Finally!

I have been locked out of my blogger account for a few weeks now and going round and round trying to get access again. As the cooler weather comes, I've been turning my thoughts towards creating again...thoughts of sitting by the fire working on projects. Cozy!

A few things I've dabbled in lately...

I'll post some of my favorite photos next time! It's good to be back :o)

Photography and Totally Rad Actions

Photography! That has been the crux of my creative time over the last few weeks. It has been fun. Time consuming, but fun!

I am doing a project called Life 365, where I am taking a photo a day every day to journal a year in my life. I've been posting my pics over at Facebook, but here a few of my favorites:

(Picture of Julius linked up to Shutter Love Tuesdays at Trendy Treehouse)

And apparently that is all that scribefire will let me post right now, but you get the picture (pun intended!). I'm having a blast with the project and learning a bit more about photography in the process.

I'm really enjoying the ability to use actions in Photoshop. I recently discovered Totally Rad Actions and have been loving the free samples off their website and hopefully will someday be able to have the $ to purchase more...my favorite is Boutwell's Magic Glasses which really makes photos pop! They're having a contest right now and giving away their new Photoshop plug-in "Dirty Pictures" which is an insane plug-in that adds TEXTURE to photos...FAST. Totally different interface than just running an action and incredible results. I want it! :o)

A tree

So...I have had to spend a lot of time doing photo editing recently and that has left me with less time for pen to paper, or needle to yarn or anything else really. I've also been having trouble with concentration issues and I'm working on finding out the root of the problem. It doesn't seem to be affecting my creative side, just my ability to think through things. I have some ideas to the cause, so I'm making some changes in my life to see if I can get some improvement.

Anyway...here is a watercolor word art I did for my dad. He preached on Father's Day and we went to the early service (8:30 am). As he was preaching on Psalm 1, I was inspired to do this art...so I came home and did it for him for Father's Day. I would change a few things now that I look at it again, but he liked it and I enjoyed the creative process involved. Done on 10x14 Montval 140# paper


On the photography front, I have a few favorites lately. I am really enjoying getting more proficient at using Photoshop...learning shortcuts mostly and using some actions. I love the actions over at The Pioneer Woman blog - they are awesome and FREE, although I would pay for them if I had to because I love using them so much!

Precious little girl from the Purity Ball at our church:

My Wedding Ring (for a photography challenge over at Weeds and Wildflowers)

I cannot take credit for the photography on this one - Tyler took it - BUT I do take credit for the editing!

A few layouts I made recently (also done for Weeds and Wildflowers challenges...I think I have found my new digi-scrapping "home"...love the community there and the products aren't too shabby either!):




That's it for now!

Slacker!

That's me! I have actually created...been creating, but have I taken pictures? Why no, of course not! I'm off to take a few pictures...be right back. :o)

Here is the watercolor journal I was telling you about before...

figured out how to do the coptic stitch binding (with the help of this video) and finished it off as a birthday gift for one of my favorite teens.

I loved how it turned out with the hand torn pages.

I'm definitely doing this again! Scored some big sheets of Canson's Watercolor paper on clearance at Jo-Anns a couple of weeks ago for 99 cents a sheet. Yippee!

The altered book I told you about...
I picked this up in the library discards for 25 cents. It actually looks like an interesting book and is about the Bronte sisters. Interestingly, as I looked through it, I saw things that were meaningful to my life.

This page I made with a pocket. It spoke to me as I did not expect it to and I actually cried while making these few pages. We experienced great heartache last year, grievous loss and pain...when I feel ready to, I will write about it and slip it into this pocket.

THEN just a few pages over was a reminder of HOPE.

No, I don't agree entirely with the author's statement, because I think there is so much more that God wants to do in our lives than just "do our duty, be brave", which is kind of a "suck it up" attitude, but I think her statement of comparing our trials to what Jesus did for us is profound. And she is right...if we will let it, our pain will bring us closer to God. It is for this reason that we can be truly THANKFUL for pain and hardship in our lives.


And the VERY next page is entitled "The Creative Years". This was remarkable to me, because being creative has been a gift to me, therapeutic as we have dealt with our feelings and emotions.


I am currently reading the following books(all of which I borrowed from my local library on interlibrary loan...woohoo!):

Warm Fuzzies - Hmmm...I have created a cupcake pincushion from this, which I am too embarrassed to show you a picture of because it is UGLY. Mostly because it was a test run project so I did not use my best materials on it. It actually turned out like it was supposed to look, construction wise, but my color choices and embellishment are ugly. Do you want to see it anyway? Okay, I'm going to take a picture and you are entitled to laugh at it, as I do...





(See my felted i-cord, Aunt Martha? AND I couched it on!)

The Creative Life - Just getting into this one...Danny Gregory has a wonderful way of inspiring. A down-to-earth attitude and reminds you that it's OKAY to not create a masterpiece every time you journal. I am inspired and will probably do another bound sewn journal once my bedroom is in order. Soooo much organizing and cleaning and repairs to do at our house right now. The washing machine is broken, the dryer overheats, the vacuum is not functioning properly and the floor in the laundry room MUST be replaced soon and don't even get me started on the yard. But I digress and it's not really what I want to think about right now, so moving on...

