My Simple Little Life

Rethinking things

I invite you to follow me here: my Tumbler page

It's pretty obvious for the (possibly 3?) people that follow this blog that I've been horribly negligent of it lately.

Also, lately, I've been trying to think of ways that I can save time (or better manage it). I've already made a few changes. I'm laying off Word with Friends (I will finish my current games) and I'm going to do the same with Draw Something very shortly. I'm DVRing a show I love that's on once a week at 11 p.m. and I'm skipping any others that are on after 10 p.m. (How many episodes of House Hunters/HH International do I really "need" to watch???) I'm trying to get to bed earlier (hence cutting out the games which keep me up later than I'd like) which leads naturally to getting up earlier - something I really love for many reasons, extra hours in the day not being the least of them. And, in addition to all that, I'm considering giving up this blog.

Gasp.

I do have a tumblr account which I think may meet my needs at this point in my life.

Why do I have a blog? That IS the question I've asked myself and here are my answers:

1.  It's been important to me to have a place where I can have a catalogue of my scrapbooking/art pages and the photo album feature in this blog - which is why I switched to typepad - very much fulfills that purpose.

2.  I love sharing photos. Photos of my family, of where I live and of what is going on in my life.

3.  I seem to enjoy blathering about my life. I admit it. This blog is not deep, controversial or very thought-provoking. Not that I don't have deep thoughts, or controversial thoughts. Not that I'm not highly opinionated about lots of things. But my choice has been to be only positive here and to be careful about venting or spewing which may offend friends or family. Don't wanna go there in public. I know some people do and I know this in itself is actually a controversial issue. For me, I have chosen to have this be a positive, uplifting place. The downside, however, is that my writing really amounts to a "what I did today" sort of diary and, frankly, it just ain't that exciting. I enjoy it, don't get me wrong. But It's not really enriching anyone else's life. I ask myself, "is it necessary (to me) to do this?".

4.  I have wanted exporsure in the scrapbooking community and I've wanted to participate in events and communities that require a blog.

And so, what happens to all those things if I give up this blog?

1. and 2. I have a "pro" (i.e. unlimited) flickr account. I can put all my photos there in nice little collections and sets. I haven't always put everything in there. But I'm going to start and I may transfer everything in there eventually. I just consider it a way of backing up all the photos that are important to me. Plus, I can share them with friends and family if there's an event - or anytime! AND - I can post all the photos I want on tumblr! :) And even some words - not tons, just some. Which leads me to...

...3. I don't need to blather. I don't have time (nor do I want to take the time anymore) to blather. Now that I'm investing time in art journaling, I can blather all I want there - OR I can express what's really on my mind - no holds barred. (and I do)  Disclaimer: I am NOT implying that anyone else that has a blog is blathering. I'm only referring to myself. And, speaking of which, I read a LOT of blogs. This is perhaps another area where I may want to consider cutting back. But not yet.  :)

4. I'm completely satisfied with the amount of exposure I've had in the scrapbooking community. I'm completely satisfied with the publications I've been in. (Like, WOW!) I don't feel the need to participate in any more challenges, blog hops or scrapbook communities. I feel like I've done that - and it was GREAT - but now I'd really rather spend the extra time in my art room creating. Period.

So, check out Tumblr if you never have. It's cool. I can very quickly add photos and even a little written content. Or videos or music. The quickness is what's appealing to me. Whenever I think about blogging, I always think I need more time than I have and, therefore, I skip it altogether. I think Tumblr will provide me a place where I can just throw something down quickly and easily.

So, if you're interested in following a more compact version of me (ohhhh, if only I could be a more compact version of me, but that's another story....), I invite you to go to my tumblr page and then "follow" me (by clicking "follow") there. And I hope you will.

I'll keep this blog open until my subscraption (ha! an amusing typo - I'll leave it) runs out... (Yes, typepad costs $$$ - one more reason to let it go.)

Blessings.

(whew! already I'm feeling a sense of pressure lifted...)

