Belated Christmas/Happy Holidays greetings...

okay...some one opened the barn doors of busy and all the cows ran out to the pasture....I have spent the last two weeks trying to herd them all back in....on foot..with bare feet in the snow...up hill...both ways....KWIM?...yikes was it crazy...so lets see if i can recap a bit.
Office party on the friday 21st...was wonderful but spent half the week getting ready ..the other half jumping from childrens events and Christmas parties and such and also nusring a cold and stomach flu at the same time....I had two drinks on Friday...too sick for much more..it was fun and wonderful though! Art has such a wonderful staff....and the husbands/SO were sweet too. The girls got me a cute little gift basket with my all time favorite scent Bath and Body works stuff...Vanilla....YUM *scratch Here to smell*..ha ha jk...I am still waiting for "smell-o-vision"..wouldn't that be fun?

Art and the girls

I just love this picture of Art...he is so darn cute...okay yeah even after 12 + years I am still in love *sigh*

Saturday the 22nd..Turner and his cub scout troup visited a nursing home...they had made over 100 cards and ornaments to pass out to the residents. Turner was so sweet and gentle with the older people. I wish I could have captured his expression..tilted head and all when he was talking to them. I was on the verge of tears almost the whole time..bless all these peoples hearts~

okay i did splurge a bit and took some time off in between shopping on Saturday and Sunday...i needed it. MY feet have been hurting so bad for the past couple of months i seriously need time off of the poor things...Any way..my splurge caught up with me on Christmas Eve...i scrambled and finished my shopping and also picked Ashton up at the same time..arriving home close to 8...made home made pizza...and guess what?..i had to WRAP ALL of the presents still..around 12:30 i had a melt down and cried...and cried..Salina finally peeled away from her ex????huh/ WTF?...and helped me like she said she would hours before....so we finished around 1...i fell into bed. I did manage to sleep like a log and woke up with a much better attitude (PMS, wine and exhaustion just don't mix well) So Christmas was fun...the kids had a blast opening presents..the kids got us lovely gifts and it was mostly just us...I stayed in my jammies all day. this year i decided to stray from the norm and created a new tradition for dinner...surf and turf!! YAY! it was awesome~ NY strips, Crablegs(lobster tail for Art)hushpuppies, stuffed mushrooms made from scratch and no recipe, stemaed beans, dirty rice and shrimp cocktails...yumyum...a new tradition was born..we all decided it was awesome!

here are the kids after opening presents

the madness of unwrapping begins...it looked like Armageddon around here...oh wait..it still does..rofl~
Today..the house is a wreck and I seriously don't care......and we went to see Golden Compass...very, very cool movie~ I love the subtle hints of some of the madness we see in our own society..(especially the wacky controls of the Catholic Church..no offense to any Catholic readers..but hey..i am a recovering Catholic that suffered abuse from vicious nuns when i was a child...HA! any movie they recommend not seeing must have something good in it..like hiding truth from its followers....gees i am being quite political tonight huh?)..ha ha...any way the movie was refreshingly different and had beautiful visuals...I hope Art gets it in Hi Definition when it comes out so I can see the beauty in more detail, than what theaters offer now adays...I hope they can make the sequel..Daniel Craig is a great actor...and he was the dad...with potential for an awesome role in the next one...

I know I am fogetting a whole lot of goings on...and am so behind. I participated in two AWESOME 12 days of Christmas swaps and took some pictures..but then life got out of control and never had a chance to take picvtures of all the beautiful gifts. WOW1 it was such a treat every morning to open a couple of treasures from my art friends...and also somewhere in this madness a nephew was born..a week ago I think. Ryan, my little sister, gave birth to her second child..a little boy named Sawyer Beckett Keay...here he is 4 days old with his big sister Sydney...yay! more babies ....love love babies~Here is my last remix outfit...a thrifted brown knit dress....oh my it is comfie...with red leggings from forever ago...brown Nine West shoes from Good will and hand made rag ball necklace and earrings...just right for finishing up Christmas shopping on Christmas eve...christmas was jammie day..no pics for you of that..rofl!

