I just had to take photos of these beautiful leaves after I acquired them on a walk last Thursday. I couldn't help but pick up a leaf that caught my eye.
Then one turned into five, which turned into 15.
They were so pretty I just couldn't help myself. Leaves are changing fast and furious around here, and falling will equal vigor.
I hate to see them go, knowing that means winter is whispering in the background.
By my goodness, it certainly is breathtaking while it happens. Isn't fall wonderful?
p.s. I saw some leaves move in our sad looking flower garden and knew it wasn't the wind. I went to investigate and found this little tree frog and his buddy. And by "buddy" I mean "dinner," at least that's what I assume Mr. Frog wanted with Mr. Bug. I got too close for Mr. Frog's comfort so he hopped off just after I took this photo.
Six months ago today I turned 39. Which means six months from today I'll turn 40. *gulp* There's a better than average chance I'll not handle that well. Just being honest. But I'd like to try to mitigate that by setting some sort of goal. I have six months. What can I achieve?
I've been thinking about it, and a lot of things are swirling through my head. Should it be something physical, i.e. learn how to do a one hand pushup or 100 push ups in a row, something like that? Or should it be a creativity challenge: take a photo every day, learn a new art technique, write here every day, work my way though another cookbook? Should I take this 6 months to finally declutter the way I've wanted to for so long but just never have?
I still don't know what it will be, but I think it should be concrete, measurable, and broken down in steps so that I can reach it in six months.
I want it to be challenging, but something I actually WANT to do or something that should get me closer to an even larger goal.
I'm reminded of a woman I read about on the Weight Watchers forums years ago when I was an active member. She was at her goal weight and decided to set challenges for herself to keep her motivated and on plan. One of the things she did was train to be in a body building competition. For real. This was a woman that had lost a lot of weight, was no spring chicken and I don't think had ever exercised much before WW. But she did it. She worked for it and made it happen.
I'm not saying THAT is what I want to do, but the way she went about it is pretty cool. I know some people operate like this on a daily basis. It's just part of their nature to set goals, make plans and execute them. Unfortunately, that's not me. I'm a go-about-my-days-without-much-of-a-plan kind of gal and I'm drifting too much for my liking, something that bothers me more and more, especially as I near *gulp* 40.
So what about you? Do you regularly set goals and make the necessary plans to make them happen? Or have you done something like I'm talking about here—have a future date in mind and work methodically toward it with a plan in hand?
I'd love to hear about it! Share in the comments, or link to a blog post, if you have something similar on your own blog (or a blog you read).
Although I'm behind on just about everything else going on in my life, I somehow managed to get ahead of the game on this one thing — my Halloween Witch mixed media canvas.
I had the background, or at least some of the background, done for some time. I had a purple canvas and some leftover paint. I combined them, knowing it would be a fun start to a Halloween background, then set it aside. A few weeks ago, I went back to that canvas and finished it up.
Using techniques I learned in the She Art Workshop, I came up with the witch, then used some newly purchased burlap and the end of a ruined paintbrush to make her broom. The paintbrush handle was already that bright yellow, so I just left it that way. The burlap is just frayed, wrapped around the end and hot glued. Then I took a strip of non-frayed burlap and wrapped it around the top to finish it off.
The poison label is one I found on Flickr here. Flickr is a wonderful resource for finding free printables and ephemera. Just do a search for whatever key words you're looking for, and loads of images are available. Check with each to see what permissions you have regarding use. To find this label, I searched for "free Halloween ephemera". Change to "free Halloween printable" and all sorts of other fun images come up. Pinterest is another great resource for free printables.
I found the font I used at dafont.com. I love that site and use it ALL the time for work and for personal use. They have tons of fonts all separated by category so it's pretty easy to find what you want. I found this font — Deutche Zierschrif — under "Gothic > Medieval". While dafont is my personal favorite, there are a number of other free fonts sites as well, such as Urban Fonts, Font River, and 1001 Fonts, just to name a few.
I'm mostly really happy with how this turned out. Now I just need to go finish all of the other half-started projects I have scattered around. I'm really good at starting things. Finishing is the real trick!
You might have noticed that I have a "Big Idea Festival" badge on the left side of my blog. The Big Idea Festival, Words to Live By, is a free, 12-day workshop where each day, a different instructor gives a word of the day, and the participants use that as inspiration for their pages. Most participants are scrapbookers, but some, like me, are treating it as an art journalling class.
I've been getting some VERY sweet compliments on my pages in the gallery section of the workshop, and one person asked if I could elaborate on how I create my pages, the layers etc. So I took some still photos of the page and also shot a very amateurish video on Dwight's iPod, to walk through the steps. I seemed easier than typing it all out here.
Before I get into it, though, I do have to give a shout-out to Christy Tomlinson, a crazy-talented mixed media artist and creator of the She Art Workshop (and other workshops) where I learned a lot of the techniques I use. If you have any desire to do mixed media work, I highly suggest Christy's classes. She's incredibly generous with her talent and is just darling.
Now on to the show.
Here's a still of the complete page along with a shot of the supplies (most of them, anyway). I've labeled each supply and the place it's used on the page.
1. Acrylic paint 2. Roller stamp with more or less illegible script, perfect for texture 3. Watercolors 4. Book Paper from Chronicles of Narnia, Voyage of the Dawn Treader (my favorite in the series) 5. Scrapbook paper, used on bottom right 6. Stylized flower stamp 7. Starbucks brochure 8. Flower border stamp 9. Gear stamp 10. Punchinella (sequin waste) 11. Plastic thingy I found at a craft store. You weave on it or something. 12. Permaball pen for doodling 13. More scrapbook paper, used at top of page. 14. More book paper, from an old anthology of Shakespeare works. Page is from Much Ado About Nothing. 15. Bubble wrap 16. Martha Stewart butterfly stamps (found on sale at Michaels - score!)
Here are some detail shots of the page.
I hope you enjoyed this. Now that the cat's out of the bag, I'll probably be sharing more art pieces here. It's something I've been meaning to do for a little while now.
Isn't it cool? I love these guys. This one was hanging on to the side of the house between the garage door and wall. We're pretty sure he was hanging out catching bugs.
Last year I found this guy (gal?) snoozing in a lily.
They're all over the trees (and flowers and house) around here. All different kinds of tree frogs, in various sizes and colors. They make the biggest racket at night...and I LOVE it.
The best part about summer cooling down is having the windows open so I can hear them as I drift off to sleep. I'm sure it would drive some people batty, but for me, it's like a lullaby. A raucous, nothing-sounds-quite-like-it symphony of nature, right outside my windows.
It makes me smile every night.
Check out the markings. He's (she's?) green on the back, like leaves (don't the darker markings look a little like butterflies?) yet tan and brown on the underside - like a tree. Ain't nature grand?
I love this spot on the side of his (her?) head. It looks like bark. Awesome.
