Life seems to forever in a state of chaos BUT there is beauty and peace!

 

 
That is what has become my comfort, seeking peace.  Remembering that being alone doesn't have to be a bad thing.  So I am resting, trying to find my wings so I can soar.

Most days it is slow going and I find myself sometimes filled with anxiety.  Always going back to finding things I can control that bring me peace.  Soon Spring will be here, I am seeing signs in my yard.  I am looking forward to getting out there but the weather needs to go up just a few more degrees before I won't freeze my hands off even with gloves on.

Happy New Year's Eve

Whether you are home with family, sitting alone anywhere, curled up with a good book, or maybe just in a room with a lot of people.....I wish nothing but the best for you in this coming New Year.  As 2012 is coming to an end on the West Coast, in just about an hour I have chosen my word for 2013 or maybe it has chosen me.....this next year I will seek JOY.  I am sure it will meet me right where I am and teach me a thing or two.  Do you have a special word for the coming New Year?   

The last few weeks have been full of sewing, up until the last hours of Christmas Eve.  I made 4 quilts, altered newborn baby clothes for my Granddaughter's dolls which totaled over 2000 yards of thread and so many hours of sitting at my faithful machine that I am still sore.

 

My partner in crime, my youngest daughter Michaela, that blessed me by helping every minute that she could, so I could sew.  I think I will owe her coffee out for weeks.

These are the dolls that my Granddaughter's found under the tree after breakfast Christmas morning.  Their faces were priceless!  Each one came with their own diaper bag of clothes and I included a name tag with who they are.  Painting the faces and stitching on the hair was relaxing and fun. 

My heart was in a different place this Christmas and so much I can't still understand.  I am taking it one day at a time and the best thing is, I know I am okay.  It is a wonderful feeling to know that the not so great things that happen, don't take me to a horrible place anymore.  They make step back and see how far I have come.

PS.......Tracey, you need to contact me so I can get your book out to you

Time goes on......

I am seriously not sure where the time goes.  It seemed just like yesterday that we were headed into summer now it is cooler in the mornings and warmer in the afternoons.  Three weeks ago I was out on my porch and I actually felt the season change.  It was pretty strange.  I could feel the crisp fall smells coming and I have felt them getting stronger as each day has gone by.

The last nine months have been anything but normal.  Trying to find my balance as I am certain I have said before.  I tried my forever fail safe, in taking classes only to be disappointed in myself in not getting any of them done.  I have however, have felt a shifting the last few weeks and that is the best feeling.  It is like I have been birthing this new life, a life that I prayed for but didn't expect it to be like this.  I have gone from having my own time, to full time care giver of my grandchildren.  I wouldn't change anything but it is not what I thought it would be.  I can dream everything about the day, what to do with my gbabies only to have life come in and take hold.  They are here everyday, all day with very few breaks.  This house has had to relearn to do loud well and that we do.  For me it has been a challenge and I would be lying if I said I was okay with the loudness.  I am relearning to get up early so I will have my quiet time.  Tonight is the first time in weeks that I have been at peace with writing, it feels good.

The month of August I did a lot of sewing.  One quilt for my oldest Granddaughter with fabric I have had picked out since the day she was born, 6 years ago.  Then I made a total of 8 dresses for both my Granddaughter's.  It was nice to get somethings done that I have been on my to do list for way to long!!

So here is to fall, settling in for cuddles under warm blankets, cups of hot tea or cocoa and being done with putting off projects.  Just getting things done so I can find my lost creative self.  She has been resting for months and wants to be awake!

Memories

Last month I did get back to scrapbooking, it feels good to be remembering things.  It hasn't always been that way.  It took me years to be alright with scrapbooking my children.  Time was going by so fast I couldn't scrapbook in the moment.  I found it almost painful.  Now that my children are almost grown it brings me joy to create memories for them.

This is one of those layouts that are extremely excited about.  I started with this layout from Shimelle's starting point from last week.  My journaling will be done in the hidden pocket because I want it to be a little more private.  It just makes me so incredibly happy.  I remember the day so well.  It is one of those photos that I thought I would never use just because I can't see my daughter's face.  She is now almost seventeen and her hair isn't that blonde anymore.  Everything came from my stash except for the purchase of the glittered swirls and the splatter of  Daler Rowney Liquid Acrylic in Waterfall Green.

Best laid plans.....

