Leap Day!

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I've been thinking a lot this week about how glad I am to have an extra day in February.  

Mostly due to work. 

And a pressing deadline I have to meet by the end of the month of February.  

I think I'm barely going to make it by the skin of my teeth.

But, I'm also glad to have the extra day this month in non work related aspects.  

It gives me an extra day to fit in my car well baby check-up

And it gives me another day to fit in my therapist.

I wonder if I'll be able to relax by the end of the day after all the rushing, rushing, rushing.

It will be exciting, that's for sure.  You just gotta smile and be grateful that you have the ability to rush around like a crazy lady.  

What is the extra 24 hours of the year giving you time to do?  

Declare Peace

Hi.

It's been a while since I've been here.

Trying to figure out some things.  Like what color to paint four of the walls in my house.  Do you have as much difficulty picking a color as I do?  Well that's another story.

Today I'm sharing my attempt to continue art journaling while away from home.   Before leaving I pulled a picture I had found earlier from a magazine. 

Big whoop, huh?  This is what I call really going out on a limb.  Maybe not for you but for me, timidly dipping my toes into the art journal waters, "art journaling" away from home was is a big deal.   I didn't know what to pack in an art journal travel kit or how I would art journal on the go.  I did manage to be on the look out for something to add to my page.  I tore a section of the newspaper from the area we were staying and glued it (after I got back home) to my page.  Exciting, ya?  

I didn't get very fancy with my pages.  My imagination takes a lot of time and effort to get it come up with an idea.  I haven't figured out how to take what I see and take in during the day to turn it into an idea for something to put on paper.  I do much better writing, not that my writing is all that great.  Since my writing isn't that great it gives you an idea of where down the line my artistic imagination falls and the amount of practice I have to put into it.  Since writing comes easier to me that is what I did for this week in my art journal while on the go.  I did enjoy using the white pen, that was fun and it worked great on the magazine paper.  

I found that I only wanted to write on the black portion of the picture because the adirondack chair on the boardwalk looked so inviting and I didn't want to detract from that  feeling.

I wonder where that lake is.  I would like to be sitting in that chair.  Just relaxing.  Feeling the sun on my skin.  Sipping a tall glass of Dr. Pepper.  Hmmm.  My imagination didn't have trouble kicking in for that.   I guess I can daydream pretty easily, too.

Three. Two.

I think I am becoming converted.  I think by scrapbooking digitally I have done more in these few weeks this year than in the whole last year.  That feels nice.  

I found some pictures from a time I did a radio commercial for work.  That was such an interesting experience.  I was amazed at the sound technician and the magic he could do. 



 

White Balance

I was out looking for something to photograph.  I've run out of people to photograph since they are going away to school or being a social butterfly.  That's a little bit saddening but I'm happy that they are making a life of their own.  

So what does one photograph when the peeps are gone?  I took a walk about in the back yard and found some bird of paradise blooming.  It was overcast and somewhat warm out.  We are expecting rain and it feels a little like the tropics on a cool day.  If I have to have rain that is the way to have it.  

I decided to leave the auto white balance on instead of changing it to cloudy.  I am please with the color. True to what I was seeing.

Then I noticed a rock sitting on the garden soil.  This rock has been hanging around for many years.  I like this rock. I think it's pretty.  Maybe I should give it a name and make it my pet rock.  Remember those?  I may be advertising my age with that comment.  Ignore that .  

I took a picture of this rock still using auto white balance because it worked so nicely with the bird of paradise.  But my rock came out on the blue side.  I changed the white balance to shade and my picture came out on the yellow side.  I had to create a custom white balance to get it right.  

Why is it that the auto white balance worked perfectly for one item but not on the other?  Can anyone tell me? Inquiring minds want to know.

I'm going to take a leap and try to participate in Ali Edwards A Day in the Life today.  Have you ever documented the hours of a day in your life?  I wonder if mine will be very interesting.  I'll let you know what I found out and how I did with it.



 

Link Love

I ran across a couple blog posts this week that you may find interesting. You can click on the highlighted phrase or word for the link to the actual post.

Wikipedia

I am finding that I want to get back into the act of taking a picture a day.  Only this time I think I want it to be a little more directed.  I'm going to give it a try starting this week which, by the, feels really, really weird for someone with OCD.  Can I just tell you that this goes so against my grain that it makes the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up and my back arch and my skin crawl?  But my desire to get back to my camera love every day is making those things a little less controlling.  I will be following prompts from Chantelle at fatmumslim.  

At Get It Scrapped there are some fun ideas for scrapbooking one month at a time.    This month is "By the Numbers"  with some fun ideas for scrapbook pages, photos to take and miscellaneous things to track during February.

