21 Day Challenge {Days 8-10}

All caught up finally and back on track!


All caught up finally!

21 Day Challenge Days {5-7}

21 Day Challenge {Days 3 & 4}

I am a little behind on posting my journal entries. Sorry. It's been a busy week so far and it is only Wednesday....Yikes! Any-hoo, here is day three and day four is below. I've been doing pretty good on my challenge this time around. I am enjoying trying some of the challenges from Ali and Elsie's books and using up some of my paper scraps at the same time. Got to go now and get ready for Project Runway.

DAY #3Day #4

Progress

We went up north for the weekend to check on the progress of our cottage we are building there. It is exciting to finally see something concrete (pardon the pun) after all these months and months of working things out on paper. Below is a picture we took 2 weeks ago when the foundation was poured.
Then we took this picture on Friday which shows the foundation has been back-filled and the rough grading is completed. Suddenly the property looks smaller now, however we do have another 6 acres beyond the tree line so the shrinking size is really just an illusion. We met with the building coordinator and the interior coordinator to pick out our colors and finishes. Lots of decisions to be made all at once, but I have been researching this for a long time so it wasn't too painful of a process...which is saying alot since I am the world's worst decision-maker! I am hoping to be able to get back to my artwork again this week. I am itching to sit at my desk and play with some paint, paper, glue, and whatever else I can get my hands on.

Another 21 Day Challenge

Rhonna is doing it again by starting up Round 5 of the 21 Day Challenge and I couldn't resist joining in on the fun. I participated in Round 4 and you can see that journal by clicking here. This time around my challenge is going to be two-fold. I want to lose 10 lbs by the time my birthday rolls around next month. In doing this I want to try to concentrate on taking better care of myself by eating healthy foods and exercising. The second part of this challenge is to incorporate some of the challenges written about in Ali and Elsie's new books shown below. Page One: This layout illustrates Ali's "Nine Square" challenge. The idea is to use nine equal sized squares, which can be anything from photos to patterned paper to an embellishment or whatever else you want to use. The nine squares form a larger square, resulting in a quilt-like look. I chose to use photos of healthy foods that I want to eat more of during this journey, like fruits, vegetables and whole grains. The color scheme of the layout come directly from the photos of the food. Picking colors from your photos is a great way to decide on a color scheme.
Page Two: The challenge I used in this layout is Elsie's "Design with White." I found this to be a very difficult challenge for me to complete because I am the type that likes to fill up all the white space on a page. I really had to restrain myself when putting this together because it didn't seem finished with all the white space still left untouched. But I got through it and I do like the page. It was good to push myself to do something out of the box. As for the flowers, some of them are rubber stamp images, some are Prima paper flowers attached with brads and the large ones are flowers I cut out of card stock, inked the edges and added a button for the center.

Shopping During a Heat Wave

It is still swelteringly (is that a word?) hot here, so to give MY air conditioning a rest I went shopping to take advantage of the A/C in the world of retail. This is what I bought:

Costco.....Heidi Swapp.....$29.95......567 pieces of fun!

Need I say more?

Let Go - No Regrets

This is a page that I did for Donna Downy's Big Picture Scrapbooking Class in which we had to do a layout using a song lyric. My journaling is going on the 'No Regrets' paper in the upper right corner of the page...it's a little intense so I am kind of shy to share it here. The lyrics are from Carrie Underwood's song "Wasted" which is on her CD called Some Hearts. I think it is easy to relate to the words, as everyone takes life for granted every now and then thinking that we have all the time in the world to do what needs to be done. Life is precious and fragile and one just never knows how much time is left. So whatever it is you have been putting off.....DO IT NOW!

I tried a cool technique on this page that I read about in Creating Keepsakes special edition called Can-Do Techniques. The stitching on the green horizontal rectangle is done with fine tip markers. The secret to get it to look like real sewing machine stitching is to use a paper piercer to punch evenly spaced holes. Then take a fine tip marker and dot each of the holes with the ink. Finally, use the marker to connect the dots with a thin line. It's hard to tell here, but it really does look like actual stitching, which is great for those times you don't feel like lugging out the sewing machine!

