December 19, 2007

All is well but very busy

I have been keeping up with the Journal Your Christmas class but there has been so much to do that I haven't been able to keep up with posting to the blog.  With Christmas and the trip to New Mexico I was getting overwhelmed posting the images.  So I figured if something had to be postponed for a little while, this was it. I will update when I return from our trip, even if it's just a bit at a time. Pray we have good traveling weather and look for my return by Jan 1st or so. I have to post my New Years Resolutions after all.  :)

 

Happy Holidays

and have a

Wonderful New Year

christmas-clipart-4

December 13, 2007

Journal Your Christmas - December 12

Right side

Dec 12 Journal your Christmas left Side

Left Side with a spot left open for a "present day" photo.

Dec12 Journal your Christmas right Side

That's it, we are up to date. The prompt for the 13th, how the gifts get sorted on Christmas day, I happened to cover on journal above.  So I will use the 13th for my own prompt, Company Christmas Parties. My Guy had his annual Christmas party for work last night and it was a lot of fun. Good food, a little wine, a gift exchange and some great table company. We took some killer pictures last night, and this is coming from someone who hates her picture taken.  

Journal Your Christmas - December 11

Pretty self-explanatory.

Dec 11 Journal your Christmas Side

Journal Your Christmas - December 10th

Dec 10 Journal your Christmas

All about Wrapping Gifts. The journal prompt talks about how I love to make the wrapping paper and the tags.

Journal Your Christmas - December 9

All about Traditions.  These are some of ours.

Dec 9 Journal your Christmas

Journal Your Christmas - December 8th

How Christmas looks all around us.

The right side:

Dec 8 Journal your Christmas Left Side

The left side:

Dec 8 Journal your Christmas Right Side

Journal Your Christmas - December 7

This is my to do list for Christmas.

Dec 7th Journal your Christmas

Today was also my Mom's Birthday.  Happy Birthday Mom!

Journal Your Christmas - December 6

Today's prompt is about recalling two Christmas memories, one happy memory and one that made Christmas not so ideal.  These were mine.

Dec6 Journal your Christmas Right Side

Dec6 Journal your Christmas Left Side

Journal Your Christmas - December 5

A short one about our Advent Calendar:

Dec 5 Journal your Christmas

Journal Your Christmas - Dec 4

Believe it or not, I've actually been keeping up with the Journal your Christmas class but in doing so I've neglected my blog. Unfortunately, try as I might, I can't do everything I want to do. Just not enough hours in the day.  Here are my entries for Dec 4, which was about the Ideal Christmas. Hope you like it.  I'll be posting the rest of the pages as separate entries.  Feel free to leave me comments. 

Right side:

Dec 4 Journal your Christmas Right Side

Left Side:

Dec 4 Journal your Christmas left Side

December 3, 2007

Journal Your Christmas -Dec 3rd

Here is day 3 of the Journal your Christmas class.  This first page shows the Christmas card that started me on the process of making all my cards for Christmas. This is the left side of the journal.

Dec3-Journal your Christmas 1

The right side of the journal shows all the cards I've made so far and contains a pocket for the cards we'll receive.

Dec3-Journal your Christmas 2

This is the journal entry, I like writing them under a flap that you have to open to read.

Dec3-Journal your Christmas 1 inside

December 2, 2007

Journal Your Christmas Day 2

The weather outside is...

A Wintery Christmas

My Girl at almost 3 with her Grandpa and I

Christmas in Paradise

My Girl and her Fa. :)

Journal Open

What I had to say about both.

December 1, 2007

First Page of Journal your Christmas

This is from the first prompt by Shimelle Laine at Shimelle.com. It's glued on the the inside of the journal cover to remind me to keep up. It says:

I_declare

I declare my intention to Journal my Christmas. Writing something down every day. Creating a little bit whenever possible. Getting my stories documented for myself and maybe for others to read too.

I hope by taking a little time each day to reflect, to write, to create, I will keep my Christmas alive and well, despite the commercial pressure that exists outside my door. Family, friends and beverages will help.

I may meet others taking this same journey. I may share my work from time to time. I may remember just why I loved Christmas in the first place, and that may be a very magical moment indeed.

This is my first page.

dec1-JP

November 30, 2007

Ten Two Studios Countdown Calendar

Here is a great site for anyone needing almost free Christmas images. (After you post a link back to the site somewhere on the net you can download the images free of charge). These are nice images and you can get new ones everyday for a total of 46 images. Check the site sometime during each day from the 1st through the 25th and you could come away with images to use in your crafts. Last years images were great.

