My Garden: the planting

Here is what I did with those plants we bought on Memorial Day:As you can see, there's a little bit of room for some more plants, but we haven't decided yet what to plant there. When we do finally decide, I'll add that info to the chart. And I'm leaving the lower right corner blank so that in the fall, I can make note of what grew well and what didn't. That's always good to know when choosing plants the next year LOL!

Have you planted your garden yet?

My Garden: a trip to the nursery

On Memorial Day, we went to the local plant nursery to pick out some plants for our vegetable garden. I brought my camera along and snapped a bunch of pics as we browsed (so glad I actually remembered to grab it!) This is what I did with the pics:Stay tuned for part 2 of "My Garden" ....

A garden in my journal

I finished planting this garden in my journal:We are studying the fruit of the Spirit at church right now, so I chose plants that have those meanings. This was the work-in-progress spread that ended up with splotches on it from the inkjet transfer mishap. I'm not all that crazy about the blue background ... if it weren't for the fact that I needed to try to camouflage the splotches, I probably would've left the sky plain. It's a bit too busy. But overall, I'm pretty happy with it. Now to move on to another page ...

Brownies ... mmmmm ...

My brother makes the bestest brownies and on Saturday he brought not only a huge batch, but the recipe as well ... what a great guy, huh?! I just had to memorialize them in my journal. Now I know I will never lose this recipe LOL! My 9yo dd and I plan to make our own batch very soon ...Thanks, Mitch! Love ya!

I fixed it!

In the last post, I showed a page with inkjet transfers that I had a few problems with. The result was pink splotches around the transfers that also bled through the paper. A couple days later, I realized there was a way to fix it ... color! I took a watercolor pencil that matched those pink splotches and colored in the background. Now the splotches are covered up ... love it! I just can't believe it took me a few days to think of it LOL!Then on the backside of the right page, there were five big pink splotches ... since there was nothing else on the page yet, I thought maybe I'd cover it up with collage or paint. But Sunday we were at my in-laws' house and everyone was gathered in the family room doing various things. I wanted to sketch in my journal, but I was also thinking about this ruined page. While looking around the room, I noticed my mil and one of my girls doing a puzzle. And that got me thinking ... we LOVE puzzles! I could draw puzzle pieces around the splotches, color them in, and journal about this love. So I did ... I sketched the puzzle pieces in, then the next day I colored them and journaled. Another fix, and a great page, to boot. Can't beat that!I'm still working on the backside of the left page ... that has a few splotches, too, but was on a work in progress. I've got some ideas, but it'll be a little while ... will post it when it's finally done!

Who doesn't love a good shoe sale?!

My girls and I went shoe shopping yesterday ... 8 pairs came home with us LOL! That evening I wore my new faves and drew one while the girls were at dance class.
Then this morning I attempted to do some inkjet transfers based on this video. I did not have the same success, but I learned a few things. First, do not choose "photo" under the ink quality ... normal would've been fine. Second, make sure your spray bottle shoots a very fine mist. And third, if possible, use pigment ink, not dye ink. As you can see, the ink ran and left pools of pink at the corners. That wouldn't have been so bad, but it bled through to the back of the pages, too. In fact, on the left side, it bled through not only that page, but the next page, too. Actually it was the shoe page above ... luckily, I hadn't finished the watercolor on the shoe, so I was able to cover it up pretty well. Can you tell?Next time I will use what I learned to do it a little differently ... hopefully with much better results. It was fun to play, though ... that's what art journaling is all about ... playing! Now I get to play with the page that's still in progress and now has pink splotches all over ... who doesn't love a challenge!

More art journal pages

Since taking that online art journal class, I have really enjoyed working in my art journal again! I think I was focusing too much on the art side instead of the journaling side. I'm more comfortable with words than pictures, and I've been learning that it's better for me to decide what I want to journal about, then make art that complements the words. Not that I still won't occasionally do art on a page just because, and then journal randomly on it later ... gotta mix it up a bit sometimes LOL! It's just nice to learn something about yourself, and then be okay with it (even embrace it). These are my pages from the past three days.

My latest art journal pages

Yesterday the girls and I went with some other homeschooling families to a CYT performance called "Seussical Jr.", a musical that combined various stories and characters from Dr. Seuss' lovable books. I sketched the scenery, partly during the play (which was kind of hard because it was so dark in the theater) and partly from memory later.

Then today we went to a few garage sales and I found a fabulous anatomy coloring book. I knew I had to use one of the illustrations to journal about my ongoing foot pain. A fiery background of watercolor crayons and a definition, and now my pain is in my journal. Wish it would stay there LOL!

Oh, to be young again ...

I think that says it all, don't you?

