pamgarrison

santa ana lettering class coming up

There are a few more spots for the Love of Lettering class on Saturday March 8 at Studio Crescendoh (Santa Ana, CA), so as I'm starting to prep, I thought I'd show you some of the fun we're going to have in case any of you are local and want to join in the fun. Here's some of what we'll be doing...

We'll be making a hand drawn font book:

And we'll talk about how to create unique letters and where to get inspiration, and there will be lots of inspiration on hand too. 

We'll address dip pens, nibs and inks, and touch on modern calligraphy...

Of course I'll have all my favorite tools on hand so students can try them out and see what they fancy. 

And we'll also be exploring script lettering with round brushes and Sumi brushes. 

There will be lots of other brush pens and self inking pens, markers, fine line black pens...basically, all the various ways and tools I use for lettering. They all make slightly different letters, so my aim is to provide a way for students to find their favorites. My plan is to introduce everything with enough time for students to explore them all, then do a little more in depth discovery with whichever tool/style they want. I'm looking forward to a day spent with others that love lettering as much as I do! If you're local and want to join us, go here for more info. I'm off to do more class prep! 

 

sometimes i can't resist

As I'm going through my old journals culling content for the e-course, I find myself adding to some of the pages. I've never ever gone back through old journals before and altered them. It's kind of fun actually. 

Often when I teach, I demo in my current journal. What ends up happening is a crazy page full of all different things from background techniques to mark making tools, but nothing consistent or pretty or finished. Which is fine. My goal with my journals is not to have pretty page after pretty page, but to have fun experimenting and exploring. 

But yesterday, I found myself wanting to try to make the hot messes a little more cohesive, a little less of an example page and more of a messy journal page. Because they were there. Because I never usually go back. Because some of them really were very ugly. 

The one above wasn't so much a sample page as it was unfinished, not colored in. It's funny to go back and play with a new perspective on something you started long ago. At times, I found myself pondering what it was I was even demonstrating way back when. It's all there, on the page somewhere. 

In the end, some resulting pages were more pleasing than others. All ended up being pretty darn busy, with all that they had going on already, and all I added to them. I don't love any of them. Let's just say I wouldn't want them published anywhere other than here. Of course, I could have gessoed right over them if I wanted to, but that would have defeated my purpose; taking away the challenge of merging all the layers together in a more pleasing fashion. And it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun. I had fun working on all of them, and that's what really matters! 

 

changing things up for the fun of it

This is for sure one of my Project Life highlights for February. I decided to do an insert just for Valentine's Day itself and wanted it to be different somehow. At the first of the year, I saw Elise's title page for her PL 2014, and it inspired me. I adore things that inspire me to think differently than I have been. It's one of the many different kinds of inspiration I find, and it feels as if the inspiration unlocks a new door in my brain. I never know when it is going to happen, how long the idea will percolate, or how it is going to translate in my creating, but I can usually trace it back afterwards. I definitely like using ordinary materials in new ways. That's inspiring for sure. And really, isn't it cute? Wait, can pocket protectors be cute? 

 

I'm still working on the spread that it will live between (seen behind it), but you get the idea here. (total side note- Target dollar spot has really good stuff right now for PLifers, for example, see that dotted card middle left? It's a pack of cards for $1.00 that I just cut up to size to make a journal card. Nice and heavy, not like thin paper, love it- they also have alpha stickers, labels, paper packs with cute designs, rolling date stamp, etc. Not that you likely need encouragement to stop by the dollar spot if you go to Target, but if you try to avoid it at all costs unless you know there's something good, and you do journaling/PL, you might want to stop by...I know I always appreciate a head's up.)

To make it, I cute a piece of paper to the size of the page protector, then folded as the pocket protector is, in other words, not in the center. I intentionally wanted a lopsided heart, of course, you could sew up the page protector so your heart was symmetrical. I then drew a heart shape on my piece of paper to determine where I wanted to sew the page protector. I sewed the pockets before I cut the edge off, this makes it easier to keep your pocket flat. When sewing page protectors, I treat it just like fabric. I do a little back stitch at the beginning and the end. On my sewing machine, I find that the middle size straight stitch looks most like the regular pocket protector stitches. I then cut the photos to fit the pockets, cutting the paper template first as practice. For the top two photos, there was no sewing involved, I just picked the photos and freehand cut the heart tops with the photo inside, so it'd be super easy to match up the shapes. 

