SAND AND WATER

 It was right around this time last year that we heard about a great little beach bar/lodge in Port Aransas. We waited until all the kiddos were back in school, so the beach would be semi-deserted, then headed down there to check it out for ourselves.

Definitely Our Kind Of Place!

We're hoping to go back there again with our BFFs Paula and Tim, to celebrate my big SIX-OH in late October, but it just depends on how well Miss Paula is doing by then, after her recent car accident. Fingers crossed!

Anyhoo, thinking about all that sand and water got me to thinkin' I'd better do one more "transparent foreground" project before moving on to something else -- perhaps the Dion Dior "Sparkle Arkle" project that I never got around to in my 21 Secrets class? Can't let all those Twinks and Silks go to waste! So, yesterday, I began pulling together all my little scraps and gee-gaws for the textured background.

There are the sandy bits...

and the watery bits...

and a great little Take-Along Guide picked up on that last trip to Port A., which should provide plenty of inspiration for the tissue sketches that will make up my transparent foreground. I just knew that little book would come in handy some day! In fact, I'm really wishing I had some of the others from that collection, like Snakes, Salamanders and Lizards, or Tracks, Scats and Signs. Perhaps I'll put those on my Christmas wish list.

Now all I have to do is decide whether to start gluing these bits into one of my own journals, or into a certain someone's Circle Journal, which has been sitting on my art table for about a week now!