Only a few more days until Christmas.  At our house everyone is home and things are getting very busy.  I think I can say without offending anyone that this is the cutest of our house guests.  Evie is only half the size of our cat.  However she loves Basel.  Basel loves Evie, when he notices her.  Sometime he just thinks there's a slight breeze around his paws.  He has taught Evie to eat snow.  Evie has not managed to teach Basel that snow is cold.  Merry Christmas everyone! 

Only a week ago I took a picture of this lonely fern in the forest near our house.  The yellowy green of the fern is my favorite colour.   Today it seems out of place and impossible in our snowly world.  So I've decorated it with my terrible photo editing skills!  For any of you who have not ventured into image manipulation there is a great program called GIMP which stands for "General Image Manipulation Program". That about sums up what it does.  It's free to download and there are about a billion instructional tutorials on the web.  Hours of fun.  The trouble is I don't usually have hours so I've never really learned how to use it properly.  This means that when I want to do something simple with it I can be awhile.   

When I'm not at my computer, or doing something mundane like cleaning, I'm working at my art table.  My table was driving me crazy because, being a drafting table, it was always on a slant.  This doesn't work well with collage.   I got quite good at catching rolling pens.   However,   thanks to my friend Megan,  I have a new drafting table which can go flat!  I had been coveting her table ever since I saw it in her garage.  It is perfect for my small space and I love the style.   It is called Odyssey!  I'm sure we will have many an odessy creating things together.  I have already made several Christmas cards at it and it was smooth sailing.

I have  so many great art projects on the go right now but I can't write about them!  They're top secret.  How frustrating!!  Keeping secrets always reminds me of my son Christopher when he was in pre-school.  Being a great talker he informed me..."I made you a secret present, Mom,  It's blue and it's a bowl, but I can't tell you anything about it."  He said this with a totally straight face.  It still makes me laugh.

I am going to show you my cards.  I don't usually make Christmas cards.  When the kids were young I decided to edit my Christmas activities for sanity sake and cards were one thing that got cut.  So when I was asked to make some it sounded like fun.

I carved my stamp from a soft lino block and then went wild with all kinds of different papers and paints.   Sometimes I went a bit overboard with the sparkley doo-dads, but that's what Christmas is for!  They are alot more textural in real life.  I hope the people that get them like them.  Now I must go.  I have more secret things to do!