Focus on Life Week 17 - Color

Three of my grandkids had this week off from school so we decided to take them to West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta for two nights.  This is the largest shopping mall in North America and has many unique amenities including a huge waterpark, ice rink, amusement park and marine life.  We stayed at the Fantasyland Hotel which is attached to the mall.  Believe me there is enough to do there for a full week but my feet were so tired after two days that I was ready to leave.  It is virtually like a small city contained under one roof with hundreds of places to eat.  With spring arriving, color was abundant - in fashion stores, shoes, home decor and everywhere we turned there was an explosion of color.  

I talked my grand daughter into walking to the far side to visit a fine art store.  I always need more art supplies....right?  We walked in and saw this right before our eyes.  I knew it was the photo I wanted for this week.  

Have you ever seen rainbow stairs?

If you want to see more color, be sure to visit all the other participants over at The Studio Sublime

Thanks for stopping by and leaving such welcome and encouraging comments.

Focus on Life - The Possibilities are Endless

I am so ready for spring but sadly there is still six inches of snow on the ground.  Color is very much missing and I am wanting to get out in my yard and start planting.  When I saw racks of seeds in the store this week, I grabbed up a few.  My husband loves to garden as in vegetables and after  he plants enough for a small village, ends up giving away many bags of produce.  I think he loves to do it just so he can give to others.  

I am dreaming of the possibilities of transforming my yard into something beautiful......

This is what I picked out....I love color so flowers are my specialty.  I will have to pick up many more bedding plants as well.  

This is a start and gives me hope that the place we moved into in late October might be very inviting this year.  That is if we ever get spring!  

Thanks for stopping by - now head over to see what everyone else focused on this week - at The Studio Sublime

What to say for a New Year

I have been pondering what to post to start off this New Year.  It is hard to come up with any words to express what is on my mind.  I'm not sure why that is.  

I want to be positive but both my husband and I have been sick - him more than me and it is worrisome to say the least.  On New Years eve. he woke up with pain and thought he was having a heart attack (pain was similar to when he did have one 9 years ago) so I took him to emergency.  We sat there for 8 hours having tests done and in the end, they said there was no sign of a heart attack.  That is good news but he continues to feel poorly every day.  What in the world is going on? 

I am looking forward to this year because I am geared up and taking several online courses.  Last summer I discovered Art Journaling and it literally has been a life saver in the midst of everything that happened.  I have always been creative and artsy fartsy but in a controlled and perfectionist kind of way.  Taking mixed media courses has allowed me to go ahead and fling paint and find out what beautiful things can happen.  I love the freedom that I have when creating an art journal page.  The best technique I learned was to journal negative thoughts and then cover them up with paint or gesso.  How cool is that - to write all your bad stuff and then release it by covering it with beautiful colors?  

 

I took Art Heart and Healing from Tamara Laporte (Willowing) and loved it so much that I signed up for Fabulous Faces and Life Book 2013.  She has a lovely compassionate way of teaching her courses. 

In November I found the site of Effy Wild and really found out how to not be afraid of layering color and paint on the page.  I took two courses before signing up for Book of Days 2013.  She even taught us how to make our own hand bound journal...... that was awesome!  Effy is a giving soul and shares her talent with anyone and everyone.   

This is the first hand bound journal I have ever made  and it will be my Book of Days journal for 2013.  Effy gives weekly videos with lots of good information.  Some free classes too!

My BOD has a canvas cover which I gessoed then painted many layers of paint and stencils over until it was a mottled color I liked.  I love how the canvas looks like it is aged!   A length of purple Sari Silk wraps to close it.

 

 Four signatures sewn together using a book binding method taught by Effy Wild.  (link above)

Hemp cord is used to bind the signatures of watercolor paper together

A recent course I signed up for was Unravelling with Susannah Conway  In it, we take weekly photographs and are then given a writing assignment.  It is designed to make us more aware of our surroundings and get real about our thoughts.  I am looking forward to this.

I so badly wanted to have a thought provoking post written for the New Year but I can't seem to dig deep and find the right words.  Maybe that will come with the Unravelling course.  

I do know that I appreciate every single one of you who read my little blog.  I want to be more active and inspirational this year.  I will take pictures of my art journal pages and post them soon.  Can't wait to share!

Thank you for your comments and support as always!!