Travelers Notebook Gratitude Journal

February 2, 2016February 2, 2016 ~ Patty Radish ~ 6 Comments

The Story:

I had been wanting a Midori Travelers Notebook for a long time, so right before Christmas, I ordered one. Not really knowing what I would be using it for, I just started ordering inserts, thinking I would just fill it up and see what happened.

Well, just about everything arrived right before the beginning of the new year. And not being in much of a mood to journal at the time, I just started jotting down snippets of my day

It wasn’t until a few weeks had passed that I had realized I had something here. For the most part, I had been listing out things I was grateful for!

Like the Christmas do-over visit with my daughter and her family just before the New Year!

There were a couple of mundane exceptions to my notes, but those were easy to remove, I use a erasable pens…always! Worst speller ever!

Going back and decorating and journaling was a breeze because all I had to do was refer to the notes.

I just matched up the dates referred to with photos on my phone and printed them up!

The way this whole thing came to me was total happenstance. I just happened to look at my Flow magazine app and there was a quote from Hailey Bartholomew of the 365 Grateful project. She started her gratitude project by taking a photo a day of what she was grateful for.

I thought about all the photos I had in my phone from the last few weeks, and the connections were made!

This is something I purchased last fall, but had not really used it much. It’s a bit pricey, but we made it an anniversary gift. You can find it here.

Here are a few items I use to set my pages up. The clips help keep the pages down while working on them. The plant just makes me happy!

Last week’s page spread. If you can read my chicken scratch, you can see that I came up with this plan on the 27th. I spent the following days re-writing a few of the notes and adding much of the decor.

Every night, I just jot down a few notes before bed, then go back later in the week when I have more time or the mood strikes, and journal and decorate. This project can be done just as well in an inexpensive composition notebook.

Going through all my photos, re-reading what I had jotted down, and pulling this project together has really been a labor of love! Because there is no plan, other than paying attention to the details of my day in order to see things to be grateful for, it’s a very stress free project. And it’s easing me back to journaling, total win!

I really hope you will visit 365 Gratitude and watch some of the videos, they are truly inspiring! Please let me know what you think.

Thank you once again for stopping by,

Have a grateful day,

~Patty

On Starting New Projects

January 30, 2016 ~ Patty Radish ~ 8 Comments

Just because I have a laundry list of unfinished projects, does not necessarily mean I don’t have room for one more! It could be because I have finished so many projects lately, that I feel I have room for more.

Yeah, I’m going with that!

Quite a few people I follow on Instagram include beautiful sketches and drawings on their pages, and it has inspired me to get off my duff and try my hand!

So, I went out and bought a book! This one was highly recommended by an artist friend. I haven’t tried it out yet, I haven’t even opened it up!

I’ve been too busy having fun with…

…my “new to me vintage” writing box!

Luckily for me, I won’t have to spend any money on pencils having inherited all I’ll need from my children. Pretty nifty!

The box has two openings for storage.

I cut some drawing paper to size then bound it into a pad. The cover is decorated with some art by one of my favorite artists Lisa Congden. Most of the artists I love, keep it pretty simple, thank goodness!

Now that I’m organized, I hope I’ll find the time to get started. I’m reading a book titled “One Small Step Can Change Your Life, The Kaizen Way“, by Robert Maurer. This approach advocates that once you start, keep taking small steps, and your goal will have more long term staying power. This philosophy feels less intimidating to me, and I feel much better about the fact of starting in the first place. I’m also feeling much better about letting go of projects that stall out. Being realistic about what I spend my time on has freed up some much needed energy…to finish more projects!

Hopefully I will be share some drawings some time soon!

Until then,

Have a great weekend,

Thanks for stopping in,

~Patty

Collage Journal Update

January 27, 2016 ~ Patty Radish ~ 10 Comments

I’m happy, and a bit surprised, to say that I have ben keeping up right along with my collage journal! Some days I have to do a couple of pages to stay current, but not as often as I usually would be. I’m one of those people who are always drawn to shiny new objects. I set out to do one thing, and start on something else, but I digress…hmmm, see what I mean!

Onward…

It may not seem super clear at first, but all of my pages actually do have memories attached. This photo was taken from a “Girl’s Night Out” flyer at my favorite vintage finds shop, Ella Bella. I didn’t attend unfortunately, but I kept the flyer of course.

The round sticker is from a washi tape purchase.

I loved this image from an ad in Flow magazine. I spent an evening last week cutting out images for my “vision journal”. I am determined to either use my supplies or get rid of them. I took stacks of old magazines to the thrift store, but I still read back issues of Flow, so they stayed!

A post card from a favorite art supplies shop. They handed these out to promote shopping small and locally at Christmas. I think it’s beautiful, and it’s never a bad time to promote shopping small!

