Serious Play

Planting Spring Flowers

So, yesterday was our Victoria Day holiday and the kick off for spring planting.

 

We will often still have some overnight freezing up until this May long weekend, so just to be cautious, most gardeners in my town wait. But now, we should be home free.

I bought flowers for four planters that sit on my backyard patio. This year I focused on whites and purples and a touch of pink. Each year, I also buy a few more perrenials as they are a bit of an investment so I have to accumulate them slowly. Yesterday I added two purple clematis to my garden, two red daylilies and a new small bush that has reddish leaves.

 

 

 I planted all day. I split my bleeding heart so that I have some on either side of my front step now. I also split my peony because it was getting so big but compact. I moved over some lilies and some hostas. I dug up a few weeds, trimmed back a lot of grass that was encroaching on my flower beds and tidied up all my existing plants for the spring growing season.

Once I got started, I just kept going. I was, as the saying goes...'happy as a pig in mud'.

 

 

It is a good thing I started the day by getting my nails shellaced because they would not have made it very far without the added protection...

 

Do you plant a flower garden?

 

 

 

 

 

Vintage Canon AE1 Camera

So, I bought myself a Canon AE1 SLR camera.

 

While browsing in my local antique store I spotted her in a locked glass case. I wasn't sure if it was something to get excited about or not. But I keep a running list of vintage cameras that I hear others raving about and using...and this one was on the list!

I asked to see it. To hold it. To inspect it. She was perfect. In perfect condition and all parts working. I have to admit, I did not know too much about this type of camera until I brought her home and read the manual.





This type of camera was made between 1976 and 1984. It was the official camera of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, as well as the first SLR camera to be equipped with a micro-processor. The 'AE' stands for 'automatic exposure' which allowed you to program the camera to set the exposure for you. It was meant to be a straightforward introductory-level camera for SLR beginners, but also has the option to shoot fully manual as well.

This camera is perfect for me. As part of my OLW, I want to expand and exercise my camera skills. I figured that starting back at the basics would be a good idea so that I could learn from the ground up. I also love that this is a film camera. I will have to take it in to be processed. And I will not be able to see my shots and adjust things before taking a more perfected shot. 

So I am risking, just a little bit.

And I cannot tell you how excited this makes me...

 

 

 

Art Journal :: May 2013

So, I attended my Happier At Home art journaling class last week.

 

I am beginning to get the hang of some of the more basic procedures for the foundation of my pages now. Starting with gesso and adding layers of moulding paste with a mask or stencil is now becoming a habit. The new technique here, was adding an ink to colour the moulding paste before adding it to the page as opposed to painting it on later as I did back on my February page.

We also created a hole for a window frame effect by gluing several book pages together (to create thickness) and then cutting a square using an exacto knife.

 

The next step was to add spray inks. My blue went on a little heavy. I am learning to control the ink effects by playing with the distance and angle of the spray. Clearly I need more practice on that. For this page we used gold and two shades of blue inks.

 

I am also learning how adding stamps and washi tape help to build the layers that will add depth and interest to my art journal pages. I just have to begin collecting some of the great 'neutral' stamps that my instructor has, as most of my stamps are of more specific things like flowers, hearts, and seasonal images.

At this stage, I also added the 'glass' for my window frame. It is a transparency which has a photo frame printed onto it. Love this.

 

Finally, I embellished with paper flowers (I experimented with the inks on my flowers here), ribbon, lace, washi tape...

 

... a tiny envelope, a photo corner made from book paper, letters photocopied on coloured cardstock, and a clip (another photo strip is supposed to go under that clip). 

 

Here's a closer look at the left page...

 

And here's a closer look at the decorated window frame with my pic slipped in behind the hole...

 

Still very much loving this class and happy that there are still seven more classes to go!



 

 

 

 

Mother's Day 2013

So, I spent Mother's Day with my mama.

 

She is the greatest. Seriously.

I am blessed to have such a strong life-long relationship with her.

I am blessed to have her live close to me.

I am blessed to be able to spend time with her.

I am blessed to have her influence on my life.

I am blessed to know that she is always praying for me.

So today was about blessing my mom...

 

My girls and I drove out to my parents' house and spent the day with them. We took food and cupcakes and gifts and had a wonderful day. 

And then I got home to be blessed in return...

 

Trust your Mother's Day was fabulous too...

 

 

 

Inspiration Journal

So, my recycled shopping bag album became my Inspiration Board scrapbook.

Back in February, I made my first inspiration board. I loved it. I was so inspired by the pieces that I chose to hang up and it just seemed to be so pretty as a collection of things I was inspired by. So, when the end of the month came and it was time to take it down and put up a new inspiration board, I was a bit sad to see it go.

