Little Scraps of Magic

Mola Bird

If you enjoy carving your own stamps, or think you might like to, pop over to Traci Bonkers' blog and enjoy the eye candy from her "30 Days of Carving" series. I enjoyed taking a stamp carving class with Traci a few years back at Hampton's Art & Soul, but for whatever reason, I put away the supplies when I got back, and there they sat, gathering dust.

But, the more I read Traci's blog, the more my fingers itched. So, I pulled out this book...

 
...gleaned at a library sale about a year ago, for less than a dollar. The designs originate from Panama and are intricate beyond belief. So, I trace two really small sections from two different pages, and then transferred them by placing them face down on my carving material, rubbing the graphite with my bone folder. As the saying goes, "Easy Peasy!"

 
Since i've little experience, and since it's been quite some time, my efforts equated to a great deal of mumbling, once I picked up the carving tools. All in all, not so bad, and I know I'll be doing more. I used a scrap piece of my paste paper to stamp my bird.

 
I need to constantly remind myself that imperfections are not only okay, but really create a good deal of the charm of a hand carved stamp, but that's easier said than done!

 
Here he is again, along with my other stamp on a journal page...lots of fun! I left the little lines at the bottom since they resemble grass, which believe me was not planned. So, now I need to pull out Traci's book as well; I have it, but it does little good sitting on the shelf.

I'm tickled to be part of Seth's The Altered Page this week. Hop on over if you have the time!

 

Wrapped in White

 
Mother Nature wrapped the D.C. Metro area in a blanket of white last night. At the height of the storm, she seemed to be spitting mad and let loose 2 inches of heavy white stuff per hour. Nothing fluffy about this  stuff...she meant it to stick and stick it did!

I'm puttering around, doing odds and ends that need to be done, and it's lovely. I don't need to be anywhere in it, and since the snow is melting rapidly, it won't be around long to depress me. I'm not going to be as mellow when I need to make up this day come June, but for now, I'm content.

 
There's a hush right now, a stillness, a time to just be.

 
Everything sparkles in the sunlight, Mother Nature's version of diamonds, I guess. She's certainly all decked out!

I know I'll be heading back to work tomorrow, so I'm going to go putter a bit more now...

 

Craving Pink

 
EB craved some red.

So did Kim.

I wanted pink! You see, I'd come across the most gorgeous pink jacket I'd seen in awhile. I knew it'd look great with some black pants, or maybe my black skirt. The  budget didn't allow that jacket to come home with me, and that was okay. I didn't "need" that jacket, but I surely did want it! And, that's pretty funny, since I am not a pink person.

My mom, bless her, cured me of ever much wanting pink. As a little girl, she deemed pink to be my color. Denise had blue, and oh boy, did I want that blue.

Nope, nope, and nope. Mom deemed that I should wear pink, and I did until I was hearily sick of it. Even today, you won't find much pink in my wardrobe. So, I'm not sure what made me want that jacket, but I did.

Next best thing? Some pink in my journal. I had to mix it, because the color pink is rarely found in my stash of supplies either. So, I mixed the paint and scrounged up some tape.  I stamped, stenciled, and journaled.

I really did have a blast!

Now, we might be getting some snow tomorrow, maybe even enough for a snow day on Thursday.

Maybe, just maybe, I'll get some more time to play.

I don't think it will be pink, but my muse tends to be a bit fickle, a bit surprising. Who knows?

58

 
So, 58 and I collided today.

 
It met me, whether or not, I particularly wanted to meet it!

 
And, when I looked in the mirror this morning, I wondered two things. Just when did I swap my face for my mother's? And, how do you focus a camera at 6am? Worst thing? I did have the darn thing on automatic!

 
At any rate, there was  dinner out, cake, family and so on! You know the drill, right?

Happy Birthday to me! 58 ain't really so bad!

Ice Day Journal Play

 
Yesterday morning, Mother Nature blessed me with time to simply play in my journal. I'd already glued down some random leftover bits a few days earlier. That pink you see behind the house really is a piece of deli scrap that I'd mixed paint on and stamped on for some "trial runs." I love the pop against the blue, and so I added a stencil on the left page.

I owe Jeannine full credit for the house image that you see. She gifted me some of her gocco prints awhile back, and they show up every now and then on one of my pages. I did add the tiny face you see peeking out of the window and the tiny "H" in the doorway. You can find Jeannine guest curating over at Crescendo this week. Be sure to read what she's written...lots of wisdom there.

Back to this spread...it really did come together over several hours. I'd add some paint, some paper scraps, step away for a bit and then come back to it. I played with a Tim Holtz mask (the light blue swirls on the left). I made friends with Payne's Gray, a color I've pretty much loathed until recently. Let's just say we're getting to know each other a bit! And, finally, of course, a bit of jounaling. My only plan, really, was to make it feel "cold and wintry." I think I did okay!

Yesterday Morning

 
Yesterday morning, I ventured outside into a world of ice.

 

 
Even the garbage cans held a  bit of magic - although I'm not so sure what the early morning commuters were thinking as they stared in bewilderment at the crazy lady in her pj's and slippers!

 
The world was slip covered in ice, and I loved it all. The powers that be cancelled school, so I headed back inside to make messy magic in the art room.

I put on some coffee. I packed away some Christmas. I puttered about.

What a lovely gift of time!

Playing with Gray

 
Diana Trout's Creative Nudge # 16 began with a bit of Hanna's journal play, Hanna's blog always inspires! This woman simply oozes creativity and really enjoys the process.  Neither lady ever fails to inspire.

The idea is to play with gray, which is certainly not one of my favorite colors, but it was a good reentry point after a week of hospital rooms. It was really, really good to get my fingers dirty with paint again.

