Right now I’m on the North Dakota trip I told you about in the beginning of July. It got put off because ‘somebody’ was offered a trip to Hawaii…hint: it wasn’t me! So I had to put my trip off for a week. I’m here in the wilds of the beautiful grasslands of the northern midwest, watching my grandson enjoy what’s left of his summer vacay. I’m glad I can be here to spend time with him while my daughter has to work. My idea of a great vacation, days with him and evenings with her!
A recently finished journal.
I took the train, and it went pretty well, until I walked to through the train while it was moving. Whoops, not a good idea. So, I spent several hours of my trip not feeling so good. I’ve made some changes for the trip back that I hope will make a difference. If you have any suggestions on how to make a 20 hour train trip easier, please let me know in the comments.
Using up lots of random ephemera with a few digitals.
I have spent the last week on long walks on the trails right outside their back door, dog walks, and listening to adventurous tales of my grandson and his gang of friends. Two of the most important things in my life lately, time with family and being out in nature. What an awesome opportunity to just walk out into nature any time I want, I’m loving it!
The last page spread and another journal finished! Sweet!
I’ve taken lots of photos on this trip that will go into my next journal. I made a beach themed journal before this trip, so I may have 2 journals this month, I’ll share those when I get home and organized.
I took a short break to focus on organizing our home, a little family time, and some much needed time in nature. There’s always so much to do, it’s difficult to fit it all into one day…and before you know it a month has gone by. Oops!
A cookbook divider with a handwritten recipe.
But, I’m happy to say that I’ve at least set some time aside to be creative. I still have quite a few of these ring bound journals sitting on a shelf, and I thought it would be fun to dust a couple of them off and see what inspires me.
A photo at a garden center I took years ago.
At the end of the month we will be getting new siding and windows on our 60+ year old house, so I’m not doing anything in the garden this year. It feels strange not to be obsessing over a garden, but I can enjoy a bit of gardening in my journals…and enjoy a break!
Saving a page disaster.
This has been the year of the Dragonfly in our area and I wanted to include them in some of my journal spreads. So I looked for a cool digital on Etsy and found some really cute ones. Here’s the link if you’re interested: Store4Fun This page has been sitting unfinished with those paint scrapes for years, it’s amazing what a few paper scraps and paint dots can do.
Muted tones with black paint rings.
Anyway, I hope you are enjoying your summer. I know it’s pretty hot here in the Northern Hemisphere right now. It’s going to get up to 109 F. here in a couple of days, but I’ll be in North Dakota for two weeks getting a break from it. I made a special journal for my trip with lots of trees, wild flowers, birds, bugs, and a few fairies for fun. I may actually share some pages while I’m on my trip, I’ll see how things go.
This was a last minute idea I had before hubby and I took a trip to the “westside” to visit family for a few days. I made a journal and gathered a few supplies hoping I would have time in the evenings to work on it. Most of what I did on the trip was gather and organize memories, then finished it up at home, which worked out perfectly.
This journal spans from about a month and a half, and because it became so thick and full it was difficult to choose which page spreads to share, but here are some favorites…
One of the first things I had to do was go to Daiso, one of my favorite stores. The tags on the left are from some little mesh bags I found, I never seem to have enough of them. Above them is a little art sticker from a local artist I picked up at Pike Place Market, and on the right a cute business card from a day at an arts and crafts fair. It’s tucked not glued so I can reference it later.
These are all from different days of our trip. Decorating these pages in chronological order was making this too much of a chore, so I decided to mix things up and just have fun with color and decor.
A pocket for my journaling page. That blue napkin on the right is from the Mother’s Day dinner at our son’s in-law’s house. What an awesome way to spend the day, chatting with my friend in-law while her husband cooked us dinner!
I tried to stick with what I had packed for the trip to work with even when we got home. I find that I am more likely to finish up projects when I limit my supplies. I can really go off the rails if I have too many options.
I printed up a few photos of flowers I had taken during a walk when my daughter and grandson were visiting. I print them up on copy paper, that way they don’t bulk up my journals and they make perfect backgrounds.
I made a tuck spot out of one of my “stash busting” clusters. That little art piece is from a little set I got at Daiso. A super quick page spread!
A little stacked cluster with some mini envelopes from Daiso to hold some of the business cards I collected on our trip. I didn’t want to lose the info on them, so this was a perfect fix. I got two of the business cards there on the right so I could use one of them as decor.
Also, you may notice that I’m inking the edges of just about everything lately. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea, but I’m having a lot of fun with it.
A card from a friend I received in April. I used some of the decor from the envelope to decorate its new little home. And just a cluster with some fussy cut flowers on the right. As you can see, I’m having a lot of fun with color by not sticking strictly to any order. Just get things in the journal!
Using the envelope from one of my birthday cards to hold some journaling. The card was too thick, and cute, to put in this journal, so I’ll be framing it instead. On the right is a collage of some memories of our trip to Pike Place Market. Kell’s is our favorite Seattle pub, such a fun day!
At the end of the month I remembered about 20 things I forgot to journal about, so I just made a list and printed it out. I use these journals to document things I might want to include in our photo albums later, so I try to add as many memories as I can…
…which is why this one got a new “journal girdle”!
First, I would like to apologize for the unexpected absence. I seem to be apologizing a lot lately.
This year has been a struggle knowing that our little dog Lily was very ill and that we knew we would be losing her in a matter of months, it has really taken the wind out of my sails. I have been trying to do “all the things” while caring for her along with all the other obligations of life, and art has had to take a backseat.
Journal pages from March.
We lost her on May 1st in the sweetest way possible even though she had been struggling for a week or so. I’m telling you this because I still don’t know where this whole social media thing is going to end up. I have gone back and forth so many times about whether or not to keep making videos or blog postings, I guess we’ll just have to see what happens.
I would love to pretend that everything is “just fine”, but I feel as if I’m stuck in a place I don’t want to be. Being honest with you about where I’m at is the first step towards finding my new normal as far as post sharing going forward.
I know that this is a very different post that I usually write, and I hope you don’t mind, but I just wanted to let you know that if you don’t hear for me for a while again, why.
A photo of Lily spending the day at the park with family walking around smelling everything she could. Losing her wasn’t like losing a family member or a best friend, it was like losing a very beloved pet that showed unconditional love.
