Christmas in the air

(hummingbird photo by my mom, Patricia J. Stark)

I couldn't believe my eyes today when i looked outside my window and saw a little Christmas magic right in front of me.

Holiday soldering class today

Today i held a holiday soldering class here at the house. it was a small class due to my Christmas tree taking up several spaces in the room! it was intimate and really fun. their kits were so cute, i put them in these awesome vintage stockings i found at the flea market. the kind we got as kids with that material that oranges use to be bagged in. A fellow etsian, Kelly, came. We've been online for several years now, so it is always fun to finally meet face to face. and she was so sweet to give me the most incredible polymer clay Santa as a gift.
Also Jenny Heid and her sister, Melissa, came! that was very exciting, as Jenny lives very close to me and we've never quite been able to meet up. Jenny and Melissa had the sweetest camaraderie. i took the cutest picture of them working together and helping each other. Jenny brought me a candle with one of her images on it. so sweet - thank you girls! Jenny and i are both teaching at Art Opera in April. Check out the classes if you have a second to see what we will be up to!

in the bottom picture, i took a picture of myself to show where i put a fun streak of blue in my hair. I'd wanted to do it for awhile and bought a bottle of the color at Hot Topic a few months ago, but promptly misplaced it. i found it last night in with my glues! (well, it looks like a glue bottle....) again jenny, again, sorry for the name lapse; typical kecia move!

any chance you watch Dexter? the season finale was on tonight and i have to say that i am in SHOCK over the ending.

blog giveaway- winner!

And the winner is:

Through a random number generator, i was able to pick my blog winner. Congratulations to Debra, of "It's all Good". Thanks for playing!

busy, busy, busy!

Sorry, Santa and his helper have been quite busy! i'm a little tired from the weekend and will be teaching a soldering class today. i will be picking my blog giveaway winner tonight when i have a minute to relax! lots going on, so i apologize for the delay!

Photofunia

I found a new photo editing website that is really fun to play around with. It is called PhotoFunia. i got carried away in making examples to blog about, but, i was having a good time! you go to the website and then just pick an effect to try. it will have you search for a photo on your computer and then you just hit "next". it is that easy. some of the effects are looking for "faces recognition" meaning you should pick a certain type of photo to fit into the effect. it'll say up top which type of photo works best in the effect. give it a try and let me know how you like it. you can check them out here. (and it is free!)

p.s. it's been 29 years ago today that John Lennon was murdered. Rip John.

only a few more days to enter my blog giveaway