A journal page and 'stuff'

Here is a journal page I created at Bible Study on Tuesday.

Today, I have to take Chuck for another injection in his neck for pain due to degenerating discs in his neck. I have to pick up a babysitter this morning and also gather some things to keep me busy for a couple of hours worth of sitting.

The boys and I are really wanting to see "Prince Caspian" so maybe Chuck will feel like going with us later today. I really want to do the matinee due to the ridiculously high prices for movie tickets these days. It's insane!

Yesterday, I picked up a couple of pieces of poster board to make large calendars for June/July. The boys and I have already listed things we want to do for the summer and now, we are putting things on a calendar. I got the "list" idea from Joanna over at http://thesimplewife.blogspot.com. However, her poster is a cuter version. For me, I need a calendar! I have hopes that summer won't feel as crazy with things scheduled instead of making it up as I go and we'll be able to see what's coming up so I can plan as well as see what we did at the end of summer. I also want to start the boys on a "gratitude calendar". I've printed out a calendar for each of them and would like to end each day with them being able to tell me one thing they are thankful for that day to write on their calendar. I'm also planning to somewhat structure parts of our days at home as well. I have lots of good intention... let's see how it goes.

Inspire Me Thursday challenge

Purple and Orange is the challenge theme for this weeks "Inspire me Thursday". This photo I took on vacation a couple of weeks ago falls right into the theme. I've always loved Birds of Paradise!

New stuff for Hannah Grey

I created this really tiny mini mono album for the Hannah Grey Design Team using images from one of their skinny mini collage sheets titled "Abandoned items" by Jo McQueen.  I LOVE these images.  To see the contents inside, head over to my flickr site.   http://www.flickr.com/photos/artvisionz/sets/72157604698362845/

Inchies

In my Christian Paper Arts group, I signed up for an alphabet inchie swap.  I have the letter "t".  We were to depict something from the Bible that starts with our assigned letter... rather, chosen letter.  I did "t" for thorns.  I used one of my close-up cactus photos, did sewing around the edges, stamped my letter on mica, and adhered it.  I am done!  I had wanted to dangle my letter from my inchie but found out that was sorta' "against the rules" for this particular swap so they needed to stay fairly flat and no danglies.  

Yesterday after church, we went out to our friends hotel to spend the day with them.  They are staying in a gorgeous hotel/casino way out on the Gila Indian Reservation.  The boys got to swim and play on the water slide at the hotel.  We then went to a wonderful dinner.    We had such a  great time hanging out with these guys this week.  Since Karen's son, Mike, is moving out here, we know we'll get to see each other more often.  We're counting on Mark and Karen to retire out here!    Here are a couple pictures of the boys:

Catch up

Well, I'm just now finding time to sit down and write a bit of 'catch up'. We had a wonderful time in Oceanside, as always. Our condo was on the second floor, directly on the beach, so close that when the tide started coming in at night, it looked like the waves were coming right on into our room! I LOVED being able to hear the waves crashing all day and night. And water running over the rocks have a magical tinkle that is just a delight to my heart. It was a perfect time to go since school isn't out yet. Most mornings, I was the only person on the beach or almost! What a treat! It was pretty cool so I had to bundle up, which is how I like the beach. I'm not a swimmer so I never go to the beach to swim or lay out. I go to walk. I'm a treasure hunter and I found much. I still have to go through my huge pile of treasures I brought home! Morning beach walks alone were my trips highlight.

We didn't "do" a lot on this trip. No major running around, etc.. We did go to Legoland one day and it was really nice and relaxing. After we got back, I even took the boys out to walk the beach for a long time!

The trip wasn't quite as relaxing for Chuck. He's never able to totally leave work behind and forget about it. I don't think he would even know how. So, he did make phone calls and do work on the computer every day. That was a bummer. I always wonder what it's like for families whose husband/dad, has a regular type job so that when they take vacation, he's truly on one. Oh well, this is our life and part of our vacation too. :(

When I go on vacation, I get there and IMMEDIATELY forget everything about real life. Truly, I do. It's always a shocker coming back into it!

Now that I'm back home, I've gotten back into the routine of school, life, etc... but realized that by next week, that nice routine will be blown out of the water as school gets out for the summer.