I'm an Artist

At least, I feel like one. I have greatly neglected my blog and I'd said that I was going to blog more often. Well, there's only so many hours in the day, so many days in the week, right? After I've done the essentials around here (i.e. granddaughter care, personal quiet time, managing committments, meal planning/prep, exercise - most of the time - eating, sleeping, personal grooming, etc.), after all that, I sit down to take one of the several online classes I'm in and/or to hideaway in my art room to do "homework" and whatever else we artists like to call "work" but, in reality, is the most wonderful, joyful kind of play. Ah, I'm in love. My head is swimming... And I don't mean to imply that creating art is not essential. For me it is. But, I don't live by myself on a secluded dessert island, so I must practice balance. :)

I've now completed Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's "30 Days in Your Journal". If you are at ALL interested in art journaling, I can't recommend this online class enough. Julie has such a fabulous laid back (and often humerous) teaching style and makes everything easy and do-able. And I love the fact that this is NOT a huge investment of time each of your 30 days (and I did NOT do 30 consecutive days - another great thing about the class is that it's self-paced.) In fact, Julie emphasizes trying to get your art journaling (using her technique which involves journaling for many days on one progressive spread - like in my photos, below) done in 10-15 minutes a day. You will learn a LOT and you'll embrace "the mess" and toss out the idea of making "mistakes". You can find info on this class on her blog, here.

So, as I said, I've completed her class now and I'm art journaling ON. MY. OWN. Wow. I feel like I'm flying! I'm so thrilled. I will definitely continue using her technique of journaling (about 5) days on one spread - at least until I fill up my current book. But I also feel totally confident (so MUCH more so than pre-class) about going back to my faith journal now and doing singular spreads there. In fact, I'm really looking forward to doing that. So, yes, I will be joining the ranks of those who have more than 1 art journal going on at a time. I'm an artist, I tell ya!

Well, here's the last spread that I did "in the class". Julie started us on the first day of it and then we were on our own after that.

Just a note: I don't have any earth-shattering private stuff in there (it's just blather about my simple little life, ya know?) but I don't show these pages with the intention of anyone actually reading the content. It's about the visual.  :)

I was so happy to take my journal with me when we went to visit M&M in their new home in North Carolina (YAY!!!!!) last weekend. I just packed a few pens, number stamps, a tiny ink pad, a few embellies and a glue runner. All that fit in a little box about the size of a regular business envelope. Sweet. I loved being able to work on it everyday. (The key was to have the main focal art already in place beforehand - that would be all the stuff at the bottom in the spread you see above.) I added the photos after I got home and printed 'em out.

So, I'm also doing Tim Holtz's Creative Chemistry 101 class. It's also self-paced (I don't think I'd do it any other way anymore...) and I'm just now getting into the meat of it. I did the first 3 "technique" tags today and I LOVE them! (They're so much better in person.) I learned SO much just in this one day's class. Wow! So I know I'm going to love this as well.

Here's a peek at my tag homework:

I'm still working through Joanne Sharpe's Letter Love class. There's lots of homework and I can see that it's all going to be about practice, practice, practice. At the same time, I'm finding myself already putting to use stuff that I've learned in that class, as well. Here's the latest little piece I did for that class:

Last, but definitely not least, I joined the 21 Secrets Community. It is a whole community for art journalers and there are 21 teachers offering 21 workshops from April 2012 through January 2013. They're all available from day 1, so you choose where to start and then dive in - again, at your own pace. I'm SO excited about working through these workshops - my head is spinning! There's a gallery and chat rooms - like I said, it's a whole community. I haven't plunged yet, but will soon! After I decide where to start!

So, yeah, I'm feeling like quite the artist. And I'm loving it. Since I'm exercising regularly now and eating well, my energy is abounding. I even re-organized my cleaning system. All to say I'm not really going to neglect the other things in my life that are important. But I'm definitely onboard for feeding all my creative desires and dreams. And livin' up to my word this year - create!

