• Blog

    T Tuesday: disaster edition

    February 10, 2015 - By 

    T stands for Tuesday_200As always on Tuesday…I’m linking up with T stands for Tuesday where we share a virtual beverage and talk about whatever comes to mind. IMG_0202

    This week I was hoping to share all kinds of fun things that I had created with you like my new journal…

    But instead I have a tale. A true story from Sunday.

    So grab your cuppa and sit a spell.

    Sunday morning I put a turkey in the oven…one of the four I purchased when they were on sale at Thanksgiving.  It looked and smelled delightful when I pulled it out of the oven. It was perfectly cooked…I had out done myself on this one.

    Mini-me was helping with all the sides. We had gravy heating on the stove while I was carving the turkey. She was heating green beans in the microwave and making instant mashed potatoes ( I know…but those are the kind she loves and since she was making them). The plastic splatter cover from the microwave was set over a burner…that was never on…and when we turned around it had melted in and was on fire.

    I quickly grabbed the plastic and tossed it into the sink at which time the melted plastic on the burner continued to flame even higher.  I made a judgement call and grabbed the fire extinguisher and shot it. Only then did I realize that horrendous mess we had.

    I threw open windows, the smoke alarm was going off. Mini-me was in tears in her room. Our entire meal had to be thrown away due to the toxic nature of the chemical flame retardant.

    On the bright side…my kitchen is the cleanest it’s been since we moved in thanks to Mr. G. He is a cleaning master. I took the kids out to eat (since I had thrown away our food) after getting everything off the counters cleaned up while he cleaned up the rest including taking apart the stove to get all the chemicals out from the nooks and crannies.

    How’s that for excitement!?!?

    He jokingly told me next time I wanted him to clean,  to just ask. 🙂

    Today I’m staying home watching the freezing rain and snow fall outside. It’s going to be a skating rink out there.

    What are you doing today?

  • Art - Blog

    So go explore

    February 8, 2015 - By 

    I really couldn’t wait to starting using my newly prepped journal. I grabbed it an opened it randomly to a page and applied some gesso. so go explore endview

    See…a very random selection. In fact, I don’t ever start from the front of a journal. Something about doing that intimidates me. It’s as if I feel like that first page is going to set the tone for the whole book.  This is way less pressure. so go explore journal page

    The background may look familiar to some of you as I did a painting a while back using the same technique.

    Once I got the background colors down and dried, I felt like writing.  Not my usual thing but you have to go with it when it strikes.

    ” The road of our lives is paved with so many possibilities. Things unimaginable to us.  We make choices. Turns. Detours. What is around the next corner? It could be a brick wall or it could be the greatest opportunity you will ever find. You will never know unless you put one foot in front of the other. Be open to new things, experiences and people. Not all of them will be good but they will shape you into a better person if you let them. Either by learning from your mistakes or by teaching you how incredible you were meant to be. So go explore….”

    Wowsers…I usually don’t get deep with my journals but when the mood strikes I must give in and go with it.

    I’m linking up with Inspire me Monday this week.

  • Art - Blog - Creativity - Tutorials

    Tutorial: Journal prep of a vintage book

    February 8, 2015 - By 

    Since I was starting a new journal I thought I’d share with you my process for prepping the book.  First find yourself an old book that appeals to you. For me it was the size of this book. Not too small or too big… Just call me Goldilocks.journal prep5

    Look inside to see what kind of binding you have.journal prep1

    This inside cover gave me a really good indication that I had a sewn binding but I had to make sure.journal prep4

    Yep…sewn binding. Perfect! Now we’re ready for the thinning of pages without leaving chunks of torn pages along the inner spine. Removing pages reduces bulk since the altering of a book whether journal style or a themed altered book adds lots of bulk!

    I find the center of each signature (as seen in the above photo) and remove the page from each side.journal prep3Like this. I go back and carefully pick out all of the torn fragments. It will appear as if nothing has changed until you look at the page numbers. You’ll have a definite gap which would make reading the story a real challenge at this point.

    I remove at least one page from each signature, sometimes more. You can always go back and remove more. journal prep7

    Here you can see the gaps along the spine and how the book is more narrow going toward the outer edge. This is exactly what you want. journal prep8

    You have a nice stack of pages for your altering pleasure when you are done.