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Weekly Photos 2017. 11/52

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1.  Once the snow stopped early last week, we were out treasure hunting and found among others, this old ink bottle.  A week later, today is 90 degrees!

2. On a different hunt we found some smaller bits and bobs like this tiny metal tennis racquet, a 1939 penny and a good luck token.

3.  At the weekend we went to a rather fabulous estate sale at an old school in the Central West End neighborhood of St Louis.

4.  It was like they shut the doors in 1973 and walked away!

5. I wish they had nooks like this at my school.  I didn’t buy the $3.00 cushion! I will be writing a post later this week detailing what I did buy.

6. We found this pretty lady’s head in the dirt.

7. The haul from a day’s digging in the dirt.  Lots of bottles and jars dating from the 1930’s and 40’s we think. Yes, that is a spoon with a broken glass eye on it….eek!

Isn’t it amazing what you find when you look carefully!

Happy Monday x

 

I have a List of Books I want to Read.

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I can’t keep up with all the books I want to read, I am currently reading ‘The One in a Million Boy’ by Monica Wood and enjoying it, it is not totally gripping to be honest, but I am intrigued to see how it ends.  I intend finishing it, but other books I really really want to read keep arriving at the library and I have to keep passing them by to finish my slow read of ‘The One in a Million Boy’.

I need to learn speed reading!

Here are some of the books I am very keen to get stuck into, it is a good years worth of reading for me because I am not a fast reader. I wonder how many I will finish and how many I will desert after fifty pages?

Harmless Like You sounds like a fascinating read about an artist in New York from Japan with lots of story and interesting stuff going on.

Lincoln in the Bardo I want to read this because it sounds completely bizarre. Ghost story and historic novel, neither usually on my list of reads but this just sounds so good!

The Woman Next Door This books sounds like a hoot, women who are neighbors and who don’t get on.  This is going to be my holiday book, which means I will have to buy it as I never ever take a library book on holiday!

Imagine me Gone A multi character led book  which hopefully will be more interesting than depressing, I feel it could go either way.

The Stranger in the Woods The only non fiction on my list about a man who lives as a hermit in Maine.  Usually I will dip in and out of a non fiction book, but this one I want to read like a novel.

Beartown I am only considering this book because I have loved most of the author’s other books.  Not in a million years would I choose a book about ice hockey, but I have faith in Fredrik Backman!

The Women in the Castle  Doesn’t sound like a book I would normally pick up, it is a historic novel set at the end of World War II about three women and their stories which all sound fascinating.

Do you have a list of ‘to reads’?

Happy Thursday x

 

Weekly Photos 2017. 10/52

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1. Look up.  A bare tree on the trail.  In no time it will be full of leaves.

2. Our little Star Magnolia tree flowered very early.

3. I found some flowers while walking the dog and popped them in a jar of water.

4. I made a mini journal this week and filled it in one day!

5. Looking up at the old firehouse steps.

6. Snowy woods following the very small amount of snow we had all been preparing for!

7. Snow and tree rings.

8. I was dragged out bottle hunting and we scored a haul!  Some are from the 1930’s and 50’s.  I find it amazing that these bottles have been buried for so many years.

Happy Spring Break and Happy Monday x

 

 

Get Messy Art Journal. Art 101. Week Five.

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Half magazine and half drawing.

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Ten Daffodils.

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Go with the flow, gestural yoga drawings.

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All I needed for this week’s art journal pages  was this simple folded journal and the ideas from the Get Messy Art Journal members blog. I had other plans for journal pages but I was completely smitten by this journal idea and wanted to fill it up (yes I know it only has a handful of pages!!).

To make the journal, I used a page from the giant dictionary I bought a couple of weeks ago at an estate sale.  I like that it has pictures in with the print of the dictionary and I didn’t deliberately pick the page with ‘positive’, but I am pleased I ended up with it.  To be honest I pulled this page because I liked the Portuguese man o’ war jellyfish illustration which is on the daffodil page.

This was a fun project and I have a full journal!

Happy Thursday x

Taking Stock March 2017

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It is a few months since I did a ‘Taking Stock’ post, so here is the first one for 2017.

