Pinterest!

So I'm a little slow in coming to Pinterest...ok, a LOT slow! I mean half the female population has been pinning for, I don't know how long! And what I have been missing! The world will never be the same for me... Being a very visual person that LOVES color, and well, stuff, it's just a load of fun...See you on Pinterset!
Enjoy
Marianne. :)
ps. The photo below is an altered photo of an encaustic piece that I did this year. Lots of color, and my words... :)

Pretty in (mostly) pink...

Just adding a few of my loves together...flowers, especially hydrangeas and cone flowers, (though i will probably have a new favorite this year), drawing, creating one of my Curlie Girls, photography and altering my photographs...
Enjoy...
Marianne :)

Photo Fun with "Little Owl"...

I'm having way too much fun photographing my new (and only) grand son this week... My mind can not stay still with all the creative and crazy ideas that are popping through it! I'm also enjoying...holding, feeding, burping, cuddling, admiring...lovely... Such a sweet time...What a blessing and gift a child is...
Thank you LORD for Wylie Jackson...
Enjoy...( I certainly am! )
Marianne :) :)

Bloom! Journal page...

One stamp, many colors...This is a simple journal page where I took a favorite stamp and placed it in random places on the page...I had an idea in mind, make a different "flower" from each stamp, with different shapes and colors...I tried to make them all as individual as could be, with the face as the common theme... See how the amount of ink and shading of the faces actually makes them look more intense or innocent? Anyway, just a bit of black ink, one "baby" stamp as I call it, a sharpie pen ( fine, non-bleeding) and AquaMarkers make for a fun, easy and relaxing journal page, card or small art piece...The sky's the limit!
Hope you Enjoy,
I did!
Marianne :)

I AM AN ARTIST! SUZI SAYS SO!

I am an Artist. Suzi says so!
I remember the first time I saw this, heard her say this... I am referring to the fabulously talented Suzi Blu! I was sick, in bed and depressed a couple of years ago and stumbled onto Suzi's great YouTube videos and then her website... I watched her videos over and over again, so attracted to her art and style... and when I heard this statement, something in me was set free... I didn't have to be trained in art school, have graduated from art college... I could just be me, little ol' me, drawing, painting, crafting, majorly enjoying these things and be an Artist! It didn't matter that I was a Mom too and wife and that I had dedicated many years to bringing up kids, throwing birthday parties, making painted T-Shirts and custom cakes and homemade hair bows...Singing, teaching, cooking, crafting, taking pictures, decorating my home, gardening, raising chickens and making a cozy place to live...It didn't matter because...I was an Artist too!
I took Suzi's online drawing class and ended up getting to meet with her several times. ( I wrote about this last year in a couple of LONG blogs.)...Anyway, I will continue on this subject in the next couple of posts but I just wanted to tell you that I got her AMAZING new book this week from Amazon and this picture and her statement are in it. I highly recommend this delightful and beautiful book, it comes with a video too but I have been SO into the book that I haven't even had a chance to view it, yet...
From: MIXED MEDIA GIRLS with Suzi Blu
"I AM AN ARTIST! SUZI SAYS SO! Yes...you. Little and meek, wanting so very badly to make beautiful paintings, you think, "Who am I to do this?"..."
"YOU ARE AN ARTIST! And if you don't believe it yet, believe that I believe!" Suzi Blu

Thanks Suzi, for the vote of confidence, for sharing your skill, for your fun videos, for teaching us, for believing in us and setting us free to draw, paint and enjoy and for your wonderful new book!
Enjoy...And go order that book!
Marianne :)

Mason...part 1

Dear Ball Perfect Mason Jar, how I love thee! I love the bubbles captured forever in your shining glass, I love your raised letters that reflect the light and show off who you are...I love how you look so good, just sitting around being yourself! It doesn't matter weather you are in the kitchen, living room or bathroom, people just can't help but notice how handsome you are...I love how anything that you are holding looks extra special, from buttons to cotton balls, you are always dressed so smartly. But Mr Mason, my very favorite thing about you is that you are an incredible shade of blue, and oh how I love blue! You are that snappy peacock blue, that look-how-good-I-look-today-kind-of blue...that kind that looks so great on its own...
(see Mason part 2 below)...

Mason...part 2

...and holding flowers!
Enjoy!
Marianne :)

"Working" on...

So this is one of the things I've been working on lately... I should say "playing", because that is what it feels like, pure pleasure!! These are Twinkling H2o's, just dabbled in the general shape of a flower... Then I come back, and this is the REALLY fun part, with a Fine Sharpie and start "picking" flowers! Hummm, what type flower does this one remind me of? And I start outlining, adding details... I'm not quite finished with this one and I'm showing that on purpose. In the top right hand corner of the first rectangle, you can see some unfinished flowers. I've already decided that they will be poppies, but just for illustration sake, I'm showing them to you undone...
Hope you Enjoy!
Marianne :)

My Big "Little" news....

