1. NEW- GIFTS!
2. NEW- A Special Project/Group Contest!
3. NEW- Personal Note
4. NEW- Extra Special Thank You's!
5. NEW- Winners' Feature Plus Said & Did Features
6. NEW- 94th Special Random Feature!
7. NEW- Special Edition Feature: "My Shadow & Me"
8. NEW- Treasure Chest Features- Profile Page, Left-Side...
Hello and Thank You to Anyone who has a chance to read my journal.I know time is precious.
It's difficult to believe the first month of the year is already coming to an end...~
~
GIFTS! ~
Thank you to my dear friend Pauline
for:
It was good timing and gave me such cheer. Pauline's been one of my favourite dA people I've ever come to know, for a long time now on dA! She's so supportive, and a very special person, indeed.
Feel free to see her delightful, story-telling work,
HERE: kurios-kat.deviantart.com/ 
Thank you to my very good friend Jocelyne
for:
Her thoughtfulness is amazing and so is the gift. Jocelyne is a long time good friend to me here on dA.
I can't say enough about her kindness and generosity. But if you know her, you understand.
Feel free to visit her lovely work
HERE: jocelyner.deviantart.com/ Thank you to my very sweet friend Teresa
for:
An amazing gift, so thought-provoking- an honour to be included. I have so appreciated Teresa's ongoing support of me. It is touching, as is her over-all heart-filled friendship.
Feel free to visit her wonderful Gallery,
HERE: tigles1.deviantart.com/ Thank you to my kind friend Nita
for:
She is such a sweet and kind person, and this was such a lovely surprise!
I'm happy to have met Nita on dA!
Feel free to stop by her great gallery,
HERE: iluvhorses123.deviantart.com/ Thank you to my good friend Sandy
for:
and
She's an amazingly loyal friend, who continues to support all I am doing.
I thank her so much for everything!
You should check out her wonderful work,
HERE: iluvbiscuit2.deviantart.com/ 
A Special Project The Group
is helping a FABULOUS Project by
ToxicAlice92 who is
collecting points to buy 50 Vertical Zip Hoodies to donate to the nearest homeless shelter at the end of the year. I plan to donate some points of my own. BUT, if you
post about this in your Journal/Blog [ OR leave a series of 10 comments...] and link either of these on their profile, THEN they will donate TEN POINTS on your behalf to this project! This spreads the news AND helps with the points for this project!
I
this Group SO much, for their purposes here on dA!
Group CONTEST! Hosted by:
Unframed-Nature 
We are having a
CONTEST: New Permanent Group Avatar
Two Entries per dA Member.
Began: January 15th; Ends February 11th, 2012 [ 4 weeks total time... ]
But, THERE IS STILL TIME!
The Rules, Updates, and PRIZES are
HERE: unframed-nature.deviantart.com… .
We hope to get a wide variety to choose from.
Feel free to tell others and spread the news!
Personal NOTE 
For those who have been following along with all of our work with the ferals, strays, and kittens we have fostered and taken care of, "my" STAR:
has finally been adopted at
The South Coast Humane Society.
This was just amazing news for us...
This means, with the addition of Star, and all of HER surviving kittens, plus the surviving kittens from our feral Raya:
fav.me/d45m8uv and:
fav.me/d494u07 which we also cared for/fostered and took in to them, everyone has been ADOPTED!
And we have with us left, Raya [now spayed], and Winton:
fav.me/d4clcwk our only two ferals left, who are with us all the time. We now have a feral shelter built for them on our back porch, and they are there inside it, VERY often, which is SO GREAT considering our MONSTROUS storms and still broken leaky roof there! So we are happy they can be much drier and warmer.
And then Jack:
fav.me/d4g53h3 who was a stray, [like Star] is inside with us now. So EVERYONE is as okay as they're going to be now, when it comes to all the outdoor cats we encountered and took on regularly when we moved here.
On Jan. 15th, we had
SNOW & WHALES on the SAME DAY. First, we were visiting at a friend's house here for the first time, and you can see the ocean from there, and though apparently unseasonal, there were a lot of WHALES in the area!
It was magical!
THEN, on the way home, it began to SNOW!! Okay, I have visited snow many times
near to where I've lived before in California, BUT I've never LIVED where it snows before! And, those who do would still not be impressed with even this,
but apparently it CAN and DOES snow once in a while on the COAST where I live!
By morning, there was even a little more everywhere, and it was my first experience with LIVING in snow, like this! [I hope to put a couple photos later.
] But talk about magical!
SINCE, Jan. 15th,
however, it's done nothing but rage massive storms here, in the form of excessively heavy rains. [This would be MORE typical.] It's been extremely WILD weather for at least a week, yet it is actually STILL raining quite hard! I would enjoy it to the fullest, as I don't really mind storms, [usually LOVE THEM!]
but once again, we still have not fixed that roof problem, from that wind storm in Aug.
[I know, I know... THAT, again!] We have gathered bids, by now at least. But something of this magnitude is taking a really long time to deal with, mainly because of the financial ramifications.
One day, I'll enjoy really stormy weather again, when I am not having to worry about the damage to my house!
