Hi,
I have been working and that is a good thing. there is a bit os a down side though, and that is that I get soooooo tired that I forget to come to my blog and find my positive note for the day :(.

I have found the most wonderful scrapbooking shop very close to my home and the lady that owns it is really nice and down to earth. You can check out her new web site at http://www.amothersart.com.au/ . The articles that she sells are from Australian companies, yay.

I don't scrapbook as such. I like paper and there are so many lovely, yummy papers out there. What I do use them for is to create junk journals and the like using exercise books and old note books. The books turn out okay but then I don't want to use them in case I spoil them......agh. There is a video on YouTube by Tangie Baxter that is a really good introduction and the idea of putting in the ribbon to help support the spine is brilliant. I think that my project would have fallen apart long ago if not for that great hint.
This is one of my work in progress pages:-

This is a page that I sprayed with a home made spray paint and a Glimmer Mist. Unfortuneately the scan doesnt show the sparkle of the Glimmer Mist.
To make the spray paint I purchased a spray bottle from the toiletries section of the local thrift shop and then squeezed in a whole tube of cheap watercolour paint. The pigment is not as strong as in the artist quality and so I used the whole tube. I then added water until the consistencty was right for spraying. The colour I have used here is a burnt sienna.
The pages stretched with the moisture and when they dried the page was all crinkly and makes a crackly sound when you move it. I am thinking that I will have to write on this page with a biro because a felt tip pen would probably seep through to the other side.....but then I could glue a piece of scrap book paper to the other side...mmmm food for thought.
Anyway give it a try.
I hope that you have a wonderful day.

Louise

Moving On

Has it really been nearly three weeks.
Like I said 'Time and tide.....'. but truely I have been working and I have been sooooo tired after work that I have nearly fallen asleep eating my tea (or dinner, well whichever meal you have in the evening about 7:00pm). The work involves standing all day, something I am very not used to, so I am very tired at the end of my shift.

A bonus is that I have received my very first pay in such a long time. I actually have money to spend. I have to treat myself to some new clothes seeing that I have lost 20 kgs and so none of my clothes fit-except for the few that I have bought on my journey to the lighter me.

Last weekend I spent some time getting some new brushes for Photoshop. There are so many amazingly talented people out there. I was very pleasantly surprised by their generousity in sharing their creations for free. Thankyou so much to all those people.

My employment is of a casual nature so I'm not quite sure what my shift will be until close to the day that I will be working. So I suppose that at the moment I have the best of both worlds in that I have an income and I have time to follow my creative side as well.

I know that I may have gotten on my soapbox before about this but being positive about the world does seem to bring the positive events, matters, life, etc to you. I was told that one should not look at an event as being the final end. I think that the saying was 'One door closes and a window opens.' Opportunity needs you to let it come in. Being positive about the world is opening yourself up to that opportunity. Whether by being positive you are opening a door or a window it doesn't matter. (A thought: If the window doesn't open straight away, you have the opportunity to redecorate the room you are in.......It depends on how you want to look at it.)

I hope that the world is being good to you.
Lou

How quickly time flies.

Goodness I hadn't realised how quickly time passes until I looked at the date on my last entry.
Time really does go on and the old saying 'Time and tide wait for no man.' is oh so true.

I have been admiring the art journal pictures that are on Flickr. The photos are truely inspiring and there are soooooo many to look at I really didn't know where to start. Thank goodness Flickr gives you options as to which of the photos best meet what you are looking at in its choices of  'Relevent', 'Recent' and 'Interesting' (Top left corner of the screen). I generally go for the ones that are recent because then I don't have to wade through photos that I have seen before to get to look at something new.

There are so many talented people in the world. I feel that if you gave several people a piece of paper, a pencil and a packet of crayons and asked them to illustrate the way they felt about what makes them happy you would end up with so many different results. Not just in the fact that each person has a different idea of what makes them happy but also the many different ways that each person would use those tools given to them. The most amazing tool being the one that God gave you - your brain.

I love creating. For me it isn't just art or one craft or another as I tend to switch from one to the other depending on the mood that I am in.
Some days I will be an avid cross-stitcher the next up to my arm pits in glue and scrap paper.........My other half doesn't know which craft or what I will be doing next. Good to keep him on his toes.(giggle). Actually I really do appreciate his tolerance.

