I'm Baaaaaaacccckkkk

Hi. Anyone still stop by here? I've done some remodeling. And I've decided it's time to get blogging again. I can't promise I'll be consistent, but I'll try. It's hard to find the time for everything anymore. Sometimes I miss the days where I was home all the time. But I'm out living my life & creating lots of new memories & filling up my Project Life album. This is the first time I've done Project Life & I'm loving it. It makes me want to get out & do things so I have something new to add to my week. Doing Project Life has changed a few things for me. I've done P365 for the past 3 years. You'd think that PL would play off that for me but I just can't keep up with both. I don't do Project Life like a P365. If there are days I don't take a pic then so be it (although I was this way with P365 as well). P365 was more about a cool pic for the day for me & PL is more about telling about my life: the daily doings  & special events. I bought the core kit from Becky at Amazon and I don't think I will next year. It helps me keep things somewhat simple but since I have an entire room of craft/scrappy supplies I kinda wish I was using those up instead. I'm really in LOVE with the way Julie Fei-Fan Balzer is doing her Project Life and you can read her thoughts about it HERE. I totally agree with her on how it takes over a bit. While I've done a couple of 6' x 12' layouts for extra pics in my PL I haven't done any traditional scrapping in such a LONG time so I'm also taking a couple of classes at Big Picture Classes. The one on Faith & It's All About Me. I'm hoping to rekindle that scrappiness but we will see. Here are my first few weeks of PL. I'm still going back & adding things. I want to make some smaller page protectors for all the receipts I've been keeping. I think it might be fun to see what things cost & what I spent my money on someday. I've started documenting the gas increase as well but I don't think that is in any of these first few weeks. I've added stickles & transparencies to my pages and doodling and just writing directly on my photos too.

My cover page. I added some photos like Cathy Z.

Week 1 I had several days home alone which was super nice. I spent New Years day shopping with a friend & getting some great boots & craft supplies with my Christmas gift card. I also started Traci Bautista's free Doodling Unleashed class at Strathmore Studio's. I'm starting a watercolor sketching one this week.

Week 2 I had a color class downtown, got my California driver's license (finally!) and it was my birthday. I added a 6' x 12' layout to this week.

 Week 3 started off COLD! And I also got a big box of birthday goodies from Kansas. That polka dotted paper is the gift wrap they used. We had our official Grand Opening at Loehmann's Plaza and I hosted a Passion Party. Fun & funny times!

Week 4 was some crafting: Traci's class assignments, my Year In The Life art journal prompt and also a rush to the vet with a sick kitty. Windsor keeps getting UTI's and I always worry he has a blockage so I rushed him in. But just another UTI. Gave him a double round of antibiotics so I hope he's good for a while. I did a couple of makeovers at work. Love giving people a new look.

That's it for now. I have other weeks done but not photographed yet. I'll show you my art from Traci's class next time.
Have a great day!

Under Construction

Life. It changes. This past year has been a HUGE adjustment for me. Going from being home all day with Nana & scrapping all the time to constantly being gone at work & meetings and rarely any time to craft. Well that's all about to change! I got a new JOB!!! I'll be working at Willo Beauty Bar at Loehmann's Plaza. I'm very excited and one of the best parts is my new schedule: 3 days a week off with 2 half days (I have to be at work at 8AM on those half days though :o ).  I'm really looking forward to spending more time crafting. I MISS it!!! It feeds my soul. I also plane on more blogging and a makeover of this dreary place. So there will be reason soon to check back more often again. See ya' soon with an all new look.

Seriously???

I'll be shocked if anyone even reads this anymore. I haven't even blogged since MARCH!!! I can't believe it's been that long. My life is just so different than it was in Kansas. Work & recovery take up so much of my time, and then there is the laziness :) I really miss crafting & am searching for a new job that hopefully allows me more time to craft. I HAVE been doing some art journal prompts for Year In The Life Art Journal but half the time I forget to get them in on time. I can show you some of those now. BEWARE: Obscenities ahead!!!

 Manic Monday was the prompt a few weeks back. LOVED that song in the 80's. I got the copics out and did a little drawing about the stuff I always have to do on Monday's. Ugh! Gets in the way of my 'relaxing' lol.

On the radio the song says "Forget You" by Cee Lo Green but it's really Fuck You and I couldn't resist a big neon FU journal page. :)

The last prompt was Faith. You gotta have faith faith faith, right? lol So I wrote some things about why I have faith like the wind blowing on my face & the changing of the seasons & the feeling I have inside & that my life is happier having faith than questioning if I should and then of course some George Michael lyrics cus I couldn't resist. I finally found my stencils in a box so I got them out along with some mist and stickles and paint.

The new prompt will be up in a couple of days and I even already turned in my page! Yes SHOCKING I agree! I wish I could figure out a way to make money art journaling. Go check the YITLAJ blog in a couple of days and get to it!

Lillian Martha Casteel Osborn Feb. 21 1914-2011

I’ve been meaning to make this post for a month now but just couldn’t bring myself to do it. It’s been a month now that my Nana passed. It’s really just now settling in and there are moments when it doesn’t seem real, as there are when anyone dies. She left this earth on the same day she entered it 97 years later! When she took a turn for the worst I just knew she’d die on her birthday and she made it almost 2 hrs in. She lived a long beautiful life and was loved by many.

