The Last Day of September....

Taking a little time for myself must be working. I'm feeling more relaxed, less like being on a treadmill all the time, and yesterday I played in the studio. Actually I went up there to straighten up a bit but got side-tracked (as usual!) and ended up doing a page in one of my other art journals. Mostly I just had fun....and was still up there when HB got home.

This is the page I did yesterday....



This journal is a very thick (1.25") hard cover sketchbook that I've had for years. I started writing in it several years ago but it's just too thick to be comfortable. So I began painting over everything I had written....it was written during one of my less-than-better time periods anyway! I find that I like working in a larger format. This is another 8.5" x 11" journal similar to the one I finished recently. The journal I made is about 6.25" x 9"....that's about as small as I want to work. I find that a smaller page makes me think "less" as in don't do too much to this page because it's so small.

Having more than one journal to work in is good for me. I like the randomness of working like that....whatever size seems right for that day. And I also like the smooth paper in the larger journal. I'm not someone who has to work on Fabriano all the time....in fact, there are times I don't want to work on watercolor paper. And once I've put a couple of coats of paint or gesso onto a page it's able to hold up to whatever I do to it. I say use whatever works for you.

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I've been sharing some old photos with you this month and since this is the last day of September, and a special day for a member of my family (HAPPY BIRTHDAY M.A.!!!!) I'm going to share several photos.



These are photos of my cousin M.A. She's a very special person....warm, loving, generous, and sweet. She is the daughter of my mom's youngest sister who just happened to be my favorite aunt. I wrote about my aunt here. M.A. is the glue that holds my extended family together. I know she reads my blog so I hope she isn't mad at me for showing her picture!! I love you, M.A. and I hope you have the best day ever.

And also Happy Birthday to Gemma. Big hugs to you!

Trying to Channel Jackson Pollock!!!

I'm still feeling the need for re-charging the batteries but I managed to do a page in my art journal yesterday. I have started painting backgrounds in the journal I recently made....the one where I put the paper on upside down! I figured I might as well use it and see how I like the size and the paper. So far, so good.

As usual, I can't seem to get the colors to come out right when I scan it but when I tried taking a photograph the colors were worse! So here is the scanned version....



What I don't like is, there are lots of layers in the background and most of them don't show up in the scan. Also the circles are a very bright hot pink but they show pale and washed out....at least you can see I am working a little bit. Just nothing very interesting or very original right now.

One more day until Mystele's class begins. Can you tell I'm excited about this?!! I am in love with her art! HB and I were talking last night about how it's difficult for me to really loosen up and get messy with my art. It's still much too structured and neat for my taste but I can't seem to break out of that box I've been in for most of my life.


image from the internet

I like crisp, clean lines when I draw and I tend to do the same when I paint. It was very eye-opening when HB and I went to The Norton Simon Museum back in June. I was looking at a Picasso painting that had lots of raggedy edges on his paint when you looked closely but when you stood back from it the edges seemed nice and neat. I thought after seeing that, that I might get less concerned with my edges but so far that hasn't happened!!

How have you learned to loosen up? Or are you like me?

Also one problem I have is my studio space. It's not very big and it has carpet on the floor (it's just an extra bedroom) so I'm always careful when I paint. I wish I had a space where I could fling paint around!! I think I could really get into that kind of painting! Be like Jackson Pollock!


image from the internet

Maybe I could channel Jackson and find out how he started....did he have to be neat and tidy when he was younger?

I've considered putting a drop cloth down but I don't think that would be enough if I really got into slinging paint! I'm sure the walls and ceiling would also get "painted" and that wouldn't be good. So until we move or figure out someplace else to put my studio I am stuck being somewhat neat in the way I paint. Jackson will just have to wait!

I hope you have a good day....one that's full of sunshine and blue skies and love....

Re-charging the Battery....

You may have noticed that I haven't been posting as regularly as usual....and there hasn't been a lot of art recently. Times like this used to scare me. I thought I was running out of ideas both for the blog and for my art. But after going through this kind of period in the past, I now know that I'm just charging my batteries.



Art is not something we can force. It either flows or it doesn't. And right now my art is taking a little break. I'm getting ideas, reading a lot of the art books I've bought over the past several months and never got around to reading! If I'm busy doing art then I don't read as much and I don't get out there and look at other art. Now I'm finding lots to look at. Plus I'm in the midst of Julie's Super Nova class (there's a link over there on the right) and getting ready for Mystele's Gut Art class (also a link on the right)....so I'm sure there will be art to show you soon.

