2012 OLW Clean-Up

{Photo shoot inspired by Deb of Paper Turtle}
Well, 2012 is coming to an end, and today I put away the Christmas tree, decorations and ornaments.  I had a little help from Aria. 

It always feels good to put everything away and get the house back to "normal." For me, it signals the end of Christmas and the start of the new year.  

Before jumping into 2013, I wanted to take a few moments to reflect on my "One Little Word" for 2012.  I chose the word "Home" and this is how I described what I wanted to do:
"I want to work on finding my creative home, tending the relationships that are the home for my heart; and fixing up my physical home.  . . . Creatively, I see myself focusing more on my original art - drawing and photography, especially.  I want to incorporate more of these things into my collage work. . . . . I'm looking forward to spending more quality time with my husband and children. . . . Finally, there's a whole laundry list of things that need to be done around our house - from hardwood floors and fence repair to serious cleaning and purging of storage spaces and the back lot."

I feel like I did pretty well on these three areas. I definitely developed my drawing and painting skills and continued to work on my photography, and I've spent more time focusing on the family.  I've also done lots of purging.  I still have to work on the kids' rooms and the garage and the fences need to be fixed, but otherwise I have hit almost every room in the house, as well as the back yard. As a result, I had the perfect spot to put away all my Christmas boxes this year.

For 2012, I also set an intention, which was "Don't give up before the miracle happens." I didn't really do much with my intention, but that's okay. For 2012, my one little word was enough to help me focus on what I wanted.  I've chosen my word for 2013 and an intention to go along with it.  I'll be posting those this weekend.
Did you have a one little word for 2012?  If so, how did it work for you?

Tell Me About Your Linens!

Long time readers of my blog will know that, influenced by Ali Edwards, each year I choose "One Little Word" to help me focus on big picture goals.  My word for 2012 is "home," and one of the ways in which I am focusing on home is to organize my house, room by room. When we pulled the carpet in the downstairs hallway and replaced it with hardwood floors, I had the occasion to empty the linen closet. I used this as the opportunity to organize my household linens (which included cleaning out the kitchen cupboards where I store the kitchen linens).  I put my "heirloom linens" (lace, embroidery, crochet, etc. created by my Grandmothers and aunts) into storage containers, along with baby linens (blankets mainly) that I couldn't bear to part with.   I tossed a large bag of soiled, torn, fully depreciated linens and two big bags of paperwork from the kitchen storage areas.
My ultimate goal in this reorganizing project is to have the "correct" number of towels, sheet sets, table cloths, napkins and place mats in the linen closet and kitchen storage.  So, now I'm trying to figure out that "correct" number.  And I'm looking for your input.  How many sheet sets do you have per bed? How many towels? How many table cloths, napkins and place mats?  Please tell me your linen strategy in comments.  Thanks!

One Little Word Check-In: Home

Every year Ali Edwards encourages people to select "One Little Word" to help guide them through the year.  I chose "Home" as my one little word, and I resolved to focus on three different aspects of the word:  my house (our physical home); my family relationships (which are the home for my heart); and my artistic home.  It's been a while since I've checked-in on my OLW, but you can see my earlier posts by clicking on this link.  All-in-all, my OLW has been a powerful touchstone for me this year.
I have been very productive at going through the house, room by room, cleaning and decluttering. I conquered the bathrooms, the laundry room, the front hallway closet, my walk-in closet, a lot of my crafting supplies, the dining room, the living room, the backyard storage sheds, the attic and about half the kitchen.  I need to finish the kids' rooms, my craft stuff and the kitchen and then conquer the garage. But I feel like I can do it by the end of the year. I've been following along with Organized Housewife 20 Day Challenge, and it's been a good way to revisit those rooms I took care of earlier this year. 
As for family, I've put in a lot of time trying to understand my teenage daughter and figure out how to help her find her way through adolescence and into adulthood. It's been a rocky road that has definitely required me to be mindful, but I feel like we have made progress.  And she's doing really well so far in High School. Paul's illness, for all its awfulness, has definitely brought us closer together and forced us to focus on what is really important.
Finally, with respect to art, it has been a good year.  I've worked hard on learning to draw faces and how to sketch all kinds of other things.  I've really enjoyed painting with water colors, in addition to acrylics. Although I haven't taken any photography classes (and have not brushed up on photoshop), I have really enjoyed my new DSLR and have taken some shots of which I am proud. I have done fewer art journal pages and mixed media collages this year, but I am happy that the ones I have done incorporate more of things created by me (drawing, painting, photographs, etc.). I have done a little scrapbooking, and I have taken very few photos for scrapping.  Not sure how I feel about this last point, but I think it's probably okay.
So, that's where I stand with my one little word.  I like how it has helped to guide me through this year.  How has your "word" been influencing you?