okay so now that the holiday madness is over, i am hoping I can have a really nice boring couple of months...here's to winter and boring~ *clink clink* wine glass lifted to my little world here...rofl~

Crazy but better week....if I didn't have the crud

Okay first off....good news about Bob. We got the biopsy results back and there is no liver cancer and no cancer markers in his blood. As far as they can tell he had a fatty liver from his high cholesterol levels...but all of that is treatable. He has a couple more spots that are being checked before he is completely out of the woods. But, compared to having less than a year to live..well, we take it as very very good news! Some one needs to smack that doctor for scaring all of us so...

The drive through the blizzard in Ohio was right on top of my to do list....I think that will do me for another 20 years or so..phew! that was pretty scary!

So we got the tree up Tuesday, thanks to two 20's and bribing Ashton and his buddy to help me..it is now fully decorated along with the rest of the house...phew! finally!~
and this morning...well the sniffle and bit of body aches I have been fighting the past couple of days, hit me full blown..bleh...along with some other unmentionable symptoms..I think though, the aspirin are kicking in and the body aches are subduing a tiny bit....wish me luck..i still have to Christmas shop for the kids..and get little gifties for the two little one's Christmas parties at school this afternoon...

WEll not to leave you on a downer here is a bit of cheer for you in the meantime...off to go blow my nose...my elf name is:

Your Elf Name Is...

Baby Ho-Ho-Ho

What's" Your Elf Name?

baby ho ho ho...rofl!

what a week of good news and some bad news...

This has been such a full and crazy week....go get your cup of tea ...this is going to be a long post! Just to get it out of the way..I will give our bad news first. We got a phone call fromArt's sister Judy about Art's (Art is my husband) brother Bob...Bob had gone into the hospital to get his gall bladder taken out and while in there doing the surgery the Doctor saw that his liver was fully spotted. His guess was a full blown, advanced case of liver cancer. Ugh! We have been such a state of shock~ Bob is only 57 and has never had any health problems his whole life. We got a glimmer of hope today. The doctor told Judy that there is a 20% chance that it could be something else...non cancer...some sort of scarring or something. So we won'tknow for sure until the biopsy results come back. So please any of you reading this say a prayer for Bob! He is a sweet man and it would be nice to have him around a while longer. We are making a fast trip over to Pittsburgh this weekend..leaving Saturday morning and coming back sunday night.



Okay to cheer things up now....I subjected Oscar to some Christmas cheer..they say laughter is the best medicine after all....he is probably thinking...."why mamma?..why do I have to do this stuff?..it itches" he also is telling you Merry ChristmasSo lets see what has been packed into this whirl wind week...Ah tueday night the Christmas program at the kids school...Turner is way in the back on the right side...5 kids over without his hand to his head...
I had gone to good will last week and found all sorts of fun things..lots of thing ready to wear and a pile of things to alter into things to wear. With all this extra weight on me...that i do cry about at times...leaves me frustrated so much...But, I have decided that I am going to play with my outfits and look as fun and nice as I can....I have gotten caught up into this craze over on flickr called remixing..remix outfits are usually with some sort of vintage or thrifted piece or two or twenty. Here I am also wishing every one a happy holiday~oh I made the earrings out of buttons...modeled after a pair of off white ones I found at Salvation ArmyHere is my fun plaid skirt..that cost around $3....with a top for $2.50...layered with a sweater from Goodwill from many years ago...leggins from target and fun striped socks underneath..I actually got a tiny bit of art done...my cover of my RR book...My story is about a child vampire named Amelya...this is her journal she has kept for the last 200 years. I have the backgrounds done..just need to add my artwork...
Last night was cubscouts..they had their Christmas party and Turners troop had to do the flag ceremony to earn one of their badges. Originally the party was for tonight..but we had bad weather last week and everything got switched around..so at 4:15 yesterday I found out that the party was moved from our school tonight to the other elemetary last night..ACK!!!! I had to make 4 sashes for the color guard and his scroll for his part, Turner had to make his flag and I was still smelly and sweaty from the gym earlier...we had to be there in 1 1/2 leaving 15minutes travel time...so in 40minutes I made all of this:These are the times I thank God that I am good at what I do...



