New Journal Page

I worked on a new page in my journal yesterday - it's my favorite one so far.

Visual Journalism 101

I've added a quote about nature to the page I posted a few days ago.



And I've started on another page:



I'm having a lot of fun with this!

A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell

I finished this book Monday night - it is my first read for the WWII Reading Challenge. It "tells the little-known story of the vast underground effort by Italian citizens who saved the lives of 43,000 Jews during the final phase of World War II." (quoted from the back cover) It was very well-written and followed the stories of several different characters. While this book and The Madonnas of Leningrad were very different stories, I was struck at the end by the similarity between Claudette (in this book) and Marina (in Madonnas) - how neither would talk about their experiences during the war and how their children didn't feel like they knew them - and even thought they were cold. I rate this book 4 out of 5.

Visual Journalism

Here is one of my pages from my Visual Journalism 101 class with Pam Carriker. This is after 3 lessons - background, collage, and doodling. We've still got 2 more lessons to go, so this page will change some more, but it's a lot of fun.

Diamond Jubilee

I've been intending to play along with the GPP Street Team's Challenges for quite some time now, but this is the first time I've actually done it. GPP stands for Green Pepper Press, and the challenges are "monthly creativity crusades hosted by Michelle Ward." Now, I'll admit to being just a bit put off by the term crusade, but I know that that is a personal thing, so I'm trying to get over it. It certainly isn't the reason I haven't gotten the challenges done before now. This month's challenge (Crusade No. 27) is called Shape Up, but it isn't about getting in better physical shape; it's about choosing a shape and studying it in your journal.

I chose the diamond, which is one of my favorite shapes. I have a diamond punch, so I punched some diamonds out of decorative scrapbook papers and glued them to the right page. I also used the punch to make both a stencil and a mask. I used the stencil with white paint on the left page. I used the mask with black ink on the left page as well (that one doesn't show up very well, since the background is so dark, but I doodled dots inside the diamond). I took some fun foam and cut a diamond out of it. (I know, it looks just like the punches, but I didn't punch it. The foam was too thick to fit in my punch. I used my mask to draw on the foam and then cut it with an exacto knife.) I stamped my new stamp on the right page. I glued harlequin scrapbook papers to each page. I used a commercial harlequin stamp when I created the background. I doodled some diamond shapes on both pages, and I doodled around the other shapes. I found a quilt pattern that uses diamonds and glued that to the left page. This was an interesting exercise, and I think I'll probably play around with other shapes in the future.

Below is a scan of the fancy tools I made. On the left is the stencil. I took a piece of a magazine page and punched the diamond in it. The white you see around the diamond is the paint. In the middle is the mask, also using a magazine page (it's very thin, which is good for both stencils and masks). I used repositionable glue on the backs of both the stencil and the mask so that they would stay in place while using them. On the right is the hand carved stamp. I took a piece of a transparency and laminated it to make it stiff then taped the stamp (fun foam) to it with permanent tape. This could then be mounted to an acrylic block with repositionable tape if desired; I just used it as is.

Inspiration Journal

The idea behind this class is to create what Paulette Insall calls an inspiration journal. This is basically a journal with pictures of the things that inspire us. Then if we're feeling uninspired, we can just look through our journal to get inspiration.

I have 4 backgrounds painted (earlier posts), and now I've added some pictures (lesson 2) and journaling (lesson 3) about a few of the things that inspire me - flowers, tropical fish, butterflies, trees, and colored pencils. I think that many of my pages will have quilts and/or fabrics on them, but not this page. I'll be adding some more embellishing to this page for lesson 4.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

This book follows a young Bengali (Indian) couple who come to the United States right after they marry. When their son is born, the letter from Ashima's grandmother naming him is lost in the mail and never arrives. They end up naming him Gogol, after the Russian writer. We see the effect that this unusual name has on Gogol as he grows up. The writing style was a bit distant at times, but it was well written. I had read the book a few years ago, but since my book club was discussing it in January, I reread it. I rate it 4 out of 5.

