In My Own Backyard…So To Speak

November 4, 2016November 8, 2016 ~ Patty Radish ~ 1 Comment

One of the things I promised myself this year was to take the time to get out and walk more. I finally started over the last couple of weeks, better late than never, but I needed a change of scenery. So, this morning I put together some walking gear, packed a lunch, and off I went. There is a beautiful drive to a park with walking trails in a neighboring town, and as I drove out of our town, I saw a sign that read “Bonhoeffer Botanical Garden” just on the other side of the freeway. My husband and I had noticed various goings on over the last couple of years, but had never taken the time to check it out.

Anyway, I turned the car around, and this is what I discovered…

This is the view walking into the park, beautiful ponds, trails, and walkways all around.

Baby trees, ferns and wild bushes. Who knows who might be living in there, magical.

Educational signs and plant labels abound. I didn’t take the time to read them on this trip. This is literally 5 minutes from my house, I’ll be back!

This reminded me of a favorite drawing. I took loads of photos, there will have to be a part two of this post.

One of several bird houses, I love the mossy roof. I almost expected to see smoke coming out a tiny chimney.

Ferns and moss. I absolutely LOVE living in a place where ferns and moss grow abundantly!

This batch of ferns are growing in a large tree stump, gorgeous!

And a little natural water feature.

I hope you enjoyed our little field trip. I can’t wait to print some of these photos out and add them to my journals.

This is one of the changes I was hoping to make with my art journaling. I feel as if there has been something missing and I’m hoping that using some of my own photography will be the answer. If it is, you’ll be one of the first to know!

Thanks once again for the visit,

Have a beautiful day,

~Patty

Getting to the Heart of the Matter

October 26, 2016October 26, 2016 ~ Patty Radish ~ 13 Comments

The past year has definitely taken me places I didn’t foresee. It was around this time last year that I decided I needed to step back from my shoppe and reevaluate why I was doing it. With a lot of prayer and introspection, I find myself not only happy with that decision, but I’m stepping back even more! I’m not closing up shoppe yet, it just isn’t my main focus any more.

So, with the extra time on my hands, I’ve been diving in and taking care of my home, myself, and letting go of pipe dreams.

Pipe Dream: noun; an unattainable or fanciful hope or scheme

Case in point…

Isn’t that a lovely scene?

This is the top of my dresser o’ yarn. I had been working on this blanket for a few weeks. I needed to use up some yarn from other projects, and thought I had found the perfect scheme.

The other day, I laid down all the squares I had finished to come up with a plan, and to my horror it was the ugliest blanket I had ever scene! What to do? I had already spent countless hours working on this, looking for inspiration online, plotting, planning, crocheting. I decided to cut my losses and hope that there may be someone else out there that could use a partially finished afghan. Anyway, off to the thrift store it went, along with a few bags of trim, knick knacks, and old books.

Redemption!

The next day, I decided that the granny stripe afghan I had high hopes for was a bust also, so I took it apart, gave away the yarn I didn’t like, and started on something new. So far, I’m in love!

I’ll spare telling you how many schemes and projects I have let go of over the past few months. All I know is, I feel tons better. There are so many things I actually need to be doing, and my projects were holding me back!

From things like this…

Dog walkies.

This has been calling to me for a long time! Fresh air and exercise. Of course I pick a time of year when the weather is getting rough, but oh well.

A photo of my son in Myanmar last month. I stole it from his IG. I just love it!

The most important thing I need to focus on right now are my relationships! I am lucky to say that I have a lot of wonderful people in my life, and I need to put them at the top of my priority list, not just make room for them in my schedule!

I well and truly wish I could do it all, but I’m just not built that way. I will continue to scale down until I can do all that I need to be doing!

Art journaling is still on the top of my “must do” list, but I’m spending more time ‘journaling’ than ‘arting’ as you can see. Lately, I have been finding that I really need to organize my thoughts through journaling. This is also a great way to use up old stickers. The washi tape helps keep my writing straight, such a struggle.

So, I hope you’ll join me on my journey of scaling down, letting go, and simplifying my life. I can’t wait to share on this blog many of the things I did on my old one like gardening, cooking, makings, and what ever else I’m up to at the time. I will still share my art journals of course, I just think it’s time to share more of my life with you. Hope that sounds good!

Have a beautiful day!

Thanks for stopping in,

~Patty

Gratitude Collage Journal “flip through”

September 15, 2016September 15, 2016 ~ Patty Radish ~ 1 Comment

A couple of weeks ago I announced on IG and FB, that I would be uploading a “flip through” video of my August gratitude journal, onto my YouTube channel. Then, I realized that it would be much simpler to take some photos and share them here, and I’m all about what’s easier these days! So, here goes…

Days 19 & 20

The usual suspects: playing card, postage stamps, various store bought ephemera bits, and washi tape. I try to tie my page spreads together in some way, with this one I thought the horses did the trick.

Days 21 & 22

A vintage summer theme here. On the page to the right, I used a technique I’ve been having a lot of fun with lately. I cut images from the same background paper then re-apply them randomly to the page. The three round pieces outlined with pencil were re-applied, it seems to give the page more depth.

Days 23 & 24

This is mostly a play with color. Some days I don’t get as much done, but I’m always grateful for evenings spent with my honey!

Days 25 & 26

One of my favorite things to do in my list journals is to find alternative ways to date them, I just used a circle stamp for the 26th. Also, I tried mirroring the grey with polka dots in the sticker over on the left, along with the flowers for a more cohesive look.

Days 27 & 28

Some fun memories of our visit to see my daughter and her family. I took loads of photos, but I prefer to use those in my Midori gratitude journal.

I was lucky to find a postage stamp with 28 cents postage on it for the date, and it added a nice pop of color!

Days 29 & 30

Nearing the end of my little journal. As you can see, I kind of threw these pages together. Monday, I was fighting a cold, by Tuesday it had won.

Day 31

And the end of this journal. A wonderful keepsake, but not necessarily something I want to do every month, just here and there throughout the year. I may try one of these quarterly, just to hit the highlights next time, that will be after the Holidays…

I can’t wait to start this years Holiday journal! Those are my all time favorites to make!

But until then, I may have to pull out some of my old Holiday journals to share on this blog since they all got lost on “ye olde blog”. Just to get some creative inspiration going! Sounds like fun!

Thanks once again for the visit,

See you soon,

~Patty

Shoppe News

September 9, 2016 ~ Patty Radish ~ 2 Comments

As you probably know by now, I have fallen completely in love with journaling in Midori style inserts. I started off buying as many styles of the original inserts as I could, but because of cost overruns on my budget, I decided to make my own.

Along with the fabric “Dori” notebooks. This is the original version of the ones I put together. Single sided scrapbook paper with graph paper printed on one side. I still really like these, but too much graph paper started working on my creativity. So, I came up with this…

Scrapbook paper and map.

Graph paper and painted page.

Scrapbook paper and painted page.

Scrapbook paper and book page.

I usually try to work with a product before I put it into my shoppe, but I just got too excited about these and jumped the gun!

Also, I wanted to make these as close to my ring bound journals as I could. There are a lot of awesome journal inserts out there, and I thought it would be a good idea to give mine their own signature style.

I picked out some pretty yummy scrapbook paper for the covers.

Also, I have opened my shoppe to international sales now that I am on board with Etsy’s new shipping procedure.

Next time you hear from me, I will be sharing some photos of my August Gratitude journal. Finishing up old projects has really given me the boost I needed to get back on the blogging train.

Once again, thank you for the visit,

See you soon,

~Patty