Magical Musings

Made new jewelry

During the past week I made some new jewelry for my Etsy shop. It took two weeks to get money that I had in my pal pal into my new bank account to pay fees to be able to list things in my shop. Frustrating to say the least.

I was going for some brighter colors on things with Spring almost here! I got these cool lemondrop beads which I love. I don't really have too much green or yellow in my wardrobe, well I don't even have a wardrobe since most pants don't fit anymore. I have some links to altering clothing  for maternity wear which I will start working on this weekend if I get time.

  I did another journal page I don't like but scanned it anyways. I keep trying to write on the pages and I just can't do that because it doesn't work out. I am too long-winded! So I will keep it to little sayings or inspiring words that come from my head and such. The next one I am done with I actually like so  hopefully I got the bad ones out of my system!

This morning we went for my first trimester ultrasound. This wasn't offered in 2004 when I was pregnant with Melody and it's basically a blood test and ultrasound for Down's Syndrome. I perked up with the ultrasound mention  though and just had it done to take a peek in there! Is that bad or what. But everything is exactly normally and the baby was jumping up and down and seems to have really long legs! It was fun to take a peek but we won't look at "it" again for another 7 or so weeks. It looks like an alien in this photo without legs but it didn't look as freaky in some of the other shots.

Just a side note about ultrasound photos and archival quality. I read this piece of paper about the photos you get from your ultrasound. The paper they use is heat sensitive and it starts to deteriorate in 5 years. So you have to take color copies of the ultrasound photos before the 5 years or the photos start to decay. I thought that was a great piece of information to know about and thought I would pass it on!

This is the first page in my comb bound journal. I don't like it and the journal doesn't fold back and the corners hurt me! So I may trim the edges to round them and keep on going. I didn't want to wreck this page by writing on it and so it's sort of unfinished looking and elementary art class looking as well.

My scalloped potatoes in the oven are ready to eat. Gotta go!

Almost Spring

Thank you for your comments on the banned altered book! I just wanted to get some other feedback to make sure I wasn't being a pushover about it. I am just going to go pick it up and then bring it to class to show some "select" pages for examples if I need to. So thanks again for making me feel I am "ok."

Nature is my biggest inspiration with gardening and getting outside to celebrate. It's only natural for that to translate into altered book pages or journal pages and jewelry and such. To me nature is divine and the land of the Goddess and the God so at certain times of the year in particular they are showing up as a Greenman or Neolithic Goddess rubber stamp or what have you. And the moon is very powerful and affects every human. There's no way to deny that!

This journal page is acrylics and then blotted with a paper towel for texture. The pens are gel pens and white Presto correction pen with rubber stamps and a yellow Elmer's colorstick for kids.

Fairy Swap and Colorful Art

I received my fairy swap items in the mail yesterday. The fairy had to fly a birdie from the Netherlands. I mailed mine to the hostess of the swap in Australia. Oh wait maybe I wasn't supposed to mention the recipient ?

I got a purple bag with sparkly hearts and stones with some ribbon and then a beautiful pendant of a fairy woman with a crown. I am wearing it now!

There is a link to some amazing art from Olaf Van Cleef on An Indian Summer's blog. I love the bright colors that he uses and some of his work seems so inspirational with the intent to use similar colors and designs on journal pages too!

I need some advice

I got this e-mail from the place where I am teaching my altered book class. It's scheduled and I could really use the money. I just wonder what I should do about this because if it weren't scheduled with people signed up I would just say "forget it."

Do you think I should just go pick the book up and not say anything about it? I did a small one for the class sample and THEN she wanted my other book and requested I bring it in. There's two pages that are Goddess oriented so I don't know what the big deal is.

This is the text from the e-mail...

"The good news is we have three people signed up so far for your class.  Your
projects are beautiful and I've been overhearing good feedback as people
look through them.  The bad news is I have a concern I wanted to share.  In
looking more closely at one of the books, I noticed some references to the
goddess, the power of the moon, etc.  I know altered books are personal and
a reflection of the artist, but this is in conflict with my beliefs.  We
have sought to give God the glory as creator and the giver of all good
things and have a strong sense that we should please Him with all that we do
in our business.  For that reason I feel I can't display this particular
book.  I have your book under the counter for you to pick up asap, but I'd
be glad to put out another sample if you have one.  I appreciate your
understanding and am looking forward to your class."

I think the reason I wonder if I should say something is because this second larger book is my best one. The people who have signed up thus far it sounds like "saw" this book. Maybe not as many people will sign up with just the smaller book on display? And I understand the owner is the owner and that's where the class is etc. but sort of seems weird.

Journal to Go Bag

I decided while cleaning up last week that I should do the art journal kit as one of the crusades from Michelle Ward. This is my first Crusade! I already have things in boxes for paper arts, but they are in no way simple or compact. It's also fun to bring things along with me when I go places and have 5 minutes which is usually never but you never know. I have gotten in the habit of bringing a pad of paper and pencil to Melody's speech therapy for 30 minutes a week and like to sketch things from the magazines they have on the table in the waiting room.

