The one about The Dark Divine

I have Dark Divine toenails. :)

Last Friday I happened to see a flyer about a book signing at our small neighborhood bookstore. I don't get star-struck, but I thought it would be fun to have Bree Despain sign my copy of The Dark Divine. I had no idea she lived in Salt Lake. She signed with a cool purple pen and had free nail polish to match the gorgeous magenta-purple color on her book jacket.

I haven't read The Dark Divine, but it's on my to-be-read list.

The one about Amelia's art journals

In my art group meeting last Thursday, we worked in our art journals, and did Amanda's version of Mary Ann Moss's sewn paper scraps art journals. Above is my spread that I did in a sketchbook. I focused on my daughter's drawings. I pasted in a drawing of her favorite character, Me-me, who is drowning in a chocolate river. Apparently she had done this sketch after seeing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. lol
Not to discount the artistic abilities of my other kids, but I tend to harp on Amelia's talent because she is so free and expressive and creative! Things I struggle with.
Below is a pile of some of Amelia's little books she is constantly making by stapling together (I always find my stapler in her room) and filling with drawings.

If you are having trouble reading Amelia's words in her art, it is because she is an amazing phonetic speller and is constantly getting frustrated by the real spellings of the English language. lol

I had Amelia add little drawings here and there to this spread. :) it was fun!

The One About The Studio Cleaning

This is the mess I have been working on lately.

Last year I was contacted by Somerset Studios about having my studio photographed for their art studio/room/space publication. Ha ha ha. I don't think so. Besides, I have a hole cut in my ceiling from fixing the roof where the melting snow came in and ruined it. Ugh.

I have lots of cool collage fodder and not enough room for keeping it, nor good way of organizing it all. Very frustrating, huh?

The one about the pile 'o books

For some reason I really got back into reading after I read Twilight a few years back. I got to the end of that book and just keep going. I now have a trail of books that I have read. I can't get enough reading.
Thank-goodness for the many Amazon GCs I received for my birthday and Christmas this past month! So hard not to blow it all at once, ya know?

Also, my friend Amanda turned me on to paperbackswap a couple of years ago and I have traded so many books thru that site.

Like my friend Amy Grendell, I am hooked on YA novels. We both seem to read the same stuff. At the same time I have been obsessed with Chernobyl. I remember when that happened when I was in 11th grade and it scared me. I recently saw the Destination Truth team go in into Pripyat a few months ago and I have been hooked on it ever since. It is terrifying and interesting at the same time. I had three books going on Chernobyl and have finished all but one.

If you are on Goodreads, come be my friend and we can recommend books to one another. :)

The one about vintage lace

It's been a long time!

I thought I'd share what I do in my "spare" time. Not that anyone really has any spare time---lol---but when I'm watching TV with DH and I need something to do with my hands....


I crochet little edgings with size 60 or 80 crochet thread. I have nothing really in mind for these, but I do them all the same length, about 24 inches long. Since you can't find patterns like this nowadays, I buy vintage crochet pattern books published the 1930's, 40's and 50's. I am NOT a doily person. You won't find any doilies in my house, but I do love the look of these delicate laces.

The one about Lyrical Interpretation

So I made the switch to Facebook last month after about 8 months of avoiding it. I figured I didn't need another internet site to keep up on. I had Twitter (sort of) and my blog, which I wasn't doing very well with anyway. I used to really post here a lot. I miss that. Facebook has not replaced my blog, but has become more of a second blog, like a Blog-Lite, if you will. I love seeing friends and family there and keeping tabs on them so easily with little one-liner posts throughout the day. :)

I am still looking to track down more of my friends on Facebook! Come see me there:

Marilyn Healey

In the meantime, I am down to one art project. A book collaborative called Lyrical Interpretation headed up by my friend Lee Weber! Its so fun--every book has a theme which is dictated by a song of the artist's choosing. I'm still into the semi-dark genre and all around general spookiness so I chose the song Full Moon by the Black Ghosts (yeah, I know---its from the Twilight movie).

Here's my book:

enjoy!

The one about the last of the Halloween projects

These were completed in January, for an ATC swap last fall. Yeah, I know I'm lame and always late. The theme was Mystery and Misery. I used copies of my favorite three stern and scary women.

The one about Julie's book

Finally getting around to uploading this....

The last book I worked on in Julie's Haunted and Mysterious book collaborative was completed way back in December. This is actually Julie's book, too.