HeART Journal {Project Runway}

Okay, I admit it....I am addicted to Project Runway. However, I am not the only one with this vice. Check out Claudine's blog here and you will see there are lots of us who plan our Wednesday night activities around the show. I got hooked on it midway through season one which included Jay and Austin. All the designers are nothing less than highly talented, but unique, characters. This season is no exception. Too bad Malan was considered "out" last week...I had a feeling he was going to be extremely entertaining. But not to worry...there are many more designers that won't have any trouble keeping our interest peaked throughtout season three. And of course there is always Tim Gunn who provides amusement everytime he opens his mouth. In addition to the cast, I really enjoy the challenges they have every week...they are full of inspiration for any artist. I can always find a way to incorporate the challenges into my own artwork to keep the juices flowing. It's a fun show and I can't wait to watch it tomorrow!

The Daffodil Principle

A friend of mine sent this to me and I thought I would pass it along to all of you.

My daughter has telephoned me several times to ask me to come see the daffodils before they finish blooming. I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from my house, so I told her I would come next Tuesday. Tuesday turned out to be a cold and rainy day, but since I had promised I reluctantly drove over to my daughter's house. I told my daughter we should forget about going to see the daffodils as the fog is really bad. But she smiled and said, "But mother, we drive in this weather all the time. Besides I was hoping you'd take me over to the garage to pick up my car. It's just a few blocks away. However since the weather is bad I will drive"

After several minutes, I asked where we were going since I noticed she wasn't driving in the direction of the garage. My daughter informed me that we were taking the 'scenic route' by way to the daffodils. About 20 minutes later, we turned onto a small gravel road where I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand lettered sign with an arrow that read, "Daffodil Garden." The two of us got out of the car walked down the path. As we turned the corner, I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a huge pot of gold and poured it over the mountain peak and it's surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, and saffron and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted in large groups so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers in all. When I asked my daughter who planted this lovely garden she told me it was planted by a woman who lives on the property. She lives in a small house in the middle of all the daffodils. We walked up to the house and on the patio we saw a sign which said,

"Answers to Questions You Are Dying To Know"
#1. 50,000 bulbs.
#2. One at a time, by one woman.

#3. Began in 1958.

For me, that moment was life-changing. I thought of this woman who more than forty years before, had begun planting one bulb at a time in order to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop. Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration. The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration there is - learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time {often just one baby-step at time} and to love the process by learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.

In a way it made me a bit sad as I wondered what I could have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal 35 or 40 years ago and had worked away at it one bulb at a time through all those years? Just think what I might have been able to achieve!"

My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. "Start tomorrow," she said. She was right. It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, How can I put this to use today?

Use the Daffodil Principle and Stop Waiting.....
Until your debts are paid off,
Until you get a new car or home,
Until your kids leave the house,
Until you go back to school,
Until you finish school,
Until you clean the house,
Until you organize the garage,
Until you clean off your desk,
Until you lose 10 lbs.,
Until you gain 10 lbs.,
Until you get married,
Until you get a divorce,
Until you have kids,
Until the kids go to school,
Until you retire,
Until summer,
Until spring,
Until winter,
Until fall,
Until you die.
Remember,
There is no better time than the present to start working towards your dream.

Goodbye Sweet Bootsy

Today is a sad day at our house. One of our kitties, Bootsy, passed away this morning. He and his brother, Midnight {see picture below} came to live with us 13 years ago when my husband found them abandoned in 100 degree weather lying on hot asphalt pavement near a loading dock. Boosty was the smaller of the brothers, but he was always the louder and more rambunctious of the two. The two cats were very close and slept curled up together every night. When my husband first brought them home they were newborns and didn't know how to eat or drink from a bowl. They were so young we had to feed them kitten formula out of tiny bottles. This was quite an experience for our, then 10 year old, daughter who had always dreamed of having a kitten. When we took them to the vet I remember reading a brochure in the waiting room which said that a very high percentage of kittens who are abandoned by their mothers do not survive. My heart sank when I read that passage and I vowed to myself that Bootsy and Midnight were not going to be one of those statistics. So we nursed them, fed them, taught them how to eat from bowls, use the litter box, etc. And they survived. Until today. Bootsy had become frail and sickly and had lost most of his muscle-tone in the past few months. The vet said that it is just a matter of time. Last night he was still a bit frisky and excited to see his dish of food put on the floor. But this morning his little body just gave out and he left this world curled up in his little bed and very much as peace. We will miss you Bootsy. And so will your brother Midnight.

