the final countdown begins...

in a week I will say good bye to this house. seems weird. seems like I am going on a vacation and then I'll be back except that I won't be. it feels like I am getting ready for a trip. typically I pack the clothes, the food stuff and the art stuff is always last. I rush to pack my art supplies cause then I have no choice, no time, just chuck it in the bag and go. yesterday was a big day. lots of boxes, bubble wrap, packing tape and coffee. I was a non stop packing machine. I think I was packing so fast so as to justify sneaking in some art. well, part of the packing was happening in the studio and so that is where I am at now.

except that I get inspired and forgot about the packing and decided that I will paint! and so I started to transform these two suitcase type boxes. one had a coat of black on it which will not work for my plan in the new studio. the other one was teal and again not gonna work so how about some sunshine?

and then I had all this leftover paint. yikes! what to do? oh look there is a canvas that had a plan and lost the blueprints and so heck ya get that yellow on there and think about it tomorrow.

I have my to do list for today and all I want to do is slap some modge podge on it, stick it on the canvas and paint over it. I just wanna PLLLLLLAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY!!!!! I will! pretty much part of my daily life. kind of like brushing your teeth.

d.i.y art journal

I'm at it again! just cannot stop creating! in the midst of packing up the studio I came across a painting, a vision board and some scraps of watercolour paper. what to do? pack it up? throw it out? I cannot bear to waste it. rule #1 - reduce, rule #2 - reuse and rule #3 recycle. in this case I went for reusing. I took the pile and ripped into strips of 8" x 16" pieces. yes, I said ripped. no need to use scissors or exacto knife! I needed to get this done - NOW! I ended up with 12 sheets. I took the sheets and folded them in half. mixed them up a bit and made a stack. I used some binder clips to keep everything from shifting while I sew. then I took my awl and poked three holes for the binding. one at 2", 4" and 6". I cut a piece of bookbinding thread twice the size so 16". then I began the super simple pamphlet stitch binding. from the outside middle hole go in, then go to the bottom hole out, from the outside bottom hole go up to the outside top hole back in and finally from the top hole inside go back out the middle hole. tie a knot and done.

I added an elastic to keep the book closed as I know that as I fill it up it will get bulky. I love how all the pages are mixed up. a bit of the vision board collage, some of the painting and the blank pages.

the plan is to take this journalwith me while we are homeless. yes, homeless. we need to be out of our house(this house) on the 15th and then our new home will not be ready till the 30th. in the meantime and in between time we will be living with my mom and dad. ha! I KNOW that I will need a place to jot down feelings, do some scribbling, drawing and painting.

I am really looking forward to playing in it. in the process of taking pics to share I found out that I had a scrap piece with some calligraphy from a friend. the cut off piece still reads "and blue far away" which I think is awesome! our new wall colour is a beautiful serene blue and it seems like it is so far away from here!

so did I stop? HELL NO! I kept finding more papers and scraps that I couldn't just toss away so I made up some journals to share with you!

each journal is 6 1/2" x 9 1/4" and has 40 pages. the pages are assorted papers and even a black sheet to see how colour works on dark paper! I am off to put them up in the shop! each one will include a collaged postcard personally addressed to you with a reminder to "play everyday!.