Wolf Moon

This year I'm participating in Jamie Ridler Studios online Dreamboard circle. If you've never heard about a dream board you can read more about them HERE. It's kinda like a vision board but made in the power of the full moon.  Last nights full moon was the Wolf Moon. Here's what Wikipedia had to say about that:

The Wolf Moon is a full moon that occurs in January. Its name comes from hungry wolf packs that would howl outside the villages of Native Americans. This full moon is also known as the Old Moon or the Moon After Yule.
Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. There was some variation in the Moon names, but in general, the same ones were current throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior. European settlers followed that custom and created some of their own names. Since the lunar month is roughly 29.5 days long on the average, the full Moon dates shift from year to year.

I'm loving learning more about the moon names as well! So here is my Dreamboard. Some of my images are blatant and some of them are representative. Some I just liked and felt they needed to be on there. I pulled LOTS of images and words but these are the things that spoke to me for this month.

 

  

  

Looking forward to seeing what this month and moon brings. I'm sure it will be interesting.

Sick Sick Sick

I guess I'm better now or I wouldn't be blogging. I am keeping food down now which is nice, although I'm not eating any to keep down in the first place.  Gaterade/Sprite diet for me today. I'd planned on starting back on my eating plan this week so I guess that was quite the kick off weekend huh?
I got some Happy Mail this past week from Meep from Vermont and you can check out her blog HERE. I swear she is psychic because I had just put a new zip drive thingy on my WM list.

Then I've got some lo's that I've done over the last couple week. First I did this one for Scraptivitiy's blog. I just love this pic of the full moon over the Bay Bridge in SF last Feb.

Then the new Gutter Girlz Prompt is up and here is my take

 

Over at Scrapperie I'm the new team leader for the Book of Me prompts each week. Our first prompt was to scrap your Word of the Year. My word is Feed: feed my soul. feed my spirit. feed my spirituality. feed my body with healthy food and exercise. feed my recovery. feed my creativity.

Next is one of my assignments for my class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. We were to scrap a color or around a couple of colors. I picked my fav color of course

 

My friend Amy is having a little boy in a few weeks and his name will be Owynn. We had her shower the other night. Owynn's room is a jungle theme so I painted her an elephant for Owynn's wall

The first prompt is up over at Year in the Life Art Journal. You can join the ning site by going HERE. Here's my cover page and my page for the prompt of What

 

I'm also participating in another art journal site called Your Life Spelled Out. They have daily journal prompts and weekly art journal prompts. I'm a little behind but I'll catch up soon. Here is my first prompt. Again with the color

 

Ok I think that is it for today. The headache is back so back to bed I go. Hope none of you get this. Have a happy week.

 

Erosion Bundles Day 1

So last summer/fall sometime my friend Rachel Whetzel (aka whetzelmomma) was participating in this month long Erosion Bundle project and I was fascinated. This woman is always finding such cool things on the web to participate in and so I asked her to let me know of the cool things she finds. So a couple months ago or so she let me know that not only was the Erosion Bundle Project back on but this time it would last longer. Now I'm a little late in getting my bundles up. The first of the year is always so busy it seems. But 15 days late isn't bad right? lol I'll be documenting my bundles until April 15 (Yes, tax day!) and sharing their erosion process with you here and then I'll make some kind of art out of it all.
Now I've never done this before and had no idea what would happen to stuff but all I could think about was putting some kind of color in there to see what happens. And I think I put everything BUT the kitchen sink in these things. Some of my items are sheets of copper, magazine pages, broken pieces of pastels, doll head, book pages, a book sprayed with various water-soluble glimmer mist colors, cheese cloth, buttons, a jar of trinkets that I dumped in, jewelry, twine, and even a canvas splattered with some acrylic paint and alcohol inks. I had so MUCH stuff that I decided to make 2 bundles. I hung one on the stake which I usually hang the hummingbird feeder. I'll be able to actually watch this one from the kitchen window daily. The other I put on the side of the house in some ivy that grows there. I wrapped them all up with muslin and twine and I can't wait to watch them deteriorate. Just hope I'm able to make something interesting of it all when we are done.

29 Again. For the 14th Time.

It's my birthday.

My 43rd birthday.

Or as I like to call it: the 14th Anniversary of my 29th Birthday! lol

I'm thinking I might need to start having anniversaries of my 39th Birthday because this 14th anniversary stuff is making me feel a bit old.

But that's just it about birthdays. They are just a number. I mean I SEE and KNOW the years are ticking by but really I still feel about 29. Maybe younger on some days. And well of course a heck of a lot older than 43 on a few days too.

