WOYWW #181--Stitching and Journaling

It's another edition of What's-On-Your-Workdesk-Wednesday, and it's first thing in the morning here in the Ozarks, a little cold, sunny, and I am sipping my coffee and looking at my gelatos, (I know, they kind of look like chapsticks) and wishing I had some time at my craft table--I love a morning at my craft table. And I love playing with these creamy colors...they saturate in color, and you can add a little water and turn them into watercolor, or use them to ink up a clear stamp, or run them along the edge of a cutout, tag or page. So fun!

On my big ole leather lapdesk is my stitching--it goes all over the house sometimes. I'm stitching up little Christmas trees on aida to become cards, and working on the pocket kitties!

Our lovely host, Mrs. Dunnit, lives across the pond, and you can visit the desks and worktables of beautiful crafters around the planet right here.

Today I have Zumba Gold class--lots o dancing--a lot of work at my office, and soon I'll be right back here, working on my projects. Crafty hugs to you!

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch.

Sunday Threads

"I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted."
JOB 42:2

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my lovely blogger buddies! Today I am wishing for you health, happiness, peace, and joy. Keep doing what you love, and growing in whatever you do.

Today I am roasting a big juicy turkey, and having the family over for a big Thanksgiving lunch. There will be lots of leftovers for Friday and Saturday too! We are already decorating for Christmas, and this weekend I'll bake the gingerbread pieces for the gingerbread houses.

Enjoy your family, friends, and time together!

Eat well, Write your novel, Dream boldly, Stitch up some happiness.

WOYWW #181 - A Happy Place

 Happy Turkey Week Lovelies--I hope your work desks are busy, happy, creative getaways for you! In the midst of housecleaning, list making and grocery shopping for our big celebration this week, I try to snatch moments of creative calm at my work table.

I couldn't get a decent sunny picture of it, to save my life, so I did snap some of the projects laying around on it.

I finished this little watercolor for the sole purpose of a fun cover for my Smash art journal.

Then I quickly moved on to my newest thing--pocket kitties! I'm embroidering them and stitching them up for various gifts and things this season. Fun!

I'm also sharing some happy plants on my greenhouse--my Christmas cactus is beginning to explode in full bloom...such a wonderful time of year for this plant! And then my Italian flat leaf parsley is a happy camper where I potted her up in an old mixing bowl--love having handy herbs on the greenhouse for my cooking. I'll be stuffing some fresh rosemary in my turkey on Thursday! Yum! On Thanksgiving my family loves roast turkey, stuffing, big rolls, potatoes, and spoon corn bread! My mom makes her pumpkin pie, and there will be cream pies too--but secretly, I'm looking forward to Friday morning pumpkin pie and coffee for breakfast! Then a little Black Friday shopping at the mall.

Making pocket kitties

my dark and sunny streaked table

Flat leaf parsley planted in a mixing bowl

My beloved Christmas Cactus!

Crafty hugs to you all!

Visit our lovely host, Mrs. Dunnit right here to join in on Whats-On-Your-Workdesk-Wednesday--the best blog party on the planet!

 Eat, Write, Dream, and Stitch Yourself Happy!

Sunday Threads

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10

Art Journal Fridays -- A Therapeutic Collage

I do believe that making a collage can be therapeutic, and your art journal is the perfect place to create little collages. Here's the story behind this one. A few weeks ago, I was cleaning out a box of cards and papers, and I ran across something that took me off guard. 

I had a long writing career at an ad agency, and toward the end, a lot of us, who were over 45 especially, got dumped. I don't talk about this often, and I know it happens all the time, but it is what it is: kinda crummy. Pretty much the next day, I got myself up, dusted myself off, and started all over again, never looking back.

So what did I find that brought all those memories back? Well the truth is, I have wonderful memories of working there--it was a fantastic 15 years of my life. I just didn't like how they ended it, and what I found in that box was a stack of company cards. Our agency, in those last few years of decline, was notoriously reinventing itself and trying to position a cutting-edge image, and they had created a little deck of cards with all of their positioning statements. The employees each received these cards, and we were to commit to memory all the things our agency stood for and would do for our clients.

