Summer Of Color - Purple Queen

I really enjoyed doing the Summer Of Color challenge this week. I have been away from my studio and didn't think I would be able to do this week's color challenge. Which is purple, a color that ranks high in my favorites! Anyway today I was leaving some comments on last weeks challenge and when I went to Lisa's blog at Sugar Creek I was so inspired by her beautiful journal work that I thought I'd get out my dusty journal that I always carry and almost never play with. So I made my first journal page in a long time. I have been singing this song , all week as it is in my car CD player and because I love it. It seemed perfect for purple. I bought some wonderful sheer polka dot tape at JoAnns while traveling and love it. It's very wide unlike washi tape and very sticky! The spirals are clear packaging of something I bought somewhere and the background paints are old tubes of Lil Davis Metallic Shades in Mint and Sweet Pea. Anyway lots of fun ! Thanks Kristin and Lisa!

I'll be visiting everyone whenever I have internet...look forward to seeing everyones as always! :) Nan

EDIT...I added the stars I forgot. Before I glue down 5 gazillion stars tell me better with or with out stars ? Also the song is Going To California by Led Zepplin. It's one of their rare acoustic song and is so pretty!

On The Go.....

This was my first magic carpet...I felt like I could go anywhere! Unstoppable! This is my entry for Three Muses. This is a page out of my journal. I am a too little foggy headed from my cold to be as creative as I would like today but thought this page was just right!

Three Muses Rusty Secrets

Well it's been awhile since I played on Three Muses but I always loved doing this challenge and I'm happy I finished my piece tonight and could share it.

New Classes Kit SAVED 1/2/10 POST

AWOL ; "Absence without proper authority from the properly appointed place of duty"...."one who is away or absent without leave"...."absent from one's post or duty without official permission but without intending to desert" .....I think I like that one the best :) Anyway I am apparently feeling much more creative because I have a lot in the works for the next month or so.

I don't really scrapbook because...well I don't know exactly why, just not what I'm best at. But I found this wonderful site called Scrapbooking From The Inside Out . It is Rachel Kaufman's concept. She is very welcoming and I love the concept. It feels similar to journaling as it revolves around a monthly one word prompt using a gorgeous kit. October was Loss, November Gratitude and this month the theme is Peace. I got my first kit today and it is just full of wonderful papery goodness, stencils, stamps, ink and more. So I will be trying my hand at a couple monthly projects using my kits.

I'm involved in several good online projects now.....signed up for one more month in Kelly Kilmer's class "Prompt a Day". Also working on Karen Grunberg's Reclaiming My Time project. I start Dispatch From LA Remains Of The Day class with Mary Ann Moss on the 15th and then I'm taking DJ Pettitt's upcoming photo editing class. I've loved her style of painting for years and I'm sure her new digi class is going to be fun. A bit intimidating but fun! Her sample photos are beautiful and I'm looking forward to it. Last but not least I'm doing a Wacom Bamboo class with Jessica Sprague in January.....Take that rusty muse! Break time is over! :) Welcome back !

January 2 2010 Post Saved
No, I haven't run away and join the circus or come down with a horrible case of hobokorokis. But I did abandon my 30 Days Of Happiness project. I've been trying to stay positive through a lot of personal losses recently by working in my art journals but had to take a break finally when my sweet little dog Mina took a turn for the worse in her battle with brain tumor she's been fighting. We had to let her go two days before Christmas so it's been a very sad time for me personally. Everywhere I turned was a reminder of her so when my brother called and asked me to go to Homosassa Springs with him for a day and then come back up to Georgia to be with family I jumped at the chance. I knew it would be very good to spend some time with them. That's a picture of all the girls except Loni the wiggle worm when we woke up today. I'm hiding in the very back row. None of us were feeling very glamorous but we were all here in the main house at the same time which rarely happens. It's always a full house here and everyone here is a night owl like me. Love that and waking up to a house full of family and friends. I'm really enjoying spending time with my nieces and nephew, especially getting reacquainted with my youngest nieces Loni and Lily as they are growing up so fast. My niece Lucy and I are definitely cut from the same cloth as we both love thrift stores and shopping. I am, however, going through some communications withdrawal. I left with an hours notice to pack and forgot my cell phone charger and laptop among other things. Today I hijacked the computer in the family room. Lily is at my shoulder demanding to know what I am writing and WHY is it taking so long ? :) Anyway lots of time to think about about my journal projects but not much time or many supplies to actually do much about them right now. I plan to take a long meandering drive home next week sometime and hit every thrift store I can in search of neat fabric and "stuff" to add to my journals, especially my "Remains Of The Day" journal. Sorry I haven't been answering my phone or emails but I truly hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and I will talk to you soon!

