Beautiful Things From Scraps

Last week my art group met.  The project we did was inspired by projects by artist Eunice Pittman that were featured in the Sommerset Studio Gallery Winter 2011 issue.

As we crafted these lovely little works of art, I was reminded of how we all have the supplies with which to create art.  Really, we do!  Look around your house. Grab up scraps of this and that.  You can put them together to make something really lovely.

For this project, we utilized scraps of lace, beads we had on-hand, wire and other embellishments.  I'm not sure where the faces I used came from, but you could use scrap images for those, or search free graphics for small faces.  We used punches to punch them out.  The circle embellishments could be bezels or even bottle caps.  We did use Glossy Accents from Ranger to make the faces look like resin, but you could try applying a thick layer of Mod Podge or clear gel tacky glue...whatever you have on-hand.

Some of my favorite artworks are those that I created from scraps.  If I'm suffering from a creative block, sometimes I will simply take a plastic bin and walk around my studio putting "stuff" into the bin.  I'll include some collage images, embellishments, fabric scraps, something I have and have been wanting to use for a while, a couple of colors of acrylic paint, a couple of adhesives, and paint brushes.  I will then take that bin and make myself create something from just those items...nothing else. 

Next time your muse seems to have flown the coop, see if forcing yourself to create from just a few items on-hand brings her back.  I think you may be pleasantly surprised.

Have a wonderful day!

~Cyndi

A Little Ramen and Another Letter

With my oldest child in college, and my source of income on hiatus, I've been pinching pennies everywhere I possibly can.  I often buy a pound of ground beef and divide it into four, and use it in four different meals.  Mac and cheese is my base for a LOT of casseroles.  I'm constantly on the lookout for inexpensive recipes, as well.

My family and I have made the following recipe for years. I'm sure I got it on the internet somewhere, but I would be hard pressed to tell you the original source.  I just now found three or four locations for nearly identical recipes. 

Anyway, in my never-ending endeavor to stretch my grocery dollars so I can bring my daughter home for Christmas, or send her a little cash (or pay one of our medical bills!), I discovered that I could feed my family of three for only $2.64!  When my older daughter was home, I used to serve this dish to all of us, but would add something else like a salad.  With just the three of us, we don't need anything extra.  There is plenty of food, and it has starch, vegetables and protein.  If I were going to add something, maybe a cut-up banana for dessert.

Ingredients:
2-3 oz.  packages of Oriental Ramen Noodles (20 cents ea.)
1/4 lb. ground beef ($1.15)
Bag of veggies ($1.09)
2.5 C water
1/4 tsp. ground ginger

Directions:

Boil the water in a large sauce pan.

Crush the ramen noodles with a can or rolling pin, etc., before opening. Remove the seasoning packets and dump the noodles from both packages into the boiling water. Cook for 3 minutes.

Turn the heat down on the noodles a little and add your bag of frozen veggies, one seasoning packet and 1/4 tsp of ground ginger. (If you do not have ginger on-hand, it will also be tasty without it.)

In a skillet, brown the ground beef and add the contents of the other seasoning packet.  When the beef is done, add it to the noodle mixture.

Serve.

Optional:  

I have changed this recipe up, depending on ingredients on-hand, by adding any or all of the following:  peanuts, water chestnuts, pea pods.  While my version of this recipe calls for 1/4 lb. of ground beef, if you have more on hand or are not needing to pinch as many pennies as I, go ahead and use more beef.  The rest of the recipe will remain the same.

*******
I got a nice little text from my college daughter today.  It simply said, "I got my mail today!"  I asked, "Brown or green?" She replied, "Both!!"  Translated that means that she got both the fall mail art envelope I shared the other day and the green one I will share now.  I would like to think she did not get both today as I sent them nearly a week apart.

Closeup of the "A".  The stamp image is from Stamper's Anonymous.

The pink flourish outline was made using Sepia Accents from Ranger.

Closeup of the flower on the back.  The flower image is from Northwoods.

Enjoy this wonderful day!

Please share my blog with your friends and pin my images to your Pinterest boards.  Thanks!

~Cyndi

 

Hosting a Halloween Art Party

My art group...  I LOVE my art group.  We have been meeting together for several years now.  Some people have come and gone, but the core group remains the same.  I blogged about them just the other day.  I wrote an article about them in the winter 2011-12 issue of Altered Arts magazine.  They mean a lot to me.

