Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Art journaling, knitting, and other stuff



Thankfully I am now recovered - the cold only lasted 5 days but it was a nasty one. Unfortunately Dan isn't feeling too well today - he isn't sure if it's the cold - but he did go off to work. I made this art journal page for A Year in the Life of an Art Journal or something like that - I saw Jenneke's page and Michelle's page so I decided that I had better do mine. For my art journal I really wanted one of those Donna Downey canvas albums like Michelle has but since I have very little to spend on scrapping this year, that was out of the question so - I looked through my craft boxes and found an old Bobunny 9 x 9 chipboard binder with 6 chipboard pages in it. I dug through my fabric scraps and found some heavy cream cotton and some batting scraps and I made some pages by sandwiching batting between 2 pieces of cotton and sewing around the edges and also around the binding end leaving room to punch holes with my cropodile. It worked quite well and here is my first page - What is holding me back? (sorry this is a little blurry). The cool citrus paint is an Adirondack acrylic paint dabber (got it from Scrapgal) and it is perfect for messy people like me - and isn't the color cool!

This layout is on Harlee-Quinnz Designs Scents to Remember paper - I repeated the lacey curtains with pieces of vintage lace. The flowers are all Prima. I will enter this in the Blue Moon vintage challenge. HQD is going through some changes right now but they will be releasing some new products in the next month.

So, I have to admit I need a change of pace sometimes - last week before I got sick, I made new curtains for my kitchen, new napkins, and a new apron. I also cut out a black and white apron for the Tie One On blog challenge - need to get it finished. I think the Prima Donna Downey canvas aprons are charming but again no funds - so I found an old piece of canvas in my fabric stash and cut out an apron - now to embellish it!!!!!
I also changed my internet browser from Explorer to Firefox and so far I am loving it - I had been thinking about this for a while but the straw that broke the camel's back was on Saturday when Explorer decided not to let me read my gmail - anyway, I have misplaced my favorites list so I was redoing it and got fascinated by Ravelry (a fantastic knitting site) and started following links (and you know how that goes) and found an incredible knitter who does exactly the kind of knitting that I like to do - sort of free form with gorgeous yarns. Jane Thornley is her name and she has several free patterns on her site that I am so wanting to do. I spent this morning digging through my meager 2 containers of yarn to come up with some fun stuff to work with so I can make this scarf - (see below photo courtesy of Jane Thornley) - Isn't it just stunning? I will have to break down and buy a little bit of yarn and ribbon to do this so hopefully I will be able to begin knitting it sometime in the next month. I could do it in whites and creams right now but I think it needs some darks and sparkles to make it really dazzle! I have some fantastic beads to use on the ends.
 She also offers workshops and trips to some places that I would love to visit so can you believe I was perusing her blog today and when I looked up at the clock, over an hour had passed!!! I was just dreaming of fun places to go and things to do. Do you ever do that?

Thanks for reading and have a great day. I just received my February Sampler so I have to get busy with it - what fun!!!!!
ttfn
Chris

8 comments:

jacque4u2c said...

I just love both of your creations!!!
They are stunning!!!!! I don't use explorer anymore wither - it was so getting on my nerves. I use firefox and have a lot more success! Hope it continues to work out for you too.

Unknown said...

Hi Chris, I always find your blog interesting to read...I am also busy sewing curtains at the momoent and I have ascarf to finish, i started it 2 weeks ago...went in to fing fibre for scrapping and ended up knitting instead!.thanks for the knitting link.enjoy explore,experience...

Amy said...

Love all your random tidbits of info. Love that you share all of it with us. You really have a lot of projects going on. Love your beautiful, beautiful creations. I have not sewn on fabric in quite some time. I go through moods and I am in the mood to scrap....Just got a call today though...I will be painting a childrens mural...well 2 one boy and one girl. Should be fun!

McMGrad89 said...

Glad to hear you are feeling better. Everyone here has been under the weather as well, thus, no blog posts as of late.

Sitting outside the dance studio waiting for Cait to finish so I can go home and crash!

Hope to see more posts soon.

Annemarie

EileenMV said...

I love the flowers and the lace - very pretty! Your other creation is beautiful too!!!

Deana said...

I really ♥ that art journal page... the turquoise is so bright & fun on there!

So glad to hear that you're finally feeling better! Hope Dan feels better soon, too!

Hugs...

Hanneke said...

I love that Art journal page you made! It's so great to see how different your pages are (Jenneke, Jeanet and yours) Love the LO to, gorgeous with all the lace!! Don't you love it to sit behind your computer and just surf and dream around, it's so relaxing!!! I use to knit when i was a little girl my grandmother tought me how to do that, love that scrarf can't wait to see it finished!!!

Anonymous said...

Your art journal page is gorgeous Chris! Love the colour... and it's awesome that you sewed extra pages! I won't go to the knitting site... too much other things on my hand now and I would only drool and feel sorry for not having enough time...