The Cowboy Within

You know...I'm thinking that not everyone could pull this look off. And WHO, WHO I ask you, would think to use salt and pepper shakers for guns. Ahhhh....the good old days.

Everyday Sunday-I am so behind...

So here it is almost Thursday and I am finally posting my Everyday Sunday layouts. Better late than never, I guess. Enjoy! I am off to wash my hair!

Everyday Saturday

These were perfect: This is the Day Word Art by Ali Edwards. for Designer digitals.

I love these awesome numbers from Pattie Knox for Designer Digitals. They work perfectly for adding text and keeping track of which day you are looking at.

I thought about doing something different for capturing all of the text that I journaled in WinJournal, but Ali Edwards' style with these The Story of Today 8.5x11 Overlays works too well. You can find Ali's posts about a "Week in the Life" here. What I like most about them is that I can insert my photos on them and then print it out on my 8.5x11 printer.

The Format: Okay, so the format that I decided on is a mixture of 8.5x11 and 12x12. I spent a lot of time considering whether I should capture my layouts digitally or whether I should use a more traditional approach. I looked at a lot of other designs that people have done for a "Week in the Life" and I decided that I really liked the clean lines and format of the digital layouts for this one. I captured some really great photos and I think that I will be able to get more of them into each layout with a digital format. And I love that I am able to use some photos as the background for 12x12's. I use Photoshop Elements 6.0 for all of my digital pages. The first page above is what I created using Ali Edwards' brushes to be the opening page of what will be my Everyday Album. I have some portfolio size 12x12 D-Ring Albums that I picked up at Walmart for like $5.00 last year on clearance and I realized that one of them was already holding a couple weeks worth of Everyday stuff, so I will designate that my Everyday album. What I will do is finish my 12x12 layouts, then upload them to scrapbookpictures.com to wait until they have a sale to get them printed out. Any 8.5 x 11 pages that I create will be printed out at home on my Epson Stylus Photo R280 {which I totally love!!!!}. This is what I have for now-I will post more as I finish.

Happy Monday!!

happy Saturday!

My honey...I love you so much. This message is brought to you by the fact that I have been working a ton and taking photos and keeping track of what I have been doing all week. When I figure out how I am going to present my "Week in the life" album, I will post again. Happy Saturday!

Fabulous Friday!

Ahhh...my husband's grilling essentials. The plastic lemon is for the salmon that we had on the grill last night. Yum! And a self portrait for Friday. I think I have decideded on a format for my Everyday album-although I haven't chosen an album yet. I can't really find what I'm looking for in town-so I may need to use what I have (or order online). I'll post what I come up with on Monday.

Also, I am loving Jessica Sprague's Photo Editing class right now. I just love listening to her voice and her awesome ideas and direction are soooo worth the money always. And that is only after the first lesson! Off to do Mom stuff!

Popcorn Thursday

I love Thursdays! Our building has popcorn in the cafeteria on Thursdays! And it signifies the nearing of the end of the work week. {Sometimes...sometimes I go in on Sat's or Sun's to work in the quiet...} But I love to eat popcorn at work. It is a great tradition! Have a great Friday!

Everyday Wednesday

Home from work on Wednesday. It was my early home day today, so I had time to take photos. I have been doing a pretty good job of keeping track of my day-at least in WinJournal at home. I tracked a couple of slow days at work, but most days I simply don't have time. I am still trying to decide how I want to set up my everyday album. Have a great day!

Time to Vent Wednesday

2 things to vent about today...

1. This is an angry face. This is the face of a 15-year old girl who loves to watch "Boy Meets World." And who wouldn't Boy Meets World is an awesome show. It is very "wholesome" by today's standards and far better for a 15 year old to watch than some of the stuff I have flipped past on other channels. Anyway, this face is angry. Because there are only 3 seasons of "Boy Meets World" on DVD. And no more. Why? Why?

2. This dog. My dog? Oh, no. Why? Because when my dogs bark, and I have 3, I let them in. I don't allow them to anger everyone in the neighborhood because they just go on barking for hours and hours without stopping...

I am finished.

Happy Wednesday!

Happy Birthday Monday!

Bryan celebrated his Birthday on Friday, but the actual day was Monday. And here I am, not blogging it until Wednesday! On Sunday, he helped make brownies to take to school for his birthday. My hubby took my photo while we were outside on Monday evening. So nice-loving the 60s and 70s outside here in Iowa in the middle of March!!!! It won't last long. He was grilling sirloin for Bryan's birthday dinner. After dinner, I sacked out on the couch. Haven't done that in a long time. Good times!

Happy Shamrock Day!

Interrupting the Everyday, to wish everyone a very happy St. Patrick's Day. We started our tradition last year, when Lisa Bearnson had a blurb about their last celebration in all green. So today I tried to think of something to do that was green. At the last minute, I realized that I had been planning to have breakfast burritos anyway this week, so I threw some green food coloring into the eggs. We also had green rice krispie treats. And for super dessert-we went to McD's and had Shamrock shakes. (Well, my husband and I did-the kids had 1 vanilla and 2 chocolate shakes). It was good fun. Hope you had a great day!

Sunday Goodness

I was too wiped out for a post yesterday, so I am now a day behind. Oh well. Making gravy on Sunday. I haven't made gravy in what I think is several years. But Walmart had pork steak on sale and I also haven't had pork steak for several years, so I figured , Why not? It's high in fat and low in protein...anyway....it was REALLY good. And I felt bad after I ate it. So it was perfect!