Inspired by Pip Lincolne of Meet Me at Mikes fame, let’s see where we are and what we are making.

I will include a blank list for you to copy at the end, so you can have a stock take too!

Making : Prints from old 127 film negatives.

Cooking : Roast cauliflower curry for dinner.

Drinking : Frothy coffee.

Reading: One in a Million Boy by Monica Wood.

Wanting: These boots so badly!

Looking: For ideas to join in with The 100 Day Project which starts in April.

Playing: Around with colours in my art journals is the best therapy ever!

Deciding: Which song lyrics or poem to use for today’s sketch for my oracle deck which I am working on along with @otmoraclecards over on Instagram.

Wishing: The weather would make up it’s mind, we have had almost every season in the space of a couple of weeks!

Enjoying: The unseasonably warm weather if I am honest.

Waiting: For my new leggings to come so I can wear them for pilates.

Liking: My new job at the library.

Wondering: If I will ever get organized!

Loving: Collecting lots of things to use in my art journals like vintage stamps and photographs.

Pondering: What to do with the aforementioned stamps and photos.

Considering: Checking out some estate sales this weekend.

Buying: New sunglasses which is always a chore because I never like any!!

Watching: ‘Abstract’ on Netflix.

Hoping: To watch ‘A Man called Ove’ on DVD this week.

Marvelling: At how fast the days go by.

Cringing: At the news (I am sure this is my cringe every time!)

Needing: A hair cut, just a trim.

Questioning: My kids on how much homework they have to do.

Smelling: My neighbor’s Magnolia tree.

Wearing: Trousers and an argyle jumper.

Following: The Jealous Curator and loving the podcasts.

Noticing: The daffodils are flowering in neighborhood gardens.

Knowing: I have a pilates class tonight.

Thinking: About what I am doing in my art journal for this week’s ‘Get Messy Art Journal‘ pages.

Admiring: Everyone who gets up and gets on with it!

Sorting: The stamps I mentioned earlier into colours.

Getting: Ready for potential snow at the weekend.

Bookmarking: All the magazines I am halfway through reading.

Coveting: New Birkenstocks.

Disliking: My lack of dinner planning for the rest of the week.

Opening: Guidebooks for Cape Cod and planning for our summer holiday.

Giggling: At the confession on Simon Mayo’s Drivetime radio show.

Feeling: Full after a coffee, why does coffee make you feel full?

Snacking: On a half price Walnut Whip.

Helping: With books at the library!

Hearing: The dog whining to go outside…

That’s what is happening with me, if you want to take stock with what’s happening with you, here’s a blank list –

Making :

Cooking :

Drinking :

Reading:

Wanting:

Looking:

Playing:

Deciding:

Wishing:

Enjoying:

Waiting:

Liking:

Wondering:

Loving:

Pondering:

Considering:

Buying:

Watching:

Hoping:

Marvelling:

Cringing:

Needing:

Questioning:

Smelling:

Wearing:

Following:

Noticing:

Knowing:

Thinking:

Admiring:

Sorting:

Getting:

Bookmarking:

Coveting:

Disliking:

Opening:

Giggling:

Feeling:

Snacking:

Helping:

Hearing:

Happy Wednesday x

Weekly Photos 2017.9/52

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1. I kept the magnolia branch from last week and the flowers are so pretty.

2. The seeds are starting to grow, most of the tomato plants have started to grow and the cucumbers are peeking through.

3 & 4. I used bubble wrap with the gelli plate and it was super fun and messy!  I loved the results and can’t wait to use them in my art journals.

5. I scored a box of stamps at an estate sale this weekend, now I just need to persuade myself to use them in my journals.

6. These vintage stencils came from the same sale.  I will work into this page some more, I just wanted to use the stencils and see what all the letters looked like!

Happy Monday x

Get Messy Week Four. Season of Art 101

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This week I have been playing with background ideas and I painted some ombre backgrounds with a view to working on top of the pages.  I have run into a problem though. I don’t want to cover the backgrounds.