I haven't decided on a back yet, here are a couple different versions. 

For Valentine's Day it seems the three of us at home have started a tradition of going to dinner and a movie with a stop at the photobooth for dessert. ;) (Well, if two years in a row a tradition makes.) Since my daughter is at college, we sent a care package and she sent me photos of her during the day and night. Always so grateful for technology when I recieve a photo text or email from my girl. (Of course, that's balanced out by a cursing of it when my son wants to "finish this game" before fill in the blank. ) 

Anyway, there you have it, a quick and easy idea for changing up pocket pages! I'll share more Feburary favorites from my PL next week. 

Elise did a video tutorial on how she did hers. And also, LOVE Elise's new business venture, make29, and was happy to support it by purchasing her February art. You can still get one too if you like, I thought $14.00 was a great price. There she goes, thinking differently again...love it! 

 

happy friday from me to you

Ahhh, we've made it to another Friday. The weeks have been a little tough around here lately, and Friday at this time (4pm) sure feels good. I'm about to go collect my son, and once we're home, the weekend will have officially started for us. I'm hoping I can talk my husband into letting us order take-out from a favorite Italian restaurant. I'd love nothing more than to kick my feet up on the couch and watch some Olympics tonight (while crocheting!- I haven't gotten to work on the blanket for days, boo.). Speaking of, did you see the Women's ice skating long program last night? I was wowed big time. I hope you saw it or get to if you haven't, more amazing than usual somehow- to me anyway. Love seeing talented people pursuing their passion, whatever their passion is. Which I think we all should do - at least on occasion. Which then leads me to share this, that I also saw last night and loved. Also very inspiring. Good stuff to mull over for me, maybe you too? Whatever you're up to tonight, this weekend, I hope some of it includes pursuing your passions. xo

for the love of making : january

Oh, how I love to make! No surprise if you've read this blog for, what? more than a week? ;). It's true, I love creating, and this year, I started an album to document just my artistic pursuits. This way, I won't take over the family album with photos of my creative adventures, and I can take the detailed, in process photos that I enjoy taking, and have somewhere to keep them, other than on the blog.

 

I guess you could say it's another pocket page scrapbooking/documenting album in addition to Project Life. I'm using a Handbook that's covered in linen (I think it's linen anyway, similar to this one).

Wanna see? 

I started with that awesome cardboard piece that used to be the top of a notepad. (From HomeGoods over a year ago.) After a bit, the white on the inside of the cover seemed unfinished, so I added paper using my sticker maker and various paper pieces. Here's how it looks with the insides covered:

I hope that wasn't a mistake. After doing it and then seeing the photo of it with white insides made me question it, hahaha. Se la vie!

Ahhh, just fun for me. Good enough reason to do it in my book! I made the two letterpress cards on right with this letterpress machine. I love the L Letterpress system, my only complaint is that I'm really messy with it, and it's a little hard to clean up afterwards because it's oil based. It's one of those activities you want to have time to make a bunch of things, not just one offs. 

 

I couldn't seem to capture via the camera the impression it makes, but it's there. 

Since it's going to be for all of 2014, I decided to add monthly dividers. I just cut a piece of velum to size and painted on it with a Sumi brush and gouache. 

Of course, I don't plan to include everything I make, not every journal page say, but a photo or two represents it just fine. January was a busy month, and there wasn't much creating going on apparently. I think it was mostly on the e-course, so I'll have to get a picture of that in there. February already has more photos. I'll share February when the month is over, which is next week?!?!? How is that possible?? Time's flying by, I'm glad I'm going to have this little album to see how I spent it creative-time wise when the year's over. Hooray for making! 

