World Traveling Meerkat Giveaway and a Chubby Little House Giveaway!

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Closed For Entries - We Have A Winner!
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It's finally here! What you've all been waiting for!

Little Alchemy the Meerkat is getting ready to go to his final forever home.

Check out the three phases of super goodies that goes home with little Alchemy when he travels to his new home.

Niftyknits was so super kind as to post them but had to do them in three seperate phases as there was so much.

Her first post had an interactive map showing all the places Alchemy visited and showing what happened to little Treasure along the way.

The second post shows where Alchemy bravely steps in and heads out for poor lost Treasure and the goodies he picked up along the way.

And the final post shows Alchemy and the fabulous haul that comes with him.

photo by Niftyknits.

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In celebration of this fabulous giveaway I think that it's high time I had one of my own.

To enter just visit my etsy shop here, Fishstikks, and tell me which chubby little house is your favorite. If your name is chosen by the random number generator you may actually win your favorite chubby house!

I will give you until July 7th to get your favorite house chosen and posted here in the comments before I choose the winner! Everyone needs a chubby little house.

Some Adorable Little Inchie Notebooks

I've been missing doing inchies and decided to re-visit a couple old favorites for these little notebooks. They are only 3"x4" with an inchie attached to the front of them. I think they are so sweet.

Don't you just love them?

They are headed off to the shop.

Fresh Artwork Thursday Week #4

I know I know.

I can hear you all now saying but it's Friday!...again!

I am still having computer issues but now I'm starting to think that these "computer issues" are only happening on Thursday evenings when I go to post my Thursday challenge posts.
Is this a conspiracy to see how easily I will give up on this challenge?

Are dark forces working against me to see how weak I shall become?

HA! I think not! I shall prevail!

Hehe, I love the dramatic musical score that accompanies both these statements, at least in my head...*snicker*
I scanned the little white rabbit and then decided I didn't like his circle outline and proceeded to photoshop it right out of existence. I'm not so sure that was a good idea or not as he appears to be floating there now and we all know that trickery belongs to the Cheshire Cat!
I love the way his ears curve around the (used to be) circle.

This foxy little duo still has a slight curve at the bottom that shows they were indeed done in the round. I love their cheeky little grins.

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I've decided that just because it's so darn hot outside that it's totally time for a giveaway here.

Stay tuned for details to come!

*wink*

Happy Fathers Day!!

Such a handsome man isn't he?

I wish my Father a very Happy Fathers Day today!

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My Dad isn't much of a sports fan and neither am I. I chalk it up mostly to the area in which he and I both grew up in. We didn't have a major sports team in any sport in which to follow.

I have been fascintaed with the FIFA World Cup Soccer games being played over in South Africa of all places. Don't have a clue how to keep track of the game, the yellow cards, the penalties, the reasons behind what they do on the field but LOVE it when they score!

Anyone else out there watching?

Fresh Artwork Thursday Week #3

It doesn't matter how much you insist that it is really Friday today, no really...I swear it's only Thursday simply because I said I would do a post EVERY Thursday so today IS Thursday.

You get my logic now don't you?

Actually I believe I have a fairly decent reason. Granted I waited until right before I was going to get into bed to post it but my darn computer decided to totally freeze up on me and the call of my bed was ever so much louder than my curses flung towards the computer.

That being said I actually have fresh artwork to share, yippee!

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Two more round pages have finally made their way home. This first one had to travel all the way to Spain but he (she?) finally arrived.

The theme here was India.

What I don't know about India could fill several football fields so I had to do a little research on the subject and when I stumbled across some clipart done by an amazing artist Pieter Weltevrede at the Sanatan Society who are ever so kind as to offer up this particular piece royalty free.

All I did was draw it out as best I could within the confines of my round page and then used my colored pencils. I love the soft colors.

The next theme was flying soaring.

The birds wing actually comes out away from his body to give it a more 3-d feel.

Lime green anyone?

I think that almost everything I do HAS to have a little of this color somewhere in it. I told you, I have a fascination/addiction to this color!

Creepy Crawlies from the Garden and a Visit From the White Rabbit

Hop hopping through the garden I found the White Rabbit and followed him in.

Sweet little bookmark that's headed to the shop!

I then proceeded right back to the garden after securely tucking the rabbit someplace safe.

Wandering about in the garden I cam across a bunch of little lady bugs!

