Honeysuckle to Gettysburg

Last Saturday Oliver's mummy called me to see if I wanted to do a day trip to Gettysburg, PA. I started to say no, I had laundry, grocery shopping, some crafting deadlines, and I had not taken my shower yet from tennis playing that morning. All at once I thought of the essay Erma Bombeck wrote, "If I Had My Life to Live Over":

"I would have talked less and listened more. I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded. I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace..."

You get the drift - I did - I said YES, I will let the other chores wait for tomorrow but one day with my nephew pup in Gettysburg might not come again. It was HOT - we were in a heat wave - but all four of us survived: Oliver, his daddy, his mummy, and me, his auntie. We did the auto tour of the battleground and got out of the car and looked at monuments, Oliver did his job on some of the monuments but out of respect.... you can't stop him in mid stream - you know!

He did enjoy this trip - more and more monuments to explore, butterflies to chase, little flowers to sniff. How can you not have a happy day - heat wave or not - with this little guy. Since Oliver's daddy and mummy are from Florida, daddy was very proud when he found the Florida monument in tribute to the Floridians who fought at the Battle of Gettysburg. Oliver did baptise the monument after this and daddy did get a photo of that.

We did go into the town and found a wonderful scrapbook store - Forevermore Scrapbooks. Check it out. The Gettysburg dye cuts are amazing and done on site. I was impressed, very impressed. The owner's son does them and you can probably get whatever you want. We tried to find a cafe with outdoor seating so little O could eat with us but we had to drive back to Sterling and ended up eating at GloryDays around 8:00pm.

Great trip and guess what -- I got every thing done on Sunday! So the moral of this little blog entry:

Chores can wait! Get out and do some living and some stuff you love. The laundry will get done when you get to it. Embrace the day. Be the "king" or "queen" of your own road! Oliver Rules.

Loveliness in Honeysuckle Breeze

The PaperWhimsy Quotes Challenge showed up last Sunday and it has taken me all week to think on it. First of all it is a "pink" theme which is beautiful. The Hilda Conkling poem short:

Loveliness that dies when I forget

Comes alive when I remember.

Once again, you had to use several items in your collage: 1) a word or phrase from the poem; 2) a flower; 3) a butterfly; 4) a trim; 5) a 3-D element; and 6) one other PaperWhimsy image. Please note (you will know why I am pointing this out) that the 3-D element must "be something that you consider to be particularly lovely."

The one theme that was haunting me was "remember." I had a PW image of two young boys who looked like they were in WWI uniforms (it was probably boy scouts) but once I focused on WWI, I knew where I was going with this them. It was a little out-of-the-box. WWI and pink don't necessarily mesh. I printed off a photo of my Grandfather in his WWI uniform and the rest, like they say is history.

You will notice my 3-D element -- yes it is a rusty safety pin. I found it a number of months ago on the ground by the trash container in our parking lot. I love the rusty feel and look of this pin and in my mind it is very very lovely. I also found a long lost eyelet with the word "father" on it to continue the theme.

I printed my Grandfather's photo out several times and finally decided to use the vellum photo. To me it gave an eerily look to the piece. The poem page took no time and I wanted to keep it simple so the eye will go to the collage piece when finally laid out in a book form. Need to get these loaded onto the PW site and then go cook dinner. Have a good week!

Another PW Rolodex Card done!

Things are moving along here in Honeysuckle Breeze. Spring is kind of springing between the rain, cold weather, breezy - really breezy, a nice warming trend just beginning. Yup, things are moving along here.

Don't know if I mentioned that I joined "team tennis" and I played my first game last night. It was fun and my worst fears did not HAPPEN - like I was the worst player on my team. I love my team they are really nice. I played both doubles and mixed doubles and although we lost I felt I played well.

One little note here -- it was cold last night while playing -- 48 degrees. I did wear a tennis shorty skirt but left my black sports pants on..... like I mentioned - a warming trend is coming my way.