My journal has been loose leaf cardstock and then I just punch the pages when I am done and open the rings on my journal to put them in. I finally had to paint the cover (which is cardboard) because it was looking gross with me trying out pens on the cover. I like the fact that I can do a page wherever and put it in or take it out but I am also going to add another comb bound journal to use on the go. This journal is a collage cover and then I had it comb bound and laminated. I didn't sell this one in my etsy shop so now it's mine. A couple years ago I got a Paperchase magazine bag and a compact makeup-type bag from Border's. They are laminated so I don't worry about getting them icky.

In my little mini bag I have some basic pens and such plus a pencil, pencil sharpener, scissors and I should have a glue stick. We tend to go through these too fast so I don't have one right now.

My giant paper box is not at all portable but I use the papers for altered books and collage and my journal too. I can grab a few items from the box and then stick them in my bag though!

And I am all ready to go out the door or to the couch or wherever with my goodies.

Nice Days

Melody's birthday went well and although she said she only wanted one party we had two and that was ok too. There were a few less kids that were able to come but we have a fairly small house so it was ok! She did see the cake and I put it where she couldn't reach it. Or so I thought. I had to do a bit of cosmetic surgery on Curious George really quick. 

We ate cake for breakfast Sunday morning and she wore a party hat one last time. She then remembered she had presents from the day before!

On Sunday mornings we have witch class at my house or circle class. Since it was just two of us we went to the park with my husband and Melody for awhile and soaked up the sun on some rocks at the river. Kind of like lizards really. There was an attempted homemade boat launch and then a fisherman who Melody was enthralled with.

 

Moon

  Just a quick little post to say Happy Weekend and to share one of the photos from the eclipse. I should have used my tripod but I was too lazy. My circle sat in the backyard for most of the eclipse and then did the full moon ritual complete with deadly chocolate cake. I went back out afterward to see the moon "coming back." It was a beautiful and clear night out. Next time I think I should have moon themed food items to serve while watching like moon pies, moon shaped sandwiches with cream cheese or something similar.

Everyone we invited is coming to Melody's birthday party on Saturday, plus a sibling so I am kind of freaking out. I have been cleaning all week but it's coming down to the kitchen floor and vacuuming and finding a tablecloth. Then I have to figure out how to make a Curious George cake. I am glad it's only for an hour and a half!

Key Lime in the Sunshine

When I was pregnant with Melody I wanted lemonade all the time, Indian or Chinese food, cherry yogurt and even strawberry quik (if that's how you spell it). So far this time I just want occassional Chinese food and key lime soda. My husband got me some this weekend and it's already gone. Well it only comes in a four pack and Melody likes it too so that's probably why. I think it's fun to keep track of these things and put them in my journal.

It was so nice yesterday. I don't watch tv so I don't know how nice but it was at least 62 degrees. Melody and I had a snack picnic out on the lawn in the late afternoon. We were able to watch the birds landing on the fence and the airplanes occassionally flying overhead. And you can already see the moon during the day! It's full Wednesday night but you can have a sneak preview now.

This morning as I am trying to get Melody ready for preschool she kept saying, "No, no school, stay home." I didn't understand this because sure there was a Curious George marathon on but other than that what's going on? She said, "stay home" and I almost wondered if I should listen to her. We drive there and it's closed for President's Day. Oh, ok ooops. She also predicted the Superbowl (the white team will get a touchdown and it happened, white team will win and they did) and got 11 out of 12 esp cards correct on the first try and the 12th correct on the second try. We haven't done those cards since, but she also does tarot readings for herself with my help and predicted that we would not be seeing Auntie Katie a week ahead of time. Sure enough Auntie gets sick the day she's supposed to come over to visit. I like nurturing the psychic within but on the other hand it starts worrying me if she knows things ahead of time that could be bad. I don't believe in those Indigo children or whatever they are called but I do believe children are psychic and they lose it as they age. I also believe she chose us for her parents. She has been around Buddhists and witches her whole life which probably helps nurture that natural psychic. So far she won't predict the sex of the baby because it's not a girl or boy it's " a baby, goo goo ga ga."

This journal page was done a month ago or so but I forgot to scan it or photograph it. It's basically a mess with a tree altered photo on top and I put a quote over the photo in Photoshop. I gave up trying to learn anything in Photoshop and figure I will just do what I want the hands-on way. It was boring and confusing me to tears reading the books from the library about it.

Weekend

I finished this journal page this morning while eating Peanut Butter Captain Crunch. I was trying to immitate other people's journaling style of using a person and then altering them. I don't think this is my thing. But hey it's worth a try right? I like everything but the tons of text and the girl that I drew the head for and then cut it out and glued it onto an Anthropologie model body.

Melody and I went to Auntie Katie's on Friday night for a sleepover and we had dinner out (Chinese) and Melody wanted to feed the dragon/tiger heads they had on display. This was because Katie was trying to get her to try something to eat (which she won't) and said the dragons eat here. And Melody pointed out the dragons' mouths were open so she should be able to feed them even though they were 30 feet up in the air. The next morning we went to Toys R Us because someone is turning 3 this week. On the way back home Melody took my sunglasses and was asleep in 30 seconds.

And like promised it was 60 yesterday! We did the strawberry transplanting but still have tons of runners that need to be chopped off. The chickens have been out free ranging for a couple weeks and were enjoying the company I think. I have fenced them off again though because they poop on the patio and peck and the sliding glass door to come in or for food.