Hoffman in a Teapot is open for business!

ta da!
Help a sister out and look (and answer) here, okay? okay!

More Chocolate and Steel...a Giveaway from Christine!

She's doing it again, giving away something beautiful!
Want to see what it is this time?

Please go look and try.

Really, really important stuff.

This is Bernie Berlin, and she needs our help.


Please go visit Cynjon's blog ASAP to read about how you and I can help Bernie and her shelter.

Hoffman in a Teapot or Thepest in a Teapot

Those are the potential names for a potential second blog, a blog of questions that you, the reader of the blog, would answer for me. This posting is a test run.
But first, a picture for you to see:



These are my feet in shoes on my back porch at night.
And my question is: why? Why do so many artist bloggers, to the best of my memory, these are all women, why do these bloggers post pictures of their feet? Feet in shoes or barefoot, toes with nail polish or toe rings or naked, feet in rainboots or Earthshoes? I have my own idea, but tell me what you think. Maybe you've posted pictures of your own feet. Why? One inquiring mind wants to know, please.

2, 2, 2 posts in 1

First, go look at this blog .
Kristin is sort of new to blogging, like that makes a difference when someone has as much passion for life as she seems to have.

Second, Susan Tuttle is having another giveaway, but you have to enter today, because she's picking the winner tomorrow (Wednesday) at noon.
Amazon has the book also.

April is INTERNATIONAL FAKE JOURNAL MONTH !

Oh boy, now I'm excited. Roz Wound Up has announced this. This being that April is Fake Journal Month.
Last year, the last calendar I was working on for the 2008 Calendar-Journal Exchange just absolutely threw me for a loop. The calendar itself was beautiful but the format was different from the others and for some reason, I froze/my muse was missing/I was struck dumb, etc. So at one point, and this point was in the last month before I was to send the calendar-journal home to it's owner, I considered writing up fake stuff. I didn't do that (pictures of what I did do are below in a previous posting), but it really appealed to me.
So now I can do that! I can keep a second *fake* journal.
Oh, I know I could have done this before, but now it's official (or something).
And I have the button that says so!

A second Chocolate and Steel Giveaway!

Isn't this a beauty? There is no answer but "yes!"

You can enter here .

Altered Board Book swap images...

These are the 2 pages I did for Samantha's ABB called "Seasons".

This swap is being hosted by Red Dog Scott through the Traveler's H'art Yahoo group .

Calendar Journal 2009: front cover and a few pages

I really do more than sleep.

Chocolate & Steel giveaway...

Want to take a chance on something lovely?
Christine is having a giveaway here .
The prize looks like this:

This is Jaxon.....

Baby Jaxon is the son of my niece, Sarah.
I was home for 8 days in a row with a leftover cough from a cold, and a car that was in the shop (with a $1,200 repair bill), and my sister, Jeanie, came to visit. with her came Sarah, Jaxon, and my nephew, Danny, and lots of groceries!).
I might as well go ahead & add one more more picture.
Happy days, everyone.

We got some snow! 3-2-9.

*** Update *** Fuzz-Marie's Auntie Margaret sent me a picture of her new puppy, Miss Sage in her first snow.

don't enter this contest unless..

you plan on giving this red coat to Kelly if you win!
You can enter here .

My new words for 2009

Nope, "commitment" is not my word. Hasn't made a bit of difference in my life, or maybe it has because now I know it's not my word. Now I have 2: Honest & Survive.
Boy, do I feel better. These are real words to me, and if I'm the one who has to remember them and say them, they need to be real.
What inspired this posting?
The calendar journal I'm working in for 2009 with a group of 5 women. My CJ will travel every 2 months from one home to the next, as will the other 5 women's journals. I am finishing up February, and then will send it on to Shelley who will send her CJ to Susan, etc. In 10 months, each of our own CJs will be home.
So I'm working on the cover and decide I cannot, no way, use another picture of me as a kid or a teenager, or any thing but myself. Honest.
I need to be honest.
Stay tuned for the scans of the CJ!
Happy days, Joanie

My Altered Board for for the latest Red Dog Scott RR

Front cover & Welcome page.

1st page

Sign-in page and Back Cover

The theme is Ghosts.

A picture for Boo!

update: Boo is the youngest daughter of my middle sister, and faithfully checks out my blog. So I posted a picture of her (not current, of course!). She is the little one on her tippy toes hoping that her sister, Courtenay, will give her at least one jelly bean.

Update to the hearts: the flowered heart is an old shirt! I did not embroider it.

These are the journal pages for the last Calendar Journal I worked on for 2008. Sandy had chosen a wall calendar and it was so different (to me) from the other book-type journals that I was frozen in terms of how to handle the journaling. Sometimes it doesn't take much to rattle me. So I decided to use fabric and then use utility tags for significant dates. The journaling is in the beading. A bead represents each day of the month, and there are paydays and weekends and birthdays, etc. what do you think? It's different if nothing else. Happy days.

Meet Plop....

This is Plop, my baby box turtle that I found on the side of the road some months ago. She's about 3" round. Her turn ons include live crickets, strawberries, tomatoes, and canned turtle food. She doesn't care much about long walks on the beach at sunset.

In the Spring, when it's warm, she will go visit some relatives in a safe place, far from busy roads.

Plop would say "Thanks" for the kind comments too if she could speak English. So far, she only speaks turtleish.

Thanks so much for the comments (ps keep 'em coming!)

Thank you all for your comments, they mean a lot to me. I'm a little under the weather mentally/emotionally right now, and the positive notes are heaven.Happy days!

2009~my word of intention=commitment

I've read on several blogs about choosing 1 word to represent my intentions for myself in the New Year (sorry, Happy New Year!). One comment on a blog led me here . And here is my word: COMMITMENT.
Commitment to myself and my art. Commitment to a goal that I set for myself 2 years ago, and recently extended another year. (thoughts become things, thoughts become things, thoughts become things), the charm having been said: my goal is a show of my art by age 61. whew.
The place is irrelevant: a bowling alley will do. I just want my art to be seen, my loved ones there (does that sound too funeral-like?) the people I care about who care about me there, and food & music. See why any place will do?
I have 1 year and 9 months to make this happen.

What is your word for 2009?
All my best wishes to you!

Main Entry: commitment
Part of Speech: noun
Synonyms: bond, duty, guarantee, obligation, pledge, promise, warranty
Synonym Collection v1.1Copyright © 2008 by Dictionary.com, LLC.