 

helping or hindering

While talking with a friend yesterday it hit me (in a different way then the usual), how we often don't harness our brains to our own benefit. From my experience, it seems more the norm to let negative thoughts run free and expand vs. positive ones. I have a good, creative imagination, just like the friend I was talking to, and as she fretted and worried about "what if" on the phone, elaborating on a negative possible scenario with great detail, I realized that we often make that "what if" a negative imagining vs. a positive one. I definitely am one that needs to get out of the habit of less than helpful thinking. Especially playing those less than helpful thoughts on a looping soundtrack in my mind. Imagine if the voice in one's head was a positive cheerleader vs. everything from a nervous nellie to a party pooper? I think it'd surely have a positive results. I'm going to work on recognizing which thoughts are helping and which are hindering and going to be more mindful of choosing the helpful ones. Recognizing what's positive and negative is the first step. Then I can work on breaking and replacing bad habits . Hmmmm...that's what's on my mind today, just thought I'd share the story behind the journal page.

This is a better thought for me to think:

xo

 

project update : crochet blanket

Popping in with a progress report on the crochet blanket first blogged about on this post.  I haven't had too much time to spend on it, but do find it such an enjoyable project for bursts and start type crafting. It just seems to add up to something pretty quickly in my mind even if you're doing a row here, a row there. I love when it's time to add a new row, because the entire blanket changes in my mind due to the new color. I was looking at it and if you take sections of the blanket, and just repeated those sections, you'd have a pretty blanket by itself, totally different than the other segments. Like this:

I love colors, but I especially love color combinations, how they play off each other. the exact same chartruese green above, looks totally different next to white as it does next to orange. I have no particular order, I'm just trying out new combinations as I go, occasionally making sure I've got some dark or some light every so often. I don't usually use black regularly, it's not a go to stitching/creating color for me. I'm enjoying the stretch of incorporating it in this blanket. I decided that I really wanted a mustard and a pink that wasn't purple or hot, so I did add a few new colors:

My favorite addition to the quilt has been that deep green. I also wanted a creamy-er white. Still not sure about the bright turquoise blue. In case you want to know: 

On an instagram post I did recently, someone commented about how they liked the look of the rows of colors, but didn't want to weave in all the end threads afterwards, to which someone else suggested holding them on the blanket and crocheting over them as you go to hide them. It was a total "duh Pam" moment, as I have done that in embroidery before and it makes perfect sense. Also, the hanging thread tails were starting to annoy me too. So, after reading that, that's what I've been doing, as the picture shows:

So much nicer to work on without the tails there. Now, remember, this is my first crocheting ever...don't look too closely! I'm sure you're eye is catching some glaring mistakes on the strong colored rows, but also remember, I'm going with the attitude that home made isn't about perfect, it's adding charm, right?!? ;) As long as it's not in danger of coming apart (which it's not), I'm happy to plod on, one colorful row at a time! 

Like I said, it's a pretty satisfying medium for seeing your efforts add up substantially as you go. I'd say I'm 1/3 or 1/4 done now, but I'm in no rush, I'm enjoying every minute of it. I think this is a super easy starter project because it uses the same stitch (dc) row after row....just in case anyone is tempted to join me on the adventure...report in if so, we want to know! 

 

upcoming class at French General

Wanted to let you know that we're bringing back this stitched heart class to French General Saturday May 3rd. Sign ups have gone live over on the French General workshop page. Hope to see new and old friends in class, all you have to do is sign up and show up, we'll have everything you need to join in the fun!!!

I made this heart as an anniversary gift to my husband, inspired by Sailor's Valentines. You can use it as a little pillow, a sachet, a paperweight, a pincushion...in other words, anything you want ;). To see another sample, go to the French General workshop page. The heart I made for Kaari is a little oversized and wonky, but super sweet I think. We'll have both samples there for you to use as inspiration. If you are joining us, you may want to bring along some special trinkets like buttons, beads or broaches, but we'll have all you need if you don't have any special treasures. And of course, there's the entire French General collection of finds to shop and use on your piece too!

 

a few more pages or parts of pages

Happy Saturday!!!! 

recent art journaling & teaching updates

Hey there, Happy Valentine's Day!!! Hope you've got plans to spend it exactly as you want to! For me most of the time it means home with no plans ;). 

Wanted to thank those that are joining me for the live art journaling class next month at Studio Crescendoh...Sunday's Art of the Page class has one spot left! Saturday, the Love of Lettering class a few more open, so there's time on that one if you're considering it. Both are going to be fun days with lots of demos and doing included, I'm looking forward to them.

