6ichthusfish

Observations... EXPLORE Day 6...

Yesterday was Day 6 on the online class called Explore by Shimelle.  We were prompted to make observations of where we sit, stand and sleep. Yesterday was not a good day for me as I spent part of the time sitting in a chair like this...

 

It was my own fault for not going to the dentist sooner and waiting till it started to hurt (stupid, stupid, stupid I know).  Anyway.  The best part of yesterday prior to the dentist was spent standing doing this...

 

So today I was a bit more of a happier bunny and took more sit, stand and sleep photos.  This is where I stand to make tea, and wash-up...

 

... and this is where I sit to crochet, handsew and watch TV with the family.  I always use a poof when sitting here (got short legs)...

 

I spend a great deal of time in my Craftroom.  I do not take this room for granted and am so very blessed to have this room.  I sit here when I blog, visit the forums I like, talk on the phone and use PSE9 to fiddle with my photos...

 

In the opposite corner I machine sew... sometimes on paper but sometimes patchwork and quilting gets a look in.  Great natural light...

 

In the middle of the room is my stand-up scrapping table.  I cannot sit and scrapbook (except when I journal).  Husb customised this IKEA kitchen island with the metal bars and hanging hooks/basket.  I stand here to scrapbook...

 

There is another table (with the teacups tablecloth over to the right) ) where I stand to do messy, mixed media stuff and pile my stash when I am scrapping. 

 

I try to only have the LO itself and not piles of stuff on the island when I'm making a LO.  It's less distracting and I am more focussed.  I wander to the this table if I want some more pp or embellies etc that I've already pulled out and dumped on there.

Finally, I wanted to show you where I sit to read, have 'Quiet time' and often use my I Pad...

 

Yep, I sit in my bedroom on my bed.  As a home-school Mum (up till last week) I often had some afternoon time to myself in this spot.  I left the bed like that to take this photo.  It's so very 'me' to sit there in rumpled comfort ;}

OK then.  Hope you had a good nose round.  Today's prompt (Day 7) is a journaling prompt and I'm going to give that some thought now.

Explore LO.... TRAVEL.... Day 5 by Shimelle

I knew today was going to be putting together a project, tied to what we've been doing this week.  I'm a 12" by 12" scrapbooker, so that was my chosen LO size.  We began by gathering our thoughts to find a theme and a story.  I had a photo of ds 2 (16) on a rope bridge and from that photo the idea evolved to make a LO about him, not just travelling across the rope bridge but onto the next stage of his life (going to Catering College full-time in September)...

 

Shimelle encouraged us to use the embellies we made yesterday.  I had already used the colours to go with the ordinance survey map, so decided to keep these as they went well with the male/outdoorsy kind of rope ladder TRAVEL theme.  I  used two of yesterday's embellies and had quickly made 7 more today of the same size...

 

There were some helpful sketches and I loosely used the first one but moved my journaling down, to run across the bottom.  I have done a lot of handwritten journaling recently and that went well with the personal style of journaling (kind of like I am speaking to my son). 

 

Shimelle also drew our attention to a 'pintrest' collection gathered with photos to inspire us in class.  A  Maggie Holmes LO called 'You are the cutest girl ever' had a 9 circle block that was divided up with a machine stitched grid.  I loved this LO and put a machine stitched grid onto my LO.  I also added words with my DYMO machine as I'd run out of the American Crafts stickers from yesterday's embellies.  Finally, Shimelle spoke about the words for this project.  I probably spent longer than usual thinking about the words and adding them carefully.  The words say...

"As I look at you on this photo, Robin, about to cross this rope bridge at 'Go Ape'... it strikes me as very symbolic for where you are in your life right now.  You will be leaving home-education behind & moving forward to Catering College to persue your chosen career as a Chef.  I see Chloe (your twin) still in the picture but at a distance.  The time has come for you to travel forward alone.  I know you can do it.  Love Moogie...Photo Aug 2010, Journaling July 2011."

