Stepping Back

I have stepped back for a bit to spend time with my family. It has taken me awhile to be able to post something here. On July 7th my dad passed away. Even though we had all been expecting it, you are just never truly prepared. The last 2 1/2 years have been a mixture of tons of family time and lots of trips to the ER. My dad had a bad heart valve and due to his age was unable to have the surgery needed. The Dr told us it would slowly close. There were many times that we were called to come help. And of course we did. Toward the end he was home on hospice and had a caregiver that lived with them. She was a huge help to my mom & dad. When he was feeling good he was really feeling good and you would never know anything was wrong. He packed those years with lots of outings and family parties. He was determined to make it to my son's wedding and he did! Even though the wedding reception got a little out of order in the timing of events, I am convinced it was all in God's hands. Because dinner was served later my parents got to watch my son give a wonderful toast to his new wife. They got to listen to my other two boys toast their brother and new sister-in-law with unbelievably great speeches. And they got to watch the first dance and the mother/son dance. It was such a special time! He had to leave the festivities at that point but I am sure that God rearranged it all just for him! And that truly makes me smile.
My dad was 92 years old and he and my mom had just celebrated 68 years of marriage!! Amazing!!
Our family has always been close and so I have wonderful memories of my dad for which I am eternally grateful. I can honestly say I have no regrets!!
Fitting that the last family gathering was Father's Day.
I love you so much Dad and will miss you terribly but I take comfort in knowing you are in the loving arms of Jesus!

A Couple

Here are two more pages of my art journal. For some reason it took me longer to even put the first bit of paint on the page this time. Who knows why?? But it finally came together and I am beginning to enjoy the process. I actually painted over the first page as I kept looking at it and just didn't like it at all. Great thing is...it is my journal and my choice. :) Pretty cool.

Thanks for stopping by!

On A Roll

More pages! These two are from Hope's class. I dug out some old magazines so I had a few more things to choose from and that helped. It isn't my favorite page but at least I am making progress. Thanks for taking a look!



Closing with another quote:

There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as if everything is.
Albert Einstein

Some Journal Love

OK...here are a few more pages from my journals. I have actually started two different journals. One I had made for a class at Paper Vineyard as inspiration. The other is from the online class I am taking.

First up: The cover from Hope's class. She provided the print outs for us to collage our cover. Somehow when I printed mine it came out smaller than I expected so I just added some old dictionary paper and a little sewing pattern paper underneath to finish off the page. I really like the way it looks.



Next is the first page of the class journal. Our prompt was to choose a quote that we liked and then cut out photos from magazines or catalogs of things we liked. I didn't really have much to choose from as I save most of the magazines I get so I went with a Pier 1 advertisement. It worked. :)


On a recent trip to Michaels I picked up some very inexpensive oil pastels to play with. I have used regular pastels in the past but not oils. It was fun to experiment a bit with them. I did learn that they do not create a great background for many of my writing pens. haha


And last one up is another page from my inspiration journal that I am doing on my own. Here I am mostly trying out different styles and techniques that I have seen online.


More to come tomorrow!

Class Time

Yesterday was class time again at Paper Vineyard. I had a small class but what a fun one! Some of my very favorite PV ladies were there! We made a Family Canvas display. Here are a few photos of the ladies hard at work. Below is Sherry & Colleen.

Next up is Rose Marie... she hadn't done some of the techniques before and I think she really liked it.

Below are a couple photos of Colleen's finished product!! How fun! Didn't it turn out great!



And one of my favorite shots....me taking a photo of Jean taking a photo of me! For the other side you can visit her blog here. :)

The day finished out with a fun dinner with my family. Always great when I get to spend time with my boys and the girls!! We went to Bass Pro Shop and ate at their fish food restaurant. It was delicious. And of course we laughed and laughed. Telling stories and cracking jokes. It was a fun evening. Even the waitress got in on the act...making jokes herself. She was funny! :)
With a quick "puppy fix" at my son's house we were on our way home. Now that's a fun day!!

First Pages

OK here are the first pages of my art journal. Don't judge too harshly...teeheehee. I have no idea what I am doing but am trying to just go for it anyway. :) The cover is one of Claudine Helmuth's Sticky-back Canvas. I didn't want to pull it apart so I decided to stitch the front. Unfortunately my sewing machine was not working properly (problem with the foot-feeds). So it is a bit messy but it is what it is. I also tried the new rolled flower technique that I have seen out there quite a bit. I tried it with ribbon, bias tape and also torn fabric. I like how they turned out. I may tweak things as I go but so far it has been fun.

The next two pages are what I have so far. Don't know if I will go back to add things or not. But for now they work.
And just to add a little spice to the post I added a photo of the apples off of our tree. This is just the beginning of the season and we have a ton more on the tree. They are so sweet and delicious and are great for apple crisp also. Have a great day everyone!

A Step Into Journaling

So I decided to take a step into the world of journaling. (just click on the above photo to view the class) My friend Sherry is taking the class also. It is a self paced class we found online via Maija's blog. It looked like fun and I have been itching to jump into journaling. I am not sure whether I am going to love the artwork/painting or the writing the most...but what better way to find out. I will let you know how it goes by posting photos along the way.
Here's to taking the first step!