Mixed Media

My End of Year Catch Up…

~ Patty Radish ~ 7 Comments

My original plan was to write an “End of Year Round Up”, but frankly, I just don’t have it in me to re-cap an entire year. This year has had many highs and lows!

Highs: Becoming a Grandmother, an awesome year for my shoppe, starting this here new blog, and all you wonderful people that follow me! Thank you!

Lows: Losing both my parents within 6 months, most notably my mom just two weeks ago.

That being said, (and out of the way thank you very much), I’m really looking forward to the New Year! So, here’s a bit of the latest doings:IMG_1242

From top left clockwise: A Kiwidori all gussied up and ready for the New Year, an honest-to-goodness Midori (love!), and my mini dori journal. Dori heaven!

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The plan for my Kiwidori is to be a Vision Board for 2016. I’ve filled it with inspirational quotes and have already worked on a few pages. I’ll share it in more detail sometime soon.

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I’m still working on my Holiday Journal, I usually keep one going until Jan. 1st.

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I get to add these awesome goodies to it too! These were sent to me by my sweet friend Jenny P.! Thank you Jenny!IMG_1145Then there is this. The Stitchery journal that I found poked onto a shelf last week. Sewing is on the top of my list of things I must get back to, that and crochet, not to mention gardening…

…which brings to a subject I have pondering a lot about over the last couple of months, I miss my olde blog!

There, I said it!

So, I have decided that I will be working on and talking about many of the projects I used to write about on ye olde blog. For instance decorating, sometimes cooking, definitely sewing, crochet and gardening. I’ll be backing down a bit from my planning adventure, not completely though, it’s still a tool I rely on quite a bit. The decor got to be too time consuming to be realistic.

So, if you haven’t already noticed, I switched up my blog list on the side bar to some old favorites. People I have been following for years, that change really makes this blog seem more homey to me.

I’m hoping that 2016 will be the year of catching up on old projects, making more time for my family, focusing more on art journaling, and sharing a bit more of my personal side on this here blog. Hope you want to tag along!

Until next year,

Thank you stopping by,

Happy New Year!

~Patty

(p.s. I will be taking off over the pass to visit my daughter, so if I don’t get to the comments, please forgive, thanks)

Girls + 1 Weekend..

~ Patty Radish ~ 3 Comments

It has been quite a while since I’ve checked in to this little blog, along with all my other social medias. We experienced a family loss that kind of took the wind out of my sails, but there is more to it than that, I’ll expand on this a little more in an end of the year blog post.

In the meantime, I wanted to share this rather long blog post about my “Girls Weekend” with my daughter + 1, and the subsequent mini art journal process and pages.

This post is pretty photo heavy, so hang on to your hats and grab a cup of tea!

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I’ll start out with the gathering of supplies. Some awesome little office goodies I found at The Container Store.

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Various ephemera to work with, menu, hotel receipt, comment card, and my daughters train ticket .

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Brochures and maps of the town, our valet parking ticket and a mini folder from our room keys.IMG_1063

Lastly, a couple of sweet photos taken on our trip.

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Supplies gathered, along with a few items from around my art room, and I’m ready to start pulling my pages together. I start by laying down a foundation of the ephemera for that page. I tried to keep things in somewhat of a chronological order knowing I would be going back and journaling about it. Those little slips of paper at the top left are my journaling notes. I have since put together a small book for the same purpose.

Then, I start embellishing the page, after that it’s ready to journal on.

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I didn’t leave room to journal on this page spread, I’ll be using a journaling card, then putting it into that little folder.

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Open it up and there you have it. How cute is that illustration from the hotel brochure! If I had worked on this in the room, I might have not taken the time to find these little touches.

IMG_1085The front cover and first page. Dec. 11th Our Lady of Guadelupe Day, I thought this was a good place to start…

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…along with a postage stamp of a train (my daughter took the train over because of snow on the passes) and one of Saint Augustine, the patron saint of party! Dude!

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Our second day there. With a day of shopping under our belts, we slept in, then got ready for brunch and another day’s shopping.

While I was getting ready, my daughter grabbed my phone and took some awesome selfies of her and + 1. All of them came out great, but this one was my favorite!

IMG_1096So many great restaurants within walking distance. We only had a couple of days, but we put a dent in as many as we could!

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I love cityscapes, especially if I’ve been to that city! I love my little town, but it’s nice to get back to the city once in a while!

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We topped off our weekend with meeting my son and his girlfriend for brunch. It was such a cute little place, packed, but super tasty food!

I hope this gave you an idea of how I pull together my travel pages. I usually try to work on my journals while traveling, but if it doesn’t work out, taking notes to refer to later works just as well.

