Monday with Mother Nature

Mother Nature waits for no one, and with that said, the growing season at my house came to a close today.  The forecast for the remainder of the week is crappy, crappy, and crappy followed by more crappy, so I took heed began winterizing my garden and window boxes for winter.

Creativity abounds even in the most mundane of tasks.  The simple arrangement of the final vegetables caught my eye; what a pleasing color palette. And there were other things to spark my imagination.

I began by harvesting the remaining vegetables, and I found a couple surprises to further spark my creative imagination.

This undeveloped bell pepper looks like a boxing glove to me - what do you think?

The pieces of what once was a nice trellis lay scattered across the table like so many pick-up sticks.

I found beauty in the tangled remains of my pole beans as I pulled them from the garden box and piled them on the deck.

The addition of the pepper plants, impatiens and trailing vines turned the tangled pile into a giant mound of beautiful potpourri.   It was almost too pretty to toss into the wheelbarrow, but I finally had to succumb to the task.

As I turned my attention back to the garden box, this little lady bug caught my attention. (Not really a lady bug - so says our local weatherman, Dick Goddard)  I felt bad about disrupting it's home, but it didn't seem to mind at all.  It made me think about how we need to take things more in stride and stop making change out to be such a drama.

Anyway, that was my creativity for the day.  Tomorrow, I'll be back indoors.  It will be a great week for hunkering down with hot mugs of coffee and art supplies - Dick pretty much guarantees it.  No matter what the weather, I'm sure it will be a week where I find time to "Celebrate, LOVE, and Create!" - and I hope you do, too!

PHOTO OF THE DAY

This is what I love about autumn - dramatic purple skies and northern winds pushing clouds rapidly overhead, and the sun set low on the horizon casting dark shadows and setting the trees ablaze with color.

Put It In a Pocket!

Do you have items that you'd like to add to your journal, but would also like to be able to remove them?  Why not put them in a pocket?

I wanted to put my vegetable plant tags in my gardening journal, but I wanted to be able to take them out to read them for future reference.  The tags are cute, and I thought they would make great looking tabs, too.

I decided that I would make pockets for the tags so that I could easily remove them again.  I wanted the tags to fit snuggly inside their pockets, so I traced the pocket size around a tag.

I took a piece of cardstock that I had laying around (an art reception invitation), and traced a basic pocket shape around the tag.  I added about 1/4 inch around the bottom and sides.

I tore a page from my large journal and quickly scribbled and wet-blended, Neocolor II crayons in similar colors to the pre-watercolored page where I would be placing my pockets.  I decided that I wanted a contrasting cuff at the top of my pocket, so I used Neocolor IIs on the backside of the page in a strip as wide I wanted the cuff.  The green color will pick up the color from the adjoining page.

I cut my template out and traced it onto the sheet prepared for the pockets.  I didn't trace the fold lines because it was easy to see where to fold the pocket by the diagonal cuts on the corners.

I cut out all the pockets and folded the sides and bottom in.  I checked the fit with the garden tags and then I used double stick tape to the bottom and sides.

The pockets are on the inside of this flap, and the tops of the tags look like little tabs.  Aren't they cute?

Here's what the flap looks like when it's opened.  My garden tags fit snuggly into the pockets so I don't have to deal with the tags constantly slipping out of place.  I'm glad I decided to add the little cuff to the top of the pocket.  It brings nice color continuity to the pages.

Here's the completed flap.  I hope this inspires you to add pockets to pages in your journal.  Maybe we'll explore this idea again soon, because there are many variables on adding pockets to your pages.  I hope you had a great holiday weekend, and I hope you're having great fun as you "Celebrate, LOVE, and Create!"


PHOTO OF THE DAY

"White Iris" Photo by Keith Thompson

Keith captured this great photo of my white Irises as they began blooming yesterday.

Tuesday Tips and Techniques: Make a Themed Journal

THEMES
Summer is right around the corner, and the days ahead will be filled with all kinds of events.  There are weddings, graduations, picnics, family reunions, extended weekends, and family vacations.  All of these things are perfect for devoting to one specific journal.


I am going to make a journal specifically for my summer gardening adventure that is currently underway.  I have a new vegetable planter re-purposed from a crate used to ship a car differential to my brother, and this morning, I planted my small garden area behind the garage with cucumbers, carrots, spinach and lettuce.  What better way to keep a diary of my gardening than with a journal!

TEESHA MOORE INSPIRED JOURNAL
Those of you that have been following my blog from the beginning may remember the Teesha Moore inspired journal that I started.  I still haven't finished it, but I do work in it from time to time.  Here are some of the pages you haven't seen yet.

The Cover

This page is not completed - but close!

This page has just been started

I think this page is near completion

These journals are made from one sheet of watercolor paper with no waste, and they are a cinch to make.  Here is Part 1 of the 2 Part instructional video:







I watercolored all of my pages except the back cover before assembling.  That way, I can lay them all out to dry more quickly.   I arrange them afterwards.


Here are the watercolored pages for my gardening journal.  I actually painted these pages months ago and had a different purpose in mind, but the mostly earth toned shades will be great for journaling about veggies and flowers.

