So I Was Just Thinking

Well, I am ready for November to come so I can start filling in my new calendar journal page. November brings new things. A new job teaching at Wright Career College A new apartment My birthday Thanksgiving Day Decorating the new place for Christmas A somewhat empty art journal to fill. Here is last month's calendar page. I am glad the month is over. Kathryn hasn't posted her new monthly reminder to participate in the journal, but you can see where she has been published in Somerset Studio Magazine. Yay, Kathryn! New Note: Kathryn's post is up here!!

Well, as a family we were all going to use the long weekend to trek down to Texas and rip out carpet and paint walls. Come to find out, Gary doesn't have Monday off so it would make a really bad turn around time. So...we decided to stay home and make plans to go another time. Meanwhile, all I can envision is the money pouring out of my already empty pockets into the mortgage and utilities for a house we aren't using. :-( Now, I will look for some free activities to do in the city for the Labor Day weekend. I have seen several advertised on tv. I hope the temperature stays cooler than yesterday (102F.) Yesterday I lazed around the house feeling a little sorry for myself wondering why I don't have a job yet. So I got out my sketchbook and calendar journal and fiddled around. I have been thinking about working on a set of note cards to sell at some local gift shop. They would look like some of these: I just want to unify the theme of them so they seem more like a set. ...

We made it to Missouri. We have been here a week and a half. I really like it here, but I don't have a job yet. In between the time I am applying for jobs and taking my kids to enroll in school and dance, I have had some time to play with water colors. First up is my completed July calendar journal . I am proud that I have kept up with this as long as I have. Click on images for clearer, larger look . I also have August's ready to be filled. (I have September's, too, but you will have to wait for that one.) I completed 30 days of creating faces . Most of them are female, but there is one questionable one and one definite boy. Don't forget to sign up for Julie's Art Journal Every Day. Finally, I have been inspired by this lady . Her flowers are so bright and vibrant! Paint and I are just getting to know each other so I have tried painting some flowers. Although they are nothing like hers, I am pretty pleased with the outcome. I feel I have neglected my blogging, but ...

I know I haven't been a good blogger friend. I haven't had much to say since I am still in a holding pattern. I am not sure why we haven't moved yet, but I hope to find out soon. We are going up to Kansas City today so the kids can see Daddy and I can get the lay of the land. I probably would stay there longer than the holiday weekend, but James will be getting his tonsils removed on Tuesday. He has "kissing tonsils." (Sorry, but you will have to look it up if you are interested, I am on my way out the door and don't have time to get a link for you.) :-) Before I go, I decided to share my June & July calendar journals. When I get back I will be sure to visit everyone else who shared on The Kathryn Wheel . This page still waits for some touches of colored pencil, but that will have to wait. July awaits to be filled. I am looking forward to good things. Have a great Fourth of July weekend my dear American friends, and the rest you, have a good fourth ...

....And time for a new Calendar Journal. I have faithfully kept up with three months, and I am ready for June's calendar. June brings a batch of mixed emotions. It's the end of 12 year stint of teaching fourth grade and the beginning of a new career yet to be determined. It's the end of claiming Texas as home for 37 years and having to tell people I live in Missouri (fortunately that is still one month away but the packing has begun.) Saying goodbye to my students was sad, but saying goodbye to my colleagues was even harder especially when the principal called me up to say a few words. I eeked out a few sentiments but not without a few tears....Although me and tears - we are no strangers. June promises to be super hot so I predict a lot of inside time and comments about dance classes will dominate my June calendar. We shall see.

I just wanted to share the rest of my weekend. Sunday, James woke to find a basket of goodies outside his door. We went to church. (Had pictures, but they were blurry.) We had breakfast with mom. We colored eggs. I worked on the title page of my calendar journal. I gessoed and painted the decoupaged kraft paper. I found this calendar from 2010 still hanging on my wall and decided it needed to be cut up. Et voila! My new title page. Now to find more time to get my hands dirty and do some more pages behind the calendar journals.

In January, I started following Kate and her Calendar Journal at her blog The Kathryn Wheel . She encouraged us do something similar and share it. I never got around to doing the January one. Then I decided to go ahead and write something down each day for February until I could get a book for the journal. I started out fine, but I never got a page made for February. Then I did the same for March. I did, however, get a page made for March. It wasn't what I had planned, and I found that the pages of the book I bought were a little smaller than I thought. I decided to press forward anyway. By April, I had figured out the exact layout and how to fit up to 31 days on two pages. I measured 2 inch squares with spaces in between each square. I painted each square a different color using some inexpensive water colors (lesson learned, by the way,) and used a monthly theme for the colors. I have prepainted May and June so far. I am not using the backs of the pages for calendar journaling. ...