Visual Journaling

I'm taking a couple of online journaling classes right now. I mentioned the one I'm taking from Paulette Insall a couple of posts down. I signed up for another one taught by Pam Carriker at Creative Workshops - this one is called Visual Journalism 101. I made another journal for that class. Here is the front cover:



And inside the cover (I painted one sheet, cut it in half, and glued it to both sides of chipboard for the covers):



And here is the first page spread inside:



I'll be adding more to the pages over the next few weeks, but this is a good start. I actually used baby wipes to apply some of the paint - pretty cool technique.

Blog Awards and Some Thoughts

Elizabeth of The Last Door . . . Down the Hall was kind enough to award me this Kreativ Blogger award a few days ago. I am supposed to list 7 things I love:

1. My family - husband, son, and daughter-in-law.
2. My friends.
3. My cat.
4. My home.
5. Creating (sewing, art, etc.).
6. Reading.
7. Learning.



And then Fannie of Imagine, Create, Inspire passed these two awards on to me.





I'm supposed to pass these awards on to others. I love the blogs I read, or I wouldn't read them. But I don't read a lot of blogs anymore - I have tried to reduce the amount of time I spend on the computer (not very successfully, I might add). So two of my favorite blogs are Elizabeth's and Fannie's, and several of my other favorite blogs I've sent awards to recently. It's not that I don't appreciate these awards - but after awhile it begins to feel like the same people send awards to the same blogs. I really hope that doesn't sound ungrateful. So I will just say thank you very much to Elizabeth and Fannie, add that any and all of the blogs I read deserve these awards as much or more than I do, and hope no one gets mad at me. (If you want to see what blogs I read, you can see a list of them in the right hand column - under the heading Blogs in my Reader.)

Inspiration Journal - two more pages

I finished 2 more backgrounds in my inspiration journal yesterday - I'm really happy with the red one. The green one is ok too, but my favorite so far is the first one I did in blues and teal. I really need to start looking for images to glue onto these pages now - but it's so much fun doing the backgrounds!

Inspiration Journal, page 2

I finished another page spread today for my inspiration journal. I say finished, but actually I mean step 1 is finished. I'm going to be adding to it with collage and embellishing, but I'm through with the background painting. It's a lot of fun, because if you don't like the way it looks, you just keep adding to it until you do.

Inspiration Journal

I'm taking another online class - this one is from Paulette Insall, and it's called Enjoy the Journey. It's about creating a mixed media inspiration journal. You can read about it here. It's a different type of journal than I'm used to, but I'm having fun with it so far. This is the start of my first page spread - I'll be adding to it over the next few weeks, but I like how it looks so far.

Paper Collaboration

I just read about a fun paper collaboration on Marci Glenn's blog, Simply Artistic Pleasures. People send 50 - 70 papers to Sweet Jessie, she binds them into journals, and sends them back to you, all for $8.00. Sounds like a fun way to get a new journal full of interesting papers.

Dewey - The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter

Dewey was stuffed into the book return slot of the Spencer, Iowa, library on the coldest night of the year and found the next morning (Jan. 18, 1988) by the library director. It was love at first sight for both. Dewey spent the next 19 years charming the people of Spencer. It's a heartwarming story of a special cat. I read it for the January selection of Bookworms Reading Group. I'm not sure that there will be all that much to discuss. I rated it 3 out of 5.

Lucky

My cat was sitting on the floor in front of me the other evening, and I'd never drawn him before, so I decided to try. I got the pencil sketch finished before he moved. I did the ink work last night and finished the watercolor pencil today.

He's getting pretty old, so I've been trying to really pay more attention to him lately, since I know he won't be around forever. He's in pretty good health for his age, but still . . .

Padfolio

After making a folder-folio for a gift, I had to make one for myself! Actually, I prepared the backgrounds at the same time, because I knew I wanted one. I just didn't have time to make it before Christmas. I modified mine to hold a legal pad on one side instead of loose papers. I also added a little loop of fabric for a pencil. And I used some of the skills I learned in Terri Stegmiller's Mixed Media Collage class to make the cover. I painted the purple cone flower with Neocolor watercolor crayons on white duck cloth, then fused it to Pelmet Vilene (which is a stiff interfacing, but thinner than Timtex or Peltex). Then I outlined the flower and stem with free motion stitching. I'm looking forward to having an excuse to use it!