I bought a book on drawing that day, another bucket list item to check off!

Yes, more shopping related ephemera. Kinda getting a 70’s vibe all around from this page, even the background. I’m really having fun collaging with the packaging from my purchases. And if your wondering if those binder clips are big…they’re Huge!

Last but not least, todays page from the Happy Mail that arrived yesterday!

Hazel Bunny! She sailed the seas to find her forever home with me thanks to our Hettie Brown! I am in the process of helping put her house together, there’s so much to do, so I’ll be sharing that as soon as it’s finished.

In the meantime,

Thanks so much for visiting,

Have a great day,

~Patty

My Latest Thrifty Finds

January 24, 2016June 12, 2018 ~ Patty Radish ~ 3 Comments

The thrifting gods have smiling upon me lately! I have been spending more time dropping off than shopping over the last couple of months, but I thought it was time to have a look around.

One of the first places I look is the book section, then the games area. Or the other way round depending on my mood…(you can file that under the heading of unnecessary info!)

That dictionary is from 1951 and has common French and Latin words in the back, so cool! Those Tudor Rose playing cards are gorgeous! They run anywhere from $10 to $20 online, I got them for 25 cents. Score!

Some fun vintage ephemera. More super cute playing cards, those flash cards are huge, they might become journal pages.

Then there’s this barn. Why do I need a barn you ask?

The story: One day, things started going missing around the house, small things, but it was a bit unnerving. So, when my husband couldn’t find his wallet one day, and I had just seen my two year old daughter darting by, I decided to follow her. I peeked around the corner just in time to see her stuffing the wallet into her “safe”! With, of course the accompanying “mooo” that the barn doors make when opened, kind of the opposite of an alarm you might say. If you could have just seen the look on her little face as we laughed and laughed, while asking her what was in the barn! It was a veritable treasure trove of the missing items! Even the boys had to laugh before demanding the return of their possessions! It has since then become one our most endearing family memories.

Since she has decorated her baby’s room in ranch/farm style, I thought this might be a nice addition, along with the story of course.

Wilhold Love! Need I say more?…

…why, yes I do!

This is where it all started. If you have been following my blog/s for a while, you know that I am obsessed with Wilhold plastic containment units. My mother had a Wilhold sewing box, and it was one of my favorite places to visit. I could sit for hours picking up and looking at all the boxes of pins, thread, scissors, tailor’s chalk, and all the strange and wonderful things she kept in there.

But, because time wasn’t kind to her old sewing box, it had to hit the trash heap, a very sad day indeed! Knowing that finding another one was going to be nearly impossible, (I know this because I’ve been looking for one for years) I had just about given up. Last week, I decided to try online again, there were a couple of yellow ones in this basket weave design that I very nearly purchased, but the $40 price tags scared me off as you can well imagine. So, when I spied this perfect specimen for only $3.99 at the thrift store, I couldn’t believe my eyes! I carried it to the cashier like it was the crown jewels.

I have some special plans for this that I will share later.

Oh, and the yarn is going to be used for a weaving project, more on that later too. (yes, i bought a loom, shhhh!)

Well, that’s it for now.

A bit wordy, so thank you for making it this far.

Have a great Sunday,

~Patty

(p.s the tin at the top was a thrifty find too, I just didn’t have much to say about it!)

Supply Findings

January 21, 2016January 21, 2016 ~ Patty Radish ~ 4 Comments

Lately, I have been doing my utmost to support my fellow online shops, in other words, going nuts with shopping! Well, for me anyway.

Some of this stuff is too cute to keep to myself, so check it out…

Some ridiculously cute playing cards! I love these things! As a matter of fact, when I went to her shop to grab her url, I started shopping again! Shame on me, I should at least wait until I’m finished writing this blog post!

You can find more of these at FoundAlchemyArt for a great price! But, save some for me!

Some vintage Asian ephemera. Listed as Chinese vocabulary cards, Japanese vocabulary cards, and Chinese/Japanese character cards. So super cute!

You can find them at Collage Stuff. Great selection and prices!

And free goodies are always welcome! CARDS!

That quote card is going straight into my Vision Board journal!

This is just the tip of the iceberg of how many stamps I ordered from this shop! The selection was awesome, she is a true stamp-a-holic, and has great customer service! They are listed in her shop with the coolest titles too. How she managed to organize these in the categories she did is nothing short of amazing! I know, I’ve done it, just on a much smaller scale.

Her shop is called PreciousOwl.

A memory page I put together all this fun stuff. I’ve been falling a bit behind with my “Collage a Day” challenge, but these new goodies should light a fire under me bum!

Please go check out these shops, you won’t be disappointed!

Thanks for stopping by,

Have a great day,

~Patty