The Decorated Page - this book...well...I'm excited when I read this book because I love working with lots of different media. I guess I get bored with projects easily, so that's why I have to do lots of different things...you can't tell that by reading my blog, can you? Check it out and hopefully I will show you some creativity that stems from this inspiration.

So my cat's favorite toys are these little mice with rabbit fur on them (don't ask me why...seems like they could've put mouse fur on them...just kidding).


When I saw this pattern I knew I wanted to make Sophie a handmade toy.

or two...

Yes, she is spoiled...I mean the gray one is made out of CASHMERE and is by FAR her favorite of the two mice. She is a weird cat and will play fetch with her mice if we throw them for her (when her royal highness is in the mood, of course!). Her favorite game is when we sit on our bed and throw a toy mouse into the bathtub. She will go get it and bring it back for us to throw again. One day she came up and dropped a mouse on my keyboard while I was on the computer. "PLAY WITH ME!" After I made her the first of these mice, she awakened me one morning by dropping the mouse on my face! "PLAY WITH ME!"

I made wool dryer balls for my mom for mother's day using wool yarn from a sweater I bought at the thrift store and frogged (unraveled it for the yarn). They turned out nice, but of course I forgot to take a picture of them before I gave them to her!

And finally, while I was taking pictures I glanced over and saw a little box belonging to Reece and dumped it out for you to see.

He LOVES making guitar picks out of old gift cards. When I shopped for his birthday recently I always asked at the checkout "do you have any old gift cards for my son to use to make guitar picks?". Everywhere I went they were happy to either find an old one or just gave me a new one...it was a small thing, but he loved getting them.

Back from vacation

I have tons of pics to edit from our trip to Big Bend National Park in west Texas! I made sure while we were away that my hands were not idle for long (although after a day of hiking up and down mountains, I could barely lift my head, much less make my hands move!).

I crocheted some little dish sponges to go with my MIL's birthday gift of spices for her kitchen. I didn't take a picture before I gave them to her, but the pattern is here and I used a bright rainbow colored variegated cotton:
http://gherkinsbucket.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/crochetdishsponge.pdf

I had grand designs of taking my watercolors everywhere and sitting and painting plein air (outside), but we were just too busy. I did however paint a couple of postcards on location, which was fun, even though they are not great works of art! One went in the mail and one was hand-delivered to my mom when we got home ('cause moms appreciate things like that, ya' know).
I also have been working on a couple of journal/book projects, which I have yet to take pics of, but will do so soon. One is an altered discarded library book and another is a handmade watercolor sketch-book...I'm stuck on the final stitching process of that one and have to do a bit of internet research to figure out how to finish it off.

Ta-ta for now!

It's been a good week. I never fail to marvel that God's GRACE is sufficient to meet our needs.

I missed showing a bead that, while not my favorite, is Reece's favorite and he chose to wear it everyday. It was supposed to look different...I messed it up, then changed it to cover my goof AND then burned it in the torch, but he likes it and I'm glad he does, so I'm showing it here!

My sweet Aunt Martha sent us this cute valentine's card:

She designed this card series and named them "Out of Bounds Angels". I love that title! It's time I gave a shout out to her blog Reconciliation, where she talks about the cards and regularly shares her musings and heart. She also sent me a vest pattern that is really neat and suits my body shape...I like the "b" view best and can see potential for creating something lovely.Love you, Aunt Martha!

Played around with some watercolor lettering using negative space letters. Nothing spectacular, but it's one of the ways I "played" this week. I liked doing it though and think it warrants some practice and perfecting.


Reece has been working on a woodcarving/burning project in Boy's Life Skills class at our homeschool co-op. It's coming along nicely, I think!

Knitted and felted I-cord, sewed it together and began embellishing it. Not finished yet, just still deciding on what to do to the bracelet next. Beads?

The clipboards I talked about making in an earlier post. Melanie, which one do you want? I was leaning towards the pink and brown one, but you tell me! Did you want a journal too or just the clipboard/pen?

And I finally got around to making one just for ME! Ward loved it and told me to put it in my Etsy shop when it opens, but I loved it too and decided it would be MINE. The color in the first pic is the true color...don't know what is up with the color in the second one.

Crocheted hand warmers. Had to make these up quickly because I knew I was going to be taking photos outside yesterday and couldn't find one of the other pair I made. They crocheted up in about an hour a half because I used bulky yarn and a big hook. Simple pattern if anyone is interested...let me know. They certainly helped yesterday in the frigid cold!

I bought a few cheap wool sweaters at thrift stores this week and following this tutorial from Betz White, came up with this:

The gray is an oh-so-soft cashmere felted sweater (and I hung the scrap in my blazer for the picture...heehee!). The green was merino and it felted up so luscious and thick...quite a bit thicker than the melton we used in class, Martha. The burgundy is actually from a rectangle I knitted, felted and cut. I really liked the end result...what do you think?

I know this is image heavy, but I wanted to show you everything I'd been up to. Now I have to send my camera off for repairs, so I may be absent for a bit...maybe all these pictures will hold you over. But just in case they don't, here is a picture I shot yesterday of my friend Shannon's new baby, Gabe. Shhhhh, don't tell her I did them...I snuck him off while she was teaching drama class and want to surprise her. Three different edits - which do you like best?