Tea & Inspiration!

It's very late, I know, but that's when I usually have tea. The kids are in bed so I made myself a nice cup (decaf, of course!) and headed into my craft room to finish my Inspiration prompt. I'm joining artsymama's tea party later than most, but the day's not over yet (for me in Minnesota)! Welcome!


This lovely tea party inspired me to dig out my old tea set that was given to me as a little girl by my great aunt. I haven't seen it in years, and when I found it in a box in my basement and unwrapped a few pieces, I realized I hadn't remembered the pattern or just how small it was! It truly is a miniature tea set, meant for a little girl, but I can't wait to wash up all the pieces and introduce my son to the delights of a tea party, complete with milk, sugar, and cookies, of course! I have such wonderful memories of my mom making tea to pour into my little tea pot, filling the creamer with milk and the sugar bowl with sugar, and placing little cookies on the plates. I loved it and it made me feel so grown up! Those tea parties were extra special because my mom kept my tea set high up in the kitchen cabinet, safe from little hands that always wanted to play with the set, but could easily break the delicate china! So when we brought the set down to have tea, which wasn't very often, it truly was a special event.


(Notice how small the tea cup is next to my "normal" sized cup. And the tea pot is the same size as my mug!)

Thanks for joining me in a fun walk down memory lane. I hope you enjoyed your tea. Happy Spring!


(I'll post better pictures of my Inspiration pages after I take pictures in the light of day tomorrow!)

Wonder

I'm on a roll! I completed my page for prompt #4, Wonder. (Actually, I completed it two days ago, but Blogger was having issues with uploading photos...) For this prompt, we were supposed to "scraplift" a style from a favorite artist and I chose this scrapbook page by Ali Edwards. I just love her simple, clean style. She really has a great eye for design.


I really love the way my page turned out, and of course it helped that it's all about my adorable boys and also uses Basic Grey paper.

Dream

I finally finished prompt #3 for the Cabinet of Curiosities challenge. I really loved this prompt because it gave me the perfect opportunity to do a collage about a place near and dear to my heart. I first went to Paris (my first time out of the U.S.) with my then boyfriend (now my husband) and fell in love with it. I remember stepping out onto the streets of Paris from the Metro underground and just being transported back in time. The sights, sounds, smells. I was enchanted.

Then in June, 2001 my husband and I were married outside in the courtyard of a lovely 13th century chateau in a very small town in the Loire Valley. Pure magic.

We returned to that same magical place in 2004 to celebrate our 3rd anniversary with our one-year-old son. And we can't wait to return with both of our boys.

We dream of France and Paris all the time. It's a very special place for us. We are francophiles, for sure! My husband speaks fluent French to our children and reads to them in French, too, so our three-year-old understands French and can speak it, too! Someday we may end up living in France, but until the next time we go, I'll rely on "my dreams of France".

Scrapping & Snow!

Well, I still haven't finished the prompts for the Cabinet of Curiosities challenge (although I'm almost done with the Dream prompt), but I had time to do a scrapbook page for my father-in-law, who just turned 80. I mounted it in a black shadowbox frame for him to hang on the wall. I was happy with how it turned out and love the theme for the page, which I give my husband credit for (thanks, Mark!). I was thinking of just doing my two boys (my in-laws' only grandkids), but the theme of 'generations' is great.


And I just had to post this photo I took a few days ago during our crazy snowstorm. My 3 1/2 year old went out to help Daddy shovel. I didn't set up this picture, but just happened to snap it at the perfect time. Too cute!