I've used this angel image many a time. She's one of many from my stash of cemetary photos.

The "lines" on the right are torn up bits of text where I tried out the various grays I mixed...as are the lines that frame the angel's face.

The bits of purple on the right edge of the left side of the spread?  Dried up bits of an African violet that belonged to my mom! As I was cleaning up the art area a bit, I picked off some dried blooms. One fell on the page, and I rather liked it! I'm not sure what it means when a middle aged woman carefully glues dried up bits of violet to her journal pages!

Hello, Alex!

 
A newby certainly generates some excitement...

 
We watched the contractions progress.

 
There was a frog to focus on, and since this little one seemed to be in no hurry to enter this world,

 
mama to be fell asleep holding it.

 
Foot rubs were given,but since our Alex was in no hurry whatsoever,it was nearly 7pm, before he arrived.

 
But, oh my, he was worth the wait!

This sweet little thing has had a rough start. Born on Wednesday, he went home on Friday, only to go back to a hospital on Saturday, due to high billirubin levels. Relased on Monday, he ended up in yet another hospital on Tuesday of this week because of a low body temperature and refusal to eat. After loads of tests, inclduing a spinal tap, poor baby, he's come again tonight. All tests aer clear, and the docs think that maybe he just needed a bit more time to adjust. At 3 weeks early, Alex weighed in at 7lb 13oz and mama was glad she didn't go another several weeks!

Can you guess why this poor blog has been sadly neglected? Grandma here spent a ton of time at the hospital! Let's hope tis little one stays home!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mucking About!

 
Just mucking about...I love that expression. The words just taste great on the tongue, and they make me grin.

So, I finally did get a chance to "muck about" in my studio...to layer paint and paper and let my pens dance across the page. I really love that I found the bus depot sign on a stashed postcard, and those little bus tickets along the right edge? Too much fun. I couldn't have found those if I had tried. And doing this page was just what I needed to get rid of the grumpies when the NYC trip fell through.

 
I started this one in the car this past Saturday. I had grabbed my zip loc bag of scraps and my gluestick...good therapy, since part of the trip dealt with taking the car keys from my dad. Dad's in the early stages of dementia and quite delighted with the world he's living in at the moment. Unfortunately, his world bears little resemblence to reality, and when it comes to driving, reality is pretty darn important.  While my sister and I dithered over how to do it, my husband, God bless him, just did it. So, we're making progress, and hopefully, in the next week will convince my dad he's not a fine driver and to give up the car. RIght now, the car is in the shop, and the owner, a family friend, is delaying "fixing it."

I really digressed there; where I meant to go was to tell you that the tearing, gluing, and pasting provided great therapy. It didn't matter that I latter ended up covering it pretty well up. I firmly believe that what's hidden adds its own bit of energy. Later on, layered on the paing, sanded it, added some more and then found the transparency of the angel. I took the picture about 2 years ago, but it's one that I tend to use over and over. Add a bit of stenciling and some journaling, and I'm done!

Keep us in your prayers, especially my lovely daughter, Kara, and her husband Kim. They head to the hospital tomorrow afternoon. Kara will be induced, and our Alex should arrive on Wednesday. I'm gonna be a grandma again!

Welcoming the New Year Softly

 
She stood stock stil for the longest time. I stood watching her, camera in hand, wating. Other cars came and went; some pulled over for a brief bit and watched with me, but then left quickly. She was simply too still, seemingly not doing much of anything.She seemed to be watching me, figuring me out.

So, we waited together in the cold and in the snow. I wondered what went through her mind...anything? nothing/ Or, was she simply being still, a quality I wished I could make a bigger part of my life.

I've been pondering my word for this coming year, and I'm thinking it might be "stillness." I don't quite know for sure, but I think maybe that's it. But, I need to let the word choose me instead. I need just a bit more of time.  I'm almost there, but I'm pretty sure I need to quiet myself a bit more. I'm a "doer," a "Martha," always at it, getting things done. I rarely allow myself quiet time, time to just sit and be.

So many posts about goals and vision statements out there in cyberspace. I've been reading them, inhaling them, and digesting the, and fretting about them. So many people making so much progress. It seems as if they've got their year in order; they've given it their marching orders, so to speak.

I fell asleep digesting 2010, wondering what 2011 will bring. 2010 brought about so many changes: a relative's marriage falling apart, another relative with cancer, a new grade partner forcing me to let go of the easy routine into which3 of us had settled. It brought my father's dementia and disagreements about how to handle that. Quite honestly, it brought about way too much I'd love to see the back end of disappearing from my view.

But 2010 also brought travel to the Outer Banks and Saratoga Springs - both for the first time. It brought a daughter's pregnancy, which within days, will give me a new grandbaby to adore. It brought me time with a sister at Lake Anna, as we celebrated my mother's life. 2010 brought me a great deal of joy, but if I'm not careful, I'll lose that joy amidst all the craziness and grief.

So, I'm digesting Hanna's posts about beginning this new year. I'm losing my myself in links and possiblities. I'm also following up some resources posted by Reverb10. Part of me - a big part of me - wants to get this ball rolling, to get my life in order, but I just need to be still and allow it to be digested a bit. When I read Kim's post early this morning, I just exhaled. It seemed as if Kim was giving me permission to sit on all of this a bit, as if she was telling me it's okay to wait a bit.

 
My mare, and her almost hidden friend, finally began to move. The left the field, began to amble up this road a bit, and then made a u turn, and moved direclty towards me.

 
I didn't seem to faze her; she never seemed to hurry. She knew her path, where she wanted to go, and I knew she gave me herself as a bit of magic on a cold winter's day.