A Little Imagination and a Pile of Junk

a new kind of Christmas star

Today I should have been doing laundry, getting ready for the holidays with family, but I'm having too much fun with my scrappy journal a la Mary Ann.

 

The fabric/paper combination journal cover is now complete and I'm loving the direction it's going. I didn't have anything particular in mind when I started out, just a pile of fabric scraps and some new corduroy Christmas ribbon, but it turned out kind of granny chic. I love that. At the last minute I added one of the many granny stars I've been making off and on (excellent tutorial here), but still it all seemed kind of random until I spied the blue vintage trim I had been hoarding for the perfect project and everything fell into place. Throw in the piece of cherished psychedelic bird fabric I used on the flap and I think it looks kind of crazy and funky and way over the top. In other words, perfect for me.

 

 

As much as I'm loving my new journal, I've saved the best for last: Maisey's journal cover. She has designed and planned the whole thing herself. I am insisting on doing the actual sewing part myself--for the protection of my already abused machine--but she tells me what goes where and with what so I just follow her orders. Wonder where she gets such strong opinions at six years old??

 

I wanted to ask: doesn't it look just like her?? But maybe I should say, doesn't it look like the creation of a typical pink and princess obsessed first grader who also happens to have me as a mom?? The back:

 

Sigh. Such a big girl.

   

etsy update

Mexican Papal Amate Journal - SOLD *

Looking for a last minute gift for a dear friend? Expecting that you won't actually get the things you really want for Christmas unless you buy them yourself? Hoping to get started with visual journaling in the new year or just need a new journal for a fresh new year? Well, guess what! I've got you covered and I've listed some new handmade journals in my Etsy shop just for you. 

 

I've got several different styles listed including my personal favorite file folder journal that I showed you here. The only difference between these new journals and the one I use myself--besides their original designs, of course--is that these journals are already bound.

 

I love the coil binding because it drives me nuts when my journal doesn't lay flat. Also, these are a great larger size to give you plenty of room for writing, doodling and adding photos or collage. Every page has a little something special to inspire your creativity. So, go have a look and don't forget to check out the fabric garlands that I've relisted, too!

 

 

*ETA: I will be making more papel amate journals in the new year and can't wait to tell you more about them!  If you are interested in reserving one now, please email me or convo me through my Etsy shop. Thanks!

   

bragging rights

 

I haven't bragged on my kids for a while, and with the holidays coming I've been feeling quite tender toward the noisy creatures, so I thought I would for a change. Like most kids, they both love drawing, coloring, and making things. And as you can imagine, our house is full of art books, pictures, pens of every color, and papers of all shapes and sizes including mounds of drawing paper that is replenished almost weekly. Soren and Maisey have both been keeping visual journals/notebooks/scrapbooks since they started school and almost daily we add to them with writing, drawings, cut outs or whatever else they chose to express what they're learning and are interested in. We make pages on the places we've traveled (near and far), books we've read, words we've learned, and pictures in our heads. They love looking through and working in their journals even outside of school time. Someday if anyone is interested, I can give you some examples of their pages which are pretty impressive for a 6 and 8 year old. But mostly, art is just part of our everyday lives. Something we all do throughout the day--and I hope it stays that way. I've talked about some of our joint art projects but for the most part we don't do a lot of arts & crafts together, surprisingly. They have their own idea of art and so do I and they are not particularly interested in learning how to do anything. 'How' seems to come naturally. Sometimes we work side by side at the school/art table but mostly that's it.

 

 

Soren is almost never interested in what I'm doing creatively, but Maisey usually wants to be doing whatever I'm doing or, to be more accurate, use whatever I'm using. So she has her own stash of fabric and paper scraps, ephemera and oddities she's collected to use in her 'projects'. Soren's pretty much a paper and pencil type of guy (Like his mom, he is a scavenger and collects 'treasures' like old pieces of metal, bottle caps and rocks but they don't much enter his art at this point), but Maisey's creations incorporate all kinds of things and are rarely just crayon on paper.

