom.

Szarka at http://www.szarka.blogspot.com/. I love her work! She makes amazing jewelry & she's a really interesting person on top of that. I buy a lot of my beads through her. Beautiful beads!

Tony's Forge

Last night we blessed Tony's forge. Friends came over & brought with them a candle that had been lit from another candle that had been lit from Brigid's Flame in Ireland. St. Brigid is the patron saint of blacksmithing. February is her month, so it seemed like perfect timing to bless Tony's forge. We lit a special candle from their candle for Tony & then he lit his forge with that flame. We also blessed it with water that came from the White Well at the Chalice Well in Glastonbury, England. The White Well is Brigid's Well. He hung a Brigid's cross that I made for him over the door of his shop. It was very cool! Can't wait to see what he makes! Stay tuned!

One of my favorite quotes...

Notes From The Universe

I signed up for these a while back. They're little Notes From the Universe. Yes, The Universe. The cool thing is that they kinda personalize it. How cool is that? Here's what I got today:

How will you answer those, Karmen, who will one day look at your utterly amazing life, complete with thriving, profitable, vibrant, art studio business and cool friends, and say, "Yeah, but for you it was easy"?

Huh, huh, huh?
The Universe

Karny Life Logos

So this is what I've been up to lately. I've been playing with a sort of 'logo' for Karny Life. I was going to use it as a banner at the top of the page, but for some reason it just doesn't want to cooperate. Such as it is. So I thought I'd just share 'em anyhow. Hey, at least I'm getting back in the swing of things! Right? The brown one has elements that I did myself & then I scanned them in to the computer. Then I collaged them together in Photoshop. The multi-colored one there. I did that in Illustrator. I took part of that one & turned it into a button for my MoonWillow Studio blog.

Amazing!

What an amazing little clip! Peace!

Newest Brigid's Cross

Ok, here's the one made out of wheat stalks. It is a bit more difficult than using pipe cleaners! I made 2 of them. Here's some tips to make it a bit easier:

1. Soak your wheat stalks ALL day...no kidding. I put mine in a turkey roasting pan with water in the morning & left them there until 5:00. The longer the better or you'll end up breaking them.

2. Put three butter knives in the bottom (two on the ends & one to support the middle) of the pan & lay the wheat stalks on top. Weight down the wheat stalks with 2-3 more butter knives. So you're kinda making a butter knife & wheat stalk sandwhich ;)

3. You'll need a total of 14 stalks....two are straight...the rest will need to be folded in half. DO NOT FOLD STALKS AS YOU GO LIKE IN THE VIDEO ABOVE. This is VERY important! Fold them in half all at once & put them back in the water. Otherwise you'll be super frustrated as it will be almost impossible to hang on to the cross & folk wheat stalks at the same time. It may work if you had someone help you or if you're one of the Hindu gods with lots of arms.

4. You can just bend it in half in one spot...but I folded it several times over & over...each time right next to the last so that it softens it up. This makes it so the bend is not so sharp. It ends up being kinda squared. Did I say that right? I think I'd really have to show ya what I mean, especially if you're a visual person like me.

5. So once you've got it all together you'll need to fasten it. At this point make sure everything is nice & tight. You can let go of trying to hold it all together & just hold onto one arm of the cross. Now take a rubber band to fasten it...make sure it's real tight. Now do that to all the sides. It will look 'ugly', but that's ok because you'll end up cutting the rubber band part off...if you want.

6. Now decide how long you want your arms to be. Mine ended up being 8 1/2 inches long. I cut the arm where I wanted it, then I tied it with fake sinew. It's kind waxy & really strong so you can really tie it tight. It should make the ends fan out a little bit. Now if you didn't want to use sinew, you could use rubber bands & then tie pretty ribbon around the rubber bands to hide them. You'll still need to rubber band all of them first & then cut them to size & then rubber band them again. It will work better this way. It will just keep everything together while you're working.

7. Fresh reeds would be really nice to use. Maybe I'll have to make some of these in the Summer.

OH, I almost forgot...you take the heads off of the wheat stalks before you put them into the water. I'm saving mine to do something crafty with....like maybe a charm to hang up in the kitchen. Also, I got 2 crosses out of the wheat bunch I bought at Micheal's...with enough left over for half of another one. The bunch cost $5.99.

Well That's Cool!

Got this in my email today. It's from Schmap.

Hi Karmen,

I am delighted to let you know that your submitted photo
has been selected for inclusion in the newly released sixth
edition of our Schmap Seattle Guide:

It's for Volunteer Park

Here's the picture. It's of the conservatory at Volunteer Park in Seattle WA. It's from our family vacation there in August.