Next month I get to host the Halloween edition of our art group.  As I was thinking about it, I was reminded of Halloween art group meetings of the past.  What fun!  Even if you don't have your own art group, consider gathering like-minded, arty friends for a fun Halloween party.  It may be just what you need to get your creative juices flowing again.

Decide on a time for your gathering.  Our art group always meets during the week.  We find it works best to avoid the weekends as most people have family plans on the weekends.  Give yourself ample time for your meeting, especially if you plan to do a project.  We have found that 3 1/2 to 4 hours is about the right amount of time.  If you have any guests traveling longer than 15-20 minutes, you should plan on starting around 6:00 pm.  That way, you can probably be done around 9:30 and have them home before 10.

Determine the guest list.  This is essential.  To have a fun and creative time, make sure that you invite only arty, creative people.  We all have fun friends that do not have the least desire to make something creative with their own hands. Invite them to something else...not your art party.

In years past my art group created AWESOME Halloween bags for our gathering. Each participant would create a bag for everyone else in the group and then fill them with crafty items that were mostly already in their stash...so it wasn't a big cost burden.  It was more about the fun and creativity of it.

My gift bag creation.

 

Lorel's amazing gift bag.

  

Jane's fantastic art.

Melani's gift bag and goodies.

Gift Bags or Not?  Decide whether or not you will all create Halloween gift bags to share.  Be sure to give everyone on the invite list detailed instructions as to what to include in the bags and how to decorate them. They could be thematic: walking dead, spiders, ghosts, shades of graves, etc. Or, they could just be whatever "Halloween-y" thing that the creator desires.

Will there be a project?  Of course, since my art party was part of one of our regular art group meetings, we not only exchanged our fun and fabulous gift bags, we also worked on a project.  At the meeting I have pictured, the project was not Halloween-themed, but it could have been.  If you are hosting, you can present the project yourself or ask someone else to come up with it.  For our regularly meeting group, we each take turns presenting a project and the person presenting usually provides most of the supplies. You could, however, present the project but provide a supply list to your guests.

Determine the Bill of Fare.  I adore hosting the Halloween gathering at my house because it is so much fun getting creative with the food.  Last year I bought dry ice and had a spooky Halloween cocktail served in a cauldron.  You could be as thematic with your food as you wish.  You could also tell your guests that you will provide a main dish and ask them to bring other parts of the dinner.  Or, maybe just cocktails and hors d'ouevres are more in line with your party vision.

The fun cake Lorel made for my birthday.

Don't you just LOVE the rats crawling into and out of the cake?!

Perhaps you are interested in learning more about starting your own art group?  You can check out my article in the winter 2011-12 issue of Altered Arts magazine for more information on how my art group came to be, and how we do things.

I would love to hear about your Halloween art party.  You can share your Halloween art party pictures on my Facebook page:  www.Facebook.com/cyndiduncanarts.

Be sure to follow my blog by email so you don't miss my creative musings. 

~Cyndi

Autumn has arrived

It is a beautiful sunny autumn day as I sit here typing this.  It is the perfect day to share with you my latest piece of mail art, also sent to my daughter.  She has to have received it by now, although she has not said as much.  I think she's frustrated that I'm not sending more care packages.  I think when she said, "I want more mail," she actually meant "I want more STUFF!" At $12 a box to ship her stuff, she can count on more letters and fewer boxes.

For this piece, I used a leaf stamp from Stampland along with big and mini leaf punches. I have no idea who made the "autumn" stamp.  I created a stencil and mask with the leaf punches, and then added the cut-out pieces in her envelope like confetti. The color is from Dylusions ink sprays from Ranger as well as brown and black StazOn ink pads. And of course I had to create a piece of stationery to go with the envelope.

I'm still working on getting into the studio daily, or at least doing "something" creative.  The other day I used my creative time to decorate the house for the fall.  I put a fall leaf wreath on the door, a fall tablecloth and place mats on my table and decorated my fireplace and mantel.

I've read a  LOT of books lately.  A lot of GOOD books.  The last time I was at the library, I checked out three books that were 14 day books...usually not a smart thing for me as I wind up not being able to finish but one in that time. Well, I am on book three and I have one week left to go!  The book pictured below, "Sting of the Drone," by Richard A. Clarke, is the one I read right before picking up my newest batch of three. 

