Just some pages . . .

The pace has slowed down around here.  We have had lazy mornings and afternoons at the pool . . . just the way summer should be.  Well, the first week of summer anyway!!  Gymnastics, ice skating and tennis will be picking up again next week and this Mommy Taxi will be back in full swing!!  But I wouldn't change a thing around here!!

I bought some new watercolors . . . they are YUMMY!!!  The 5 Birds is CRAZY!!  But that is just how we are around here!!

 And my little Gracie stamp, from The Greeting Farm . . . makes me smile everytime I use her!! I  embossed her and the flowers and then colored them in with my new watercolors!! So much fun to do!

It is finally Summer Vaca!!!

Whew, so I survived the last few weeks of school!!  I only forgot to bring a child to one event . . . so I consider the last two weeks a success!!  I also had a horrible case of asthmatic bronchitis and really felt under the weather, but I am feeling much better and only coughing occasionally!!  Yeah!!  School is out now, so we will be sleeping in and then running to our usual activities. 

Finally, the weather is beautiful outside this weekend and we spent yesterday afternoon at the pool!!  But I spent this morning at my desk, trying to finish up a couple of projects. . .

The first is a crazy piece.  I found this little wood plaque at Goodwill for .99 and knew that it would make a great little piece to alter.  I really have wanted to make a whimsical mushroom house . . . so here it is. I adore the Allison Kreft Webster Pages and I cut these pieces out of her Composition and Color line!   I went a little over the top, but I like the way it turned out even if the picture is a little crooked!!

Earlier this month, I went to a WOW Embossing event at Altered Angel.  I LOVED the piece we made and I fell in love with embossing!! Who knew it would be so much fun to watch the powder just melt under the heat gun!! Too much fun.  So this page in my art journal is just me playing with the new stamps and powders that I bought!  It is a little crazy, but I think I will be embossing a lot more in the future!!

 I have been wanting to make a rowhouse picture for a long time.  There is a picture of rowhouses on a hill in Ireland that caught my attention on pintrest a long time ago and I wanted to make it out of paper.  I also wanted to use colors that I don't use as much, so I grabbed some Studio Calico Darling Dear and started cutting.  I really love the patterns of the paper, but the page is a crazy mess!!  There are perspective issues and a really ugly green at the bottom.  This is most likely not the finished page, but this is what I have so far!

Enjoying a Super Busy week by doing all the things I don't need to do!!

So school gets out in a few weeks. So of course I have a million things going on around here!!  Tennis playoffs, the Susan G Komen 5K, making S'mores bags for the school cakewalk, planning a tennis scavenger hunt, Julia's birthday, Mother's day, end of the year party planning and more tennis!! I just have put too much on my plate!! So what do I do when I have too much to do???  I sit and play!!  In fact, I sat and played at Altered Angel with my Thursday's Angels and made this fun owl canvas!

I actually found the brown canvas at Goodwill.  It  had white decorations on it, but it had obviously been sitting in the sun and was absolutely faded!!   So to start I mixed my acrylic paint, clear gesso and glazing medium.  That way I figured I would have a ground and pretty transparent paint to show off the original shapes in the background!!  Next I cut out and glued on my owl and grass. I also put some paint, rub-ons and tissue paper around the edges to liven up the background.  I REALLY like how she turned out!! I am going to hang her on the wall near my desk I like her so much!!  

Rainy Day with my Girls!!

We had over 3 inches of rain on Saturday!! Seriously, the rainiest (if that is a word) day we have had here in a LONG time!!  It was also National Scrapbook Day so after going to the best LSS (Altered Angel) and hanging out for a few minutes I headed home to some really bored kids. 

But you should have see the looks on their faces when I said they could use my paint and supplies.  So I gave them each a canvas, paints, glue and markers.  And I must say, they did a great job!! I just wanted to share them with you all because I was really surprised at their final products and what they did!!

I made this pic using an old scrap of wood as the canvas!! I really liked the size and shape of the board. 

And here is the last journal page I did! Still loving modeling paste!! 

 This is Grace's Project!  The girls just got a very large container of scissors with different edges and she really likes them!!  She also used some cute words:  enjoy, laugh, never give up and everything happens for a reason.  

This is Julia's project! She loves my Greeting Farm Stamps and has been BEGGING to use them! So, why not! I stamped it (because she was frustrated when she couldn't get it dark enough!) and she colored it in!!  And she was sitting beside Grace, so I am pretty sure that is where the house came into her head!! But she did write her own words: sweet, love, try and help!  She also wrote something else, but she can't remember what it was and we can't read it! lol! 

This is Faith's Project!  I loved her saying, she said it was on a poster in her classroom!!  And she knew exactly what she was doing from the start.  I wan't sure she had a plan, but when she cut out the words, it all made sense! Love.

Projects and Spring . . . finding balance!!

Spring is a crazy season around here!!  I LOVE being outside so when the weather gets just right, I just can't stay behind the indoor desk!!  I have been planting, painting and playing tennis!!  The time I have spent behind my desk is making a couple new canvases for an upcoming project!! They have turned out really well!!

 My favorite deck flowers are marigolds.  They just perk up the deck planter boxes and they bloom all summer out there!  Love. 

 This fall, Jeremy and the girls planted a bag of tulips for me!  They came up beautifully!! I love them and I want to plant more next fall!

And here is the project that has taken up any free time that I have had lately!!  I found this old 60's table at a local thrift store and I fell in love!! It has a magazine rack in the front and then surprise, the top lifts up for storage!! It is perfect for my art area!!  So I sprayed on the Citristrip went to work!! Sanding, staining the top and painting the bottom!! I LOVE the way it turned out!!