Starts tomorrow: http://countdown.tentwostudios.com/

Yesterday I took my Christmas Journal to be bound at Staples and the girls there did not make me feel good about leaving it in their charge. First she didn't even look at it and was going to bind it across the top breaking into the words. I made her draw a picture of the journal on the envelope and show where the binding was supposed to be. But even with that I wasn't sure it was going to be done right. I walked around the store and as I was leaving it was spread across the binding machine and the girl was off doing something else. I'm sure it's going to be a mess when I pick it up but I will gladly say I was wrong if it's not. Keeping my fingers crossed that I am. Good thing is, if it is a mess, I bought some binding rings while I was there so I won't have to take it back if I have to redo it.

November 27, 2007

Christmas Journal 2007- The Cover

Here is the cover of my new Christmas Journal. It still needs some work but I thought I'd get the picture posted before I got started on the pages. It's a journaling class through shimelle.com Yes, the theme of the cover is a little outdated but I still love it. The red background is printed from a fabric design because I couldn't find paper I liked and I didn't think the binding machine would like it if I used real fabric. The journal will be spiral bound if I ever make it over to Staples. The size is 6" X 9" and the pages will be made of watercolor paper.

Xmas Journal cover

November 23, 2007

The Christmas Spirit is in Me

Thanksgiving was a quiet one this year. It was just My Guy and me for dinner. We went to the Firehouse resturant in Old Sacramento and it was delicious. I was so stuffed I couldn't believe it. I did get a chance to talk to My girl and mom but not seeing them is so hard. I concentrated on the many, many things I have to be thankful for and didn't dwell on what I was missing. It helped me get through the day. I hope you had a wonderful day as well.

Now Thanksgiving is over and I'm finally allowing myself to get excited over Christmas. I expect Christmas will be a very good one. I've always said anticipation is what makes Christmas so exciting but the anticipation is going to kill me this year. I just can't wait for Dec 21st as we'll be flying to NM to see My Girl and her new husband. yay! It's been too long since I've laid eyes on my baby girl. :)

I signed up for the Christmas Journaling class at http://www.shimelle.co.uk/classes and it looks to be a lot of fun. We get started with the journaling prompts on December 1st and I've been looking for images to use for the individual pages. I found this in old CD from a image editor I used ages ago. I just love it.

November 19, 2007

Cindi Lou is stuck in the 50's

Like the hairstyle? I'm not sure it's done but there's not much to say about this one other than that it's painted on newspaper coated with gesso as described below.

FaceOnNews

What would you do?

What would you do for a cup of coffee and a sweet? This journal page describes my journey all over town looking for a Starbucks. Yahoo Local was wrong, there is no Starbuck's on the corner of West and Main Street....argh!

Starbucks

Veteran's Day Journal Page

In honor of all Veterans but specifically for my dad who not only served in WWII but passed away on Veteran's Day in 2006, and for my husband who served during Desert Storm.

VetsDayDad

Have I been lazy or busy?

OK yes I confess, I've been a bit of both. I haven't blogged because I've been too lazy to take pictures of my art efforts but I have been creating. I'll post them in the order they were created:

CollageOnNews

This picture was inspired by both Judy Wise and by Paulette Insall.

Judy's post concerning making journal pages from newspaper coated with house primer freed up my creative side. I figure it's just newspaper not paper I paid for. That's amazingly freeing. I felt I could experiment and if I didn't like it, I could just toss it. No loss in using paper that was going to be recycled anyway.

The other inspiration came from Paulette Insall's videos on Youtube. The videos show her amazing layering techniques and beautiful paintings.

November 11, 2007

Wall Art or Caulk Art?

My task this morning is to finally record my favorite craft shows on DVR to the DVD. I've had some these shows on DVR for over a year and I've been after my dear guy to please hook up the DVD recorder so I can get these wonderful shows recorded. We've been having problems with the DVR and I was afraid I was going to lose them. It's happened before and I didn't want it to happen again. It's not that I'm a technophobe, I can usually do it myself but this set up is way more complicated than I wanted to mess around with when my guy could do it in minutes. He put it together so he knew the whole wiring setup and it would have taken me hours to figure out. (I like to do it from the start or not at all) Although thinking about it now, I should have figured it out and I wouldn't be sitting here now recording hours and hours worth of shows. The bright side of this is that I have some new inspirations...or should I say old inspirations renewed.

