SMASH*Book/Collage Week - Days 5 & 6

I felt a little stunted the past couple days. Saturday, I decided to start working on one of my collage ideas, and I got a couple images printed out. I'm going to collage it onto one of the black pages in my SMASH*Book, though, so I need pens that will show up on black. By the time I realized this, it was too late in the day to stop by the art store.

Sunday, I couldn't quite get in the right creative mood for any of the other ideas, so I was struggling with what to do. I thought about trying a different collage idea, but there seemed to be too many distractions and too much need for my attention in other area, so I eventually gave up. Once most of the kids were in bed, I finally just started cutting phrases and such out of my big stack of magazines. I cut things that appealed to me at the time, but nothing with a strong theme. I figure they'll come to use some time in the future.

It was a bit frustrating that I didn't get more than that done, just because I wanted to do so much more, but couldn't quite figure it out. I'm going to stop by Jerry's Artarama today to see if they sell metallic gel pens, or something similar, in singles instead of big packs, since I only need a few colors and don't want to spend much money. I also need to find my little crafting caddy, which is in a box in the garage somewhere. It has my craft glues, which I'll need to attach stuff because my glue stick won't be strong enough for the cardstock I printed the images on. It's barely holding down the photos of Annabelle already! This feels like a lot of extraneous stuff that will get in the way of actually creating, but I guess that's just what happens sometimes.

SMASH*Book/Collage Week - Day 4

I had lots of time to work yesterday, and it was really fun. I took pictures every 15-20 minutes at the beginning, just to document the process I was going through to put everything together.

I pretty much just set things out in a layout I liked and then glued/taped them down one by one.

 

I wrote on the backs of some pictures, made notes around pictures, and put lots of documentation in.

I wanted to make it possible to look inside the card she made me. And I also stacked some of the photos like a little flip book, so I was able to have more photos on the pages than if I had just glued them straight on.

I added lots of little doodles and patterns around to make it look cute. I also threw in some little magazine cutouts of strawberries, just to add color and fill space. I wish the pictures were a little better so you could see all the detail!

There's a little empty space behind that last photo, but I haven't decided yet what I want to put there. I'm sure I'll find something stashed away to put there eventually, but I'm not worried about filling the space right away. I want to find something that is just right. I really like the way it turned out, although I'm still not sure if I like the ribbon behind the letters. I didn't turn out to match as well as I was hoping, but it's still cute, so eh... whatever. 

SMASH*Book/ Collage Week - Days 2 & 3

I was holding off on posting until each evening, thinking that would be better because I could report what I'd been doing, but by then I was too tired, so I'd fall asleep before I could post. So, it's just better if I post the morning after each day when things are fresh in my mind, and I'm a little less sleepy. (And forgive the blurry photos, the lighting is pretty terrible most of the time.)

I spent Wednesday printing and cutting the photos of Annabelle that I knew I wanted for this spread. I ended up printing way too many pictures (she's just so cute!), so I whittled them down by trying to focus on photos where she was wearing red or it was strongly featured. I think I only kept a couple that break that rule. I gathered up everything I could find that I knew I wanted for the layout, but by then it was bed time. 

I was thinking about the project all day yesterday, just excited to get to work, but I had tons of stuff I needed to take care of. I finally sat down to start working around 7:30 last night. I was just starting to figure out a layout when there was a huge avalanche of LEGOS and Charlie onto the floor next to the couch. He wasn't hurt at all, but there was a huge mess. While Mitchell and I were cleaning it up, we discovered a bag of foam letters that I'd forgotten about. I was pretty excited because I hadn't known how I was going to title the page. So last night, I was able to sort through the letters to find and spell what I needed. I also decided to use some cute ribbon with strawberries underneath the letters to make them stand out more. By then it was bedtime, so I had to clean up again.

I'm excited to get into more layout stuff, and actually putting things down today. Maybe I can get better pictures in a different room, especially if I work during the day instead of night.

SMASH*Book/Collage Hobby Plan

I decided I need to have a bit of a plan to guide me through the next couple weeks. I am going to work on a hobby for a 2 week period, this time around, to give myself more time to explore. Originally, I was thinking I could do a spread per day, but I realized that is way out of my abilities, so I'm going to pick a few different ideas that I want to try out during the next couple weeks.

The first layout I want to do is pretty definite; I want to do a 2-page spread of pictures of Annabelle with a sort of fruit theme tying it all together.

I got some ideas from a challenge on Pinterest, and then some of my own. The ideas I want to try are:

• a magazine/photo collage: girl running in woods, my "perfect" afternoon
• All About Me
• Dream List: all the things I want to do in my life
• Inspiration Board
• Joseph page: Star Wars themed, of course
• Charlie page: I'm not sure what I'd do for his yet, maybe Power Rangers

I know I won't be able to do all of these, but at least I have some ideas now, so I won't get stuck when I finish the pages I'm working on now.

SMASH Book/ Collage Week - Day 1

Today was not the greatest day for working on stuff because I had appointments and I was really struggling with my moods. But I got some stuff done!

