Monday, February 12, 2007

SCRAPBOOK STATION has recently gotten their forum up and going, and we already have a really nice community over there.  AND the Gallery.....more inspiration...just what I need!


Speaking of inspiration...On the forum today a site was listed to show the CHA releases.  I have seen them all before, but where I saw them, it was a little tedious,  but THIS one is great.  Pick your manufacturer and drool!  mmmm-mmm.


Well DS has gone off to Kindy today......Still not used to it, as I am savouring every minute....( As you can tell by my DD still in her PJ's with the TV on and me tapping away at the computer!!!  And yes there are dishes on the sink, and washing to be done....(Is there ever not washing to be done???)


It was DH birthday yesterday, and we got him a homedics massage cushion.  It is a whole seat you attach to your own chair and plug it in and away it goes....MMM.  It is technically his....but when he's not home....IT"S MINE!!!  You can't actually sit on it for too long as it leaves you very sore. It is a fairly intense massage.  He had a nice day, and Denver and I made him a cake.  His parents came out to visit, so the kids got presents too, they loved it!


Well I guess I should actually do something other than enjoy my partly free day.  I should be able to do both shouldn't I???


Bye for now.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

A cure for lack of Creativity??....Just maybe!

Having two little ones at home I don't get as much time as I need to Scrap or more precisely....to be a productive scrapper. ( I am sure though, I am not the only one)  My two are 22 months apart, and the older one has been challenging!  Needing lots of attention.  I find it draining sometimes and even when I might have time to scrap, I really can't.  My creativity is just not at my beck and call when I am exhausted or frustrated. I almost feel that if I am not able to continually create, then my creativity suffers!  I need to get back 'into the zone' before I can get going, which wastes far too much precious time, then I end up frustrated even more that I wasted my time and created nothing!!!  A viscious circle! 


I have been investigating a 'Creative' or 'Art' Journal.  It sounds really appealing to create something that challenges your creativity and exercises it enough to get those creative juices flowing.  It really fits with my 'the more you use it the more you have it' thing I have going here!!!    Now, I love Art, and playing with all kinds of different media, but the idea of a 'Creative' journal as a scrapper sounds really exciting.  The idea of being able to use magazine cut outs, clippings from catalogues and the like, to record what I find inspiring, not to mention the lovely scrapping supplies to add to the inspiration....Just sounds divine.  Below are some of the completely inspiring things I found.


At This site the description was as follows......


"A painting creativity journal is a collection of the ideas you have and things that inspire you. It's a place to record ideas that you can't use immediately -- you may think you'll remember them, but one can't remember everything, so it's better to make a quick note and put it into your painting creativity journal. Don't think it's for only finished ideas or well-planned projects, it's definitely not! It's the place to record those quick thoughts before you get distracted, those images lurking in your brain, and for building up a personal image library."


This quote was also very motivating for me


"Starting an art journal is a powerful way to move beyond words in your daily writing practice. Not only does working with images access a different part of our brains than words, making art is a source of playfulness and creative joy.


When we make pictures in our journals, we often come to deeper insights about ourselves and the world around us than we can when we carefully shape our thoughts and write them on paper. By adding color and form to the pages of our journals we illuminate them and in the process we illuminate ourselves.


Here is the site I pulled it from with much more on the details on how to actually create your journal.


They really can be a form of inspiration and motivation.  I am forever seeing things I love,  shapes that appeal, colours combo's that are visually striking, advertisements that grab me, text and fonts that I adore....And I look and "oooh" and "ahhh", and think to myself, that looks so great, I will remember that...." and I am dragged out of it with the 'Mum-meeee, He hit meeeee....." and it is gone, along with any inspiration the item brought me, (even if just for a fleeting moment....It was there!)  By all accounts it does not need to be a hugely time consuming thing that I first thought it would need to be  "I haven't got time to scrap, let alone put all my efforts into a book, which is not much good for anyone but myself"  In truth I may do alot of it already just in no real 'creative' form.  I do have a sketch book in which I jot things down in and draw and doodle things, practice writing different fonts....ETC, it's just fairly ugly!


I believe I will give this a try.  If it exercices my creativity enough to use my time productively, then it is worth it.  If it creates a bank of ideas I can draw from when doing my next LO...then all the better.  Any excuse to decorate something!!!  Now I am all excited.  Anyone else motivated to start a "Creative Journal?"

Thursday, February 8, 2007

New February resolution???

Right.  Now I am going to make an effort to keep my blog up to date a little more!  I have not scrapped for a while, so have not blogged!  Seems to go hand in hand.  Might be something to do with the fact I feel a little like I should share something each time I do an entry.  If there's nothing to share I tend not to blog!!!  I have just purchased a new laptop too so that might get me motivated!!!  Just need DH to add my photoshop to it and it will be fully usable!  Can't seem to do too much without my photoshop!


In the way of news.....My sister had her first baby this morning.  Jayden Shane.  He is having a little trouble, has too much insulin in his system.  Cindy had to be put on insulin with gestational diabetes a few weeks ago, and now bub has too much!  Hope it is easily fixed.  Don't know too much about it.  He is only a few hours old.


Denver started Kindy last week.  (sigh of relief)  I love it!  He is such a full on little being.  It is just me and Mazzie two days a week.  Lovely.  What makes it easier for me to love it, is that he adores going.  He is so ready.  He brings home little things he has made each day!  It is quite exciting, as I was a Teacher in my past life, and I sent home all these little things kids had made, now I am the parent picking up the treasures!!  Wierd!  It is still so new, I am treasuring every minute I am alone, as I am so not used to it!  (Mazzie still has a two hour cat nap in the middle of the day....mmmm)  I am still determined not to do any washing or cleaning in 'MY' time!!!  Surfing the internet is allowed!


I have done a LO this morning ( From start to finish...whoo-hoo!  For the challenge in the Scrapbook Station newsletter (coming soon)  (Just need that photoshop to get it to you Janine!)


I have also done most of a mini-album for Denver on Dinosaurs.  He is so inquisitive and thrives on information about things.  He loves dinosaurs and DH went to London on one of his business trips overseas and took some pics of dinosaurs at the London Museum for Denver.  So I have included these pisc with info from the net, and some other pics downloaded, along with Denver playing with his own vast collection of toy dinos.  I am going to be really happy with it I think.  It is sitting in a pile on the dining table unbound, and awaiting some extra untaken photos to complete it.


Well I believe that is it.  It is such a beautiful day (slight break from the heat)  Maybe I should hang out some washing.  If I enjoy it it should be ok to do in 'my' time shouldn't it!!!  Just this once.  No folding though!!!


Well I was going to post the work I have done lately, but the new DT layouts are not yet posted on the site, so I should hold off for a bit.  Sorry!  And without photoshop I can't really manipulate anything else I have done.  Soon though!


Well consider this an update!  More to come though!, should I aim for daily?  Who knows, maybe that will mean a few times a week!  I will get back into the habit though.  I miss it.


Thanks for visiting though.  X