Thanks to HGTV's B/Original program, my renewed inspiration came this morning in the form of wall art. Yes, there are many, many styles of wall art but this morning I fell back in love with words written directly on the wall. What?

Here's what you do: think up some great words, write them out on paper very large, or print them out on your computer if you don't like your handwriting. Then trace the words on the wall using graphite pencil, outline only. Host, Michele Beschen, says regular carbon paper will bleed on the wall. I'll talk about that more later. Then using acrylic caulk fill in the letters. It's like frosting a cake, except you can't eat this frosting (damn, I love frosting). After it's dry you'll primer it and paint. You can paint using the same color to create a very subtle look or use a different color to make it stand out.

So after recording for a few hours, My Guy comes to me and says he's going to Home Depot, do I want to go? Ah, do I ever say no to the hardware store? No. I love the hardware store. So when we got everything he went there to get and he says 'what do you want to look at?' Calking and copper was my response. Caulking for my renewed inspiration project and copper just because I love copper and I want to fondle it. :) First up, white acrylic caulk. I didn't know how much to buy but My Guy says buy as many as you want because I can always use what you don't. So I picked up three tubes, which turned out to be two too many. By the way, no specific brand is required so I choose the cheapest.

paperdreamI came home and printed out the word Dream. That's a good word for a bedroom isn't it? I tried using a word processing program but I found the 72 point letters didn't come close to what I needed. The word Dream in 72 points, the largest point size available for the font I wanted, was only 5 inches wide. I'd need a magnifying glass for that so I used my scrapbook software to create large letters. The D was the largest at 8" tall and about 5' wide. I taped it all together and went to look for some tracing paper. The picture shows the scale of the word as compared to the wall plug in.

PartialFillandOutline Now I know I said Michele said to use Graphite paper but I didn't have any and the nearest art store is 25 miles away so I used my carbon paper. I found a few sheets of red carbon paper from my home sewing days (ages ago.) and laser level to make sure it goes up straight. I taped the Dream letters to the wall using blue painters tape so I don't mess up the existing paint. OK so now it's time to trace the letters. Place the carbon paper behind the printed sheets so that the letter has carbon all the way around it. Using a pen, pencil or stylus, trace the outline of the letter. Press hard because you are going through two, sometimes three layers of paper.

Time to fill in the letters with caulk. I used a caulk gun to make it go quickly and worked for about an hour. At the end of that hour it looked like this:

dreamfilled

At this point it's dull but I'll go over it with primer and then with regular paint, then the letters will be highlighted with a pearlescent white paint. I'm happy with how it's turning out. I'll post pictures of the finished product later.

November 6, 2007

If You Obey All The Rules

Wow 2 posts in one day. This is the journal page I started last night. It has a variety of scraps of paper glued to the base sheet. I added a deep yellow watercolor wash that was too transparent, and it showed too much of the text in my little papers. So I used a acrylic wash and it looks much better.



I also wanted to try using some of the calligraphy that I've been learning. This is a fun set but I was still too chicken to do it right on the page. I wrote it out on a seperate sheet and then cut it up and glued it down. The woman's image was printed on a laser printer and I used contact paper to make it transparent.

Flowers in November

If there is only one thing about California that I love, it's that the flowers are still blooming in November. Here are a couple of photos from my back yard.



I'm particularily happy about the last one, which is the dwarf orange tree. The reason is that's it growing in a pot and it hasn't been very happy since we moved. But I guess my little baby is finally getting accustomed to it's surroundings.

Ahh my flowers make me happy.

November 5, 2007

Recap of the weekend

Friday night was our usual dinner night out. Where did we eat? Oh yes it was Bella Bru in Natomas shopping center. We had the same thing as is per usual these days (the low carb diet), which was crab cakes and salad and drinks. Did you know drinks don't count in the low carb diet? OK they do. We just tell ourselves that because there are just somethings we won't give up.

After dinner we went to Fry's in my quest to find some way to hook up my laptop to the laser printer. I have to print from the laptop more often now that Vista crapped all over my older programs on the desktop. Vista messed up so many of my "useful programs" (read business programs) that I wanted to scream. It's cost me more to upgrade my computer to be Vista ready that I could have gotten a brand new computer for same price. ARGH...