I love ladybugs, or wait, is it ladybugs? Probably a boy ladybug anyway and he is highly resenting me calling him a lady anyway. I love the polka dotted helmets they have, so polished.

While I searching out the ladybugs this guy rather startled me. he blended in with the scenery so well I almost didn't see him until I was right on top of him. Isn't he gorgeous?

Later in the afternoon I spotted him doing some strange almost dance in the sun and raced back outside with my camera in hand to catch him again! He was actually dancing or something that would most likely get him a guest spot on the Ellen show, hehe.

Then there was this lime green/bright yellow tiny spider. I love the light here.

Fresh Artwork Thursday Week #2

I have to admit that I'm still quite smitten with round things and todays post on new artwork is no different.

The fact that I'm having a love affair with lime green is rather evident here as well.

These guys are painted on a 6"x6" canvas.

Are you all hanging in there with this weekly challenge?

Alchemy's Last Stop Before Heading Home

Just a quick stop by to announce that little Alchemy is finally headed home to the UK for his giveaway which should happen shortly after his arrival there.

He had been staying at Studio Cherie's place for awhile and you can read about his adventures while there.

You can also catch up on his adventures on the Meerkat World Tour fan page over on Facebook.

He's got quite the following!

Round Tuit

Hehe, just one of those things I've always meant to get around to and today was finally the day!

Notice anything different?

Finally got my three column blog that I've always wanted and I even did it myself! Yay!

Somewhat easy instructions for those of you yet to venture "there".

Now if I can just get those darn sprinklers out front fixed...

Oh and a longer header, you know, for up top, oh darn...

Fresh Artwork Thursday Week #1

Round.

The word round conjures up many things. But does it conjure up round artwork?
I never thought so either.

In keeping with my promise on June 1st I have some new artwork to share and it all came about from the round tip-in page swap I joined in on over at Craftster.

I had been feeling, dare we say...bored? I needed something fresh, help me think outside the box so to speak and I thought this swap would most definitely help.

Round.

I cursed the word round. How in the world, (haha) was I supposed to do artwork round. I'm a square kinda girl. I hated round.

I apologize.

Once I "got it" I loved round. Couldn't do enough round. Yay for round!

My first swap partner wanted spring/garden/flowers. It truly looked better in person as it was so dimensional with lots of layers. I'm not much on flowers.

My second partner wanted nonsense. Yay I LOVE nonsense! I admit to having a lot of fun with this one. Little Emily on a bike with flowers!

My third partner wanted things with wings. Normally that's a walk in the park with the big eyed birds and all but having already sent her one of those I wanted to do something slightly different at least. Each of the little birds is hand drawn, colored, cut and glued on the record and the label states it's Freebird by The Byrds, hehe.

I still have 3 more partners to do pages for, a couple are going to be...interesting to say the least.

Here is some round artwork directly inspired by this swap.

Done on a 6"x6" canvas roughly around Mothers Day. Sense a theme there?

The theme I wanted for my tip-in page was Alice In Wonderland and I did want to share 2 of the pages I've received so far. Hopefully soon I can get to work on my own covers for my book at which time I will certainly share them.

Slightly askew White Rabbit done for me by Stifflersmom. He's so cool.


This fabulous page done by AlteredMommy. Love it!!

Another Baby Bird to Add To The Roster and a Challenge

I must really be a magnet for baby birds!

This one came to me by way of bad little Emily who insists on being a hunter no matter what I tell her. I think she just wants to play but my goodness.Do you see how insanely tiny he is? I was hoping that I could identify what species he is but I'm just not sure.

For being quite young he's got insanely bushy old man brows, dontcha think, hehe.
I had just finished little Howard here the day the little bird came into my life and I just love how I accidentally caught them both in the same exact pose...well, without the bushy eyebrows.

Little mobile home, always on the go.

Home being a little more permanent with these little guys. Itty bitty chubby houses.

On another note, today is June 1st and I've decided that I'm going to start something a little new and different. A challenge to myself if you will. I want to start something along the lines of art 365 or art a day although knowing that would be far too ambitious for me I will settle for at least one new artwork each week.

I would love some company along this journey for anyone willing to join in. A challenge to be creative and post it!

I'm thinking maybe Thursdays would be a good day, at least to start.

I may need a good swift kick from time to time, you know, to keep me on my toes!

What say you?