so after that I showered and sticking to my fun clothes pact to myself, I came up with this outfit..inspired by the shoes....and the cool skirt I had found on my trip to GW...you know it is about the shoes..always the shoes...

see the cute owls on the side!
tada....here I am...nut case aren'tI?..rofl!...i see Oscar is making off with something..
This week also came with one of the most exciting things ever...I had been asked by Stampington.com(publisher of many many cool magazines including my all time favorite Somerset Studio) to create a project with two of their new products. I created the project withing two days...and turned around sent it back...they used it to introduce their new product of the week...Originally it was to be featured in their weekly smaller Creative Impulse newsletter..but when i emailed a preview and scans they asked me to overnight it to include in their monthly huge newsletter...I am their featured artist...WOW!!!!! I amstill blown away by this~
Project of the Month"ATC Calendar"by Angela Hoffman
Angela Hoffman’s magnificent artwork has been featured on the pages of many Stampington & Company publications. As our Featured Artist for this issue of Post Script, she has created an “ATC Calendar” that will keep you inspired all year long! Her beautiful calendar was made with brand new products from The Shoppe at Somerset, which are being offered exclusively to our Post Script subscribers at a 5% discount before their official release on December 14th. Click here to see the instructions for Angela’s project, and to purchase the featured products before they become available to the general public!
actually click here for real


oh some days...when life is just hectic and out of control...you find a moment of Grace...a quiet moment, when something in nature gives you a tiny touch of God..where you just have to stop and take a deep breath and say "AH!!! this is the miracle of life"...this was one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen~ the contrast of the deep blue with orange horizon just took my breath away...i was pumping gas on my way to Turner's pack meeting and turned around...and WOW!!!~

here is Turner fulfilling his color guard drill sargent duties..I was so proud of him! and one last giggle...Oscar revisted in his elf costume...he cracks me up!~
and to all a goodnight!
xoxox
angela

working on some projects...

I am about 3 weeks behind on one of my projects..I am hanging my head in shame..it is an RR book for a dark themed altered Book Round Robin...i have been working on it finally. I got stumped at my initial starts..something was wrong..i hated it and couldn't get past that for a while and have let all of the other things take higher priority..although in some ways they were more pressing and urgent. I finally realized the main problem..not the concept but my main character..i wasn'tconnecting because i needed a better main character. I have picked the theme of vampires as my subject...and i for somereason was having a hard time until i came across the "littleest Vampire" and decided my story was to be about a little vampire..with other child vampires as her friends and characters in my beginning story. But i had used modern images for the intial character...and hated it...so i kept coming back to this one photo I had come across and it was perfect.. I found her and cut her out as my main character...and now I am rolling...lots of details in the book so it may take a day or more....but! I am over the hump and block and am on my way....Now since I am the hostess...if I caused any problems I do have the power to extend any deadlines..lol!

I was also working today on trying my hand at some new techniques...so many artists create these gorgeous collages with painted faces and figures on top...i have been wanting to do this for ages...DJ Pettitt is one of my favorite artists that has inspired me over the years...and now I see more and more...i really would like to get into this...it is a whole new territory for me...i very rarely have painted people...so it is new and a bit frustrating because it isn't perfect..but like anything else new..I have to start somewhere~

just a quickie hi..

am creating some today...cleaned up my studio a bit yesterday and then surfed blogs last evening...totally wasting art time. But when i am tired it is hard to get motivated. Today i am working on a bunch of projects simultaneously! Ha ha...tell me something new! Any way i didn't want any one to think i fell off the face of the earth..i am still here!