Reading Challenge

I have never done a reading challenge before, but I recently started reading the blog She Is Too Fond of Books, and the author has been listing many challenges over the past few days. I found one that really appeals to me, because I've always liked reading about World War II. Here is a little bit about the challenge:

"To participate in the WWII Reading Challenge, you must commit to reading at least five books throughout the year. The books can be fiction or non-fiction, and they can be about any aspect of WWII. WWII should be the primary or secondary theme, and it doesn’t matter whether the book takes place during the war or after the war. Children’s literature is acceptable! (Please visit the WWII Reading List page for some recommendations.) You can count books you are reading for other challenges, so long as they meet the aforementioned criteria."

You can read more about this challenge and sign up at the War Through the Generations blog. I plan to read 5 books (I may read more, but I'm just committing to 5, since I know I can do that). I haven't chosen my 5 books yet; I'll add them to this post as soon as I do. I have chosen my first book, however.

1. A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell
2. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
3. The Avengers by Rich Cohen
4. The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman
5. Book Five

Folder-Folio

I met with my book club on the Friday before Christmas - it was a really good discussion on a book that many of us didn't particularly like (The Sea by John Banville - I reviewed it here). I noticed that our leader had a folio with her that she kept her papers in - but it was just one of those heavy paper folios. So I decided to make her this:


Front cover - as always, you can click on the picture to see it larger.


Inside.

I worked on it over that weekend, then I took it by the library last Monday. I got to see her offices and learn a little bit about what she does at the library (other than lead our book club). And my DH came, so he got to meet her too. It was fun. The pattern for the folder-folio is by Terri Stegmiller and can be found here.

New Book

Well, it happened again. I started a new book on Sunday (A Thread of Grace), and then a book I'd placed on hold at the library came in on Wednesday (Dewey - The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World). Dewey is the January selection for Bookworms Reading Group, and other people have the book on hold after me, so if I want to read it soon, I had to check it out today and start reading it. I'm a fairly slow reader, so by the time I finish Dewey, I'll probably need to read the book my Four Star Reading Club is discussing in January (The Namesake). So I'm not sure when I'll get back to A Thread of Grace - I may even need to start it over (I don't read more than one novel at a time). I hate it when that happens!

Padfolio

Now that it's after Christmas, I can show this padfolio that I made for my mom. I used my needle punch machine for the background and the flower, then free motion stitched in the background and around the flower with my sewing machine. The pattern for the padfolio is by Sue Bleiweiss, and can be found at Two Creative Studios; the flower is my own design. I modified the pattern to use velcro for a closure rather than a cord.

The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean

Marina is in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. She remembers her days as a tour guide for The Hermitage Museum in 1941 Leningrad more clearly than she remembers details of her grown children's lives. As the German Army approached, the Hermitage employees boxed up and hid for safekeeping all of the artwork - 1.1 million objects. During the first winter of the siege of Leningrad, the museum staff and their families lived in the basement of the museum - almost 2000 people. This is told as Marina's memories, which she confuses with the present: her granddaughter's wedding. It is a sad story but beautifully told. I found out about this book through my local book club - they read this book last spring before I joined. I rate it 4 out of 5.

Proximity Award

I have been truly honored to receive another award from not just one, but two of my fellow blogger friends, Fannie and Tracy.

This award states that: This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY- nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends, they are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated.

I would like to share this award with Sue Bleiweiss, Terri Stegmiller and Elizabeth Golden.

The Queen's Bastard by Robin Maxwell

I actually finished this book in November and forgot to post about it.

This book is a sequel of sorts to The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn. The premise of the book is that Queen Elizabeth gave birth to a bastard son, whose father was Robert Dudley. Elizabeth hid her pregnancy from all but a few close to her. At the birth, Kat Ashley took the baby away, replaced it with a dead baby, and told Elizabeth the baby was stillborn. She took the baby to her former sweetheart, Robert Southern, to be raised as his own child. It turns out there really was an Arthur Dudley who claimed to be the son of Elizabeth and Dudley. And in the early years of her reign, there were rumors of bastard children. Interesting idea. Well written. It kept my interest. I rate this book 4 out of 5.