This is not to say I haven't been doing anything in the studio. I have been busy doing some backgrounds in my art journal and a few ATCs for swaps I'm in but no big projects have been started or finished.

And I've been lax about keeping up with my September photo album, too. So today I have a couple of photos for you.



This little guy is my Uncle Bob....my mom's oldest brother. There were three girls (and the fourth girl who died) and then two boys. I'm sure those two boys were completely spoiled by all those older sisters!



This is my Uncle Bill....the baby of my mom's family. When I was a young girl I thought he was quite handsome. In some odd way he reminded me of Paul Newman when I was older!

Sadly all my mom's sisters and brothers are gone now. Same with my dad's family. All that is left are my cousins and their families. My kids have no aunts or uncles as I'm an only child and their father only had one brother who never married and died several years ago. The only extended family they have is mine.

Do you come from a big family? Are you close to your family? My family is so spread out over the country that it's difficult to keep in close contact with everyone. I have cousins from North Carolina to Washington....from New Mexico to Illinois and many points in between. We're all over the place!!!

I hope you have a good day....hug someone and tell them "I love you"....

And the Winner Is....

No, I haven't been recovering from all the celebrating on my birthday! And I didn't fall into a hole somewhere either. I just needed a little break for a few days. I've been really pushing myself to do art every day since the beginning of this year and I just needed some time to goof off....and that's what I did!

I have barely been in the studio the past couple of days! I did do some background painting on some pages in my new art journal and I clipped a few images from magazines but overall I have just been being lazy!

I have so many things coming up and, of course, believe it or not, Christmas is looming on the horizon! Every year I think I'll start early but I don't so maybe this year will be the exception. I'm at least thinking about it!!

Now on to my drawing. I looked at my comments from the giveaway post....there were 34 but two people left two comments each so I put the number at 32 and entered it into the random generator thingie....



Number four is the winner and that is Maureen! Be sure to email me your address, Maureen and let me know if there is a specific color you'd like me to use for the cover of your journal. I haven't made it yet and I'm waiting for some of the supplies which are on back order until the end of this month but I'll get it made as soon as possible. Thanks to everyone who participated and left me birthday messages.

I received so many emails, ecards, regular snail mail cards, and messages from facebook, and all the ning sites on my birthday....I was completely overwhelmed! Plus I also had cards and phone calls from my family, too. I had a great day. Thank you all for making it special.

Also, since I don't really have enough classes (!!!) HB gave me another one for my birthday! He said I could choose any class I wanted. I decided to purchase a class from Monica Zuniga....I chose "In My Garden." I love her art and am looking forward to doing this class with her. At this point I have only downloaded the videos. Haven't watched them yet. I have so many things going on right now I think I'll save this one for later on. Monica is very generous and offers her classes at 50% discount if you purchase them on your birthday! You must be a member of her ning site and register your birthday ahead of time but I think that's a terrific little gift.

Ok, I think that's all the stuff I have for today. Sorry, no art! But check back because I'm getting antsy to get back into the studio so I'm sure there will be something to show you soon.

Have fun today....TGIF!!!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Thank you so much for all the comments you made on my "pulled art"....I'm happy you like her. And today I have absolutely NO art to show you!! I didn't do any art yesterday. But I do have some old photos.

This first one is me about 66 years ago!


It says "10 days old" along the bottom so it would have been taken on October 1, 1943....because today is my 66th birthday!!

Don't worry....there won't be any candles to blow out. I didn't want to set fire to the entire internet! Just enjoy the cake and ice cream and don't feel obligated to sing either. I don't want to pay the royalties for the Happy Birthday song!

My mom always baked a cake for me....it was about the only time she ever baked cakes. My dad didn't like cake so she didn't make it! As a kid I always wanted cake on my birthday but when I got older I used to request my mom's homemade butterscotch pie. It was to die for!

Here's a photo of one of my birthdays....I'm probably about 4th or 5th grade.


These were all neighborhood kids except for the little girl in the front sitting next to the little boy....she's my cousin. I'm the one in back wearing a tie! How dorky is that!!

And here I am with my cake....


What a snazzy outfit! Who would believe I would be voted one of the top three best-dressed in my high school graduating class? I must have made a complete turn around from this!

In celebration of my birthday I'm going to have a giveaway! I'll make one of the journals that I just learned how to do....and you can have a chance to win just by leaving a comment on this post. I'll use a random number picker and choose a winner on Friday, September 25....which, by the way, would have been my dad's 97th birthday.

