Creativity, Crafts, Books, Movies, Greyhounds & Favorite Things

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If you’ve read my Thursday posts the last three weeks, you know I’ve been in agony over organizing my photos.  Last week, I decided to pick a topic, write down my stories and create an album.  I chose “School Memories” as my subject because the pictures are easy to identify and the timeline is very clear (Kindergarten-12th Grade).  Here are some of the supplies I’ve gathered to get this project started:

 

Pandigital Photo Scanner

I love the idea of scanning photos.  I can create a digital copy of the photos I’m going to use and, more importantly, copies of photos I don’t want to use and would like to get rid of but…I might want them later. 

8″ x 8″ Album

I decided to go with the smaller 8″ x 8″ album because I don’t have a lot of photos for this project and this size seems more manageable for a first project.

Coordinated Paper

Whenever I look down the paper aisle of my local craft store, I get lightheaded because there are so many choices.  I decided to get a coordinated paper pack from Stampin’ Up! so I wouldn’t have to worry about finding things that go together.  The paper pack I selected is called “Storytime.”

Daily Inspiration

 

The imperfections of a man, his frailties, his faults, are just as important as his virtues.  You can’t separate them.  They’re wedded.

Henry Miller

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This month, I’m preparing some backgrounds because I want to paint more of the girls I learned to paint in Juliette Crane’s How To Paint A Girl e-course.

This week, I wanted to try these alcohol inks.

I painted the background with Ceramcoat Trail Tan.

I immediately started to drop drops of the alcohol ink onto the wet canvas.

I used these colors of alcohol inks…Ginger, Caramel and Latte.

I think it is an interesting effect.  I’m definitely going to fiddle around with these inks some more.

Daily Inspiration

We are what we believe we are.

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I’m pretty new to papercrafting.  I started going to a card club that my nieces lead…one sells Stampin’ Up! and one sells Close To My Heart.  I joined mainly to get together with them and my sisters.  Then, a friend at work started selling Stampin’ Up! and I joined a card club she leads.  Although papercrafting isn’t my “first love,” it is really fun and I think it will help me as I put together my photo albums.

Here’s why I like Stampin’ Up! and Close To My Heart:

1.  The consultants.

If they sell papercrafting items, they tend to love papercrafting.  That passion and expertise really helps when you’re trying to learn a new hobby or technique, decide what to purchase or dissect a project.

2.  The companies.

If you’ve ever visited the papercrafting section of your local craft store, you might have felt like your head would explode.  These two companies present a cohesive line of products, and the catalogs present the products in a way that helps you make sense of them.

3.  The colors.

All the products have an easy to understand and coordinate color palette…very helpful, especially when you’re just starting out.

4.  The classes.

The workshops and clubs let you try different products and techniques before you purchase the supplies, and the consultants take you step-by-step through a project which is a lot easier than trying to figure it out on your own.

5.  The camaraderie.

It’s fun to go to my clubs.  I get to visit, laugh, learn and eat.

Daily Inspiration

 

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

Nelson Mandela

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Here’s what I’ve been working at…

I painted a background canvas for my “Try This” post.  All September’s “Try This” posts will feature step-by-step background canvases.  I want to paint more of my “girl paintings” and I like to prepare the canvases first.

I belong to two card clubs, and one of my clubs got together on Thursday night.

We made a Halloween card…

and an Autumn card.

Daily Inspiration

 

A mistake is simply another way of doing things.

Katharine Graham

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This weekend, we did a little doggysitting.  Our friends had a wedding in Minnesota, so we watched Freedom, Casper & Nikki’s BFFs, Miura, Zonda and Eva along with foster pup, Tia.  That’s a lot of hound.  Here’s what we did…

Relaxed.

Played outside.

Ate ice cream.

Tia did awesome, and I mean awesome!  If you are considering adopting a greyhound, I highly recommend Tia.  She’s calm, super sweet, curious but not overly so, obedient, just an all around excellent girl.  You can check her out at Allies for Greyhound of West Michigan.  If I didn’t have a 3 greyhound limit, Tia would be mine.

Daily Inspiration

 

A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails. 