I didn't know why I still had these stupid  cards! So, I sat at my craft table, and I cut them up. Now that's the cutting edge thing I should have done six years ago, but I was doing it now, and it really felt good! Instead of throwing all these card scraps away, or starting a bonfire, I made a collage in my art journal. The truth is, I dearly loved my company and all my friends there, and I wanted a memorial page, now that I had enjoyed shredding these things! I told one of my former co-workers about it, and she loved this idea!

I came back to this page a few times, and just kept layering on other things, like clothes tags, paint chips, stamps and gelatos, until I was finished with it. I like it. Unless you knew what the original cards said, you would probably not be able to decipher what is what.

But every time I look at it, I know what it all means. And I feel like laughing.

That's what art journaling is all about.

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch, and paint up your past.

WOYWW #180 -- Suddenly, I'm a Painter!

Happy What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday lovelies! It really does make Wednesday one of my favorite days of the week now! I love seeing your workspaces, and hearing from you too.

Show us your workdesk and link up here at Julia's blog party.

When you've made yourself a special place in the world to go create things, it really can become magical to the point that you sat down, believing yourself to be a sewist and a cross-stitcher, and you arose realizing that you're also a painter, and an art journalist!

Saturday was my birthday, and it was a perfect, sunny, 70-degree day here in the Ozarks. I did my favorite things: went out shopping with my family, ate at Olive Garden, and hung out in the afternoon at Barnes & Noble. Later, watched the sunset, and was still too full for dinner!

My lobster cannaloni at Olive Garden--yum!!

This is a little Instagram picture I took of my lunch that day!

One of the things I bought was a pretty little watercolor palatte--they let me double coupon it at Michaels that day, so I got a super great price--a little over two dollars. And the watercolors flow beautifully.

So, the next day, and the day after that, I painted. I painted and painted. So fun. It started out to be for my art journal, but then, I just kept going! Fun!

My desk in the morning darkness.

New acrylic paints

And the butterfly scarf continues!

Eat, WRITE a novel this month, Dream, Stitch.

Here's my progress in NanoWrimo as of Tuesday.

Sunday Threads

Come now let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

Isaiah 1:18

Art Journal Fridays - Happy Wife Happy Life

The pages in my Art Journal all began with a snapshot, and a piece of used typewriter ribbon. The words reversed out on the ribbon are Happy Wife Happy Life. Love that!

I saw a technique that Julie Fei-Fan Balzer demonstrated on Scrapbook Soup, so I wanted to try it. I used torn pieces from a very old novel found at a flea market. Used white acrylic to paint/glue them right onto the page, and then white wash over them. After that, you can layer, paint more, color, whatever you wish.

Whitewashing over torn pages

This is a very doodly page--what I love to do.

This side of my Smash book was fun to layer into with my photo, torn old  typewriter ribbon, some white produce netting, a little cross-stitch heart on sparkly burlap aida, some paint chips with names I love, wassi tape, stamping, a piece of toile fabric, and a clothing tag I paint doodled.

A peaceful heart.

Eat, WRITE a novel this month, Dream, Stitch

Progress on the Novel

I am really having fun with NanoWrimo this year! I have not quit--still going! Here is a screenshot from my stats on the NanoWrimo.org website, so you can see how I'm doing. Happy writing today--I have some crafting and art journaling plans for the weekend, and my birthday on Saturday. Woo hoo - 52!

EAT, WRITE A NOVEL THIS MONTH, DREAM OF PUBLISHING IT, STITCH

WOYWW #179 - Watercolors

I hope you have a happy work table today, and are truly using that crafty time to relax, express what's on your mind, and experiment a little. 

Julia Dunnit helps us visit lovely work tables around the world right here at What's On Your Workdesk Wednesdays.

One of the things I love about art journaling is using my journal to try out new products and ideas. I had bought a pretty watercolor palette of metallic colors--didn't know how they would turn out. But I love them! I was playing around to create a fun page to come back and journal on later, and the metallic watercolors are still shimmery and sparkly when they dry! They dry fast too. I used my heart stencil for this little lady's face, and then decided I wanted my journaling lines up in her rainbow hair.