My luscious, yellow cover

I'm looking forward to working in this journal as the season progresses, and I'll be sharing my gardening journey with you as I complete my pages.   


It's great to have a journal ready for an event ahead of time, so I hope that you'll try this simple journal for the special events that you have coming up this summer.  Maybe you're having a big 4th of July event and want to design a red,white and blue themed journal.  Maybe you're going to a wedding and will decide to use the wedding colors as your theme.  Don't forget to include items like tags, receipts, place cards, placemats, maps,  brochures......the list is endless!  And most of all, don't forget to "Celebrate, LOVE, and Create!"

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Approaching Storm

Mike and I headed down to Headlands Beach Park yesterday afternoon to watch the storms approach from the west.  We both enjoy weather watching and we were not let down by yesterday's show.

A Full Plate - A Busy Mind

A BUSY WEEK!
Life seems to have EXPLODED for me this week!  It happens every year and yet I'm somehow unprepared for the occasion.  After six, yes, SIX long months of dealing with cold, snow, and rain, finally the weather breaks and everyone comes out of their winter cocoon to celebrate the new season.

A NEW CREATIVE JOURNALING CLASS!
I have been trying for over a year to find a location to teach creative art journaling.  I have longed for, hoped for and worked towards this goal, and at long last it has come to fruition.  My first public creative journaling class begins on June 2nd.  I am so excited!  My classes will be held at Painesville Senior Center, and registration begins this week.  I am busy planning lessons, making fliers and gathering students.  Did I say "freaking out?"  Currently, that's under control for the moment, but why do we do that freaking out thing when what we've been longing for finally comes our way?

APPOINTMENTS AND IMPROMPTU VISITS
In the midst of all the wonderful art related activities, there were appointments and visiting.  I had an eye appointment, a meeting with the Senior Center Director, and impromptu visits (long overdue) from my awesome sister, my girlfriend who is here for a visit from PA, and my lovely niece who came as a "flower fairy" sharing plants with me for my flower garden.  She brought me purple/white irises, a hollyhock, (I'm REALLY excited about that!), and a mystery plant that gets "big, round, individual white (?) flowers.  She doesn't have a clue what they are.  I don't have a clue what they are.  For now, I've planted them in a large planter and will eagerly anticipate their blooming and identity.

The "Mystery Plant"

GARDENING

Finally, I have the first soil of the season under my fingernails!  My son and I got our vegetable seeds ordered this week and they're on the way.  My brother ordered a rear end (?) for his hobby car, and it came in a wonderful crate that will be perfect for a vegetable garden on my deck!  I've been imagining such a planter for the past month, so imagine my delight when it unexpectedly showed up when my brother and son, Mike, came by for tools to open it!

I'll be planting Roma tomatoes, Blue Lake green beans, and red bell peppers in this planter.  I'll be planting salad greens, cucumbers, and carrots in my small, partly shaded garden space behind the garage.  I did some research online (how much do we LOVE google?), and found out how to make a small compost bin.  I did that this afternoon and I can't wait to see how it turns out.  I've been saving my coffee grounds and egg shells all week in anticipation of this project.  It was very easy.  With my hubby's help, we drilled holes in a storage bin I had in the studio.  I put in a layers of shredded newspaper, some salad greens that were too wilted to eat, coffee grounds, egg shells, left over plant material and leaves from last years garden, and garden soil to the bin.  

THE WOMEN'S CENTER

Once again, I had the honor of conducting the creative workshop for the Women's Center year end celebration.  There was a great turn out this year - about 30 women who have successfully made it through another year of studies at Lakeland Community College.  Awards were handed out and there was food galore.  We had a wonderful time sharing with each other. These women truly inspire me in the courage they show to overcome their adversities, struggle through difficult times, and achieve the goals that they've set for themselves.  This year, they published a book of their personal essays.  I am so honored that they used the painting  that I created for the Women's Center as their cover.  Their graphic artist, Carol, did a fantastic job creating both front and back covers.  I can't wait to read this most cherished of my books.

ART SUPPLIES

I received my new Dick Blick order this week, and I've barely had time to open it and peak at all the yummy supplies inside.  I bought acrylic inks, black India ink, Prismacolor Art Stix (for a colored pencil workshop next Saturday with John Smolko), a quill pen and nibs, and my first moleskin journal.  I can't wait to get into the moleskin!  Just the size and landscape format scream "doodle" at me.  I can't wait to see how this changes my journaling technique.

THANK YOU!

I want to thank each and every one of you again, for all of your support and the comments that you leave on the blog.  I read each one of them and try my best to respond.  I haven't been so great at that lately, but I hope you can see why.  So here is a collective THANK YOU!, until I can respond to you individually.  I want to especially thank you for the well wishes on our 34th wedding anniversary.  Thanks for sharing our  special day!

I want to wish all of you mothers a "Happy Mother's Day", and to those who no longer have their mother to enjoy, I wish you only the best of memories as you reflect back on the time you shared.  I'll be enjoying the day with my sons and adopted daughter tomorrow, so I'll see you back here on Monday or Tuesday.  Meanwhile, "Celebrate, LOVE, and Create!", dear friends.