Saturday night we drove to Fairfield to meet the Snows and see their home. They had Erik and Karen there for hors d'oeuvres and wine. Nice home, with a very industrial utilitarian front. Corragated metal that looks much better than it sounds. After a few glasses of wine we drove over to the Vintage cafe for dinner. It's just a few blocks from the Snows. I had the sea bass which was wonderful but My Guy didn't like his fish dish, said it was too dry.

Today I went to Office Depot and found a Waterman Phileas Red Fountain Pen. It writes so smoothly. Very different from the scrubby point on the quill pen I used yesterday. That one was almost painful to use because it was so scratchy. I've also ordered some speedball nibs to practice some calligraphy. I want to use these pens for my journal entries.

I started a new journal page today by gluing down some bits of various types of paper to a page. tomorrow after it dries I will cover it with a tan transparent wash to unify the page. We'll see what happens after that.

November 1, 2007

Newest ATC's

Here are some of the ATC's I've been working on recently. These three are for me:

These are available for trade.



These three are for a swap at ATCards.com called Finding Your Voice




They are titled I want to be heard, Love Unconditionally, and End War.

October 29, 2007

Wine Tasting & Social Connections

We had a great night last night. We were invited to a wine tasting and tour at the Vezer Family Vineyard. Mike S and wife Audrey invited us to be a part of this by invitation only event. We met at the wine tasting room in Mankas Corners. There were quite a number of people there and I believe most were invited by Mike and Audrey. They know and party with so many people.

Mike introduced us to a few couples and everyone seemed very nice. We looked around the grounds and the wine barrel room. The wine barrel room had a very distinct aging wine smell. The area was very nicely designed and landscaped. It had a Tuscan courtyard feel. Audrey was the landscape designer and had her name on the plaque just before you enter the public wine tasting room. She freigned embarassment but I know she was reveling in the attention it brought her. And she should, it was a nice job.

Not long after we got there we got back in the car and drove to the farm. The trip was a nice but short caravan of vehicles in which we saw some beautiful homes and landscape. The farm was a private tour given by, Frank, the owner and his sister Giselle. He showed us the vineyards, which at this time of the year are gorgeous deep shades of gold and maroon. Quite beautiful. Next up was the processing area where they de-stem and pit the grapes. Then Frank discussed the process in which they ferment the juice, and when and why they remove the grape skins. Did you know that white wines are from grapes with the skins removed and red wine has had the skins left in? Yeah, I thought you did. :)

After a sample of the not quite finished and unaged wine currently in process, we went back to the main tasting room and courtyard at the farm. This is a different one than where we all first met. Here they were serving hors d'oeuvres and wine. First up was some White Zin, very good flavor. Later dinner was served buffet style. We found a table and had nice dinner conversation with a couple from Gorden Valley who are planning a very small vineyard for their own private label. I akin it to My Guy making his own beer. Nothing fancy, just some people who like to brew thier own. There was a another couple from the area as well. That guy and My Guy had a Harley Davidson in common, so they talked about driving the Harleys. His wife and I had our names in common. She didn't talk much so I don't know much else.

My guy surprised me by suggesting that we join the wine club and have wines delivered to the house. This wine club was described as not only a wine delivery service but a social connection with private dinners and concerts. One a regular concert and the other a black tie event featuring opera (eww). I figured that the bit about the black tie opera event would be enough to put a kibosh on the Wine Club membership. haha, but my guy wanted to do it anyway. I think he was having a good time there.

After dinner, dessert and much wine and conversation, we headed home. My guy purposely didn't drink as much wine as I did so he was ok to drive. Good thing because it was a 40 minute drive home. Over all it was a very good night.

October 27, 2007

Daisy



This is a new painting called Daisy is a Sun Worshipper.

October 25, 2007

Dream Home never realized

This is my newest art journal entry about the dream home planned but never built. We have a beautiful new home now but it will never be as special as if we had built it ourselves. There was something wonderful about planning ever aspect and putting your heart and soul into every board and nail that would have gone into that house. The day we realized it wasn't wasn't going to happen was a sad day for me.

October 20, 2007

Off-Balance

Created this today after we returned from the home show in Sacramento. I just realized that the last few figures I've drawn are posed on one leg, for some reason. Do you think that means something? Have I been off-balance longer than I think I have been? Don't answer that! Yes I'm looking at you.