If I don’t get back here before Christmas…

Happy Holidays,

Thanks for stopping by,

~Patty

Getting A Head Start on My Holiday Journal

~ Patty Radish ~ 4 Comments

I have been finding that when I sit down to journal about something in my Holiday journal, by the time I get the page decorated, I’ve forgotten what I wanted to journal about! I usually have pages ready to go in my daily  journals, I just haven’t been taking the time to get this one ready to go.

Well, here are some pages decorated up ahead of time…

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Some random bits and bobs pulled together out of a group I purchased from Peachy Cheap by October Afternoon, along with a few things from my stash.

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Using things up that I have been holding on to for far too long is always a great feeling, especially when they have their own memories attached to them! The piece at the upper left is from some Christmas cards I made many, many years ago!

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This journal is pretty small, so I went out and bought some small ink stamps. It’s been super fun finding little spots to use them in!

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These mid century images really bring back a lot of Christmas memories for me, I think that is why I’m so drawn to them!

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I remember not really appreciating this kind of decor when I was a child, but I love it now! But that lamp is a bit much, even for me! Wow, that’s special!

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Overly flocked trees with handmade goodies! My husband is saying a Christmas prayer that I never go this far! But if you would like to visit somebody that does, follow this link to see what the “Queen of Christmas Kitsch”, the lovely Jennifer Perkins, has to offer. A never ending supply of eye candy, and lots more links from there!

Here is hoping your finding lots of wonderful Holiday memories to journal about!

Thanks so much for stopping by,

~Patty

They Say “If It Works, Don’t Fix It”, but if it doesn’t…

~ Patty Radish ~ 4 Comments

Yes folks, it’s another re-constructed journal!

I have been having a rough couple of days on more than one level, and needed a safe place to vent. But, because I’m not a huge fan of letting off steam publicly, i.e.; online, I choose to work it out with pen and paper.

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This journal was a little useless, being from a project that I had completely lost interest in. So, last night I tore out all the old project remnants, and replaced them with new journaling pieces. Some of the pages didn’t survive the reconstruction process, but most did.

I began to rummage around my art room, gathering all the lost souls I could find. You can spot some of them at the top of the page. Bling junk!

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Then, I grabbed my pen and and started writing! I wrote and decorated, decorated and wrote. Soon, I was adding inspirational quotes and sayings. And I must say, feeling much better about things!

First, for getting a few things off my chest. Then, for giving myself permission to do so!

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It didn’t take long for this journal to become a comfortable place to land. To be honest, I had hoped that I wouldn’t need a “venting” journal anymore, but sometimes things just pile up.

My introverted side pegs out pretty easily when I spend too much energy outside myself.IMG_0723

  I think that some of the “projects” I get myself involved in makes me a little too stressed, then I hurry through my pages just to get them done. Not my style!

So, I’m going to put a lot of outside projects, and interactions, on hold for a while, just to regroup.

IMG_0729This blog is my heart and soul, so I won’t be wandering too far from here!

IMG_0734Because, we all need a comfy place to call our own!

Have a great day!

~Patty

A Redecorated Journal

~ Patty Radish ~ 4 Comments

I have had an off/on relationship with this journal for quite a few years now. There are parts that I loved, but it lacked a cohesiveness that I just couldn’t put my finger on. Probably due to the fact that I thought I could just dump a bunch of unwanted ephemera into it, and believe everything would be just fine. But, it wasn’t! When this journal started to go off track, onto the shelf it went.

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This may look familiar to some of you that have been following my blog(s) for a while. And the differences may not be immediately noticeable, but they’re there.

After watching Florence Antonette‘s Traveler’s Notebook series on continuous loop, I found the cohesiveness that I was looking for!  My first thought was to buy some Midoris and try her style, but on closer inspection, I realized that I had a lot of the same elements she was using, in this journal. So, the restructuring began, and couldn’t be happier with it!

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First, I striped away all the old journaling, this poor journal had become the complaint department, mostly because I didn’t know what else to do with it. I also removed anything that just didn’t fit the aesthetic, luckily that was at a minimum.

IMG_0573I replaced the journal pieces, then began filling it with washi tape, more postage stamps, and ink stamping. Now, I wish I had taken some before and afters, there really is a difference!

IMG_0575I love how the stamping subtly blends the journal piece into the background, exactly what I have been wanting to accomplish for a long time, but was to critical about my stamping abilities to try. I guess it took a “lost cause” project to give me the courage to throw caution to the wind!

I am happy to say that this journal is still a work in progress, so I have lots more excuses to buy more postal goodies! Win! I’ll be sure to share it’s progress again soon!

As always, thank you for the visit,

Have a wonderful day,

~Patty