And lastly Ali Edwards lead me to a blog post about curiosity.   Josh Hanagarne tells how he encourages his curiosity by carrying a notebook with him to write down questions that enter his mind and later the answers or further questions as they come.   I think I've just learned another use for my journal.   I'll have to tell you about the direction my journal is taking.  I want to keep test running it for a bit longer before I give you a peek into it so maybe in the next month or two.  

 

Oh Ya, Huh.

I had fun experimenting with found items and some stamps and my poor attempt at sketching.  I was about to throw a shopping bag from Target into the recycle can when I noticed the holiday design printed on the bag.  I brought it back into the house and cut out some snowflakes which I then decoupaged to my journal page.

It started with an idea spawned by a rubber stamp of a row of houses.  Seeing the stamp made me think of all the activity going on in homes in the anticipation of Christmas.  Homes filled with packages being wrapped, visitors coming and going, smells of good things being baked in the kitchen.

On this day I happen to be listening to Handle's Messiah.  One of my favorite songs is All we, like Sheep.  That is how the sheep found themselves on a hillside and one lone one in the yard by the house.  

The day before Christmas I didn't do much but write a quote I had heard. The ribbon strip got a little out of control in its thickness.  I'm not a very good doodler so I haven't quite figured out how to control my pen. It was all the pen's fault. I had nothing to do with it.  The pen took my hand to hold itself upright.

Same for the day after Christmas,  just a quick write about the weather and add a cancelled Christmas postage stamp.  I didn't want to get out of the habit of showing up in my art journal.   

Blogger is being a stinker and uploaded this picture sideways.  Can't figure out how to change it. 

The week between Christmas and New Year I learned more about color washes and ink pads getting mixed up with water.  Not a pretty picture this time around. I gotta get me some color ink pads that are water resistant.  

I'm taking comfort in this quote from Albert Einstein.  "Any who never made a mistake had never tried anything new."  I've used all the items before just not in this new combination.  All was good until that stamped images got wet with the color wash spray.  Oh yeah, wash = water.  Regular ink pad ink spreads nicely with water.  

Have a great day playing in your creative zone.  

Joy Dare

Some gifts from the past week
1. A radiology doctor thrilled to see my mom in such optimum health.
2. Completing a scrapbook page.
3.Time to relax.
4.Thoughtful people with kind word.
5. Technology working smoothly to make my job go quickly.
6. The sweet melodic voice of my friend.  I love listening to her sing.
7. A beautiful sunrise.
8. Being considered as a twin.  We are in every way but birth.
9. A 100 Grand candy bar.
10. A clear night sky, pin hole peeks into heaven.  Heaven's night lights.

What gifts did you find in your days last week?

A Glimpse

This week one of my orchids bloomed for the very first time in its life.  Several years ago My Sweet Pea gave me a perfect little orchid start.  We had no idea what this orchid would grow up to be.  This week it finally gave us a glimpse of what it was.  I think it's beautiful!  Very exotic looking.

Some thoughts going on in my brain.
1. Go ahead, there's some Dr. Pepper in the fridge.
2. Laundry still needs to be folded and put away.  I'll get that soon!
3. Don't worry, be happy. Sometimes that's hard advice to take.  
4. I think I'll spend a lot of time in the sun for the day.
5. Pretty much life is good, God is good, I'm good. 
6. Want to go do lunch with me?
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a quiet, relaxing evening and movie night with My Mann, My Sweet Pea and her beau, tomorrow my plans include going to church and I think this is super bowl Sunday but I wouldn't care about that!

Today's glimpse courtesy of Friday fill-ins

I hope you have a great week. 

Love

Journaling -  When I think of when I am happiest it is a time that always involves family.  I love being with my children and husband and when you get all four of us together the fun and joy is only multiplied. I love being with them.

This week I learned relearned a little lesson.  Sometimes my head is a little thick like that.  I bet yours gets it the first time around.  Anyway, I had a digital layout almost completed about some of the people I love except for the last element I was trying to get placed right.  Then I clicked the little red "x" at the top of a digital page of paper in order to close it. 

All was good until I did that.  

All of a sudden, poof!  It was gone.  Not only the paper, but the almost done layout that I had just spent a couple hours putting together.  I still don't know how or why that happened, but it did.  I don't get it.  

I was so determined to get that page done before I went to bed so rather than be mad I just started all over again.  This time I saved the layout after each step of the way.  The  layout didn't end up the same as the first one, but I like it better than I remembered the first one being.  Maybe its a good thing that I lost the first layout. Or maybe that was because it was late and I still had to get ready for be so I could be up for work in six hours.  

