Photo-a-Day five

today i...

1. made a fabric covered journal
2. made flowers out of dryer sheets
3. made a new art journal out of boxes from our recycle bin (think crackers, waffles, cereal, etc.)
4. made a mini journal from a kleenex box
5. made sculpey clay animals with the boys
6. nearly finished a layout with MLS product
7. started a layout that uses a bandana as its background
8. started an art journal page

all in all a very productive day.  just wanted to make a note of it.

i'm in production mode, and want to savor every bit of it.
i know it won't last.
not being pessimistic,
just realistic.
it's just how it goes...

oh, and i threw an UNO's deep dish pizza in the oven and called it dinner!

Create Art Everyday

I just landed upon this website. Sometimes these things have a way of serendipitously happening. I'm embracing the possibility that this month holds for me. I view November as the sort of calm before the storm that is the month of December. I'm hoping to find lots of time to create, or even small bits of time to create, as long as I can do it everyday. It fuels me.

Just spread your wings and fly

There’s something about the possibility that lies in a full day stretched out in front of oneself. An entire day just for you. Such was the gift I was given today by my parents when they loaded up the three boys, with their three suitcases and three activity bags, three scooters and three helmets and headed north to Maine. It was a bittersweet departure, perhaps slightly more bitter than sweet as I turned and walked alone into the house. . .the very quiet house.

I had big plans to clean and then do something creative. I was brought up under the “work first play later” ethic. That coupled with the fact that my bathrooms were starting to smell, how should I say, less than fresh (I know, eewww!) sent me on a scouring spree. The counters, the floors, the toilets and showers, sinks, dishes. There was so much more to be done, but I had promised myself a hard stop at noon.

I kicked off my creative time with a bit of blog hopping to inspire me. Some good stuff here and a sketch over there. Checked in on the forums at Dixie. Glanced at the clock: just after 1. Something caught in my throat as a small panic came over me. I have this day off and it’s wasting away from me. Yeah, I had done some cleaning , but heck I still had a bathroom left and hadn’t vac'd rugs. There was something about this freedom of an entire day to do whatever I please that paralyzed me. I was overwhelmed at the thought of all the projects I could be working on. Or maybe I should clean out my 350 email inbox. Or how about unzipping digi downloads. Perhaps updating my desperately behind blog with our summer days. Or, yikes, should I just ditch the idea of doing anything creative and resume my cleaning stint. At least then I might feel accomplished.

I read a quote last night by Anne Lamott that pretty much sums it all up:

I used to not be able to work if there were dishes in the sink. Then I had a child and now I can work if there is a corpse in the sink. Because you’re always on borrowed time.

Since becoming a mother, my creative time is borrowed time. I snag a couple minutes while they eat lunch to pull photos for a layout. I sketch a page while they ride bikes in the driveway. On a good day, I can pull an easy layout together while they occupy themselves with a toy or game. When given the luxury of a full day, I, as my friend Kayla put it, am a bird whose cage door has been left open but doesn't know to fly out. So little birdie-self, the clock is ticking on this gift of a day, hop on over to the door, and just spread your wings and fly!

4 bits of inspiration

Here's a bit of inspiration I have gleaned through my blog travels today:

1) From Liz Kartchner: "I confess. . ."
A little list of innocent confessions, good scrapbook page journaling

• I just took down my Christmas cards
• I finally cleaned my bathrooms this weekend after 2 weeks
• I still have my Valentine decorations up
• I add extra pasta and meat to Bertolli frozen (and overpriced) prepared dinners so that there's enough to feed my family of 5 (and I don't tell Perry it's not made from scratch!)
• I put a fistfull of Jelly Belly's in my pocket and pop a little bean of sweetness in my mouth throughout the day.

2) From A Foothill Companion: "In Real Life. . ."

Take pictures of everyday things that show your "real life" and write a brief blurb about each (another great scrapbook page inspiration).

3) From Small Fry & Co.: Place Mat Purse compliments of Kayla!

A tutorial on making an adorable purse from a single placemat. I feel like I always run into great placemats at Target, Pier One, and even Christmas Tree, but never buy them because they don't match my kitchen. Now I have an excuse to buy them! Speaking of matching my kitchen, Perry is soooo lucky the new Orla Kiely line at Target doesn't go with our cream and blue color scheme. . . sooooo lucky!

