Patriotic Cranberry Salad

This Thanksgiving I tried (invented?) a new fruit salad.  

The ingredients included:

2 bags "fresh" cranberries (sorted and rinsed)
20 ounce can of pineapple chunks in juice
1/2 cup dry coconut flakes
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 tsp. dry ginger (you could shred peeled fresh ginger root)

(I forgot the apple chunks)

It turned out YUMMY!  And so colorful!

Holiday-Themed Post Cards

I made up these four examples to help illustrate a current mail art group swap:

More pictures from southern road trip

Some of the mountains along the highway

Late-bloomers

Wall decor and shade

Headboard art

Nice collage-effect painting

Southern Beach and Marsh Pictures

I recently took a "little" road trip to visit friends and family.  

One highlight was some beach time.  It was windy, the surf was rough:

Took a stroll on a marsh boardwalk:

I saw a very large blue crab, blue and pink/peach, actually...  But no alligators.

This bird had neon green feet that appeared to have been dipped in plastic!

A lovely palmetto? caught my eye:

I just couldn't resist stopping along a highway to take pictures of cotton fields:

And brought a souvenir home (picked up along the road shoulder...)

Two Zentangle Post Cards

My first attempt at making a Zentangle design card a few years ago was so ambitious, I stressed myself out of finishing it.  When we featured a Zentangle post card swap on MMSA, I wasn't planning on participating.  But then I decided that I didn't want to miss out on all the fun!

So I pulled out two cards and began working on them rather belatedly.  The dark gray background lent itself to white and black penlines for contrast.  I like the way the white dashes add a textured effect.

This background was made with pink and orange Alcohol Inks swirled around on shaving creme foam, then scraped off of the photo paper surface.  I looked at it a few times and began to see some possible shapes to enhance.  And that's how I "found" the worm/monster, the bird, the snake, the clouds, and the fantasy flowers.  It turned out to be very much fun!

A Rainy October Day

Three plump pumpkins in a row

Out-of-focus Gerbera Daisy

Silvery pattern

Gold pattern

Some Decorated Matchboxes

At first I wasn't sure how to begin 

with these tiny matchboxes,

 until I decided to start with a Christmas theme 

and make them into little presents. 

Then I thought of "money"

and finally, fairy tales.

The Castle designed box has fake grass inside,

some tiny white-dotted red mushrooms,

a little fawn and a ladybug.