My Cousin Keth

My cousin Keth is a bit of a wild man/party animal. He also happens to be an aerospace engineer/rocket scientist. On weekends, he's having huge keg parties at his beach house, playing gigs or playing beach volleyball. During the week, he's flying to Florida to help NASA solve a problem. Only in California, I guess.

Keth's one of my Uncle Johnny's many offspring - I think he's the son of one of my cousins and so technically a second cousin. I feel a little bad not knowing for sure, but my Uncle Johnny had several wives and many, many children. And some of them moved out of Texas and over to Iowa. Keth is from that branch of the family.

But he walked back into our lives several years ago. He turned up in Southern California, on my brother Carlos' doorstep, and Carlos took him in. Because that's what the Ontiveros family does for family. And Carlos had a big old empty house. Keth didn't pay rent, but he did help Carlos on the many, many fixer-up projects that big old empty house so desperately needs. To be honest, I thought Keth was a drifter and was a bit skeptical of his motives. My bad. Turns out Keth is wonderful - smart, organized and quite able to take care of himself. He just needed a base of operations while he decided what job to take and where to live.

Keth usually drops by on holidays - at least for a quick "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Thanksgiving." And he always invites us to his various outrageous activities. Like when he and a group of his work friends dress up as "The Little Green Army Men" and compete in a flutag (a contest to see who can create a human-powered vehicle that will fly - off a pier - into the ocean!). Or when the same group decides to compete in a Soap Box Derby down a very steep hill in downtown Los Angeles. The soap box derby took place last May, and, since we were in town, we decided to go watch. A good time was had by all - but then it usually is when Cousin Keth is in the mix!

Is there a Cousin Keth in your family? Was there every a time in your when you were like him?

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Today I am grateful for: Parents who taught me and mine the importance of family.

Mail In/Mail Out and Pass the Book Recipient

I'm afraid I've been quite derelict in acknowledging some wonderful goodies I've received in the mail.  Ginger of Ginger's Life of Spice runs a wonderful mail art exchange, and, through that, I received a gorgeous package from Ruth with all kinds of goodies! Thank you Ruth!  I've also recently (or not so recently!) received lovely pick-me-ups from Ginger and Amy.  I love getting "good mail" and so will be reciprocating by sending out a few things in the near future. Here's what the outgoing looks like:

It's also time for me to "Pass the Book."  The next recipient of Raw Art Journaling is Amy!

I will be sending it along shortly.

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Today I am grateful for: the moments of calm between the storms (quietly doing homework together or snuggled on the couch watching Hawaii 5-o).

Ghosts of Christmas Past (and last call for Pass the Book)

Shimelle is hosting a Christmas Crafting Party for the end of the Pretty Paper Party, and one of her first challenges is to share a favorite Christmas project.  Here's mine - the photo albums in which I scrap the photographs we get in Christmas cards.  I've been doing it since 1988, and I'm up to Volume Three! The two kids on the upper right both have children of their own now, and the baby on the right hand side is a college graduate!  It's so much fun to see how people grow over the years.
Shimelle also asked for people to share their previous Journal Your Christmas or December Daily albums.  Here are mine:

I've done JYC three times.  The first time I did it as an art journal with 5x7 cards, stored in a metal box (that's the one in the middle).  You can see a slide show of the cards this link.  The second time I did it, I created the album on the right - it has an expandable spine, and I placed Tim Holtz tags in between the journaling. You can see my blog post about it here.  Last year, I took hipstamatic photos and made the album on the left hand side.  You can see my blog post about its preparation by clicking this link and see the completed version at this one.
I completed one other challenge today, too:

The challenge was to cut an image out of patterned paper. I cut out the camera on the upper right hand corner of this title page for a mini-album I made today. It's a bit of a surprise, so I didn't want to photograph the completed project.  While working on it, I experienced one of those really frustrating scrapper moments - I ran out of adhesive with just two pages left to complete! I took it as as sign from above that I should stop scrapping and switch to organizing and cleaning up.  Which I did. I organized all the layouts I've been working on in their albums, put away a bunch of supplies and found my desk top! And then I found some more adhesive.  Whew!
So, a very productive day.  What about you?
Oh, I almost forgot. . . If you're interested in receiving the book, "Raw Art Journaling" as part of Pass the Book, go to this post and add a comment.
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Today I am grateful for: the sights and sounds of my coastal town which helped me enjoy my morning run - including friendly runners saying hi, some pelicans watching fisherman clean fish, and towers of crab pots.

