LSNED 3 Green Thumb

Not shockingly falling seriously behind in well, everything-ah the life in September!!! Just a quick post to get my Shimelle class LSNED pages going. Sept.3rd I was reveling in my new fabulous purchase of Hardy Hibiscus. I had bought a small plant and fell in love. I killed it by not transplanting it but I also thought as it was a hibiscus it wouldn't make it outside anyway. While winery hopping in PA I saw a fabulous flower garden filled with huge towering bushes of these same flowers. Discovering they did grow in this area-I was ecstatic! Even more when I found 2 of these plants at Home Depot of all places. 

 The flowers are about 10 inches in diameter- I KNOW RIGHT!!!!! My journal side was about how I used to have the black thumb of doom and kill all my flowers. Now I am slowly being able to plant, water, grow-it sounds so simple! I managed to get these in the ground, they have been alive for 2 weeks & doing really well. I can look out at one of them from my scrap book room window & see the flowers-makes me sooooo happy. 

SAD UPDATE- the bloody deer have come & eaten off all 10 of the buds on this plant- devastated!!!!! The plant still looks great but no frickin flowers!!!! Me now hates deer precious.

Feeling Holtzy

Working on my art journal page for A Year in the Life of an Art Journal-yay for me. The challenge is Artsy Fartsy- (no problem), and draw a picture of your coffee cup. Drawing is not one of my favorite things although it is on the list of things to learn so away I went. I started with a printed copy of an unfinished art journal background and than drew away. I love how it turned out & that my cup doesn't totally suck! 

  My art journal background ended up being too busy, the cup got lost, so I did a heavier wash with gesso behind it which solved the problem. Once the cup was adhered it was outlined with oil pastel than smeared (love this look, also done on the sun). The page ended up with lots of Tim's stamps on it. When I started I wanted to put the phrase "coffee, please Jeeves" and have the man stamp on it. As the page progressed I changed that idea and just have the stamp quote "caffeine isn't a drug, it's a vitamin" on my cut out sun. The man was stamped with distress paint, colored with stain and stamped with background stamps again with archival ink. I love the colors of this page they are very vibrant. What are you working on today?

SDC115

It has been awhile since I have done any challenges...but that is on my list of resolutions so as a New New Year is rapidly approaching-better get on it!!! Day 1 of my LSNED this Daniel Torrente stamp was absolutely perfect for my quote. Love this little creepy mermaid stamp!

I did this for the Stampotique challenge this week-it has 4 layers-paper, tag, stickers, washi tape. 

 

I am a fairly patient Mom and love hanging with my 3 wonderful, crazy, eclectic children but...The story on the other side of the layout, was about being at a museum with my kids on our 3rd day of vacation. My 2 youngest have a love/annoy relationship. They get along great until they don't and they feel the need to constantly, non-stop criticize, correct, or challenge (yes I call them the 3 c's) every time either of them opens their mouth. It gets old. I had just spent 30 minutes with my very unhappy daughter at the Gettysburg military boutique looking at all the non-pink "boys stuff"while the boys saw the war movie. The boys joined us in the boutique. My 2 start in immediately on each other commentating on everything they see. She thinks it's cool- he disses it, he comments on it- she corrects him etc. The straw that broke my camels back was when we were leaving the boutique, my 9yr old daughter pointed out the cool never ending pencil and my 15 year old felt the need to mention that it would in fact end at some point if you used  it continually. I am surprised my brain matter did not in fact explode against the walls of the museum. The need to be anywhere but with my 2 delightful and wonderful offspring was immediate. I blasted them with inspiring words of love and encouragement than told them I could not be anywhere near the 2 of them at this moment & stormed out of the museum. It was a glorious exit with all 3 of my children starring at me in shock & awe. Of course my daughter followed me out, confused by my need for solitude. I only needed one minute of deep breathing, I went back in and told the 2 chronic debaters they were not to be within 10 feet of each other the rest of the visit. So you see the lesson I did learn that day was "even Mom's lose their cool".

Learn Something New Everyday

My friend Deborah Mahnken has done this class for a number of years. Every year she journals everyday for the month of September following Shimelle Laine's class. It only costs $15 to join & you are in for life-pretty good deal! For a few years Deb made fabulous mini books . Last year she used a composition book & I loved it. Due to extreme peer pressure (on my part not hers) I have decided to join in. I am totally copying her idea of using a composition book although I have not done the cover yet. I am on the hunt for the PERFECT scrapbook paper or maybe art journal cover... I love how Deb puts 2 pages together with washi tape on the edges & seeing how I am a total washi addict, copy away this is fabulous. 

It took me a bit to figure out what LSNED all about so I will help you out. Basically you jot down what you do in the day focusing on learning something new. For me I tweaked that with the idea of it might not be something new but something I have never scrapped about & would like to get down on paper. That's what is great about this, there are no hard & fast rules. Shimelle gives you prompts everyday to help if you are stuck. The idea is more to think & journal or just scrap, or whatever you want to do. It is to get you being artistic everyday for the month of September. Or you can write stuff down everyday & work on it on the weekends or at the end of the month or...refer to figure A there are no rules. 

Here is my entry for Day2. The journaling is on the other side. There were a number of lessons I learned that day, some of them not so positive which I did journal about because it was important but rather than beat myself up 2 days in a row I decided to focus on the positive side of the story which was a big compliment on my parenting by another mom. It is so easy to get negative in this life and I try to capture the story truthfullybut than put the positve spin on what happened. I really don't want to look back on my journals & have it all be life sucks. Even if life is sucking, if you grab onto the good points, which are mostly always there (and usually more important anyway) it helps your view.Thanks Shimelle I am enjoying your class!!!