As for the e-course, it is a long, slow, simmer. I'm thinking of it like a delicious, hearty, slow cooked month of meals that I'm making, and that just takes this girl lots of time apparently. Regular life goes on all the while, and of course, all my fun techinical challenges and learning opportunities (you see what I did there?) add to the snails pace that seems to be the norm right now. I keep thinking (and still do) that one of these days, most of the challenges and difficulties will be behind me and the pace will pick up and suddenly, the feast will be ready! I just want to keep you updated to keep frustrations at bay, I'm experiencing enough of them, I don't want you to have to as well ;). 

In the meantime, here are some journal pages either done, or added to recently:

xoxo!

 

home made love

Making valentines is always a favorite yearly activity. This year I had to start earlier to get my daughter's in the mail on time. 

I saw a papercut on instagram by @hesperdoodle and that was it, I was soon papercutting my own version for my girl. 

Here's it is before I did a little more sprucing (fine cutting). As this was my first ever papercutting, I had a bit of a rough result, but I love it none the less. I look forward to doing it again and I think I'll do a little research before I do another, and invest in a finer razor blade! To send it to her, I just glued it to a hot pink piece of paper so I could write a love note on the back.

While I had the brush script out, I made some custom gift wrap for my friend Jenny's belated b'day gift. I posted before about her solo art exhibit (called "I see boat people"), and I thought it totally appropriate theme for her paper:

She liked it ;). Love this pic of her too!

I love hand made things.

And Valentine's Day is especially fun due to giving love being the theme and all...

 

project life • 2014 • january highlights

by the way, I couldn't find a working white pen, and ended up just scratching the photo to make the letters. kind of a fun effect found.

I decided to just do some re-cap shots for the rest of January PL here. I feel like the full spreads are rather boring, and when I thought about catching up to February, didn't think 2 more separate posts of the weeks were necessary. If you want to see my full weekly spreads, I'm pretty sure I'll be posting them over in my gallery in time. For the blog, I thought it'd be more fun to limit it to some favorite parts:

Found my white pen by the time I got to this spread. Had fun journaling right on top of the entire photo. 

As part of my contribution to the life|scripted class over at Studio Calico, I was asked to do some script work examples on photos. Loved the result! You may remember this photo from when I shared some objects from a wall cupboard we have. Totally thought it was perfect to capture the sense of time racing that I was feeling. 

I can't resist using parts of packaging, like that yellow piece of paper that was from a stamp kit. Carol sent me that photo collage, made in an app and I printed it as it was for the book. Need to do this more with my own photos! 

I really do love the things that come in the Studio Calico PL kit each month. Love that their cards are printed on such heavy cardstock and already rounded. Went a little nutty for those chipboard stars this month. (when I went searching for the link, I found these too, oh man...trying hard to resist, there's just something about how flat they are, the sharp corners and colors and sizes!- oh, and while we're talking stars, these are also a favorite for me and used them this month too- not that you need them, just sayin'...) 

Still loving the photos cut up among pockets look. 

See? There's one of those gold stars I mentioned above. Can't stop. Won't stop. (couldn't resist, wink).  But honestly, I've said it before, and to repeat myself; without having this album to slip photos into the pockets, some of the special yet ordinary moments of life would not be as celebrated, as noticed, as photographed. A friend's doodles on present wrapping...love it. 

Same goes for getting pictures from my daughter at college. I don't think I'd hound her for photos nearly as often without this project to remind me to document regularly. 

Or taking silly "selfies" or "couple-ies"- total selfie fail, but I'm instantly reminded of that night and how much fun we were having driving my son a bit nuts on the other side of the table. ;) And there's that instagram of him thinking next to it, love. 

I absolutely would have taken this beach picture (although likely not the photo of the cute single serving karafe I found to be so cute), and it would have sat on my computer because I am otherwise lame at printing photos-something I'm going to work on this year. Last year, doing PL got me over my resistance to printing at home, now this year, I'm going to actually challenge myself to print some photos to frame! (Gettin all kinds of crazy over here!) 