Yesterday, I pulled out all the supplies that I currently have access to.

I started picking out stuff for my first spread I want to do. I knew I wanted to do something fruit- related because I got some cute things from my cousin, Amber a few months ago. I gathered the things she gave me, plus some images of fruit I had cut from magazines (also a donation from Amber). In fact, the SMASH*book was her Christmas gift to me; isn't she great?! There was an image I kept remembering of Annabelle from almost 4 years ago on July 4th, in which she's wearing a watermelon dress; that let me to decide on making the spread about my sweet Annabelle. 

Nearly all of our photos are on our external hard drive, and they are very disorganized. I spent over an hour organizing them by year and month last night. And another hour or two again today. I don't have them all organized, but I think I found most of the photos I want to use. I was going to print them, but I recently started using Mitchell's computer because it can handle the games I like playing, but it can recognize our new printer! So I need to hook up my old computer to the external hard drive to print the photos. That, however, was beyond my energy level today, so I'm saving that task for tomorrow. I originally wanted to try down a page per day, but I don't want to push myself too hard and end up giving up right away.

I'm grateful for the support I've received on Facebook from friends; between today's struggles, I almost did give up, but I remembered all the support and decided to stick with it. I do feel excited to show more progress. 

Searching for a Hobby, Take 2

A little over 2 years ago, I started this blog, hoping to help myself discover my passions and talents. I got a little sidetracked after a bit, and stopped doing it. For a few months now, I've been wanting to come back to this blog. I still want to discover my passions and talents. I've learned some things about myself in the past 2 years. I've changed a bit in the past 2 years. I've realized a bit about what works for me and what doesn't. And I've decided to try doing this blog again. I'm going to come back with pretty much the same list that I started with before. I'm going to work on a hobby for 2 weeks now. And I'm going to be a little more lenient with myself, and more exploratory with the hobbies. 

So the list:

• photography
• gardening
• singing 
• piano 
• cello
• running/marathon training 
• yoga 
• sewing
• scrapbooking
• cooking/baking 
• cake decorating 
• crocheting/knitting
• beauty 
• get a pet
• painting
• drawing/sketching
• woodworking
• dance
• beading/jewelry making
• pottery
• home design
• home repair
• housework
• reading
• writing
• crafting
• travel/sightseeing
• learn a language
• family history
• blogging
• journaling
• cross-stitch
• video games
• watching movies/tv shows
• quilting
• fashion
• party planning 
• hiking
• rock climbing
• martial arts/kickboxing
• model/dollhouse building
• film/make videos
• cycling
• weight-lifting
• swimming
• auto mechanics
• computer/technology stuff
• camping
• calligraphy
• aviation
• teaching
• hang-gliding
• volunteering
• activism - charities, politics, causes, etc.
• antiquing
• surfing
• scuba-diving
• ballooning
• learn a new instrument
• landscaping
• candle making
• other art - 
• collage
•  pastel,
• sculpture
• etc.
• acting
• shooting
• hunting
• floral arranging
• stained glass
• story-telling
• psychology
• chemistry
• astronomy
• nutrition/diet science
• art history
• architecture
• boating/sailing
• roleplaying/cosplay
• board gaming/ card games
• collecting
• puzzles - word, picture, number, etc.
• play pool
• horseback riding

This is enough stuff to take me more than 3 years!! But, hopefully, I will figure out my passions before I work through the whole list. Many of these things I just find interesting and intriguing, although, I have also tried many of them at some time or another. 

For my first hobby, I'm planning to work on collage because it's been in the back of my mind for awhile now. I'll write a post on it in a bit. 

"Master" Bedroom

When we moved in, the first room I unpacked was our bedroom. It quickly became one of the messiest rooms in the house, though. It also went through a couple rearrangements, which made even more of a mess. I got sick of the mess, and finally went to work. It's taken me several days because I've been pretty sick for nearly two weeks. I like how nice it is, and it seems like everyone else does, too, because the kids are always finding excuses to be in there.

It would really feel like a college bachelor's bedroom if it weren't for the girly touches of color and pattern throughout. Oh, and the kids... We just have a serious lack of furniture right now, and an even more serious lack of money, so it's going to look pretty humble for awhile.

The sleeping area. We got rid of our beautiful, storage-friendly bed frame back in September because it was falling apart from the moves it's been through. IKEA furniture really isn't meant to be taken apart... 

What used to be the kids' toy storage has become Mitchell's dresser. And we also use it as our entertainment center.

This door leads to the driveway and our car, so we use it frequently. That makes our bedroom a landing space for everything we bring in the house, which can lead to a lot of clutter. I'm trying to keep my purse orderly, and not allow stuff to be stacked on my dresser, except, of corse, the toiletries and jewelry that are supposed to be there.

I also organized our closet, but it's really mostly mine...

And this this the completion of the circle around my room. The door to the hallway, and Mitchell's work uniform.

This isn't the most exciting post, but I'm excited to have a clean and orderly room to spend my time in.