On the other hand, if I were to be a kid all over again and I did things differently, I might not end up with the wonderful kids that I have now. Unthinkable! So I guess I will leave things be (like I have a choice, right?!) Here's a page I did, sketching and gluing to represent all the activities of the weekend. Hope you had a great Mother's Day weekend, too!

Memories of my grandparents' house

On a private Yahoo group (that I mention at the end of this post), one challenge was to draw a floor plan. I'd been thinking for quite awhile to draw one of my grandparents' old home and this was just the push I needed! I had so much fun working on this ... so many memories came flooding back that I hadn't thought about in years. Try it, it's fun!

More class pages

Here are some more pages from the class:

An Online Art Journaling Class

Recently I mentioned an online course I took to learn more techniques for art journaling. It's called "Love This Journal: Become an Art Journaling Diva in 21 Days". The instructor, Jessica, presents you with daily videos showing new techniques and ideas for playing in your art journal. She also includes lots of tips on how to draw things so that they are recognizable (this is a great class for people who don't think they can draw at all ... I learned so much!) I can't show all the pages we did, because many of them would reveal too much of the class, but I do have permission to show these pages (Blogger is being a little finicky today, so I will post more pages in another post). If you're interested in trying the class yourself, hurry and sign up ... the next session starts today! You won't be disappointed!Another great feature of the class is that at the end, Jessica provides a link for a Yahoo group for "graduates" where they can continue to share pages. The participants of this exclusive group also challenge each other with fun prompts. I did one recently that I will show you later. It's one of my favorite pages to date!

Currently, I'm taking Jessica's level 2 course, which students are welcome to take after level 1 if they'd like. This is the first week and I've already learned some great tricks! When I've finished the class (in about 5 weeks), I'll post some pics.

I hate bullies!

Recently a new family moved in several houses down, including two daughters. My girls were so excited ... new kids to play with! Well, they met the girls the other day ... a few minutes talking, and next thing I know, my 6 yo comes to me, crying. Turns out, these girls are calling my girls "stupid" every time they ride by on their bikes. If you're a parent, I'm sure you can imagine the anger ... no, the rage that welled up in me. When my 9 yo rode by, I stopped her and asked her take on the situation. She didn't know why they were doing it either. No tears, but I could tell it really upset her. I was so tempted to march down there and wring their little necks ... not a very Christian response, but there it is.

My girls still wanted to ride their bikes, so I told them to stay on our end of the block. But they kept riding their usual route, and so I got to actually witness them making snide remarks as my 6 yo rode by. I stepped to the middle of the sidewalk and glared at them, but I felt helpless ... what should I do? March down and yell at them? Tell my girls to stay close to home? Let them work it out amongst themselves? I want to be a good example to my girls about how to deal with others ... but in this situation, what does that look like? Well, I decided to wait and see what would happen next. And every time one of my girls was going by them, I walked to the middle of the sidewalk and watched them. The other girls obviously saw me, because they kept looking at me and then looking away, trying to pretend they didn't see me.

When it was time to go in for dinner, my girls were standing in front of their house, talking to them. A good sign? Not sure ... so instead of just calling them to come for dinner, I walked down to get them. When I got close, I asked the older girl her name, then asked her why she was calling my kids "stupid". She denied it at first, but when I told her I had heard her, she said something like, "Well, they said they wouldn't come in my house to play." Hello?! We don't know you!! My girls know they are not allowed in anyone's house when we don't know the parents very well. I don't remember everything I said, but I tried to be calm (my girls were watching me with eagle eyes after all). I told them my girls were not allowed to play at their house, but that they were welcome (with their parents' permission) to come play in our yard ... but only if they played nice. They would be sent home immediately if the name calling started again. (I must confess, I dread that first day when they show up to play ... luckily it's been rainy since then, so I haven't had to deal with it ... am I pathetic or what?)

This whole incident bugged me for the rest of the day and into the night (memories from my own childhood surfacing here). The next morning, I did this page in my journal.

Prepaid Postcard Art on Flickr

Have you seen this?! How cool, a new artform LOL! You simply take one of those pesky postcards that you find falling out of magazines (the business reply envelopes in your everyday junk mail would work, too) and turn it into a piece of artwork. Only rule is that you can't obliterate the markings on the card/envelope ... instead you try to incorporate it into the artwork. Some of the artwork is simply fabulous! I've done these 3 so far (you can also see them here). And lucky me (though not lucky for my sick dd), we went to the doctor's office the other day ... jackpot! Got almost a dozen cards to work on.

Warning: Very addicting!!

Finally playing in my art journal again!