OK - I finished Rolodex card # 2. This one is called Nest. I used one of my favorite PaperWhimsy image. Besides the face I love the bird. My goal on at these is to use "four letter" words. So far so good.

As you can see another thread holding this theme together is the use of the dictionary page on the back of the card and my little avatar I use in the PW forums.

Now it is time to move onto card # 3. Not sure if this will be "Pout" or "Chic" - will see when I first of all pick out the image. Off to make dinner and get to my creative outlet for tonight -- PW Rolodex Card. Think Spring!

Hmmmmmmmm Good!

God bless the Amish. I just finished going through 10 days with the Amish Cinnamon Bread baggie. Last night I made the bread with fingers crossed that I would have enough ingredients in my little condo to finish the job that was started. First of all I am not a baker. The first attempt at baking by myself in high school resulted in my fingers caught in the electric mixer blades. Enough said. Mother did not get her birthday cake.

Flash forward to present day: I have lost my fear of electric mixers. Whewww.

Anyway, if you get a chance to receive one of the these starter bags. . . go for it. The bread is to die for... I now have four starter bags to give away and three half loafs (OK, I kept a half).... I did the baking. Have a wonderful cinnamon kind of day this Wednesday. Think Sugar, sweeties! Think Sugar!

Just remember, HMMMMMMMM, good.

What I'm Working On.......

First of all before we go into a dialogue on what I'm working on..... I have to let you know that my little puppy nephew, Oliver, has his own blog known as "It's All About The Little White Dog." I can't believe it! He is absolutely just like so talented. And I am not just another doting auntie. I am Auntie M! Had I been home yesterday instead of with my bud Claudine, Oliver would have come over for the day. But he will be over soon. In the meantime......

Over at PaperWhimsy, I have started a new venture in addition to the Quote Challenge. A Rolodex card trade. I love my Rolodex since one my favorite artist and friend, Korie, got me started on it a year or so ago (time goes so fast it could have been two years ago). She has posted our efforts throughout the adventure on her blog under Rolodex cards. You can see some over there on her We Will Always Have Paris blog.

Back to PaperWhimsy (again), the theme is alphabet cards and we have to 1) include a letter; 2) do both sides of the card with side two being upside down; 3) use one PaperWhimsy image; 4) any of the other PW ribbons, flowers, small mirrors, etc; and 5) use nothing bulky. Side two also should have "artist" information... I guess that would be me.

Today after tennis, I started my very first one and am using a PaperWhimsy background in purple. This is a digisheet from PW and I have it printed both on card stock and vellum. I learned the other night NEVER like NEVER use gel matte with vellum. OH NO. It was ugly. The card below is not a completed work since I am waiting on an order from PW and a few elements from a friend I met online at PW. I would like to add either a ribbon or flower. I selected the letter "D" using another PW digisheet and an image with a doll. (It was going to be D = door but I couldn't get into that...)

On the back side I decided to add my "avatar" I use over at PW. I love her. I then signed my name at the bottom and used a dictionary page defining doll. I will also probably add one more element to this side, not sure what at the moment.

I have signed up to do four cards/letters and this is my first creation. I think I may want to keep a look and am holding back on cluttering these with too much stuff which is my tendency. The slogan "Keep It Simple Stupid" was meant for me. Oh yes it was! That is such a challenge for me in my art work and I am hoping this trade will help me practice the KISS principle.

A Day with Claudine Hellmuth

What fun I had today taking a "Collage Discovery Workshop" with Claudine. I had so much fun and it was great to be able to work on techniques featured in her book, Collage Discovery. It was an easy kind-of-going day and we all worked at our own pace. We played with peeling paper and peeling paint! I loved the peeling paint when I finally got the hang of the petroleum jelly. I put a little bit too much on the first time. Do tell! Who me?