There are several things I've learned from taking care of Nana but one of them being that no matter how OLD your birthday says you are, you'll probably never truly feel it. It's not like there is some chart that tells you how to feel and act at a certain age. There were times I wished there was, but now I'm glad there isn't because I'm always going to be young at heart so the whole age thing will just elude me I'm sure. Wish it would elude my face and body but I'll take it eluding my spirit.

While I was just getting Nana up she said "You're 42?" And I told her that no I was 43 today and her response was "awww..." like an "I'm sorry" aw. lol Then she preceded to tell me she didn't really feel sorry for me since she was going to be 96 next month.

I always like to read my horrorscope on my birthday. One of my fav. astrologers is Jonathan Cainer. This is what he had to say today:

Your patience should soon pay off. If you're not already enjoying life, you'll find plenty to be glad of soon. Things will have a propensity to work out smoothly and satisfactorily, wherever you make sensible effort and display true sincerity. Make the most of what's good. You're fully entitled to do so. Make a mental note too, to refer back to this experience the next time you find yourself wondering whether life is just some constant process of struggle. A new moon in your sign is a promise of more good news to come. Be ready to grasp the opportunities that are surely coming your way in 2010! 

Now I know this is relatively vague but it really speaks to me on a decision I've pretty much made this week. Of course I've learned NOT to make concrete plans concerning my future (unless there are plane tickets involved) but I know what direction I will be moving in in the next few months and I think I can safely say I won't be turning 44 in Independence, Kansas but we will wait and see. See it's important to me to make sure that this direction for my life is God's will and not just Susan's will because we all know where Susan's will has led her before. Not down such a great path, but all necessary to be where I am today on my 43 birthday. And today I have hope for a bright future.

Creative Every Day

This year I've pledged to be Creative Every Day . Now I KNOW this might not happen EVERY day, but I think it can happen most. I mean I already scrap almost every night last year (well until the holidays came) and I promised myself that this year would be the year I started fostering more of that creative spirit inside of me beyond scrapping. I'm participating in The Erosion Bundle Project and I'm a guest host at Year in the Life Art Journal and many other things that I'll share as I go along. I've got so many things I want to participate in this year that I'm starting to make list and write them on a creative calendar.
The CED challenge got a lot less daunting when I realized that I could just work on something every day. I didn't have to finish it. Also it's not just art or scrapping. It's taking photos and cooking too. Since I'm doing the Project 365 on my iPhone that might be all I do creatively for that day. And if I forget a day so be it. So this week I've taken my photo every day! Can't BELIEVE I've remembered. You can go see them on my tumblr acct if you'd like. I've tried some new recipes. Both Nana asked for seconds! I've searched for inspiration in fabric and nature and colors in general for my Inspiration Defined class. I did last weeks homework which was to pick a fav lo and to lift it.
The old lo:

and the new lo.
Last night I worked on my next Gutter Girlz LO which you won't get to see until next Friday while creating some new friendships with some scrappy girls from Twitter. Tonight I plan to work on the art of lettering writing for my Happy Mail partners.

Inspirational Resources

So I'm taking this class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking called Inspiration Defined by Elizabeth Dillow. I felt I had lost my mojo and some Twitter girlfriends were taking it and I joined in their party. So far I've started a Tumblr blog for links and quotes and pictures that I find inspiring. I'm also posting my Project 365 photos there which I'm taking this year on my iPhone and posting with the Project 365 app. I'm editing those pics with mostly the camera bag app so far. You can check it out if you want Just A Girl Inspired and if you follow me I'll follow back.

So one of our assignments was to make a list of things that inspire us. I'm inspired by so many things. These are the things that came to me right away:

• Color
• Photography
• People's personal stories
• Paintings
• Sculpture
• Graphic Design
• Art 
• Cute little Japanese toys
• Animals 
• Feathers
• Sequins
• Sparkly things
• Things that light up
• Candlelight
• Design
• Printmaking
• Drawing
• Computer Graphics
• Fashion 
• Nature
• Snow & Ice
• All 4 seasons
• Architecture
• All kinds of vintage items
• Modern sleek design
• Collage
• Movies
• Music
• Song lyrics
• Quotes
• Poems
• Books both reading and visual
• Travel
• History
• Friendship
• Suffering
• Triumph
• Overcoming obstacles
• Dreams
• Nightmares
• Jewelry
• Paper
• Ads
• TV 
• Textures
• Laughter
• Love
  

Anything on your inspiration list I might have missed? I'd love you to share.