This journal page didn't start off to be negative, it was going to be my assignment for the Suzi Blu art prompt. This week we were supposed journal, using collage, about our Muse. Do I have a muse? I do, but she's off some where dancing at an INXS concert, drooling over JD, and left me here to brood alone. Ok I'm not really alone as evidenced by the journal page above but maybe alone might have been better this weekend considering our moods. Nah... I spend enough time alone and semi-moody times with My Guy is better than no time at all. I know if we were feeling well things would be different.

The home show wasn't bad but it was poorly attended. I felt bad for the vendors. In fact, attendance was so low they decided to let people in free. We did see a nice gas heater that would look great in the master bedroom. It's one of those that looks like a fireplace but runs on natural gas. Our bedroom is always so cold in the winter and we think this is a great solution. I'd like to wait until the bathroom is done so we can see how much room we have left after reducing the bedroom for the walk-in closets. The room is so big we can take 4 feet off and still have a big bedroom but still we haven't planned the layout. So until we do that, I don't want to make a major purchase that we won't be able to move around if we change our mind.

This is going to sound strange but we also saw a huge wind powered mobile that we both loved. When I say huge, I mean 15 feet tall. We both looked at it and said "front yard" haha. Our house dwarfs the landscaping we now have and that mobile would be great. But yeah, we're not spending 2 thousand dollars on a mobile.

October 18, 2007

Blah day

There was something off today. Not sure why but I felt restless or bored or just off. I only spent a few minutes in my studio today. Now I have a headache.

When My Guy came home he wasn't feeling well, catching a cold, poor baby. ( My Girl, if you read this call your dad. :) ) It was his turn to make dinner and I offered to do it since he wasn't feeling well but he wanted to go out instead. Applebees, the old standby...I getting bored with it but there aren't many choices without driving 30 minutes. Anyway, My Guy decided he's staying home tomorrow.

I worked on an ATC for the Claudine Hellmuth Swap at http://www.atcards.com/ but I'm not sure I like it enough to send it. I also have to make one more ATC for the Make a Statement swap. I also need to make a cover for the new journal My Girl and I will be working on together. Once that's done, I'll take it to Staples and have them bind it and send it to her.

I was just at Suzi Blu's blog. That girl just cracks me up. I love her videos and her art. If you have time, I suggest watching her videos at YouTube, her channel is called SuziBluTube. There are about 30 videos and I just love them all.

Another funny lady in the art journaling world is Val who's channel is named Batatakley. She had this video offering travel for Art Journals.

October 17, 2007

Flower love is good love



This is a new journal page I made. Since I have the biggest brown thumb in the neighborhood, I thought I'd better start drawing my flowers instead of wasting seeds and nursery plants. :0


I guess I've been in a good mood recently because this is pretty upbeat for me. Things are going well and I am a happy camper. Oh yeah things could always be better. My daughter could decide to move back to California, I could win the lottery, someone could pay off our mortgage and my guy could find a new job he is really happy with. But other than that, things are going well.

Inspire Me Thursday - Hats



Everybody loves wearing pretty hats.

OK, even though I'm not a hat wearer I still like to buy them. I fancy myself wearing a beautiful hat in the garden, or while out walking the dog ... ah..the dog I don't have but hey it is my fantasy. But alas the hat stays in the closet because once I get it home from the store I never put it on again. Why? because it flattens my hair, or the wind is blowing and it's too hard to keep on. Or any one of a hundred other excuses why I don't wear hats. Oh well, I look good in them in my day dreams.

October 12, 2007

In Her Minds Eye




She stands near the gate
holds her hand over her brow;
It shades her eyes
from the bright sun.

"There he is" she says softly.
"There he is" the sound
of her voice getting louder.
"There he is" she yells out excitedly
I see only the breeze rustling the trees.

Minutes later he rounds the corner
of the brownstone.
So close she can taste him,
A chilly breeze brushes my cheek,


but I still can't see him
as clearly as she does
in her minds eye.







The collage was inspired by the poem.

October 11, 2007

Art Purchased 2

This is another piece we purchased earlier this month. The texture in this photograph is fantastic. The picture is printed on canvas and is 24x42. We both fell in love with it instantly. I'll post the artist soon, I promise.

October 10, 2007

Inspire Me Thursday -Birds



When I read the theme I immediately thought of the Beatles' song lyric "Black Birds Singing in the Dead of Night."

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