T Tuesday: Mammoth edition

T stands for Tuesday…you know what that means…I’m linking up at Elizabeth’s blog for our weekly virtual tea party.

I’ve got my snack…how about you?

Just look at the size of that Mammoth muffin from Perkins. No affiliation…my kids just love the place. We went out with my mom and I skipped the toast and brought home a little bit of sin. Now that my muffin is out of my mug I can enjoy a bit of coffee with my sin.

Last week for T Tuesday…on Wednesday I mentioned I would be sharing some news. I finally got an interview for a position I applied for about 7 weeks ago. Sadly, I didn’t get the job. Not the news I was hoping to share but I guess it wasn’t the right place for me right now. That’s ok…I’m still subbing and this way I have a lot more flexibity.

Over the weekend I started cleaning up my crazy workspace…only to get sucked into art journaling. I saw that nice empty space and there is just some sick need of mine to immediately fill it with something. I got called away from creating and cleaning for that matter when it was decided that it was time to do some rearranging of the house.

I ~~executed some fish~~ gave our fish a whirlpool ride…then took down the aquarium. It was sitting on a desk that would be much better served as a homework station than supporter of several hundred pounds of water.In its place we put a much smaller antique desk that holds misc game supplies such as cards, dice, paper and pens. Since this is in our game area we decided to group some vintage toys and games to fit with the theme. The mason jar is filled with random bits and pieces from old games.

The other desk went into Little J’s room…where the antique one had resided previously. But we still were not done with organizing…

Little Js room has this very awkward space that is about 4ft off the floor. The space has always been a collector of ~~crap~~ ~~junk~~ treasures. While measuring for the desk we realized that one of these 9 hole cubbies would fit perfectly in the opening. We left the back off the bottom three squares since there is still a good 2.5ft behind it…just in case stuff fell behind, we’d be able to retrieve it. Look…someone has her own clubhouse now…

I’m not entirely sure what my plans for the day are but I do know I’ll be checking out the other T stands for Tuesday posts. :)

What are you doing today?

Art | Blog

art journal, art space, day in the life, T Tuesday

16 Comments

halleday

201403/06

Art calendar check in

I’m a few days late but I made it with the first week of March so I’m calling that just fine after the past couple weeks of craziness our house has endured. I’m pretty sure our challenge hostess, Kate, won’t rap me on the fingers with her ruler.

Here we have my February calendar all filled out and very simply decorated.

For March I was thinking Shamrocks and Leprechauns even though I don’t have an ounce of Irish in me. Although given I’m 100% Norwegian with strawberry blonde hair and green eyes…they was likely a bit mixing of the blood way back in the Viking times.

I wanted to use alcohol ink for this one. I thought sure it would stay on top of the glossy paper and give a much different effect. I was wrong. It bled into the paper. I then hit it with some straight up alcohol trying to thin things out since the color was so dark. It certainly helped but I did not achieve the desired look. Oh well…live and learn. I have exactly 12 of these pages so I’m determined to use them and not scrap it if it turns out odd.

My paint was pooling up so nicely in spots that I thought it could use a wee bit o’gold…ok now I’m trying to hard. Anyway…the paint got a sprinkle of gold which really added a nice touch of bling.

Blog

2014 calendar challenge, art calendar

4 Comments

halleday

201403/05

T Tuesday: Wednesday edition

T stands for Tuesday on Wednesday? What?

Elizabeth isn’t a big stickler for rules, so I know she won’t mind.

I have so many things to share but am lacking the energy. I’m recovering from yet another round of sickness. A wicked stomach bug this time. This coffee drink was purchased this morning in effort to get some protein and fill my coffee need. I haven’t been able to drink coffee since this mess started. Halle sad. :( I’ve only managed to drink about half…I think the rest will have to wait. I’m still not eating normally. Nothing sounds good and my sense of smell is overly keen. Example: Last evening I was at Big J’s choir concert and was sitting on the gym bleachers. A man was sitting just behind me to my right and I could smell his feet every time he moved them… Blech!!! At least the concert was good.

Next week I’ll be sure to share some exciting gifts from Japan, a some news and if all goes as planned…some new art.

What are you doing today?

People are crazy!!

Okay, this has absolutely nothing to do with art so if you don’t aren’t interested…you may go now…I won’t feel bad at all.

So today I was heading over to my moms after dropping Little J early at school for choir. The windchill was -30 something °F…really, does it even matter at that point. My mini van displayed this for a temp….