The first thing we did was to prepare our surfaces. We played with the different techniques and then used them to start our collaging. The transfer techniques were almost fool-proof - me the fool. I am like kind of transfer crippled but I managed to do a few in Claudine's class today. I like the one below since it also shows the peeled paint technique which finally worked. Background was layered with dress pattern tissue and some copied architect drawings. Then painted and then three items transferred using Claudine's Studio multi-medium matte gel. She is not done and is a work in progress.

Next I moved on to something unique for me .... "me" transferred onto copper.....now that was cool! And others thourght so too and oohh and ahhh. I managed to get a bit of the cooper that was left over from another class to experiment with and it was fun. I think I will mount it on a 4 x 4 canvas. . . and may use some big black tacks!

Thank you Claudine for a wonderful day. I am really tuckered out but not from class -- probably from an hour and a half of cardio tennis Friday night. Whewwww. My legs are killing me and tomorrow morning I play tennis at 9 am. Nope, it won't be warm like it was today - up to 78 degrees. Probably more like 55 degrees. Oh well, I will at least get some good practice in and some cardio! Will check back in with you tomorrow!

and Easter Kisses to all

Honeysuckle kisses from Oliver who visited along with his mommy and daddy for Easter Lunch. He dined on ham, green beans, salad, garlic toast, and deviled eggs. He then took a long walk and came back in time to have Raspberry Pie with ice cream.

After such an exciting afternoon in Honeysuckle Breeze Oliver had only a few words of wisdom for us all: Happy Easter to all and to all a good night!

Honeysuckle Breeze is ducting

Today - mostly all day - spring cleaning took on the chore of having the air ducts cleaned. "We" (me and me) found out last week we were going to have to get a new cooling coil which means taking the furnace out, ya da ya da, ya da..... condos are fun! And, the furnace and coil were put in the condo when built in 1994. Guess they lasted. The furnace is OK but at that age and you have to take it out, put it back in, just as easy to buy a new one. SO, they wanted to clean the ducts today before the Monday measuring and the Wednesday install. Life is fun. Why not move on to one of my favorite subjects: Murder.....



And on top of all of that I managed to get some things completed. I finished the fourth page of the "murder page" in the arch book. It took a while to come together because I wanted to use my "Jack the Ripper" guy in the whore house. But it wasn't working and I had to accept it. I like the way the pages are coming along, hope you do too.





However, I did find a use for Jack the Ripper -- in the Off the Walls Notebook. I added him to a page and will work on it later. He works, he works.....



And now boys and girls, I will show you what I have been doing to the cover. Not sure if it is finished but here it is today. I have used one stamp I purchased from Michelle Ward. I also had tried using acrylic paint on some stamps but it was too smeary and I had to just wipe it off but I like the residue it left.



This cover is called Off the Walls because of the photo i used from my 2008 MikWright wall calendar. I love this group. They have taken our old family photos and worked miracles with journaling that has me in hysterics. They are using photos that I am sure I gave away or tossed thinking I would never use them. Who knew.... Anyway my "Miss Off" photo reminds me of someone I might or might not work with. I will leave you guessing on that one. She is the embodiment of the "everyday" co-worker everyone reading this will know. There is one in every office across the world - what the hey, across the universe! Only thing I can say is "You go you Miss B-Type Personality! Always know in your heart that it drives us A-Types not only up the wall but over it!" Does anyone have a cupcake?

Street Team Crusade Challenge # 30

Yes, if it is the beginning of the month, it is time for a new crusade issued by Michelle Ward. This month the title is "Cat Got Your Tongue." Michelle states that this is a "prompt to get you to think about 'journaling,' the writing you add to a page." She then discusses how to "Use your WORDS" and "USE your Words." It is a fascinating topic for me and one I never shy away from. I kept a diary when I was 13 years old for one full year and have that diary to this day. I have always written and so journaling is nothing new to me. I also don't hate my handwriting which I hear a lot of us talk about as a reason for not using handwriting in our art work.

