2017 was a tough year for me and for my whole family, but you can't move forward if you're too busy looking backwards right?
Knowing this I've decided to join in on a "Word of the Year" movement and for 2018 I've chosen the word "Patience".
I found the quote above and it spoke to me. I'm not by nature a patient person, but really... who of us is? What I like about the quote is that it points out the fact that patience is not the wait, it's the attitude you keep while waiting.
In 2018 I'm going to try my hardest to keep a good attitude, no matter what life throws at me.
If you had to pick a word of the year, what would word would you pick and why?
Happy 2018 and I hope patience comes easily to you!
It's that time again....time to write a post about the books that I've read in 2017. I've been keeping track of the books I've read ever since 2009 and somewhere along the way I joined Goodreads and they kept track for me, well...as long as I logged the books in they kept track. So here's a breakdown of books read from 2009 to 2017:
Makes me wonder why some years I read so little? For 2017 I set a doable goal of 12 books, figuring it shouldn't be that difficult to read a book a month. It wasn't, because I actually read 15 books! Yay me! This is the little banner that Goodreads prepared for me.
Here's a list of the 15 books. To tell you the truth, I don't remember too many of them. I did try to review some of them as I went along. I think probably the one I enjoyed the most was The Deepest Secret.
You can read my review of The Deepest Secret HERE. The other books was The Most Dangerous Animal of All which I read while I was at Jury Duty. If you want to see a list of books by year you can just type in "Books Read" in the search bar to the right and all those posts will come up. I've set a lofty goal of 25 books for this year. We'll see how I do. I was just telling my mom that I remember that I used to read in bed from half an hour to an hour every evening, but now I have a tablet and instead of reading I watch Art Tutorials every night instead. Maybe I'll do an Art Tutorial one night and read a book the next night. What about you? Do you do any reading? What kind of books do you enjoy? What book or books can you recommend to tear me away from YouTube? Happy Reading in 2018!!! 25 books....here I come!
Another recommendation from my mom. Since her cataract surgery was successful, she has been reading up a storm, which is great! My love of reading comes from her. I really did not expect the surprise ending! The story is about a boy named Tyler that is born with a rare medical condition that makes him fatally sensitive to light. His mother Eve devotes her life to making sure that her son stays alive, until the unexpected happens. Eve is driving to the airport to pick up her husband in pouring rain and she hits something in the road. She stops and tries to find what it was, thinking it was an animal when actually it was the little girl that lives next door! Eve tries to revive the little girl but she can tell she's dead. Now the dilemma, she was texting when she hit her and she knows that she will be prosecuted for that. If she is found guilty and goes to jail who will take care of her son the way she has? And if she doesn't tell then the mother of the little girl who is her best friend will suffer until they find the body and then for the rest of her life if they don't catch the person who killed her. Trust me, this is a must read if you enjoy a good mystery. Makes you wonder, what would you do for your child?
I’ve joined a group on
Facebook that does weekly Art Journal Prompts. I joined the party late and missed prompts 1
thru 30, but I can go back and do the
ones I want or just keep going with the new ones.
The prompt comes out on Sunday and this week’s prompt was “Use 3
Colours”. We could do anything we wanted, using only three colors. Nina Ribena is our fearless leader and she
announces the prompt and includes a YouTube video with her version of the
prompt. Here is her fabulous video.
I love her videos because
they are very informative and professionally done. I learn lots of new methods and how to use
various products, and also because I love her voice. It's very calming.
She suggests that we choose three colors from the focal point that we are going to use. I had some
napkins that I bought at The Dollar Store that had a beautiful stacked cup design on them. I’d
seen quite a few people use napkins as a collage and figured it was time to try it.
I did this page several months ago, experimenting, not knowing what I was doing. The napkin part is the flowers, music and butterflies. As you can see, lots of wrinkles. But using the prompts allows me to grow and get better and I hope when you see my finished product you will see the big difference.
Always remember that Google is your friend and YouTube your best friend! I googled "how to iron a napkin to card stock using plastic wrap" and found several videos. I chose this one as it was very easy to understand.