4) And one I came up with while ironing my outfit yesterday for my nephew's first communion: a page of "right now" versus "back then" to illustrate how my life has changed since having kids:

Right now I iron for Easter and Christmas and maybe one day in between; back then I ironed nearly every weekday for work. Right now I clean my house one room at a time and by the time I get to all of them it's time to start over again; back then I cleaned my house every Saturday morning in one fell sweep. Right now I wake to the sound of Maddox's sweet voice saying "I'm hungry for breakfast"; back then I woke to the buzz of the alarm clock, or whenever I felt like rolling out of bed.

Just me being real

I just made a meatloaf for dinner and should be peeling the potatoes, but while I was loading and washing dishes my voice started running through my head. Not some kind of crazy, commit me, I'm losing it voice. My Blog voice. It's this little voice that starts spewing out all kinds of stories and things I could write about on my blog. I love that voice. I feel like I have lost it for a week or so, and I probably will every month (the only thing I hate about being a woman). I read in Life Artist that everyone goes through cycles of creativity, and that you should embrace this and work with it, knowing that if your mojo is gone, it's not gone for good. I also love knowing that this is the real me: the one who loves playing with her kids, loves creating, is balanced, free flowing, calm, patient, centered. Not that crazy, uptight, uncomfortable-in-her-own-skin, screaming banshee woman whose ugly head rears itself monthly. I need to remind myself of that often.

Enough about all that. Yesterday, I took a mini creativity field trip from my own desk chair and landed on the anthropologie website. Found lots of inspiration--colors, patterns, textures. Makes me want to whip out the brushes, dust of a canvas, and shake up some acrylic paint.

PS I love the Wye Valley Dress, and feel a field trip to the mall coming on just so I can try it on. Chill out, Perry, I won't be buying it: there aren't any garden parties on my calendar!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
This is the cover to the card organizer I made for a class. Found the design on a card on SplitCoast (my go-to place for stamping ideas and inspiration) as well as the directions to create it. Loving my Bind-it-All!

The inside: one sheet of 12x12 double-sided cardstock creates each page which has pockets on both sides for storing cards by the month--super easy, fast, and fun!

I am an artist

I've been totally engrossed with Life Artist. In an effort to absorb so many of Ali's inspiring ideas, I will share some of my favorites so far:

• Celebrate the everyday (already doing this in my "Remember Today" posts--yippee!)
• Let go of perfection
• Cultivate a creative lifestyle
• Scrapbook rule free; it is ok; just be; let it go
• Get to work making stuff; using supplies, not hoarding them, is freeing
• Create in a way that reflects you at this very moment (don't wait until that perfect idea, or think that something better will come along to make a layout right)
• Post the words "I am creative" or "I am an artist" someplace you look everyday
• Keep cool ideas and inspiration in a notebook (love this! starting this, more on it later)
• Take a creativity field trip: bookstore, antique shop, walk in the park, etc
• Go beyond the scrapbook page to create life art to display; use something found at a yard sale, flea market, antique shop
• Go through a stack of photos (old or new) and jot down notes. Take your time and go deeper than the surface of the photograph
• Take a class: pottery, knitting, photography, writing, painting. . .
• Use alphabet index dividers to create a "little things" album about yourself or someone you love. Use 4x6 dividers and a hole punch with binder rings and add to it continuously(will be doing this one)
• Layouts don't need to have photos

All this in just the first 2 chapters!

Life Artist

I got it today--Ali's latest book Life Artist. I've only had a chance to thumb through it and already I am in love. It is chock full of inspiration, not only for the scrapbook pages and art Ali has created, but for the eloquent words that describe her approach to scrapbooking and her philosophy on life in general. This is so where I am right now: living life, letting go, being real, creating, telling, the here, the now.


I think this book will make a great companion to Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, a 12 week program designed to help you find your creative muse. I see some similar themes: letting go, embracing imperfection, taking creativity field-trips (Julia calls these "artist dates"). I picked up her book at my church book sale for a quarter! I like to think it was divine intervention! I'm off to curl up in bed and begin my creative journey.