mother mary/blessed virgin mary swap

about 3 months ago i had the brilliant idea to host this swap and to host it as hand drawn. i am so glad i did. watching the most beautiful cards ever roll into my house has been such a treat. some people have the wildest notions of what mother mary looks like and i love it! although i was raised catholic i am no longer practicing, nor do i even consider myself to be a christian. my spirituality runs more along the lines of earth/goddess based crossed with hinduism, taoism, and buddhism . BUT i still have a thing for the blessed virgin. she was a prominent figure of my childhood and she represents an earthly aspect of jesus. beyond all this, mary art is simply stunning. growing up in arizona there are images of her as the virgen de guadalupe everywhere. so i challenged 30 0ther artists to join me in making art of her and in her honor. what's more, i got my mom, dotsdots on atcsforall.com, to join in. mom is a fabulous artist and she, along with others did not let me down. below you'll find a piece i did for the swap along with one of mom's. the one mom did is based on a photo of her mother, my grandmother. enjoy!

mine:


mom's:

new art

i belong to willowing's world of whimsy (silly name, i know--but she's fun!). i took her online course and added new techniques to my repertoire which is always a plus. there are several other things one can participate in on her website and art trading is one of those things. every month you can be paired up with another person and make them 2 atc's, one is based on a theme (this month was abstracts) and the other is whatever you want to do. my partner this month is a woman named evangeline from canada. i think her art is a lot of fun, so i look forward to seeing what she makes for me. below you'll find what i've made for her. the abstract, entitled 'blue bliss' was initially intended to be just a background, but when it was dry i thought it looked incredibly lovely and didn't want to cover it up. it was made with a collage of ephemera and acrylic pain, with a gold border.



the other card is entitled 'beg' and it is made with my new favorite technique: stamping funny heads and attaching them to bodies that obviously don't match. i always have fun doing this! i then add a word that sometimes makes sense and sometimes doesn't, i'll let you decide on this one!

12 Days of Christmas DAY 10 & Sad Kitty News

I will start with the sad kitty news so I can close with something happier. I took Atticus to the vet yesterday to discover that his bladder was completely blocked. This often happens with male kitties (and occasionally female ones too), and the risk is that their bladders can back up and cause kidney damage. That, unfortunately, is what happened to my beloved boy. They say I caught it early but that he still had remarkable kidney damage and they are unsure if he will recover. They would like to keep him hospitalized a few more days but I simply can't afford it. So today I pick him up and learn how to give him subcutaneous fluids (meaning under his skin). He also has a raging infection, is in a fair amount of pain, and is refusing to eat. Cats when they don't eat often start using their stored body fat which can lead to a fatty liver which is deadly for kitties. So it looks like I will have to force feed him as well. I am hoping once he is in his home environment he will want to eat. I have quite a job ahead of me and I do it gladly for my sweet boy, but he and I could sure use your prayers if you are the praying type. Many thanks.

In happier news, I opened a fantastic gift from KatieV today! Using her binding machine she made each of us our own ATC holder! Here's mine: