Exciting News

I have some exciting news to share, but I can't share it just yet!  Tuesday will be the day to what it is.

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I can't believe school starts this Thursday! Jake had his middle school orientation last week and mastered his locker combination right away. Today, Gia and I went to school to put her supplies in her desk and meet her teacher. She has the same teacher Jake had in 4th grade, so she already kind of knows her.

I have been playing a little in my journal with layering and pattern making. My drive to Dick Blick the other day led me to my new yummy neon Golden paints. I was disappointed they didn't have the new low viscosity paints by Golden. When I got home, I ordered a bunch online from Jerry's Artarama. I hope they get here soon. I'm antsy to try them out!

I'm back!

I fell off the grid for too long! I've been consumed with "scrapbooking" the last 11 years of our lives. I put it in quotes b/c I'm not creating amazing pages and most photos are just in the sleeves in some chronological order. This has taken over the dining room! My goal was to work backwards sequentially, but I ended up trying to do everything at once. Now I have stopped and AMAZINGLY enough, I am almost done!  My kids love looking at themselves and reading what I've written.

My kids were at overnight camp for the last 3 weeks. We just picked them up on Sunday. It was great seeing them again, but I have to admit it was nice having them gone too! There was barely any laundry to do and my husband and I were able to be real adults!

We saw The Heat and The To Do List and we were laughing SO hard we actually had tears pouring down our faces. We went out for great dinners and even saw The Book of Mormon.

So I've been trying to get creating again as I've missed it terribly. This past weekend, I took my second encaustic painting workshop with Ahavani. I had a great time playing around with the wax and trying out different things. I still want to set something up in my garage so I can really get into this medium!

Introspection

When I was a senior in high school, I took an English class called Introspection. Dr. Amberg was the teacher and this was THE MOST sought after class. Dr. Amberg was THE MOST sought after teacher. Since I helped with scheduling (we used index cards that said either "drop" or "add", highlighters & a humongous master schedule), I got every class I wanted!

An integral part of this class was keeping a journal. Everyday we had to have something in our journal. It didn't matter if it was a poem, a quote, words to a song, doodles, a drawing, etc. I remember thinking how cool it was to have a teacher that wanted us to doodle/draw!

I found my journal from Dr. Amberg's class & I had fun reading my entries. Most of them were about boys I liked or applying to college. I was amazed to see my doodles look similar to my doodles of today. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or shows a lack of my development. Either way, I am fascinated that even back in 1989, an educator recognized the importance of journaling & incorporating art. Pretty cool I think!

And, a 100 page spiral notebook only cost $2.59!!!!!!!!!

Encaustic

Last month I took an encaustic painting class with Ahavani Mullen. She taught me so much and let me experiment in her studio. I am in love with this ancient art form & really want to set up my own studio so I can play with wax, heat & fire!

SO excited to begin my journey with The Mermaid Circus!! Jane Davenport and Teesha Moore are 2 of my favorite instructors. Hoping to get my groove going again!

Catch My Breath

I've been playing around in my journal, feeling the need to move beyond where I am. Everything I do right now still is coming out differently than how I have it in my head.

 I am dying to learn how to paint with encaustics, am on the verge of purchasing a studio kit and teaching myself. I can't find a workshop out by me and I REALLY have the bug! I think taking a workshop will push me past where I am.  I'm feeling the need to create work that is grittier, real and maybe abstract. I'm not sure. Just feel like I need something different. Something more.

I've also decided to venture into scrapbooking. I have thousands of pictures stored on my computer and in Shutterfly. I've put together albums on Shutterfly, but was inspired by my girlfriend who creates scrapbooks for her daughter. I'm almost caught up from this year and then I will work backwards. I want to have something concrete like this for my kids. They love what I've done so far and say the pages help them remember all of the "good times"!  Here are a few pages I've put together and I've used some of my gelli prints and art journaling materials.