Scrapfest Girls Weekend!

This past weekend I had a fabulous time with some of my peeps at Scrapfest Kitchener.  It was a long drive to and from, but well worth the laughs we experienced.

We stopped at every Scrapbook store we could find along the way, it didn't seem to matter that we would get to go to an amazing Vendors Market at Scrapfest itself.  We really wanted to see some of the storefronts of some of the vendors.

We completed Christy Riopel's class Friday night.  I highly recommend her as an instructor, she paces her classes well and always brings some fun new techniques.  She also dealt with the stress of not having power very well.   Andrew from the Aud helped us out with resetting the breaker several times.

Saturday we were privileged to do a class with Karen Ellis of the Art House studio.  I got to play with Pan Pastels for the first time, something else that's going to break the budget.  So wish she wasn't so far away I would be at her studio all the time.

Oh yeah on a final note, I learned new words this weekend or should I say new meanings to innocent words, those poor words will never be the same.

Hello Blog World!

It has been awhile.

Easter has just passed and for some this celebration is a time for new beginnings.  Let's see if I can resurrect this blog and do postings on a regular basis.

Last weekend I had the privilege of participating in a fundraising crop for a group participating in the Bust a Move fundraiser happening in Ottawa on April 21.  It was a great time, a bunch of ladies got together and played with some paper, got to reconnect and laugh.

Part of the day on Saturday a smaller group of us got to reveal the Art Journals we have been working on for lets just say longer than anyone had planned or anticipated.  I have one talented group of friends in this group.  All of the journals were amazing. It was so much fun pouring over all of the entries not only Saturday but throughout this. I cherish everything that all these ladies contributed to my journal.

The art journal process was a learning process for me and I enjoyed them once I learned to let go.  The letting go is very difficult for me.  Everything is supposed to have rules and so is art, WRONG.  I struggle with that all of the time, but I keep doing it and sometimes surprise myself.  That's the fun part and the reward.

I am grateful that I have another day off today.  Hope everyone enjoyed their Easter however you chose to celebrate it.

Changes

Sometimes you hit a fork in the road and neither road looks right.  Other times you'd just rather stay put and wait for someone to come along and ask you to join them on the path they are taking.  Either way at some point you have to change and you have to move forward. It certainly doesn't mean it is easy, however I have found that the more you live in the moment and tackle what is in front of you the easier it is to keep going and move through whatever change you are going through.  The best part is that there are often many good things along the road as you travel.  Today I discovered some of those good things and I am grateful for them.  Looking forward to tomorrow and discovering more good things. 

Yeah I know that is all yada yada stuff, but you always have to remember this is public  so being straight and to the point is not always possible.

Art Journaling

Truly not sure what I am getting myself into, however I want to push myself outside of my comfort zone.  So here goes.

I started out by picking a colour I would not normally use, a dark green. Then I started layering and seeing what else would peek my fancy to use and by the end I had a page created.  I see a lot more creating in my future.

You all remember tole painting (no clue at the moment how to spell that).  Well I think I purchased just about every colour Delta Ceramcoat came out with.  When I moved in 2006 I had already moved on to scrapbooking and left all of my paint and brushes behind.  A few weeks ago my mom came for a visit and brought me 96 bottles of those paints.  Yup 96...

I found myself looking through the colours tonight, rediscovering all of my brushes and the small joys of having all of those colours.  Remember when you were a kid and you finally got the big box of crayons,  so much fun. 

Challenges

So it has been forever since I posted here, oh well, not a big deal.

This morning I was catching up of Facebook news and saw that Rachel is now part of the DT for a new Challenge Blog Hello Cutie.  I am elated for her and know that she will be showing us all some fabulous creations.

In support of her new adventure I decided to complete the challenge this morning.  I had lots of fun pulling from my stash of stuff.  This is the first time I've starting creating with a colour palette first.  Will for sure being trying that again soon. 

Time to go and create some more.

One Little Word

Last year I had picked Joy,  I couldn't remember the word for the longest time.  So did I have a joyful year.  Yeah I really did.  There were challenges last year just like any however I embraced living in the moments and feeling joy wherever possible.

I have been struggling to come up with a word for this year.  The words that were coming to mind all had negative connotations that I am feeling but in no way do I want to focus on them nor do I want them to be a reflection of this year. So I've been searching and searching.  I wanted the word to come to me like some divine inspiration.  Yeah well I gave and las night finally looked through the list on Ali's blog to see if there was a word that would draw me in.  I found it. Drishti (Sanskirt for vision, focus, point of view).  I googled it to see what else I could find out about this word and well I like the simple description here.  Knowing that it is Sanskirt makes me feel like I am embracing or building on my past, combining it with its definition to focus on the here and now to create my future.

That's what I want to focus on this year.  Embracing each day while creating my own future, not someone else's.  I do not want someone else or any organization to be my puppeteer.

Sunday Meanderings

I'm enjoying a quiet Sunday morning and thinking it's time for another post. 

I had a fabulous time scrapping with my crop peeps at The Scrapbox Friday and Saturday, really didn't accomplish much in the way of scrapbooking but that so wasn't the point and really never is. Last weekend was productive as I managed to make 30 of these cards, which were scraplifted from here:  http://confessionsofatwentysomethingartist.blogspot.com/2010/11/5-for-friday.html.  Krista is a very talented scrapbooker, love looking at her ideas and well she happens to be from the same province, who knows maybe we have some other connection than just the love of creating with paper.