I started this post almost two weeks ago!  Life is loud and busy right now.  It got busier when my handsome husband got a new job!  We are over the moon excited but he is going to have to do some more traveling.  He is my rock, supporter and picks up the slack when I just need to go to my corner.....or my square as my Grandson calls it.  I have been meaning to share this for months, hope it helps you.     

In December 2011 I traveled to Nebraska to help my family go through my Mom's things.  I knew it was going to be one of the most stressful things emotionally so I wanted to make sure that I packed my art.....art to go.  I searched online for people that had packed art for trips but only came up with a hand full of people.  I had intended to post this as soon as I got back from my trip but life was just busy.  I hope you enjoy and maybe it will help you on your next trip.

First I took a shopping trip to Ross which is similar to TJMax and I found this......a nice deep cosmetic bag that opens up in the middle.  The only bad thing is on my way home one of the handles popped out so I now have a little sewing project to do.

 
This is what I packed inside.......2 journals, one that I am already working on with Suzi and one that was given to me by a special friend.  One 6" ruler, a brush that I use only for Mod Podge, my box of colored pencils that I use for drawing faces and a tin that holds my loose alphabet stamp set from Martha Stewart.  Ziploc baggies make it pretty easy to keep things organized especially when flying.  So I started by picking out my favorite colored pencils and a couple of smaller watercolor brushes.  Three smaller bags(sandwich size) hold baby wipes, paper towels and 3 stamp pads.  There are two larger bags from the airport which hold my 2 oz liquids and watercolor pencils, my pitt pens in sepia and black, 2 rolls of tissue tape and a pod of perfect pearls.  I also took a empty mini mister so it would be easy for me to spray water or mix perfect pearl mists.  I did pack two quart size bags with collage things I thought I might use but they aren't pictured.

I would do this again in a heart beat.  I felt I had just the right amount of things to not feel like I would be missing something.  Having it organized this way made it simple to take out anywhere.  So moral is....don't be afraid to travel with your art supplies.  Take what you need and a few things you want.  Enjoy yourself and have fun!!

Happiness in the Fall

Fall is here and honestly I am really not ready for it.  I much prefer a bit of sunshine to the dark weather.  I always think I mentally prepare myself for it but it happens, then I find myself in a bit of a funk.  So in order to keep myself out of a bad place I am promising myself that when I feel this way I will be sure to look back on this year to see all the beautiful artwork I've created.  It is bright and happy which I am sure will help my moods.

This is the piece I felt deserved it's own post.  It was weeks in the making after I saw a small nick knack piece at a local grocery store.  It made me happy but the price tag didn't especially for something so small.  Plus I don't really have the space so it just made more sense to take the time to make a canvas.

I put to good use what I learned for Christy Tomlinson in the classes I took from her this year.  Layer upon layer, with hidden messages if you look closely.  People may never really see them but they mean something to me.  This was a healing piece, a testament of sorts to show how far I have come in my life.  Again it just makes me completely happy!

I've always been a detail orientated person.  That is what you will see when you look at it.  After months of it being completed I still can't help but look at it and see something new.  Did I really put that there or is it just something that happened?   The hardest part??  Waiting for each layer to completely dry!  I thought sometimes I would go crazy.  You can't help the urge to touch but then you remember you may just mess it up, so you walk away.  Trust me just walk away from the project, if you face that!  You will be happier!!

Is there something you will hold onto tightly as we go into the holidays, then into a New Year? 

 

Whatever it happens don't forget to STOP and Enjoy this day that you have been given.      

A promise kept and a surprise

Art, art and more art.  If a day goes by that I can't do it or don't, I can be quite crappy.  When I am making something, every piece of my heart is in what I do, it is a peaceful place.  I am in such a happy place, it is part of my center.  I use to think that you had to have a degree in art to be an artist.  I don't think that anymore and I try to encourage people that think they can't be creative to just pick up something.  You can be creative in ANYTHING you do, it doesn't have to be with a paint brush, colored pencil or pretty inks.  Look at how you keep or organize your house or how you cook(probably better than me).......that IS a form of being creative.  I challenge you to not put being creative into a box, look at what you do and see it differently.

I have learned so much from all the wonderful blessings of classes this year.  I've taken away from them learning techniques that I have helped me so much.  This is one of the projects that I took my time on and it is something I am in love with.  I've always wanted to do something with all the little love notes I have saved for years from my children.  Each little element in this means something and is proudly hanging in my bedroom where I can see it everyday.    

