Life at Zoe Cottage

Here is a bullet point synopsis of life around here these days.  You probably don't really want all the gory details, anyway, right? :)

• The weather has been gorgeous the past few days--68 for the high Monday and Tuesday.  Rain is coming, and possibly snow this weekend, but I am enjoying the sunshine and warmer temps!
• We already celebrated Christmas. It was a spur of the moment decision, but the four of us (Ornery, Elizabeth, Michael and I) were all handy, we had just finished the dinner with Michael's parents and opening those gifts, so we just did the rest.  It isn't that uncommon for us to jump the gun, and I am glad that suspense is over.  I will say only one thing about my gifts: I am spoiled.
• Ornery's brother is here for the holidays, and will be joining the rest of Ornery's immediate family here on Saturday for our Christmas celebration with them.  
• The aborted visit that was scheduled for shortly after Thanksgiving has been rescheduled, and now my sister and BIL, Mimi and Chuck, will join us just after New Year's to help us with our construction project.
• My health and stamina continues to improve--or it was until a couple of days ago, but I think it is a temporary setback.  
• Our next-door neighbors are camping out in their house as all their furniture has moved to their new home.  We are so sad to see them go, but we have the new mailing address and I may end up with a pen-pal out of the move!  :)
• I have whittled down my group involvement considerably on Swap-Bot.  I have all but quit swapping there, preferring to deal with the Instagram artists instead.  It has been fun to swap with new artists, and some of them are really good!
• I have been working on selecting my goals for 2014. This year's word is going to be consistency. I seem to be rather scattered, and there are things that fall through the cracks. I might need an accountability partner...
• One thing I have been trying to be consistent with is spending time every morning and evening in the living room enjoying the Christmas lights.  It won't be long until they are not there anymore, and I so enjoy seeing them!  The timer turns them on at 4:00 and off at 8:00 (AM) and back on again at 5:00 and off at 10:00 (PM)  I don't have to wonder if I left them on overnight, and they aren't on all day when no one is in the room.  
• Mail has slowed way down, both coming and going this week.  However, since July I have sent out 458 pieces of mail!  

Here are a few of my recent pieces of outgoing mail.  Love those old stamps and washi tape!! :)

Whoop! A New Printer!

It isn't all up and operational yet--as in I can print MS Word documents but not Publisher--but after our Canon i9900 bit the dust a few weeks ago, I went on the hunt for a printer that would enable me to print from anywhere in the house.  Theoretically this one will do that, and it will send docs to the fax portion via wifi, but so far it has to be plugged in with the usb cable to actually create a print.

I need to buy some laser paper, as all I currently have is ink-jet compatible, but at least I was able to print out my Christmas letter today, so I may get all my cards in the mail by the weekend!  That would be nice.

Christmas will be here before we know it, and I am SO ready!  All my gifts are bought and wrapped, and there is already dust gathering on them. :)  I know what a lot of them are, but that does not decrease my desire to have them in my hot little hands!  I am also looking forward to our second Christmas with Michael in the family.  I think he may be my close rival for kid-like anticipation for the holiday.

Just two more weeks!! :)

Christmas Artist Trading Cards (ATCs)

I have not posted any photos for a long time, so I am playing catch up today.  In order to better access them later, I am dividing the themes up a bit, so here are the Christmas themed ATCs I have made so far this month:

 For this first one I traced around some American Crafts plastic die cut shapes to make the ornaments, then cut them out of a vintage map I had painted with Twinkling H2O watercolors.  I hightlighted them with liquid pearls and also made the little ornament tops with some.  I drew on the string.  To make the ridges in the ornament tops, I drug a straight pin through the wet liquid pearl.  It looked quite authentic!

 Two more ATCs featuring the painted vintage map.  Here it is a background behind the storebought snowmen.  The Merry Christmas is from a confetti pack!

 I have had these poinsettias for several years--these are the last three from my stash!  I used some Smooch ink on the leaves to give them some shimmer, and stickles glitter on the top flower.  The background is some I painted with Twinks, I got the dots by laying a sheet of bubble wrap over the wet pools of paint and letting it set for a while. 

 More twinks painted backgrounds, and the tree is punched from the same map I have been working with for a while.  I added lace and washi tape, plus a very old button embellishment.  (it's not vintage, just several years in my stash!)

 Thhis one has copper embossing on it, copper glitter, and I would have used other copper accents, but decided to not go too overboard. :)  The plastic trees are by American Crafts--another item I have had in my stash for an age!

 The little VW Bug cut out was an extra in a swap I received, I tied the little tree on with some baker's twine.  I giggle each time I see it, thinking how hard it would be for the driver to get out with all that rope tied onto the car! :)

 For this one, I used a Russian text book page painted with Twinks, cut out the angels from a book page that was sent to me as an extra, and added the cross and pearl/lace embellishments.  The cross has been in my stash for over 5 years, just waiting for the right time to surface on some project. 

 I actually made two of these, and after I took the photo, I added another reindeer that looks like it is leaping or flying up around the top of the tree.  It balanced it out better.  I also added more "ornaments" to the tree with some red glitter to tie in the red scarves and noses of the reindeer.

 More vintage map and sheet music, and a lot of tiny scraps leftover from several other ATCs.  I just love layering those little torn pieces--whether washi tape or paper!

 I hand cut the ponds from a piece of metallic card stock, and all the rest is also freehand.  The penguins are JoLee's embellishments, and I knew when I saw them in the store they would be perfect for some cute ATCs!

 This is the second puzzle piece ATC I have made from this puzzle, and have since made two more that I haven't photographed.  It's fun to put together the puzzle to find the scenes that will work on such a small space. 

 This one is just ridiculous!  I named it "Rudolph's Family, or Origin of a Species."  The white deer were from a window cling that comes from those gun toting organizations, and was meant for a car window, I suppose.  It was vinyl, and I am not sure how well the glitter stuck to it.  I added the mustache, googly eyes (which make anything funny!) and the little moose cut outs.  In all it was just pretty fun to make, and I laughed at it several times.  :)

 Nothing special about this one--just scraps of book pages and music cut for a swapbot swap.  I sprayed the background with Tattered Angels glimmer mist.  The snowflakes are cut from a roll of deco tape I got from Hobby Lobby.

Several months ago I received two backgrounds from a swapper who made this one.  I added the map circle and little trees all cut from painted book pages and sheet music.  I had quite a bit of that paper, and was getting as many things out of it as I could!

So, that is my latest Christmas ATC collection.  I think I am about done making them--Christmas themed that is! :)