 

Onto the bragging part: some recent Maisey creations, age 6:

Evidently, flat paper is boring but elaborately folded paper squares are cool.

 

A little something she whipped up for her Daddy when she heard he was on his way home from work early.

A sweet gift for me using some of her newest treasures. I'm daily blessed with gifts of art from my generous little girl. They often come after she's just been disciplined, like this one she brought to me yesterday:

A handmade envelope with rolled up note and gift tag. The rolled up note (meant to butter me up and lessen her sentence, no doubt, but still charming):

And inside the envelope, two paint sample cards she has collected:

Not surprisingly, Maisey wants to take Mary Ann's online class with me and Mary Ann has generously offered to let her audit. I have to admit that Maisey was a bit pissed, after waiting for days, when the class started on Tuesday and she wasn't able to finish her journal that same day. We're learning the value of patience. But she's got all her supplies ready.

 

And she was pleased to at least get started on her journal cover, with absolutely no help from Mom-- no way!

 

 

Oh, this is going to be fun! Guess I better get started on my cover before she shows me up.
 

groping for the merry & bright

Two sick kids, no Internet service, a seemingly endless string of damp and cloudy days--have all made life ever so painful around here. Today I'm thankful to be back online, have hidden some chocolate in my purse last week, the last bit of a bottle of wine, and the hope that tomorrow will be better somehow.

Thank you to Flickr for providing some brightness to my weary day. In case you need a little pick me up, too:

 

1. beata's crochet pillow cases, 2. cate colored ornaments :: a freebie by lori joy smith, 3. Mensagem de Natal / Christmas message, 4. Cherry Blosson Shawl, 5. Untitled, 6. Day 364: On The Verge of Something Great, 365 Days of Being 30, 7. Metal Bottle Cap Flowers ~ 1 of 2 photos, 8. gris-gris, 9. Ars Combinatoria nr. 2 / 30, 10. prayer flags : in progress, 11. brincos 1037, 12. art journal in progress...., 13. Untitled, 14. | Colecção Outono/Inverno 2009 |, 15. Red Pieced & Applique Collage Sweater Scarf, 16. Preview LeiLiLaLoo fall line

the real scoop

Sitting down at the computer, I'm at a loss for what to say. In most ways, it has been the same old thing around here: keeping up with school, counting down the days till Christmas, making more stuff than I know what to do with. But on the other hand, it's all new territory: anxiously waiting to sell the house, fighting uselessly to keep the house constantly clean--just in case, wondering when our fresh start is actually going to happen. I guess I'm thankful to be able to create and keep myself busy while we wait, but the waiting is about to get a whole lot harder, and that's really all I can think about.

In less than 2 weeks, my bff is leaving. Moving several states North to get a jump on enjoying a real Winter for a change. Our families have been planning this move for a while and, to be honest, I'm just being impatient losing sight of the bigger picture here. But there's this part of me that wants to throw myself on the ground kicking and screaming, "But I wanna go, tooooooo!!" It's with a bit of irony that I can never resist using the term 'bff' when I talk about Shannon. First, I'm a grown woman and not a teeny bopper and, second, I never imagined that I'd actually have anyone other than my husband who even came close to qualifying as a best friend. Without a doubt, I have been blessed to call some amazing, wonderful people 'friend' but I'm really not so good in the friend department myself. Meeting Shannon was a blessing I could never ever deserve.

So, for the next 2 weeks, we're going to be spending as much time with our friends as possible but after that I'm going to need some serious distraction to make it through the holidays and the first of the year. Hopefully, it won't be much longer than that! I've already decided on one distraction I'm seriously looking forward to: taking one of Mary Ann's classes--yippee! See, I've already been gathering supplies and cutting out MA's supercool journaling toys. It's going to be a good thing. My new journal will either keep me really busy or give me a pretty place to drown my sorrows.