Do you remember this post?  My daughter was asking about what honor meant to you.  We posted the same question on the Brave Girls site.  She then took everyone's answers, printed them out and used them in her artwork.  They turned out so wonderful.  She received a high grade and has decided she doesn't want to keep them for herself put pass them onto the ladies who are a big part of her life.  We put everyone's name into a basket and drew three names, Selena Alvar, Kaere Schmidt and Sandi Floyd Tygar, you will each receive one of these 8x10 canvas.  Enjoy!

If you like what I have done with my Canvas of Love and would like one of your own please feel free to contact me for pricing.  It would be my honor to take your tokens of love and make them something you can see everyday. 

Just a bit of sun

Our summer has finally hit Spokane, just in enough time to start thinking about school.  For our family, there is one more week off before our Marching Band life starts.  We hit the ground running and it really doesn't let up until the end of October.  I really can't complain at all about summer this year, it has only hit over 90* a few times and our air conditioner has only been needed maybe a half a dozen times.  My heart goes out to the states who have had record breaking heat.  Try to stay cool!

I have successfully been doing some type of art for over 30 days.  I have really been making the time.....a few minutes here and a few minutes there.  It has made me feel very accomplished.  Kristin has done such a wonderful job at keeping us all motivated about color, check out her blog with all the wonderful links to everyone in our group.  This last week it has been all about the color Orange, again not one of my most favorite colors in the world.  You won't find me wearing it, in less it is more on the lighter side with a more of a pinkish shade to it.  I've tried but it washes me out and makes me have that frumpy feeling.  That feeling is something I am trying to get out of with my clothes so I just stay away from colors that just don't work for me.  To my art journal I've added a couple of more pages.

Last November I looked out my front window and noticed that everything had this Orange glow to it.  I went to my back deck and this is what I saw, totally breathe taking.  I love it when God just takes His paint brush to the sky, it gives me so much peace to know He gives me beautiful things to look at.

Our bonus was to use a poem.  This poem was shared with me by a friend, we found it tucked into a few sheets of old music from her Grandmother.  I felt it deserved a special place, along side a photo taken by my friend Ajae, you can find her here and here.  I KNOW this page isn't completed but I'm okay with it.  I'll wait for the inspiration to come.

In my garden this year I only have one splash of Orange from my Lilies.  I've shared before how amazed I am of how my garden was made for me, full of flowers that I are at the top of my list of loves.  These are one of them and if you look close you can see again how God just takes His paintbrush adding all the little details.

This week at Kristin's blog we will be sharing what we have created over the last few weeks.  I'm going to also be sharing a few other things I have been working on, that I am pretty excited about.  Keep checking back in when you can.

Almost over?

Purple, Purple, Purple.......I was excited when I had my first daughter because that meant I could dress her in every shade of purple that I could find.  I even taught myself to sew and made her first dress.  I was so proud of myself.  I learned a few things with this little dress....never use velcro 'buttons' on clothing for babies, don't make your elastic to tight around the arms and one can never have to many ruffles even for a baby.

In my garden I LOVE seeing purple.  It makes me happy and calm.  It reminds me of when my girls were young and I had pots of pansies on my deck.  The day after I planted all my pansies all the blooms were gone.  It seemed so strange to me at the time.  I would find out later that while my girls were outside playing they got hungry so they ate all the blooms.  So here is to my garden this year, beautiful purple.

So if you haven't guessed over at Kristin's blog this week we are talking about Purple.  It is hard for me to realize that next week is our last week, where we will be showing off the color Orange.

As this is my first ever art journal I want to just keep things as simple as possible and pretty basic.  More for my photos sake than anything.  Painted straight purple for the base with a design on the right where I added a favorite picture of my son when he was about 2.  He captures my attention even now 16 years later.  I added a bit of bling with a rindstone and iridescent confetti.

A parting shot, remember the Clematis a friend helped me transplant last year?  I thought for sure that I had lost it but all the old growth just died.  It is back and it makes me so happy.  I need to find a way to protect it a bit more from the winter elements.  Any ideas?

So what is making you happy this summer?

Here is to the color RED this week at Kristin's blog!  It is hard for me to realize that there is only a couple of more weeks left.  This has been a well needed distraction, thank you Kristin for making this happen.