Christmas Comings and Goings

I finally finished scrapping my holiday pictures from 2010! They always seem to take forever.  The page up top will be the last page in my 2010 album, and it was inspired by a Shimelle prompt to use some bling on a layout.  I also did this layout of shopping downtown:

It incorporated two sketch suggestions from Shimelle's class.  
All this has put me in mind to think about the upcoming holidays.  There's three things I'm thinking about in particular, and I'm interested in your responses.  First, are you making Christmas cards? Second, are you making any holiday gifts? Third, are you taking any holiday on-line classes (Journal Your Christmas, December Daily, etc.)?
As for me, I'm planning to not over commit this season. I'll make a few handmade cards for some of my crafty friends.  Most of the people on my Christmas list will get a family photo card.  I'm probably going to make some hand-made gifts, but I haven't figured that out just yet. I am not planning on doing JYC or December Daily, but I am doing "The 12 Days of Christmas" photo class. I'm not sure if Tim Holtz is doing the 12 Tags of Christmas this year, but, even if he does, I'll probably pass.  What about you?
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Today I am grateful for: Those nights when all four of us are able to sit down together for dinner at the dinner table.

2011 Intentions: October 's Page

This year I have been tracking my intention (to be fabulous at 50), my one little word (health) and a list of resolutions in three different art journals.  You can click on the label "2011 intentions" below to learn more. I'm a little behind, but I'm catching up fast. Here's my October page, which is a little melancholy.  To be truthful, October was a little tough around here - I had a lot of travel and was very busy with work and the kids.  I didn't blog or create much, and my exercise routine fell off dramatically. But, I kept with it and now I'm definitely on the rebound.  My journaling reads "In October, I was fabulous because I realized that treading water is better than drowning. I may not always be able to soar, but I believe in myself and have faith that things will get better as long as I don't give up."
So, am I right? Do you think you can be fabulous even when you're just barely keeping your head above water? 





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Today I am grateful for: people who go out of their way to do the right thing.

Ten on the Tenth: Cards from Scraps

I've been accumulating lots of scraps and ephemera odds and ends from the scrapbook pages I've been making for Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party class.  So, I sat down to make some cards with them.  These two Christmas cards came together very easily.  But the rest of the scraps left me feeling uninspired.  I did, however, find in my crafting bag a ziplock baggie full of photographs, matching card stock mats and card blanks to make a whole batch of photo cards. I have a vague recollection of putting this kit together for a crop once upon a time.  So, I sat down with my paper trimmer and ATG gun and whipped up these cards in no time flat:

So happy to have them done! And extra happy to have them out of my bag!
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Today I am grateful for: Happy Surprises

Beyond Team Colors

I am almost done scrapping my Christmas, 2010 pictures! Yea! I can't wait to finish them up and put away the holiday paper and embellies.  But I thought I'd take a little break today and work on a prompt from Shimelle about scrapping on black cardstock.  I scrap on black cardstock a lot, but I almost always pair it with orange.  Because I live in Halloween-town. Not really - sometimes it just feels that way.  Half Moon Bay is a self-proclaimed pumpkin capitol, and the High School colors are black and orange.  The sports travel team colors are (almost invariably) black and orange. Plus, we follow the San Francisco Giants (whose colors are - you guessed it- black and orange). So, I took the challenge today to scrap on black cardstock, do a sports page and not do (primarily) black and orange. I pulled pictures from the soccer alumni game and paired black with deep teal. I love how this made the inevitable orange in the pictures really pop.
Once I finish my holiday pictures, I'm going to move on to working on a bunch of sports pictures.  So, be prepared for lots of orange! Are their any team colors or recurring color pairings where you live?
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Today I am grateful for: a bright sunshiny day and a surprise day off!