I finally got my journal out this morningafter a two month hiatus. The fruit stickers on my window sill were thecatalyst. I was starting to put them on the horizontal surface. I figured I would have a two page spread, but it wasn't quite full. I found one on my monitor and lots more that my daughter-in-law had saved for me on baggies. They filled the pages nicely. It feels good to be journaling again.

It was so nice to wake up this morning with the whole house relatively clean, lots of leftovers and nowhere to go. I could get used to retirement I think.

Last week there was a sale on Tiny Betsy dolls by Tonner. I've been wanting one since they first came out, but could never make up my mind which one. I liked this one which was dressed in a Mondrian dress, because I thought she looked like me in first grade, but I wouldn't pay what they were wanting for her. Well, at half price it didn't take long to have my order in. Isn't she a cutie?

Journal catch up

Journal - closet dreaming, originally uploaded by Crazyquilter.

No way I can get caught up on posting my pages here, not that I've done that much in the journal either. I have been putting them on flickr though if anyone would like to see them.

DSL arrives

Geraniums, originally uploaded by Crazyquilter.

We joined the fast lane tonight. Finally DSL has arrived on Bay Creek. I'm hoping that this wonder will lead me to post here more. It can't hurt.

Aren't the geraniums pretty. They have been such a welcome every time we arrive home. I'll miss them this winter.

A tale of flip flops and green beans

OK, I have truly lost it. Our new dog, a stray who showed up and stayed, chewed one of my flip flops a few days ago. I picked it up and threw it away. Then I got to thinking that I might be able to stamp with it, so I dug it out of the trash. Thankfully, it was right on top. It makes great stamps with two different designs, one on the sole and one on the strap. Plus, I have this reminder of a $1 pair of shoes that served me for three summers. That's the sole print on the right in blue and a piece of the strap in purple on the lavender stripe.



Our new fence appears to be working. So far no deer tracks or mischief in the garden. For the first time in ages, we have green beans.



I picked this batch last night about 7:30. I had forgotten just how low bush bean plants are. I'm considering pole beans next year. I would rather reach up than bend down.



I've discovered that I much prefer to snap the ends off when the beans are dry. I wipe the blossoms off then too. It's much easier than after you wash them, plus I can watch tv or blog surf while I'm doing it. With my slow dial-up, it's good to have something else to do while I blog surf.



I used to can beans, but we much prefer then frozen. Plus, now that we are empty nesters, it's nice to be able to take some out of the bag and only prepare what we will eat.

I boil the beans whole for two minutes in small batches, and then cool them down in front of the fan, or air conditioner if it's on, and pack them into the freezer bags.



I wound up at 11:45 PM with eight quart bags full. I should have started earlier, but then I would have burned up in the garden.

Gardening on my mind

I always think I will do lots of journaling and sewing in the summer and somehow it never really happens. Lately I've had gardening on my mind and when I'm not thinking about that, the addition we are building is there to occupy me.



I have managed to do a few pages. I also got my copy of Dawn Sokol's 1,000 Art Journal Pages with my pages inside. I was thrilled to see them there and am enjoying looking at everyone else's
pages.



I got up this morning and went out and picked a few blackberries. These are growing on the edge of the yard. We've nearly finished eating them already. I need to decide if I want to go look for more bushes on the farm. We've had an unusually rainy summer and there should be lots.

I love to include my granddaughters' artwork in my journal. Last week when I was at their house the oldest, Madelyn who is nearly five, added her doodles to a couple of dates I had written down and doodled around.



Whatever Madelyn does, her little sister Erin wants to do too, so Erin was soon drawing too. She is twenty months old and is just starting to really like making marks. They looked so sweet as they sat side by side at the breakfast bar,heads down concentrating on their drawing.

I've been using my NeoColor II's a lot lately. My big box, of 15 I think, finally showed back up. I had even cleaned my atelier looking for them. They were in a different room where I had tucked them away when company came.

The bear is from a recent Free People catalog. I like the catalogs because they remind me of someone's journal pages.

Journaling with Madelyn

Whenever I babysit my four-year-old granddaughter, Madelyn, she likes to do art of some kind. Painting, stamping, gluing bits and pieces, she likes it all. I was looking forward to sharing the crayon rubbings with her. We did several pages in her tablet of her shoe soles, sticker sheets and various toys. She enjoyed looking for textures. I did this one when she got tired of the activity. I decided that I like it without paint and didn't want to take a chance I'd mess it up. I love the idea that it has the soles of several pairs of her shoes on it including the Dora shoes that she has now outgrown.



The next week we painted outside on the deck. I was getting a migraine, so we didn't stay out long. I'm not sure what type of paint this was, but I liked it. It is in little jars. She is getting good at cleaning the brush between colors so she doesn't muddy them up. I journaled on it a couple of days later with a cream colored pen that I thought had dried up. I'm glad I didn't throw it away.

More wax resist

I had to try the Street Team crusade's wax resist again using something a bit more personal. I decided to try the carving on my bed and a vase I got at a yardsale last month for a dime. The Christmas tree ornament that came from a different yard sale, but cost a dime also, was an afterthought.



Rubbing in the journal on a vertical surface wasn't easy, but turned out ok. I filled in the edges with the vase. I would have never thought of using a vase if I hadn't seen a rubbing done on a glass by another Street Team Crusader. The ornament rubbing was an afterthought. I did it on a separate paper. The front of the ornament had too much relief, but the back worked great.

CRUSADE No. 21 ~ Irresistible

I'm finally out of school and finished with VBS. The rest of the summer is mine to do whatever I want. I spotted the latest Street Team crusade and knew I wanted to try it. I've always liked the magic of rubbings, and Michelle's suggestion to add paint resist into the mix looked like great fun.