I'm very happy to announce that a new, beautiful little life has entered this world: His name is Wylie Jackson and he has completely captured my heart. ( And ALL my camera lenses, believe me!) The fact that I am his Oma (Dutch for Grandma), makes it amazingly special! I feel much too young to be a Grandma, but I wouldn't change this love and feeling for him for anything in the world!
Welcome to this imperfect world little guy, you just made it a whole lot more beautiful!
Love from Oma...
And Enjoy from Marianne :) :)

My beautiful Mother and avoidance...

This was my beautiful Mother. The tiny black-haired beauty... She was born Cornelia vanderBrugge in 1926. The cute little blond next to her was her sister, Magdalena... You may be wondering why the subject is my Mom and avoidance...But I have been avoiding you because of her...You see, my sweet Mama passed away on February 11th...and I want to write a tribute to her, just the right thing, just the right words...and have several pictures of her, my favorites...But I feel inadequate to express her worth, her value to me, her beautiful life...I have things to say to you, things to show you...But until I can accomplish what I want to, they seem so petty...
She was sick a very long time...with Alzheimer's...I have written about her before and who she was to me and about her dreaded disease...She slipped away as the years went by, more and more, until all that was left of her was her body...laying in a hospital bed, day in, day out...But I still loved her and needed her and as strange as it sounds, there was still comfort that her body remained...I don't mean that in a cruel way...I wanted her to be whole again...she knew where she was going and I knew where she was going and that I would see her again when my time came... I prayed for the Lord to take her home so that she would be healed...forever...I just didn't realize that I wasn't ready, not really ready to let her go...several people have told me that you never are ready...as much as you think you are prepared, as sick as they may be...to know that on this earth you will never see their precious face again...it makes it so hard to let go...But then there comes that time, that is their time to go...and you don't have a choice...
So for today, I don't have the perfect words, the right tribute... I just have...I love you Mama, I love you still so much...and you were the best Mother to me...an incredible example...a beautiful, beautiful life...lived for the Lord...lived for others...so giving, so kind...I will miss you on this earth until I take my last breath...I thank you for everything you were, to me and others...for everything you gave...my precious, precious Mother...I would not be who i am if it had not been for you...
Good bye sweet, beautiful Connie Jane vanderBrugge Vandenberg ...
10-21-1926 to 2-11-2012...What a beautiful life, inside and out...
I sang "Fly to Jesus" to her many times...and she did.
Your loving daughter,
Marianne

Rainy Op

Here's a fun little rainy day photo op..a very shiny red truck, street lights, rain and ta-dah! A bit of silly, pleasing phone-camera fun...
Enjoy
Marianne :)

Another Encaustic piece...Mom and Dad...Random Arts and Patricia B. Seggebruch

Here is another Encaustic piece that I did yesterday at Random Arts in Saluda, with Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch. What fun! This piece has a photo of my Mom and Dad on their wedding day. Didn't they make a handsome couple? They were so in love, you can even see it in the photo and that is how they stayed my whole life. What a privilege I was given, to have had that beautiful, loving example. Patient, kind, giving, godly...and they so loved and accepted me... encouraged, supported, helped...prayed for me... Thank you Mom and Dad for everything you were to me, for everything you did. I carry you in my heart forever and in my life...I lost my Dad more than 22 years ago to a heart attack, and my Mom's mind and strength to Alzheimer's. Although she technically still lives, she does not know me, nor does she open her eyes. Poor, sweet little thing...

all you can leave behind my children, my friends
is the mark you have left on the lives of others... is beautiful, make it kind...M

Ps. also in this piece: blue and green fibers, pan pastels, one of my photos, a couple of old Dutch postage stamps, a vintage Dutch advertisement and words, a stamped, painted and torn scrap of an old project, a punch shape from Tim Holtz, gold Pearl ex, some metallic thread AND a lot of wax! Yes, that about covers it!
I hope you enjoy and check out:

http:randomartsnow.com
http:pbsartist.com
http:gingerfetish.blogspot.com

Marianne :)

Encaustic!

Encaustic. Sigh. Look at that beautiful texture! More to follow...
Enjoy
Marianne :)

Fun with focus...p.p.

Here's a little fun with focus point. Or I should probably say-out of focus, cause most of it is...but it's still fun to me...yes, this is a bookshelf in my home...color coordinated, stacked books...I love how it looks and have had it like this for years, changing it up a bit from time to time...but with the same ideas or basic elements in place..it's one of my favorite places to look in my house... neat and every time my eyes hit on this shelf, with two of my favorite things, COLOR and BOOKS, it gives me a restful feeling... I mean, how could you go wrong with either color OR books?!
Hope you Enjoy and comment...
Marianne :)
Yep, there it is, my name and not a letter... ;)

Blessings...

You can tell it was a beautiful day today, took several photos outside...phone pics ;)
Count your blessings, name them one by one...you'll feel better, blessed! I promise!
Enjoy!
M. :)