Margarita's Day

"Mission Concepcion"

My friend and I visited the San Antonio Missions Friday. It was her birthday and she wanted to do something different. I'm always up for different. I enjoy outings such as these, especially with my dear friend "Margarita Chachacha". She is always so busy with her work. I had to force her to take the day off. The weather was beautiful, sunny and mild, temps in the 70's. It gave us a good reason to drive around with the top down in my beautiful new car. We were in heaven. I felt like I was in another world and yet so close to home!
San Antonio has five missions. The Alamo is the most famous, but we did not visit the Alamo. We've seen it numerous times and it's smack dab in the middle of downtown with too much traffic and way too many tourist.
We visited Mission San Jose, Mission Concepcion, Mission
San Juan Capistrano, and Mission Espada. I had never in my 27 years of living here in San Antonio gone to the two smaller ones Espada and San Juan.

"Mission San Juan on top and Mission Espada on the bottom"

They look very much alike. I have to say they are not my favorites but I'm glad I went to see them.
Check that off my list.

Mission San Jose

These two pictures above are from Mission San Jose. It is much larger and maybe the second most visited. I remember going to this one on field trips with my children. It definitely has more to offer. The photo above of the statues are above the front entrance of the mission.

The one thing that I found interesting is that San Jose and Concepcion are nestled in quiet little neighborhoods. All the missions are on the south side which is not the developed side of San Antonio. This being the main reason I felt I was in another world. All in all it was a fun and pleasant adventure. I'm so blessed to be able to do this sort of thing. Thanks Margarita for coming up with this idea.
I hope you all have enjoyed my little tour of the missions. Maybe one day you too can come visit.
Hugs,
Charlie

Altered Art Journal Letter X

X Factor

"I am the x factor. I have no control. My muse leads me to create. Where she will take me I do not know."

The pair of shoes are a transfer. I'm not sure if it is noticeable or not. This photo is so light but you can sort of see the text coming through. I did a gel medium transfer. This technique is fun .....if it works! I've been hesitant to do this on these journal pages because if I messed up it would be a disaster. All I have to say is my little muse took over and said just do it. And it worked! I'm so excited!
There are a few things I did differently then previous tries. The first thing is to use a magazine clipping instead of a printed ink jet copy. The second thing is to put the gel medium on the surface instead of the art to be transferred. Mist the art so it is wet before you lay it down on the gel medium and let it dry completely before you start to rub off the top layer.
I'm going to practice using ink jet copies because I really hate using my magazine clippings. I believe the process will work with copies because I have read that you can use them.
Practice, practice, practice!
I'm still in my PJ's......giggle, giggle, so I have to get moving. My husband wants to look at cars during his lunch break. He is ordering a new company car. yuppppy!
Have a wonderful day!
Hugs
Charlie

Dia De Los Craftos

Moi, My Friends Margaret & Sara


As promised, here are the pictures of the craft festival "Dia De Los Craftos.
I'm really glad I joined this team. It is a group of artist who are on Etsy but happen to be from San Antonio. People have come and gone since we first formed this summer, but we now have a small core group that get a long really well.
I must note in the picture above with me are my friends who came to support me. They are not members in the Etsy group. My friend Margaret is the best. She tries to come to most of my shows. What would we do without our friends and family?
The purpose of this team is to find and then attend craft shows in our area. We realized that an internet shop was not enough. Our sells dropped this past year on Etsy and felt we needed to do more.
It is a little weird because I used to do shows alone before I got on Etsy. I joined Etsy because I was sooooo tired of doing shows. They are so much work. I have changed my inventory since my early days. I use to sell furniture and vinatage items, now I'm more artsy and crafty. AND having others to share a booth with or even tell you about an event makes it so much easier and much more fun!