This got me thinking about what I should do with the pieces that I had taken off my board. I couldn't just take them down. I loved them too much. They were a part of me now. They had stories and some of the things that I had created that month were inspired by those images and words. And I would want to look at them again. I had to keep them.

And then, I gazed over at the pile of shopping bags that I had collected and also could not throw out and an idea was formed...

 

My intent is to use this recycled paper journal to house the inspiration board items that come down off my wall when a new set goes up. This way I can refer to them again. I can remember moments when I was inspired by these images and words, and I can be inspired all over again!

So, over the next year, I will be filling up the random pages of this homemade journal / scrapbook...

 

How about you? Do you have a place where you keep inspirational pieces?





 

Recycled Journal from Shopping Bags

So, now I am making journals by recycling my shopping bags.

 

Call me a hoarder, but I can't seem to throw out the wonderful paper bags in which most retail stores send your purchases home with you. I have been saving them. Not quite sure how I wanted to use them. But appreciating the quality of useable paper of which they are comprised.

Suddenly I had a use for them. And an idea began to form. 

 

I started by cutting apart the bags so that they would lay flat. I sliced down one of the 'edges' of the bag for this project, making use of as much of the shopping bag as possible. This gave me a large 'page' to work with. The bottom of the bag was trimmed away.

 

They did not all end up the same size and I was okay with that. However, I did try to make them relatively the same width, although some were a bit shorter by nature of their original size.

Next, I folded those 'pages' in half and stacked three at a time together to form a signature. I ended up with five signatures.

 

I did take a moment to arrange the pages within a signature to try to alternate light and dark pages as well as large and small pages. Just because that is what I do...

 

 

I also stacked the signatures in a way that seemed pleasing to me. No same colours were touching. Just cuz...

 

 

Next, I cut a strip of shopping bag that would serve as the binding for the journal.

 

 

My favourite part was using my new vintage sewing machine to stitch each of the signatures in place on the binding strip.

 

 

Once they were all attached, I had a lovely thick journal of raw shopping bag papers.

 

 

The flap was intentional so that I could attach a front and back cover.

 

 

Once the covers were sewn on it was complete.

 

 

And I stood back to take in what I had just created.

Tomorrow I will share the idea that sparked the creation of my journal...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eat Clean :: Cucumber and Quinoa Salad

 

 So, I had the best salad this weekend.

 

For some time now, I have been eating according to the Eat Clean philosophy. Basically, this means, no sugar, low fat, and no refined or processed foods. It also encourages you to eat 1/3 lean protein and 2/3 complex carb for each meal.

I have not always stuck to the Eat Clean rules for every meal, but the philosophy has stayed with me in my choices for meals for my family.

So, when my daughter found this recipe and wanted to make it for supper the other night, I could not refuse. It was quick, simple and delicious. We ate it as a complete meal and it was more than satisfying.

 

The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients (2-3 servings)

3/4 cup water
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp orange juice, divided
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa (see note below if you'd rather use whole grain couscous)
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped into 1/2" chunks
2 cups chopped English cucumber
2 tbsp finely minced parsley
2 tbsp finely chopped mint
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
sea salt and black pepper, to taste

Instructions

Rinse quinoa under running water in a fine mesh strainer.
Transfer it to a small saucepan with the water and 1/4 cup orange juice. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and allow it to cook, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes. By this time, all liquid should be absorbed.
While the quinoa cooks, toast the pine nuts in a small pan. Heat the pan over medium heat, then add the pine nuts and dry-fry them until they develop small golden marks on the sides. Shake the pan often to avoid burning.
Set the quinoa aside, or in the fridge, to cool while you prepare the rest of the salad. Chop the cucumber and yellow pepper, and mince the parsley and mint.
Combine the quinoa, pepper, cucumber and herbs in a large bowl and toss.
Whisk together the olive oil, white balsamic, and remaining 1 tbsp orange juice. Drizzle it over the salad and toss again to coat. Season to taste with black pepper and sea salt if desired.
Sprinkle with toasted pine nuts and garnish with parsley. Allow the salad to sit for at least 15 minutes to let flavours develop, then serve.

I do not usually post about the foods we eat, but this was one that I thought worthy of sharing.

Let me know if you decide to try it...

 

 

 

Project Life 2013 :: March

So, I am still trying to keep up with Project Life.

 

I realize that it just turned May and I am just posting March's Project Life pages. It's just that, I am struggling. To my credit, I have made it farther than I did last year. But, I am struggling. I cannot find my groove, my 'thing', my style. And that is what is making it difficult for me right now.

