I love it when a plan comes together...

So the few days since Thanksgiving have been busy here in the Queen of Arts Studio. And no, I did not hit the stores on Black Friday - at least not until 3:00pm when I was finally brave enough to venture out to Michaels to pick up some packaging stuff I needed for my Big Flock of Love Birdies. By then the somewhat scary and definitely super-hyped hoopla was pretty much over in Manchester, anyway.

My big order of birdies for my mom's office in Montreal, all thirty-five of them packaged up and looking so cute, is on its way to be delivered tomorrow. I am heading up for a whirlwind visit on my own this time.

Tomorrow, I visit with my sister Natalie in the late afternoon when I arrive. It is her official 40th BD tomorrow, but she has her big work Christmas party tonight and as she says, she will probably be a little partied out ! I am just popping in to give her her gift.

Then I am having supper with some wonderful friends, a sleep over at a girlfriend's new apartment and then the visit to my Mom's office with my wares on Monday lunch time.

Monday night, I will hang with my mom a little, and Tuesday morning before I head home, all the planets have aligned so that I will be having breakfast with another wonderful Blogland friend that I have never met in person even though she lives right there in my end of my home town.

Kim from The Bodhi Chicklet ordered a few birds from me too and it works out so well that I am heading up to Montreal and I can deliver them in person and get to spend a bit of time face to face with her just before I head back home on Tuesday morning! I love it when a plan comes together...

There a cheap segue to my most recent art journal page. I have to say, I am out of the flow when it comes to journaling right now. I feel the need to play but the schedule hasn't allowed for the play first, work second timetable that I like. It meant squeezing time in for play time whenever I could.

The results the other day didn't turn out quite a I would have liked. I played with a bunch of words that came out of an old Tarot card book to create an invented "story" phrase for the page. I liked that. I carved a new kitty cat stamp the other day which I also liked a lot, and the background was beautiful. When it came to the central figure of the page - I really didn't like this face - young man with long hair ? Ugly woman ? Bird creature ? Who is this weird looking person on my page ?

I kind of abandoned the page - not sure where it was going to go at all.

Then today, I finally had some time to play around a bit. I started looking for a new face for my being. The first one that jumped out of my big pile of images was this gorgeous Madonna looking figure - it comes from my packet from Judy Wise's Squam PlayBook Workshop I think.

I dropped it down over the face on the page....

and found out immediately that it had to go there !!! Check out the lines and how the size is just so perfect ! I grabbed the camera right after the moment happened to capture it falling int to place for you guys.

I trimmed the image just a little and glued it down. I then added a few lines with India ink to merge the two ...

and this is the page that I ended up with. Using the story phrase, my figure also got her name and her story.

She became the Embroideress of Dreams, a magical female creature who influences the details and flow of dreams so that they merge from the unconscious into your "real" life...

The kitty became the prince whose dreams had been embroidered by the Lady.

It is all kind of silly, but playful as I love journaling to be and came together as though some other voice was telling me what do put where, etc... I love it when that happens, when that plan just comes together...

Besides the squeezed in journal pages and the finishing of the flock, I also took the time yesterday to complete my three Christmas themed ATC decorations for my Canadian Chickie Swap . I can't show you the complete cards but I love how they turned out ! I got them in the mail today so my partner Nicolette should receive them in Edmonton quite soon. We are only opening them to share on the 23rd of December ! Here is a little peek :

Love those twinkling eyes !

So I am off until Tuesday night, sweet Friends. When I get back, I will have just a few days to get ready for my next exciting adventure...

I am having a little reunion with several of my Squamie friends from New Hampshire and Massachusetts here in my neck of the woods next Saturday, the 5th. We are getting together for an arty play afternoon of art journaling at Talk Paper Scissors. I am guiding some fun activites for the small gang of us. Afterwards, we are headed back to my house for Dinner, Vino and Fun ! A few people are even sleeping over ! How cool is that ? The only sad part is that my roomie and dear pal Carolyn won't be joining us for this get-together. She promised to come to the next one though !

It has been my dream to have a community of like minded ladies around me here in my NH home (ie : in my "real" life !) and I am open to doing all I can to make that happen. This is so exciting for me and the beginning of some beautiful friendship and fun times, I think ! Yay !

Okay...that was a long one ! Phew...Now I am off to enjoy the rest of the evening with the sweet Hubby. I will be back in touch on Tuesday when I get back ! Have a great start to the week, beautiful Ones and I hope you find some time to squeeze in some play time for yourself ! Big Love !