Day 15: Today I Smile Because.....

09/15/12

Day 15: Today I smile because...... My son Jacob,(who is my 3rd child) turned 19 today. It is hard to believe he is 19. Time just flies right on by. Though there was a time when he was a child that time seemed to stand still.

Jake graduated this past spring. It was bittersweet. All the years he struggled in school with his learning disabilities, he made honor roll both semesters, and he got an A+ on his Senior exit project. At about 9th grade he mellowed out and he got less and less frustrated with school. He did decide to take a few months off and will start Community College in January. Right now he is working full time and saving every penny he can. He has an amazing work ethic for someone his age. I am extremely proud of the man he has become.

For his birthday dinner, he chose homemade mac n' cheese, fried chicken, green beans, and instead of cake he wanted apple pie. Yup that's right, apple pie. It was yummy. 

So, what made you smile today???

God Bless,

Kimmie<3

Happy Birthday Jake!!!

Kaya helping blow out the candles on "Birthday Pie"

Day 14: Today I Smile Because....

09/14/12

Day 14: Today I smile because.... I have made some progress in my Sketchbook for the Arthouse Sketchbook project. This project is for the Brooklyn Library of Art. It was started in 2006 in Atlanta and was moved in 2009 to NYC. The Sketchbook project feature's 18,000+ artists in more than 130 countries from around the world. It is open to anyone who wants to participate. Participants range from newbies like myself to some extremely talented artists. 

It costs $25.00 to participate, and for an additional $30.00 they will digitize your sketchbook. (I am having my digitized) They have a whole list of themes you can pick from to label what your sketchbook is about. Mine is still uncatorgized, I still am not 100% on what I am doing. Their website is http://www.arthousecoop.com/sketchbookproject/ There you can read all about the project, they also have message boards and forums so you can take a looky-loo at others sketchbooks.

I decided to participate when I began my journey into the world of Art and Art Journaling. I rationalized doing this by telling myself if I pay to do the project, I will not give up on this journey when it became too hard. (And believe you me, I have been more than frustrated on more than one occassion) I have only done about 1/3 of the pages so far, slowly but surely I am getting there. I took a few pictures to share with you. Remember I am very new at this, but I am pretty content with what I have done so far. I am not posting pics of all the pages I have done so far, just a few.

What made you smile today??

God Bless,

Kimmie<3

The Cover

This is a collage 

"Sometimes life turns you upside down and carries you away and takes you to places unknown....
....enjoy the ride for it may take you to your destiny. -Kim Hogan

My upside down cutie, made from 2 seperate pieces of printable ephemera. The drops of color are done with Indian Ink.

A collage, the stamp in the bottom corner is an Irish Blessing.

A handmade tag that I stained and stamped.

This isn't quite done yet. The tree is a print transfer with a watercolor backround.

Outside Links | Stossel in the Classroom

Outside Links | Stossel in the Classroom

I got this link in my email via Diane Flynn Keith @ http://www.ClickSchooling.com. ClickSchooling has some wonderful resources for homeschoolers. Stossel in the classroom offers some free DVD's with teacher resources to teach the DVD's. Is is designed for upper level middle & high school students. 

Diane Flynn Keith's ClickSchooling has tons of FREE resources for just about every grade. Each day she sends an email containg a link for sites that assist in varied subjects or virtual tours of facories, museums,etc. Each day is a link for a different subject. 

God Bless,

Kimmie<3

Day 13: Today I Smile Because....

09/13/12

Today I smile because..... First, my hubby gets to come home 1 day early and has all of next week off. It will be the first time in just about a year that we will get to spend more than 4 days in a row together. So it will either be a glorious week or we will want to strangle one another. This is to be continued.....

Secondly, I got my art supplies I ordered from dickblick.com. They are an online store that sells every art supply you can think of at really reasonable prices. I highly recommend this site to anyone who loves to do arts & crafts. They sell paints, glues, markers, pens, pencils, paper, tools... well pretty much anything you can think of. They cater to the weekend art warriors and to the serious artists. 

As I have mentioned previously, I am teaching myself how to draw and create art journals. So to assist me in my journey I bought a UHU glue stick, 4 bottles of Indian Inks, 2 little bottles of Golden paint (Golden is a very expensive product, but quality), I also got some Golden Matte Gel Medium and a package of chipboard to add to my growing list of supplies. Next to my Faber-Castell watercolor pencils (which I love) the stuff I got today is the first really high quality supplies I have purchased and I am excited to use them. 