This week, Chuck's friend of about 40 years, has been in town with his wife. (Hi Karen!) I had briefly met Mark a few times but this was my first time meeting Karen. Karen has been reading my blog so she had an unfair advantage to our meeting! She knew all about me and my life but I knew very, very little about her! Chuck just kept saying, "You really like her, trust me. Oh, and she's a redhead too." Like her hair makes a difference?! He kept trying to reassure me because, unfortunately, I'm not one of those people who likes to meet new people, sit around getting to know people, or attend anything that resembles a party.... However, as much as I hate saying these words to my husband, I said them... "Honey, you were right." I was drawn to Karen right away, felt completely comfortable with her as if I've always known her. She has a rare gift of making people feel totally as ease. She was very easy to talk to, loves to laugh, and is a really sweet person. Mark chose well. We had a wonderful dinner Wednesday night and they will be coming for dinner again tomorrow evening. And, the shocker is, I'm actually, truthfully, really looking forward to it. As much as I hate to admit it, I can't always say that. I may not even put on makeup! Now THAT's comfortable for company coming for dinner! LOL!

Well, I'm going to work on my owl painting a bit while I'm waiting for a friend to come over to look at some of my handmade books.

Work in progress

Today I went over to be with my bestest friend, Fran, since her health has just been the pits lately. We got to have hours of catch up time, yet it's never enough, no matter how long we are together. I came home shortly before picking boys up from school and then sat to work on a painting. I actually started the drawing months ago and have worked on it here and there. Today I started painting it. It's in progress. When the owl is finished, I'll do the tree separately, cut out the hole which the owl will be peeking out of. I'll then collage the two paintings together. So, I still have a ways to go... This owl looks really freaky with white eyeballs, at this stage, doesn't it? Ewwww!

Well, I'm dead tired and heading to bed. I was waken 3 different times in the middle of the night last night so I pray for a solid nights sleep tonight!

Show me Wednesday

OK, so it's no longer Wednesday BUT, I just found this sight where a weekly topic is posted for your participation. This week's theme is "Your every day dishes". Here are mine, plain, restaurant style. We like them because they show off the food since they are plain. I do have china from when we got married over 22 years ago... still in the box in the storage shed! Anyway, these are my daily dishes. Now, while my dishes are very plain jane, I do have some fun glasses! ;) If you want to see other posts for this, go here:
http://hazelruthes.blogspot.com/ and see what is happening for Show Me Wednesday's. Linda T., if you are reading this, next week is right up your alley so mozey on over and check it out.

watercolor journaling

I just uploaded all my watercolor journaling work from my vacation to my flickr site. I painted and journaled daily on my trip. All work is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/artvisionz/sets/72157605168595617/

I'm back....

I have returned from my week in Oceanside and am getting back into the swing of things. I'll post a real update in the next day or so. In the meantime, here are three of my favorite photos from the trip:

EDinMay #8

A new palette

I've had this little watercolor set from a dollar store for a while. The paints were bright, gorgeous color yet no pigment on paper. What do you expect for a dollar? So, I soaked them in water and popped them out of the wells! I recently acquired a new stash of watercolors in tubes, which I love. So, I refilled the wells with paint I like, let them dry, and now I have another palette with a wide range of colors to use for travel! I made a little layout of the colors on a scrap piece of watercolor paper made to look exactly like the palette for when I need to refill it. I have that in my journal. I have all my paint and journal stuff ready to pack but that's about it! Shows where my priorities are! ;)

EDinM #7

This dead bee is the latest in my dead bee collection. Yes, I have a collection of them. I find them dead in my yard and I add them to my little box. Weird, I know. I feel that I somehow honor their presence, life, and job here on earth by noticing. Anyway, my neighbor told me that these huge black bees are called Woodcutter bees. I dunno... but I like them. I had forgotten how much I enjoy drawing insects until I started him. Poor thing, his wings are kinda' outta' whack, which called for the title of the page Anyway, so far, this is my favorite sketch of the first week of this challenge.

We are leaving Saturday morning for a week in Oceanside and I can't wait, although I feel like I have so much to do. The boys don't know yet! ;)

EDinMay #6

Here's my sketch for today. I did fill it in a bit with chalk pencils, which I've not really worked with before.

My favorite day of the week

Yes, Tuesday is my favorite day of the week... because of my women's Bible study class. While there this morning, I walked behind the building and snapped this photo of white Oleanders. I also finished this journal entry:

Great news and stuff...

My collage up for auction with Collage Mania sold today on the opening day! I understand that mine was one of the most requested collages for purchase and I couldn't be more pleased, humbled, and honored. I already have it ready to ship to it's new owner!