Lazy Days & Journals

Well it's almost midnight and I have been so lazy today that I forgot about my happiness post. Is it wrong just to be happy to have a lazy day? I hope not because I'm happy I did!

I painted 14 pages in my journal last night so I can start adding collage and writing. What a messy fun thing that was! Here's a sample from my daily journal prompt with Kelly Kilmer. The prompt was about your feet! Ugh but fun to do! :)

I also signed up to take a class called Remains Of The Day with Mary Ann Moss from Dispatch From LA. It is a journal made of all sorts of bits and pieces with sewing and well...just too much goodness to believe. Can't wait til class starts on the 15th!

Happiness Day Three TEESHA StUff

"Nothing is so personal as Happiness...Each soul is fitted for a joy entirely individual....Often a whole life is required to discover it. Jeane De Vietingghoff "

Today I was struggling with my new happiness project. The dark and twisties were really trying to get a hold of me. Among other things I was on call #92...the "on hold in a foreign country" type call and waiting for the oven repair man to show up to fix my broken (NEW !) oven (he didn't). I was really trying to find my happy thought yet alone take a photo of it when the mail showed up with a little box with neat stuff from Teesha Moore. I had ordered some beautiful teal twine so I could bind the journal I'm working on and was surprised to see all the neat little goodies that were in the package with it! And in that little pile of treats was the long stamp on the right that has the above quote on it about happiness....how serendipitous ...LOL! I had to look that up after it popped into my mind to be sure I was using the word right and found this definition "the phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for" ...... Sometimes it is indeed the little things that make you happy. So thank you Teesha Moore !

Lines blur.....

I realized I've missed my blog. A lot. It seems as if I've been struggling forever to get back to a semblance of normalcy after my surgery this summer. I've had to make choices about how I've spent my time. Blogging just didn't make the top 10 when I couldn't seem to create the smallest thing or cook or properly take care of my household. I have had a lot of time to think of course and that can be a good thing or a bad thing as I'm sure you know. I've come to realize that I love being able to have a communion of sorts with other artists as we create and if we share some personal info along the way I am good with that. The reason I mention this in particular is that the way I've been pulling myself up out of my artistic dry spell has been to read other artist's blogs and finally to take a journal class with Kelly Kilmer. Now this is not my first journal class. I took a wonderful class with Pam Carriker and one with Dina Wakely but I was more interested in technique. I considered my journal pages more personal than my other artistic endeavors and wasn't sure how I felt about the overly personal posts I'd seen other artists blogs. Did I want to read about other peoples thoughts or have them see mine. Big question...did I want to mix art with my personal life? Now it's not like I have a huge audience but still....However as I spend more and more time playing in this art I find I am drawn to this very aspect of the whole thing. It's wonderful to see how art and emotions come together. So my blog may be taking a slightly more personal direction as I share a little bit of life with you through my journal art. I still want to do my favorite mixed media challenges when I get up to speed. I've met some very wonderful and creative people doing those. But I also love to look for old things to create with as well as things to decorate myself and my home with. I'm going to share those things too. So here's to living the lives we love and never taking a single moment for granted.

Tell Me A Story MMM

This is my piece for Mixed Media Monday. I took the challenge of Tell Me A Story very literally. It's a spread for a round journal I'm working on. It's called The Secret To Me. This is my third layout and I had already decided to do a page on reading and books. This old photo is me engrossed in a book! It was Father's day today and this is the second one without my dad and I was thinking about him. One of my fondest memories of him was our story time. Him reading to me or making up the most wonderful tales and then illustrating them in pencil. Thanks DB for the love of stories and the gift of art. 2 pieces!

Hope you all had the weekend you wished for and were able to do something fun and creative!

Dream Journal TGIF

Here is my piece for Thank God It's Friday.....I started this dream journal about a year ago and I'm was so glad to see this challenge and get it out and work on some more pages in it! I loved working on it and even used it when I had to redo my blog header. Now I have the perfect thing to work on this weekend! Thanks for looking and hope everyone has a fun creative weekend!

Little Birds joUrNaL 102 cLaSS

I am taking a new class and really enjoying it. It is with Dina Wakely at Debbie Hodge's Get It Scrapped online class site. Our first lesson was in using a motif....mine was birds and doing silhouettes with spray inks and water based oil crayons. It was a lot of fun and got me doing some original artwork again. I am looking forward to the next few weeks worth of lessons!

Here is Little Birds Calm and Night Birds Observing