Sunday, August 27, 2006

Honeymoon album is done!


Friday night I finished our Honeymoon scrapbook. yeah! It feels great to have it done and flip through to remember the experience. I'm sure we will enjoy looking through it for many years to come. You can see the whole album on Flikr, if you so desire.

And we cleaned the basement today! That was a BIG accomplishment. It had been accumulating boxes and *stuff* since I moved in last summer, so we tossed some things, donated some to Goodwill, and mostly just straightened, reorganized, and cleaned. It looks wonderfully livable again.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Back to School


I've survived the first week of school. It went incredibly fast and felt long at the same time. My room is newly waxed and all rearranged. The crayons, markers, glue bottles, etc. are all new and plentiful.It is always interesting to meet the new students who have moved in over the summer, and see how much all the others have changed. It also takes some time to readjust to getting up early every day, making it through 8 hrs. of non-stop action, and training my bladder to only go to the bathroom at certain times. Those little 5 year old kindergarteners can really drain your energy, but they are also so sweet and creative (see great drawing by one of my students above). Alright - on to next week!

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Should I buy it?

So, I've been thinking about getting a new bedcover for our guest bedroom bed (which is also my art room - so it would be nice to have something pretty to look at). My mom spotted this one in D.M. and I think she could pick it up for me with a 40% off coupon, so, what do you think?

Recent Artwork

These are a couple deco pages and a postcard that I have recently completed for mail art swaps. I'm really enjoying all 3, especially because I didn't stress over them... when I began working on the themes for the decos - "anatomical hearts" and "ravens & crows", I came up with mental images, and was able to execute them just how I wanted. That doesn't happen all the time - it is a good experience. Mostly, I'm posting tonight to postpone doing all the school work that I brought home in my bag. Getting back in the school routine is draining. My main ambition when I get home these days is to be a couch potato!










You might recognize the postcard design from my Vegas post - it was directly inspired by the floor mosaic that I saw at the Wynn casino.


Monday, August 21, 2006

State Fair 2006

On Sunday, Bill and I managed to squeeze our annual visit to the great Iowa State Fair into one day. We saw all sorts of oddities, including an American Gothic made out of balloons...
award-winning giant pumpkins...
and, of course, the famous butter cow! But mainly, we made our way from food stand to delicious food stand throughout the day. It was fabulous. For more pictures, check out my flickr set.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Las Vegas 2006

Since I was without my laptop last weekend, I didn't get a chance to post about our quick trip to Las Vegas. Bill was playing in a couple poker tournaments, so I spent my time alone wandering through the hotels and casinos, and getting a couple spa treatments (yes!). We also went out to dinner at a few *awesome* restaurants, and saw the Blue Man Group and Le Reve shows. It was a great trip and a great way to end the summer. A few more pictures are here on my flickr.

Monday, August 14, 2006

Updated Visual Journal

Just finished updating the blog for Beth's journal. This robot page is one of my very favorites!

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Christmas '05


This is my submission for a challenge I'm participating in at The Dares blog. The challenge was to do all the journaling on the photos. I used a white pen to silhouette the figures in the photos and to tell a little bit about what was happening. The paper is Reminisce's Santa's Workshop line. The photo is not good, I think because the camera couldn't focus on the shimmery paper, but everything is in focus in real life. I think all the patterned papers with the journaling looks kind of busy, but still fun.

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Latest atcs

Just posted scans of a couple new artist trading cards that I made on the Embellished Circus blog. If you'd like, you can see them here.

Friday, August 04, 2006

Not much self-control...


I've finally given in to the QuicKutz. Since I started at Reminisce over a year ago, I've been resisting the urge to buy one of these die cutting machines. What do I need one for, anyway? I have nice handwriting - I can write my own letters and draw my own little shapes, but today I caved. We got the new Squeeze tool in which comes with an alphabet and is a *really* good deal, not to mention my employee discount, so... yeah. Not only did I decide to buy the tool, but I bought the stylish tote bag made just for the tool and 4 dies that I thought I would use often. yippee! Time to go play.

Oh, and I downloaded 3 albums tonight - the new ones from Dixie Chicks, Thom Yorke, and G. Love. I guess that shows how eclectic my music taste is. I'm looking forward to experiencing all three!

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Weekend in D.M.

Look at this mess! Wonderful mess. Sis sent me some pictures of our weekend of scrapbooking in Des Moines. It's official. I've gotten my mom and my sister addicted to this hobby. That's alright, it's a good one.
I finished several more pages for the honeymoon book. I'm more than halfway done. My goal is to finish before school starts on the 17th. We'll see...