So, to sum it up;  I'm still really grateful I'm doing Project Life pocket type documenting. I did want to give you a product update/review. I got this corner rounder because it's the same corner dimensions as the other cards, but I'm not getting the best results with it. Maybe it's just me (holding it in my hands to punch instead of on a table for example), or maybe it's just my individual rounder, but I've gone back to rounding corners with this "corner chomper" tool instead,  I can hold it in my hand to cut, and it lives up to it's name: it chomps those corners like a champ!

 

playing with image transfers

Last summer, I attended a dinner at the Creative Bug Studio as part of AltSF conference. I was so excited when I got there, becuase I LOVE it when people host a party and go all out with the decor, and this dinner was one of those parties. I've searched my computer for a photo to share to no avail, not a one. I must have just had my phone with me, no camera. And usually, my phone has no storage, so I often can't keep photos long enough to upload to my computer once home. ( And no, I don't have the cloud on, again, a storage issue- ya, ya, I definitely have tech storage issues that all need addressing.) BUT, I was able to find one on my flickr page! Hooray- here is the party decor for the dinner. The small photo grid doesn't do it justice at all.  Courtney Cerruti was the mastermind behind it, and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting and talking with her. (She's even got a class over on creativebug about making creative party decor.)

Anyway, all that was just to tell you how I became aquainted with Courtney and her work. She's very talented in both arts and crafts and I find lots of inspiration in her creations. She's got a new book out I think many of you might like, Playing with Image Transfers. It's very cool. On her blog there is a promo video for the book too.

It's really a beautiful book, both the photographs and design overall, and I really love the paper, which is a big thing to me, how paper feels in my hands. I asked Courtney about the paper and she said that it was really important to her as well, and it's printed in uncoated stock. Yum. 

This weekend I ran across this page of a bird book and thought it'd be a perfect addition to a journal page and decided to give one of the five methods she describes in the book a go. Not only was it super simple, but I love a craft that has a little moment where you feel like it's magic...

 

Can you see the birds there that were the top part of the original bird book page? Here's a better shot of a transfer from the same page onto a journal page of mine:

Not perfectly done, but perfection is not something I strive for in my journals. Instead I like to experiment and have fun, and this sure was. Congratulations Courtney, job well done! I'm looking forward to getting to try more projects from the book, especially how to transfer some of my own drawings onto different surfaces. As always, I'll share the results here when I do! 

 

project life • 2014 • week 2

Well, I guess I'm following a weekly spread concept...but loosely...meaning that if my daughter sends me 4 cute pictures of herself doing her everyday things like walking on campus, or studying, I might put some in the week it happened, and one or two in the weeks before or after it. I'm just going to go about it in a much more "it's all good" approach. 

I'm also not trying to catch Every. Single. Thing. anymore. That's a relief, that was overwhelming and kind of busy/ugly ;) On the other hand, If I decide to take a photo of the same succulent every week just because I like it, that's fine too! Much more relaxed. 

I wasn't at this baseball game, but a friend whose son was playing on the opposing team (our boys played together for years previously) was thoughtful enough to take some photos and sent them to me. Love that face above haha. Anyway, I decided to use them all, so added a 6x12 insert. I filled the backside with pictures from my daughter's weekend volunteer committe campout and a journaling card with a post it note to have her write on it what the event was, or whatever she wants to remember from the weekend.  

I'll tell you, one thing this documenting does is make me aware of how fast time flies. And how much we do do, and to notice and celebrate someof the small things that would likely be forever forgotten, like dinner at our friends' house. 

I've been going pretty plain, not so much embellishing, and filling the pockets with mostly photos. That feels more my style. I love the little cream on white arrow above. Subtle. I think it will have a more timeless appeal. I'm trying to write a little more too, not just let the photos do all the talking. 

Like I said before, it all works and I'm glad I'm doing it, no matter which way I choose to go about it. I've decided my plan so far is to have no plan. So far so good!

 

southern california upcoming classes

 

I'll be at sunny Studio Crescendoh next month teaching 2 different one day classes.

 

I love days spent at Studio Crescendoh, a nice, happy place for art making. 

 

 

I hope you can join us for one day of fun or, better yet,  both! 