Here is the synopsis from Amazon:

In Washington, D.C., the Kill Committee gathers in the White House's Situation Room to pick the next targets for the United States drone program. At an airbase just outside Las Vegas, a team of pilots, military personnel, and intelligence officers follow through on the committee's orders, finding the men who have been deemed a threat to national security and sentenced to death.

 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, in the mountains where the drones hunt their prey, someone has decided to fight back. And not just against the unmanned planes that circle their skies, but against the Americans at home who control them.

 

In Sting of the Drone, bestselling author Richard A. Clarke draws on his decades-long experience at the very highest levels of national security to craft a thrilling novel that has the feel of nonfiction, taking us behind closed doors to meet the men and women who protect America--and those who seek to do us harm.

Richard Clarke served in intelligence during four presidential administrations and it is fascinating, and sobering, to read his epilogue. My dad suggested this book to me, not that he had read it, but when we were at the library together, he saw it and said he thought it sounded like a good one.  He was right. 

You've probably heard the stories about how, maybe as early as next year, private companies have the go-ahead to start using unmanned drones.  Amazon had actually said, initially, that it was going to use drones to drop off packages.  I don't know about you, but I don't want little unmanned aircraft buzzing about all over the place.  Besides the sheer annoyance, the security risks of people being able to fly these little robots all around our homes is just mind-boggling...if you put your mind around it.  I think most people would rather just put their heads in the sand, or don't have time to think about the possible intrusion.  I hope that when these little flying robots start filling our skies, our right to defend our property gives us the right to shoot them down if they fly into our own airspace.  However, if they are armored like the ones in this book are, our little pea shooters won't have a chance. 

Read this book.  I highly recommend it.  It is a well-written story and a good read.  I read it very quickly - always a good sign.  Let me know if you read it and what you think.

Finally, I'll leave you with this:  We put braces on my oldest daughter's teeth.  She got them off in May of her senior year and after removing them,  the orthodontist fixed a small chip in her front tooth (that he had made during the course of treatment). Her teeth were beautiful, and they should've been;  we paid enough for them!  Right before my daughter left for college I scheduled her for a routine cleaning at the dentist office.  She hadn't been to this particular dentist since she got the braces (our other dental insurance required us to go to a chain). The hygienist made her cry...made her feel awful about her teeth.  Not only did my daughter cry for that reason, but the hygienist so fiercely chiseled away between her two front teeth that she chipped off the veneer that the orthodontist had added to fix her teeth.  I called that same day and told them about it, and asked them to try to squeeze her in before she left for college the next week.  They did.  I sent my daughter with pictures showing her teeth right after she got the braces off (just a few months prior), before the veneer, and after. Just so they would be able to tell for sure that, indeed, her teeth had been repaired and what the repair had looked like.

A couple of days ago I got THE BILL.  FOR SOMETHING THAT THEY CAUSED!!!  I am not a happy girl.  My younger daughter has an appointment next week for some fillings.  Please think of me, say a few prayers, send some positive thoughts, etc.,  as I will have to confront them about this.  I hate having to constantly fight people for things like this. I should've never seen that bill.

Have a great autumn day everyone!

~Cyndi

Queso Smothered Beefy Bean Burritos

The other night I was trying to come up with a fast, easy, and inexpensive meal for my family.  I needed to use things I had on-hand as pay day was a few days away and I had nothing left in the grocery budget.

So I got on Pinterest and started looking.  After looking and looking, I decided I could make some pretty delish burritos out of a few items I had on-hand.  This recipe is mine, although I was inspired by the many other burrito recipes I saw.

Ingredients:

Flour tortillas (I like the smaller ones, but the big ones will work well, too.)
Salsa
1/4 lb. ground beef
1 can of fat-free refried beans
1 can of salsa con queso

Process:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Brown the ground beef.  You can add a little taco seasoning to the meat, if desired. I used 1/4 lb. of ground beef because it is all I had in the house...you can certainly use more.

Take one tortilla and slap some refried beans onto it and spread it out.  Add a little ground beef on top and a dollop of salsa.

Roll the ingredients together and place seam side down in a baking dish.

Continue the process until all burritos are made.  I made 6 burritos in a 9 x 9 baking dish using only 1/2 can of refried beans, 1/4 lb. of ground beef, a 1/4 jar of salsa and a full jar of salsa con queso.  There is plenty of salsa con queso, so you could make more.  I used more beans and salsa for the ones pictured here (4 smaller burritos and 3 larger ones in a 9 x 13 baking dish).