Sheesh! I can't believe it's been 6 months since I last played in my art journal ... I would've guessed maybe only 2 or 3. I think part of it is that I get bogged down with too many ideas to journal about and I can't decide which one to focus on, so in the end, I do nothing. On the other hand, sometimes I know what I want to journal about, but I don't have a prepared page that reflects that, so I get frustrated and do nothing. I've realized that I like having painted backgrounds ready, but if I started collaging elements on them, they get in the way. So from now on I'm going to just paint a few pages ahead, and will wait on adding collage elements until I get to that particular page ... maybe ...

Recently I started journaling again, not quite every day, but almost. I took an online art journaling workshop a few weeks ago that got me back on track. For the class, we used a Moleskin (my first ever!) and I have really enjoyed working in it, though the pages are a little smaller than I like. Now that the class is done, I'm working toward finishing up my first journal before continuing in the Moleskin. I've only got 2 or 3 more spreads to go. Once it's finished, then I'll continuing work in the Moleskin ... or maybe I'll back and forth between it and a new journal I made myself using Kira's easy-peasy journal instructions (love it!) ... I haven't decided yet.

Anyways, these are my most recent pages.

My take on Matisse

It took me much longer than I'd hoped, but I finally finished my pages for the next round of the swap. This lady's theme was Matisse and she wanted us to come up with artwork inspired by his work or in his style. I chose to do my pages based on his later style of cutting large shapes out of colored paper. I embellished with embroidered stitches and some beading on the tree. Whew! Finally!!

Now I can work on the last round, my mom's. Her theme is the Seasons, and I believe I get to do summer. I've got one little bit of an idea for one page, so need to flesh it out and come up with a second page idea, too ... here we go again ...

Art with a "flourish"

Finally got the next set of pages done on the round robin I'm working on. This artist's theme is "flourish" ... I immediately knew what I wanted to do on the first page, but it was much harder to come up with an idea for a second page. But it's done and already sent on to my mom ... can't wait to see how she interprets the theme!For the left page, I used the technique I learned from Laura Wasilowski a couple years back ... I even used the scraps I had leftover from that class to make the flowers on this piece. For the right page, I fussy cut some designs from a fat quarter I had in my stash, and paired them with some fuzzy ribbon I got off the free table at quilt guild a couple of weeks ago. I embellished both pages with some embroidery, too. Glad they're finally done!

Now onto the next set ... the theme is "Matisse" ... this should be interesting ....

Happy Crocheted Valentine's Day!

With my latest obsession for all things crocheted, I just had to crochet a little something for my girls for Valentine's Day! I whipped up these little bags last night based on a pic I saw on Crochetville a couple weeks ago. (Wouldn't you know it? While searching for the link to that pic, I find that there's a free pattern ... could've saved myself some time ... {{sigh}} ...) They didn't turn out at all like I'd pictured (I've got to learn how to do an oval base), but I am pleased with the finished projects nonetheless.
Yes, those are new toothbrushes ... we are fanatics about brushing around here ever since my younger daughter had to have tooth work done just a month before her second birthday. And, no, it wasn't because of lots of candy ... we didn't give our kids anything sugary for the first two years. The dentist said she has very aggressive saliva ... I'd never heard of that before, but it has sure changed our brushing habits! Anyways, they now get new toothbrushes for just about every holiday ... great excuse, huh? LOL! But don't worry, we're not heartless ... there are some cute M&M containers in the bags and some heart-shaped brownies in the fridge ...

Have a Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Altered Art Book Page Thingy

I'm not exactly sure what to call this ... a group of ladies, including my mom, are doing a round robin where we prepare blank pages for each other to decorate according to our chosen themes. Should be fun!

I chose the theme "Opposites Attract" ... I want each of the other 3 ladies to make 2 pages that each represent 2 opposites. I started the ball rolling with the opposites of chaos and order:
I can't wait to see what the others do with their 2 pages! I sent these to my mom a couple of weeks ago and she's already done with her pages and has sent it on to the next lady. So exciting! When we get our respective pages back, we plan to put them together into some sort of accordian book that stands up ... not sure yet just how I'll do that, but I'm not going to worry about it until I need to LOL!

For now, I just need to concentrate on the theme of the pages I'm working on now ... "flourish". I've got a few ideas brewing, so just need to sit down and start actually doing something about it!

Crocheted stockings

I mentioned a few posts ago that I was already looking ahead to Christmas 2008, at least as far as new Christmas stockings for the whole family. Well, I'm happy to say that I got further than just looking ahead and actually made them! I used this pattern (note: you might have to sign up for free in order to see it). I made a few minor adjustments, such as making it longer from top to heel, working the toe differently to avoid having to sew more seams than necessary, and doing only six rows for the cuff (I used a thicker eyelash yarn so six was plenty!). What do you think?



I'm very pleased with how they came out ... now I can't wait until next Christmas so I can try them out LOL!