Weekly Challenge #134

Happy Monday everyone!
First of all, as always - a few house keeping items:

• If you're NEW here (and there've been a lot of new additions to the party!) I'm working on creating some tutorials to help you out.  You can click on the links above or:  See "Getting Started"  and "Tutorials" 
• To see all the past weekly challenges - click the tabs above
• Please grab the button for the Weekly Challenge (on the right  sidebar) to display on your blogs! share the fun!
• The limit of submissions to the slideshow is TWO, but please feel free to post as many as you like to your blogs.  I will take the first two presented to each challenge. 

• I know that some of you have told me that the paypal button does not work, and some of you have had no trouble, i'm not sure why it's inconsistent, i've redone the code a few times... If all else fails you can donate to my paypal address which is madam_diva ( a t ) yahoo ( d o t ) com

Welcome back everyone.

I have a few things to let you know this week before we get to the challenge.  First off, remember back in July when i asked you all to vote for my photo on Facebook? well, it paid off!!  My photo of Chewie made it to the Top 20, where the pics were judged by a panel of judges, and they selected mine as the grand prize winner!!  :D

be still my beating heart!!

I won a brand new Nikon d5200!  Thank you to those who voted for me!  (Oh, and some MORE awesome news, we found Artoo's iPod hidden in between some books at grandma's house! Happy day!!)

Also, a while ago - on Facebook - i had mentioned some exciting news that i couldn't wait to share... well - it's official now.  I have been asked to join the design team at ArtistCellar, and i am SO excited.  I love playing with mixed media (when i'm not tangling) and i'm very happy to be representing the Great White North as their very first Canadian Design Team member.  You can see my posts on the ArtistCellar blog every Friday morning!  I hope you stop by!

NOW!
This week has been a FAR better week than last week, thank you to everyone who sent me "hang in there"s and let me have my online 'cry'.  :)  But, we move onward and upward, right?

My mom came over and we made some salsa from my garden tomatoes!! it was so much fun spending the morning with my mom in the kitchen, and the salsa is so good.  We love salsa here at Casa Diva, one could say that Chips and Salsa is our Kryptonite. 

Rockin' Salsa - it really rocks.

Also, this week i took some time to get down into my 'studio' and i took my own advice from a couple of challenges ago and challenged my right brain to fire in different ways, and created this painting using ONLY my left hand.  I think it turned out alright.

he's so 'thoughtful'

The weather here has been SOOO beautiful, you'd hardly know it was fall, except for the leaves turning colours, and the fact that Chewie's first day of KINDERGARTEN is on Wednesday (so excited so excited so excited)... we've tried to spend as much time outdoors as possible...
Artoo is getting pretty good at going up and down the slide all by himself, and he is so proud each time.  "I DID IT!" he yells when he hits the bottom.  so cute.

Slide!

We've also started Chewie with an allowance, he gets $1 x age a month.  So, in his case $5/month, because he is 5.  We've set up a ledger so he can keep track of his money coming in and out, hopefully this will help him learn about money.  He has to save 10% in his "Savings" jar, and 10% in his "Big Buys" jar.  So far, it's working pretty well, and he already cashed in all his birthday money and chore money that was already in his piggy bank.  He spent it on a Lego Starwars set, the Rancor Pit!  And, he built it all by himself.  He was so proud.  (I was close by in case he needed help, but he pretty much did it all by his lonesome.)

He loves this set and plays with it all the time. 

The deck is getting closer to being finished all the time, and now it's just final finishing things.  I can't wait.  We've already spent SO much time out there.  I'm so lucky to have such a handy hubby.  aren't i?

Weekly Challenge #134: UMT #XX "Beamz - by Traci F"
I really liked this tangle, it reminded me of chair covers from my childhood... like a very 70s-esque pattern.  It was pretty fun, and i think you'll like it too!  Thanks Traci!  You can see the step outs for this tangle HERE

Beamz

For those of you who don't know, the first Monday (or in this case, Tuesday) of the month, is a UMT Challenge (Use My Tangle), where the challenge is to learn and use a tangle created by one of you!  It's awesome for me, because i don't have time to try all the new tangles i see on the web on a regular basis.  This challenge makes sure i'm at least learning 1 new tangle a month...

if you have a tangle you'd like to submit, please follow this link for the guidelines for submissions.  Each month's tangle is chosen at random by www.random.org

If you have a blog, add the site-specific URL where your tile is posted to the linkey machine below! Don't forget to link back here so that others can join in the fun! (if you don't know how to find this, you can see my half assed tutorial here)

Also,  please feel free to come back often and visit the links of those people on the linkey machine - don't forget to leave a comment or feedback, everyone loves feedback. ;)

If you don't have a blog but still want to participate, you can email your tile to me and i will post it here. (See the contact tab above for my email address).  I just ask that you put in the subject line:  Challenge # ________

The deadline for each weekly challenge is Saturday night so that i can round everyone up by Sunday. What this means is that i will stop adding tiles to the slideshow on Sunday. You're still more than welcome to do the challenges and add your name to the linkey machine.

I will be more diligent with the linkey machine - by editing out the ones that don't work, the doubles, the links that lead to nowhere, the links that go just to blog home pages (this is why we need those site specific urls), and the spam. And there is some spam.  PLEASE do not put your *home* page in the linkey machine... please? for me??