 

The first class is Love of Lettering. Because, you know I love to letter! 

We'll be going over hand-lettering, favorite lettering tools, dip pens and brush script letters all, with time for practice and exploration.

Of course, I'll be bringing all my favorites and will encourage you to try them out to see if they are your favorites too! We'll even be quick-stitching our own little booklet for your font collecting:

For more information/signups on the Love of Lettering class March 8th, go here. 

Of course, I'll be bringing my art journals to both classes, it's a perk of local teaching to be able to bring so many of my books. 

On March 9th, the class is called Art of the Page. Many times, when teaching art journaling, the book construction has taken more time than expected and we don't get to settle in and get working on our pages in depth. With this class, we're solving that problem, it's only about the play inside the book. We'll spend the day art journaling together, exploring my favorite supplies and techniques. 

 

For more information and sign ups for Art of the Page go here. 

Looking forward to spending the days with new friends and old, making letters and pages of art!!!

 

friday sights

I am smitten by this little sailboat my friend April taught me to make at a little creative play get together we had this week. I think she might be teaching this somewhere this year, I'll keep you informed as to what comes of the pending plans. I think it's such a sweet Valentine. 

Around here we like to sort our treasures found together and pick favorites. We have one vote for the solid light blue, one for the just barely purple, and one for the white heart shaped piece that's out of focus. 

I'm editing videos for my e-course in development. Tackling the big tech learning curve one baby step at a time. Recently I ran into computer "start-up disc full" warnings (ack!) due to the videos that were on it waiting patiently to be edited. Ok, emergency external hard drive to the rescue! I needed a change of location, and set up a temporary seat on the floor, leaning against the outdoor cushions that I brought in because we finally got a little much needed rain here in Southern California. (hooray!)

Looking outside it seems like we might just get some more...fingers crossed. 

A little Project Life going on too...still haven't decided how I'm doing it, the same as last year, traditional weekly, or a looser monthly format. 

And, the ongoing crochet project! Last night was a rough homework night for my boy, and even though I couldn't do more than remind him to manage his time well, I like to be around for him. I just remember late homework nights being so lonely back in my school days, and figure company is nice.Which means I got some new stripes on the blanket. 

It's Friday! Another hooray for that. Hope you are having a good one and heading into what will be a good weekend!

 

and now crochet

Although I can not remember a time I was ever around my maternal grandmother when she did not either have a crochet hook or playing cards in her hands, I never learned to crochet, or had much interest in doing so. Suddenly, the bug has hit, and big. 

Pretty sure it all started with Jenny's book, "crochet love" arriving in my mailbox. After thumbing through it and seeing this:

and this, which I have wanted to make for a long time:

I was hearing the siren song...before you know it, I was following along:

I am not one for reading instructions or doing too much research usually, so love all the stepped out photos. I often google how to videos when wanting to learn something, but found that with crochet steps it was frustrating, as I kept needing to stop and re-start. Honestly, I can't believe I learned beginning crochet from her book. Well done Jenny, that can't have been easy to explain and edit succinctly, but you did it! After that, I did see Jenny in person, and she demonstrated a few stitches while I worked alongside, to make sure I was doing it right...(yep!).  

I made these two from patterns in the book as practice for reading and  following patterns:

And then I started pinning up a storm of blankets. That's when I landed here, and that was it, I was all in. Nothing like starting in the deep end, haha. Really, it's super easy, as this beginner can attest, but it's going to be awesome when done and I'll have gotten lots of practice along the way. I'm finding it to be an excellent activity when playing homework monitor or practice quizzer to my son. Pretty easy to get on automatic, whereas with embroidery or even journaling, I like to pay more attention to what my hands are doing. 

