Documented Life Project

 I love to art journal and I don't always make the time to work in one of the several art journals I have going.  As a goal for 2014 I wanted something to keep me focused on "making time" for art; to make my time more productive so I can do art and to help keep me organized so I don't forget important dates.  With all this said, I also wanted this process not to be work but to be fun!  That is when I stumbled on the  Documented Life Project.  After researching this group for a couple of weeks I decided I'd give it a try.

A little late to the party as usual - I always find out about these great things after they start - I joined [in March] the group, ordered a moleskin planner from Amazon and got busy.   There are five artists, living in Florida, who started this group.  There is a dedicated Facebook group for this project where you can share your pages with the more than 7,000  [that's right, MORE THAN 7,000] members - not all are artists, believe me you do not have to be an artist to be part of the challenge.

I have become totally addicted to this project.  As I said I would share some photos in my previous post,  the following is a sample of a few of my pages:

My Cover - which I painted

Inside Pages

This challenge was to open one of your Pinterest
boards and be inspired - I was "inspired"by a Christy Tomlinson pin
of one of her boot girls….I drew the girl then water colored her -
week 6 

Circles… the challenge was to draw a shape - repeat it and add color 

Circles, cont. - week 7

Challenge - have someone draw in your journal and you finish it -
I asked my grandchildren for help with this one - week 13

Challenge - Monochromatic, use shades, tints & hues of one color…
I used 'crimson lake'  Koi watercolor - week 15

Challenge - add a bird to your page - this is actually the
week I jumped into this group - week 11

Challenge - Random Act of Kindness - week 19

Photograph or draw your favorite shoes week week 17

Challenge - Add a quote - week 18

These are a few random pages. The project is in week 25, as I mentioned I started late and haven't 'caught-up' with all the previous weeks [ I have done three or four] but I'm not stressing over it.  I do, however, make time to do the challenge every week.  I may just add whatever I want to the previous weeks and not follow the challenges….we'll see.  I am having so much fun with this.  When I showed my journal to a couple of my friends not too long ago they were as excited as I and jumped aboard, too.  I haven't seen their journal/planners yet but I am about to tonight - I can't wait!  I will share a few more pages with you soon.

Good wishes and I appreciate your stopping by!

Niko's Special Day & Mother's Day

On May 3rd my grandson made his first communion [when did he get so big?]….it was beautiful and he looked so handsome…check him out:

The lei was from his Hawaiian grandparents who were
here to share this day with Niko

We were not allowed to take pictures in church as they provided a professional photographer to take pictures . . . we had to sneak the two pictures above!!!  Then after the service there was a luncheon for about 60 friends and family at Koto's Japanese Restaurant - complete with Hibachi tables.

This picture was captured by MY professional niece/photographer
Amanda at the luncheon. . . 

Niko with his Godparents
[photo taken by my niece Antonia - not a professional
photographer but who knows what is in the future!]
Angelo DiCarlo - DiCarlo & Son Autobody
& Amanda Ziter - Amanda Ziter Photography
[ two great businesses in Troy, NY] 

I hope everyone had a glorious Mother's Day!  The weather was gorgeous all day.  Thank you to my sweet niece  Amanda for hosting a "ladies only breakfast"… it was delicious.   OK, Amanda, who is a professional photographer took numerous pictures of us.  Which one does she share with everyone on FB….this one:

There we are in all our glory stuffing our faces.  The best part is Amanda deliberately posted this picture!  Oh well, in case your wondering who everyone is, here we go:  starting on the left is Shari [Amanda's MIL], next is Deanna [Amanda's SIL], me, Christina [my niece, Amanda's cousin], my sister Anne [Amanda's mother] and Cynthia my SIL [Amanda's aunt].  The only one missing is my DIL Moani who was in NJ with her family.

The following is a photo of a project that I'm presently doing.   I will soon share more pictures with you - this is just a tease:

Have a great day….it's a rainy here in Latham, NY!

Good wishes and thanks for visiting . . .

Journal Pages

It looks like Spring maybe be making an appearance here in the Great Northeast….finally.  The sun is feeling warmer, the days are warmer,  things are starting to pop-up from the ground the birds are singing and the trees have buds!  All sure signs that Spring is struggling to appear.