I haven't made the journal yet but if you go back a couple of posts you can see an example of the ones I've made. They have 140 lb watercolor paper inside and I'll be sure to put the paper on the covers right side up!! If you're the winner you can choose what color you would like on the front cover.

Now I'm out of here....there's cake calling my name! I promise I won't stick my face in it like I did last year! If you missed that, check here.

PS - Thank you to everyone who has already sent me cards and emails! I love you all!!!!

I Pulled Her Out of the Canvas!!!

I know it's later than I usually post but I wanted to get this on tonight. I have been working on and off most of the day on another piece of pulled art.

This is what I started with....



I painted this background a couple of days ago and just kept looking at it but nothing popped out at me. Then last night HB and I were talking about it and suddenly I just saw her!! I hope you can see my pencil sketch....



And here she is....



I am in LOVE with this technique!!!!

Lessons Learned....

Last night I re-worked the face on my "pulled" painting. Her head was much too small and she had a terrible face. I made her head bigger and tried to do a better face but her eyes look sad and lopsided. Oh, well, it's a little better....although now the color is washed out on her face. I can't seem to get colors right no matter what I use....the camera or the scanner!



And here she is on the easel....you can get an idea of her size....



I also finished two journals yesterday. I learned a very valuable lesson, too! Be sure to check that your paper is going in the right direction before gluing it down! Thank goodness these are just for me. These are some of the journals I learned to make in Julie's class.



The patterned paper is on upside down on the front cover! The back cover is good....naturally! Why couldn't it have been the other way around? Oh, well, lesson learned. I didn't have any of the special paper that Julie recommended so I just used what I had. I'm pleased with how they turned out and will begin using them as my art journals.

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Imagine my surprise when I went to my google reader late last night and found this!



My little blog being recommended along with Michelle Ward's! GASP! I thought I might be hallucinating so I quick, grabbed the camera, and got a couple of shots to show HB....he was already in bed. I don't know Purple Missus so I'm going to check it out today. I was getting ready to shut down the computer last night when I made my discovery.

Today I have errands to run and it's supposed to be another hot one so I'm trying to get an early start. I just wish more stores were open at the crack of dawn!!

Pulling Some Art....

It was brought to my attention that I haven't posted anything for several days. At first I thought, that can't be true....but then I checked and sure enough I've been absent again!

I wish I could tell you it was because I was doing something special but in all honesty I wasn't! I guess I was just being lazy!! Plus I was getting excited about a new class I just signed up for this morning. It's here with Mystele. It sounds like a really fun class....it's called Gut Art. There's also a little button for it over on my sidebar. Her art is just amazing and I love it. When I knew she was going to do a class I knew I HAD to be part of it. The class will begin in October. I'm soooooooo excited about this one!!

One of the things I did recently was this painting....you might have seen it on Mystele's site. I am in the process of painting over the face and part of the hair and will show you the "new and improved" version when it's finished.



This is something Mystele calls pulled art....you pull it out of the canvas. I started by just randomly splopping (it is too a word!) several colors of paint onto my canvas. Then I stood back and looked for "something" to show up....didn't see anything! Then I turned the canvas upside down and there was a knee right there on the right side, and then I saw the other knee, and then I got excited because I "saw" her! The only thing that wasn't there was her face! So I painted what I saw and saved the face 'til last. Unfortunately I rushed myself and her face looks terrible! I've painted over it now with gesso and will give her a new one. But I'm so excited about this process. It seems to be just what I've been looking for.

Just like everyone else, I'm searching for my "style" in art. I'm searching for "that look" that when someone sees it they say "Oh, that's some of Janet's work." Haven't found it yet. Still looking. Still trying everything that comes down the pike!

Big Hair Gal....

I've had the most wonderful day!!!! It only got into the low 80's....it will only last a couple of days and then they're predicting triple digits again by the weekend but oh, how I loved it today!

It was a busy day for me but I managed to paint something....no journal page yet but at least I did some art....



She's my "big hair" gal!! I'll be back tomorrow with an old photo and hopefully some more art.

Ridin' the Range....and a Painted Lady!!

I didn't post any old photos for my September photo album yesterday so I'll do two today. This first one was taken in front of my grandparent's home in Kansas but I don't actually know who the people are! There was nothing written on it but it was in my mom's photos so it must be either family or friends. I just like it because it's cool!



I like the woman, second from right....she's wearing her overalls! Wonder where they're riding off to? Maybe out to check on the cattle....or maybe just a leisurely afternoon ride.