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This is one of my major art journaling issues, I can’t/won’t (delete as appropriate) layer pages.  If I like how the page starts, I like to leave it.  Maybe I will paint some more ombre base pages to work over so that I can keep the original pages. Or maybe I could work over half of each page.

One thing I did manage to  do as planned was make up some colours and give them names.  This was a prompt from last week’s Art 101 Season. I came up with an idea to gather colour inspiration as I watched the TV!  As I watched Planet Earth II on BBC America I had my notebook with me and whenever I saw a colour I liked or a colour idea, I noted it down and wrote down the name which came from whatever was on the screen or in the narration.  Thanks David Attenborough!

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Now I have done this once, I am very keen to do it more while watching other shows.

As I painted and mixed my colours I used the lettering idea from the gorgeous Jennifer at Stitch and Letter which is a tutorial on Get Messy Art Journal‘s website this week.

I noted which watercolours I used for each palette mix, so that I can reproduce it when I need to.

Happy Thursday x

Daily Creating February 2017.

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February flew by and I created some kind of artness in my Moleskine Daily Planner every day. I like the ‘anything goes’ feel that the Moleskine still has.  I stick stuff in and sketch, paint and I even machine stitched a page!

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I also painted every day in my Strathmore sketchbook.  I didn’t land on a theme for February but I soon went right back to using my sumi brush with watered down gouache this time.

Onwards and upwards, here comes March!

Happy Wednesday x

Weekly Photos 2017.8/52

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1 – 2. Presidents Day was a sunny warm day and we went for a jaunt around Forest Park (along with the rest of St Louis!).

3. Following the strangely warm weather, the apricot tree was in full bloom by mid-week, unfortunately the warm spell was followed by a couple of nights of freezing temperatures, so the flowers are looking a little droopy, but hopefully they will hang on and we will see some fruit.

4 – 5. I met some friends for coffee at Rise coffee and we chatted and drank coffee with a pretty design in the frothy milk!

6 – 8. It was estate sale treasure hunting time on Saturday morning, I didn’t buy the giraffe or the amazing rainbow art (someone had bought that already), but I did get a few bits and bobs.  I usually look for paper I can print or draw on or books I can use as journals, so I found a few books and some old typing paper with a lovely texture.

9. These are some of the books I got at the sale, the small/normal sized books I will most likely use as sketchbooks. The autograph book was a memory book from someone’s school days, so the pages which are written on, I leave be and I will art journal in the empty pages.

10. Check out the size of this dictionary – 2059 pages!  I will be using the pages for printing as they are nice and big and that lovely dictionary texture, super thin but strong paper. The man at the check out joked that there is the internet now as I staggered under the weight of the giant dictionary, I replied that I can’t print on the internet!!  #smartass

Happy Monday x

Vintage negatives

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We were out and about this weekend and went to an Estate sale to see if there were any treasures to find!

I got a few old books to use for art journaling and a couple of book making tools.  My prize find was this old drawer full to the brim of old negatives.  I saw it and passed it by thinking ‘what am I going to do with them?  I can’t print them, what else can I do with them?’.

Then I stopped at them again and began looking through them, some of the negatives are quite large, about postcard size, some are about two inches square and there are lots of 35mm negatives which I assume are the most recent ones.

Some of the envelopes are marked 1956 and they seem to go to about the nineteen seventies.

I found out that I can scan them and  then use photoshop to make them printable.  So I decided that yes, they would be worth buying so that I can scan and print onto paper or card and use them in journals.

I like to use old photos, but I usually photocopy the originals, so this is perfect, a whole box of images I can print and use!

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These are a few I have scanned and messed with.  I haven’t printed any yet, but I will see how these turn out.

I just love the joy in all of these photos, the lady on the swing was the first one I scanned and when I inverted the negative to positive, she just came alive and I smiled the biggest smile!

How about the middle image of the boy at the library, he makes you  want to sit outside and read a book!

The boy and his cow is a great one too,  he looks like the cow is trying to squash the laughter out of him and it is working!!!

I am looking forward to exploring my box of negatives and seeing what other gems are within.

Happy Sunday x