HeART Journal {Blue Jeans}

Instead of doing things that NEED to be done today, I escaped to my art room to spend some time working on my HeART Journal. I have quite a knack at procrastinating like that. I can always find something to do other than what I am supposed to be doing. I started out by brain-storming ideas of the things I 'heart' and one thing that kept coming to mind was blue jeans. I must love {I mean 'heart') them since I wear them all the time. Paired with a white t-shirt, what could be easier and more comfortable to wear? So I figured why not do a HeART journal page about blue jeans? Blue and brown just happens to be a favorite color combination of mine, so the palette was a no-brainer! I photographed my jean jacket and cut it up to use as elements on the page....see the jean pocket and the zipper? The copper brads {both round and square} remind me of the rivets on blue jeans. The photo of the woman wearing the jeans is from a magazine which didn't tear out as neatly as I had hoped, but once I put it on the page I rather liked the torn edge as I think it adds some contrast to all the straight lines on the page. Well, now that I have completed this page I suppose it is time to go back to doing all the things that I should be doing today. No more excuses! Don't forget to check out what Norah has been doing in her HeART journal....her pages are awesome!

HeART Journal {Ribbons, Etc.}

Here it is....{ I 'Heart' ribbons, bright colors & clean lines } is the first page of my HeART Journal that I am doing with Norah. I had to play with it a little more until I was satisfied with the look. I covered the page with a patchwork of brightly colored papers. Then I created the ribbon heart by cutting a heart shape from chipboard and covering it will a variety of ribbons from my vast collection. I do love ribbons and enjoy using them as embellishments whenever I can. I also used ribbons to make the three tabs on the right side of the page. A fabric letter, a heart button and Dymo label words make up the journaling. Then I added the three little flowers on the lower left corner for balance. The heart is attached permanently, but now I am thinking that I should have attached it with Velcro so that it could be removed and used as a hanging decoration. It would have been a clever little feature, but the glue is dry so it's too late now.

Book of Dreams {Pop-Up Page}

Here's another page from my Book of Dreams that I finished this morning. I had saved this movie marquee from a magazine advertisement for Lincoln Automobiles knowing that it would be great to use in my BOD. Of course it was the phrase on the marquee that caught my eye - "You're the writer, director, and producer of your dreams." Awesome quote! Anyway, I was trying to figure out how to get it to fit on the page and it suddenly dawned on me that it will have to span across two pages. Okay, sounds great, but it still was too large. I really didn't want to cut it down and lose the side panels of the marquee. I thought of scanning it and shrinking it down to a size that would fit but that just seemed like too much trouble. Then it hit me....make a pop-up page out of it. And Voila! Here it is! Before attaching the pop-up to the layout, I covered the pages with a glaze of Golden Titanium Buff so the text from the book would show through a little bit. Then I stamped two different sized stars with gold pigment ink all over the pages. And finally I inked the edges of the pages with two shades of blue pigment ink. Fortunately I saved the entire ad from the magazine because I noticed that the words used in the small print would make a great addition to the page. It is a little hard to read in this photo, so here is what it says:

"The script is entirely up to you. Wherever it takes you. Celebrate your achievements and reward your success. Then it's on to the next episode. Life' calling. What to next?"

I also worked on a page of my HeART Journal last night, but I am not happy with it yet. Thought I would sleep on it and see if I would wake up with some divine inspiration about it, but so far nothing. I still need to fuss with it a little more and maybe that will spark some great idea. Stay tuned!

HeART Journal {Cover}

Took care of all my regular Monday chores...paid bills, grocery shopped, ran errands, did laundry - yada, yada, yada. But when I was finished with all of that boring, mundane stuff I got started on my HeART Journal. Norah came up with this idea and I decided that I couldn't resist joining in on the fun. I am a little behind Norah in getting starting (you must check out her altered book journal...it is fabulous!) but now that my cover is finished I am off and running. I will share the pages with you here as I complete them. The idea behind the HeART Journal is to create pages about things or places you love...like I 'Heart' New York and I 'Heart' Chocolate, etc. You get the idea, right? I think it is going to be a fun journey - why don't you join us!

