Altered Visions: Yes it really IS OCTOBER!!

So sorry for being so lazy and not posting sooner!! It's not because I don't have anything to say either!! On the contrary! I have been quite busy since I last posted, so I really have not been just laying around snoozing and eating bon bon's!!!

As of the end of August I have been back to work again, so yes I have been a bit tired too after a long day but the weather was really the pits as well! Our spring was one of the wettest and yuckiest on record (yucky part my opinion of course!) We then had June which was the nicest part of summer and from there we went to HOT , HOTY and HOTTER!! Plus add LOTS of nasty humidity and yes my summer pretty well sucked in that sense! My garden went from mud to melted and peppers covered in aphids and watering constantly and then came end of Aug and September and the rains started up again and rarely let up! It was so not pleasant either!! So now sadly the tomatoes are slowly rotting into the ground and I have managed to salvage some and also some peppers but am now cleaning that all out!! I have planted some perennial garlic, some potato onions and multiplier onions and will see how they winter over! I surely am hoping the winter will be less brutal than the last one and an improvement over the spring and summer we have had this year!!! I am crossing my fingers!!!

Now that I have that off my chest............work is going quite well and I am happy that I have several of my same children back again and things are going well!! I did manage to get a whole week off in the end part of September and went to MI for a fabulous felting retreat with some awesome instructors and fab artists!! There was Elis Vermeulen that taught us 2 types of felted bags, pockets and so much more! She was unbelievably amazing and had such an aura about her, I truly enjoyed working with her and learned so much from her!! She is very intense, driven and gifted in her art work, do look at her blog!! Another instructor was THE Chad Alice Hagen! She is fabulous, oh so much fun and so funny as well! Her dyeing and resist dyeing techniques are fantastic!!! I truly learned a great deal from her!! Do a google search for her blog too (she hasn't updated in a bit though!) We also had a fun class with my friend Pamela MacGregor ,who is a very talented and also gifted felt artist here from good ole OH!! We created a fun felted cuff with her and also made a fused glass along with that with Jone Radoski, who was also the organizer of this fantastic retreat!! Another marvelous felt artist and wonderful instructor was Amira Mudfaery (she is on FB!). Though I didn't take her class on our day off (I was in dire need of rest! hehehe!) she was such an inspiration and joy to me I was so happy to have met her!! There were lots of new friends made and also some others I knew but had not met in person and also some of my friends too that I knew that came as well!! My dear dear friend Heather came and her beau too!! One of my roommates was Kristi Felts!! Her work is absolutely amazing! She was a wealth of knowledge and a great help to me ,as was my other roommate Eugenie too! They were wonderful and a joy to room with!! The week was truly magical and I had so much fun! I learned so very much and hope to get time now to apply all the techniques and knowledge to some new pieces I want to create!! I plan to try and go again next year!! The Creative Felt Gathering was sensational!!

I also participated in a fun paper swap and got some awesome papers to use in my journals I hope to create and sell in my etsy shop!! They are from Orit in Israel and I will post some pics as well in my flickr of the goodies I rec'd!! If you'd like to join in a paper swap go check out the site LaWendula to sign up!! I love FM's work and the swaps are fun! I am already signed up for this month and swapping with a gal in the UK!!Of course signed up for next month as well!!!

Well I think I have said it all for now! I will leave you with some fun pics below and do please check out my flickr and facebook pages to see all of my fab pics!! I had so many, that the ones on Flickr are not labeled but the ones on FB are!! sorry I was tired!!! I will also try and be more productive and post new posts and also update my etsy shop VERY soon! Stop back by to see what I am working on and creating!! I will also take pics of my Creative Felt Gathering pieces to share soon as well! didn't get them in with all my others as I was too busy keeping up with everyone else's stuff!!! Have fun and take care till next time!