This LO came together really quickly and I still have a pile of similar embellies to use another day.  Totally loving this class.  I have had more time on my hands than usual, so hoping I can still keep up next week :)

 

Thoughts on 'perfection' day 4 EXPLORE

Thoughts on 'perfection' .  Although I definitely try to do my best, I am no longer striving for perfection... I do think that's the road to misery.  I made a card for my Playbook/file...

 

There was also a suggestion about quotes.  Quotes are not something I do very often but the quote I used was a rub-on by Fancy Pants and I thought it went with the theme and do believe trying to be ferfect does not lead to happiness.

On the back of the card I wrote some waffle  deep reflective thoughts about perfection and why I chose that photo to illustrate them...

 
the words say...

"I would say that I have 'perfectionist tendencies' if that's even something that exists.  It's not something helpful.  I've learned to aim for "good enough" these days... saves a shed of heartache.  So... why the family photo on the other side - what's it got to do with thoughts about 'perfection' ?  It was taken on the day of the Royal Wedding.  I'd really wanted to find a Street party to go to (like on the T.V.) but **** was quiet and deserted, so we headed to the local park, thinking there might be other folks there.  I'd asked the family to wear red, white or blue clothes for any photo opps.  When I look at the photo I see everyone except me in red, white or blue ... I was cold so popped a sweatshirt over my blue T-shirt.  I see a couple of plastic flags... acquired from the ********* pub.  I see genuine smiles and all of us together (rare these days now the children are growing up & have jobs or other commitments). I kind of see my life... not perfect but pretty good.  I really think perfection is a myth. "

I don't think it's a bad idea to reflect on these things.  I'm sitting here now feeling very blessed with my lot.  Good enough is pretty good.

Making Map embellishments...day 3 of EXPLORE

I was burning the midnight oil last night, as it had been a busy, life-packed kinda day.  Yesterday's promt was all about Maps.  My dad is a retired Navigator and we always called 'maps'..... 'charts'.  Looking back I remember superb quality paper, detailed maps with extra circles and arrows on them.  I think I used to use the back of old charts to draw on :)  Seriously cool, huge maps.  Shimelle had given us a stack of websites to gather inspiration from.  Pretty, artsy mappish stuff and I was inspired.  I have an old Ordinance Survey map with a linen/paper backing that is heavy duty map loveliness and I have previously chopped it up so have no qualms there....that's why I bought it :)

So, here's my pile of map-inspired embellies, all lined up ready for future use...

 

Part of the prompt was about circle punching and layering.  I used some American Crafts stickers, some buttons and pretty twine and inked everything around the edges.  I don't love all the embellies but decided to show you guys all the ones I'd made.  My fave, the word 'TRAVEL' below was inspired by one of Shimmelle's websites (sorry forgot which one). 

I made these letters for T-R-A-V-E-L from some old, Heidi Swapp, chipboard alphas in the font of 'lemonde stand'.  They are self advesive too.  I glued the letters face down onto some interesting bits of the Ordinance survey map (used Glossy Accents) and cut them out.  I added a coating of Glossy Accents to give them a finished, shiny look.

A couple of my other finished faves include the double button, twine tied...

 

Martha Stewart punched teeny butterflies, inked to age them a bit...

 

And another really simple embellie with a  Martha's butterfly on a green grid AC pp...

 

I am a maker of embellies anyway.  Sometimes the urge hits not to scrapbook but to sit and play with stash and produce a pile of embellies to use another day.  Then when another day comes and I am reaching for the perfect little something to pop on a page... got something. If you like circle word art that fits into a standard punch size I made a free download ages ago as an IACW post.  Help yourself to the other free downloads in the left sidebar cloud thingy.

Right then. Totally loved making these and am looking forward to seeing what other folks got up to. Grin.

Still exploring...with a postcard...!

Today's prompt in a paraphrased nutshell (as I see it)...

 "Choose the one moment that stands out to you as your most adventurous, whatever it may be...and then just write about that adventure [on a postcard] until you run out of space... then you’re done. If you like the idea [which I do] address it, stamp it and post it to yourself."