For me the color red has always been a happy color.  When I think of red I think of my beautiful red headed girls, they bring me much joy.......everything that is red is in their personalities, even as adults.  Red creates warmth, passion and energy.  It can be seen every where if you allow yourself to open your eyes to its beauty. 

It is the color God uses to get my attention and to take my breathe away.  My youngest and I were out for a drive a couple of weeks ago and we went around a corner, we were caught in awe of the beauty. 

Then in my garden this week I found this red lily.  I always seem to forget that they around because there are so few of them.  I think I need to find a place in my front garden for a clump of them because they just make me smile.

So onto my journal page for this week.  Different spots of red that mean alot to me; a red ribbon rose that came from one of my daughter's outfits(she is now 24) and a heart that came on a card that a special friend sent to me.  I painted both pages with red paint first, using a white piece of cardstock as protection of the edges.  I used a piece of the cardstock on the right page as an accent.  The heart from the card is on the left with wings I cut out in thick plastic and accented with white paint.  On the bottom is a back of a self adhesive doily.  I can't see getting rid of them especially when you can use them in mixed media.

A close up of the heart.  Have a great week and look for red, see what you can find!! 

Starting to feel caught up

Really I can't believe how tired I've been.  I decided yesterday that I would get back to my regular bedtime of 10pm instead of staying up until after 11:30pm playing.  It turned out to be the best thing!  I actually woke up this morning feeling normal even though I really could have rolled over and gone back to sleep.

Over at Kristin's Blog this week we are taking a look at the color Brown.  I have always LOVED Brown!  It is the color of my eyes and of my very special friend I have had for over 40 years.  So it was natural to me that I would choose my friend, along with a couple of pages from an old Winnie the Pooh book, found at a thrift store for .99cents.  I then by added a pop of Pooh bear yellow, as I like to call it.

The background was painted a light tan, stamped over with a word stamp and a diamond stamp I picked up last year in the $1 bin at Michael's craft store.  The brown circles are from a tp tube dipped into paint then stamped on the page.  I tried the same thing with a light orange paint but ended up not liking it so I covered it up with Liquitex ink in Yellow Orange.  This ink is wonderful because it is transparent but still gives a bold color.  I liked it so much that I used it in the white spaces on the pages and added circles on the book pages. 

Resting and Creating

This week has been all about resting, creating and less blogging.  The days are longer and I find myself not sleeping well, loads of tossing and turning.  When you don't sleep well at night it is a struggle to stay awake durning the day and so I tend to find myself taking naps mid afternoon.  It makes me less irritable, which I am sure my family likes.

On the creating front I am busy with Soul Restoration 2 and am feeling a bit behind.  This session is about creating the life you want to live and putting it to a life journal.  This way you can refer to it when you need to be reminded of what your goals are.  It is full of hard but rewarding questions to answer.  The artwork we are going is slowly coming together for me.  It really does make me completely happy.

This week on Kristin's blog, it is all about the color Yellow, which happens to be my least favorite color.  I wouldn't say I never use it but it does take me out of my comfort zone.  This time though it came easy when I went to create my art journal page.

A favorite photo of my youngest daughter when she was just over three years old.  On the left page is a flower she made me just around the same age, it has been on my inspiration board for 13 years!  I'm happy that it has found a permanent home here.  The inside of the flower is filled with green split peas painted black, then sealed with Mod Podge.  On the leaves of the flowers you will find what the color yellow means, followed by things to remember about the color Yellow at the bottom.  Our challenge was to use metallic somewhere, so it is added to the background along with a couple of Martha Stewart punched butterflies.

If my day goes the way I want it today I will be back with more artwork tomorrow.  Have a wonderful weekend whatever you are up to!! 

What a fun filled busy week!  Hardly time to breathe much less post to my blog.  I was able to get a few fun things completed so I will be sharing them this week, promise.

Last week with The Summer of Color was the color Pink, not to much a favorite of it but did make it work for these pages.  I chose things from my garden and looked up the feelings that pink is suppose to mean.  I am pleased with it and surprisingly it makes me happy.

My Daughter, Son in law(who came in on Friday) and my Grandson left this morning so it is a laid back day.  I'm ready to settle into my summer and start a project or two.  Today is the 4th of July here in the states so we might be going for a drive across town to watch the fireworks above the city.  Whatever you do today, enjoy yourself!!