Cover your burritos with foil and bake for 20 minutes.

Be sure to follow my blog by email for more great recipes, art and more.

~Cyndi

My Oasis of Sanity

Have you ever noticed that it is so much harder to get something done when you do not "plan" it into your day?  You may think to yourself, "I am going to do thus-and-so", but unless you actually PLAN the time...set it aside...you will likely not get to it.  I am definitely that way.  It's true of everything that is not critical in my life such as:  running, exercise class, creating art, reading, etc.  I have planned reading into my day, so it is one thing that usually gets done.  I always go to bed with a book.  The other stuff...not so much.

One little oasis of sanity in this mix is my planned monthly art group meeting.  Notice that it is p-l-a-n-n-e-d.  There are seven of us in my art group (sometimes eight), and we rotate between houses with each one presenting a new technique or project.  My group meeting is this week and I am soooo looking forward to it!  With the craziness of summer, we didn't meet monthly as we normally do, and I am overdue for another art group fix.

Several months ago one of the members presented this project which was inspired by Christy Tomlinson's "She Art."  We used stenciling, drawing, collaging, and modeling paste to create these 8 x 10 canvases. This is my piece:

Would you like to start your own art group?  I wrote an in-depth article about my art group in the winter 2011-12 issue of Altered Arts magazine.

~Cyndi

When You Care Enough to Send the Very Best

My oldest daughter left for college this year - far away from home.  While we stay in touch by text messaging every day, and also by phone calls, everyone wants mail...right?

Enter my plan to be creative every day, and my mail art factory began.  When my daughter received this piece, the first I've made, she texted me right away to tell me it arrived.  "My friends are taking pictures of it," she said.  Later I learned they were sending those pictures home to their families.  I have set the bar pretty high...I think I may have made a few enemies. :-)  (The bar is now high for me, too, as I have to keep sending arty envelopes.  A plain white, or colored envelope, will now seem very boring.)

We had hand carved a lobster rubber stamp for her grad party thank-you's. (It went along with a hand-carved grad cap stamp.) I used that, along with an enlargement of the same image as a stencil.  I also used stencils from The Crafter's Workshop, sequin waste, Brown Staz On Ink,  and Dylusions ink spray from Ranger Industries.  (Note:  all of these supplies are from my own personal stash, not things sent to me for the magazine.)

Below is a picture of my work table along with the envelope and the matching piece of stationery.  A plain white sheet of paper inside the envelope just seemed wrong.  You can see in the background the hand carved stamp and stencil.

On a side note:  her grad party was nautical themed, with the lobster wearing a grad cap adorning her memory board and table center pieces.  I'll have to post pics of her centerpieces sometime.  I think they turned out very cute.

Thanks for stopping by.  Please share my blog on Facebook and Pinterest. I'd also be especially thrilled if you would subscribe (follow by email).

Have a wonderful day.

~Cyndi

A Salmon Dish Anyone Can Make

I love good food.  When my youngest daughter was about eight years-old, she went through a "foodie" phase.  She watched the Food Network and followed all the chefs, even making statements like "Oh, he should never do that with steak," and others.  We enrolled her in cooking school, really.  I had a hard time finding a school that wasn't teaching eight year-olds how to only make peanut butter and jelly, but finally found a great place that taught the kids "real" cooking: Loretta Paganini School of Cooking.  I had high hopes for my young foodie and imagined many years of tasty and delectable main dishes, prepared for me while I ate bon-bons. Well, as kids do, she grew out of that phase.  Now we're lucky to get her to eat anything aside from mac and cheese, and create a dish herself in the kitchen? Nope...unless it is said mac and cheese.

That said, I still love good food. Unfortunately, I am not that great of a chef. I like to think it is just because I do not have much time to cook.  Even on hiatus from my day job, I still have a thousand other things to do.  (Or maybe I find a thousand other things to do so I don't have to cook?)

I used to collect cook books like Mel Gibson collected A Catcher in the Rye books in the movie Conspiracy Theory.  If I was in the grocery store and a new little digest recipe book was at the checkout stand, I was compelled to buy it.  I have a cupboard full of them.  Did I mention that I don't really cook?  LOL.  Thankfully Pinterest came along and has filled that desire to "collect" recipes...much more inexpensively, I might add.