So, I rummaged in the drawer for some postcards (we've got a pile, everything from old, recieved and newish).  I chose this one which I got around the time I had my adventure (1990... seriously!)  It's of knitting...

 

I wrote about the backpacking trip I took in summer 1990.  It was the summer that I took a gap year from doing my BEd at Uni.  I went with a friend called Steve who ran the local Creative Writing group that I attended during that aformentioned gap year.  We flew to Yugoslavia and spent time in Turkey and Greece.  I made an old-fashioned scrapbook when I got home, with tickets, postcards and photos jumbled together.  I think it's in the garage somewhere.  Anyway... I think that was my most adventurous time.  Obviously having the 4 teenagers that i have now is an adventure all of it's own.  So was baby twins and a two year old...that was a crazy adventure too.  Then a newborn aswell as twin two year olds and a very bright 4 year old... pretty adventuresome time in my life.  thinking back now, the year after I went to Dubrovnik in particular, it was on the news in a war zone.  I also remember a highlight of the trip was Athens.   L-o-v-e Greece.  Would like to go back.  Something to think about.  This was 21 years ago and was just months before I met my Husb.

 

ds took some snaps of me posting the postcard (N.B. i was thinking about how big my butt was going to look in my housework leggings when he took this! Hence the expression on my face)...

 

 
OK then.  I will be adding the postcard to my explore Playbook/file when it gets here.  I may print off the photo of me posting it.  I prefer the out of focus one above to the butt shot ;]

Loving the class :)

New online class by Shimelle...EXPLORE.....!

Check out Shimelle's blog you can still join in with explore.

I love to learn and was really excited to join in with this class, but as I am still finishing off a 3 week class called  ‘The She Art Workshop’ by Christy Tomlinson, I was not sure if I wanted to start another class at the moment.  However, the title EXPLORE had me totally intrigued.  I signed up midnight Sunday and it started yesterday.  Am totally loving the style of 'explore'  and have made the Playbook...

A couple of days ago I got a pile of photo enlargements through from Photobox.  I always wait till they have an offer on,  then order a pile of my fave pics that are potentially scrappable.   For this order I’d chosen  9”x 6” for a change... still big but not A4.  It was this pile I reached for  yesterday to choose some photos for EXPLORE.  I was all set to use jump rings like Shimelle, but as I was getting the prints out of the envelope they came in,  I thought how fun would it be to make the daily prompts  as individual, separate  cards, a bit like playing cards?  So I decorated the front with a photo, alphas and embellishments and lined the photo envelope with my latest fave pp...  ‘Out of Print’ by Basic Grey.  I used some tape down the spine to make it flexible but strong and inked around the edges. Here's a close up of the cover...

 

The first card from Day 1 is tucked inside...

 

The prompt was to take a self portrait.  I took the photo of my reflection in the lounge mirror over the fireplace and printed it at home 9”x6”. 

 
I added a (1) to the photo and printed and stuck Shimelle’s Workbook prompt to the photo as well.  It's backed with some American Crafts pp with cute clouds on. I altered and printed an Ali Edwards Number one title and journal block that says ‘today’.

 
The journaling says...

“I’ve seen lots of photos online of scrapbookers and photographers in the style of “self-portrait with camera”.  It’s a type of photo I’ve tried to take before but never really liked the results.  This self-portrait was a reflection in the lounge mirror over the fireplace.  First tries were no good as the mirror is quite high up.  I balanced precariously on the poof and snapped 27 photos.  I picked this one and uploaded it to ‘Picnik’ to adjust the colour and add my fave frame.  Not pleased it printed out so dark L but embracing and going with it.  Have been super creative lately taking the She Art Workshop online with Christy Tomlinson.  The mixed media approach has opened the window to new landscapes creatively.  Love to learn... love to join in... love to e-x-p-l-o-r-e!!”

OK.. I'm off to find a postcard, ready for today's prompt!

{grin}