Lucky Day!

Fall in Minnesota



Lately I have been having some good luck! I won a blog draw prize from Belinda Spiwak and she sent some fun extras, I received an ATC from Charlie in England along with some bonus prizes, and I won first place in a photo contest.

Belinda Spiwak is the moderator of the mixed media friends yahoo group. She taught at Create in Chicago, and has been published in numerous magazines. After Create Chicago she had a series of giveaways on her blog. I won three stencils from Crafter's Worshop which are wonderful. If that wasn't enough she also sent me one of her Halloween themed ATC's and some additional cut out's I can use with future projects. I made my technique book from an exchange in this group, the altered altoid tin purse and fabric paper are two other creations from being involved in this group. These are photos of my prizes.

I am also a member of Stitchtalk, not as active as many people but I have joined the ATC group. We have a one on one exchange each month. If you don't know ATC stands for Artist Trading Card, they are only 2.5" x 3.5." So far I have sent and received three cards. September's card came from England. Charlie sent a wonderful representation of her part of the world and I feel as if I just went on a virtual trip to the Peak District. The little cookbook she included has a number of pictures of the area. The postcard is a photo near where she lives, she said she likes to walk her dog in this area. Isn't it gorgeous! The red strip is a leather embossed bookmark. And the tiny stitched English Cottage is just amazing work. Thanks Charlie, I love it. Here are some photos of my bounty. I guess I will need to start a new slideshow for my ATC's. My October card will travel to Australia so I hope to finish it today and get it in the mail, it has a long way to travel.


My third lucky project was winning first place in the pets category for a local photo contest. Although maybe it is more persistence than luck. I have been entering this contest off and on for about 11 years. My son has a pet hedgehog. Not your typical pet, I know. He told me he was going to be watching her for a friend who was going on vacation. About ten days later I asked him when his friend was coming home. Well, the red flags went up when he kind of hedged the answer with a mumbled reply of "Not sure." Turns out his friend no longer wanted the hedgehog and he thought I would fall in love with her and not mind. She is kind of cute. I told him as long as he took care of her completely he could keep it. He does ask me to watch Boom(that's her name) while he cleans the habitat. Most of the time I just hold her with a towel on my lap. It was a beautiful day so he decided to let Boom walk around on our patio behind the house while he cleaned the hedgehog home. I came out to keep an eye on her because she can move really fast on the exercise wheel. She didn't go far in the yard, it was a pretty new experience for her. I brought my camera and caught quite a few shots. Last night at the City Council meeting I received a certificate from the mayor along with a $50 gift certificate to Axel's of Prestwick(a local restaurant). Boom's photo was in the city newsletter (October 2011) I received yesterday and may be published in the monthly city magazine(October, 2011). She is famous! This isn't the photo I won the contest with but I thought you might like to see a photo of "Boom."

Have a creative day.
Janet