Spring Cleaned and a Scrap Page

Oh look at my little angel(ahem).

This is typical of B even though he is now 15. He still does not like photos and is stubborn in many ways.

And just to quell my shame...I got my half of the office all cleaned and organized. The before was scary!

Even the closet is organized. So now...off to make a new, wonderful mess!

Have fun! Vanessa S.

The Blues Get A Good Rap!

The color blue often has negative connotations...'feelin' blue', 'she's got the blues', 'singin' the blues', etc. Orange and Green definitely have better images! I knew that I wanted to do a positive blue collage.I pondered this a few days. Then, while drinking coffee in the backyard one morning, I saw a hot air balloon going by. It's a little sad that I should take them for granted as they go up almost daily around here...Anyway...I finally had my inspiration!

I just couldn't resist using this little scrap from last year's jammies that says 'WOOHOO!'.

Mirrors made nice windows for my little houses.

There is humor in this bow. Xena, my shih-zhu, had just been to the groomer's. As per usual, they put bows on her head(I have given up telling them not to as they can't resist!). Naturally, she has them scraped off her noggin' in 10 minutes and I have little bows for my crafting pleasure! How's that for recycling?!

My blue is about reaching higher, about attaining goals, about inspiring others; all good, positive connotations. Bye bye blues!

Watch For Falling Objects!

A really bad Haiku poem for you:

~~~~~

Creative Chaos

Everything was fun.

Till I paused to look around.

What a mess I found!

~~~~~~

(Did I do that?!) Needless to say; I cannot create until I do something about this! Can we guess the color of the desktop?

And, NO, I am not showing what is behind the door. Be afraid; be VERY afraid!
I need to do 2 things.

1. Find new storage solutions, preferably at the Dollar store.

2. Pare down and give away unwanted items. Stay tuned, I may give some goodies away here later.

Feelin' the Green!

Green has always been my favorite color, so naturally, I chose this for my next color collage. It symbolizes growth, nature and new beginnings. Nature always makes my soul serene and my heart sing! Such interesting things all around us! Anyway, I was letting the green idea gel in my head a few days. Then one day, I woke up remembering this old, miniature book called 'Ferney Glades and Flowery Nooks' that I had been given by my mother. I had found my muse! It's basically prose and poetry for women--very old fashioned and in Old English. Anyway, it gave me the feeling of fairies/mother nature and I knew I wanted to use leaves for wings. So, I began to place things. They felt right immediately for me.I added buttons and scrunched the bright green fabric as grass.
I thought she needed a belt.
And a wand. Then for a bit of text...I found it in the same book; it just jumped off the page and was perfect!And that feels like green to me!

Sand and 'Son'

Favorite places; we all have one! Mine and my son's is the Monterey Bay area in CA.



We only lived there a few years. However, the moment I landed there; it felt like home. Coming from a gypsy-like family; I really hadn't ever know that 'home' feeling until I moved to Capitola. It's something you feel deep within your heart---your soul connects as perfectly as one Lego to another.

You'll note my scribbly doodling...partly too much coffee, partly decision to continue that way to moderate the girly 'bling' that I just couldn't help adding!
I had a lot of fun cutting and layering 'waves' and hiding little fishies in them!

I finished my LO and took the dog for a walk. Lo and behold! I found some tiny shells from someone's broken necklace! Well naturally, I had to add those too!Now that I know what 'home' really means, one day I will move back there...I feel it in my bones. (Shhhhhhhhhh! Big D does NOT feel it in his...YET!) Where is your favorite place?

Mayonnaise Wraps and Oatmeal Masks

Many of us liked to play beauty parlor or dress up as little girls. I was no different. After I left home at 17, thousands of miles from my family, my sister and I went our separate ways and grew apart.In these photos, in our late 20's, she had come to stay with me for a month. We reconnected and it was like old times. One day we decided to give ourselves beauty treatments. Not having much money, we opted for home-made concoctions that we had heard of. Sticky, gloopy, oatmeal served as a mask to cleanse our pores and slimy, melty mayonnaise for deep conditioning for our hair--wrapped in plastic and a hot towel to top it off. We did each other's make-up at the end and thoroughly enjoyed our bonding experience!

The clocks with the lovely ladies symbolize the eternal little girl inside us all.

This was a happy accident. I had stamped the 'Queen of Everything' card on my background and it did not show up well. So I carefully cut it out, backed the hole and popped the card up on foam dots.

I really love these retro safety pins from Tim Holtz.

Layers, layers, layers...

And now, I really should call up some friends and arrange a mani-pedi party...who's in?!

Orange You Glad?

One day, I was feeling kind of down for no particular reason and I just hate that; don't you? (Probably those 40-something hormones.) Anyway, I decided to do something in a happy color: Orange. This was my first attempt at making a mixed media collage. It's quite quirky.

Orange is a bit wild and gregarious, so I gave my 'sun' a goofy eye. All in all, I liked the experience of making this and so challenged myself to make a couple more. As a bonus, it served it's purpose and cheered me up! My comedic brain said, 'Orange you glad you made this?' (And YES, I do laugh at my own jokes!) Stay tuned for Green and Blue posts!

Diversions

I have scrapper's block. My solution: Do something else! I bought these yummy, colorful flannels a while back and finally used them.It has become a tradition of mine to make pajamas every year. It started when I was very poor; working full-time at a low-paying job, going to college full-time and raising my son alone. At the time, I had no budget for clothing and I discovered that Walmart had flannels--albeit, decidely masculine and not the greatest quality--for $1 a yard. No kidding! So, I would make pajamas for my son and I late in the night for a total cost of 1-2 dollars a pair! Who knows how I had the time or energy; but you do what you have to, to survive. These days, I am much more privileged and can pick pretty fabrics and I still get great joy in putting on those simple, yet sunny and snuggly jammies for the first time each year. An act of necessity became an act of pure, simple pleasure. Now if you'll excuse me...I must go put on my jammies and snuggle up for a bit of T.V. Zzzzzzzzzzz.........