Last week I created a snowflake fairy rider...i might get ambitious soon and create some more winter fairies for a new collage sheet..but in the meantime I would like to share her with my devoted readers...
you know, the one or two that I have...lol!...please feel free to grab her and use her in your art!

til later..have more to share but need to go into a picture taking mode first..in the meantime back to my art...the photos are done printing...xoxox
angela

wow! what a crowd!

Okay i know it has been a while again...but hey! entertaining 19 people for Thanksgiving is a chore and a half...i am happy to report that I did survive! My dad and Stepmom Carol arrived last Friday and are here until tomorrow....Last week added to the mix tuesday and Weds 3 am was my mom, Russ(her boyfriends...and i got the hugest kick out of the fact that Jon kept calling him hustle instead of Russell..kids are so cute)..also Michael, Dominique my new SIl that i got to meet for the first time, baby Kai my 4 month old nephew and Dominques 2 older children Sasha and Sophia. then Weds My oldest brother Stephan, my big kids and their 2 roommates..a total of 19. Thanks giving dinner was a huge hit...after 4 hours of cooking with help from a few I was able to feed the masses! Seems like every one enjoyed themselves and complimented the chef. during preparations we enjoyed beautiful violin music played by Russ...what a perfect touch to the day!

dinner being consumed

all of the family! i like the top view better..but this is cute too!~
so not much art has happened, I am behind on a few things including my book for our dark RR...i tried working on that but no time..until today..but i had to get something else out of my system...keep going it is at the bottom of this post...but I managed to get a few things done..like putting my holiday charms from my swap that i got out right before the family arrived...I added them to an existing necklace i had madeand I was able to consildate all of my charms to one necklace and a bracelet...just hope i don't topple when i wear them

Carol and I made a trip to my favorite antique store...i scored big time...i found tons and tons and tons of vintage lace for dirt cheapand a load of hand crocheted doiliesvintage buttons and sewing notions
these really cool butterfly pins and vintage hats...here is one out of the 8 that i bought...I actually went back and bought them a couple of days later.....i couldn't stop thinking about them...they inspired my therapy project!

My family started to leave, Stephan friday morning, Michael et al Saturday morning, mom and Russ visited his sister for the day Saturday...and Carol and I came up to play in my studio for the day yesterday and today!! I found that Carol makes the most incredible studio mate...she had so much fun making her own things....oh i have to go sneak some pics before she claims her projects...but inspired by the vintage hats I bought, i created a paper top hat...collaged papers with all sorts of fun embellishments including an onion bag for the netting, telephone wire, antique lace and wired ribbon! I had to add some humorous words..after I realized that the technique worked, but i messed up royally....so I went with it..and added more collage images....I had sewn the houses upside down..ha ha..so i just addded some right side up ones on top!

the school images was added as a symbolic image representing the fact that this was a learning project...and some sayings about humor and attitude to indicate the humor in the whole project..what fun it was!
so in closing..I hope that everyone that reads my blog enjoyed their holiday...and hope that i did not bore you to tears..and off to go visit a bit more with Dad and Carol

xoxox

ketchup everywhere....

okay catching up on the misc stuff that has happened the past week and also a couple of Halloween pics. Last week was so crammed with stuff I had to use this week's quota of room to write in every thing..conferences Monday, swim practice 3 evenings, had to make this cake for cubscouts auction weds, cleaned the house in between and finished by thursday.continue down for my grand tour of my very clean house....and no it does not stay that way...i do like to do artwork once in a while...oh and tuesday afternoon I went to the restaurant we are having catering our Christmas dinner for Art's office...and so thursday I treated myself to lunch when i finished the house!!!