Book of Dreams {Cover & Title Page}

As you can see, I usually work backwards when I do things. Most people create the cover of their altered book first, but I have to have the design come to me instead of me trying to force it. It sort of creates itself that way. So although it has been weeks since ArtsyMama's Book of Dreams challenge ended, my cover had remained naked.....until I stumbled upon a scarf I found at Walmart of all places. I loved the scarf (I bought two...one for the book and one to wear!) and knew immediately that I had found the cover for my Book of Dreams. It has a Anahata's PaPaYa look to it - you know, sort of Bohemian Chic. I thought the colors were absolutely scrumptious! First I gessoed the black book cover and then I applied the scarf to both the front and back of the book with gel medium. Then I found a complementary ribbon to use down the left side. I added the book plate with various letters to spell out the title. Below is the inside front cover and title page. I think I want to still add something to this, but I haven't figured out what that "something" will be yet. I guess I will just let that come to me the way the cover of the book did!

Simply Beautiful!

We went to see Pirates of the Carribean yesterday....ahhhh! : )

The reviews weren't very good.

I didn't care.

I was only watching Johnny.

He is just way too cool!

A Trip to the City {Part Two}

Another popular attraction of Millinnuem Park is the sculpture called, "The Bean." It is a silver bean-shaped structure which took several years to complete. The metal used in the sculpture was welded together to form the shape and through some painstakingly long process none of the welding is visible, thus producing a perfectly smooth, shiny surface. If you walk underneath "The Bean" and look up, the undulating shape forms an unusual optical illusion as you can see in the photo above. We rested a bit at that point and listened to a rehearsal of the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra which performs in the evenings for free. One of the jewels of Grant Park is our famous Buckingham Fountain, which actually is more spectacular at night when the water is lit up with colored lights.Of course no trip to the city is complete without a trip to the Art Institute of Chicago. I could spend days wandering around in this museum. I used to love when we would take classes on field trips here and watch the children's faces when the docents explained some of the art work.And finally, a trip to another Chicago landmark...Marshall Field and Company. This store holds years and years of memories for me. My mother and I would ride the elevated train and subway to go shopping here before the days of indoor shopping malls. {I do believe I am dating myself with that comment!} My parents, my brother and I would come here every year a few days before Christmas to eat lunch in the famous Walnut Room. We would sit at tables surrounding the gigantic Christmas tree, where for years I would order {to my mother's horror} a plain hot dog. Frango Mints, Uncle Mistletoe, the decorated Christmas windows all were a huge part of our childhood Christmas memories. But alas, Marshall Field's has been sold to Macy's and so this sign, which has been above the entrance for decades, will soon be replaced marking the end of an era. : (

A Trip to the City {Part One}

Yesterday we went downtown to attend The Taste of Chicago, which is an annual event consisting of lots of good food and music. It is held in Grant Park, which is Chicago's version of Central Park. Grant Park stretches along the downtown area of the city between the lakefront and the skyline. If you ever visit the city, be sure to take a boat tour because the view of the city from the lake is absolutely spectacular!

Within the boundaries of Grant Park you will find a brand new park called Millinneum Park, which is Mayor Richard Daley's million dollar pride and joy.
One of the features of this park are two tall monolythic shaped fountains. Each fountain features a video taken of actual people who look at you for quite a while and slowly they begin to pout their lips and eventually a stream of water appears as if it is coming from the person's mouth. The children absolutely love this and many of them come all prepared dressed in their swimsuits to take full advantage of this feature. After the water has poured out for a while, the entire monolyth turns into a huge waterfall with water flowing down all sides from the very top. The screams and squeals of the children when this happens are sure to put a smile on even the grouchiest face! : )

Happy Independence Day!

Hope everyone has a great day celebrating our nation's independence. It is an important day in our country's history. Sometimes that fact gets lost with all the fireworks, food and fun. For a fun greeting check out this card which was sent to a friend of mine. America Rocks!