The one about the Hello

Hello!!!
How time flies.
Aren't you supposed to be having fun while time is flying? Like a kid at an amusement park or while reading a good book...but I seem to be losing the race with the rats more and more each week.
lol

The LOVE book is out and I still can't believe our little valentine project was turned into an entire publication!!!
I find it interesting what Somerset chose to print, and what they didn't print. Below are a few that I loved, that didn't make the cut.

....oh, and if you'd emailed me recently, especially with questions about the book, and I haven't answered, please be patient--I'll get back to you. Or even better, just email me again!! :)

The one about the movie

It was so bad but really cool at the same time. I'd can't wait to see it again. I was happy to read the studio announced they are moving forward with New Moon. I hope they have a bigger budget!

The one about the shoes

I have a new obsession, unfortunately......buying shoes on eBay!

With my stupid left ankle hurting, I can't handle shoes with heels higher than about 2 1/2 inches. Last winter and again this fall I have been on the hunt for heels for church. Black pumps with a wider heel and/or a shorter heel height. Its either I hate the style, the toe is too round, too pointed, or they are too high, or too expensive.

I don't know why I didn't think of this before. So I went a little crazy last week--thank goodness for my etsy store, I had some extra money for myself. :) But they were all so cheap! I also found some casual shoes, I am picky and can't find what I need around here. ....and my gym shoes just bit it this week so I fixed that problem, too, with some new white Reebok's. So many shoes...so little time! Its going to be hard this spring when I start looking for sandals. :)

I love these shoes!


Okay, so I can't wear these sandals yet, but they were only 99 cents!

The one about the Dark Knight sticker

Soooo.....I've been missing lately. Tomorrow I'll have a cool give-a-way for a book written by a friend, so stop by then, too!

My attempt at hiding my dreaded minivan underneath a white vinyl hibiscus sticker in February 2007 only lasted until the van had emissions and safety performed a few months later. Had to remove the darn thing because I had put it over the brake light. doh! I have been stickerless, unfabulous, and uncool since then.... until now. I even got the Teenage Boy to admit it was cool and I thought I saw a smile. I asked DH if he wanted one for the car and he said, "Absolutely not." lol

Been reading this book all month and enjoying it very much! I must say it's one of the best books Ive read and will be sad when it is finished. It is 928 pages long, about history and faraway places and the search through medieval documents for the original vampire, Vlad Tepes, who may still be alive. :)

The one about more Halloween

Still working on the Haunted and Mysterious book swap. This is my page in the uber-talented Cassondra Walter's tall antique photo album book! I did both front and back of this page.
Drippy beeswax. I love what it does to paper when melted with a heat gun.

"Ghostie" photo sent to me by Kim Kwan. :)

Edgar

This man is wearing Edgar's clothes.

Another ghostie photo.

Semi-tarnished German glass glitter star.

The one about Amelia's pumpkin

Happy Halloween!!!

The one about goblins and haunted woods

New artwork.

Two spreads for Candice's book. The first was based on a page I found in an old 1920's primer....a poem about Nine Goblins. I thought that sounded like fun....making nine little goblins. The orange spatter came about from my getting a speck of orange paint on one of the little white dresses, and decided to just go on and spatter the whole thing. The other spread is a spooky wood with a Halloween-orange sky. I got the idea from a billboard I saw around here for a corn maze. The glitter crescent moon I did because I was inspired by a glittery moon I saw on Teresa's blog. :)

you can view close-ups here on my Flickr

Oh!! the bats on the bottom piece are actually ribbon---really cute puffy bat ribbon that I cut apart.

The one about the Ghost Stories book

I am not into anything especially dark or evil, but I love the whole aspect of spooky ghost stories centered around historical places in the world.
The Myrtles Plantation in Louisiana, St. Augustine Lighthouse in Florida...the whole of Great Britain....for example.
Most of my spare time this past week has been spent working on this altered book of mine. It is part of Julie Collings' Haunted and Mysterious books round robin. There are five of us working on this project. Julie started us off by having a little swap where we sent a goodie bag to all the other players. I had never done that before.... what a fun way to start a project!
This altered book has a niche carved out of the entire end of the book, which I FORGOT to take pictures of before I packaged it all up. doh!

My entire book is posted in my Flickr stream HERE.
:)

The one about the Halloween project

I had the honor of making a project, along with a tutorial on how to create my project, for Artsymama's Sweet and Sinister blog. My project will go live next week.