I'M DEVASTATED & MY HEART IS BREAKING - I HOPE HAVING A GIVEAWAY WILL HELP

Just when I think I'm going to get a break

God throws me another life test.

I wonder how many I'll have to experience

before He thinks I'm all that I should be.

Actually, I know the answer to that.

It will be until the day I die and join him in Glory.

March of this year has been an adventure.

An adventure on top of five years of medical adventures.

(Don't age. It's not worth it.)

I long for April and tulips blooming.

April will be better even with a cast and

no weight on a leg instructions.

I long for April.

March. . . . .

I passed out and fractured several bones in my right foot and tibia.

That's adventure no. 1.

My studio has a mind of it's own

and is determined to keep that crack house persona.

That's adventure no. 2.

I checked a give-away today that I participated in;

it was so involved and so very time consuming.

I thought I would win something.

I didn't win squat.

That's adventure no. 3

Adventure no. 4??

We must have our most precious

 Ben put down in just a few days.

*Now I'm crying

and I didn't even cry in the hospital when

I found out that I couldn't be discharged until

I pooped.

And that took three delightful days.*

I digress. Back on point. . . 

You know Ben.

My studio dog.

Always by my side.

He never did learn that if he laid that close

to my chair that he'd be told to

"jump up" when I had to roll down my work table.

Up and down, up and down, all day.

Remembering that makes me smile.

He came to us from the Humane Society Animal Shelter.

When I adopted him, he had had heart worms twice.

He was adopted and returned twice

because his new owners thought he was too aggressive.

He was older, no longer a puppy.

He was a yellow lab mix.

I adopted him.

He isn't too aggresive.

The UPS man is afraid of him,

but I like that.

When he doesn't think I'm home

he'll throw my packages onto the

office porch if Ben's outside.

He doesn't know I've seen him do that.

That makes me smile as I cry.

Ben is very protective of me.

He loves me unconditionally.

He never judges me.

He always wants to be with me.

He's a dog, not a person, and that's why.

I wonder if

that make sense to anyone but me.

That's why I rescue shelter/abandoned/mistreated/etc. dogs.

And my beautiful master bedroom smells like a kennel.

I don't care because

they love me every day

all day

and all through the next day.

Ben is my dog.

He's always been "my" dog.

And early this week we have to have him put down.

I'm crying again.

He has been sick for a while now.

We knew something was wrong,

just not what.

He's going downhill so quickly now

that I constantly look at him

to see if he's breathing.

He has lymphoma.

"Oh, God", I cry

"my heart is breaking and I hurt so badly."

And, I wonder if Ben

hurts as much as I do.

Is he in pain?

His lymph nodes are enlarged.

He never whines.

But, he's not eating or drinking

much so I wonder

in my heart of hearts

if putting him down isn't the

best gift I can give him.

So, pray for me, won't you?

Okay. Deep breath.

So. I thought I'd have a giveaway

to take my mind off of things. *happy face*

I love to have giveaways and

I haven't had one in quite a while.

And, I'm going to make this really easy

so that lots of people will enter

without having to spend hours

jumping through hoops

in an effort to win my giveaway.

Claudine Hellmuth.

One of my artist queens.

I'm going to gift one special

reader of my blog, her amazing book,

Collage Discovery Workshop,
along with lots of treasures. Lots!

I ordered it 'specially for this giveaway.

I love this book and wasn't

willing to gift mine to anyone, so,

you're getting a new one.

It's a virgin and you don't find

many of those anymore.

All you have to do to enter is

to, well, enter. *smiley face*

If you want to start following my blog

because you read a couple of posts

and think it would be a good idea,

then I can't wait to get to know you.

If you want to be a fan of my blog

on facebook, I thank you.

If you want to sign up for

the newsletter that I have yet to start,

thanks.

If you say something about it

on your blog, let me know and

I'll throw in another entry for you.

If you buy something in my Etsy shop

then it will help me afford

to go junking when I'm allowed to walk

again.

See? it's all good.

Life is good and I am so blessed.

You have until April 1st to enter.

That's when the tulips will be blooming.

xoxo,

Jan

the PAPER COWGIRL ART RETREAT was a BLAST!!!

I am so excited to share with you the Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat! This is a long post because there are a lot of pictures, so grab something to drink, put your feet up and relax as you scroll through the Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat......

As the time approached for me to leave for the Paper Cowgirl Retreat last Wednesday, it seemed like my studio, aka crack house, became more and more dangerous to walk through. I took a couple of pictures just for you to see my work table. . .
Can you believe this? I'm so ashamed.
I arrived in Waxahachie last Wednesday after driving for five hours - I had so much "art stuff" in my car that I looked like I was going to California and didn't know the way.
The retreat was held at the Hampton Inn *my favorite hotel* and my room was so, so nice as evidenced in the photo below of my bed.

