Art Journalling and creativity…

Fully expecting my 30 day journalling  challenge to take a dive through June while I survived my daughters 3rd birthday and subsequent celebrations followed closely by end of financial year (that I still haven’t survived… but is a whole other story that I won’t bore you with ;)

What I didn’t expect was how these pages fitted in and around stressful days would actually turn out to be rather therapeutic for me and be a huge step toward that happy balance between work and creativity. I am still looking for that elusive balance between LIFE, WORK and CREATIVITY…

So here’s the first installment of my 30 day challenge, (7 pages behind :o )

Prompt 1 called for a full page design introducing myself!

 

Prompt 2 called for the best part of my day

 

Prompt 3 called to share with someone why you love them

 

Prompt 4 called for What your hear looks like?

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And I’m still travelling along with my Art Journal too (albeit slowly seeing as I can’t find the floor of my craft room ;)

This was a double page spread of happy and sad.
My sad page, as grey as it was still didn’t quite sum up how I was feeling that day :(

The happy side though I loved!!! I used an instant photo I took outside that turned out too over-exposed but it ended up being just perfect for what I was trying to achieve.

A Quilting we will go…

The crafty endeavours have been put on hold for the last week while I struggled to keep a fine balance between a short week at work, organising a 3rd birthday and the general stuff daily life throws at you! I think I managed to juggle it all quite well but before the madness of the week began, I spent some time getting to know my BSR foot. To be totally honest – this foot has both excited me and scare the heck out of me… it goes by itself (by sensing when the fabric is moved beneath it) so you are soley controlling your quilting by your hands only. The speed is controlled with how fast you move your hands. The foot pedal is not an equation in this Free Motion Quilting, which after working so hard to learn to use the foot and the hands and make one fast, one slow – it is rather difficult for me to get the hang of this new fangled foot.

So I took the Eye Spy Quilt I pieced years ago and finally basted it last weekend and took to it with the BSR…

the stitches are a wee bit irregular, but after seeing it sitting draped over my sewing chair for the week – it has really grown on me!

Once I decide whether I need to do any quilting on the borders or leave it as is, this little baby will be ready to bind!

Now that the craziness of last week has passed, I’m hanging to get started on the other 3 tops ready to be basted!!! 

Fan-fairy-tastic!

Miss K had a birthday last Friday – she is 3 – my gosh the time just flies!!!

Of course – no birthday is complete without a cake!

Totally singing my own praises here – but seriously Mummy outdid herself this year!!! For a comparison - here’s the first birthday cakes, and the 2nd birthday cakes – they hardly compare hey???

We had a lovely day spent with great friends and too much food ;)

To market, to market…

to buy a fat pig… home again, home again ~ jiggedy jig!

That was Last weekend – a rare day with my best friend sans bigger children, we spent a lovely morning at the Petrie Markets. Lovely sunny weather, good coffee, good pancakes & spending money – what more could a girl ask for???

As it was a belated birthday outing, my friend bought me this cool wallet after I spent some time ogling over it!

The inside has vinyl, but the lady has used some type of mixed media and utilised old papers and colours and it’s come up looking amazing!

Of course a trip to the markets is NOT complete without a look through the 2nd hand books…

$2 for the Enid Blyton – more to add to the growing collection!

It was a lovely day out :)

Reading in 2010

Nearly half way through 2010 and I am currently hurtling my way through book number 22! That means I am nearly half way to my 50 in 10 target!!!
We might neglect to mention that the majority of books on my read list for this year are what you’d class as easy reads ;) but after the past 6 months this is precisely what I am craving for my reading time. I need escapism and this current Vampire Series is providing that easily! Best news is I borrowed the whole series from my sister in law and have saved hubby dearest lots of dollars!
If you want some light reading, I’d definitely recommend these if you can move past the whole ‘Vampire is everywhere, why should I read yet another vampire book’

I have been keeping track of page numbers read for the year (I think Kylie mentioned this last year) and I was most surprised to see I’ve read 7800 pages… and a lot of these 22 books have been 200 – 300 pagers!!! Interesting fact for the day!

Changes!

