Wanderlust & Pixie Dust

I Really Love Religious Images

I find them very soothing to look at. They also remind me of some of my past travels. Italy, France, New Mexico, even New Orleans. I naturally gravitate to vintage colors. Y'know, brown, aged colors. So these were my attempts to try and think outside the lines and use brighter, bolder colors. I'm also drawn to those melodramatic images of women gazing up into the heavens...
Beautiful images of the Virgin, Madonnas, The Virgin and baby Jesus etc...

I added my precious little Wendy Addison german glitter glass stars to the last shadowbox. It just needed a little something extra. What I need is my very own german glass glitter. Don't own any yet but I'm definately working on it. These images are copies made from some beautiful carte de visites that I found way in the back of a little antique store in Beaumont, California. Each one has a handwritten date to the 1870's on the back along with a different country in Europe. My guess is that someone was on the "Grand Tour" and probably purchased a little something as a souveneir at each stop. I do like to daydream about this I must confess...

Gonna go for it.

My "free trial" with TypePad just ended. I have lots going on in my life at the moment. Some of it not so good. Speaking of not so good, some of the things I make, I feel are not so good. But I've been reading some of the other sites out there and I realize that many of us doubt ourselves. And everybody has to start somewhere. Maybe I don't quite now what I am doing here but I'm going to figure it out. One day at a time. So having said all that...I'm going to put some of my recent crafting attempts out there. The good, the bad and the ugly. Why is this so scary?height="133" border="0" style="float: left; margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px;" />This is a close up of the latest thingy that I made. It's a wee bit blurry but like everything else I'm learning as I go with the picture taking. I'll post another one here if I can find where I filed it.This is copy of my fave tintype on a piece of lace that I covered with glitter. The paper used as the background is actually a bit of new wallpaper that I found on clearance recently. The little pale pink wire hanger can be found in a small bunch at Wal-Mart of all places. If I remember correctly, they are only $1 for a handful and come in several colors. I'll put more photos up later. I'm having a hysterectomy in two days and I'm avoiding all the yucky last minute things that I have to do. Instead, I'm running away from everything and playing here. First things first. My doggies need their daily morning stroll. Time to go and sieze the day...

Why Wanderlust & Pixie Dust?

I drove myself crazy trying to come up with just the right name for this blog. I didn't want anything too cutesy, although I know that it is. I tried to come up with a title that meant something to me. Wanderlust seemed to fit because I've always loved to travel. At the moment traveling seems like such an impossible dream. I've been lucky enough to have been all over the place in my life and I know that I should be grateful. But I want more! I've always said that I want to go back to every place that I've been and I want to go everywhere that I haven't. Greedy, I know. Here is a picture taken some years back of me and baby sis in Rome. Seems like a lifetime ago. "Pixie Dust" is a much needed reminder to myself to not forget my dreams. To believe in the impossible and to not give up.

Learning as I go along.

I'm trying to work on this a little bit each day. And each day I seem to learn something new. I look at some of my fave blogs out there and I am just blown away. Something to aspire to I suppose. I seem to get intimidated more than anything. Not this time though. I am determined to have a blog that I can be proud when I look back a year later. Same with my so called "art". It's like learning to see through the eyes of a child all over again. A constant challenge to ones self to try and think outside the box.
Here is a picture of the table in my craft room. My room gets so messy when I play in there that I often find it hard to function. I'm one of those who always has to start off with a clean slate. It's easier for me to put away a project and bring it out the next day than to leave it out. I seem to spend more time trying to rearrange my stuff and tidy up than actually creating. Maybe I need to get rid of a few things? My husband would certainly agree. I use to think that everyone else who had a creative corner had everything neat and organized as a pin. Of course by now I realize that this is certainly not true. I think some crafters and artists thrive in a crazy environment. Sometimes my space gets so out of control I worry that I'm going to find myself with Oprah at my door!

Where to begin?

Wow. This is almost overwhelming when you don't quite know what you are doing. It took me a good 20 minutes to figure out how to get my first picture to show up. I guess that I'll start out with a few more pictures of some of the things I've collected in the past so that one can begin to get an idea of the type of items that I tend to collect. Ok, let's see how long it takes to do this again!

I have no idea what I am doing.

I know close to nothing about computers and even less about this here MAC that I've brought upon myself. If anyone out there ever sees this, please bear with me while I learn. I'm also working on opening a shop on Etsy and it looks like I have my work cut out for me. In the mean time I think I will try and post a few pictures to get my feet wet. Let's see what happens...