Amy's Challenge and OLW Check-In

Amy, of Over at Our Place, posted this challenge to blog about the seventh photo in the twenty-first folder in your photo files.  The photograph above, of a man cutting down a very tall tree in our backyard is what I found.  It reminded me of my one little word for 2012 - "Home."  This year I've been working on a variety of projects to clean up and purge our home; to figure out my artistic home; and to nurture the relationships which lie at the heart of my home.  One project was clearing out some big, diseased trees which blocked our view.  It was great to get it done!
In the back yard, we also hauled away a defunct hot tub and outgrown play structure, pruned the fruit trees (long overdue) and cleared out junk from the sides of the house and the storage sheds.  My indoor purging had slowed down, but I did get through some cupboards in the kitchen. And, this weekend, I went after the kids' wardrobes and book shelves.  It felt so good to box up and bag things they had outgrown.
Then, this afternoon, Paul and I took about six boxes of old toys and four bags of clothes to the church for donation (the toys had come out of the attic which I had cleared out during spring break). It was great because there were local families who met us and immediately started taking the stuff which we had brought. I know the families are in need, and I'm so glad these things will be put to good use. The next stop was the used bookstore where we sold three huge bags of books! All-in-all, a successful day.
So, thanks Amy, for reminding me to check in on my one little word for 2012. And for motivating me to do a few more projects around it! How are the rest of you doing with your one little word?

Reflecting on my OLW for 2012

For 2012, I chose "home" as my One Little Word.  I've been using it as an inspiration to get my physical home in order - organizing and purging room by room.  I've made a lot of progress but still have a lot to do (mainly the garage, which will take many, many sessions).  I've also been focusing on (as the art journal page above says) "the place my heart calls home." I've been working on my relationships with my husband and children - challenging but rewarding!  Finally, I've been working to find the place where my artistic muse feels most at home.  I've been learning drawing and water color painting.  And am happy with how I'm integrating these into my art journaling and mixed media collage.  I know I'll never give up photography, but I need to learn more about how to use my new camera.  I've done some scrapbooking and card making, too, but those have taken a bit of a back seat during the first quarter of 2012.  But that's okay.  Those will find their time, too.
So, did you choose a "one little word" for 2012? What are you doing with it? 

New Classes, New Blogs, and OLW Weekly Check-In

I wanted to share a few new things at the start of this new week.  First, I'm starting an online class offered by Strathmore. They have a series of three classes, and they're free! You can check them out at this link.  Although I signed up for all three classes, I didn't (yet) do anything with the first one - Doodles by Traci Bautista.  She's a super nice person (I was lucky enough to meet her a few times) and wildly creative, so I do hope to get back to it at some time.  I just started Class #2 on watercolor technique, and I'll definitely learn a lot from it!   I made the art journal page up top earlier this week to celebrate my birthday, and this cute little thank-you card:

The third class (force drawing) intrigues me - it will be interesting to see what it entails.
I also plan to work my way through the new free online class by Alisa Burke called Finding your Muse.  You can check it out here.
Anyway, if you're looking for some new creative inspiration, check these out. The price is definitely right!
I also wanted to share links to some of the cool blogs I found during Ayala's 29 Faces Challenge.  The first one is Ayala Art, hostess of the challenge.  She's super sweet and very talented. The second one is Nordljus, owned by Katja in Switzerland.  I love finding blogs from other countries which give me a sense of traveling there. Katja's painting and photography do just that.  Finally, check out Miz Katie, a wonderful painter who has been blind in one eye since birth. I'm not sure if this is what gives her art such an interesting perspective or not, but I definitely love her style.
How about you? Got anything new to share? Anyone taking the new class offered by Shimelle (Hitchhiker's Guide to Scrapbooking)? What about the new Ali Edwards Workshop Five?
Thanks to everyone who stopped by yesterday for Storytelling Sunday.  To answer your questions, no the photographs were not taken with my new camera. They were taken before I made the purchase.  I have started experimenting with my new camera, but I haven't yet figured out how to download them to my computer (!!!). When I do, I will be featuring my March monthly make.  Also, the boys did win the baseball game! It was a good day.
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Weekly OLW Check-In.  This week, I cleaned out the two storage sheds in the side yard.  Threw out a variety of rusty garden tools; about two dozen deflated balls [you name it, we had it - baseball, soccer, volleyball, Irish football (yes, Henry played a season or two of this sport, also known as Gaelic football, in a San Francisco league; and, yes, he was good at it), basketball, dodge ball, etc. ]; lots of plastic sand toys; leftover hot tub supplies; and assorted other outdoor/garden stuff. I'm readying up the yard because when Deb hosts her pot luck/recipe exchange blog hop later this month (sign up information here), I'll be welcoming everybody out back.  

Jeweley or Camera: What's a Girl to Do?

Regular blog readers will know that, as part of my one little word for 2012 ("home"), I've been organizing and decluttering my house - room by room. One project that resulted from this was a need to organize my jewelry, repair some damaged pieces and refurbish others.  In particular, I had three loose stones (a diamond from my original engagement ring and two emeralds from my Uncle) which I wanted to have made into a new piece of jewelry. Working with a local jeweler, we found this ring design, which I really like and which will fit my stones perfectly. But then things went a little sideways. They quoted me a new price, which was about 10% higher than the original one. They gave some explanation, but it just didn't feel right to me. So, I walked away from the arrangement.  My husband has offered to talk to a different jeweler (the new ring is a combination birthday/valentine's day present).  Alternately, it looks like I could get a new camera for about the same price - the Nikon D5100, to be precise.

He correctly points out that I've been talking about a new camera for quite a while, as I've outgrown my Nikon D50.  And the D5100 would fit me perfectly.

So, what do you think? Jewelry or camera? What's a girl to do?

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Weekly 2012 one little word check in.  This week,

1. I organized the tall cupboards in the kitchen, which hold our liquor, stemware, cookbooks, table linens and appliances.  The most interesting things I threw away were half a bag of birdseed (no idea where that came from!) and four different editions of Robert Parker's Wine Guides.  Also got rid of a never-used pasta maker.

2. Paul pruned the fruit trees. I had tried to call several different tree guys but that didn't work. So, Paul did them. Although it wasn't me, I still feel like it was an accomplishment. Similarly,

3. Paul organized the spice cabinet.  He threw away things that expired last decade! Although I didn't do it, the task is still done. And I know he's been inspired by my efforts. So I'm adding it to my list.

Prayer Flag Sampler #1: Trust in Love (PPF)

I missed Paint Party Friday last week, but I'm back today to share the beginning of a new project.  I'm making a Prayer Flag Design Sampler.  I started with a small (about 3"x6") chipboard book which I had covered with gesso. On each of the eight pages, I plan to paint a design for a prayer flag. I think I'll try to stay with the traditional prayer flag color palette (blue, white, red, green and yellow) and put a message on each one that I want to send out to the world. Don't know whether I'll ever turn the designs into larger prayer flags, but I know I'll enjoy this process.
Here's my first flag:  Trust in Love.  One aspect of my one little word for 2012 "Home" is a commitment to nurture my family. To be honest, my 13 year old daughter is very challenging right now. But I trust in love to get us through this tough time.  
Yes love. And cocktails.  Because it is Friday after all. And we made it through a pretty good week with her.
How about you? Are you ready to celebrate Friday?

