Spring comes a bit later here in Minnesota…not by calendar but weather. Its ok…we’ll muddle through. We’ve had rain and snow…fog and sun…shoulder high snow piles and ankle deep puddles. And that was just Thursday.

**Ba da dum…I’ll be here all week.**

The last week was Spring break for J, so he was home for 9 days. Of course, the rest of us were still busy with work and school. The visit felt very brief but the semester will be over before we know it!

Yesterday after returning J to the bus stop at Mall of America, I made a bit of time to do a bit of creating.

Not exactly sure where this page is going but perhaps I’ll know when I sit back down. Sometimes a fresh eye helps.

This week will also brings a big trip for Mini-me. She is heading to Costa Rica on a choir and band trip. Such an amazing experience for her…such a scary cutting of the cord for me. They are preforming 3 times in three separate areas of the country along with a ton of fun activities such as horseback riding, zipline tours, a volcano hike and a beach day. An action packed week.

I may have to give up coffee during the week so my nerves aren’t quite as frayed.

What are you doing today?

This time of year I’m really done with winter. Especially a long, snowy, brutally cold winter. My thoughts turn to warm weather, starting my seedlings and Easter. Pastel colors are everywhere in the springtime. My color palette tends to lean that way as well even when its really one of my least favorites to work with if I’m completely honest. Yet here it is…pastels.

I think the pastels remind me of rebirth, soft and new…like baby clothes and accessories. Or maybe it’s just babies…spring is full of birth and babies! None here…and that’s 100% just fine. :)

As I take this photo this is my view…pouring rain on the mountains of snow…now we are in a flood warning too.

We are lucky enough not to live in the river valley so we just have to deal with local street flooding on occasion. So spring really can’t get here soon enough for me.

Linking up with Art Journal Journey for Hello Springtime

Art Journal Journey

Hello and welcome to another edition of T Stands for Tuesday!

Lately when its not frigid or snowing, I’ve been doing a bit of thrift store shopping. Mini-me has gone a few times as well. She has found some really awesome clothes for herself. Me…not so much in the clothing department but I have found some craft supplies and home decor items.

Such as this cute word pillow for the couch. I love it! 

I also picked up this lovely red tray and the craft supplies in it. Frankly I don’t know if I’ll use the cards as craft supplies but they were so cute and reminded me of my childhood. They were a must have for me.

Speaking of supplies…I finally finished the tea in this tin! I’ve been wanting to use the tin in my craft room as an organizer. Now if I could just remember my original intention for it. :)

Since today was a workshop day for teachers, Mini-me and I had the day off. Marvin was very confused. He likes routines. He spent the day taking turns following each of us around the house, curiously watching.

BTW–Mini-me did really great in her tournament over the weekend. She once again shot a personal best. A whole 21 points higher than the previous week. And get this…she shot left handed after shooting right handed for over a year.

You can see her shooting left on this side at the most recently…as opposed to right at all previous tournaments. Crazy huh? And yes, Mini-me has almost waist length hair.

Tuesday has work, archery (thrifting time for me) and an evening meeting. It’s going to be a long day!

What are you doing today?

The sun was shining brightly today just daring you to step outside. It looked beautiful. Snow glistening a pristine white. It was all an illusion. Our daytime temperature stayed in the negative°F all day. Did I mention I’m DONE with Winter? I decided to throw some creative energy towards Spring.

I thought of a wild riot of color. Pretty pastels. Flowers in the peak of color sharing their joy of Springtime.

I put together a phrase from my found text stash that reflected my feeling about my wish for spring.

Linking up with Art Journal Journey for Hello Springtime.

Art Journal Journey

Hello and welcome back! I haven’t posted anything in two weeks! Yikes! My creativity is in a slump. I think there are just too many other things on my to-do list that the creative side of me doesn’t get a chance.

That isn’t to say I haven’t done anything creative…just not post worthy at least singularly. Since we had yet another big storm roll through last week we had a snow day on Wednesday. Before beginning the snow removal process I got out my Silhouette and added a vinyl name plate to my school Chromebook. My old one bit the dust after it was knocked off a table. I was issued a replacement…the only trouble is that it looks identical to all the kids.

Not anymore….now I want to add a little more bling just for fun.

Meanwhile the winter storm raged on outside. We got 9.5 inches at our house. There was so much snow that we were running out places to put it. Plus Mr. G had pulled a giant drift off the roof onto the deck. He shocked the heck out of me when he dragged the snowblower up the deck stairs and carefully used it to get rid of the majority of the snow.

After all that it was definitely time for a warm beverage.

Mini-me had another archery tournament and scored her personal best on Saturday.

This weekend our school is hosting a tournament. That means there is lots of work to do for all the kids…and us parents as well.

Yesterday afternoon was spent baking and bagging cookies to sell.  I knew our week was going to be too hectic to do any baking after work. Now to resist the temptation all week….exactly the reason I bagged them all up right away. I know me….my weakness is strong, to quote Patton Oswalt.

What are you doing today?

Well boys and girls…not sure if we have any boys visiting but I’m all inclusive…it’s story time.

This week was eventful. We had more snow once again. This week we had a 2 hour early release on Thursday afternoon and a 2 hour late start on Friday morning. We never should have had school on Friday. The roads were glare ice. So slippery that I managed to spin out our Jeep across on coming traffic and end up with the back end in the ditch. Thankfully we didn’t hit another car and I was able to put the 4 wheel drive to good use by driving back out of the ditch. With frazzled nerves I continued on to drop the girls off at school and get myself to my school. UGH! So lucky. Could have been a much worse end to that story.

J also came home for the weekend to celebrate his birthday. We had cake…of course it might have been good if i’d remembered to take a before photo.

Whoa…not sure what happened with that image but I’m too far along and too tired to go fix it. One of my custom brushes must have gotten away from me. :)

I have been doing some work in Photoshop over this past week. I’ve been wanting to create some texture backgrounds. I hope to use them as overlays on photos, backgrounds, starting points for digi-art etc. 

I even thought about making some printables with ephemera, photos or even vintage linens for texture.  Do you ever use printables in your art? If so, are they purchased or freebies? I see tons of digital downloads on etsy but I wonder if people actually buy them or use them.

What are you doing today?

Recently the cold weather had me reaching out for warmth anywhere I could think of…it really showed through in the warm colors of this journal page.

Can’t you feel the warmth radiating off the page?? Come on now…use your imagination..ah isn’t that better. Toasty warm.

The image I chose made me think not of a masquerade ball as intended but to something sneaky…not dark and sinister but sly and cunning. I had to find the right words to match my thoughts.

Don’t you just love it when things work out like that!

Did you check out the texture!?! My first layer on this page was tissue paper. Over top I blended several shades of yellow and orange with my fingers until the overall look pleased the senses. Seeking more texture I attempted to stamp with some nearly ancient pigment ink pads…alas they left very little mark. Then I had the idea to smudge them here and there then sprinkle clear embossing powder over top. I had hoped I’d get more color from the ink…it was not to be.  Then I decided to get even more aggressive with the ink pads and use some UTEE in copper. I really love the end result.

I also added some bits of leftover rub-on quotes I had laying around. I think it adds to the mystery of the page and what the masked woman is planning to deny.


My last step was to add a bit of India ink loosely around the edges to act as a frame.

Linking up today with Art Journal Journey for Yellow.

Art Journal Journey
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