Planning for a really BIG trip soon. I leave in about 3 weeks, toward the mid/end of Feb.
I will be gone for about two weeks. I am going to see my family in Tucson, Arizona. This is two big states away from me. My mom is having me fly- not thrilled by that, as I have not flown in a long time, but there is no other way I can get there.
They wanted to have us
both go, which is nice of them, but it is not yet possible for us both to go anywhere together yet. We just do not know anyone here well enough yet to take on the big responsibility of pet-sitting [and what with everything that our dog Malori requires in medication, etc.] and plus, we cannot afford to pay someone that we don't know, so it's just too difficult at this stage... so we will be apart, when I go. [As we were, when he had to go to his mother in Sept.]
It is too bad, as I wish he could have the time/chance to know my family members... but it's the way life goes.
So, it's been the LONGEST it's ever been since I've been to see them, [not including my parents, who made it here to see us this past Summer.] But I am missing my young nieces grow up, and this hurts me so deeply that I don't get to see them! We are as close as we can be considering the distance, but sometimes, when kids are growing up, it's sad to miss actually SEEing them.
I also have aunts and uncles there, too, and my only living grandparent left, who will be 93 this June... she has always been my closest grandparent with me, and she hasn't been well for a while now, and I am always hoping I might see her again...
The South Coast Humane Society here, on the SW Coast of Oregon IS keeping me very busy these days... Photos for the newspapers, plus now working on the photos for the animals for their page on Petfinder.com
It's always busy!
The Shelter Project! REMEMBER-
The South Coast Humane Society here,
DOES welcome
The Shelter Project as an official fundraiser of theirs.
They are happy to have this, and help of any kind.
EXTRA SPECIAL THANK YOU'S! First of All...THANK YOU, [AGAIN] to those who have
'd
"Part 2" of
THE SHELTER PROJECT, HERE:
The Shelter Project was presented first, HERE:
Even a
is a big deal with a project like this, because by
'ing it DOES at least spread the word for such a good cause.
A VERY Extra Special Thank You to the Following Artist who is the MOST Recent dA Customer, and therefore a Major Support to
The Shelter Project via his very
recent Purchase of a set of 8 Greeting Cards, all of which went toward
The Shelter Project. He also becomes a new affiliate of the Project with this new and amazing support of this special project, and I can't thank him enough!
This feature, and
his permanent feature on my profile page, is really the least I can do...
:thumb212014194::thumb207742427::thumb203795655:
:thumb202766815::thumb228827154::thumb277383639:
:thumb274817784::thumb201537263::thumb213517453:
Extra Special Thank You to the Following Individual Artists for Supporting
The Shelter Project.
has featured The Shelter Project on her Profile page
HERE: chryssalis.deviantart.com/ How so sweet! And it's a fantastic job!
has featured The Shelter Project on her latest Journal Update
HERE: photos-by-michelle.deviantart.… She used her FREE PM DAY, to do it. It's beautiful.
has featured The Shelter Project on his Journal
HERE: morningstarskid.deviantart.com…It's so creative in it's story-like fashion. How kind!
has featured The Shelter Project in her Journal
HERE: junoejuno.deviantart.com/journ…How sweet and cute and what a lovely job!
:thumb215048199::thumb257876434::thumb280736023:
:thumb280520351::thumb280068200:
Those who CONTINUE to feature, have featured other times before, or also maintain a Promotion of The Shelter Project on your Profile Page or Journal-
Thank you for your ongoing support. 
The names of those who have taken The Shelter Project further in a variety of ways, through their various types of features of the Project,
on behalf of the project, and
Purchases DIRECTLY through Tea Photography© are placed on my Profile Page with the Custom Box[es] associated with the info. of both Project 1 and Project 2, as well as placed
inside, in the Artist's Comments sections of each one. That way, they will always be there, in case one or both Custom Boxes are moved.
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS KEPT AND MAINTAINED PROMOTIONS OF THE SHELTER PROJECT ON THEIR JOURNALS OR PROFILE PAGES! THIS IS MORE THAN I COULD HAVE EVER EXPECTED! The
Extra Special THANK-YOU Features for DIRECT PURCHASES, are on the Profile Page, on the Left-side.
is there for the OTHER project that we worked on together, where she sponsored the 5-piece set of framed prints of my images for the Shelter, as asked of me by the manager to donate,
HERE: fav.me/d3cxhwn . While not the same as The Shelter Project, "The Shelter ART Project" STILL went to benefit that SAME Shelter!
and
are still there, and remain there, for their business AND repeat business of my work.
Repeat business, is not even all that a few of them have done, even though that's thoroughly the epitome of awesome. But the repeat promotions, in News Articles by Jocelyne and the ongoing promotion on her page, and Philippe's repeat promotions in his Journals & News Articles with commentary to the work he's received by me... and Cheryl's and Dana's promotions, too as can be seen on their Profile Pages!
They have worked so hard to help with this, and be very active participants with my work. I never could have imagined, not just better customers, but as if partners, throughout this whole Project.
]
FIRST 
Special Random Talented Artist Features Began in March 2009! 
The 94th Special Random Artist goes to the talented Deimante 
Active on dA for 1 year or more.
many thanks to you Tea 