Found in the Attic

I chose "Home" as my one little word for 2012, and I have been working on organizing and decluttering my house - room by room. This week, I decided to tackle the small attic storage area inside the house. The kids have the week off school, and Clara pitched in to help complete this mammoth task. One surprise I found was a large stash of counted cross-stitch projects.  I'd forgotten about these entirely.  I found over a dozen unopened kits (mostly Holiday and baby-related) and supplies which I gave away on freecycle:

(Just FYI - the other things I freecycled were an aerobic step; two largish plastic toddler push toys; an old globe that still had the USSR on it; a telescope; a picnic basket; and a largish plastic toddler slide - I love freecycle!) 
I also found half-a-dozen projects-in-process.  I think it's been ten years since I worked on them, but, since they were all over half done, I decided to hang onto them.  My favorite is up top - a group of Humel girls.  Here's a few others:

I decided to join the Felt Fairy's Monthly Make, so that will be a good incentive to finish some of these up. What kind of surprise craft projects do you have lurking in your storage areas?

New Music Monday: Found with Shazam

It's been a while since I've posted music recommendations. Today, I'm sharing some songs I found through Shazam.  That means when I heard the song on my car radio, I used the Shazam app to find the song title and artist.  It's also a great way to keep a record of songs I like.  The video above, Train's Drive By is a current favorite. Love the melody; love the San Francisco Bay Area locale; love the cars; love everything!
Next up, Changing by The Airborne Toxic Event:

Great music, and fantastic dancing!!!  And for more fun, check out the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and The Impression that I Get:

Here's something with a feminine vibe and a little craftiness thrown into the video:

Finally, Bruce Springsteen's voice and passion still makes my heart pound:

Got any favorites today? How do you find your new music? Do you use shazam?
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Weekly OLW Check-In: 
1. We got our nonfunctioning hot tub and outgrown playstructure hauled away by our yard service! This goes a long way to tidying up the backyard.  
2. Clara and cleaned out our small attic. We tossed four bags of garbage; created four big boxes of toys to donate; crushed and recycled over a dozen old boxes; and put six suitcases and two car seats into the dump run pile. Plus I gave away a bunch of stuff through freecycle.
3. I organized the clutter on the kitchen breakfast table. Next step is putting it away. LOL!

Faces 9, 10, 11 and Some Reflection

I'm somewhere between a third and half way through the 29 faces challenge, and I've learned a few things. Let me know if any resonate with you.
1. I can draw a basic face now. It doesn't scare me, and I could confidently add a face to an art journaling page or card or mail art envelope if I wanted to.
2. I'm getting the hang of eyes, but mouths still elude me.
3. Using more than one media or color creates a more satisfying end result.  Even if I start with oil pastels (Sybil) or acrylics (overworked), it helps A LOT to add pen, pencil or marker to add definition.
4. I'm getting to the point where I want to create more than just the face - adding bodies, clothes and the scene will probably be the focus for the next part of this project.
5. I'm not sure I've found my "style." I really like the water color faces (like I did yesterday) but I don't see those working into my larger mixed media pieces. The faces from today seem more likely to be useful in that regard. Although I could see the water color faces on cards.
6. It's hard for me to stick with a project past the two week mark.
7. Joining a blog challenge is a great way to meet all kinds of new blog friends! I've discovered some wonderful new blogs and artists through the challenge.  I'm off to visit some of them now. If you want to see them, check out the tags at this post.
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OLW Weekly Check-In:
This week, I cleaned out the laundry room, which also meant I organized the china buffet and display case. Tossed out two big bags of garbage and came up with one more bag of stuff to donate.