I generally use my art journal as a place to get things off my chest. It could come under the heading of raw art journalling as I tend not to hide my feelings under paint or collage. The reason that I do this is so that I can go back and look at what has changed in my life and, with the benefit of hind sight, be able to look at my self and what my attitudes where at the time and how I have changed since then.
For example, a while ago my other half told me to go on a trip to see my brother. My reaction was 'He wants to get me out of his hair', 'I am annoying him','He wants to be rid of me'. I wrote all of this in my journal and thought that he didn't love me anymore. The truth was he had noticed that I had been a bit down and that he thought that a visit to my brother would cheer me up. He was also worried that I was not going to come back because he was worried that I didn't love him anymore. Looking back on what I had written at that time I can see what had made me feel that way and realise that I was lacking in my communication with my other half.
There have been a lot of matters that I have worried about. I have found that if I write about those matters and what my reaction to the event is then I am able to get a better understanding of myself. It sounds cliche but it is true.
I do encourage anyone to grab a visual journal from BigW or KMart, there are several sizes - I tend to go for the 'Derwent' A5 size- and to start drawing, painting and writing in that book. It may not be your cup-of-tea, in which case you have not spent a great deal of money on a 'Moleskine' and you wont feel guilty about spending money on something that you don't like. If you do enjoy the process and the results then you can proceed to the dearer books if you want.

If you would like to read more on the subject of Art Journaling have a look at Zom Osborne's blog 'pinch me to see if you're dreaming'. There are links there to another post about the allure of all the 'cool stuff' that is being offered so that you can create the 'perfect page' and how it doesn't expand creativity but hinder it. I am so glad I had a look.
I hope that this has helped.

Have a really good day.
Lou

Day 11 20th May

Tonight I am not feeling very well so I will make this quite short.

I am still working on the picture that I want to put into the festival art show.

My other half and I put together my new computer desk. It is so much easier to use my computer now and that is my good thing for today.

I hope that your day has been good.
Lou

Day 9 and 10, 18th May and 19th May

I know that you are not supposed to be able to stuff up a piece of ZIA but I think that I may have done a really big booboo on the one that I was doing for the festival. Note to self - do not try and draw late at night. So from this I have learned that it is not good to try and rush things especially when I am tired.

Two good things happened yeaterday (18th May) I bumped into my cousin while in town and we had a really good catch up. It was really good to see her. The other good thing was that I was able to talk to my daughter and my twin grandsons. My little granddaughter is a bit small to be able to talk on the phone just yet but hearing news about her is just wonderful.

This morning (19th May) it is raining. I was hoping to get the washing done today and put it on the line in the sunshine but from the look of things I will be hanging the damp clothes on the line in the sunroom. The laundry and the sunroom are on the same level so at least I wont be running up and down stairs.

I had been thinking of attending a class to become a Certified Zentangle Teacher however I have found the way in which the classes are delivered has made obtaining such qualifications completely out of my grasp.

To become  a CZT you need to attend a workshop conducted by  the originators of the Zentangle process Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. These workshops to qualify for certification are only held by Rick and Maria and no-one else. These workshops are only held in the USA. Not even other CZTs are able to give these workshops to be able to have other people become CZT's.

I can understand that Rick and Maria would like to maintain control of the development of Zentangle. However, it does also give the impression that you can only have these qualifications if you are a citizen of the USA or are rich and have the resources to be able to attend these classes or both.

Something that does worry me in this is that what happens when Rick and Maria are no longer able to conduct the workshop?

Like, The Ragged Edge, I too would love to be able to be a CZT but it seems very unlikely in the forseeable future. I would love to teach others how to do this wonderful, relaxing art form. I think that I still will teach what I know.

Just looking through what I have written and there is a bit of a down note there. Sorry.

Have a wonderful day.
Lou

Day 8 17th May

On the news tonight there was a report about people being scammed out of money through answering questions for a so-called survey, then getting a phone call from someone suppossedly from Microsoft saying that there was a problem with your computer and they needed your permission to access the computer. It doesn't matter if you say yes or no they will start to access the computer and will leave your computer useless. What a bunch of ......I can't think of anything that I could compare them too because I do not want to insult whatever comparison I make. E.g. If I say that they were rats I feel quite sure that the rats would be insulted.

So anyway, people please be wary.

Today there were a few positives. I finished one of my drawings and I started on the one that I will be entering in the festival art show.....nervous. The dog did not start barking at the crack of dawn (actually he starts barking before the crack of dawn) and I actually had a bit of a sleep in...yay.

I have been reading Taking Flight by Kelly Rae Roberts and I have just come to the first set of questions. I have hit a big hurdle in that you have to write down your creative dreams. This is a bit hard for me because I really don't know what my dreams are so I think that I will go and ponder the questions on that page and hopefully be able to unearth long forgotten dreams be they creative dreams or just the ones that I once had a long time ago that need a bit of an airing. What I have read so far is quite interesting and easy to read. Worth having a look at if you are having a creative block.

I hope that you are safe and well.
Lou

Day 7 16th May

Not sure what happened yesterday but I didn't get around to writing anything down.....mmm note to self - this is okay.