the boys for Halloween...Jonathon as Darth Vader, Turn as a knight...because he wanted the weapons..rofl..and Ty as the grim reaper or whatever it was.... Salina as a penguin...
oh I forgot our new addition....the rat.... I don't know what her name is...something weird and I can't remember it...

this is the pile from cleaning for 5 days straight...I was on my way for a treat at the BiCi Bistro...yumyum!! I think it has the best food in our humble little city...I will visit there frequently!~

Isn't their sign awesome! BiCi means bicycle in Italian, the whole restaurant is themed with bikes and bike racing..very cozy and a fun atmosphere~

and on my way out I had to make a quick visit to the ladies room..this is the view from the toilet...i love it!okay my hands are going to fall off...please continue below and tour my home.....I have pics of Dad and Carol from the trip back from the Dtroit Metro aiport but I have had enough blogging for the moment..I also am going to take pictures of my AWESOME load of goodies from Carol and my trip to the antique store yesterday...wow! what treasures~...more later!

xoxox

angela

home tour...

Welcome to my home! for years I have wanted to do a complete(well almost) tour of my home!!! and since we have company here, with more coming for Thanksgiving and the house is as clean as it ever has been, I had decided to create a photo tour of my home! Our home is almost 6000 sq ft, the main living area is the downstairs areas and the upstairs is occupied my art studio and my hubby Art's home theater...I did not take pics of either but will provide links to each in the appropriate parts of the tour! Please feel welcome and i hope i don't bore you to tears with my tour! Our front foyer when you walk in the door. The stairs in the back go up to my studio..you can tour that here, It is a page of before and afters of a complete clean out this past spring....it isn't as clean as the after pics..but isn't nearly as bad as the before...when you turn to the left this is what you see....and then turn to the right to the interior parts to the home...my kitchen:

and a tiny seating area further to the right my living room
the hallway beyond the living room

right before you go through the hallway is the french dor out to the patio and to our brand new deck and hot tub..YAY!!! it was just completed this past week~through the hallway and to the left is the master bedroom...i can't remember when it was last this clean...I had just hung the pieces above my bed and over the fire placethe masterbath..nothing to exciting
in the hallway to the right: our Rec room...i also call it the pool table room...Art laughs at me..through that door is the messy garage...we had this room remodeled afew years ago...like the rest of the house. The house started out with 2000 sq feet and we have added and added....perpetual construction ...ugh! back through the hallway and turn to the left...the Living Room..we spend most of our time herea view to the rest of the main areai love my kitchen!~
this does not include my art magazines and huge collection of books usptairs
one of my paintings from a while back..through that tiny hallway is Art's office, tyrus room and the "boys bathroom"
Tyrus has a love for space....so i painted a planet scene of our solar system with the sun being the center light fixture! He still needs his curtains put up~

a little view of Art's office..it is so cozy in there~

the "boys bathroom"

this is the back hallway....go through the kitchen past the table...see above

a view from the right end of the hallway...3 bedrooms along the right, the laundry closet to the left..ha! no laundry in the hallway today! and the pantry down on the left...oops..I forgot to close the door!
behind me when taking the previous pictures, Salina's bathroom...the cleanest in a year or more...and notice dad's "oh shit!"bar as Stephanie calls them...that had me rolling~The builder put one inside and outside so dad could shower safely~


the first bedroom from the bathroom...of course...Salina's adorable room. I redecorated it for her for her 16th birthday last January!I am so proud of the stripes~ It is a kind of neaveau victorian New Orleans sort of look..lolthen Jonathon's room....It was Salina's old room with her old mural...after i redo Turners poor room Jon'swill be next..but for a 5 year old it is happy...he hasn't whined about the mermaid yet..rofl~Turners room, it seems so grubby and he has stickers all over everything and his blind is beyond needing replaced..I plan on doing this after the holidays. I am going to paint a city scape with robots along the top!the pantry!..yum lots of food!and last but not least..the stairs that leads to Art's home theater that you can tour here