Now, off to bed so I can tackle a new day tomorrow!

a sun-shiny day

Sunshine. A free day ahead of me. What could be a better thing to wake up to? I don't know, because that really rings my chimes.

I started it off (after a day of juice fasting yesterday) with my beloved a.m. coffee and quiet time - prayer, bible reading and bible study. I sooooo love it when I don't have to rush and today I could really take my time. I'm preparing right now to teach our ladies bible study group from church on the 15th. We've studied various books over the years, but right now we're studying THE book and my heart is singing over it! We're studying the book of Phillipians with no agenda or timeline. The portion I'm preparing is Chapter 1, verses 12-30. Meaty.

All of us in the group have also been challenged to memorize Phil. 4:4-8. So - here goes (I promise I'm typing from memory - it just wouldn't be right to cheat, especially when it comes to the bible, now would it?):

Rejoice in the Lord, always! I will say it again - rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble...

and that's how far I am. Awesome verses, by the way!

After being down with a cold for a few days last week, I was very glad to get back to exercising. I'm doing the Wii 30-day challenge as a kind of re-entry into the exercise world. Taking a "comfort food" day last week (i.e. all the worst stuff picked up and brought home from the Cracker Barrell drive-through, like Chicken and Dumplings, Hash Brown Casserole, Mac and Cheese, Fried Apples, not to mention a huge candy bar) wreaked total havoc on my "eating well" plan. Boy, did it ever - and the scale showed it this morning. But, I'm not going to let that upset me - I'm just learning from it. For instance, Clean Eating actually put out a "Clean Comfort Foods" magazine and I'm going to actually READ it and put up a few things from there for next time - even though I haven't been sick in a year. Still.

AND, I got out for a walk on this glorious February day. Right now I'm getting used to walking just the driveway round trip (that's 1/2 mile total). It's getting easier all the time. I still have a bit of a limp left over from the hip replacement, but it's only been 5 months. I know it will work itself out.

I also met my new neighbors as I was out. They have 3 kids (a 7 y/o boy and 4 y/o twins, a boy and a girl). It will be different having someone there. But a good kind of different...

And, finally, I've started a new online class called 30 Days in Your Journal given by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, who's work I've always loved. And this is an art journaling class. I've been SO driven to get into art journaling the past year or so. And I've made some attempts. I think it's one of those things where I see, it LOVE it, but I just can't quite make what I love come out of my head and onto the paper yet. But, I'm getting there. Here's a page I started a while ago - I had done the background and loved it and then just recently added the words:

That's beginning to get where I want to get to.

But this class! Wow! I can tell already that it's going to be AWE.SOME! Here's just a little bit of what I've done so far:

Both of those are my own improvisations on the particular technique being taught on this day. LOVE how they both turned out. Here's a shot of the whole 2-page journaling spread:

I think there's another 2 or 3 days of technique/teaching before this particular spread will be done. I can. not. wait! I'm just so excited about this class. Every day that I have a bit of free time, I will be running to my next (online) class. (Yeah, luckily I don't have too far to run!)

All of this fits very nicely with the "One Litte Word" that I've chosen for this year - CREATE!

Well, one more thing. I just want to share a fun little photo collage I made (using Picasa) from our latest Friday visit with Maggie (she comes here while her mom and dad are working on Fridays). Chris got to romping with her on the couch, and then the floor, and she was ALL giggles. SO adorable!

(click image to make larger)

And here are a couple more from the day:

peek-a-boo!

 

One of the first questions she asks me when she comes in is, "can I play your iPod?". I just hand it to her and she can turn it on, find the folder she wants on the page she wants and then the program she wants. She plays games, looks at videos, looks at photos, finds kid's books, etc. I try to limit her time on it, which she doesn't like, but I don't want her to be a total nerd. She IS a total genius, though, and that's okay...  ;)

That's enough for this sun-shiny day! It's time to make (a healthy!) dinner!