A Pocketful of Licorice

waste not

In the last couple weeks of December, I made the decision to give this project life thing a try, so I started digging through my piles of supplies, pulling out stuff I thought I could use. I ended up making a bunch of 4x6 and 2x3 journaling cards to use. 

It's nice to use stuff that you've had sitting around for years. Like Heidi Swapp chipboard letters from who-knows-how-long ago.

Or rub-ons. I hardly ever use rub-ons, but I have a million of them. 

Too lazy to crop out my nasty work desk. Nice, right?

And you know, I never used stamps much in traditional scrapbooking, but I can see myself using them all the time in this format. 

Lots of them just have my handwriting on them...

I'll probably end up making a lot of my own journaling cards, although I have been picking up sheets of paper here and there that are printed with cards you can cut out. A lot of companies seem to be doing that right now. 

At the moment, I'm working on an organization system for all these cards. 

 

 

Happy New Year!

It's been a while, bad blogger, blah blah blah.

I've made some big changes, creatively speaking, and now seems like as good a time as any to share them. A couple months ago now, I made the decision to step down from the Cocoa Daisy design team. It was a difficult one to make - I spent 6 years designing for a wonderful company, and I loved it. I really did. But several factors converged, making it clear that I needed a change. Mainly these two: 1. My work schedule was busy - crazy busy - and I didn't feel I was pulling my weight on the design team. I just didn't have the time to give it my all, and I felt bad about that. 2. After thirteen years in this hobby, I was feeling burned out - tired of the 12 x 12 format I've been working with for so many years and feeling like I was out of things to say. Obviously, I probably do have more to say and more stories to tell, but that's how I was feeling. Like there was nothing I hadn't covered ad nauseum. 

Sometimes you just need to shake things up. I'd been interested in the concept of Project Life for a while, but about a month ago I started messing around with the format and something clicked, and like magic, I felt inspired again. It's a great fit for me right now. I've always been a more of a moments scrapper than an events scrapper. And filling tiny pockets with bits and pieces seems less time consuming, more manageable. 

Over the next few days, I'll try to post some of the PL layouts I did in December. For now, here's my 2013 intro page. I incorporated my goals and thoughts on the coming year, though much of it is hidden. I like keeping my thoughts to myself. 

Song lyrics are from "Alone Again Or" by Love, from Forever Changes, which is one of the best albums of all time. And I feel like I need to be reminded of this. Because sometimes I forget. 

I divided my goals into three categories: verbs (like read and dance), intangibles (like courage and adventure), and proper nouns (like NYC and Vermont City Marathon). My lists are tucked into the pockets. 

Nothing's written in here yet. Shatty and I are going to jot down some thoughts this evening. And on that note, I need to get ready to go to Middletown to meet her. 

Happy New Year, guys! 

40 by 40: #19 paint a painting

This one was really fun! I'll probably do more. I'm technically not a good artist. I can't draw or paint anything that actually looks like anything. But I kind of like playing around with shapes and colors. I like the way it looks here. It's filling in the space where my computer used to be. The computer had to be moved to the landing because my office has all of a sudden become a wifi dead zone. It's a little weird having it out there, but I guess it works for now. 

Anyway, the painting was kind of a spur of the moment activity. In the back of my mind, I knew it was on my list, but I wasn't really planning on doing it immediately. Then I was in Michaels and they had canvases for 50% off so I decided to get one, just to have on hand. I started working on it in the middle of the night. Then I couldn't stop until it was finished. I guess it took a couple hours. I think more painting will be in my future. 

Those are pretty much my favorite colors. Lots and lots of colorful squares and rectangles. 

 

truth

A quick one this morning. Mainly to play with lettering. I want to learn how to do calligraphy. This quote will be my next embroidery project. With the cassette, if I can swing it. I'm not that skilled at embroidery. 

Yeah, I downloaded a Dead song. Shut up. I was inspired by the series finale of Freaks and Geeks. It's a pretty song. 

a few simple things

Hi there,

I'm feeling a little better today, thanks in large part, I'm sure, to the sun. I'm so susceptible to gray weather funks. Stella seems a bit better. I still have that nagging worry, but for now she is content and comfortable, so I'm trying not to let this weigh on my mind so heavily. 

I hope everyone had a safe and fun night. I have a class of freshman this year that I must have told at one point to "make good decisions." I think they were talking about the weekend and some of the things they had planned for it. So as they were leaving, I gave them the standard teacher admonition. Now, one of my girls tells me to make good decisions every day on her way out the door. "Bye Ms. Wade, make good decisions!" Anyway, I hope you all made good decisions last night. 

I did nothing for new year's eve. No, that's not true. I read in bed with the cats. I'm alternating between The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner and The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe. As a typed that, I realized the irony. 

This morning I put together a quick art journal page...

Trying to keep it simple this time. The boom boom came from inside a LUSH bath bomb. I love those. 