A Peek Inside My China Buffet (10 on the 10th)

Not too long ago, Stacey of Havoc and Mayhem posted about the various sets of dishes she owns. It got me thinking about my own sets of china and how I store them.  Especially as this year I am working on cleaning, organizing and purging my home - room by room. And I had to admit that there were several boxes of dishware lurking in my laundry room, of all places. 

And that probably meant the laundry room was a good candidate for my attention.  This beautiful Japanese tea set, as well as some awesome depression glass arrived in the laundry room from my Aunt Vera's house in Texas.

My sister and I cleared out her house after she passed away, and I claimed these, as well as her china.

I put the china in my china cabinet, but the rest of the boxes got shelved in the laundry room. We keep our china - a Noritake set we chose when we got married - in the buffet.

When we got married, we also got a full set (plus lots of serving pieces) of Pfaltzgraf stoneware.

The stuff was indestructible. After 20+ years of marriage, we still had a full set.  But we were horribly bored with it.  So, I gave it all away (except for this serving piece which somehow escaped the freecycle), and we purchased a simple set of white French apilco blue-banded porcelain dishes.

The simple white china with the gold band on top is our "kids china." We bought four plates like this for the kids to use when they were little, and we were using our good china.  We bought them at an antique/thrift store. Because we've always loved visiting these stores and adding to our collection of blue willow china.

I guess the truth is that Paul and I have both always had a soft spot for china and glassware. We even bought some beautiful poppy countryware from Herend when we were in Hungary.

My own addiction probably started with the Belleek jar pictured at the top of the post.  My best friend's mom gave it to me for my high school graduation and told me that she thought it was time that I started collecting something. Obviously, she wouldn't be disappointed!  
But at least I can now say that all my china is nicely stored in the living room buffet and china cabinet AND my laundry room is beautifully clean and decluttered.
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For more blog posts featuring ten things on the tenth of the month, go to this link.

Class Review: 101 Faces with Carla Sonheim

I am finally finished with this wonderful class . . . or at least finished enough to write a review.  Carla Sonheim offered this class as a repeat of an earlier online class.  It cost $35 and ran for five jam-packed days.  She bills it as a "summer camp" or boot camp style class, with A LOT of assignments packed into five days. Each day began with an email and a warm up exercise (a PDF to print out). There were then two assignments, communicated via videos. One assignment was generally focused on drawing and the other was focused on painting. They covered a wide variety of media and asked participants to repeat the techniques 4-10 times. Sometimes faces were drawn from a reference photograph; others were drawn from the imagination. The goal was to have fun trying out a variety of media and to find a style that worked for you.  Carla established a flickr group where participants posted their faces and received comments. Comments could also be made on the class blog, but I didn't notice much activity there. 
Day 1 featured watercolor faces (from your imagination) and left-handed drawing. I loved the watercolor faces! Day 2 was about drawing with sharpie markers (from a photo reference) and portraits with an ink dropper. These were both difficult for me, but I was surprised to get a few decent results (including the one at the top of this post).  Day 3 was one line drawings (hated these!) and realistic drawings with pencil, sharpie and watercolor crayons (both from a photo reference). I found these difficult but a very good exercise. Day 4 was scribble drawings from live models (loved these) and graphite and pastel portraits from your imagination (drawn with an eraser). I didn't really care for the last two techniques, though the pastels were better than the graphite. Day 5 was drawing with colored pencils from a photo reference (difficult for me and made me realize that colored pencils are definitely not my medium); stylized charcoal drawing from a photo reference (I substituted pastels - love these!!!) and stylized conte crayon drawing from a photo reference (I substituted oil pastel crayons and enjoyed working with them). The final class assignment is to reflect on what you have done and make ten more faces in the style that works for you. 
I think my favorites were watercolor faces (from imagination), scribble drawings of live models and both pastel techniques, so I'll make more of each of those.
Overall, I thought this was a terrific class! I experimented with a variety of different media (and found it easy to substitute what I had for anything I was missing from the supply list) and really began to get a sense of the importance of shading (in realistic faces) and the difference between drawing from a reference vs. real life vs. from my imagination.  These last two things were wonderful insights for me. The flickr group worked well, and Carla visited often commenting on almost every face posted!  I also thought, at $35, it was reasonably priced for all the content.  In terms of improvement, I would have appreciated an introductory lesson or video focusing on the big picture of drawing faces (shapes, proportions, etc.). I think that if I had not learned this in an earlier class, I would have been really lost. There's a lot of "learn by observing and doing" (reinforced with repetition), without as much instruction or drawing theory. I also think I would have preferred to have the class run as a three to four week class, with the assignments spread out a bit more. Although I did the first 3 days in the first week of January, the other two got spread out. The videos are available forever, so I was able to pace myself, but by the time I got to days 4 and 5, there was not community left with which to interact. Overall, I give the class a solid A-.
I'd love to hear from others who took the class or others who are considering taking drawing classes.
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OLW 2012 Weekly update: not much to report this week. I battled a bad cold most of the week and organized a big soccer event (Youth Night on Friday night), so didn't have the time or energy to do much. I did finish the Faces class and encouraged DH to call the handyman to haul away some things! I'll do better next week.

