thinking happy thoughts

 i’ve noticed that i tend to get more sick when i work in the schools than when i ever worked in the hospitals.  these past few days, i’ve been a sort of wretch… perhaps a touch of bronchitis or sinus infection?  idk…with all the talk about the swine flu, i thought i’d lay low & get over what it is that’s been ailing me. 

today i am feeling a bit better, but i’m still coughing and sniffling.  i am going to school today and arm myself with lots of clorox wipes, kleenex and hand sanitizer, hehehe. 

hoping my day will go by quickly because i’d rather be at home resting and fighting this bug that apparently is still hanging around.

anyway, just wanted to let you know that i’m still kicking. 🙂

have a super day! xo mary ann

p.s., sweet girl and text images from here.  the rest digitally created by yours truly.

summer lovin’

i just created this badge in my pse for a new itty bitty swap i am hosting over at the follow your bliss ning group.  sign-ups are in progress & will end at the end of this month.  book pages will be due in my hands july 1st.  to get in on this swap, you’ll either be an existing fyb member or you can sign-up here for a modest subscription fee. 

less than a month away now (YAHOO!!!) until school breaks for the summer.  omg, i cannot wait, can i just tell you?!

it has been one LOOOOOOOOOOOONG year at the schools.  & i am more than ready to be DONE.  when my last day comes, i will break out that twisted sister tune, school’s out for the summer!

lol

🙂

okay, i will be back later.  i’ll be in mad city today. gtg (got to go) because there is a big garage sale going on at my fav scrap n’ stamp store there & then there’s a couple of  antique malls that i can’t not stop in afterwards, hehehe.

hey, a girl’s gotta have some fun after a couple of heinous weeks at school, right? 

ttfn!

(oh, that’s ta ta for now!)

xo xo mary ann    

can you believe it?

can you believe it?, originally uploaded by mainer at heart06.

i remember when you were all itty bitty micro-preemies in the nicu!

love you guys sooooooooooooo much!!!

happy birthday yan yan, bon bon & angel sinead! we love you always and forever xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo auntie reya and uncle joe

( image of my nieces and nephew courtesy of my sis, jo aka 3 little miracles on flickr; digitally altered by yours truly…plus, swirly textures generously shared by norma frances and blue texture by stars go blue in flickr group, collage images-not for posting art)

 

blessings to YOU

xoxo mary ann & joe

layers of luv

as tedious as creating this badge was on my pse, i am amazed at how it turned out!  it took me some 50 layers to create this badge for the new itty bitty book swap i’m hosting in my ning group. 

the other night, last tuesday, as a matter of fact, i forced myself to go to my computer class in that gawd-awful typhoon-like downpour.  & i am so glad that i did because my instructor talked at length about LAYERS.  omg. i sure learned a bunch of kewl tricks.  that john, he is a clever one!

today, when i got home afterschool, i set to work on this badge.  it took me quite a long time to get this badge looking this way.  i got a taste of what it must be like for web and graphic designers who do this sort of thing on a daily basis.  this digital manipulating thing  is wicked time-consuming!  seriously.

but still, i am loving all this digi-stuff.  i can’t get enough of it.  me, the self-professed non-techie, is now totally embracing all things digital.  i can hardly believe myself.  & i find as i practice, i get more & more hooked.   it is unbelievably addicting.  i just wish there were more hours in the day for me to play.  my head is whirling with all sorts of fun ideas. 

{sigh} i am finally going to submit to my exhaustion & call it a night.  i wish i had the energy right now to keep at it, but the body, oh how it is weary.  i still have a bunch of wips awaiting completion…ughhh, they will all have to wait until the morning, i’m afraid (the story of my life!)…

sometimes multi-tasking can be a gift.  & sometimes, a hindrance.  lately for me it seems the latter.

a poem

The Patience of Ordinary Things

::by pat schneider::

 It is a kind of love, is it not?
How the cup holds the tea,
How the chair stands sturdy and foursquare,
How the floor receives the bottoms of shoes
Or toes. How soles of feet know
Where they’re supposed to be.
I’ve been thinking about the patience
Of ordinary things, how clothes
Wait respectfully in closets
And soap dries quietly in the dish,
And towels drink the wet
From the skin of the back.
And the lovely repetition of stairs.
And what is more generous than a window? 

she became a butterfly’s event

as i alluded to in this post, i am participating in my pal she‘s 10-day long she became a butterfly (SBAB) blog event. 

here’s the 411 in her own words:

Hi gang! My name is She and this week, I’m celebrating my NEW JOB! I got laid off in October and have been unemployed for 4+ months! This new job is (hopefully) going to change everything for me, so I wanted to celebrate by giving my FAITHFUL READERS a chance to win SEVERAL Butterfly-Themed prizes this week! Check back each day for a new giveaway!

so from my understanding, all you have to do is go to her blog, check out all the links she has for the butterfly-themed giveaways.   leave your name & contact info on her blog & then go to any of the participating links (like mine, for instance) , check out the offerings, leave a comment if you wish & then at the end of sbab event, she will use a random # generator & pick some very lucky winners.  once she picks the winners, then the giveaway sponsors (such as yours truly for example) will be notified & from there will ship directly to the lucky winner(s).  (she, i hope i got that right, hehehe!) 

sounds like fun to you? then go visit she‘s blog! go on…

  okay, to reiterate what i am offering (which she has told me that will be given away this friday, 3/6/09):  TWO hi-res, digitally collaged art pieces that will be delivered via email either in PDF or JPEG format (winner will need to specify preferred format prior to email delivery). 