I want to document. I want to have a record of my life and that of my family. I don't want to give up on Project Life, and I won't this time. But I need to figure out what process and style is me. 

Here is my March Photo A Day with #fmsphotoaday on Instagram, along with another insert this month. I wanted to tell a bit of a longer story about when our family went to the hockey game, so I created it in a 6x12 format...

 

This first spread turned out to be pastels. I kinda like it, but again, not totally. In documenting over the month, rather than weekly, I didn't worry too much about keeping things in any chronological order. Instead, I moved things around to try to visually balance the spread.

 Click on any photo to enlarge.

This spread does not have any cohesion at all, in my opinion. I had a lot of 4x3 photos this month, so ended up putting them in many of the 4x6 pockets as well. It just seems so choppy and random in comparison to so many of the PL albums that I have seen online. Not that I am trying to be anyone else, but instead I really want to find my own flow.

 

This last spread is the worst of all. By this point, I just wanted to be finished. I had no rhyme nor reason to where I put photos or colours. I just started shoving things in pockets. And to be honest, I didn't really want to even post it, I just wanted to get it finished and move on.

 

This last 6x12 page is the back of the one I showed further up of us going to the hockey game. On this page, I wanted to tell the story of my daughter finding and purchasing her grad dress. I included the receipt as another way to remember the experience. It will be fun to look back on one day down the road.

 

Anyway, all this to say that I have been spending time really investigating and thinking about what my style for Project Life is going to be. I do not count this month as a write-off, but rather a learning experience. I know that I just do not have the time to do a lot of embellishing as some do. And I am not very good at trying to keep a colour scheme throughout. I have a few inserts that are becoming consistent (the Photo A Day) and I am trying out filters when editing my photos to see if I can reduce the amount of variance in the colour of my photos.

So we will see what April's Project Life brings. Hopefully I will have it finished before the end of May!

 

Have you found your style with Project Life? Care to share?

 

 

 

 

 

 

52 Lists :: Weeks 13 - 16

So, I am continuing on with my 52 Lists project with Moorea Seal.

 

Here are the remaining lists up to this week. Click on a photo to enlarge for easier reading...

 

 I am totally enjoying the reflection time that these lists require each week. I see it as another way to document who I am and where I am in my life right now.

It is not too late to join up with this project if you are interested. Just click on over to the 52 Lists for all of the prompts, get your self a journal (or download the PDF provided by Moorea) and a pen!

Then feel free to link up with me...

 

 

 

 

 

Art Journal :: April

So, I attended another of my Happier At Home art journaling classes.

 

This month, the book was all about making our home a happier place. And I have to say that this was my favourite class to date. We learned a few new techniques this class that made me excited.

The first, was that we did a lot of layering for the purpose of adding texture to the base of the page before putting other texture on top. After laying a light coat of gesso, we ripped strips from the pages this chapter and adhered them in various places, followed by another layer of gesso.

 

At this point I didn't quite know what I was doing, so I actually pasted down those paper strips a little too much. Next time, I will leave more of the edges free so that they lift up and create more depth to the page. Once that was dry, we started layering spray inks. The first was a pale teal green spray ink using a mask that resembled chicken wire. It was tricky to get a clear pattern since the mask had such thin lines. It was also a challenge to spray without getting a finger pattern since you still have to hold the mask tight to the paper!

We then, prayed a bit of chunky brown to antique it up a bit, followed by some deep blue to fill in the remaining spaces. I also brushed on some extra blue to highlight more of the layers already created with the paper strips.

 

While all that was drying, I learned my new favourite trick...heating a strip of craft foam until it becomes soft, then pressing a stamp into it! the foam will take the impression of the stamp and because we used brown foam, it resembled a strip of leather. I love it!

 

Next, we added various stamps and a fun layer of random triangles using moulding paste.

 

Continuing on, we added more elements that we had been prepping while our pages were drying... a chipboard frame painted an antique yellow, a luggage tag also antiqued and torn to appear longer, more strips of paper trimmed on each end like ribbon, and some letters cut from coloured paper and antiqued.

Along with that, we added a few word strips chosen from the content of the chapter and lined it with a bit of lace and more fun circles created with moulding paste and a mask (which I forgot to photograph).

And the grand finale was a beautiful paper rose with some interesting mesh paper...

 

Once, home, I added a photo of my home to complete the page...

 

I love learning new things, so this class was an adventure for me. There were so many tricks that I want to try again on my own...

What are your favourite art journaling techniques?