Donna Roberts

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Currently, I’m reading Great Feuds In History: Ten Struggles that Shaped the World by Colin Evans.  It chronicles ten “high-stakes personal contests [that] had a lasting impact on the societies around them and the generations that followed.”  An interesting list…here are the feuds that Mr. Evans covers:

1.  Elizabeth I versus Mary, Queen of Scots

2.  Parliament versus Charles 1

3.  Aaron Burr versus Alexander Hamilton

4.  Hatfields versus McCoys

5.  Joseph Stalin versus Leon Trotsky

6.  Roald Amundsen versus Robert F. Scott

7.  Duchess of Windsor versus Queen Mother

8.  Montgomery versus Patton

9.  Lyndon Johnson versus Robert Kennedy

10.  J. Edgar Hoover versus Martin Luther King Jr.

Daily Inspiration

 

History is a symphony of echoes heard and unheard.  It is a poem with events as verses.

Charles Angoff 

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I didn’t work on my Mixed Devotions bottles this week; instead, I’ll present you with a mystery.  Who are these gorgeous hounds?

Do you recognize this one?

Or this one?

 

This one?

I’ll tell you all about them on Sunday.

Daily Inspiration

 

 Over time, the hurt doesn’t hurt. Only regret does.

Terri Guillemets 

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Last week, in an attempt to  focus myself so I could organize and deal with my photos, I wrote down what I want to accomplish.  Here’s my list:

1.  All of my photos upstairs.  No photos in boxes in the basement.

2.  My photos organized in categories in photo boxes.

3.  Identify photos I’d like to frame/display.  Put them in a separate box.

4.  Stop thinking about photo albums.  Just get the photos in photo boxes.

A pretty good list to get me started, but I couldn’t quit thinking about #4.  If I don’t do “something” with my photos, all I’ve essentially accomplished is moving my photos from plastic boxes in the basement to prettier boxes upstairs.  Maybe a little more organized, but basically the same.

 

While moving things around, I found this book, Scrapbooking Your Family History. It says that it’s “a guided plan for organizing and telling your family stories.”  It hit me that that’s what’s missing in my plan.  I long to record the stories behind the photos, not just preserve the photos.  I thought about all the photos I see in antique stores…they are photos that have lost their stories.  So, I’m going to start gathering my stories and then put photos with them.

 

The book suggests getting started by selecting a topic.  I’m going to start with “School Memories.”  I picked this because the pictures are easy to identify and the timeline is very clear (Kindergarten-12th Grade).

 

If you’d like to join along, gather up your school photos and we’ll tackle this step-by-step.

Daily Inspiration

 

Education is not filling a pail but the lighting of a fire.

William Butler Yeats 

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This month, I’m preparing some backgrounds because I want to paint more of the girls I learned to paint in Juliette Crane’s How To Paint A Girl e-course.

Sometimes, when I’m painting backgrounds, I really get into them and add a lot of interesting details.  Sometimes, I keep them kind of plain, knowing that I can add more details once I get painting my subject (in this case, a girl).  All the paints I used are Golden Acrylics.

I painted the background Ultramarine Blue.

I add swipes and dots of paint in Titanium White.

Then a few side swipes, also in Titanium White.

In anticipation of adding a girl, I smoothed out the area in the middle of the painting.  I learned that early on…it’s no fun having a big, bumpy dot right where you want to paint a face.

Daily Inspiration

 

I felt it shelter to speak to you.

Emily Dickinson

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My first thought when I saw this on the menu was, “That doesn’t sound good,” but my daughter said it was good so we split one.  YUM!

The Duane Purvis Burger’s secret (well, not secret) ingredient is peanut butter.  Featured on The Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives,  the Purvis Burger is served at Triple XXX Family Restaurant, Indiana’s first and oldest drive-in restaurant.  Opened in 1929, Triple XXX was named after a brand of root beer sold in the early 1900’s.  I had my Purvis Burger at Route 66 Diner, which is Triple XXX’s second location.  There are a lot of other tasty offerings on the menu, but I think I’m hooked.

Daily Inspiration

 

If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.

Albert Einstein