PLay retreat video

I was talking to Steve Salik (one of our longtime PLAY retreat attendees and friend) about wanting just about 10 more people to our PLAY retreat at the end of this month. We have 30 signed up but need a few more since we have rented houses at the fort that we can't cancel. He suggested we make a video, so that was what Tracy and I did this afternoon. You can view it here:

ringing in the new year

no funner way to bring in the new year than by creating up a storm. this journal is about 8x11
the back.
this is the first page that I have started journaling on. most of the pages you see in the posts below are "empty" journal pages that I am excited about embellishing even more in the months to come.

can't stop making pages

more pages

new years fun

newest project

I am loving my japanese tapes!

hey...it's tracy and me on christmas eve.

gotta show you

Just wanted to show you what Theo Ellsworth made for us for christmas. He stayed with us this year through christmas which was an extra special treat for us all. The above are original drawings that he mounted onto wood cut-outs..ORIGINALS! He just got a new saw that he clearly was excited about. The girls each got one too. I'll see if I can get a picture of them too. OH...and go over to his blog and take a look at his homemade enchilada sauce that he made for friends (we got a jar too). Makes me want to start canning again (not necessarily a fond memory of making pickles each summer with my mom)...but Theo has inspired me.

3 of 3

work in progress...creating pages to sew into my journal (below) from mary ann moss's online class

2 of 3

excited to get this done so I can start journaling in this weird new format,

1 of 3

preparing pages for the 2nd lesson from mary ann moss's remains of the day online workshop

having fun

So...I took an online stencilry class from Mary Ann Moss recently and had fun watching her videos (she's a hoot)...and I found out she is a capricorn, year of the tiger chic just like me (yah, we're each turning 47 in a couple weeks)...btw...so is LK Ludwig. I'm threatening to start a capricorn/tiger club but I think we all are involved in too many clubs already. anyway...back to this...so when mary ann moss said she had a new class available, I wanted to do it but was having a hard time justifying it. I finally decided to tell Tracy that he got me a christmas gift after all (we said we weren't going to exchange this year). The class is called Pure Experimentation: Remains of The Day. I went through the first lesson today and made my cover out of paper and fabric. I was tempted to do my own size but decided I wouldn't be one of THOSE students and just decided to do what the teacher said. Yah, as a student, I'm a bit of a rebel.

It was a total blast and now I want to make more but christmas festivities start tommorrow so it will have to wait a few days. Plus...I have a new lesson ready now...doing the pages.

This is the back of it. For some reason I am journaling in about 5 journals right now...I have my "paint" one, my regular one (that was shown in my videos), a line-drawing-a-day one (will show soon), my daytimer, and lastly a small "words only" type of journal that is for my eyes only. When I get this new one done it will be journal #6. But that is the fun of it...something for every mood. anyway...I'd highly recommend mary ann moss's online workshops...especially since I can't get her to come to artfest or journalfest (believe me, I've tried)!

new shopping cart

My daughter has been working for months on a new shopping cart for my website and it is finally online. The above picture is one of the new collage sheets I just designed. There are still some kinks for her to work out to make it easier to navigate but I told her to take the rest of the week off and work on it next week.

something new

having fun painting over collage.

trying something new

so...these journal pages are a different style for me...more paint, more tape, more stenciling.

Thank You all!

First of all, I want to send a big hug to our network of friends who poured their love and concern for Tracy on us. Tracy is doing fabulous and everything seems back to normal, really. I never feel like anything is "good" or "bad"...just that it is what it is meant to be and happens for a reason.

Anyway...the above journal page is an experiment of using alot more paint on my pages along with the collage. I love the paint so much though that I don't really want to add anything else...but it still feels unfinished. I used our copic airbrush system to stencil a little too.

my Boom (slang for "what I'm into today")

So, this feels a little weird to be revealing my dayplanner...but I've been having so much fun with doodling in this crazy little book. It came from Korea (do a search for day planners from Jetoy) and was pre-printed with calendar boxes that you fill in yourself along with their own graphics...so I have just been doodling when I wait at doctors offices, catch up on taped tv shows or when I need to download and "meditate" for a little while. What I am currently working on is making a dayplanner in my journal. It's really fun.

Came across this little blurb the other day and thought it was good enough to post it here - good advice for 2010:

"The core universal energies are encoded to love, joy, peace, and happiness. They support any activities immersed in these energies. So ANY project in which you are happily humming along because you absolutely love what you’re doing, will be successful for you. Conversely, any project which is done purely for money (without a love of the activity) will not last, and nor will the money which is gained from the loveless project. Therefore, immediately cease all activities which are engaged in purely for money. Either leave the situation, or bring some love into the activities. This is a necessity." -doreen virtue

bump in the road

I know I am long overdue for a posting. Here's what's been happening. A couple weeks ago, (my husband) Tracy told me he wanted to go to the urgent care clinic (we don't really have a regular dr.) because of some issues with his toe. I knew it was bad because he hates to go to the doc. Well...it was. They said he had full blown diabetes and if they didn't do something for that toe, they were talking about amputation. YIKES!~ From that day, we've had so many dr. appts my head is spinning. I have gone to every single one of them with him because I wanted to help in any way I could. In the downtimes, I've been reading and doing research on what to feed a diabetic. His toe is on the mend and the blood sugar is still trying to be regulated through medicine and shots he has to give himself daily (ugh). It felt like a sucker punch to both of us but tracy looks at it as a good thing. Anyway...he's fine. we both are. and finally getting back to a somewhat normal life again.

I also haven't posted any journal pages because when I haven't been reading books I've been doodling in my daytimer which is a different type of journaling but something that doesn't feel like journaling. I may try to scan some pages in to show you what I am talking about.

The journal above is a sample I just made up for a workshop I will be teaching in Cleveland this july. when all the details are worked out, I'll post it here.

and I really, really am going to be doing more videos soon...there are so many I want to do now...but I need my camera guy and right now he just needs to focus on his health. we'll work on something over the holidays.

fun drawing lesson

was playing around and thought I would post.  If you click on it, it takes you to  a medium size and if you click on that, it takes you to the original 8x10 size so you can see it.

Come to Winter PLAY!

So last sunday, I finally got a mini lesson in polymer clay from Tracy so I could help teach it at our Winter PLAY retreat this january.  He used to teach this class in cleveland and everyone would leave thrilled with what they made.  I'll admit to a dislike of polymer clay (sculpey/fimo) but this left me wanting to play with it more...ALOT more!  I experimented with using a resin that Tracy recently learned about from Susan Lenart-Kazmer.  You can't see it here but the eyes are filled with resin as well as the background.  It is a really cool medium that we'll be playing around with at the retreat.  Anyway...this will eventually become a book cover that is coptic bound (another technique that will be taught at PLAY).  The size  is roughly 6x6.

This was what Tracy was making while teaching me.  You really can't tell from these pictures but the pieces look like they are molded from metal.  It's SO cool!

He was playing around with making a pen to journal with when he is out.  Anyway...at our Winter PLAY retreat, we create from 9am-midnight for 3 straight days.  We will be showing how to make this type of stuff along with our daughter, Tiphoni, who will be teaching self portraits with watercolor and I'll be giving a mini lesson on journaling to anyone who wants to watch.  We always set up our airbrushing station for anyone to use and will have molds galore to play with for the polymer clay creations.  At our retreats, we always share a bunch of new stuff we are currently excited about too.  It is such a fantastic time of just making stuff non-stop.  We always look forward to it.

We currently have about 15 spots left that we would love to fill.  We have both shared rooms and private rooms in the big officers houses.  

lettering video #2

lettering video #2