  .  

The contents

Since I've stopped doing Project 365 I have been out of the habit keeping my eyes open to picture possibilities and ways to practice with my camera.  

I've been trying to make a conscience effort, that is when I remember to pick up my camera, to work on the light element of the exposure triangle.  

During the week I tried to find something to photograph.  My Mann had left a box full of all kinds of metal thingies on the floor. The box had an accident and fell over spewing its contents every which way, yet one more time, so  I'm told in an exasperated tone of voice.   

The only available  light was coming from the residue of an already set sun through the sliding glass door. I'm pleased with the lighting in the particular shot, even the way the light shines through the little pipe, dealy thing,  but I am not happy with the composition.   The little pipe, dealy thing is too centered and that bugs me.  What do you think?  

Scavenger Hunt

The scavenger hunt that just keeps giving.  You know Stacy Julian has said that "We scrap to live life twice".  Well with this scavenger hunt has giving me joy so much more than that.  Who knew that it would do that when I took a leap to join Rinda's call to join last summer?  I received an album from Rinda that she had made ready for the pictures gathered of the items we collected.  I have completed it (minus a tiny bit of writing but since it included some personal information I left it off for posting purposes) and I love it.  

Here it is.

Cover Page

Added the rules and a list of the items on the scavenger hunt list

Our Team

 Rinda, I can't tell you enough how much I have enjoyed this.  Thank you for all you did to make it so much fun when I was not in a good spot of life.  

  

Mess It Up

I watched a video that Julie had done as part of our Creative Jumpstart 2012 showing how she jump starts her creativity.  Basically she just plays with media and tools that she has with totally inhibition about making a mess of her project.  In the video she started out making a tag and as she was doing it she expressed that she was liking the results.  Then because she was liking it so well she said she was going to purposely mess it up so she could continue playing without fear of messing it up.  Seeing how she purposely messed up her tag freaked me out.  By the time she was done the tag turned out great. 

Yikes!  How does a person do that?  What is it that allows someone to feel that way?

I messed up an art journal page.  Not on purpose.  It was salvaged, but I see the mistake in my mind even though it's covered up.  

I was trying a new technique I had just learned.  It didn't work out.   I covered it up, but I'm frustrated that the pretty background is now under a strip of purple paper. I have such a difficult time messing things up and allowing that to not affect me.

It seems that so many of the artists I've been learning from use tags to play with and to get their creative mojo going.  Maybe that is the solution.  I am playing on the wrong playground.  I am using my art journal instead of something on a small, non-permanent place.  What do you think?  Is that it?

Does anyone else have any suggestions of how get over the fear of messing up?  Suggestions of how or where to play?


  

Joy Dare

  Some gifts from the week.  

•  A perfectly beautiful, gorgeous, awesome day after a rain. 

• Beautiful sunrises.
• A sweet visit with a co-worker about moms.  She asked about mine and she just lost hers. 
• The soothing constant of the ocean's ebb and flow. 
• Hula hooping to my heart's content. 

• A helpful and thoughtful husband.

May you have a lovely weekend and a week full of creativity.  




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

A Glimpse

Can you believe the weather?  First of the week was on the cold and rainy by the time the middle of the week was here I was outdoors enjoying the warmth, the sun, and the waves. I just love California weather.

A glimpse of some random thoughts from the week.
1. I listened to Caro Emerald.  I have found an artist, new to me, from Denmark.  I love, love, love her music.

2. I feel jiggly in the middle.

3. Hula hooping is something I love to do.

4. Wish I had thought to describe "Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit.  Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad." 

5. The last thing I ate was a Fuji apple with peanut butter and Nuttella spread.

 6. The most horrifying thing I witnessed was a near accident on the way home from work when a  negligent driver was texting.  The car on a two lane road first almost took out a bicyclist then drove into oncoming traffic.  It was by the grace of God that people and vehicles were spared.

7. I got the biggest smile when my sister was telling me about Mom's radiology doctor appointment.  He was so excited to see Mom.  Excited to see he so well, so full of energy, and so free of pancreatic cancer.  A Miracle.  He told her when he first took her case to the medical panel they more or less told him he was crazy to give radiology, chemotherapy, and remove the spleen and a portion of an 81 year old woman's  pancreas.  He found a camera to take her picture so he could take it to the medical team.  Mom is so funny.  She said to the doctor that everyone tells her that pancreatic cancer is a killer cancer.  He tells her, "It is!"  That is why he was so thrilled to see her so fully recovered.

May God bless your day as He has blessed my week.