So I Was Just Thinking

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...

On Art Journal Everyday, Julie posted a 7 day plan that would have you at the art journal for about 10 minutes each day. That's not how I usually work. I store up all my energy and find one day just to pour everything into my journals. This is why I don't usually get much done in my art journals. I rarely have that much time on my hands. This week I decided to follow the plan. It was fun. I have posted most of them and have two days left to show you. Day 6 she said to journal on notebook paper like you were back in high school. I decided to pull out my old doodle friends, frogs, worms, dogs, elephants, rabbits, rainbows and flowers. Day 7 she said to cut out a favorite piece from the day before to paste in the journal and use it to doodle around. I had a vision of wallpaper in my head. Below are the rest of the pics from our Snow Day. The snow is all gone now except on my front sidewalk which never sees the light of day in winter.

Long time no post. So what brings me back? Quirky Dutch Summer . Week 1 has me making my own art journal.  This sent me on a field trip to Hobby Lobby where I found quite a deal on journals, canvases and a pad of primed sheets of canvas. (More than 75% off.) I then dug through a very old stash of acrylic paint. All of my art supplies are in the garage after I cleaned out my office for Thanksgiving a year and a half ago. I needed room for a long table. I also didn't want my company seeing my messy workspace. I've not brought much in since then. That's what I'm liking about Quirky Dutch Summer. It has me playing in my art stuff again. I have no plans this summer and my youngest is about to leave for cousin camp, giving me plenty of time to get my hands dirty. So let me show you what I've made. First I painted the front of the canvas. Then I painted the back and let them dry overnight.  I folded the edges over and glued them down. I used Aleene...

In January, I decided that my word for the year would be creativity . I have done a good job of keeping up with it, too. Last month, I decided to draw a face a day. I enjoyed that, but decided that I had enough of faces. So, I was reading Julie's blog, Balzer Designs: Art Journal Everyday when I saw a guest post from Carolyn Brady . She had a method of filling an art journal page by tangling a little each day. I decided to use that on the back of my calendar journal pages. I call it "A Doodle A Day." Here are the most recent entries. 1. Dentilles; 2. Finish Line; 3. Polish Pottery 4. Oobleck; 5. Mum's the Word; 6. Swiss Cheese 7. Fishnet Stockings; 8. Walk This Way; 9. Secret Garden Similarly to Carolyn, I drew a grid on my page - a total of 30 squares (6X5.) Everyday, I get out the Millennium fine points from Zig and place one pattern in a square. Now, Carolyn colored hers but I am a strictly black & white girl. I have some more water color pa...

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. ...

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!!

Day 3 of Spring Break was a great day. Mom took James for a haircut and then took him to visit the new Harley Davidson store. James loves motorcycles. If you ask him when he is getting one, he will respond, "When I am 18 and have my own money." I love programming. If you are new to this blog, you are new to my St. Patrick's Day story. Click on over for a minute and then come right back. Don't worry. I'll still be here when you get back. See. I told you I wasn't going anywhere. So, you will notice that last year at this time, my aunt was recovering from hip surgery. That went very well. This year, however, she is in the hospital again with Myasthenia Gravis . The treatment worked the first time she had an episode last summer, but returned this month. We are hoping she can come home soon. If you jumped over to my St. Patrick's Day story, you will see we are just adding more to the "hardship" part of it. Because my aunt was in the hospital this Mar...

Since the beginning of the year,  (and even most of the year before that) I have been making a habit of documenting what's been going on in my life. Mostly I have been doing it in some sort of art journal. I began fashioning my thoughts after the Chronicles of Marit  with a mixture of Dion Dior until about a month ago when I put the pen and paintbrush down and somehow forgot to pick them back up. How does that happen? Sure, I have skipped a day or two and come back right away to where I left off, but what makes a person put the book down and never come back? Even now, talking about it, I don't feel the urge to find some paint and catch up. I see the book but there is no draw (no pun intended.) What is keeping me from doing what made me so happy before? Well, I am not sure where the answer lies to that, but I thought maybe sharing the last page in my book, I might want to continue doing it again. I found these pictures in my camera yesterday when I was doing another projec...

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 ...

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...

Now that 2015 is here, I find myself reflecting on 2014 and trying to choose a word to direct my life. A lot as happened this year and I want to move on. Since July my main goal was to accept the hand I was dealt. This year I would like to move FORWARD. I know that's what my love would have wanted for me. So as this year ends I will share with you how I worked through the pain and heartache of Bobby's loss. I kept a daily art journal where I wrote to him and shared with him the things I would have told him on the ride to work and in our evening talks. Here are a few of the last pages I made to help me through. In the future I hope to use this blog to help me continue in a FORWARD direction. I would like to do that through storytelling, especially stories about my children and the crazy and wonderful things they do everyday. I remember how much joy that brought me during previous trials and I believe that writing will help me again. I also look FORWARD to creating more. I...

You can get a lot done. No, I didn't do laundry or organize my closet, but I did cross off two items off my art journal list. I have one more page left to do plus a cover. When I finish it all, I will show you. Here is a page that we were supposed to add texture with gesso. It is textured, but hard to see in the picture. The second one is using a picture that Rieni took of daisy. I painted over the photo. Then I drew the notebook paper for the quote and finished with some journaling.