It worked beautifully, not a wrinkle to be seen. I then chose my three colors from the napkin, peach, blue and an orangy brown (rust) color. For the background, I used my gelatos which are like a water color crayon. You can color with it and activate it with water and a paintbrush or you can just blend with your fingers. I love using them, always get great results! Once dry, I used Mod Podge to glue the image to the background. and then brushed Mod Podge over the whole image and background which lays a clear protective glaze over it all. I was so anxious to finish it and post it to the group Facebook page that I decided that instead of printing the quote at the office the next day and then cutting out the quote and pasting it, I would just hand write it. I need practice with hand writing as I think I went a little nuts with my curlicues, but all in all I loved it the minute it was finished and I posted it to several art groups on Facebook, including the Art Journal Prompts group.
I received so many comments on this page so I thought I would share it here as well. See how much nicer the cups look? No wrinkles. Love it! Hope you do as well By the way, here's a fabulous website if you want to learn more about Mod Podge or just pick up fabulous ideas. Mod Podge Rocks
Had a great time this past weekend camping with my sister. We left on Friday morning and I came back on Sunday afternoon and as I write this, she is still there with her husband and they are due to come back tomorrow. Lucky Duck! We managed to have a great time even in the short time I was there. One of the reasons is that we had this cute little girl with us! My daughters dog Chorizo! In this picture she's stressing out because my sister had gotten out of the car. Chorizo has to have all "her people" with her at all times! She's a character!
But she made it so much fun for us and kept us active because we had to walk her so much. She loves her walks! She also loved how beautiful the grass was there. Anytime she had a chance she would sit or roll around in it! She was in paradise!
When we were at the campsite she even commandeered this chair as her very own, just napping and barking at any other dogs that dared to walk in front of our space!
She always scopes out the best places and makes them her own. Here was her spot inside the RV. She could look outside and see what was going on and still see everything that we were doing inside the RV.
But her favorites place to be had to be at the edge of the ocean or anywhere that she could smell the ocean and everything that came with it...seagull poop being one of her favorites smells!
She had the best time and we had a great time. Always a pleasure to hang out with my sister, she's the greatest! Here's our campsite. It was super safe and comfortable and I wish I were there right now! Hey, I just realized Chorizo was in her chair looking back at me when I took this picture. Sorry to wake you Chorizo!
I even had a chance to get some artwork done. Just a simple page with doodles of flowers and a random little bee. I found the "Enjoy the Moment" sticker in a beach magazine and it was perfect for this weekend. I did enjoy every single moment!
Til we meet again sweet ocean Paradise...we will always have the memory!
Wow, it's been a while since I've done a post. I've actually started a couple but they seemed dark and sad with my thoughts on all that is going on in our world and that's not normally me. I like to keep it light and happy, because in all truth, this is my happy place. When I start writing about things I'm excited or happy about it keeps me in a good mood. So I'm going to put all thoughts aside for a few moments on all that is going on in our world and just share some of my artwork. I've said before, I'm late to this "art thing" and I wish I had realized earlier how much I would grow to love it because I would have started sooner. But, I'm making the best of it now. This coming Monday I start up with my art classes again and I can't wait! The instructor Alex is awesome at encouraging us to do what we feel in our heart. Last year I was a total newbie, but this year I have a little bit more experience under my belt and with his guidance I hope to grow even further. Because the weather has been just one degree cooler than the surface of the sun, I have not been painting as much with acrylics. It's just too hot! So I've continued doing my mixed media art journal paintings. I've joined a Facebook group that gives a weekly prompt. The Admin for the group posts the prompt, along with a photo of her page and a YouTube video of her process in creating the page. It's a great way to learn new techniques and she's amazing. This week the prompt was "The Sea". She did a great page with a Seahorse. She used modeling paste to make the ocean bed and some additional paste in the part that would become the ocean. I followed her direction as far as that and then went off on my own interpretation of the sea, which turned into a pirate with a treasure chest and a pint of ale, some zombie fish and a steam punk seahorse.