My blog has been feeling really ‘blah’ of late… So I decided to change it, opting for a Plain Jane design, I think for now it suits my needs. And a change is as good as a holiday!

The Tell Your Story Art Journal course has ended :(
I really enjoyed doing it and feel it’s opened my eyes on another side of creativity just perfect for those ‘in between times’ when the sew-jo is lacking. I still have half the course to finish as life has spiralled out of control in the past 2 weeks!!! So at least it doesn’t feel it’s ended IYKWIM?

With this new insight into other areas of creativity, I couldn’t resist signing up to this one…

It’s funny really – there is NO WAY I will be able to keep up with this challenge & journal every day (heck I’ve just admitted to only completing HALF of the last course I did) however I like the idea of it & a few of the girls who did the  Tell your story class are doing this one too & well I just never could say no to a challenge!

Of course… something will have to give if I take on this challenge, but to be totally honest with you - at this stage in my life, I don’t really care ~ I’m happy to just keep on keeping on, my work life is proving to be more of a challenge than I had encountered & after speaking with my boss the other day, it seems my contract has been extended for as long as I want it *yay* for me! So keeping in my mind my time spent doing that plus being mum, I desperately need something for me and I’ve come to the realisation that it doesn’t matter what ‘it’ is. Whether it be Quilting, Sewing, Baking, Reading, Writing, Art Journalling ~ it’s still ME time and for that I’m grateful! 

So although you will be subjected to a tonne more pages each week, don’t be feeling too despondent as I will also hopefully have some quilting to show off. I pulled out the bag of batting today to see if I was in need of  a quick trip to Spotlight, but it turns out I have more than enough to complete 4 finished tops (and then some) Guess what I’ll be doing this long weekend :) 

Saved by the mailman!

Lamenting a no post Wednesday ~ lack of crafting due to work and personal commitments ~ left me no time or energy for anything show worthy!

Until the mailman arrived, bearing not 1 but 2 whopping big parcels!!!

Three brand new pudding pots from ebay

So I can attempt* this cake for Miss K’s 3rd Birthday next weekend!

Followed by 7 yards of delicious fabric from The fat quarter shop!

I now have no excuse not to be crafty! There’s cakes to bake, party bags to prepare and enough fabric to back two of my recent quilt tops!

It’s going to be a busy LONG weekend!!!!

*attempt being the operative word… remembering I will be making this cake from scratch (aka a packet mix) I am going to attempt to make this cake look similar to the cake in the picture… attempt!!!

Tops, Squares and Jelly wool!

Another Completed Quilt Top 
Made of American Jane blocks and Sashed with plain white homespun! I wrestled with the conscience on whether to add a border or leave it as is? I decided to fight the ‘it has to have a border to finish it’ and will leave the quilt top as seen here… Now to wait the arrival of the backing from the Fat Quarter Shop!

 

Crazy Crochet Blanket
This one will be for our bed eventually (long term – think 20 years!!!) even though the husband told me he dislikes all things crochet :o

Tally

Block A – 1/4
Block B – 0/14
Block C – 0/24
Block D – 2/53
Block E – 6/104

As I said ~ a long way to go! I would have been further along, except a certain little Miss decided that the big block would be a perfect little blanket for her new Jemima Doll… :o

In order to get my crochet square back ~ I set out to make Jemima a special little blanket!

After browsing some ‘old’ posts, I came across this post about a ball of wool that I had dyed back in 2008 and has sat in the stash ever since while I wondered what the heck I was going to do with one 50gm ball – problem solved!

Jemima is now all cozy in her new crocheted blanket!

And mummy is happy to have her original square back!

This has certainly got the creative juices flowing once more… I do have 2 packets of jelly in the cupboard & a couple of balls of plain white wool in the stash – tee hee hee!!!

Productivity!

One Quilt Top FINISHED! Yahooo…. now to wait for my order from Fat Quarter Shop to arrive so I can finish it!!!

A second Quilt top nearly finished

Some Good Reading Material (thanks Tinnie Girl, the book arrived yesterday and it is GREAT!!!)

Playing with my new pens

And another couple of pages finished

It’s been a lovely day!