Hold Dear

sunday funday...

Thought I'd give you a few peeks at some of the loot I scored garage sailing (saleing? saling?) yesterday.

One of the neighborhoods close to us was doing their big annual garage sale event. We got out fairly early and weren't having much success. But then, we came upon an estate sale of a woman who dabbled in a variety of crafts! Check out a sampling of the goods...

A few Dennison labels and seals, an old tin type, a little Italian mirror, laundry pins, some doo dads and novelty fans!

LOVE these things!

The room that had the sewing/craft stuff was a madhouse with tables piled high of assorted this and that. I found a few fun treats but the best was this assortment of gorgeous wool felt...

 

I just LOVE these colors!

I must say thought, the big score of the day, heck, I'll even go out on a limb and say year, was this...

  
A bucket of letterpress type! Swoon swoon swoon!!! I also bought these...

Three letterpress trays! I already have one and wasn't really interested in bringing one, let alone three more home. I tried to put the guy off but he really wanted to see these go away so he gave me a great deal!

I had to spend a good part of the evening yesterday recovering from the day but it was worth it. :-)

Today was a little more low key...I went and hung out with my friend, Denise, for some craft time and then tonight, Mr. G and I are going to our local cheap theatre for some pizza and beer and watch How to Train Your Dragon.

Okay friends...take care and hope you had a lovely lovely weekend!

work in progress...

Hello...just thought I'd come over and leave a few pictures of things I've been working on...

My journal and entries for Hope's Nostalgic Musings online art journaling course...

For the journal, I started with an old, partially used Moleskin. As you'll see, there are spots where I let the existing writing or doodling show through in a layout. Otherwise, I just glued down paper to cover it.

The cover is still a work in progress. I was thinking of cutting a hole into it, but for now, I just added some decorative packing tape I bought at Michael's.

Here's my layout for one of Hope's prompts...

My layout for a prompt where Hope provided us with images and a quote...

 

 

Our assignment for this next layout was to journal about something we love. I chose my girlie. :-)

 

In addition to the prompts that Hope provided, I've also been creating other pages as the inspiration comes over me. Like these...

 

Here's a couple of pages where you can see some of the existing writing and doodling show through.

Also on my work table is a souvenir journal I'm creating to take with me on my trip to California this July. SO excited about this trip and since I had the best time working on my Portland Souvenir Journal, I knew I wanted to make one for this trip.

 

I started with an existing book I came across in my stash. The size is perfect and the rounded corners just spoke to me. :-)

 

Start...

 

Progress...

 

I'll show more of the inside another time but for now, here's a little sweet spot that describes how I feel about going to spend time with my family.

 

:-)

 

 

dear diary...

Today I realized something. I miss blogging.

I have been blogging since December, 2005? Wow! That's a long time!

There were periods of time when EVERYTHING I did got blogged about. Just about everyone I knew got mentioned at some point on my blog. I would be in the middle of something and think, "how will I blog this?" And then I'd take pictures to support that!

These days, I think about blogging and think, "I should blog today," but that's as far as it goes. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's great sometimes to let myself be in the moment and not think getting the perfect picture for "the blog."

So here I am, before you, confessing that I miss blogging. It's my diary. Good. Bad. Fun. Sad. When I show up to blog, anything can happen. Blabbing about whatever is a tool to help me focus and function. It keeps me going. It keeps me connected. So when I don't do it, I miss it. Oh I know there will come a day when I haven't blogged for a week, then two weeks, and then that will turn into a month and then I'll stop trying. But I'll miss it and there will be many conversations that start with "back when I used to blog..."

Having said all that, I'm here and I'm gonna blog today. :-)

Over the last several months, I've done a LOT of purging and organizing in my studio. As a result, when I go to Goodwill or a thrift store now, I am much more discriminating about what I buy. Not everthing that catches my eye comes home with me. That's a very good thing. Just because something looks interesting or is a good deal, I do not impulsively buy it because I'm better at figuring out up front if I'll ever use it. I sure hope this new found objectivity sticks because it's very freeing!

That said...here's what I bought on my last outing to a few Goodwills...

A new small vintage jewelry box, some velvet ribbon, Dennison name stickers and some fabric. The fabric was sealed in a bag so I wasn't able to fully explore what was inside until I got home. I scored big time because I loved it all!

 
 Okay, I'm off. It's a gorgeous day here today (finally!) and I've got some iced tea, chilled and waiting for me! Hope you have a beautiful day.