Why I Love Winter

As I was sitting here this morning having my coffee, I was watching the snowflakes drifting down outside the window. It struck me just how much I love snow! Snowflakes represent quiet beauty to me - and a time to slow down. When it is snowing it is necessary to slow down - you just can't go fast when it is snowing. It is, I think, God's way of making us slow down and "BREATHE"! When I am out in the countryside in the snow, everything is just so quiet and beautiful. It would not be so beautiful if everything was not covered with snow. The trees and plants are mostly sleeping and look pretty dead. Although I must say that the evergreens are glorious! And even more so when they are sprinkled with snow. We went skiing today and it was absolutely stunning out there! So here are a few shots. Enjoy!

Our deck on Long Lake - It will be grand this summer!

The stairway going down....

 Our picnic table...

Looking back away from the lake - that's where our house will go!

A couple of interested friends...

More Snow!

Shabby Chic Make-Overs

Today I am going to post photos of one of the projects I did with my daughter to make furniture for her apartment. This is a book shelf that we did and I really like the way it turned out.

Being Creative - Where Do I Create?

I have decided to join in the "Being Creative Blog Party" that Alisha is hosting over at Gorgeous and Fun Things.  I was a little reluctant to join in because I am not an artist - I'm actually a Chemist - logical thinking and all that jazz - plus a Latin teacher - more logic! But I do love to go into my creative space and "play".  It is healthy for my attitude and a release for me. I just have fun. Alisha challenged us to share how we feed our creative souls and slay the "fear" dragon. So I just decided to have a go.

This week the topic is "Where do we create?"  I have a small 9X10 room that used to be a study which I took over and turned into my little "studio."  My hubby calls it my "Girl-Cave". Ha! But I really like having all of my supplies in one area and a place where I can leave my work out to dry and just close the door. It is pretty messy most of the time, but it is my own little space. I have hopes of some day having it fantastically organized, but so far, that hasn't happened. Little by little I am getting it more organized toward the altered books/altered art/collage work that I have been doing. I am starting to dabble more into art journaling as well.  One thing about altered art and collage is that there is lots of stuff! And books - I love books! So I really enjoy reclaiming old, cast off books and turning them into art to be enjoyed.

Here are a few pictures of my space.

And I will add just a couple of art journal background pages that I have been working on. They are layered, so it is a process to put things down and letting them dry before you put another layer down. It requires patience, which I don't usually have much of - so I think it is good for me.

So if you would like to join in or see more creative spaces, head over to Gorgeous and Fun  and see the fun happenings going on.

Pink Art Journal Backgrounds - Pink Saturday

I am learning a new technique called Art journaling. I have always journaled the conventional way - hand written journals. But lately, I've discovered Art Journaling and it seems to mesh perfectly with my Altered Books and Altered Art. I have been spending some time making some background pages, so today I thought I would share some of the "pink" ones in celebration of Pink Saturday. I am also learning so much from the Strathmore Art Journal class. These pages will be added to later as I learn to journal more in this fashion.

It has been fun so far, and I am looking forward to adding to these pages. Happy Pink Saturday. For more wonderful Pink Posts, head over to Beverly's at How Sweet the Sound and enjoy some wonderful bloggers. They are quite a friendly bunch and you will be glad you did!

White Wednesday Art: "Peace in White"

I would like to show you one of my favorite pages from my Atlas Altered Book - this is a "Woman in White". I still have some work to do on this and I think I am going to add some shading that I have learned in the Strathmore Art Journal Workshop. But this is where I am at this point. Hope you like it!

 Peace in White

You can sort of see the atlas in the background, and the word Peace is from a piece of Christmas wrapping paper. The white is a torn paper doily. I am having so much fun with this!

I am linking up to White Wednesday over at Faded Charm even though it is Thursday here. I have been wanting to post on this Meme for a while now, so I am happy I got to it, even though I'm a little late. If you'd like to see other beautiful things in white - head over to Faded Charm and check it out.

More Artwork from my Strathmore Art Journal Class-Pink Sat.

These are the final - or almost final pages that I worked on after finishing the first one in the Strathmore Art Journal Workshop . I may work on these more, but this is how they look today.

 BE YOURSELF

"BREATHE"

Breathe is my word for the year. I am practicing trying to be more relaxed, less stressed and trying to learn to take care of myself. It is a process, but I feel it is a very important one.

I am connecting with Beverly over at How Sweet the Sound for Pink Saturday. So hop on over there if you'd like to see more pink posts!

Strathmore Art Workshop Project 1

I have been participating in an online workshop sponsored by Strathmore which can be found at this link:  http://www.strathmoreartiststudio.com/  Workshop one, Recycled Journal Pages, is taught by Pam Carriker. The neat thing about the workshops are that they are self paced. You just enter your workshop and there you find a video, a supply list and instructions. Plus there are lots of discussions going on by participants. This is my first ever workshop like this - either live or virtual. It has been so much fun. I believe you can still join in. I am also signed up for the other two workshops. And best of all, they are FREE! It is an awesome opportunity. Here is my project in stages:

Step 1

This is the first step, in which you glue down pieces of copies of previous artwork onto a single water color sheet in the journal. These pieces were selected from some of my altered book art. The black and white tree is actually from a doodle/zentangle card made for me by my youngest daughter.

Step 2

This step involves journaling, shading with charcoal and oil pastels and then covering with thinned gesso. I addes the bird during this step, along with the shell, feather and oval seal.

Step 3

In this step, you continue to shade with acrylic paint, oil pastels and also fill in the negative space with textures. In this step, much of the journaling is mostly hidden.

Step 4

This is the final step in which the colors are revitalized and any additional journaling and shading are added.  This is a photo, so the colors don't really show up that well. But overall, I was pleased with my first attempt. I felt like I learned so much, just with this first attempt. I tried a few others, which I will post later. One thing I learned while doing this is just how much I DON'T know! But I highly recommend it. I just truly enjoyed the entire process.

Below I have included the pages from which I drew my pieces for the above artwork. Can you tell where the parts came from?

This last doodle in black in white was done by my daughter as part of a card for me. I really liked incorporating that into the image! I know that I will be doing more of this type of art. It is really fun!