I haven't posted my Every day in May sketches in a couple of days so here are days 4 and 5... and gosh, it's so hard for me to do quick sketches and let them be what they are! This is a good exercise for me and a discipline to do something simple and consistent for practice. Yesterday, for day 4, it was late in the day and I was really tired when I realized I'd not done my daily sketch, so I just grabbed something... a bit of rusty barb wire that I'm hoarding. Today's sketch was done sitting in my friend, Billie's back yard. For day 3, which I've yet to post, I can't seem to leave it as I keep adding details to it. I'll post it soon.

A beautiful day

Today I had a women's Bible study leadership meeting on the other side of town at my sweet friend, Billie's house. When you are with Billie, you feel loved down to your bones. There are few people I'd rather be with in the world. Walking into her home is like walking into utter peace, if peace were a physical place. Billie has a beautiful backyard and I got a corner spot in her garden that I am so in love with. A huge grapefruit tree canopied over me with a peep hole of sky in the corner near the wall. Flowers are in bloom everywhere. The temperature was perfect and a slight breeze was blowing.

Billie prepared a beautiful healthy breakfast for us of various berries, yogurt, and granola. Then we each got to find a spot to just sit with God for an hour. While I had not wanted to go today since I've been in a terrible, weird foggy funk for a while, I went knowing from experience, that those are the EXACT times I need to go anyway. I knew God wanted me there. I had a wonderful time of seeing myself in truth, confession, repentance, and healing. God is always so loving and gentle. So unlike me in my humanness. He's so patient. We came back together and shared for a while before sitting down to the most delicious lunch! A grilled chicken salad with mixed berries and a vinaigrette, variety of bread choices, and cookies! It was fantastic. I had to leave early to pick up kids but oh, what a wonderful morning. I felt the heavy fog starting to part within my head and heart. Again, I'm seeing light....

Collage mania

Virginia Spiegel's COLLAGE MANIA has offered the last week for previewing over 200 collage works donated through Fiber For A Cause to raise money for the American Cancer Society. This coming MONDAY is the first day of the auction! If you haven't made it over to preview and consider the purchase of one of the many gorgeous collage pieces, then get over there this weekend... right now!
http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/CollageMania081.html

And just as a refresher for you, here is the collage I made to donate... but you MUST go see all the others! What a treat!

EDinM: hideous!

HUGE lesson learned today: NEVER try to draw while on a school bus that is actually moving! BUMPY is an understatement yet, did I stop trying? NO! And what I got was the most hideous seatbelt buckle ever! LOL! Oh well, it is what it is. Next time, I only draw on still ground.
And you are wondering why I was on the school bus? Well, I went on a field trip with Max to the Arizona Puppet Theatre. It was a cute show. So, as you can see, today's drawing for Every Day in May was the belt buckle but also, I have posted a picture of the little fabric book for this challenge. It was a quickly put together small book just to hold my pages for this month's drawing challenge. It feels nice in my hand. I LOVE this fabric. The first time I ever saw it, I hoarded a small scrap (I mean like 1/2 inch by 2 inches) from a Teesha Moore workshop! I finally found a piece of it only now I wish I'd bought more!

Every day in May

In one of my yahoo groups, Every Day Matters, a challenge has been presented to do a drawing or something, anything every single day for the month of May. I decided to take the challenge. I'm binding my own little book for this challenge project and my pages are 4-1/2 inch square. I'm actually recycling book pages cut from an existing book that have been gessoed with a bit of paint to give a bit of color. These particular pages are from the book I posted about here:
http://arttvisionz.blogspot.com/2007/10/ive-done-something-so-stupid.html
If you missed the post about this book that I"m so in love with, you must read my previous post!

Anyway, while I may have sacrificed a lot of money for this book, I can't even tell you how much I love the weight and texture of it's pages! Anyway, Pages that were removed to alter the book as a journal. By removing some of the pages, the book can handle some pages getting bulked up a bit with paint and paper without stressing the spine too much. So, I'm binding my challenge book with the cut out pages.

I can't seem to come up with a theme on short notice so I'm just going to pick something, probably from nature, to draw daily. Today, I picked up a couple of carob seed pods from my front yard so that's what I painted for today. I need to keep my sketches simple as I go and I can add paint later if I choose. I may try some colored pencils or watercolor washes too... who knows? So, here's my first page for this month's challenge:

Cactus blossoms

A few photos from my neighborhood.