As I commented to one friend, I'm even slightly looking forward to the homework hours, and that is waaaayyy better than how I normally feel. Above is when I first started, and then it looked like this:

And now, it looks like this:

I'm not sure about the pink there or the pink/red combo. I feel like it took the color sense in a different direction. I'm still considering it. I guess I'd recommend that if you were going to do such a project, it wouldn't be a bad idea to stitch a small lenth of each color as a sample so you could determine more easily (before stitching it into your big piece) if a color wasn't adding what you wanted to the project. For me, none of it is about perfect though (obviously, if you crochet and are examining my work), it's really about how awesome it will be to have a blanket I made that is visually pleasing to me, and also, to hand down to my son and he'll remember my making it while he did homework. And I'm making sure he will remember that because I keep pointing it out to him hahaha. When I shared it on instagram and facebook, Iwas asked about colors or pattern, so here's what I'm doing:

• I'm following this pattern,found on belladia's blogpost, but I am using size 4 yarn, a G, 4mm crochet hook, and I chain stitched 300 vs. 250. I love that her concept is to use up old yarn remnants, but since I only had very little on hand from other projects, I did have to go buy yarn. 

• This is the yarn I've gathered:

I'm still debating about that hot pink (which is different than the pink already used that I have decided I don't like. I made sure that all yarn is size 4, even thought they seem to have a bit of variety in size even still. I know that what yarn one chooses for a project (bamboo, wool, acrylic etc.) matters, but other than trying to avoid 100% acrylic (which the hot pink is), I kept the focus on this being a starter project-so keeping the costs down and the gathering of materials as easy as possible as main priority. In other words, I went to JoAnn's and Hobby Lobby. As I grow and learn and decide what I want to make in the future, I can use the "better" materials. 

As for price, these all varied from $2.99-$6.99 BUT, I had paper coupons and app coupons for 40% off most expensive item (JoAnn's will let you use both Michael's and Hobby Lobby coupons, so 3 rolls at JoAnn's were 40% off just with app coupons alone). I also had a 20% off entire purchase coupon for JoAnn's, so all in all, I spent around $55.00. I'm perfectly happy with them. Some (like the 100% cotton,) are harder to crochet with than others, but I'm having a pretty easy time keeping the edges straight and not shrinking, so it works to go with a harder to use material for me, in order to get the color I wanted. Color is super important to me in determining how much I enjoy working on it, and the finished result, both. I'm not going in any order though, I'm just grabbing whichever one I feel like using next. 

So, I'm off, on my first real crochet adventure. I'll be sure to keep the progress reports coming. It's going to take quite a long time, because this is a project only for when other work (class video editing for example) can't be done, and I'm planning on making a big blanket. Bella Dia states that each row took her about 25 minutes, I'm definitely not that fast, of course. But who knows, maybe by the end of it, I'll be whipping through the double crochet stitch like nobody's business! 

I'm glad I tried it. New crafts are fun! 

old garden journals found part 2

As promised, here's the second of two old garden journals found recently. This is dated early 1990's, so it's even earlier than the last one (shown on last post) and pretty much full of only photos and handwritten notes and plans, a few doodles, but not too many. It was a hardcover journal with plain white paper inside.

I was really really really into gardening then. I couldn't wait for my monthly copy of Garden Design magazine to come each month. I read each word and studied each photo.  Even though we lived in Southern California, I was determined to grow an English Country garden, and with lots of effort was able to pull it off for the most part. I especially became obsessed with David Austin English roses. Still my favorite of all roses to this day. I believe this was pre-internet days (for me anyway), so I did tons of research via books, magazines, and visits to specialty garden shops. Something to be said for the fun of pouring over a nursery catalog...I remember a nursery in Pasadena called Hortus that published the coolest catalog, full of quotes and old illustrations. Wish a toddler in tow, it was quite a trek; I only went in person once. 

We had a big yard and I had tons of room for roses in amongst the plants in the front, side and back, and then we made a "rose cutting garden" too. I wanted to have so many flowers that when I cut them the garden wouldn't suffer for it in it's beauty.

Um, well, I think this will make it clear:

I wasn't kidding you, I was obsessed. But seriously, can you blame me? Don't you just want to burry your nose in that one above? The David Austin's smell divine too. 

I wish I would have done more pressing and including dried flowers from the garden...sigh...