PPF: Prayer Flags O'er my Home

I've been thinking a lot about prayer flags lately. It seems to me that they could be the next big thing in the world of crafting design. They would build on the bunting/flag trend but bring an ethnic and spiritual flavor as well.  Plus, I think we're ready to move away from all the vintage colors into something a little brighter (but still subtle). So, when prayer flags start popping up on stamps and patterned paper, you can say you read it here first!
Today's acrylic painting is a page in my art journal. I definitely see myself turning it into a canvas in the not too distant future (sans journaling). Prayer flags are hung in two different styles - horizontally between two points or vertically on a pole. Traditionally, there are five flags, flown in the colors and order shown above.  The center of the flag features a winged horse, and there are four spiritual animals (an eagle, a dragon, a snow leopard and a tiger) in the corners. Mantras are written on the reverse side. I'm happy with my stylized versions of these animals on the prayer flags flying over my home.  My "home" and the journaling both refer to my "one little word" for 2012 - I'm tending this year to my physical home, the relationships which form the home for my heart, and also striving to find my artistic home.
Thanks for stopping by for Paint Party Friday (for more great painting, go to this link). Tomorrow, come by to see some of my 29 faces and stop by Sunday for Storytelling Sunday (Photo Version).
And do tell, what do you think about my prayer flag theory?

Monday Morning Inspiration

1. Michael DeMeng has a fascinating "quiz" where you try to match a palette with a painter.  Go check it out here.

2.  The Scrappy Tree has this great tutorial for making paper bag gift pockets. What a great way to use that paper which is too gorgeous to cover up! And they would be perfect for holding gift cards. 

3. October Afternoon shows how to do this really cool misting, masking and stamping technique.

4. I'm thinking about joining Ayala's Art 29 Faces challenges for February.

5. I just signed up for this class: The Art of Wild Abandonment with Christy Tomlinson. It starts in March. Thanks for the link Jacky. I think I'm really going to like it.
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Weekly OLW Check-In:
1. Organized the front hallway closet. Donated a dozen coats to the coat drive (three big bags), and threw away a huge bag of stuff (including some old Halloween costumes which had gotten icky) from there. I realized that I need to come up with a plan for selecting and storing the heirloom quality toys, children books, and children's clothes I want to keep. I also need to figure out how many family games I want to have on the "game shelf" and need to let the others go.  And what do I do with large, framed, high quality family portraits and framed artwork which we have outgrown? They're stored in the front hallway for now, and I'm not sure what to do with them. Any ideas welcome!
2. Dealt with the three large plastic pieces of kids play equipment languishing in the backyard (2 picnic tables and a slide). Added one to the dump pile and free-cycled the other two.
2. Picked up all my repaired jewelry. Still working on creating a piece with some heirloom stones. I have the diamond from my first engagement ring and two small emeralds. I was thinking about a right hand ring, but now I'm considering a necklace. Any thoughts?
3. Took two bags of clothes to the donation bin and gave one bag of "cool hand-me-downs" to our friends with kids who are just the right age.
4. Finished my gratitude journal and sketchbook project.