Nana lived in Kansas all her life. She was born in Pittsburg, went to high school in Cherryvale, lived a short time in Lawrence while Papa finished Pharmacy school and settled down in Independence where she raised her children. She lived in the same house for almost exactly 65 years. She was a true southern Lady to me and an excellent hostess & housewife. She took lots of pride in her home. She loved the color celery green as her entire house (and I mean ENTIRE) was painted that color so it would be a good accent to her favorite color of yellow. Her favorite flower was Carnations. She said because they were sturdy flowers and lasted a long time.  She thought the greatest invention of her lifetime was the Polio vaccination as she recalled the fear she had over her children possibly contracting the disease. She was a depression era child so always practical, at least her thoughts were practical to her! Her & her mother Maude lived with Maude’s sister Hattie and her husband Onty & Maude’s two children by her first husband, Virginia & Pete, in a small apartment in Pittsburg. Uncle Onty worked at the movie theater as a projectionist and so Nana got to see many films and recalled seeing the first ‘talkie’, The Jazz Singer, with her school class.  Papa & her started dating in junior high. They were both only-children being raised by single parents. They only broke up once & eloped in secret. The news of their marriage beat them back to Kansas though and they had to come clean. This secret marrying has become a theme in my family.  Nana’s chicken salad recipe is still the same recipe that the drugstore serves daily. DeFever Osborn Drug is now called Independence Pharmacy but their spirit lives on there. Nana gave birth to a boy Robert and after several miscarriages and a tubal pregnancy her & papa adopted Virginia who was named after Nana’s cousin (Side note: Virginia & Pete both moved to California just like me. A story I heard about often once I told her I was moving).  One of my favorite stories Nana used to tell was of Papa & his friends stealing the food from the girls sleepovers & how they used to hide the food in the piano so the boys wouldn’t find it.

I have tons of fabulous memories of times I spent with Nana & Papa growing up. Being the first grandchild I was a little spoiled . Nothing could compare to these last 4.5 years with her. I’ll be ever so grateful for them, and her. So many things that are ingrained in me are from her.  I love you dearly Nana. May you rest in peace.

The picture above is Nana on her 96th birthday a year ago. Eating chocolate of course!

What I’ve been up to…

I’ve only scrapped one or two pages since I moved to California. Sad times. I’ve just lost my mojo for scrapping unfortunately. But there’s a good side to the lost scrapping mojo and that is I’ve been making lots of collages. Ok well a few collages. But I plan to make a lot more in the future and this is totally where I want to take my art. Since I’m in recovery my collages have included recovery quotes. It started with one for my sponsors birthday:

Next I made one for my sponsors sponsor:

And it’s just evolved from there:

So that’s it. I hope to have more to show soon. Also I think I still have some spots left in my Crafty Pay It Forward in the post below so go sign up if your interested.

Have a great day & THANKS for stopping by!!!

Pay it forward & Friday 5

 

I promise to make a handcrafted item in 2011 & mail to the FIRST 5 people who comment that they would like to join in, only asking in return that you post this on your blog and offer 5 people something you make by hand and mail to them this year.

Sounds like fun doesn't it?

Not sure WHAT I will make yet but I can promise you that I will put my hands, time, love & creativity into something cute!

I hope you decide to join in and Pay It Forward with crafty love!

This weeks Friday 5 comes from a different site Friday5.org 

1.  Who's not as funny as he or she thinks?
Charlie
2. What's not as big a deal as everyone thinks?
 What other's think of you.
3. What's something people aren't concerned enough about?
Teacher salaries
4. What's something in the grocery store that's underrated?
Fruit
5. What do you pay to much attention to?
My cell phone

And I'm out! Hope you all have a great weekend.

52 Weeks

So I'm participating in Kim Whitten's 52 Week Project this year where you take a self-portrait every week. I'm doing most of mine on my iPhone, just like my Project 365 which I actually completed last year! (Yay ME!) and am doing again this year. I started Kim's idea last year but it didn't last long. I know I've grown in my ability to love myself this year because of the fact that I'm not freaking on every pic so far. Anyway, you can check out the flickr group here.


Week 1: I went to San Francisco with my friend Jacqui to get her Chinese visa and it was closed for the holiday so we had breakfast at the Squack & Gobble. I took this pic of my reflection in the mirror with the menu boards behind me.

Week 2: 2 days after the above shot was taken I came down with an awful cold that would NOT go away. I missed a week of work and laid in bed the whole time. My kitties were my constant companions and so I snapped this pic one day while convalescing & cuddling with Hambly.

Week 3: This week brought my 44th birthday. One of my co-workers gave me some awesome big hair with a side pony & I decided to make a collage of pics with my Diptic app.

Week 4: It was a gorgeous (although rare lately) sunny day in Davis & I caught this long shadow of myself while fetching some lunch.

I have week 5 but haven't uploaded it yet so you can look for that later.