I have a couple of my pictures, drawings that I would like to share with you.

This one is of a millipede/catapillar type of creature that is showing you what makes me happy.

The next one is of a piece of 'zentangle inspired art'. I like doing these as they are relaxing in the actual execution of the pattern but sometimes I get a bit stressed about what pattern should go where.

I think that the shading in these gives them the 3D quality.
In my first attempts I was only using the pencil and then blending the shadow with my finger. I was not all that happy with the results so today I tried using a blending stump and the results are so much better. I don't know if it is because you push the graphite more into the paper with the stump but the result is just so good.

The good things about today. It was a beautiful day weather wise. I had a nice hot cup of coffee at the cafe and had a bit of time while it cooled to work on another pattern in my ZIA (zentangle inspired art).

A book that I had ordered a few weeks ago arrived. It is Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists, by Carla Sonheim. I haven't had a chance to have a really good look at it so I will be doing that later on tonight.

I hope that you have had something good in your day.
Lou

Day 5

Well yesterday I had some really cool news but could not blog about it because of Blogger being down so I will have to let you know about yesterday's positive today as well as the positive from today.

Yesterday morning I braved the predawn temperatures to have a look at the planetary allignment. It is totally amazing and if you have the chance to have a look, do it. I did try to take some photos but unfortunately my photos did not turn out all that well.

Later this month the town where I live will be hosting a festival and I had spoken to my other half about entering the Art Competition with one of my drawings. He has told some of our friends so there is a bit of pressure there for me to get my act together and do what I said I would do and not be a 'gunna' (as in 'I'm gunna do this' or 'I'm gunna do that'). So even though there is pressure there I think that this is a positive as I am going to have to put myself out there and prove to myself that I can exhibit my art and maybe other people will like what I make. I'm not on my computer at the moment so I will post a photo of one of my drawings tomorrow night.

I hope that you have had a wonderful day and I really would like to hear about it.
Lou

Day 3 Thursday

Today was really bright and sunny, just a little coolish this morning. We are getting closer to winter so one has to expect the temperatures to drop.

We had a load of firewood delivered last Sunday (Mothers' Day) from a fellow we had not bought wood from before. Today was cool enough in the house to be able to put on the fire and see what the new wood was like. Glad to say that it burns brilliantly and throws quite a bit of heat. It did get a bit stuffy but opening a few doors and windows fixed that. Mind you the doors and windows were closed promptly once the sun went down and the temperature began to drop.

The cat was quite happy to get close to the fireplace but he wasn't very impressed when we opened the fireplace door to put on more wood.

Today I think that I would have to say my positives were having a really nice cup of coffee at the coffee shop, finding that the wood burns well and having a lovely day weather-wise.

I hope that your day has been great.

Lou

Day 2

The day has been really bright and sunny. No rain and pleasantly cool and dry. Normally around here there is really high humidity and the temperatures in the high twenties low thirties (degrees celcius) so today has been good.

I have worked on the painting/drawing that I am doing for my daughter for her birthday. It will be a bit late but the positive is that it is a bit closer to completion. It, the drawing, is a Zentangle(R) type of drawing. Although those drawings look easy once you get to doing one on a larger scale they do take a bit of time to complete. I like how the basic black of the pen and the white of the paper create a wonderful array of designs and shades of grey. It reminds me of the blackwork embroidery that is on Elizabethan clothing.

I have a collection of samples and instructions in a book that is now bulging with the amount of paper that I have pasted in it. (All of the copyright belong to the respective owner's). I find it easier to keep my samples in a book than trying to look up information on the computer. Flipping through the pages I seem to be able to find what I am looking for much quicker than on the computer. (Does this give my age away?)

I hope that your day has been good.
Lou

A New Day

Okay, this is the first time that I have tried to do this, blogging that is so this is a bit daunting. (Any tips or tricks that you have found along the way would be welcomed.)

Anyway, my idea is to try to find at least one good thing that happens a day and write about it here. I thought that there is so much emphasis placed on all of the bad things that are happening that it would be good to have something positive for a change.

Now my idea is that there is something bright, cheerful and positive in each day whether it is that I finally have a hot cup of tea or the dog doesn't wake me up at 4:45am barking at non-existant threats (that would be good as he starts barking as soon as my other half drives off to go to work and often the car isn't in second gear yet :( ).

I don't want to have things like someone getting killed or being hurt as this impacts on someone else in a negative way and the idea is to be positive.....so if I digress please let me know.

The positive for today is that I found out how to load more brushes into my Photoshop. I thought that when I loaded Photoshop onto my new computer I had lost them but I had missed a step and now I know what that step is (and I have written it into my Photoshop instruction book that I have created) I hope that I wont have that problem again :).

Have a wonderful day and be safe.
Lou