Breaking through the ice

Do you ever have those days when you feel just, well, blah? That's how I've been feeling lately. I'm sure it's a combination of circumstances and stress in my life, lack of sleep (my 9-month-old still gets me up a few times a night), and this dreary Minnesota winter (with a windy snow/ice storm going on right now), but I'm tired of it and want to break out of my funk! Oddly enough, I was reading Ali's blog the other day and see that she's been feeling similarly. I really liked what she did to help her break through the ice. She wrote down a few things that she felt grateful for RIGHT NOW. So, I thought I would do the same. Maybe it will help me see past all the things that are driving me crazy (like cat hair, constant jabbering and noise, feeling behind in a million things, etc....) Here goes. Today I feel gratitude for:

1. Friends in my local chapter of MOMS Club.
2. Dark chocolate.
3. A big hug from my preschooler.
4. A big smile from my baby. I can't believe he turned 9 months old today!
5. A big supportive hug from my hubby.
6. Coffee.
7. Getting caught up on laundry (mostly -- I guess it's never really done!)
8. Music. Everything from Gomez to REM to Horowitz. (Horowitz proved very effective to calm everyone prior to bedtime!)
9. Staying in my PJ's all day long and even getting a little 20-minute power nap around noon. It was much needed!
10. All the incredibly wonderful comments on my artwork for the Cabinet of Curiosities challenge. Thank you all! They really put a smile on my face and gave me confidence. Although I'm very behind in the challenge, I WILL finish it! The very last prompt was posted today on Kari's blog and the theme of Destination and Reflection couldn't be more apropos for me! I'll use this prompt to finish all the other prompts that I'm behind on! I feel like it was a get out of jail free pass. :-)

What are you feeling grateful for in your life today?

Curiosity

Wow. I finished my page for prompt #2 in the Cabinet of Curiosities challenge. I say "wow" because it was so much fun! I'd never done a collage before and I definitely had a blast doing it, and I'm actually happy with the way it turned out.


I ended up using all 16 of the suggested tasks on my layout (yowza!). I wrote each task on a piece of paper and mixed them up in a metal bucket that was in my craft room. As I had time throughout the day today, I asked my 3-year-old son Julian to choose any piece of paper. He actually loved doing this and felt like he was "doing art" with me. He would even ask me, "Mommy, do you need another piece of paper yet?" So fun.

Here's the order that Julian chose, and it's exactly how I did my collage. (I was grateful he didn't choose something like 3-D first!) Paper, Picture, Charcoal, Sand, Pattern, Stamp, Text, Scratch, Surprise, 3-D, Paint, Magazine, Smudge, Write, Draw, and Pastels. For the "surprise" task I added fabric to my layout, which I'm trying to do on each of my pages for this challenge. The fabric pieces are the blue hearts (positive and negative images).

I'm looking forward to seeing what our 3rd prompt will be tomorrow on Bonnie's site.

Change is in the air...

I can feel it.

The Dems are fullfilling promises in their newly elected positions in Washington.

Senator Obama is exploring the possibility of running for the presidency.

And now, Hillary.

For the first time in a long while I'm starting to feel optimistic and excited about the upcoming election. How will it unfold?

2008....I'll meet you there!

Ready, set, go!

I'm officially posting on my blog for the first time. I still haven't figured this thing out, so bear with me until I have time to learn how to use Blogger.

I'm starting out with a bang by participating in a very cool art challenge co-hosted by my good friend Kari, and Bonnie. The name of the challenge is A Cabinet of Natural Curiosity. Bonnie started the challenge on Thursday with a prompt to Explore, and she'll post every week on Thursday. Kari will post her prompts each Sunday. There will be a total of 8 prompts for this challenge. Here are my first pages:



I ended up doing a 2 page spread for this first prompt. I used watercolor paper for my pages, which are 9"x9", with a 1" side margin where I will punch holes for the binding at the end of the project. Eventually I'll have a cover, too, but I might just finish all the pages first before I decide on a cover. I used water color crayons on the background, which I just used for the first time, so I'm still learning. The flowers (and green/white checks) are fabric, the stems are ribbon, and I used some fun tie-downs for the center of the flowers, with fiber to bind them together. For the journaling, I used the Robert Frost poem "The Road Not Taken", which was part of the prompt and I've always loved that poem. The space beneath the flowers and the space where the journaling is loosely represent the road and my desire to explore the unknown: new places to visit, new art to create, new experiences to explore.

My parting words: Please be kind to me! (hee hee hee) Not only do I not know how to take good photos of my "art" (any pointers?), but I'm a novice to boot.