The Sea by John Banville

Max Morden, recently widowed, returns to the seaside town where he spent summers as a child. The story shifts from present to recent past (his wife's illness) to distant past (his childhood). I also shifted between liking the writing style and thinking it was a bit over done or pompous. I had to keep the dictionary handy at all times. The story was interesting, but slow to develop. I was glad it wasn't any longer. I rate it 2 out of 5.

Giveaways by Chrysti

I just found the most amazing giveaways - 29 Days of Giveaways by Chrysti. Lots going on there - click on the title and check it out!

Season's Greetings

To all my readers - happy holidays! Click on photo to enlarge it (especially if you want to see the fish in its mouth).

BTW, DH took the photo, I cropped it and added the greetings in Photoshop Elements.

Cards and Stuff

We actually sent out our Christmas cards today - pretty amazing! I don't think they ever would have gotten done if DH hadn't gotten busy and written the annual letter a week or more ago. He usually writes the letter, and then I edit it and add stuff about me. He's quite the jokester, so he always puts something in the letter that he knows I'll take out. This year, after putting down all the information about our son and daughter-in-law, our travel, and stuff about him, the last sentence was "Cheryl didn't do much this year." Ha ha!

I read it when he wrote it, but didn't feel like figuring out what to write for my part. He kept after me until I finally finished it a couple of days ago. Then we decided to send out a photo he had taken, so I cropped it and added some words to it in Photoshop. We bought some fancy stationery at Staples yesterday and printed the letters, mailing labels, and photos. Today we stuffed envelopes and he took them to the post office when he went out to his eye doctor appointment.

I am so not in the holiday mood yet - we haven't even put up the tree yet. But I did finish making a presents for a couple of my friends today. I'm just making two more. I hope to finish the one for my mom tomorrow and then the one for my DS and DDIL in another couple of days.

The Gift by Pete Hamill

I read this for my online bookclub - Bookworms Reading Group - which is a Yahoo group. It is the story of a young sailor who is home on leave during Christmas of 1952. His family is poor, his girlfriend has left him, and he's back in the dreary apartment his large family lives in. While it was a fairly well written story, it seemed a bit simplistic and even sappy to me. I rate it 2 out of 5.

Freebie

Lisa Vollrath has generously provided free printable images between now and Christmas at her website here. There are some lovely images available already.

Mythological Goddess Test

Your result for The Mythological Goddess Test...

Minerva

Indeed, you are 71% erudite, 58% sensual, 29% martial, and 29% saturnine.

Another virgin Goddess (Diana or Artemis being the other), Minerva was, just like her Greek counterpart Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and Freedom as well as an all powerful Goddess of War, which made her a most formidable opponent indeed.

Among the many disciplines that fell under her control were: writing, the sciences, architecture, embroidery, and just about anything else dealing with artistic skills, wise counsel, and of course battle and warfare.

Like Athena, owls were considered sacred to Minerva, representing wisdom. She was a very wise warrior, respected by the Roman legions.

She was also, no kidding, the Goddess of Women's Rights and patroness of career women.

The Fifteen Goddesses

These are the 15 categories of this test. If you score above average in …

…all or none of the four variables: Neit. …
Erudite: Minerva. …
Sensual: Aphrodite. …
Martial: Artemis. …
Saturnine: Persephone. …

Erudite & Sensual: Isis. …
Erudite & Martial: Sekhmet. …
Erudite & Saturnine: Nemesis. …
Sensual & Martial: Hera. …
Sensual & Saturnine: Bast. …
Martial & Saturnine: Ilamatecuhtli. …

Erudite, Sensual & Martial: Maeve. …
Erudite, Sensual & Saturnine: Freya. …
Erudite, Martial & Saturnine: Sedna. …
Sensual, Martial & Saturnine: Macha.

Take The Mythological Goddess Test at HelloQuizzy