We lived on a small culdesac in a neighborhood that was a little bit faux rural, meaning it was a development of all custom homes on custom lots and lots of shared greenbelts (no backyard fences allowed, we'd create them with trees and shrubs if wanted) within a planned community full of tract homes. For the longest time, there was an empty lot that was not developed across the street from us. As many of our neighbor friends were also into gardening, we decided to plant a communtiy garden. I made up an invite and passed them out. (I am laughing at myself that I wrote "garden plan provided for inspiration only", duh Pam.) It was a very fun day, with a big turn out and I wish I had put a photo of the result in my garden journal! I have one somewhere I'm sure, just where is the quesiton. I remember us getting vegetables for a summer or two before the property was sold and a house was built. 

This journal has page after page of notes and thoughts, wishes and plans.  To be honest, I have no desire to go back and read much (if any) of what I wrote. 

Looking at photos is so much more fun, let's just do that:

Finding these books has been so fun. It feels similar to when I stumble upon old photos of my kids when they were little; I'm instantly overcome with that feeling of nostalgia and longing, wanting to go back and relive it, remembering what good times they were. Of course, that is not possible, but I'm sure glad to have these to be transported back there in my mind. It definitely has me thinking that I need to start a new gardening journal this spring. Ideas are percolating as to what format that'll take. And of course, even though it's been an unusually warm winter here, it leaves me excited for Spring too. I know those of you living in colder climates have likely been feeling that way already! Soon, soon, it's got to break soon, right?!? 

 

old garden journals found

I recently stumbled upon 2 old gardening journals that I kept long ago. I'm glad to have found them and when I look at them, I wonder why I stopped. Only so much time I suppose, and this practice was something that fell by the wayside. 

Here's a look through one of the two journals (I'll show the other one next post). Made from a book "Herbs", bought on sale at Barnes and Noble. This was back in the altered book craze of the early 2000's. Remember that? 

It was pre art-journaling for me too I'm pretty sure. Art journaling came shortly after 2002 I think. At least my regular passion and practice of it anyway. 

I was really into photography then. All film still. (And look, I loved succulents then too.)

Black and white, color, polaroids, and even photo emulsion transfers. My brother and I took an all day class once, it was so fun and I loved the results:

Unfortunately, all the equipment required, and if memory serves, the rather involved process as well,  made it another one of those "only so much time" items too. Whenever I look at the things I created in that class though, I have a tinge of regret. Maybe someday...

A different kind of polaroid film and some illustrations too.

Some more realistic, and some more playful. 

 And already a love for flourishes...

Oh, and birds, birdcages, and letters too...

And the beginning of backgrounds too. 

Funny to see the beginnings of my love of art journaling emerge when looking at this garden journal from years ago. 

I can't wait to photograph and share the other art journal, the one before this one...it's got an abundance of rose photos in it. A welcome sign of Spring's promise to come for all! 

jenny doh sees boat people

Last night my boys and I attended my friend Jenny's first solo art exihibit titled "I see boat people." My words will certainly not be able to sum up all she shared adequately. We got there early enough to get some time to talk with Jenny about some of her pieces, and I made her pose by one too. This one above is one of the first that came after the death of her brother, which led to more unfolding of emotions, including her experience immigrating to the United States from Korea when a young girl. 

Another of my favorite pieces in the collection, stemming from a photo of herself, when she was that little girl moving from Korea to Bakersfield, California. This was the only picture in her brother's wallet after his death. So moving. 

The show was too personal and too deep for me to quickly try to sum it up here. You can read more about the show and the development of it on Jenny's blog. I am so glad I was able to make it there, and I have a feeling that this is just the beginning of this exploration for Jenny. I am betting there will be another show with more pieces added. She has more to say on this for sure. 

I have been friends with Jenny for years now, since she began making the journey from editor and curator of the arts, to facilitator of, and artist. She's on a bold, brave journey, and the show last night captured that willingness to put herself out there and express her vulnerability in her art. So exciting to watch a friend experience and share. 

I loved the interactive aspects of the show too. Here my son and I were trying to make the origami paper boats. I watched as some people stepped up and did it easily, others, like us, had to really focus to make our little boats. 

But we eventually got them made. How pretty is that paper?! 

I had to have one of her paper boat necklaces too. I love that the one I chose says water. (She sells them in her etsy if you're interested.) 

So many interesting and meaningful pieces. I can't wait to see what the future brings for Jenny and her seeing of boat people. Well done Jenny!!!! Great show!