How is everyone doing?

Hi AFFs!!  How are you all doing?  I know the main thing with everyone is...busy, busy, busy!  It is funny, you think that when your kids grow up you will have more time.  Then you think when it is winter you will have more time because you aren't outside working in yard.  Then you think when your aging parents get settled you will have more time.  Guess what???  You NEVER have more time!  It is true that once I went back to part time work my stress level and crunch of time relaxed a bit...BUT...then my kids all started having babies and I am busier than ever trying to keep up with them!  Mom has passed on but that left Dad with no partner and needing companionship.  It is still winter but my sewing room is a three season room and I can't really use it in the deep winter so all of my projects come in the house...all over the dining and living rooms!  What I am trying to say is that no matter what our circumstances, we all just have to keep trying to squeeze our creating time in and around our lives.  For people like us, it isn't a question, we NEED to create and we do just that, whenever we can. 

Just wanted to let you all know I am thinking of you all, I am feeling oh-so-much better about grieving through lots of things in my life that have kind of overshadowed me for a long time and I think I am going to work on Jody's FAB book today!  Yea!

Love you all, my AFFs.  Have a great Saturday and I hope you find time to create something today!!

axel

Denise's Book..."Time"

Hello AFFs! Finally finished up my pages for Denise...must admit, didn't go just as I had planned...ended up being a little more personal and cathartic than I had planned! You girls seem to bring out the emotions in me! Denise, I struggled a lot with the direction to take with your book and once I got into it, it kind of took on its own direction...I guess that is the joy of our group...let the art take it how it goes. Anyhoo, pix...

Finally working on Denise's book~yea!

Hello AFFs!  The New Year is off and running!  I finally had time today and the weather was warm enough (my studio is a three-season studio...not so great in the winter) that I could ponder and work on Denise's wonderful Altered Book.  Her theme is Moments/Decades/Time.  I was quite stumped for a long time...her book is a history book of Poland and I couldn't get past the seriousness of the book!  Finally decided I was over thinking it all and then couldn't decide if I should pick the decade of the 80's since that was when my kids were small or something else.  Finally, I decided to do the 50's since that was the decade when I was born and spent my early years in.  Then the question was do I do the 50's as history in the world at large to go with the history book that it was or do I do the 50's on a more personal level and what was popular in America in those times.  Finally I decided to just go through some of my stuff and see what struck me.  Yea!  I finally quit overthinking it!  Ended up doing the 50's as they pertained to me personally and things I remember from my youth.  Some of it brings back not so nice memories for me but much of it was happy and cheery.  I am finding working on this book and theme to be very cathartic for me at this time after my mother's death.  Enjoying working on it a lot...just wish I had had more time earlier to get it done sooner and keep the rotation going.  Oh well, can't control EVERYTHING in my life (like death of mother and major issues at work).  lol

My AFFs, have to say, was nervous about these altered books but am finding that when I quit over thinking them and just start playing with it I enjoy it very much!  Thank you Jody, for this genre!

Will post pictures before I mail this book on...will be several days.

Colleen

Jody's book arrived today from Minnesota...AWESOME!!

OMG!!!  Jody!  Your book is SPECTACULAR!!  I am totally awestruck by this book and how you have turned a very ordinary book into such a work of art.  Denise, your pages are just wonderful...so impressed with how you brought yourself into your pages...very, very nice.   Okay, I have 1 1/2 more weeks to work fulltime and then my life will be settling down and I will have time to FINALLY get to BOTH altered books I now have in my possession.  So sorry for being late getting Denise's book out...have my ideas and look forward to finishing it up. 

Happy New Year to you all...so fun receiving such inspiration in the mail from you very creative women!

Colleen

Happy Holidays!!

A very Merry Christmas to each of you and your families!!!

Jody's book....

Hello AFFs,
I am happy to announce that I am finished with Jody's pages! Classes ended on Tuesday so, I finally had some "me time" to put the finishing touches on it. I also got started on Kathy's book. Colleen, I will be mailing 1st thing in the morning - sorry for the delay.

Colleen's pages by Charlyn

Since Colleen's was a fairy tale book and she kind of followed that theme with her own projects I decided to do the same. After reading the stories (which I don't recommend, btw) I chose the one picture in the book with a horse on it and decided to pretty much ignore the story and just illustrate the good part of the fairy tale: where the handsome prince rescues the fair maiden from a life of drudgery and carries her off to the castle to live happily ever after. This is the little cabin in the woods where she toiled her days away...

This is the cold forbidding castle he was taking her to (but of course their love will fill it with laughter and joy(hehe))

"oh my love, I've waited for you for a life time! please take care of me and never let my dainty slipper touch the ground again" (simper, simper, coo, coo)

The whole shebang... hope you like it, Colleen!