Making Memories

Here is page one in my second art journal of 2008. The quote says, "I want to appreciate the times when moments are made into memories. " For me those times are when I am least expecting them. Times when I am just hanging around without an agenda. Yesterday and today I took a couple of hours to just sit with my kids and grandchild. Nothing in mind to do and it truly was glorious. I laughed so hard a couple of times over stupid stuff and those are the memories I want to remember. My grand baby has a poker face just like his mama used to when she was a little girl. He stared at me the longest time and I couldn't stop laughing. Finally when I stopped I told him it was his turn and I stared back. He started laughing then and I wish I had a video camera because it was precious. Or how about when my daughter twirled the baby up in the air and he drooled a bucket of spit right in her mouth. Or, and this is the best one, when I came home today and my grand baby reached out to me and gave me a big hug. When I am rushing around, those are memories I miss out on. The ones that fill up your heart with love. Why do I constantly have to remind myself to take these moments and slow down?

#1 is finished

I am so excited!!!!! And so proud. My first ever art journal is complete. I love the bulginess of it and how it feels in my hands. Kind of like I'm sure it feels when you finish your first novel. Well, maybe not as exciting but pretty close. I just want to peruse through the pages and feel the texture and smell the paint. It is a lovely thing. As you can see, I have my next one ready to go and will cristen it in the the next couple of days. I wanted to start today but I feel the need to take a day of silence in honor of the first before moving ahead. Maybe I should write a poem. Here goes:

Ode to the journal

you were so clean and bright

now you are so messy

declaring all my insight

I will treasure you forever

and keep your pages safe

for someday you will remind me

of my starting place.

Personality

I found this quote by Theodor Suess Geisel and had to make it into a page. I have recently had conversations with people who have rekindled their love of talents or interests that have been dormant for some time. For me it has been art others it has been dance, writing, music or crafts but what ever it is no one really knows why they gave it up, but they are revived by it's reappearance in their lives. Some say having kids left them with little time to pursue their creative outlets. Others said it was the realization that they couldn't make a living out of it and needed to move on to more lucrative endeavors. One thing they all have said to me and that I find true in my own life, is that their souls were starving without it. It is like a part you you never knew existed comes alive when you pick up the pen, or paintbrush or sit down at the piano. It is a feeling so deep that you can't explain it, you can only experience it and it makes you whole. You say to yourself, "this is what I was created to do" and it brings you to a place of balance. So whatever it is for you, do it as unto the Lord. He created you to express yourself in this way and to worship Him through it. It doesn't have to do with how good you are at it or whether what you do is appreciated by other people. If you were created to dance then crank up the music when no one is around and dance your little heart out. The other part is, try to encourage those who are stuck in the box to break out and be themselves. It is through out uniqueness that we make life interesting. There are too many bored people who are not living in this creative zone and depressed because of it. Be yourself this week and encourage others to join you.

Arte y Pico Award

Gift Graciously Bestowed

My friend Sharon over at sharingsharon.blogspot.com has awarded me the Arte y Pico award.

http://www.arteypico.blogspot.com/

Apparently it was an award created for bloggers who inspire you with their creativity and talents!Thank you dear Sharon for bestowing such an honor.I am humbled and blessed by this. Sharon is herself a recipient of this award and I encourage you to go and read her blog as well.

This award is special I am told.Therefore it comes with some rules:

1.)Pick 5 blogs that you would like to award this honor to.

2.)Each award has to have the name of the author and a bloglink to be visited by everyone.

3.)Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that gave them the award.

4.)Award winner and the one who was given the prize have to show the link of Arte y Pico blog so everyone will know the origin of the award.

I bestow this award upon:

Michelle at http://www.allendesigns.typepad.com/

Karin at http://twitterpatedkarin.blogspot.com/

Kristy at http://kristychristopherson.blogspot.com/

Paulette at http://pauletteinsall.typepad.com/

Katie at http://stilwater.typepad.com/

Check out their blogs because these are very creative ladies who will inspire you too!

Little Eyes

I haven't been posting much this week. I have been trying to keep up and work through a personal crisis. It's all good though. What is that saying, "this too shall pass." OK, so onto the journal page.
I was working on this page, not knowing where I was headed with it. Of course, that is normal. I never know where I am headed with my pages. They just appear on the page and I am just as surprised as anyone. I was thinking about little children and how they have so many possibilities when they are small as to who they will become. The two children staring out from this page have very little expression and so you wonder what they are thinking? Who will they become when they are grown? For some reason I felt the need to paste the continent of Africa on this page. Then I went down stairs and found a letter from our sponsor child who lives in Africa. It was so cool to think about her as a child in Africa. For the first time she asked if someday we would come and see her. Then I knew that this page was about protecting the children of the world. Be careful little eyes what you see. There are too many children whose eyes have seen things that they should never have seen. How can I make a difference? Maybe I will travel to see our little child in Africa someday. Until then I can pray and write letters that encourage her. Maybe this will get you to think about what you can do to encourage a child to see the possibilites to have hope for the future.

Good Friends

I got together with a friend of mine yesterday for lunch. She is moving to Nashville and it was the last time I will see her maybe forever, but at least for a long time. I remember the first day I met her as she showed up in a bible study I was leading. She has blossomed and grown so much since that day three years ago. I will miss her. We were talking about friendships because she has the ability to make really close friendships in a short time. She says it is because she is an army wife and moves so often. I think it is because of her tender and caring spirit. I have been thinking about my friends. I have some of the most amazing women as friends who are there if I ever need them. But everyone is so busy. I feel the need for daily friends who call to tell you stupid stuff and call and say I'm at Starbucks come and meet me. Friends that make as much effort in the relationship that you do and give you face time. I know I am not alone. As a society we have lost the ability to have community with one another. We are disconnected from one another. I was reading in Isaiah today and ran across this verse. Isaiah 30:18 - But the LORD still waits for you to come to Him so he can show you his love and compassion. For the LORD is a faithful God, Blessed are those who wait for Him to help them. That is one friendship that is always there, always faithful and He is always ready to spend time with me. I will wait for Him to help me in this quest for art journaling, daily friends. That was the other thing, I would love to find, some really good art journaling friends who share my passion in this area. Oly Oly Oxen free! Come out, come out where ever you are!