So glad I discovered these watercolor paint brushes that you can fill with water, and not worry about a messy cup of water to dip in. Instead, you just squeeze. Wish they had made these when I was little!

So, about ten minutes later, here is what these pages are looking like. I love to keep coming back to art journal pages to layer things on! 
Not much progress on the butterfly scarf this week--I travelled this weekend, and I'm doing NanoWrimo [National Novel Writing Month] at NanoWrimo.org. If you write at least a 50,000 word novel by the end of November, you're a winner! And you probably have a story on your hands--several nanowrimoers have been published.
So this month it's NanoWrimo, knitting, my angels, Christmas cards, and the gingerbread house! Woo hoo! And here's a little snapshot from Halloween last week of my sweet daughter and two nephews, I think my sister is in the background there--I forgot to take a good picture of our chili buffet! But trust me...very yummy. And I showed my family the lovely things LLJ made for me, and they were so excited to see these beautiful handmade items from across the pond! (go back a few WOYWW's if you haven't seen what I'm talking about.) They oo'hd and ahhh'd.

Halloween night was trick-or-treating, big family chili buffet, watching The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, fresh brownies from the oven and lots of laughter with family.

Eat, WRITE a novel this month, Dream, Stitch.

Have Your Say Today in the USA

A Suffragette

Today Americans decide who will run our country for the next four years. My 18-year-old daughter got to vote in her first presidential election. She was excited, and reminded me how important it was, especially, for women to vote. Once upon a time, women fought for this issue--the right to vote. My voting precinct is at a church down the street--and I'm headed there now to have my say! Happy voting Tuesday everyone! Another great thing about this day is that tomorrow, we won't have to see all those nasty political ads polluting our screens!

Sunday Threads

As long as the earth remains, there will  be springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night.

Genesis 8:22

NanoWrimo - Here I Come!

November is National Novel Writing Month. When you join NanoWrimo at www.nanowrimo.org, you are making a commitment to write 50,000 words this month. The whole point is to focus on the pure output, and leave the editing and worries to December and beyond.

If you love to write, it's fun! Although it's a challenge, even though all that is required of you is pure writing, it is good for you in so many ways. For one, you have to write every day. When you write every day, you become a better writer. Period. If you love to write AND art journal, like I do, your journaling even gets better. Also, you may end up with a real novel on your hands. That's exciting! Even if you start this out and do not know what you are doing, if you write every day, and write 50,000 words this month, you will have a story.

I write in my very own genre, called StitchLit, because most of my bigger works have been about stitchers! I can't help it...I write what I like.

My daughter, also a writer, is taking on this challenge with me, and she is doing quite well already. So, off I go to catch up with her! I fear this may infringe on some of my crafty time this month--but I hope not too much. I still have to stitch, play with paper, and color something every day! In the meantime, I will try and keep you updated on my NanoWrimo progress--even if I quit!

Eat, WRITE, Dream, Stitch

Art-Journal-Every-Day Fridays--Marigolds in the Mail

Marigolds are the guardians of the garden--I plant them around tomatoes, herbs, and veggies to help other plants stay healthy. Once upon a time I was an advertising copywriter, and the catfood product I wrote for contained antioxidants, including marigold extract! I thought that was cool, and imagined to myself that everytime I pruned my marigolds, the antioxidants were getting into my system!

My husband has an interesting stamp collector stash, and gave me all these marigold stamps--so I made a bouquet, right in my art journal, to remind me of all the special hours I've spent in my garden, communing with the marigolds. Happy Friday!

Eat. Write, Dream, Stitch, and stop to smell the marigolds! It's healthy!

Joseph's Favorite Attitude

A cat pours his body on the floor like water. 
It is restful just to see him.
William Lyon Phelps

Okay...he's not fat...just fluffy. I had to share his favorite pose--he lays like this all the time!

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch, Purr