Still gathering information and photos for my Week in the Life album. I'm trying to take a few notes at work (ones that pertain to life that happens at work, but that is NOT proprietary that I can share). So far so good. Another post soon!

Everyday Saturday

I just can't take good photos of myself with my Xsi. I have tried. Camera Fail every time. Either I have trouble holding the camera still, or I end up with a great photo of something above my head. So I digress to the S3IS for taking a lot of everyday photos. And no matter which lens I leave on the Xsi-it is always the one that I don't want to be on the camera.

Anyway...you know, it always seems like I don't do that much. Until I try to journal it all during the course of a day. Even on a day when I don't do anything, I am still pretty busy. This is Saturday. Good times. I love these flowers that my Mom brought last weekend when she came to visit. They are still beautiful. Happy Monday!

Celebrating a Week in Our Life

The photo has nothing to do with my post, except I haven't uploaded today's photos yet and I love this photo of Ralph taken by Bryan. It pretty much summarized what everyday life is like around here. Dogs...kids...cameras...computers. So sweet.


I am starting a new Week in the Life project this week. I am excited because I haven't done one since September and things change so rapidly around here that no 2 weeks are ever the same. One thing I want to do differently this time is to focus more on the things that I do everyday rather than all of the things that the kids do. I usually choose to do a "Week in the Life" when I have a lot of things going on so that I tend to have a ton of photo journalistic stuff, but not so much journaling. So I'm going to try to work on that this week. I plan to try to use twitter more often and maybe even notepad and my journals to keep track of the little stuff that is going on that doesn't always get captured. This next week is pretty laid back. There are no PTA meetings this week. Art Journaling 102 is over...I am really bummed out because I was thinking that it was 4 weeks, not 3 so it ended way too soon for me. I learned a ton, so I will still be working on techniques this week. And maybe posting to the gallery. Anyway, I am only taking one other class right now and it is pretty simple-the sew scrappy happy class at 2 Peas. There are no concerts this week. No talent shows, no band carnivals, no Bingo nights, no vocal music concerts. Just real life. What we are doing everyday.
I am really looking forward to taking the time to capture those things. Maybe I will try to get some video too. Because I love listening to my kids. Especially when they are being goofy. On video. When they are up in my face sometimes that is a little stressful...Looking forward to a great week!
I haven't really decided what format I want to use to present my Everyday photos yet. I'm thinking about using Ali Edwards' 8.5 x 11 overlays. (Bought them during one of Designer Digitals big sales, then forgot that I had them...) I might do a digital format, or I might do a hybrid format. I have been collecting ephemera already today, so I will probably find some way to gather that into the format. I have also been doing a lot of art journaling lately, so I may also try to incorporate that as well. I'm sure that I will be inspired to do something! Happy Saturday!

Blast from the past

Cathy Zielske asked to leave a comment today about something that we played with as a child (or now). It only took me a few moments to think about the things that I used to play with. Lincoln Logs, little people, I forgot to mention weebles earlier, Barbie, and legos. I love them all. It was great to take a walk down memory lane today while I was supposed to be working...Thanks, Cathy!

Dreaming of Sunshine and Flowers

I am sooo thinking about Summer. And flowers. It is no small wonder that ALL of my art journal stuff seems to be heading towards a time with temperatures above freezing...Bring on the sunshine and warm temps!

ArtJournaling 102 Participation

I decided to post the part 2 page right on my blog. Here are the layers:

1. About 10 pages of last Sunday's newspaper glue-sticked together.

2. gesso

3. paint wash

4. brayer 2 colors together

5. mask-heart doiley with spray wash

6. texture tool and brown paint

7. monoprint

8. palette knife more paint

9. shelf liner print

10. sanding over the words and flower in the gesso

11. collage text with

12. collage heart shaped newspaper

13. pastels

14. Pitt pen writing

These may not be in the exact right order-I didn't write them down until after I was finished with the page. While I am not usually a patient person, I really love the time that it takes for an art journal page or a collage painting to come together. Thanks, Dina-I really LOVE your class and am looking forward to next week!!

New Haircut

Taking photos of my new haircut. With my daughter looking like Obi-Wan Kenobi. {She didn't want to be seen without eye make-up on...teenager...} I love a good haircut and style! Happy Monday!

{Taking Flight Artwork}

Okay, I am finally brave enough to post my Taking Flight artwork. At some point I may even get up the courage to post them on the new Flickr group that Kelly Rae Roberts has set up for that purpose. But I'm not quite there yet. I love making the oil faces. The Shiva paint sticks are SOOOOO easy to use! And the faces themselves came out so easy that I feel like I'm just copying Kelly's art. Which is one of the reasons that I have been afraid to post them. But here I am. Brave. And confident. Have a great Sunday!!

Artwork

Bryan has been playing in the studio. Look at those colors! He is loving using the spray color and pastels with the bird motif. I love that he enjoys painting as much as I do. Great work, Bryan!

In the Studio

I was cleaning up the harddrive on my computer and I ran across this photo of art in progress in the studio. Creating is so relaxing that I embrace every moment that I am able to spend in my space.

Soon I will give a tour of my studio and show all of the little nooks that I have carved out for myself. Have a great Thursday!

Sigh...Missing You, Grandma

Sigh...

I really miss you, Grandma. If I could talk to you right now, I would tell you how much I love and miss you.

Project 365-February

Wow! I can't believe that I have stuck with the project 365 thing this long! But I have taken a photo ALMOST every day so far this year. Some days I have more than 1 photo that I want to include in the month, so I will use that on a day when I have crappy photos that didn't turn out the way I would have liked. Happy March!