Winner Announced and Helloooo Out There

I hope you haven't forgotten about me!  I know I've been MIA lately...

I recently directed a production of The Secret Garden for Gas Lamp Players, the community theater in  my town of Glen Ridge, NJ.  It was a labor of love and required my 100 percent devotion, particularly in the last two weeks leading up to our weekend of performances.  Here are some pictures:

The show created a lot of buzz.  The Glen Ridge town council officially proclaimed November 22 "Secret Garden Day;" our local restaurant created a special Secret Garden prix fix menu to honor the show; and we ended up being sold out for our final performance!

Here's a video from a preview concert-version that some of my cast performed in October:

I couldn't be prouder of the show, and am in a bit of withdrawal, now that it's over.  But I plan to get back to creating more video and blog tutorials in 2014.  

Why 2014?   Because on Saturday, I leave for the Czech Republic to visit my daughter, Mariel, who is teaching for a year in Znojmo.  She's been keeping a blog about her experiences -- I know I'm biased but it's fascinating!

In the meantime, today I am on Ronda Palazzari's blog today, talking about art journaling.  

And I'll be on Stencil Girl Talk on Monday with some holiday projects and tutorials!

And... the winner of my three new stencils from my last post with this art journaling page 

is Linda, who wrote: 

What beautiful colorful work and the more stuff the better on the page. I work that way too! I don't have any stencils and would love to try them. Thanks.

I've already contacted Linda and am so happy to start her off on her love of stencils.  Little does she know that it's addictive! 

Here's a different take on gratitude by Nicole Antoinette, writing about 5 often overlooked things we can be grateful for.   Lest you think I take you for granted, I want to thank all of you who read this blog.  I so appreciate the online community of supportive artists and creative talents "out there."  In this season of gratitude,  I want to make sure you know that I am very grateful for all of you.  

Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.