So I Was Just Thinking

The long expected day finally arrived; the day when their dad came to get them for over a month; the day when they find out that all his promises are true or not. I don't like putting them in that situation, but he has his rights and the youngest so wants to be with him. They listen to his grand ideas while he raises their expectations about some magical mystery job he has been going on about for two years with mysterious salaries that never materialize and they believe him. And I will be here to pick up the pieces when they come back with a new look at reality. In the meantime, I will get Little Man's room ready with the sports theme that he has been wishing for. Maybe it will soften the blow. And in the same meantime, I will take my savings and go back to school shopping for both children to wipe out the memory of a year ago while we lived on public assistance when every other word I wanted to say was, "No, we can't afford it." What got me through all of thi...

They call me: Mom Mommy Annemarie Teacher Facebook Addict Online Gamer TV Watcher Unemployed Blogger and I am sure a lot more, but the one thing I can't bring myself to call myself is an Artist. For some reason there is a formality that comes to mind when I hear the word "artist." It seems that it is what you call people whose work hangs in art galleries. All of my work stays in my journals. Don't get me wrong, I love art. I go to lots of art shows, but I don't have anything that I would call a work of art. Everything always just seems like practice. The question is, what will it take to get my work out of a book and onto a canvas or some other concrete object worth displaying or sharing. I feel comfortable sharing with my Sketchbook and Blogger friends, but beyond that corner of my world I do not stray. How does one come to the point where she say, my work is worth sharing with world? How do I come to believe that my work has more value than just t...

I love this girl! It doesn't take an outside jury to tell me she's the best, but it sure is nice to hear it every so often. Today was the art show at her school where two junior high school art departments were represented. There was a wide variety of work there. I am impressed with what the art teachers at the two schools are able to accomplish with limited resources and schools cutting back on the fine arts. Without this art program, Caitlin would never have been able to try her hand at the so many different media. Clay Mask (self portrait) Glazed Pottery Foil Collage Hammered Pendant and Earrings Charcoal Self Portrait - Best in Show!!! The funny thing is she had homework and I suggested she ask her teacher if she could leave the show after 30 minutes. The teacher said it was important that she stay for the award ceremony and that she should dress up. When she was awarded 4th place for the glazed pottery, I thought she was done and put the camera away. Imagine my surprise wh...

First of all, I was greeted today in my mailbox by a great surprise. Which means I will soon be able to take my own picture of this: While sharing laughs with this person: Now many of you maybe wondering why I didn't already have a passport for a trip that I have been planning for going on three years. Well it is a strange little story that I will begin with another little story. When my cousin Pam and I were kids, we noticed how much I resembled her mother and how much Pam resembled my mother. We would joke that mom had Pam first (she is a year older) and wasn't married (not a funny joke in the Catholic church) so she gave Pam to my aunt with the understanding that after Mom got married, my aunt would give her the next born child. This has been the hidden joke for years, never telling our mothers. When it finally came time to order a passport, I had lost my birth certificate. I filled out all the proper paperwork and mailed a check to the Vital Records office in San Antonio. H...

This project is a play on texture. It was suggested that we use gel medium, something I had none of in my house. I am all about making do, so I just started looking for other ways to add dimension to my page. I started with a canvas that has been covered with phone book pages. I applied gesso and attached string and little flowers to it and gessoed over that. I got a stash of goodies from Chris a while back and decided to break some of it out. It included this doily and some flowery tissue paper. Added a little paint and some glitter. (I just love these flowers.) The center of this flower is dimensional paint. It still needs some journaling, but I am done with the basic canvas.

If you saw my Discipline collage , you can tell I have a thing for tissue paper. I have used it make inchies and to paint mountain/sunset scenes. Now I am working on some ATCs . I have done some before using the same cardstock I am using this time. However, I am tired of this background and want to alter it some how, so here's where the process went. (Note: I did try it on some sample-sized pieces of cardstock first so you might see those pop in from shot to shot.) I began with a plain piece of cardstock (it is supposed to be green/yellow.) I lightly drew a line on the card. I then squeezed some glue onto the card (don't ask why it's blue...that's another story.) I used scrap piece of stock to spread the glue to get a perfectly straight edge. I laid the tissue paper onto the wet glue and pressed out the bubbles. (You could use a brayer, it gets messy.) I trimmed the excess tissue. (I have torn it before, too, for a different effect.) After the glue dried, I took the c...

I ran into something called moleskine notebooks. Take a look at a couple I found on YouTube then read on. (If you work in a place that blocks YouTube like my district does, you will have to wait until you are home to view it, but believe me it is good.) Who thinks of these? I used think I was pretty creative, but I certainly couldn't fill an entire book with artwork all based on a central theme like these artists have. Somehow I ended up clicking link after link that led to more moleskine books. I then began to feel a little jealous not because these people could draw or paint better than I (although most could) but because they were focused enough to fill an entire book with their artwork. I am so NOT that person. I start things that I never finish. I am sure my garage (closet, attic, office) is full of projects that I began but never found the time to complete. Case in point: My #1 turned 11 years old this week. Somewhere in a drawer is a quilt that I started when I was pregnant...