I grabbed the first thing that looked like it might work that was sitting near my worktable. It's a rubbing plate for kids that I got at a yard sale.The painted paper that I cut up to use was painted by my four-year-old granddaughter Madelyn yesterday. I like to use her artwork in my journal every chance I get.



I rubbed over the plate directly into my journal since the paper is thin. I used a gold crayon.



I used acrylic paint over the rubbing.I liked the blue paint over the gold better than the red. The marker is one of a set that my granddaughter Madelyn picked for her treat at the Everything's a Dollar store. It has roller rubber stamps at one end. She likes crafty things.



The collage bits on the finished page all came from the newspaper that Madelyn and I were painting on. I seem to be adding chunky bits to my journal lately. I'm sure it will make it harder to work on the remaining pages.

Resolved

journal 2008-3-8 to 18, originally uploaded by Crazyquilter.

I made some resolutions the other night, just because. So far I'm doing pretty well with number one, fair with three and not at all with number two. Not bad as resolutions go.

I'm still behind posting journal pages. I've put a few more on flickr.

Flu days

Flu days, originally uploaded by Crazyquilter.

This page explains a bit of why I have been absent from here. I had a yucky case of the flu that turned into a sinus infection. It took me ages to get back to normal and then allergies set in. I have been journaling some and posted several pages yesterday and today to flickr.

Blah, blah

Blah, blah, originally uploaded by Crazyquilter.

I was wanting to do a page for my black.red.white.book group, but the yellow crept in. I've had the text clippings on my craft table for a while. I knew they would fit my mood eventually.



http://www.flickr.com/groups/blackwhiteredbook/

Snow Day!

Our house in the snow, originally uploaded by Crazyquilter.

If I'm posting two blog entries in one day, it must be a snow day. I have to admit I love having an unexpected day off, even better two of them. We have tomorrow off too. I got out this morning during the snow because I had forgotten my cell phone in the car. I'm not much for braving the cold and snow, but it was nice taking a few pictures. I'm using the time to knit a baby blanket for my nephew who is due in a couple of weeks, a perfect project for today's weather. I promised to make a pie tomorrow if we didn't have school. Looks like I should get out the can of cherries.

Behold

Journal -2008-01-26, originally uploaded by Crazyquilter.

Sometimes the covers of our church bulletins are perfect for a journal page. I'm enjoying the cupboard I cleaned out. It's nice having something from Mom's house in my kitchen.

I'm also enjoying a snow day today. It's really coming down. For a few pictures taken through my kitchen window, go to my flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/68499916@N00/ .

New computer

Journal, originally uploaded by Crazyquilter.

We finally broke down and bought a Vista computer. So far I love it. I haven't tried to put any of my old software on it yet though. There are lots of things I will miss if they won't work and I'm guessing they won't. Maybe the old one will hang on if I'm not using it much.

Bills, what bills?

2008-01-13, originally uploaded by Crazyquilter.

Ok, I'll admit it. Sometimes I forget to pay the bills. So far nothing has been shut off, but we've come close. I had the idea that maybe if I put a chart in my journal and wrote down when I pay the bills, I can keep on top of things better. One can always hope.

I finally got upstairs last weekend and did some cleaning in my atelier, as I finally decided to call my craft/art room. Now if I could just remember how to spell it without having to look it up. I have a tendency sometimes to journal or sketch on whatever is handy. Most of the time the bits and pieces make it into my journal in a timely manner. Sometimes they don't. This sketch was done over a year ago. I found it in a pile of stuff I intended to glue into my journal. Better late than never I guess. I still need to do a couple of pages for a trip we took summer before last that I left blank in my journal. I have lots of ephemera to put in it. I just have a hard time going back and journaling something that is over.

The red squares are from the label off a roll of vynal wallpaper that I used to line my shelves with. When we first graduated from college and got teaching jobs 15 years ago, we bought an older house that needed to be completely re-wallpapered. We went to a warehouse place and bought enough for the whole house for $50. We had enough left over to do one room in this house, the bedroom ceiling here and to line the shelves for the rest of our lives. Talk about a bargain!

New Year's Day 2008

2008-01-01, originally uploaded by Crazyquilter.

I actually finished this a little before midnight on New Year's eve and went to bed. I was in the mood for New Year's though. I say finished, but I couldn't glue the frame part on until I got the clock hands from the previous page done. Loose stuff in my journal bugs me. I was glad to glue it all down yesterday.

The red stripes are from a flag pharmacy bag. I love the way they show through on the dictionary pages that preceed this page. Somehow the stripes are perfect with all three of the prior pages. I'm liking working with these sections of vintage pages.

New Year's Eve

2007-12-31, originally uploaded by Crazyquilter.

This clock belonged to my great-aunt, who gave it to my grandpa, who gave it to me about 15 years ago. It was just a plastic clock, but I enjoyed it. A few years ago it got wet and I dried it out and straightened out the clock face, and it started working again. This time when it fell off top of the medicine cabinet, where I had unwisely put it, barely missing my husband's head, it broke in parts. Of course, I had to save the face for my journal. Those are Modigliani's eyes peeking out.

It's taken me a week to post this because I had the hardest time actually getting the clock into the journal. I punched a hole through the page and even put a patch of other paper under it to strengthen it. Then I couldn't find the other clock hand. It had broken before Christmas and I put the hand somewhere for safe keeping. When I finally found the hand, I didn't have a paper fastener. I have everything else imaginable to work in my journal with, but no regular sized paper fasteners. I planned on bringing one from school, but forgot three days in a row. Finally, yesterday, I stuck a few in my shirt pocket. Then, when I went to put the hands on finally, I couldn't find the shirt. I had taken it off and it was noplace in the house. It turned up on the couch, under my husband. I do like the fact that the hands can move.