SBAB OFFERING #1:

SBAB OFFERING #2:

just a little FYI about these digi-collages: 

***all copyrights are retained by me, the artist & as such are NOT transferable upon receipt. 

***watermarks will be removed prior to email delivery to winners. however, each digi-collage will have a discreetly placed digital signature & year on them.

***artwork is for personal use ONLY and not intended for resale, whole or part, in any manner, shape or form (e.g., cd compilations, derivative artwork for resale, website/blog banners/badges, etc., etc.).

***winners will need to specify PDF or JPEG format preference prior to email delivery.  they may leave a comment here on this post or email me at follow_your_bliss07@hotmail.com .  once i know what the format preference is, then email delivery will occur within 24-48 hours.

***open to both us & international players.  (yay! super fast delivery for the winners & no shipping costs to me!)

thank you for your patience, understanding & respecting copyright law.  
PLUS…

a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to she on landing her new job!  wishing you all the success in the world sweetie!

& for everyone else, thanks for visiting!  & bonne chance! 

xo mary ann 😉

dreaming of spring

came up for some air after spending a good part of the day organizing my pix in my computer as well as creating these spring-themed digi-collages:

  

 i mentioned that i was going to take part in my pal’s she‘s blog giveaway event that starts this coming week.   i thought i’d offer up these pretties.  

still debating whether or not to give them away as digital prizes or as 3-d pieces.  after spending some 75+ bucks on shipping of all those owoh parcels plus the vintage valentine itty bitty books last week, it would be nice to save a few bucks wherever i can, you know what i am saying?  if she will let me do digi prizes, then i am good to go.  but in case it’s a no-go, then i did already print them out (approx 4×6) & will start adding embellishies here &  there.

i could also use them too for this art fair that i am going to be doing over the st. paddy’s day weekend in a couple of weeks.  my IRL friend, cj, asked me a while back if i would show my artwork in her most romantic french country boutique, annabelle’s (stay tuned, she is working on a gorgeous website & a blog too).  i was so flattered & honored to be asked.  i told her that i will have to get crack-a-lacking on creating some new stuff.   but i do have some things already made that i could also show too. i’ve been meaning to make new things, but with my current work schedule as it is & getting over being sick, it’s been difficult to crank out the art, you know what i mean?  but i told myself, that i will devote this weekend to studio time.  i’ve got some more fun stuff to share & hopefully  i’ll be ready for the art fair in a couple of weeks. 

also, i am excited about starting round two of my digital journey.  starting next month, i’ll be taking more pse classes at my local community college by the same instructor i had last semester.  i cannot wait to learn even more cool digital stuff from him.  who would have thunk that i would be such a digi-junkie, hehehe?!

more and more, my learning curve & comfort level are steadily increasing.  the more i practice, the more adept i become i’m realizing.  it is wicked cool, this new-found skill of mine! 

welp, it’s time to get back to work.  there’s more to be done.  hope you’re having a good weekend! until next time i resurface, take care!   xo mary ann 🙂

getting digi with it

ever since i took those computer classes after school last month, i’ve gone DIGI-CRAZY, can i just tell you? lol

when i bought my photoshop elements software in 2007,  it literally took me a YEAR to figure out just some very rudimentary stuff on pse (i tried to teach myself by reading the manual that came with my pse program…it was sheer agony, i can assure you). 

 then last month, i took a pse &  also a dreamweaver class at the local community college & BAM!  things started to become crystal clear. OMG. do you know how long it took me to try to teach myself pse?!  what took me a little over a year to figure out on my own, i could have save major time (& holy cow, AGGRAVATION!!!!) if i had only known about john‘s classes wicked sooner!  his classes taught me soooooo much in just a short period of time.  wow, i can’t believe that i tried to teach myself when john’s classes were right under my nose!  anyway, i eagerly await more classes with him when spring semester starts up.  he’s got a ton of cool digi-tricks up his sleeves, hehehe.  he’s a great instructor & wicked patient too!

taking those classes have really opened up my EYES…shown a new frontier for me to explore.  &  that i can actually create artwork just as fabulous as i have created manually.  typically,  i usually eschewed digital stuff, other than basic cropping & uploading, only preferring the old fashioned method of cutting & pasting with globs of glue, paint & glitter all about.  BUT NOW…whoa, i can’t get enough of the digi stuff. it truly is amazing what one can do.  seriously.  i’m totally addicted & frankly,  astonished with how much i have embraced all things digital.  prior to those classes, i’ve always considered myself as being not very techno savvy.  i see now that in the digi-world, the possibilities are unbelievably infinite (& less messy too).   i love love love the fact that i can grab a bunch of images and text & then after some clever manipulating in pse, *POOF*  i’ve created some wicked cool shhitCRAP (like that one lia?!!) lol.      

okay, enough gushing, hehehe…let’s get to the shhhCRAP!

no, i’m not getting rid of my brushes, paints, paper & scissors, etc. not quite just yet.  i still like to do things the old fashioned way.  i could never get rid of my art supplies & vintage stash entirely as  i do love to get my hands dirty from time to time.   but these days, mixed media art is  (or rather has been) also including the whole genre of  digital art  into the mix (pardon the pun).  pixel art  is yet another “tool” of the trade if you will.  that’s how i see it.  getting digi with it has become a very natural progression, not just in our art, but in our real, everyday world.  everything has gone digital…particularly tvs.  tv transmission starting next month will be totally digital.  as technology advances, sometimes our art does too.  at least that is true for me at the moment. 

so  for now, i’m taking a ride on the magic digi-bus.  &  i intend on taking this ride wherever & however  far it goes! 🙂

collage play week 8

.

collage play week 8, originally uploaded by mainer at heart06.

i couldn’t sleep, so i played around in ps elements & came up with this digi-collage for nance‘s flickr group.