Day of the Dead

"The Day of the Dead" also known as "All Souls Day" falls on Nov. 2nd, not to be confused with "All Saints Day" which is on Nov. 1." All Souls Day" is the day to remember the dead.
People honor loved ones who have passed on by building alters with paper flowers and decorated skulls. It is an imaginative and colorful celebration.
There are numerous "day of the dead" festivals happening tonight. I should go to at least one.....but I probably wont. I know I'm being lazy but I was downtown Saturday afternoon and evening for my Etsy's own version of the day of the dead festival. It turned out really nice. I'll post pictures of the "Dia de los Craftos" tomorrow.
Have a great day!
Charlie

The Witch Is In

All I need is my broomstick and then I'll fly off into the night. heheehee insert a witches cackle!
I have tons of work to do to get ready for the big event.
Mostly cooking up a tasty gruel (cupcakes) and then packing up the broom to fly downtown. Here broomy broomstick ....where are you????
Must be hiding. She is a little shy. She only comes out once a year. Gonna have to knock off the cobwebs and give her a good tune up before we leave. She does not like the tuneup.
Now where oh where could she be?
LOL
Well anyway, as I go off to find my broom I hope you all have a wonderful, spooky, fun filled
Happy Halloween

Something Pink

Yesterday I got a creative blog award from Bunny! Thanks Bunny!

I'm to name 7 things about myself that no one would know and then nominate 7 other people to get the award. Most of my friends have done this many times as well. I'll leave it up to all my blogger friends whether or not they want to do this. "You know who you are, if you want to, go ahead and run with it".
Now let me think.....seems I've told so much about myself in my journal that there can't possibly be anything you do not know.
1. I'll take this as an opportunity to vent. I need to vent ever once in a while. This is something you don't know about. #2. I bet you don't know my favorite food is hamburgers. #3. I'm a cheap date lol! I love a big juice greasy burger like this one from my favorite burger joint "Chris Madrid's".

Now this is a burger!

#4. My husband and I go out to eat a lot...I mean a lot, way too much! We eat fast food for lunch most everyday, especially now that he works out of the house. I cook sometimes in the evening but we go out then too. #5. We are empty nesters, what can I say. This is another thing I bet you did not know about me. Back to my venting.....anyway, #6. I think I'm a good judge on food and it's one thing I can complain about. We like to try new restaurants and especially new fast food restaurants. #7. I'm always on the search for a good burger. It's a simple little quest of mine. There seems to be a rash of fast food burger joints moving into San Antonio theses days. One of them is the Krystal Burger. They just moved down here this summer. Sooooo being the hamburger connoisseur that I think I am and loving to try new burger joints my husband and I decided to try this new place.
Let me tell you that Krystal burger is the absolute worst burger I have ever had. Period.
Look up at the top and remember that look when you think of hamburgers. That is what a hamburger should look like. Not a burger divided into four little itty bitty burgers like Krystal's. Not one with a patty so thin you can't even see it and especially not a steamed patty like they do at Krystal's. What is that???? Who steams meat????? Steamed meat would not be so bad. I guess it's healthy. But here's the thing by the time you get to the second little itty burger which is so neatly boxed up it's mushy. YUK!
The bun is soggy and gross. Who wants to eat soggy buns?????? We could not finish them. We threw them in the trash. Take my advise and don't eat at Krystal Burgers. YUKKIE!
Enough of my venting!

Thursday is pink thoughts day for breast cancer awareness. I took this shot especially for this purpose.

Pink flamingo's hanging out at Chris Madrid's

Altered Art Journal Letter W

"Wild Thing"

Of course I feel I'm a "wild thing"
tee hee at least I used to be. I love to go dancing.

I used a different technique for this page. This technique is especially helpful for incorporating full figure people images in your art. I'm not too confident drawing the human body so I found an image I liked in a magazine and glued it down. The next step is to gesso over the whole image. I used a watered down mixture for the face and arms and a full strength mixture for the dress. Using your creativity comes next. By gessoing over the dress you basically get a blank canvas. You can decorate it however you want. I added more hair to this girl and lightly drew in the facial features.
If you would like to see more of my journal pages look to the right side of this blog scroll down a little and click on any of the links under My Altered Art Journal.
Have a great day!
Hugs,
Charlie

Mad Hatter Tea Party

I'm early with this but Candace is having a mad hatter tea party tomorrow Oct. 24th. Stop by her blog and see whats cooking. It's sure to be mad. teehee.
I'm into digital art and jumped at the chance to combine my love of Halloween and the mad hat.
Thought it would be fun to see what I could come up with. I'm still pretty new at this. It is very addicting. I spend way to much time playing in P.S. I have photoshop elements 6. I'm sure it is a lot easier to work with then regular photoshop. Addicting none the less.
Have a great weekend y'all!
hugs,
Charlie