This photo is obviously some group or organization as they're all dressed alike and it almost looks as if they have badges. Unfortunately I don't know the story behind this photo but I do know that's my dad second from the right....and his horse, Maggie.

I love looking at old photos just to see the clothes and the lifestyles....even if I don't know anything about the people!

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Today I haven't done my journal page yet but I do have some art to show you. I painted the cover of the art journal I finished up at the end of August. I had spray painted some lace and other designs on it but I wasn't happy with it. Out came the black gesso and away went the old spray paint. In its place I did one of my "Painted Ladies"....



Her earrings aren't showing right....they're metallic paint and shiny. I have such a problem capturing the correct colors when I photograph or scan artwork. But I'm happy with her. I think I'll try doing her on canvas.

Where is Fall???

Hi Everyone! I didn't get anything posted yesterday and I'm late today. And today I don't even have an old photo to show you....I didn't get one out and get it re-sized so I'll try to do two for tomorrow.

I'm so jealous of many of you who have been writing about fall-like weather. We're still in triple digit territory here and I'm really getting sick of it! I will be so happy to wake up one morning and not have to turn on some cooling device! I'll be happy to put on a sweater and some jeans....and I'll be ecstatic when we have the first fire of the season in our fireplace. But I think all of those things are way off in the future for me. So I'll just keep on reading about your fall weather and be jealous!!

Here is my journal page from yesterday....

Sept 11:

I thought about doing something to commemorate the day but decided not to after all.

And here's the one for today....
Sept 12:

My list in not in order of importance....just a random list of some of the things I have going on right now. This page is sort of a continuation of the one from yesterday.

More Family Photos....

Today for the September photo album I have two photos to show you....and once again they are from my dad's family. I will be doing more from my mom's side in a few days. The first picture is, from left to right (back) my uncle, my grandpa and grandma and my dad almost hidden, and in the front are my dad's twin sisters.



That one poor little scraggly tree in the background looks so pathetic. And I love that everyone is wearing a hat. Grandma looks as if she might have borrowed one of grandpa's!



This is my grandma holding the twins when they were babies. They were named Marcille and Lucille but were forever known as Mark and Luke! They were identical twins, grew up to be very tiny women....not even 5' tall, and one was a city gal and the other remained a country gal.

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My art journal page today took a little different approach. Since I've been doing so many collaged pages for the book I'm making, I decided to do a collaged page in my journal. I love doing collages....all the layers, all the things that don't seem to go together but in the end they do. I think I could be happy doing collages for a long time....and I have enough paper and images to last! Off topic, but have any of you seen that A&E program called "Hoarders"....I always thought I might be a hoarder until I watched that show. I am nowhere near that bad!! Although I am rather compulsive about saving paper! Anyway, here's my page for today....

Sept 10:


I have my book supplies ordered so I should be able to finish my books and have something to show you in a few days. I have two blank book blocks made and also the collaged book so there will be photos soon.

Have a great day!!

Getting Back in the Groove....

Since Monday was a holiday it's sure thrown me off track this week! I'm a day behind! But here it is Wednesday already and I'm trying to get back into my routine so I have another old photo for the September photo album. Since I showed you "my" horse previously, this photo seemed appropriate....


That's my dad holding onto Halfpint and my grandpa is on the edge of the photo with another horse....probably Halfpint's mama. Apparently I named the horse after some other animal named Halfpint but I don't remember it. I vaguely remember being at the ranch when the horse was born but it was a loooong time ago!

I've always liked horses. The last time I rode was way back when we still lived in Colorado. My friend had horses that she had boarded so we went out to ride them. Long story short, the horses were loose out in the open so we had to find them first! When we finally did they were in an area we couldn't drive to so we walked in. We weren't able to carry the saddles so when we got to the horses we rode them bareback. My friend told me to be sure and tell all my friends that I rode an Arabian bareback. She seemed to think that was impressive.

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I've been collaging some pages for a book I'm doing in Julie's class. Here are a couple of the ones I've finished....




I have several more to do but it takes me a long time. Julie said she did all of hers in 3 hours!! It takes me about that long to do one page!! They are collaged on both sides.

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And here's my journal page for today....

Sept 9:


Since I didn't do any pages for several days I might try to make some extras and "fill" in those missing pages. But for now I'm doing good to be back in the swing of things!

I hope you have a very auspicious day today....09/09/09!

The Long Weekend is Over....

Whew! It's been a few days since my last post. Here in the US we had a long weekend so I didn't spend much time at the computer. Finally we were able to turn off the a/c and go back to the swamp cooler....the smoke has not been coming our way. The fire is still burning and the last I heard it was about 157,000 acres.

