People have been asking me if I sell my dolls and I haven't really in the past. I decided this morning to sell two. I wasn't able to post them here earlier, but one has already sold even before I was able to get to this today. The one pictured here is the only one left. She is called 'Dream' and she stands proud at about 7 inches. Please e-mail me at artbeth67@gmail.com if interested. Thanks! :)

Here's another mixed-media art doll pin. She stands about 3-1/4 inches tall.

Here is my first ever fabric art doll pin! It is all hand-sewn and is about 3-1/2 inches tall. Can you tell I'm having fun with my new goodies? :)

I was itching to make a doll with some of the stuff I bought at the Quilt Festival over the weekend and this is what I came up with. This doll is about 6-1/2 inches tall and I made her for my mom. 'Imagine' is one of her favorite words and I bought this piece specifically to put on a doll for her. She's having a really rough time right now with a lot of things, so I'm going to give it to her 'just because'. I know she will really love and appreciate it :)

Yesterday I went to the International Quilt Show with some friends. It was here in Long Beach for the first time. I'm not a quilter (I'm not that patient!), but I do love fabric. I did get some cool stuff to use to make more of my art dolls. There was a huge area where hundreds of gorgeous quilts were displayed. I was just blown away by the amount of work that goes into some of these. Absolutely amazing!

Today is my mom's birthday. Today is going to be a very hard day for her since this is the first one she's had since my dad passed away very unexpectedly last September. She has always loved to spend some time by herself and today that is what she wants to do. She will most likely be going to spend time in one of her favorite places to unwind and that is Ventura. The card you see is one I made for her a few years back. It is one of my first altered art pieces.

We did get her presents, gave her a coconut cream pie and took her out to dinner yesterday. She wanted to go to a Benihana type place near us called Tokyo Hibachi. My two-year-old had a lot of fun discovering different uses for chopsticks! She was feeding us all rice with them at first, but then decided to use them as drumsticks most of the time!

Here is a collage I did of my older daughter a few months after she was born (she recently turned two). It is about 5 in. x 7 in. I really love making these as you can probably tell! This one is called 'Beauty'.

Here are a couple pics of some food I've made recently. The brownies are topped with chocolate chip cookie dough (with no egg) and are super yummy! I made this plate of goodies for my neighbors. The other plate has a filling breakfast for hubby on it. He woke up last Saturday morning and this was waiting for him :)

Got some really small canvases a few weeks ago and finally had a chance to use one. What a fun size to work with! This one is 2 in. x 4 in. :)

I seem to be on a roll here and have some time to do it, so I'll show you another piece as well. I made this a few years ago when I was going through a really dark time in my life. That time seems like such a long time ago (thank goodness)! This piece is called 'Promise Mocked by Visions'. It started out as a piece not much larger than an ATC and is now 24 in. x 28 in. hanging on the wall above the computer in our office. It is not on the reddish wall anymore since we had to switch rooms around because of the girls. It now has 'Zen Garden' green behind it. I really enjoy matting and framing art and photographs. I sure wish I had a larger house with a lot more wall space to be able to do this more!

A while ago I posted a piece of art I made for my girls' bedroom. I said I would post a picture soon of what it looked like after I had it matted, framed and hung. One of my nephews reminded me recently that I didn't post the 'after' picture yet. So...here are pics of it before and after :)

Here are a few pictures from our day in Seal Beach. Our company leaves on Monday morning, so I will soon have more time to blog and hopefully make some art!!!

Still super busy with company and don't have time to write much now, but I wanted to let you know about this amazingly yummy gourmet popcorn I had the other day. It is Cinnamon Toast flavor and here is the link (http://www.popcornopolis.com/ if you 're interested in possibly trying some. They have so many great flavors...I would love to try them all!

We have been very busy! Some of hubby's relatives are visiting and we have constantly been on the move. We just got back from staying in this awesome Marriott Hotel - the two larger towers in the left side of the picture are the hotel.(http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/sandt-san-diego-marriott-hotel-and-marina). My oldest daughter turned two on Saturday and we spent the day at the San Diego Zoo (http://www.sandiegozoo.org/zoo/index.html. I haven't been there in about 20 + years and I do not remember it being so incredibly hilly! My feet were killing me up until this morning. We also spent a lot of time both days at Seaport Village (http://www.seaportvillage.com/) walking around, eating, drinking, shopping, etc. Hope you are all enjoying your summer so far too :)

Here is a necklace I finished a few weeks ago. I'm not too happy with the scans/photos I've taken of it, so this is the best picture of it you will get to see. It is so much prettier in person!

Here are a few pictures from our 4th of July. We spent the day at my older brother's house who lives about an hour away. My girls loved playing their piano. I think the second picture is so funny because it looks like she is totally into it. We spent a ton of time in their pool and jacuzzi too. Most people there got to sit in the jacuzzi and watch the fireworks show. We had a very nice time! We hope you had a wonderful and safe 4th as well :)

Here are a couple of pictures from a walk we went on recently. The top picture is digitally altered, but unfortunately I forgot to make a copy of the original to show the comparison between the two. The bottom picture is NOT altered at all. I have a vision of using this one in an art piece. I am planning on trying a new technique very soon, but I need to get some new materials to try it. Hopefully I can get the stuff I need in the next few days sometime because I'm dying to try it! What new technique(s) are you wanting to try?

This is a 4 x 4 in the theme of Black and White Zetti. We were supposed to use part of our local newspaper as the background. Barb (http://123lavenderlollipoplane.blogspot.com/ is coordinating a collaborative book in one of my Yahoo groups in this theme to submit to Somerset Studio for possible publication in their Black and White issue. Let me know what you think! :)