New Music Monday: Instrumental and OLW Check-in

For the last in my New Music Monday series, here's an awesome instrumental video from the band Laszlo, featuring the song, "Mr. Sunshine." Guaranteed to get your day off to a happy start!
If you like jazz instrumentals, I can also recommend  two songs by Dakota Suite: "Namiko" and "Heart of Empty."
So, now it's feedback time (and be honest) - do you like this music feature? Should I continue with it? Or would you prefer I stick with  art, photography and more about my life?  If I do continue it, how often? Once a month seems about right to me. What do you think?
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Weekly OLW Check-In: Still working on organizing my craft space. Starting on some of the home purging/cleaning, too. This week I
1. Cleared out and reorganized the two drawers and cupboard in the bathroom where I keep craft stuff.  I have an entire drawer full of tapes, glues and adhesives.  Is that excessive?
2. Cleaned out and organized the cabinets, counter and drawers in the kids' bathroom. Felt like I was channeling Stacey from Havoc and Mayhem when I found things to throw out which had expired in the last century!
3. Cleaned out and organized the counter, cabinets and drawers in the master bath. Threw away 12 old tooth brushes!
4. Found someone who wanted the keyboard and convinced them to come pick it up.
5. Organized my chipboard and grungeboard.
6. Cleaned out and organized the completed paper-based art project bin, art projects to do bin, assemblage stuff bin and overflow ephemera box.
7. Mailed off about a dozen stamps to new homes!

And so it begins . . .

My son takes such joy in playing soccer - in whatever venue it takes.  This week, the regular high school season began, and I'm looking forward to a little of this:

And a lot of this:

It's going to be a tough season, as the boys moved up to a higher division after winning the championship last year.  But, regardless of what happens, I'm looking forward to spending time with this boy:

I love you, son.
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Weekly OLW Check-In.  Things slowed down, as I've been busy grading exams and helping the soccer team, but I did manage to:
1. Finish organizing and filing all my collage images - a big project that I'm glad to have done.
2. Reorganized/expanded my stamp storage and put away the big bag of stamps that had been accumulating for quite some time!  I hope to show you what I've done pretty soon.

Jan. Counterfeit Kit and OLW Check-in

The Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog has a wonderful selection of kits from Cocoa Daisy to counterfeit this month. They're all warm and vintagey - right up my alley!  I was inspired by both the sunshine and snowflakes kit:

and the amber snowflake kit:

to make my kit at the top of today's post. I wanted to keep it small and selected mainly 6x6 papers from my stash.  I'm going to use the kit to work on a variety of projects.  I want to enter the Gingersnap Creations Twinchie Art Exchange (vintage theme) and also create some altered wooden blocks, something like these made by Deb Turtle. I also used the kit to make the Tim Holtz birthday card I posted yesterday!
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In other news, I've been focusing on my one little word for 2012 ("Home") by starting a major cleaning and reorganization of my craft space (which also means reorganizing my clothes closet, since I store supplies in there). It will take me a while to complete, but this week I accomplished the following:
*Sorted through all my craft books, back issues of craft magazines and stamping catalogs. Gave away two books; recycled 24 old magazines and catalogs.
*Sorted through my scraps and threw away several pounds of scraps that were really too small to do much with and which just created clutter.
*Organized my jewelry (hint: old stampin' up stamp containers are a great way to store beaded necklaces because you see them but they're contained) and took six pieces of jewelry in for repair. I store my jewelry in my closet, too, so that's why it's part of this organization.
*Organized my bookshelf which holds crafting supplies, clearing enough space to store several albums on it, which meant that I could organize the upstairs bookshelves enough to hold all the other scrapbook albums.
*Created a system for storing my collage sheets and began to sort through and file my collection.
*Created a storage system for my pens, pastels, pencils and chalks. 
*Organized my clothes closet and purged it of all the clothes which I don't wear (I threw out one shopping bag of clothes which were unwearable and filled four other shopping bags with clothes to donate). Sorted through my clothes drawers while I was at it!
*Purged a very full, somewhat musty, old large rolling crop bag. I either moved the contents to a better storage system or threw them away.  Tossed the old bag, which was actually kindof smelly. Eeewww!
*Organized my photos to be scrapped (along with appropriate supplies) into three different utility bags: summer vacation 2011; sports photos 2010-11; miscellaneous 2011. It will make it easy to work on these when I get some scrapping time.
I still have a lot to do before the organization and purging is complete - dealing with my overflowing stamp collection is the biggest puzzle still to solve - but I feel like there's a light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm really, really happy with how it's going.  After I finish with my craft space, I have lots of other home projects to do - organizing/purging the front closet; organizing/cleaning the laundry room; organizing the kids' closets; clearing out the back yard; etc. etc.  I'm hoping to post an update on my blog now and again to track my progress, so I remember how much I've accomplished.  Are you doing anything special to track progress on your one little word?

More Drawing. Less Stamping?

One of the things I want to do with my artwork this year is to make it more "my own" - to include more of my original art (drawing, photography, etc.) and fewer images created by other people (through purchased collage sheets, clip art, stamped images, etc.). 
So, I'm taking a class on drawing and painting faces.  Here's some early attempts. What do you think? Do you have a favorite? I also plan to compose more photographs to use in my mixed media collage.
As for using fewer images from other people, I'm having a hard time purging my collection of images. Although I think I can (and will) do it. But I can't even bear the thought of getting rid of my stamps. Although I'm feeling pretty "done" with card making at the moment, I'm not yet ready to get rid of my stamps. It just doesn't feel like time.
I guess the question I keep rolling over in my mind is the extent to which I feel good using tools and images created by other to create my own art. Thoughts?

Starting the New Year Right

New Year's Day in the United States feels a bit off this year because January 1 fell on a Sunday. So, a lot of the traditional new year events, such as the Rose Parade and football games got put off until Monday, January 2, which is also a holiday here. In many ways, the second seems like the start of the year.  So, today I thought I'd share some of what I'm doing with my 2012 OLW ("home").  I've started to do a lot of cleaning and purging in my craft area and clothes closet (because I store a lot of my craft stuff in my clothes closet). It feels great to get organized and focused on where I want to be in my art.  For Christmas, I received the book "Painted Pages" by Sarah Ahearn Bellemare, which Sian had featured in her Pass the Book blog activity and which really captured my imagination (even though my name never got pulled in the Pass the Book draw). I've been working my way through the exercises, and I used one of them to create the art journal page above which talks about approaching each new year as a journey. For me, this journey will actually take me deeper inside my home (my creative home, as well as my physical home). I've been thinking a lot about what I want to focus on in my art this year, and that has helped me in deciding what to keep and what to toss.   I also found an assortment of projects that I want to finish.  I'm looking forward to a very fun year creatively!
In my organizing, I came across three idea books which are really quite good (which is why I had not parted with them before) but a little dated and not really my style anymore.  I am happy to send them to anyone who wants them.  Preference given to people in the states to keep the cost of shipping down, but I'll send them abroad if no one here wants them.  If more than one person wants them, I'll draw names.  You can ask for one, two or all three.  The books are:
Full Circle by Lil Davis Designs (about Circle Journals);
PaperKuts Power Book of Tips and Techniques and
Rebecca Sower's Scrapbooking Life's Little Treasures (has a lot of good journaling advice).
{UPDATED to add: I'm sending Full Circle off to Nancy and Life's Little Treasures off to Carrie in today's mail. Going media mail, so it may take a few extra days. Enjoy!}