21 Day Challenge {Days 18-21}

This is the final day of Rhonna's 21 Day Challenge. You can view my entire 21 Day Challenge Journal here. It has been great fun to be a part of this event and I have enjoyed all the wonderful inspiration from Rhonna and all the other participants. Everyone's pages were awesome! And the quotes were so thought provoking. I have gained a lot...not to mention an empty corner of my garage! Thanks!

Back to Square One

Why is it that just when things seem to be going along swimmingly, the bottom falls out and you are once again treading water back in the same old place again? Everything you thought you had gained or changed or learned really is no different from the way it was in the beginning. I am feeling frustrated, discouraged and disappointed. Sorry.... I just had to vent.

21 Day Challenge {Day 17}

Well, we are entering the home stretch of Rhonna's 21 Day Challenge. Rhonna has been experiencing some difficulty on her blog so these past few days she hasn't been posting any quotes. But I decided to continue on anyway and do my own thing. I may add quotes to this page and the previous one later when she posts the quotes or when I find some quotes of my own which would be appropriate. I'll see how it goes.

My friend from Florida is in town with her family for a long weekend. She used to live here before moving to Florida and she likes to come up here to shop and visit with everyone. I am glad she does, because I miss her not being close by. Today we are going to hit some stores that they don't have in Florida. Probably IKEA, Anthroplogie, The Container Store, etc. Tomorrow we are going to Downtown Chicago to see Millineum Park and partake in the Taste of Chicago. Should be a fun time!

21 Day Challenge {Days 13 - 16}

Mission accomplished....the garage sale is over! Yipee! We had gorgeous weather and lots of customers. My daughter was thrilled since she was selling a lot of her clothes (many of which looked virtually brand new). It feels good to have all the "stuff" out of here and into good homes. I was able to sell lots of my art technique books that I no longer use to some budding new artists, so I was very happy about that. I packed up all the leftovers last night and put them out for The Cancer Federation to pick up today. I am going to vow to keep on top of this "clutter thing" and get rid of things on a regular basis from now on.

21 Day Challenge {Day 11 & 12}

Two days in one...sounds good to me! We stayed up late to set up the garage sale last night because we put off doing it for most of the day. I do not like that job. Having to put a price tag on your possessions is a bit traumatic for me. But then I was inspried afterwards to work on this page so that allowed me to unwind a bit. I sure am grateful for my creative time.

21 Day Challenge {Days 9 & 10}

These are days 9 and 10 of my 21 Day Challenge journal. I wish I was making more progress but with the weather being so nice, it is hard to stay inside cleaning out closets, basements and storage rooms. But as these quotes say, stick with the positive aspects of the journey...focus on what is going right and the opportunities that will result from it.

Girl's Afternoon Out

The other day my friends and I went to the Botanic Gardens for a Girl's Afternoon Out. We all used to work together at the same store before the owners filed for bancruptcy and closed up shop. We have all gone our separate ways and have become involved in new ventures, but we still keep in touch and every once in a while we get together to catch up on what everyone is doing.


On this day we decided to browse the Gardens, since each of us loves flowers and gardening. The weather turned out to be perfect. Silly me forgot to bring my camera (the only one out of five of us), so these pictures were taken by my friend Linda, who graciously shared them to me. Of course as always the colors were even more vibrant and beautiful in person, but isn't it always the case.


After our garden walk we all went to Stir Crazy for dinner. We ate and laughed and had a wonderful time together. It certainly is nice when you can take the time to get together with old friends to reminisce about the past, catch up on the present and dream about the future.

21 Day Challenge {Day 7 & 8}

It is still a struggle to discipline myself to get rid of something every day. I think I have a mental block about this goal of mine. I know it needs to be done, but it is so very hard to do it. I have a terrible habit of getting distracted into doing more fun things like going for a drive to get some art supplies, fixing myself a nice lunch to eat out on the deck, working on an art project, writing notes to friends, etc. Before I know it, the day is almost gone and I haven't gotten one step closer to my goal. But after I finished this page, I DID go clean up my paperwork basket in the kitchen like I said I would. As Lisa would say, "Inch by Inch, Step by Step......"

I couldn't resist going and working on another page after I did my stint of paperwork sorting. Felt I needed a reward. Hmmmm....maybe behavior modification is the way to go with this goal thing! So inspired by Rhonna's swirls, here is Day 8.....