Then I looked back through the pages and found this one I did probably a month ago. It seems appropriate to post it now. I still want to do those things, so maybe it will serve as a sort of to-do list for 2012.

So there. Some goals for the new year. A confession: My skeptical, cynical, analytical mind knows that New Year's Day is an arbitrary construction, but the part of me that hopes and dreams is drawn to the idea of a fresh start, nonetheless. 

 

a year in scrapbook pages, or everybody else is doing it...

so I, too, will share my favorite layouts of the past year. And maybe some thoughts, if I'm feeling it. Though not a terrible year, it's ending on a sour note and that's clouding my ability to view the last twelve months objectively. 

I'm actually going to pick them out while I'm writing this. Most of them were made with Cocoa Daisy kits. Here goes...

I still love this one. I really like the way my union jack turned out. 

And this one, I love because I remember it coming together so effortlessly. Usually, I struggle to make layouts that I sort of like. But I threw this one together easily and I love it. 

I really like hand-cut, glittery titles. 

I may never take that note out and read it, but I like that it's there. 

I don't know, I just like it. 

Love the honeycomb stamp and that picture of my C. Bear. 

I love the song that the title comes from, and I like the way the layout came together. 

I almost didn't post this layout because that picture punches me in the heart, but I really like the layout, so here it is. 

This one's my all-time favorite of the year. I love the way the misting and stitching worked out. 

Simpler than usual, but I love the title. 

And I love these sequins so much. I know I just posted this one a couple days ago, but I really like it. 

So those are my favorites. 

Stella won't take her liquid medicine so I'm going to try pills. I'm still worried about her. Sad face. 

Tea and Cupcakes

Cocoa Daisy's January kit was revealed last night, so I'm posting two days in a row (I know, I'm on a roll now) to share my layouts. Lots of sweet little goodies in this one.

Wow. I didn't realize what a crappy picture that is. Kind of blurry. I did the title with a frisket film mask. Most of my layouts this month are about Holiday Fun, which was in Providence/Pawtucket this year. 

To be honest, these layouts were tough for me. Not because I don't love the kit, but because I wasn't in the mood for scrapping. I've heard that some people are able to channel sadness and worry into bursts of creativity, but it just drains me and makes me feel blah. So I really wasn't up for creating anything. I think you can tell, sort of. 

I just don't feel like any of it is up to par. 

Especially the Providence College layout, above. I totally hate the way that one turned out. 

This is the only one I kind of like. I don't know why I hid the journaling. It's about little things that make me sad. Like Elliott Smith's voice. It's not super-personal. Sometimes I write things I don't feel like sharing, I guess. 

There's something wrong with Stella's liver. We're trying medicine, which may or may not work because the vet doesn't really know what the problem is. Have I mentioned that I love this cat more than almost anything? I keep randomly crying. I'm kind of a mess right now. 

I'm about to try going to the gym. Because I feel like some exercise could improve my outlook and I've been away for a week now and I need to get back. Please don't let me cry in public. 

Claire's book and I'm off to the beach

I'm heading out in a minute to spend a week at the beach, so there won't be any new posts next week. 

I'll leave you with some peeks at an album I put together for my niece's baptism last weekend. The binding was done like Paola's book. Claire's is blank - I made it for her mom and dad to write in/put pictures in. 

See you in a week!

I had to share this video that Nat put up on her blog. I love it! And it works for anyone, I think. No matter what you do, some of these ideas apply.

bedroom restyle: Watercolor Elvis Costello said he wanted to be next to a unicorn.

I'm rearranging and restyling this week! Starting with the wall near my bed. Firstly, I made curtains. Or rather, I altered curtains that I found at the Salvation Army to make them pole pocket. So I can finally include the window in pictures. Yay!

When I first moved in, I knew I wanted the large oil painting to be on that wall, but the rest of it wasn't really working for me. I think I'm finally happy with it, but I might add more family photos. Here's what it looked like before...

Part of the problem was that I'm kind of over those two small oil paintings at the bottom. And the mirror at the top there didn't really make sense. I moved it to the bathroom where I can use it to check the back of my hair. 

Here's a closer look at the wall now, complete with poorly rendered arrows. 

The impetus for the restyle was the arrival of my Elvis Costello watercolor. He's about the coolest thing I've ever seen. Check out Sheena's shop! I love her pop culture watercolors!

The wall above the bed stayed the same because I was pretty happy with the way that turned out from the beginning.

So the bedroom is taking shape. I'm reasonably happy with the section that is visible in the first picture. Still working on the other bits. 

In other news, I moved the TV upstairs to a nook in the bedroom and moved the couch in the living room to open up the space and make it better for entertaining. I still need to do a lot of work on the downstairs room, though, so no pictures yet. 

Also, someone I know is getting some snail mail this week, so watch out!

She will know who she is from this picture. 

Bye for now!