Then there was my "art stuff's" bed. . .

Thursday my friends, Rita and Susan, and myself, went shopping in McKinney.

Oh, my. There's this store there called Smitten. I left a large amount of Frank's money there. We had such a good time at Smitten's and the other shops we hit. Then it was back to 'hatchie for the "Meet and Greet" held at the Dove's Nest in historic downtown Waxahachie. Amazing.

Meeting all of the girls, seeing old friends, meeting women I've known like forever through emails and blogs and shopping at the Dove's Nest while enjoying appetizers was so much fun!

My class was scheduled to take place the next morning, Friday morning. I was so excited I could hardly stand it! I LOVE to teach and I had put so much into the prep for this class that I felt like I already knew all of the ladies so I was anxious to spend some time with them!

For those of you not in the know, I was teaching a class called, Home is Where Your Art Begins, and it involved painting and collage on a 16" X 20" canvas. So, okay, I'm on my way down to set up the room.

Oh, I simply must show you what I filled my "students" goodie sacks with - all kinds of wonderful little things that I hoped they would love. Look at that Aleene's Tacky Glue in the wee bitty bottles. Cracked me up - I had to buy them!

I was VERY fortunate to have a lovely assistant. LOL My BFF, Mendy Mitrani, one of the other teachers for the retreat, helped me in class and she was really SO helpful! Here she is with Terri, showing the class the example I brought from home that I had painted the prior Sunday. It's a collage of Marie Antoinette and worked well to show some of the different techniques we would be using on our own canvases.The class started with a blank canvas; literally! They had a wee bit of homework which was to paint their blank canvas with a layer of Gesso to prepare the canvas to take the paint well.

The next step, and first step in class, was to lay out what you THOUGHT your collage would look like. I have found that God always has his own idea about what it should look like and not to get upset when something doesn't work that I wanted to use! So, we all cut, shaped, and laid out our collage.

The next two steps involved painting a light color of their prominent color all over the canvas.

From there they could add other colors that complimented their first 'wash'. Then they added some papers.By changing from painting to laying papers, back to painting to laying more papers, they were able to create layers. It was at this point that I taught them how to use napkins in their painted collages. Boy howdy, was that ever a hit!

Here's my finished canvas. You can see that I used a napkin for the flowers along the bottom, cut papers, torn papers, stamping, coffee stained cheesecloth, glittered rose, a "special event" tag next to a multi-flash (remember those???), a metal circle, the Paper Whimsy girls, of course, and layers of paint.

Everyone worked very hard in my class and at the same time, we caught ourselves roaring with laughter at something someone said. It was a riot!

I had just the BEST CLASS! I loved every one of my students and hope we will remain friends and see each other at least at next year's P.C. Retreat!

Andrea, who is from San Antonio - right down Hwy. 10 from me:), was totally focused on applying her first layer of paint.

I wonder what it was that caused Cara to stop drying her paint to check out Lisa? LOL

Here's Mendy, my lovely assistant, helping Nancy dry her first layer. In front of them, Terri and her daughter, Andrea, are hard at work!

Here's Elizabeth, aka Stripper Girl, AND good sport! It's a long story, but even without hearing the whole story, you can imagine how hard we laughed. It was so much fun. In this picture she is showing us her finished canvas - it's simply lovely!

This is Nancy, a darling woman whom I've had the pleasure of knowing from last year's P.C. Retreat. Here she shows us her beautiful canvas. It's not quite finished (the fence needs to be attached), but didn't she do a wonderful job?

Lisa is rightfully proud of her canvas. She used a picture from a vintage magazine and napkins to make a soft and beautiful piece of work.

Wow. I wish I could tell you who did this piece, but I took the picture without the artist.

Duh. But, even though we don't know the exact artist, we can all enjoy the collage she created. I think I know who it belongs to, but not being sure, can't say. But, for the sake of the post, we'll refer this canvas as Rhonda's Canvas. (Gosh, I hope I'm right! LOL)

The canvas below is Cara's. I know that because of the yellow in the first layer:) Didn't it turn out great??? She incorporated several of the House of 3 color copies that I brought and are so beautiful.

I'd almost bet the ranch that this next lovely piece was done by Kim. If you read this post and you know better, please email me and I'll fix any mistakes I've made! But, whoever did it, it's wonderful, isn't it? I like the way the pieces of collage seem to grow out of the one attached to it. (Did that make any sense???)