We were totally and completely lazy over the weekend! About the only thing we managed to do was to clear out a bunch of stuff from a file cabinet. Exciting, huh!! HB is back to working overtime so he really needed some time to relax so that's just what we did. He did most of the cooking....he loves to barbecue! And we hung out, watched some movies, and generally vegged. LuLu gives a perfect example....



although HB and I didn't lay on paper bags! (For some reason both of our cats love to lay on paper bags.)

And for the first time since March 1st I didn't do any pages over the weekend! I completely broke my streak! I did paint a couple of pages but they took me the whole weekend to finish!



I couldn't get the whole book on the scanner so I had to take a photo. I like how she turned out....another of my Colorful Women! I'm calling it Azmira Caught a Bird.

I'm also way behind on The Artist's Way, and I have been working on a vision board for awhile now but it isn't finished.

You may remember that I'm taking Julie's Super Nova Journaling class and I did make two book blocks over the weekend but I don't have the supplies to make the spine so they aren't finished yet either. I seem to have a lot of WIP right now! But today it's back to our "regularly scheduled programming" so I'm sure I'll get caught up....and I will resume my journal pages.

Over the long weekend two of my blog friends had birthdays and I was very bad and didn't acknowledge them so HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Doreen and Rowan!! I hope you both had fantastic celebrations.

Some of This and A Little of That....

If you're following me here, you may notice that I haven't mentioned my progress on The Artist's Way lately. I always do this when I'm in a book group! I read at my own pace which isn't always the same as the group and then I get confused about when to post about what. So here's my quickie report....morning pages are still sporadic but coming along. Last week I did have an artist's date at Barnes & Noble. I probably shouldn't do my dates there as I always find things to buy!! And I wrote my "I Am From" poem as part of my identity search. I have decided that if I were to pick one thing to define me it would be books! Who'da thunk it?

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Here's today's picture for the September Photo Album....be sure and catch the goofy look on my face! I must have been saying something when they snapped the picture!



This is me on "my" horse, Half-Pint. This is my rancher grandpa....a very small man in stature but a huge man otherwise. He is my connection to England as he was born in Flamborough, Yorkshire. The horse was considered mine as it was born one year when we were there for a visit and Grandpa let me name it and he said whenever I came to visit that it was mine to ride. Ha! Tell that to my mom who kept me under her watchful eye, sitting on a shelf in a clean dress most of the time!

I promise that all the September Album won't be just me! I do have other photos to share.

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Yesterday I said I was going to make a book....I didn't get it finished yet. I got side-tracked and as HB says "that never happens!" But I do have something to show for my creative day, and the book should be ready by tomorrow.

I was going through my finished journal and found a couple of very old pages that I wasn't happy with so out came the black gesso (I love that stuff) and then a new face appeared....I'm cheating a little and using her for my page today because I love her.

Sept 4:


HB thought she has a Jamaican look. I don't know who she is but she's definitely exotic! I wasn't able to spray paint the stencil on her head so it isn't as good as it could be but I like it anyway.

Now I'm off to work on the book....again! TGIF so make it a good one. Smile, play, and have fun.

Back-to-School....and a Piece of Fruit

Just so you know, still no end in sight on the fire. They have about 28% containment but then they had a few more evacuations this morning! There's still a lot of smoke just hanging in the sky. And I'm going stir-crazy being shut up in the a/c all the time! But I'm still so much better off than all those people in the path of the fire so I'll quite complaining and be thankful.

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Since we're still kind of in back-to-school time I thought I'd share a couple of first day of school photos with you. I'm not sure how old I am in either one of these. My mom didn't write on her photos.



I think this might have been second or third grade but that's only a guess. When I was a kid I was always tall for my age (I think I just had long legs like my dad) until I hit my teens and then I just quit growing. I'm just a little over 5'4".

In this next picture I'm older, maybe fifth grade. That's my mom's shadow in the front. We didn't have great photographers in my family!!



Most of the pictures I have are "posed" which I hate. There are no pictures of me just playing or doing something. That might be why I hate having my picture taken....I always had to stand still and smile which I think makes a picture fake. But that's the way it was in my family!