This was completed in 3 days as I took my time and you have to when you have that much modeling paste layered on. I really love it. It's hard to see all the shading and details, but the treasure chest coins have been painted gold and then I added glitter, which is not noticeable at all in this photo. What you can see is the texture the modeling paste created at the bottom of the page. It made all those bumps and waves that make it look like the bottom of a sandy ocean. In the sea part you can see how using texture there made the paint go on in layers of white, light blue, turquoise blue and dark blue. I used those colors in acrylic paints and added them with a simple foam makeup pad that I purchased in a pack from The Dollar Store. So that's what I've been up to. It's been keeping me sane with all the craziness in the world. What do you do to de-stress? What's your happy place? Alicia~
Want to know my secret for using a credit card and not getting into debt? How to use a credit card and still stay within budget? How to use a credit card and not have it affect your credit score? Well stick around because I am about to share my secret with you! The secret to my financial success. Here it is, are you ready for it?
Do you see it? Do you see the secret to my success in staying debt free by using a credit card? That's right! Don't use the credit card to make purchases, use it to paint! Righto...that Mixed Media Journal Page above was painted using only a credit card. No brushes, sprays, sponges or salad spinners!!! Just a credit card. I know, I tricked you! And even now I am tricking you because I didn't use an actual credit card, I used a gift card that no longer had any cash on it.
Started with a blank multi media page and dotted some paint on it in purple, pink and white and used the credit card like a palette knife and spread the paint around. Not evenly, let some white show, blended the colors, just had fun with it! Let it dry and then used the credit card to make lines, slashes, rectangles and squares. The only time I did not use a credit card was when I used scissors to cut out the shape of the feathers and I used a small bamboo skewer to glue the feather shapes together. I then painted the feathers, again using the credit card and used scissors to cut the fringed feathery parts. A bit of glue to attach them to the page and then added my page title: CREATIVE
The purpose in doing this? Just to show that you don't need a bunch of fancy art supplies to create beautiful art. This was just simple craft paints which you can purchase at Walmart for 59 cents a bottle and imagination...oh and scissors! These are great exercises in learning to let go of fear of messing up, or being too precise or too (as I am) obsessive about things having to be perfect. I do plan to get back into my acrylic painting, as soon as the weather cooperates and it gets below 90 degrees, currently as I type this it is 99 degrees. I can't wait for fall already!!!
There are so many other ways to be creative and artistic without spending a lot of money on supplies. One of my favorites that I've seen online is an artist that uses fruits and vegetables to create dresses on the models that he first hand sketches. He also uses other household items. Here's a YouTube video of his art that I hope you will watch and enjoy. So that's it for now, hope you enjoyed my credit card art and remember the best way to stay out of credit card debt is to use it for art! Alicia
I enjoyed the book but sometimes the build up of a book brings your expectations to unrealistic levels.
The beginning was great. I was sitting at the car dealership while they serviced my car and I was laughing out loud while everyone else was sitting there like mindless drones on their phones. They asked "What is that rectangular shaped cardboard and paper thing you are holding?" Haha, just kidding, but they did look at me weird, no one reads actual paper books anymore, especially not in public!
But anyway, the book went downhill from there. Not that it wasn't still very entertaining, but it wasn't the laugh out loud funny anymore.
There are several different medias and techniques on this page, let me share some of them with you.
First of all I'm using a Canson Mixed Media ring-bound notebook. I love this because you can use almost any media on it, pencil, pen, markers, acrylic paints, watercolor, ink sprays, glues, almost anything!
My inspiration was the plant in my front yard that I call the Arizona Plant. I've blogged about it before and you can find that post here. But here's the picture I had in front of me while I create the page. I would love to say that I'm a great photographer but it's the flower itself that makes the picture.
I was also inspired by a YouTube video by Nina Ribena where she uses a Salad Spinner to create art! Yep, you heard it here...a salad spinner, one of these! In fact this is the exact one I have that I bought several years ago and use all the time.
Here's the video in case you want to see how it's done. I wish I had thought to take pictures of the samples that I made, but I can at least show you what I made out of them and how.