I was on Pinterest pinning recipes the other day and came across Teriyaki Salmon with Sriracha Cream Sauce. It came from a site called, "Damn Delicious," and it WAS!!!  It was so easy to make that even I didn't mess it up.  The sriracha cream sauce is amazing; I put it on plain rice later and it was outstanding.  Anyway, this recipe will make even the most humble cook look like a pro.  You should try it.

What did my former foodie think of it?  "It's okay," she said with a shrug.

~Cyndi

Program 60 and POTS telephone lines

This year my husband and I drove our oldest daughter hundreds of miles away and left her.  We left her in capable hands, but we left her and drove home without her. This is her first year in college, and while there is some trepidation over her being so far away from home, I really am not that worried about her.  She is a strong and independent young woman and I know she will be just fine.

Two (ish) weeks ago I followed my 82 year-old dad to his first day at college in over fifty years. I say followed because I didn't drive him, he drove himself; I was just there to make sure he knew how to get to the college, where to park, got registered correctly and made it into his class okay.  He is taking classes at the local community college through a program called Program 60. I'm not sure if it is just an Ohio thing, or if other states offer it, but it is awesome.  Anyone 60 or over can take classes at participating colleges for FREE as long as the class has room. (They pay for lab fees, parking, books and materials.) You can't register for the class until after the first day, though.  The professor of the class right before his (whom I met when I walked him to his room) told me that while the school says they should not come until the second class, after registering, the instructors like for the Program 60 folks to come on the first day of a class they are interested in - just FYI in case you or someone you know would like to try the program. Dad is taking an art class. (Guess which of my parents I take after in that respect?)

Of the two of my new students, can you guess which one makes me more nervous?  When I dropped my dad off at class I felt like I was leaving my child at the first day of kindergarten.  I inwardly hoped the kids would be nice to him and that he would make new friends.  Unlike with a kindergartner, I also hoped and prayed that he would be able to hear what his instructor said.  I went back to his house that day to pay bills and do some housekeeping, keeping an eye on the clock when his class was over.  I made sure to tell him to come straight home so I wouldn't worry.  He got home when he was supposed to and came into the house with a smile on his face (and I swear there was a spring in his step, too).

I heard someone the other day refer to those like myself as the "sandwich generation." In other words, those taking care of both elderly parents and children. I'm very fortunate that my dad is self-reliant and is in possession of all of his faculties.  He is healthy and active. My mom was the household manager and took care of phone calls and bill-paying, as well as the housekeeping.  When she passed away, I took over those duties, not because he couldn't, but because he has never liked doing them...which is why mom was in charge there. I feel so blessed that I can spend time with him and offer support.

While I'm talking about elder care, I'm reminded of how dad's power went out the other night.  He very thoughtfully called me on his cell phone to let me know, because when his power goes out so does his telephone land line.  This is something every senior, and everyone that has an elderly loved one, needs to be aware of.  If you have a cable/TV/internet bundle, your phone provider has automatically switched you to a digital "land" line that will be unavailable for emergency calls in the event of a power outage.  While the unit you are provided will come with a battery backup, the backup may not cover the duration of the outage.  Your digital land line is also subject to glitches in the digital service that an old fashioned land line never was.  My sister and I have had to call numerous times because my dad's cable, and hence his phone, was down.

In order to get a "real" land line, an old-fashioned phone line that does not rely on the power grid, one has to call the phone company and request a "POTS" line (Plain Old Telephone Service). Don't worry, you can have one AND still have the phone/internet/TV bundle.  Just a note:  You may have to be very persistent.  I have called my dad's phone company a few times to try and get this taken care of and, after sitting on hold with the happy music for twenty minutes or more, the calls have been dropped or cut off and I have been too busy to call back and start the process over. (I really HATE the telephone provider my dad uses, by the way.  For that reason and so many more.) In our case, dad does have a cell phone for back up, and eventually we will be getting him an "I've fallen and I can't giddy up" device with gps as a back up.  I would suggest, however, that those with elderly loved ones get them converted to POTS lines, especially if they are reliant or dependent on a so-called land line for service. 

Welcome!