Me, working hard on my corsage in Mendy's class.

Rhonda and Karen - sweet picture of two friends!

This picture was taken in Mendy's class.

Phyllis and LaVerne working hard, or is it 'hardly working', dragging, pooped....whatever it is, it's in Mendy's Corsage Class!

My finished corsage in Mendy Mitrani's class - isn't it beautiful??? I simply LOVE it and Mendy was such a great teacher!

Me with my happy face on and Mendy.

Just some of the spoils from the huge ATC SWAP hosted by an amazing Barbie look-a-like.

Just a hint of what I received in the Paper Ephemera Swap hosted by the delightful Jamie Miller!

This is the most precious Dale McLain who taught a class with a bird theme, I can't remember the name, but it was so wonderful! And just look at her sitting up there on that credenza like a pin-up girl from the 50's! She's a cutie, alright.

Dana and Leisl are chomping at the bit to get started in Dale's class!

"PUT THE GLUE GUN DOWN, LEISL!

PUT THE GLUE GUN DOWN.

WE CAN TALK ABOUT THIS.

DALE ISN'T GOING TO ASK YOU TO DO ANYTHING YOU'RE NOT CAPABLE OF.

THINK OF ALL YOU LEARNED IN JAN'S CLASS.

WHAT? YOU LOVED JAN'S CLASS? YOU WANT TO TALK TO JAN?

WE CAN ARRANGE THAT, BUT YOU'VE GOT TO GIVE US SOMETHING.

JUST PUT THE GLUE GUN DOWN.

WHAT??

AND, YOU WANT SOME ICING SHOTS? NO PROBLEM. BUT, LEISL, YOU'VE GOT TO GIVE US SOMETHING."

Shannon is working hard on her piece in Dale's class.

Lisa and Dana can still have fun while working on their pieces in Dale's class!

I LOVE this picture of Kim. We all have that look on our face at least one time when we're working on a new creation!

These following three photos are from the SHADOW BOX class taught by Joanna. There were some really precious pieces made in that class!We had MANY swaps to go along with the retreat and one of them was the CROWN SWAP. Here are two Paper Cowgirls with their crowns atop their heads!

Here's Andrea, her mom, Terri, and Cindy, ready for VENDOR'S NIGHT! They're probably looking for those icing shots!

Two sweet Paper Cowgirls during VENDOR'S NIGHT.

LaVerne and Nancy had a shared "booth". I think Nancy came out ahead in this partnership as LaVerne is buying some of her items!

And just where did Nancy disappear to when it was time to tear down???

Poor LaVerne, on the floor.....will she be able to get up without help? Here are some cards I made to sell at Vendor's Night. I used my precious Paper Whimsy girls on them along with some wonderful "flashcards, patterned paper, hat pins and swirls!

There were some left and I'll be listing them in my Etsy shop and my Lollishop........soon..........very soon.

My pink flamingos are lined up and ready for the long walk to 'hatchie!

Look at them - you can see how excited they are!What to cover my table with at Vendor's Night???

I pulled out some vintage tableclothes and dresser runners, ironed them and they looked mahvelous!

Here's my table at VENDOR'S NIGHT. I packed it full so it would look really good!

And it did:) I had such a good time that night.
Glittered and dressed for a Texas garden with their coordinating pink bandanas, these flamingos were a huge hit!

The PAPER COWGIRL RETREAT is nothing if it's not filled with the most wonderful women and this year was no exception. Everyone was wonderful, lots of fun, kind, helpful, I could go on and on.

This is Karen - she was a doll.

And here's Cheryl playing Queen for a Day with her wee bitty crown! Dale had these little crowns in her goodie bags and they were quite the hit!

Susan and Rita and I terrorized McKinney on Thursday - here's a picture of them at lunch. We had such a great time. Susan is a delight and, knowing Rita for many years, I can tell you that she's a dear!!

There was always time for a hug as Shannon and Lisa prove!

I could simply end here by saying, "The End", but I have to tell you one more thing.

I may have said it earlier, I don't know.

The Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat is a dream retreat.

It's filled with the most wonderful women, amazing teachers, great bosses, lots of fun things to do to fill our "down" time, and it's in Texas!

Yee-haw!

That being said, I'll leave you with one last picture - a picture of the poster women for Glue Guns.

And to show you how well they do their job (they didn't want me to say anything), they are the ones that talked Leisl down. She gave up her glue gun and no one was hurt.

Thank you, Mendy.

Thank you, Jan.

XOXO, Jan