Monday, January 20, 2014

Chasing Sunbeams

That's what I do.
I chase the sunbeams around my house.
And I've recently figured out why.
 
This life;
this long- sometimes drawn out life- that truly lasts only the blink of an eye.
It is full.
It is beautiful.
So achingly beautiful...
In its sorrow and its suffering.
In its joy and its love.


I chase the sunbeams, because I am light.
Because they are what I know.
Bright, warm, caressing.
I find so much happiness in simply standing in a sunbeam;
letting all my guards down
and letting the light penetrate my heart; my soul.
Filling my being with love.
Love that I want to share freely with anyone who is willing to accept it.
 
This is me standing in my light, heart bared to the world.
I am a sunbeam.

Friday, January 17, 2014

Sketch & Wash {art supplies}

The charcoal pencil.
It has been one of my go to supplies for a long time now.
I love the shadow effect I can get out of it to pop a subject up to the eye.
The depth it can create with its contrast.
The way it can finish a piece when used along the edges.


Recently I started playing with a water soluble graphite pencil.
{General's Sketch & Wash}
That charcoal pencil might want to be wary.
Lighter in value, but gives a nice smooth and delicate shadow.
It moves about the page easier.

Same, but different.
Both fun to use.
 

Monday, January 13, 2014

Project Life 2014 {the book}

I still haven't finish Project Life 2013,
but an unfinished project has never stopped me from moving on to the next one before,
so here I go.
 
I decided this year I would change things up a bit.
I'm still using my own handmade journal without the pockets/page protectors,
but this time instead of a PL core kit I will be receiving Studio Calico's monthly Project Life kit.
I'm interested to see if it makes a difference with time management.
 
 
As I said, I'm housing 2014 in a book I put together.
This is a yearbook I picked up, I think early last fall, at an antique mall.
{I've gone back to the yearbook plan after all.}
 
 
First I set about making the signatures and sewing them in.
That took some brain power.
The plan was to used the diamond x binding stitch Mary Ann taught in her Ticket to Venice class.
I quickly realized that it wasn't going to work, because I had five signatures and my spine just didn't have the width to handle that many holes in one line and create a good looking stitch.
So with some finagling, and a whole lot of juggling, I came up with this.
 
 
When I got to the cover I found myself flabbergasted.
It's orange.
Not a coral,
{oh, how I love the color coral}
but tomato orange.  Wait...  I picked that out??  I don't do orange.
What was I going to do with that??
Well once again my need to buy things solely because they are pretty and not because I have an actual need for them came in handy.
I cut the cover off a Rifle Paper Co. journal, glued it down and added some letter stickers to it.
Perfect.  And evidently I can do tomato orange.
 
 
Inside for the intro page I used a combination of Kaisercraft, Studio Calico and My Mind's Eye from my paper stash, a bit of washi tape and a photo of the #noblesthree.
 
 
Now to get myself on a printing schedule, because setting aside a chunk of time to print out photos is what slows me down the most.
 
Are you documenting 2014?
 


Thursday, January 9, 2014

Believe {one little word}

Last year was
DO.
I did not do.
Big fail.
But...

 
Do you know how many quotes there are about failure not being a negative thing?
A lot.  Thank goodness.
I may need to refer back to them often this year.
Because this year is all about believing in myself.
Believe
My word for 2014.
Somewhere along the way in 2013 I lost my belief in myself.
I'm not sure where, nor how.
But happen it did.
However, I intend to get it back.
And luckily I will have a little help along the way.


With this guy.  Ha!
See last year started off with me saying quite loudly that I will do and succeed because,
"I'm a bad ass unicorn!"
He was tucked in my stocking this past Christmas to remind me throughout 2014
that I am indeed
A Bad Ass Unicorn.
Here is to believing in myself again.
 
Do you have a word for 2014?
 


Monday, January 6, 2014

Oh, Hello!

Happy January!
How was your December?
Mine, packed full.
 
 
And it was good.
Except for that one day...
{I almost dragged the tree outside and set it on fire in the middle of the road}
you know, just one of those days.
The other 30 were great.
And January has started off pretty well also.
I am, however, very much ready to put 2013 behind me.
When I look back on the year in its entirety, it was a little too gray and somber for my liking.
I have grand plans for 2014.
Plans full of art and more blogging and some Italian even.
 
Now your turn.
Tell me what you have in store for 2014!
 


Monday, December 9, 2013

December Daily {Days 1-4}

"Simple, simple, simple."
That's my mantra for December Daily this year.
So when Gretchen posted on Instagram that she was going to follow
this photo a day prompt for a December journal,
I jumped on Gretchen's sled!
Brilliant and simple.
 
Day 1 ~ Bright
 
 
 
Day 2 ~ Cherish
 
 
 
When I sat down to put days three and four together,
I accidently switched the photos.
{I was watching TV again.  You'd think I would learn.}
 
Day 3 ~ White
 
 
 
Day 4 ~ Joy
 
 
Just simple.
Sometimes I have no idea what will come from my hands.
 
 


Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Project Life {Week 23}

I am almost certain all the gods of Olympus
were fighting against me last night.
 
It all started when I misplaced my brain.
I'm not even sure when I removed it from my head,
but evidently I did,
and y'all, I hadn't even started drinking at that point.
 
 
You see, I plugged my phone into my laptop
so I could go through the photos on it from June.
The plan was
{which never varies from month to month...  I do it the very same every time}
to choose which pics I would use and move the ones not to be used over to the computer.
From there I could then reformat the ones to be used on my phone for my little wireless printer.
Instead I moved the entire first week of June over.
{and I'm not talking seven photos.  I take a lot of pics.  Have you seen my Instagram??}
Thank goodness I only moved the first week!
 
 
Because once I finished having a fit over that mistake, it only got better.
{insert sarcasm}
I opened those photos up in Photoshop and spent a good amount of time processing
and resizing them.
From there I took my laptop to another room in the house
where the printer resides,
{why we haven't set it up for wireless I'm not quite sure
since the Farmboy is an IT genius}
plugged it in and printed my photos.
 
 
Only to have them come out RED.
{and I swear I did not drop a bagel chip into the printer this time}
I had hoped an ink change and cleaning the heads a gajillion times would have fixed that, but no.
It did not.
So smarty me thought I could beat it
and I changed all the photos to black and white.
Didn't change a thing.
 
And that's when I got the wine out.
And decided to just put the week together minus the photos.
They will have to wait until I get a chance to go get a new printer.
 
Can't thwart me, o ye gods of olde!