I was very dormant for awhile this winter as I previously posted.  I did, however, manage to keep up [well, almost keep up] with an an online art group [ journal 52 ] I belong to called Journal 52. It's free and  every week you receive a new prompt for a journal page.  I will admit, we're presently on week 14 and I have not done every week.  I really want to catch up at some point!  I have shared some previous ones on my blog and today I have a few more to share.

A Day in the Life of Me

The Art of Lost Love Letters

When I Grow Up

Found Poetry

These are all done on loose watercolor paper that I will put in a special journal.  

We recently had a beautiful new addition to our family.  Her name is Julianna Angelica Zwack and she is my nieces daughter.  She came into the world on Weds. March 19th….she is so adorable and it's so nice to have a baby in the family again.  Sadly, this will probably be the last baby for a long time.  Another niece, Amanda, is a photographer and she did the photos for both the second and third pictures  ….she is a wonderful photographer be sure to check out her FB page.

Hello Julianna, glad to meet you!
Minutes after she was born.

Welcome to the world, little one.

About one week old

Off to do, or try to do, some "Spring Cleaning"…..good wishes and thanks for visiting!

Hibernation is Over!!!

As I live in the "Great North East" it's a fact that our winters can be long, snowy and cold.  I am a winter lover and rarely complain about the snow or cold.  With that being said, the winter of 2013-14 was a bit much!  I was holding on pretty well until March, then I just couldn't deal with the windchill and freezing temperatures anymore.  I was ready to pack up and move south.  This was all due to weather pattern that descended upon us early in the season and is still holding on with both hands [and April is just around the corner]….the "Polar Vortex"!  I really don't know what it means in meteorologic terms, but it my terms it was BONE-CHILLING, FREEZING, BLOWING, SNOWY, COLD, COLD, COLD with no let up.  Cape Cod had another blizzard like snowfall yesterday.  Everyone here on the Eastern Seaboard is complaining about it.  Because of this, many of my friends, including me, have been experiencing a state of inactivity and metabolic depression.  In other words, hibernation!!!  Ya know, spending the winter in a dormant state just like a bear.  The creativity levels have been very, very low, as have been morale…. but I for one and DONE!  I'm done with the complaining, I'm done with the hibernation and I'm moving on!  I want to throw away my winter coats.  Today the sun - that's right, that big yellow ball of fire in the sky - is shinning down on us in Latham, NY and I'm going to enjoy it.  It's not that warm, but I don't care.  What I will do today, I do not know, but I will be happy doing it!  I haven't blogged anything since January…I couldn't believe it was that long ago that I last posted.   But now I'm back - good or bad - I'm back.  The wonderful weather people out there are predicting our temperatures will be in the 40's today and 50's over the weekend.  Of course there will also be rain, but what the hell it's not 10 degrees with "feels like" -2 degrees and windy [that was yesterday]! 

I have some projects that I managed to do during the Polar Vortex and will post next time.  Also so news about a new and beautiful addition to our family.  I will leave you today with this warning:  now anyone who knows me, knows I HATE, HATE, HATE the humidity the summer brings in.  With all the complaining about the Polar Vortex and the cold and using it as an excuse for being lazy this winter, some things will never change with me.  Guess what, I'll still hate the hot, humid days that we're sure to have this summer.  I'll just change my rants to complain how hot the summer is…..

Thanks for stopping by and good wishes to you!

Busy hands on cold days . . .

I don't mind the snow and I usually never complain too much about the winter, however, the bone chilling air and the terrible wind is another story!   And it's here again - this morning it was 1 degree F.  But one of the ways I am trying to survive the cold is by doing some journal pages and by attempting some more needlework.  Nothing is cozier on a cold, windy, wintry day than to curl up with some wool.  Well, the small pieces in my hands don't really keep me warm but you get the idea here!  I made a candle wrap and a little framed picture of a couple of sweet lambs.  I recently took an online class from one of my favorites, Junelle Jacobsen, as I have mentioned many, many times,  The Art of Goodness found  here.  It's a class offered at Christy Tomlinson's Scarlet Lime Workshop site.  One of the weeks Junelle did some work with pieces of wool and the piece I made was based from that class [the class is mostly sketching & painting with just a little bit of needlework & wool tossed in for good measure].  