How did I do that.....

I was asked yesterday how I created this look on my journal page.  Pretty simple, really.

Start with a white paper doily and spray randomly with Adirondack Color Wash in Sailboat Blue and Lettuce.  I put into a large narrow box so the over spray would be contained.  Be sure you note these are dyes, if you don't want it on your hands wear gloves.  If the wind is blowing you WILL get back spray...just saying.....so don't where your nice clothes.  After spraying, the paper gets very delicate to handle, so leave it in the box until it is completely dry....over night is best.  If you work with it to soon it will disintegrate.  The GREAT thing about the Adirondack Color Washes is once they are dry they are permanent, so you won't bleed into other colors.   

                               

The next day I started with spraying my journal pages with the same color washes, again letting them dry.  I then cut my doily apart and put down Mod Podge on my pages, placing the pieces in the bottom left and the top right of those pages.  Put Mod Podge on top of the doily and start working it with your fingers to get it to lay flat.  The trick here is to work VERY slowly because once the doily gets wet it goes back to being delicate so just go sloooowwww.  You will end up having parts of it that will dry sticking up but I didn't worry to much about that because I liked the look.  Then I just continued to layer, layer and layer.

First day of Summer vacation, with us not having very many warm days it is pretty strange to say Summer.  I just have to remember that Summer isn't actually offical until tomorrow.  I am ready for a few more non gloomy days.

This week in The Summer of Color class we are highlighting GREEN.  It is one of my most favorite colors.  There aren't many places in my house that don't have some type of green except maybe for my son's room....hhhmmmm....that gets me to thinking......lol.....wonder what he would do if a bit of lime green showed up in his room this week? 

I had this page done right away because I was so excited......

I'm also adding pages in my journal for the Three Hearts class that I took with Christy Tomlinson trying out differant backgrounds and loads of layering.  Things I need to remember.  Fun stuff!!

This week for me is all about getting ready for my oldest Daughter and youngest Grandson's visit, they will be here for 10 days.  I'm looking forward to loving on them which I don't get to do very often.

This is a special She Art I did for a friend of mine.  She has been through so much this past 18 months and I wanted her to always remember to find her joy in the midst of pain.  I think the piece speaks for itself.  I found the word JOY, it was someone's special give away for Christmas and I didn't save the link.  Sorry!  I started by painting the background a solid color, then started layering.  The doily was white and I painted it before laying it down.

Plenty of writing, doodles, stamping and outlining.

A few special things here....a paint on pearls, a cluster of cherries at the waist, the word love that just happened to be on the pages I used for her body.

 Layering here with paint and some stamped images.

Flowers are punched out and layered to look like a full daisy.  Leaves are left overs from the flowers I made for prom and Mother's Day.

ALWAYS let your layers dry before starting another!!  Mod Podge can be your friend!!!

A good day

Even if it is raining today, it is a good day.  Fall is in the air, my children left dressed up for school in their costumes that they put together themselves(LOVE no cost costumes!) and today I will be getting the house ready for the shampooing of the carpets.  We usually do this twice a year but we skipped right over it this spring so the carpets look terrible.

Finishing up LOAD is on my mind, it has been a rough month for me but I'm glad I have gotten more pages done for me children.  As always it brings me great joy now to look back on the lives of my children.  I remember when I first started scrapbooking how afraid I was of actually seeing them grow up before my eyes.  It probably had more to do with as I saw them getting older that meant I was to getting older, even if they make me feel so young.  I have made a choice to not finish some journaling spots right now.  I do fill them in I just have to look at the finished layout for a little while to be inspired.  That is how it works for me.

Day 23,  Made a companion layout to go with Day 22.  I think it is funny that in this series of photos of my children that I have not one of my son by himself.  What a busy almost 3 year old he was.

Day 24, My youngest daughter with her first piggy tales and this was also the first time she climbed up on the folding stool on her own.

Day 25, Someone is rolling over

Day 26, What a special day this was.  Our Grandpa, the kids Great Grandpa came to visit just to see the newest addition to the family.

 

Day 27, What you are doing to go with Day 25.

 

 Materials: Papers from Close to my Heart and Making Memories, Flowers from Prima, Tim Holtz's Tattered Florals Die cut(LOVE IT!), mini tag stamp(retired CTMH), Glossy accents on some butterflies and flowers.