I have several examples already of my journaling that I have used in different notebooks and my "Painted Page" journal done at Michelle's workshop in May 2008. I had to show you a photo of Michelle at work - it is a wonder to behold when she is lost in the creation!

So, let's start with my Painted Page journal that I love working in and have used for a number of these challenges:

I call the left had side the "Druid Tree." These two pages were painted at the workshop and then worked on at home.

The story about the Druid Tree is one I made up, the title, "The Tree and the Druid," I found in an old murder mystery book.

The next page was also done at the workshop. Michelle gave us some really cool tags! When I got home, I was playing with the page and filled in specifics on the tag....

I am awed with artists who can write all over the page and in circles - yes I am awed and I know we have a number of artists in these crusades who can do this. I don't work that way. In other journals I just add images and then just start . . . These two pages are not close together but both deal with karma in one way or another. In the first page below I spelled out Karma using the Tim Holtz distressables doodads.

I travel with a dedicated small visual journal for trips - business or otherwise. While on the road, I gather stuff to put in it. Sometimes I work in the book while sitting in airports. I really enjoy abusing this little journal and sew in it a lot. This was a page that was done on my "Halloween" Madison WI trip. I had to work in Madison over Halloween and those of you who know me really know this is my favorite time of the year. The hotel had 6 TV channels dedicated to sports alone - no sci-fi channel, no travel channel, no food channel - it sucked. As you can tell from my journaling. (No, I really am not hanging the cat. Sewing was on the other page.) I called the cat "pumpkin head."

Thank you Michelle for this topic. I do it a lot but don't think about it. Oh yes, one way I "USED my words was on a page called Orleans! What a way to end with two ads - one from Netflix and one from Martha Stewart Living all leading to Orleans!

Honeysuckle Breeze Fun Stuff

Haven't shown you surprise stuff arriving on my doorstep lately and so why not now!

One of my fun purchases recently was the Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher. I mean TINY staples here - .25". Tim calls it "a hand-powered, clamping tool for fastening or affixing things together with miniature wire staples." It is so easy to use. Trust me. You can visit Tim for demo and product ideas here. OK, forgive me, it does look like a flying skunk to me..... so cute!

If you regularly read this blog, you know I have been working on my "Off the Walls Notebook" (which Michelle Ward lured me into buying with a post on her blog). A week or so ago, I had to purchase her GPP-007 Surfacing stamps. These are like so perfect for this notebook. I have managed to get the stamps all cut out and mounted.

On Michelle's Street Team Crusades challenge this month, we are teased with the title -- "Cat Got Your Tongue." This all leads to "words" and "journaling" and all I can think about is my Walls Notebook and am now creating a page for this challenge in this notebook using my new stamps. One of my favorite stamps in this grouping is "IF these walls could talk..." For a peek at all of her stamps go to GPP (Green Pepper Press) to view. You will also see that she has created a half sheet of some great stamps (GPP-029). This is a fundraiser to help one of our artist friends who participates in these Challenges. Half of the proceeds will go to the Long family who lost everything in their home to fire.

OK, let's move on to all things French!

(1) First off is my purchase from e-bay and I admit that I paid way, way, way too much for these 1952 Vis-Ed French Vocabulary Cards. But there are 1000 of them.... And you know what happens when you get sucked into a bidding war - whew - I got it, OK, way too much, but . . .

(2) Secondly, the Marie publication from Stampington arrived. OMG - this is so out of this world gorgeous. I did submit two submissions last November and neither made it into the pub.... but such decadence appears within these covers..... AND, my artwork has not been returned to me yet so who knows - there is still hope -- and if not, that will be OK. I loved the two creations I submitted and I won't be disappointed although I will write a "Thanks, but No Thanks" post on it and show you the works.

(3) Lastly, my all time favorite cookies from Starbucks. Perfect day for them. In fact any day is a perfect day for them. Why not sit down and have a cup of coffee with me!

Have a good day! Signing off from Honeysuckle Breeze.