It Started Mid-December

Okay, all this mess started just before Christmas.  It is now beginning of February and the tile in the first bathroom is just being set, the drywall is up and that's about it.  I had forgotten just how much goes into the construction/reconstruction.

Let me just say that I am not "in good hands" with Allstate(gritting teeth).  They have been adversarial from the beginning.  As soon as I'm finished I plan to change insurance companies.  It was like pulling teeth to get them to even begin to cooperate.  As of last Friday, I was told a check is going in the mail.   I'll believe when I see it. Today I have been playing in Photoshop with one image all day. 
with French script below

with black script below

with texture by Lenabem on Flickr below

with French script and canvas texture below

I think my muse is on a break -- too much going on and too many frustrations.  I think I'll go play in my journal.

~ Peace ~

Day 39 - Logo Challenge

We've moved on from mold remediation and repiping to starting to put the bathrooms back together.  The limestone in the shower was damaged by water, so it has to be ripped out and with it, the floor.  I usually get excited about decorating and picking out finishes.  I have to admit though that this time, it just doesn't seem as much fun.  I've decided not to do natural stone again.  It's very beautiful but requires maintenance I just don't want to spend money on.  I opted to go with a nice porcelain tile that looks like stone.  

I'm behind on my Documented Life Project, so I'm working at my own speed….slow. This is my take on Kim's logo challenge for Beyond Layers.

Peace.

Disaster Strikes!!

Oh, friends, I've been absent because we have been dealing with a slab leak.  The past two weeks have simply been crazy.  The insurance company dragged their feet and as a result we had a mold issue which has been remedied.  However, I have one bathroom which has to be completely redone and the other bathroom that backs up to it has some restoration that needs to be done as well.  We have been living at a nearby hotel until we have a usable bathroom.  The two dogs have been so good through all of this.

In desperation I looked back in my journal and found this to post.  I don't believe I had posted it prior.  This is one of the first daily journaling attempts to get me started with journaling again.  

I got away from it because I thought I just didn't have the time to do it and my photo editing.  I'm convinced though that even ten minutes per day makes a difference.  This is an example of that 10 minutes.

I will be posting again really soon….just have to finish up with contractors, insurance companies etc.

Peace!

Meet Marilyn

For our Documented Life Project week 2 challenge, we are asked to incorporate a "selfie",  either a photo, a drawing or a painted/collaged representation of our very own self.

While I don't exactly look like this, it's a fair representation for several reasons.  I have always said "It's all about big gold(silver) hoop earrings and red toenails". Of course, you can't see the red toenails here, but I assure you they're there!  Also my hair looks like this frequently, or to me, it looks like this!!  I drew this on a piece of old ledger paper with a black Stabilo All pencil.

Happy Days!

Documented Life Project 2014 Week 1

I joined Documented Life Project just to insure that I continue to journal, hopefully daily, but at least weekly (for this project).

Five wonderful artists have a blog fittingly called "Art to the 5th". and they are responsible for beginning this project.  When you go to the Documented Life Project, you will see links for their blogs.

The first week's challenge is to draw, paint or photograph and incorporate our front door into our Documented Life planner.

We've had a red front door for as long as I can remember.  When I told my husband I wanted to paint it a different color, he said I could paint it any color I wished as long as it was RED!  I think I'll keep it red since the Asians think of it as a symbol of prosperity.  Standing in the doorway are my daughter-in-law and my two precious grands.  They made this picture their Christmas card last year.

I used the word "joy" as they are all such a joy to me.

Perhaps that should be my word for the month, year?  I haven't really decided on one yet.  I thought I was  going to do "calm", but discovering one of the 5 artists has claimed it, I thought I would come up with something else.  I mean there's such a dearth of words, don't you think??

  

Photoshop Technique

I'm way behind on my Photoshop Artistry workshop, but just have needed to do some nitty gritty get the hands dirty art.  Today, though, I practiced on a technique Sebastian calls "pasting in".  I scanned an image of my hand painted fabric art piece and then embedded my selfie.  I added a stroke outline and used the pencil in PS to doodle in and around the selfie. 