A few days ago I also got some supplies from donnadowney.typepad.com that I am excited to use with what I got today. If any of you are into art I highly suggest checking out Donna's blog. She is not only entertaining, she is very talented. I love her tutorials because not only does she go step by step and explain how she is achieving a specific technique, she actually lists every supply she uses. That is extremely helpful for us budding artists. I can't wait to get started.

So nothing super exciting, but it getting my supplies made me smile, what made you smile today???

God Bless,
Kimmie<3

My new Bombay Indian Inks

My dickblick.com haul

Golden paints in Teal & Titanium White

Goldem Gel Medium & UHU glue stick

Day 12: Today I Smile Because......

09/12/12

Today I smile because...... of the kindness in the words of others. Debi Bolocofsy @ adornedfromabove.com sent me a really nice, but simple email with words of encouragement. I wanted to share yesterday, but I felt giving remembrance to those who all lost their lives on 9/11 was more in order. Though I am remiss in also giving thanks to all of our service members who risk there lives on a daily basis so that we may enjoy the freedoms that we do. 

Two days ago when I did my daily blog post, I had difficulty in writing it. It was just one of those days. It was uneventful, I was tired, and I just didn't feel like doing a post. It had to be done though, I am doing a 30 day series after all. I thought it would be simple to write something however small on a daily basis. Well that is not so. I have to give a load of credit to all those out there who blog on a regular basis. It is not an easy thing to do. Even for those of us who are naturally gabby people. 

I decided to do this 30 day series as a way to try and grow my blog a bit, to become more natural at it. So I chose a topic I figured would be easier for me to write about every day. I was fooling myself in thinking there is anything simple about writing every day. Don't get me wrong, I am loving this whole blogging experience and wish I was way better at it. I follow some pretty amazing blogs, and am exceedingly inspired every day by them. I am in awe over what so many of you are capable of, by what you create so others can enjoy, be educated, entertained , or inspired. 

I am definitely not any where at that point yet. I can only continue to try and learn all I can, and hope and pray that I too will achieve my goals to be one of those that also educate, entertain and inspire others.

So THANK YOU Debbie for your kind words and your show of support by following me, and also to John Taylor who took the time to email me. He is a contributing writer for 
http://www.vouchercodes.eu.com/blog/. Debbie is a strong Christian who is an amazing crafter. 

What made you smile today????

God Bless,
Kimmie<3

Day 11: Today I Smile Because.....

09/11/12

Day 11: Today I smile because..... I smile for those who can't, for those whose lives were taken and in remembrance of them and that they are missed every single day. I smile so that may always live in our hearts and never be forgotten. So let's all  have a moment of silence today in remembrance to all those that died on 9/11/2001, and that we say a prayer for them and their families who were left behind to deal with such a  terrible loss. On that day in our hour of grief as a Nation, we came together as One, regardless of our ethnicity, regardless of our religion,  and regardless of our social or economic status. We came together and  prayed united as one without prejudice. Today we honor the memory of all of those who were lost on that terrible day that will forever be etched in our memories. That in their memory we will always stand firm as "One Nation Under God" with resolve of mind, heart, and spirit. In their memory we pray, AMEN.

God bless,
Kimmie <3

Day 10: Today I Smile Because....

09/10/12

Day 10: Today I Smile Because.....  I have to. It is one of those days that I am just flat out tired, and feeling unsociable. If I could have stayed in bed and done absolutely nothing, I would have.

When I chose to do this "30 day blog series, Today I smile because..." I figured it would be fairly easy. We all smile at least once a day at something don't we??? Well as I sat down and got ready to type and reviewed my day, I realized that I didn't really have much of anything that made me smile today. I also realized that this isn't as easy as I thought it would be.

I have been sitting here staring at the keyboard and the screen wracking my brains on what I am going to write today. I type a paragraph then erase it. Not only has my day been rather average and uneventful, my brain has gone to mush and my vocabulary and intellect to even come up with a simple blog post escape me today. 

So today I will say that I am grateful because... I am alive, my kids are healthy and I am loved. I guess when I think about those things and how lucky I am to have them, that is a reason to smile. :)

I should have never assumed doing this would be easy. I really almost didn't do a post today because I am really challenged on what to say, but I managed to get a few words out didn't I. I hope today you all had reason to smile about something today. 

Until tomorrow...
God Bless,
Kimmie <3