Yikes! I can assure you…it was cold!!!

Anyway…the reason for my photo and my rant was this….

There was someone on a bicycle…in rush hour traffic…on icy roads…crazy…just crazy.

Seriously…my version of exercise doesn’t involve risking my life on icy roads in sub zero temps. Ok..I’m stepping down off my soapbox now and going back to creating art.

T Tuesday: wreath edition

Welcome to T stands for Tuesday, hosted by Elizabeth @ alteredbooklover. This is a day that we share a cup, a glass or a mug of cheer and chat about our week.

I got a little playful with my tea this morning. Photoshop is fun!

Well…what about the wreath? That was the title of the post. What kind of show are you running here anyway? (don’t you love it when I put words in your mouth)

I’m getting there…just need another sip of tea.

So, last Fall, a good friend of mine sent me a picture via FB of a wreath that she loved. She was convinced that I could make one as well. I wasn’t as sure. After collecting the needed supplies I gave it a whirl… Within a few frustrating minutes, I knew I was on the wrong track. I set it aside and really didn’t give it another thought until yesterday.

I was laying on the couch…I finally caught the crud the kids had….and it came to me how to properly wrap the wire. Within 10 minutes I had the wires in a complete wreath form….no thanks to Gracie who kept batting at the wires and tried to steal the floral tape. What a pest!!I had the leaves all prepped and ready to go so the wreath went together really quick! It’s not exactly like the original photo…which I can’t seem to find anymore…but it my version.

Today I’m going to catch up on some laundry and rest some more. I’m definitely better than yesterday but not 100% by a long shot.

What are you doing today?

Blog

custom brushes, Photoshop, T Tuesday, wreath

14 Comments

halleday

201402/23

The tale of two journals

Something kicked my creativity back into gear over the past few days. I’m really excited about that! Maybe it was the exercise….hey, that should motivate me to keep going on that as well :) But I digress…

I was in the art journal mood so I grabbed my kira-kira journal and slapped down a light coat of gesso. While digging out some washi tapes and other supplies…I dumped over my cup of wash water. UGH!! I had quite a bit of cleanup to do including changing my jeans…yep, dirty paint water all the way off the table on onto my leg.

Shockingly, I was still ready to create after cleaning up. Usually that would have soured me for the day.

The colors and patterns on this page remind of college. Likely because of the clothes I wore at the time. Leggings, black ankle boots, flannels in those colors. That look is back in its own modern way but I’m not sure that I could pull it off now being 20-something years older. Or that I should even try. ;)

After completing a few pesky household chores I was still feeling creative.

Wow…two journal entries in one day! This time I use my white journal. No particular reason…it just felt right. While mopping up the earlier spill I happened upon this fashion plate cut from a newspaper. I wanted to use on of the girls but after an exhaustive search I couldn’t find my “fussy cutting” scissors. I had to change my thoughts on where this was going.

unexpected weapons

Peeking out from a stack of stuff on my work desk I spotted a Basic Grey paper pad. I was drawn to some paper with small circles. Small circles you say? There are no small circles on this page. Yeah I know…but the cityscape paper was in the pad too. As soon as I saw it my mind went to the old Sci-Fi movie genre such as Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.

So there you have it…two very different pages created the same day by the same girl whose mind apparently took a sharp left part way through the day. :)

Art | Blog

art journal, ephemera, found text, journal, kira-kira, paint, rubber stamping, washi tape, white journal

3 Comments

halleday

201402/22

Abstract inspired by snow

I know it doesn’t look very “snowy”. The reason I say I was inspired by the snow was that this canvas had a painting that used very dark colors. I’d been leaving it for a few days trying to decide if I was done. Turns out…I wasn’t. It needed to light and bright like snow. I thought I was going to save a bit of the original inside the circle but in the end I covered the whole works. I really like it now. So glad I let myself sit and stew on the original.

So where does the snow come in??

Well, where do I start? We got over 9 inches on Thursday night into Friday. Another snow day for the kiddos. They’ll never get out of school at this rate. This storm followed one that dumped around 6 inches on Monday.

See this pile…I used it to stand on to pull snow off the roof. Little J got a real nice shot of the avalanche.

You may recall my garden box along the deck…This is the current view from the garage…. This storm created the most treacherous driving conditions that the state patrol has seen in 25 years according to news reports. I was worried about Mr. G driving but he made it safe and sound….just late.