Christmas in July

I went to a Christmas in July sale last week and it made me start thinking about Christmas. The heat here has been hot, which is nice for a change, but I was thinking about snow falling and how good it would feel in the middle of summer. Then yesterday I talked to my daughter and she and her family will be here for Christmas this year and that made me excited to watch the new grand baby experience it all. Happy, happy thoughts! My mother always told me that I would wish my life away so I will come back to reality and enjoy the summer while it is here but a momentary trip to the future is allowed from time to time.

Summer Heat

Yesterday, I went to SCRAP http://www.scrapaction.org/ with my niece. We dug through the junk to find treasures. I managed to come home with a large bag of stuff. Some of it was containers but I found these vintage postcards and had to use one in my art journal when I got home. The image is so sweet and the colors are so yummy. Quite a few of my pages this summer are created in these colors. I used the Bohemia transparencies for the first time and I think they are so pretty. I got those at http://www.paperdoll-co.com/. They had an amazing sale this last week. After we went to SCRAP we went to lunch at the Tin Shack or was is Tin Can, I can't remember but it was good food and so rustic. We had to wait quite a while for the food but it gave us a good time to talk and catch up with everything. At one point we wandered onto the topic of high school and I was laughing so hard I had to lay my head on the table. My niece can get me laughing like no one else. Usually it is in the middle of church or some other place you shouldn't be laughing but never the less, she gets me going and I can't stop. I remember quite clearly an Easter Sunday, sitting in church and she got me going. I held it in but then the whole pew shakes because of it. Just when I would finally get it under control, I would see her out of the corner of my eye and start all over again. It was so bad. When we got back to her house we stood outside and talked so long I think I got some color on my face. Which probably means the freckles are starting to pop. I will have to check.

You're Fabulous Darling!

As I was putting this page together it reminded me of Psalm 139: 13-14. You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous-and how well I know it. I have heard it stated that God is such a marvelous painter. We see it in nature all the time but who thinks of themselves as God's masterpieces? Is God able to teach, inspire, delight, encourage, inform and uplift others through my life as Joni's quote says? What kind of a difference could I make in this world by embracing who God made me and letting Him use me in those ways. What if the girl on this page started talking to me and telling me that I did an awful job creating her and that she was ugly or stupid or fat. I'd say, "Hey I created you and if I say you are beautiful then it is true." I need to learn to believe what my creator says about me and not talk back to Him. You are Fabulous girl, now believe it!

Jounaling Doggy

My little puppy, Lily Lou, has decided to help me paint today. Usually it is my cat that crawls into my lap when I am working on some detail of my art journal and she is shedding right now so cat hair is flying at the same time. They are so sweet and lovable it is hard to shoo them off. I guess it would help if I worked on my journal at a table but I like to work on it as I watch TV sitting on my bed. What a rough life.

4th of July

We had a great 4th of July. The day started with going out to lunch at Applebees. Then we met our good friends at their house and drove down to a mall and shopped around, ate dinner and then headed over to the St. Paul Rodeo. The weather was great and the rodeo was exciting. I went one time as a little girl but haven't been since. My kids were very perplexed when I told them where we were going. What they don't know is there is a cowgirl buried deep inside me. I would wear the fringed leather jacket, jeans, cowboy boots and hat if I thought I could get away with it. We even talked about moving to Montana at one time and I know I could wear that stuff there. I really enjoyed myself and I am glad our friends invited us along because I don't think I could have dragged my husband there on my own although he did have a good time too. I do own a pair of really great cowboy boots and would have worn them if it hadn't have been so hot. It was amazing the beating those cowboys get on those bucking bulls and horses. One guy got his hand stuck and when he fell off he couldn't get his hand loose and was whipped around and flipped quite a few times before his hand was released. It was really scary. Other than that it was all fun.

Believe

I have been thinking about what it takes to believe God. Not belief in Him but believing what He says. Does that mean believing He can do anything if He chooses to or believing He will do it? Seems pretty basic but there are very intelligent people who take both sides. I don't think I will solve that debate today. Thankfully at the heart of it all is God's unconditional love. Here is a verse I used in this page.
The Lord is my strength, my sheild from every danger. I trust in Him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. Ps 28:7
I do believe that!

Hiding in the grass

I have been working in my summer art journal and remembering memories of childhood summers. One of those memories was from when I was 5 years old. We lived in a farmhouse owned by my great aunt. She was old and so we took care of her and it allowed her to live in her own home until she died. The property was quite a few acres and next to the house was a huge field. Someone would come and mow the field about once a year but before they came the grass would get very tall. I would go out into the field and lie down and roll around to clear a patch of grass so that it made what I called a fort. No one could see me and I was in my own world. I would play for hours pretending. It was my private place and if you crawled from one patch to another you could have passageways to other rooms. Even as a little child I enjoyed time alone and used my imagination to create other worlds to get lost in. My art journal has become that place for me as an adult. I get lost in the memories and using my imagination to create pages that did not exist before. That is why on this page you see a little girl and an adult. Both are hiding in the grass letting their imaginations soar like a butterfly full of color and life. Free from expectations of daily life.