Prizes! Giveaway!

Starting on August 25th American Holiday Artist will be hosting a all member blog giveaway. Giveaway will end on Sept 12,2010. To enter on the 25th just leave a comment on each blog that has a announcement and prize for the giveaway. Each artist will have a prize giveaway , so be sure to visit all our wonderful artist members. For a list of artist blogs go to
www.ahaartistsstudios.com our new site to debut on Aug. 25th.

Our new deck!

I thought I would share something else with you today. Even though we are still in winters clutches for the moment our backyard is in glorious living color. My husband decided it was time for a real deck to enjoy our blooming backyard. We had a pebble concrete deck before which wasn't very foot friendly for those of us who go barefoot virtually all the time.
Now it is soft & smooth to the foot and so inviting! However, it is drizzling again, sigh, and the ground is squashy , wet & cold on my feet as I take these pictures. Pooka & Chloe' investigate while I take pictures, silly doggies think there might be something new out there to find. They are fascinated with the pond, probably because of the singing froggies. They are only 1 1/2 inches long fully grown but boy do they like to singing!
Notice the gray skies..... Our backyard is long and sort of narrow, our a corner lot the slopes down on the far side. We wanted to create a intimate & private setting especially as our neighbors are fairly close on the backside. I think we managed to create a private sanctuary with all of the towering trees and lush foliage. This is our secret garden. Where Clematis commingle with tiny pink climbing roses, on hidden trellis's and climb the vintage white rattan headboards set out for them. There is a small waterfall that has been over taken with green leafy ground cover with it's purple flowers. Now if only the sun would grace us for a while , we could have it all!
Can you find Alice , the white rabbit, Daisy, the caterpillar and the mad hatter ? Probably not since the pictures a so small, but I have Alice sitting near the front of the waterfall Daisy is nestled to her left and the caterpillar is tucked in amongst the ferns . The rabbit and mad hatter are sitting shaded under the burgundy and green leafed Japanese maple trees.
For those of you with the sun shining on you , I envy you , for those of us that sit under the gray skies of the Pacific Northwest, hang in there our day in the sun will come! Blessings Susan

And their off!

The kids are finally starting their tour! Few oops along the way, our cook trailer hasn't made it out off the state yet it broke down in Pendleton OR. So they rented a refrigerated Uhaul moved all the cold foodon to it and started off again. Then the van had a blow out arghhh! So our little band of Drum Corp members are trudging their way to Dubuque Iowa slightly behind schedule , but troubles side, the kids got to have McDonald's twice now. Since they haven't been allowed "junk" food I am sure they didn't mind too much. We have done all we can to send them on their way with 20 prepared frozen meals that may or may not be cooked since the cook trailer is about 1700 miles away from the Corp buses and vans!
I have been working on my Halloween pieces all week and finally see some progress. Today was get out of the studio day by going out to breakfast yeah! But then over to Spencer's Alley to work on my boothes. My hubby helper came too, which was awesome because he can reach those really high places ! I rewarded him [and me too] by getting Panda Express for dinner. Yum.

I have two really awesome ways to raise money for the Oregon Crusaders that doesn't cost anyone a dime. The first is Goodsearch.com & Igive.com.
If you would like to help us raise money please use these to websites the first one is a search engine that you log on to it will ask you to type in your charity hit the verify button and start searching like normal every search you make adds money to our cause. The other is IGIVE.com you log in ,set up the charity name, verify and then pick from hundreds of stores that participate including my fav's EBay, amazon, Sears etc. every dollar you spend with these stores will donate part of the sale to the charity you choose. please choose Oregon Crusaders Drum & Bugle Corp. oregoncrusaders.org

Well it's time to transform into my nighttime persona "the couch potato" It's been a long day! Is it bedtime yet?