As for school, I loved it but I never worked very hard at it. I did what I was supposed to do and that was it. I never went that extra mile. And I didn't participate in many extracurricular activities. I rode the school bus so I was never able to stay after school for anything. Plus my dad thought school should only be about "reading, writing, and arithmetic"....for you younger readers arithmetic was math! As I've mentioned before, I learned cursive writing in first grade so my printing is not too good. My teacher said in life we would mostly be writing so that's what we learned! I loved practicing all those loops and curves, and I used to have very pretty handwriting....it's gone down hill over the years!

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Here's my journal page for today....another quickie one. I just can't seem to get used to this smaller size page!



That dark spot isn't smeared ink....it's a darker spot in the paint. Most of these pages are just leftover paint that I've smeared onto the page. I like doing that. You never know what you'll get! I thought the little touch of lace at the top reminded me of those fancy lids....how some people put a little ring of lace around the lid when they can fruits and veggies.

OK, I'm going to try to make a book today! I don't have all the supplies but I'm going to wing it! I hope you have something fun to do today. And remember to smile!!

The Good, The Bad and The Smokey....

First a little fire update....I took this photo yesterday morning when I had to get out for some errands. That is smoke just hanging in the air! My eyes have been burning ever since but there is some good news. They believe they have about 22% containment right now with about 140,000 acres burned. There's still a long way to go.



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Today for my September album I have a picture of me and my dad to share with you. I chose this picture because as a little kid it scared me!



Ok, you're asking....what's so scary about this picture? Well, if you look closely at my dad's knee (on the left) the way his pants folded it looks like a little circle. I thought my dad had a hole in his knee! My mom told me every time I looked at this picture I'd get upset. Did I ever tell you I led a very sheltered life!!

Apparently when I was very little my dad thought I was pretty special. It was only after I got older that we began having problems. We eventually became estranged and never spoke to each other again.

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Now on a happier note I want to share a post with you just in case you didn't see it already. My friend Jeanie has a wonderful post on her blog talking about collage and how it relates to everything in life. If you haven't read it be sure to stop by....you won't be sorry!

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I began working in a new book for my art journal. It's an old book about cats but the pages are sewn in and the paper is fairly thick so I decided it would make a good journal....that is until I learn to make my own from Julie's class.

Sept 1:

"some days my head just feels as if it's open to the universe!"

You'll notice she has a brown smudge over her eye....when I was attaching her to the page I rubbed too hard and I scraped off a little area. I tried covering it with paint and in real life it doesn't look too bad but the scan really seems to focus on it! But you know I show the good and the bad so here she is!!

Sept 2:

This one was a quickie!

The new book has smaller pages than the one I was working in previously and I haven't gotten used to the size yet. I like to work bigger rather then smaller.



This is my finished journal....I will be decorating the covers a little later and I'll show you when I'm finished.

Ok....that's it for today. I hope you have blue skies where you are and lots of fun in your life!

September Photo Album....

Since this month of September is my birth month, and yesterday I did the "I Am From" poem, I decided to devote this month to showing you more about my family through old photos. I have tons of them, and I think old photos are fun to see on other people's blogs so I hope you enjoy mine. I'll be posting one or maybe two each day....not in any order or theme....just whatever I think looks interesting. And please, remember, these are personal photos and not to be copied or used as ephemera.

This is a photo of my mom's parents....my railroad grandpa....



You can't see it here but his right hand was all messed up. I think he had something happen to it on the job and then years later when he was retired he cut off a finger with an electric saw! This is my grandma who made blackberry cobbler and homemade noodles. She was very small....weighed about 95 lbs soaking wet but could run circles around just about everyone. Lots of energy packed into that small package.

They lived in town and my mom and I would stop to see them every Saturday after we went shopping and before we went home. There was always a pot of coffee on the stove and it just kept getting stronger and stronger as the day went on!

I get all my cowlicks from this grandpa! Thanks so much, Grandpa!! He had very thick hair and it grew in swirls all around his head. Grandma made a "rat's nest"....her word.... of her saved hair and used it to make a little roll at the back of her neck. She was a very plain person. No make up, no jewelry, no fancy anything. She went to church regularly and phoned all her church friends on a daily basis. She loved to talk on the phone.

They had six children but one daughter died when she was only about two years old. My mom was the second child....three girls and then the two boys were the youngest. Sadly they are all gone now.
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The fire is still growing and today the sky is like it was on Saturday when I felt so weird. If I want to read or do anything where I need to see, I need a light on today! And we have lots of windows in our house....it's usually very light and bright. Everything has a yellow-gray look. We are not in any danger except maybe from air quality but I have that strange feeling of doom again.

I have not finished my journal page yet but it's painted and collaged....I just need to write something. I'll show you tomorrow.