So I made two discs like the ones above, one using the colors of orange, red, yellow, white and clear glitter acrylic paint and the other with orange, red, brown, yellow and gold glitter acrylic paint. I also made another one using green, blue, yellow and white acrylic paints. I then used water colors to paint a blueish-purplish sky and a green bottom for the grass. While that was drying I cut out the petals of the flowers from the discs made with the salad spinner. I know the way I put the flowers together is not exactly the way the real flowers are, but it's just representational. I glued the flowers, trying to choose the prettiest petals for the top. I also used the disc with the blue, yellow, green colors for leaves. I just adore the way the red flower petals came out with the streaks of white! And the different shades of green and yellow in the leaves is lovely as well. The Salad Spinner technique made it so easy. I never could have individually painted them like that, and you can see the glitter in the orange flowers. In real life they are even more amazing!
Once I had the flowers down I painted the stems, first using water color but they weren't noticeable so used a brown marker and then glued down the leaves. Then it was time to work on the title of the page which I titled Summer Fun. I used some cute little rubber stamps that my mom bought me for my birthday and an ink stamp with white ink. It was still hard to read so I used a white marker to fill in the letters. It was really hard to get the letters all in a row, so go with the flow right? I made them whimsical and not straight at all and then cut out the strip. These were stamped on another piece of the salad spinner paper that was mostly all orange, which is why I didn't use it on the petals.
I felt something was missing on the bottom right so I went through my stash of embellishments and found some hummingbird stickers and loved them because this plant does draw hummingbirds, probably because of the red in the plant.
I used markers to make the dots in red, yellow and orange and then made a little border around the whole thing in blue and red. I just love putting a border on my pages because it makes it look so finished. Slowly I am building up my "stash" of things to use in building these journal pages, and I'm finding such peace in doing them, it's so relaxing! I made a few more discs of salad spinning art that I am saving to use for future projects, so you will probably see a lot more of this type of art...stay tuned!
I’ve mentioned
before in several posts that I have an inner dominatrix. NO! Not that kind of
inner dominatrix, not even that kind of outer dominatrix! Get your mind out of
the gutter!
I mean the kind of
inner dominatrix that keeps me on the straight and narrow when I make up my
mind to do something.
Mostly I would have to say that she’s my Weight Control
Dominatrix. When I make up my mind to stick to my low-carb diet, she’s the one
that cracks the whip in my mind when I look at a bag of Cheetos. Trust
me…nothing hurts more that having a whip cracking up against the side of your
brain! (This post is going to be image free because it wasn't a good idea to search dominatrix and whipping!)
Last year
around April, my inner dominatrix, whom I’m going to call Trixie took an extended vacation and I’d get a mental postcard from her now and again
but for the most part she was MIA, which made it so much easier for me to get
my hands on Cheetos and MM’s and Chips and Salsa. So it’s Trixie’s fault
that I have gained back quite a bit of the weight that I had taken off.
July 20th was my birthday and I celebrated in grand style and by that I mean with lots of
food filled with lots of carbs. Egg McMuffins; Breve Latte’s from my
co-workers. Lemon Meringue Pie again from my co-workers and lunch at Mexicali
where I share Nachos with lots of sour cream, again with my co-workers…hmmm,
maybe I don’t need Trixie, I just need different co-workers? (Just kidding Angelica and Edgar...you both are the best!) Wait...I found an image I can share. Cheesy smile and all this is me at the office with the gifts from my co-workers/friends.
That
wasn’t even the beginning of the end of it because I went out to dinner with my
family and they took me to my favorite Mexican food place where I indulged in a
delicious frosty Margarita and baskets of chips to dip into their
fabulous bean dip and salsa! Then I ordered my traditional Chicken Taquitos served with rice, beans and guacamole alongside.
Once I had waddled myself
on home, my son decided to buy toffee bars. But even without Trixie being there, I had the strength to limit myself to just one, but I know the box is in the freezer waiting for me...calling to me! Where is Trixie?
Well I'm putting the Kibosh on Trixie. Vacation over Trixie! I've decided that by my next birthday I'm going to lose 20 pounds. Shouldn't be too hard right? 20 pounds is not a lot. I'm hoping Trixie will jump on board and do her job and whip my brain into shape! So here's to another year on this Earth and that I make it to next July 20th!