I also played with this image of Starbucks with its unusual signage.  Sebastian has suggested we look for things that are out of character or incongruent.  I think this qualifies.

Stencil Madness

That's it…..I have gone mad for stencils.  I'm working in my journals pretty much every day now.  I also love, love, love Tim Holtz' new Radiant Paints.  They are so different from other acrylic paints.  They react with water, but when they are dry, they are permanent.  You can not feel them on the page as you can with other paints.  And they wash up really well!!

In my larger journal I did these.

Henna Women

The stencil girl is unfinished.  I cut out my own stencil/mask and per Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's instructions I covered her with packing tape front and back before cutting her out.  Now I can use her over and over and just wipe her off.  I do like tips like that.  They make our art life so much easier.

 Paper Doll

and finally this background was stenciled before I did the collage on it.

In my "Bits and Pieces" journal I did a couple pages.

So you can see I've gone a bit mad for stencils, but they are so much fun.

Hope you all had a wonderful New Year's.  I'm happy to have the holidays behind us and move on to 2014.  I think it will be a fascinating year.  I plan to fill my year with art.  How about you?

New Love

I have a new addiction….stencils!!  I always seem to be a bit behind the curve.  They are certainly not new, and many artists have been using them forever.  It seems that there are so many really pretty designs out there now.  I just ordered six from Stencil Girls.  

And…then I found Tim Holtz' stencils which I think are the perfect size for journaling.  You can find them on Amazon.  You can find his entire line at Scrapbook dot com.

I had a few of my own and played in my journal this week.

At the same time I'm working in my tiny journal I call "Bits and Pieces".  I started this journal several years ago and it's mainly for paper collage of bits and pieces.  

It's a small but fat sample book from Marco's Papers. I guess we can call it a repurposed book.  I plan to add stamps and stencils to paper collaged pages.  I covered front and back today 

using a photocopy of a collage I did in Traci Bautista's class.  As Traci says, "always leverage your art".  She photocopies everything and uses over and over.

Here's to a glorious 2014!

Winter Is Here

Winter has definitely arrived in Southern California.  You wouldn't know it though, as this past week has been in the low 70's.

I promise, however, that it has arrived even if in fits and starts.  My Ginkgo tree is showing its beautiful yellow colors and dropping them all.  I took these images a couple days ago.  Today I have the most beautiful carpet of yellow leaves around the base of the pot…..awesomely gorgeous….a work of art.

Hope your holiday, however you celebrate, was magnificent!

Journaling Everyday

As I mentioned in a previous post, my friend Jacki gave us each a brand new journal to work in when our art group had our monthly meeting. Then she gave us some very creative ideas including the credit card face in that post.

It started me thinking about how many journals I have started that are yet in an unfinished state.  That thought caused me to wonder about the projects we start and never finish.  On the positive side, I found these finished journals…...

I have more that are finished inside but I neglected to decorate the outer cover! So I'm not showing those to you.   Seems like that should be the easy part for an artist, right?  It does make me feel better that I can see a number of journals finished.  

I found these below in various states of completion.  Actually the journal on the bottom in the first image is the one Jacki gave me.  

So then I started to think, "Okay, which one should I work on?  Should I work in two or three at the same time?  Or….? 

I decided to just do something, anything to get my muse going.  Sometimes I think getting started is the hardest part.  It's not that the blank white page scares me.  It's just that I have gotten away from the daily journaling.   I got sidetracked a couple years ago with image editing, and I do love that with a passion.  But...

I do miss getting my hands dirty every now and then.  So why can't I do both?  There's a voice in my head saying something about scattered attention and not remaining focused on one thing to finish.  Where did that voice come from anyway?

Julie Fei_Fan Balzer says to spend even a few minutes a day journaling…..even if it's just to do a background.  If I could keep that discipline going, I could finish some of these babies.  And so, my friends, let's see if I can do it.