Welcome!  It's an interesting road that I've traveled these past few months that has led me to creating this blog.  After 10 years of publishing Altered Arts magazine, I felt led to take a break and focus on myself and my family.  I called this summer the summer of "nurture".  How could I nurture myself - creatively, spiritually, and physically?  I also focused on nurturing my family by spending more time with them.  One of the goals I made for myself during this hiatus was to spend time in the studio...every day.  Truthfully, that has not happened routinely.  Over the summer, especially, I had a hard time with that one.  Now that my oldest daughter is away at college (first year) and the youngest has started school, it's becoming easier.  I spend two days a week acting like a personal assistant/housekeeper for my elderly father, though, and sometimes that eats into my creative time.  Of course, that is time I would NEVER want back.  I love that I can spend time with him. I only wish I could have spent more time with both of my parents while my mom was still alive, but I have no regrets.

Anyway, I digress... Why am I starting this blog?  Because I need an outlet.  I'm creating, reading, nurturing, wearing great shoes, and I need to share. :-)  When I was publishing the magazine I had an outlet, but no time to create.  Now I have the time to create and no outlet.

This blog will actually be like a public diary of sorts, with pictures.  So to say it is an art blog or even a lifestyle blog would be misleading.  It will be an everything sort of blog.  Remember when on Seinfeld they were talking about pitching a show idea to the executives?  "It's a show about nothing," Costanza stated.  That will kind of be what my blog is about.  A blog about nothing (and everything).

The things that I'm sure will influence my blog are:  my art, reading - I'm an avid reader!, shoes - I love 'em and actually DO wear the really high stilettos, food - I'm not sure I'm a very good cook, but I love food (I've collected a vast number of cookbooks just to "have" them.), and my faith.  I'm not the preachy sort, but there is no way I can write about my life without it popping in there from time-to-time.  I will try to avoid politics as I've discovered that the general populous can't seem to comment on them without accusations and animosity...without any substantive arguments. (Have you noticed this?  My daughter will come home with some story about how she had a political disagreement at school and she will be angry.  I always tell her that she needs to take anger out of the equation and present logical reasons as to why she feels the way she does...not why the other person is wrong. I think this is a skill severely lacking in today's "civilized" society.) Finally, I LIKE PEOPLE...I really do.  I welcome interaction from everyone.  I do NOT do drama of any sort.  If your comment seems to be inviting drama, don't be surprised if it disappears.  To that end, please always remember that I am a real person who will read your comments.  Others who comment are also real people.  Be thoughtful and kind when commenting.  I am spending less time on the computer, period, it helps with finding more time for creating and nurturing.  I may schedule several posts here and on Facebook all at once, so it might look like I'm on more than I am.  If I don't reply to your comments right away, don't fret.  Just give me a little time...I'm probably nurturing my family instead of my computer screen.

In addition to sharing with you why I've decided to create this blog and what it will be about, I thought I'd leave you with a note about a book I've recently read:

The synopsis (from Amazon) is:

Those were the best days of her life...

"Poor LilyAnn," the local ladies lament. "She sure is stuck in the past."

Eleven years ago, LilyAnn Bronte was the Peachy-Keen Queen of Blessings, Georgia—the prettiest, smartest, and most popular girl in town, going steady with the star quarterback, a high school career on the fast track to success. Then Randy Joe was killed in Iraq, and somehow LilyAnn just let herself go to seed.

Ruby, Mabel Jean, Vera, and Vesta of the Curl Up and Dye have been itching to give LilyAnn a makeover, but she knows it would make more than a new hairstyle for her to get her life back.

Until one fateful day, when a handsome stranger roars into town, and LilyAnn has a revelation.

Maybe the best is yet to come...

Just to let you know, I actually try not to read books I don't think I'll like.  I mean, really, what would be the point?  From the ones I select, I rarely put them down or return them before finishing them.  That said, I did really like this book.  It was a nice little love story.  When I chose it, I ventured away from my standards: action, mystery, or spy novels, and was glad that I did.  I think you will like this book.  Let me know if you read it too.

Okay, that's it.  My first post on my new personal blog about nothing and everything.  Just a note, however:  while Altered Arts magazine is on a publishing hiatus right now, back issues are still available on our website and, more importantly, our blog and Facebook page are still active.  I've scheduled guest bloggers during the hiatus, and there's some good inspiration to be had.  You can check it out at:  www.alteredarts.com or alteredarts-magazine.blogspot.com.

Let me know you stopped by. Don't forget to follow my blog, I'd really appreciate it.

~Cyndi