Wool lambs in a frame . . .

Inspiration two was again from Junelle's recent class.  This time I took the idea from a watercolor Christmas card she did and used it to create a pattern for a felted wool candle wrap:

This is wrapped around a medium Yankee Candle jar. . .

I am also participating in an online art journaling workshop called Journal 52 - it can be found here.  There is a weekly prompt and the idea is to create a journal page each week for 52 weeks from a prompt that is given on a Monday morning .  Now will I be able to do keep it up?  I don't know if I can do each and every week but I'm sure going to try.  This workshop started three weeks ago and here are my finished pages for the first three prompts:

Week 1 - Up, Up & Away

Week 2 - Somewhere - A Special Place

Week 3 - You Make Me Smile

I have also been working on a Valentine tag swap, another candle wrap, favors for an upcoming baby shower and the everyday life of sitting with the grandchildren, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping and of course there is the cooking!!!  I would rather clean a whole house than cook one meal!  Ugh!  I will share the projects I'm working on [not the cooking, cleaning, laundry and sitting with the grandchildren unfortunately] when they are finished.  

Here in the "Great Northeast" the extreme cold is expected to continue into next week and 1"to 3" inches of snow is expected tomorrow.  Winter is in full swing!  

Thank you for visiting….

Ornament Swap - 2013

Since this is the "season to be jolly" I thought I'd share the latest swap from some of the talented artists from one of my art groups.  We were to exchange "little art pieces" to hang on our Christmas Trees … it was very difficult to decide which ones to keep and which ones to trade.  These girls do this to me every year!

Doris

Maura

Janice 

Miriam

Fran [me!]

Donna

On Dec. 4th there was an art "class" at Kerri's.  We had a lot of fun playing & visiting.  These are the projects we created [first picture is from Kerri's blog - second picture is from one of the gals who was at Kerri's] but let me add the Christmas Tree canvas is much more beautiful up close and personal:

Reindeer ornament, an altered vintage bingo card,
an 8 x 8 deep set canvas and a paper 3D snowflake. . . 

We gathered at Michele's house on Thursday, Dec. 12th for a holiday party … her home was also where we gathered for our Halloween party.  She cooked us a delicious meal that included lasagna, ziti, sausage, meatballs, salad, brownies, snowmen cookies and a mouthwatering cheese cake complete with cherries for the topping!  We had a wonderful time visiting and creating.  Our projects for the evening were these two sweet ornaments that Michele & Sue created for us to do:

3 x 3 Canvas and a Snowman Tea Light -
I told you they were sweet!

Some members of  In My Vintage Room & Beyond art group
in Michele's [pictured in the front left with the red sweater] beautiful dining room.
Next to Michele on the left is your's truly, Doris, Maura & Mary.  On the right is
Sue, who was co-hostess, Laura, Janice, Donna and at the head of the table is Miriam.
Several gals were unable to attend this gathering!

As I have mentioned in previous post's, my multi-talented friend Pam has gotten me into wool applique recently.  After I had finished the snowman runner I made these silly snowmen pillows [Pam gracious gave me the pattern] to give as gifts; I had a hard time getting them off my bed, however.  I didn't want to part with them.  They are made from warm and natural, which is a fabric batting quilters use, and the nose and cheeks are wool, stitching for the mouth and eyebrows.  Silly button eyes give them character, don't you think?

On the 14th of Dec. six gals gathered at my friend Marilyn's house for another holiday party to share friendship and create.  We usually meet at Marilyn's every other month to either create something in an art journal or alter something.  This day we altered plain, wood blocks cut from a 2 x 4. . . .we all had the same theme, which was a photocopy of two dresses.  This is what we came up with:

Front

Front

Back

Back

It's hard to capture the textures in these photos, but we used vintage laces, fabric, gauze, plaster cloth, mica flakes, etc.  Give us a little paint, some bling and great company and let us go!  

This has been a busy month [for everyone, I know] I actually started this post before Christmas, but here it is on the heels of the New Year and I'm just finishing it.  That's the way I roll….I'll be back soon with some post Christmas pictures ….

Have a safe New Year's Eve and a healthy, happy, wonderful New Year!  Bring on 2014 - I'm almost ready!!!

Thank you for visiting . . .