Summer Of Color Week #1

6/16/13

Well the end of week #1 is at a close, and I am getting my color challenge done at the last minute. Well not entirely true, I have been working on my project for a few days. I'm just getting it posted last minute.
The color challenge for the first week is Turquoise & Citron Green. I'm not exactly sure my colors  are a spot on match, but I worked with what I have. I spent the first few days in quiet contemplation deciding what sort of project I wanted to do. Well quiet contemplation isn't how I'd describe my thought process. It's just with the vast amount of choices I was undecidedly torn on what I wanted to do.
What I finally decided on is to make a journal using Gelli prints. I'm also making beads from foil and paper to embellish with.Each week I will pick 4-6 prints in the weekly colors, with beads in the same color scheme to bind and embellish into a journal as the final project. Here are my choices for week #1;

Painted sheet of aluminum folk

painted with Liquitex and Galerria acrylics, & Gesso

The beads so far, still need some more work.

 I'm also working on my drawing skills, which I might add are not all that great, but with practice I hope will make somewhat perfect. I sketched out a girl that I will incorporate into the final journal piece. So I drew a young girl, and made her shirt Turquoise and Citron Green using my Derwent Inktense pencils, I just LOVE LOVE LOVE my Inktense pencils and blocks. I'd like to add one thing about my girl. Her face isn't properly shaded, one, I'm not sure what I'm doing, ( would love some advice in this area…PLEASE!!!), two, I don't have all the proper colors for creating skin tone. I have a few, so there again, if anyone wants to take my pitiful self on and give me shading and color skin tone 101, I'm all ears. Well without further ado, her is my nameless girl.

The last picture I took without a flash to see if it would darken the picture, it did that and gave it a bunch of new tones. This is done on a 1920's dictionary page in Inktense pencils. I hope y'all like her. She is beginning to grow on me.
So there you have it, Week # 1 Citron Green And Turquoise. I feel like a little kid nearing Christmas, waiting to see what the Poll results reveal. I hope you like where I'm going with this SOC Challenge. I'm excited to see what everyone else comes up with. 
I would like to add if this is your 1st time here, please feel free to look around, or leave a comment. You can also email me if you have any questions. I would be most excited if you would become a new follower. I will follow you in return. Looking forward to getting to know some or all of you.
HAPPY CREATING!!!!!
Kim
P.S. I'd also like to share my sweet granddaughter Kaya, she is 3-1/2 and is a pistol. She usually doesn't like her picture taken, but every once in a while she'll let you get one.

The Switch to Bloglovin'

6/13/13
<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/5062973/?claim=yp3mh9nn2qu">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>


Well I've decided to join in and jump ship from Google Reader to Bloglovin'. If you haven't yet signed yourself up, pop on over to bloglovin.com and join. It's actually wonderful. 
How it works; I get a daily post from bloglovin that shows posts from my favorite blogs, it runs as one post, showing each individual blog, each one has a quick description of the post content, so I can decide if I want to read more. I can also post a comment quickly and easily right from bloglovin. It's rather nice being able to do this all from one page without having to hop from blog to blog. 
It is also very simple to switch everything over from Google Reader to Bloglovin, this way you can keep all of subscriptions from Google Reader. You simply click on this link: http://www.bloglovin.com/import/reader, it will bring you to this prompt,

you then click on the blue bar, choose your google address if you have more than one. (I have 5 gmail addresses, so I checked each one.) After a few minutes, like magic, all my subscriptions in Google Reader are now on my bloglovin' account.

Then to find my blog I clicked on the downward arrow by the little heart in the browser and clicked my blog in which this screen pops up; It says MY BLOG, you type your blogs name in and hit search, it will then give you a html code to put on your blog, which you see below, and then I just need to hit Publish. (and hope it works)

Scroll to top

So I'm rather Techno challenged, and hope I explained that switch well enough. If not feel free to ask me any further questions, or just read it over on bloglovin. It is all really easy. The old adage"If I can do it, so can you", truly applies in this situation. When I say I am Techno challenged, I am a get frustrated easily, scream and spit, and mumble @#*& and *%#$@ out loud. Bloglovin has made the switch easy. 
Hope to see you there very very soon.

Blessings All,
Kim

Summer Of Color; Artisist Choice

6/08/13

Hello all, how are you doing? I am hanging in there. Life has been a bit stressful lately. More so than usual. I've been told once or twice that God never gives us more than we can handle, quite frankly I'm beginning to think whoever came up with that phrase has never experienced a truly stressful period in their life. Though I'd quite like to think that, I'm more than doubtful these days. I can say that I'm blessed that my family is healthy and together, so in that sense life is good.

I have been working on a summer homeschool schedule. I know cruel and usual punishment, right. Not really. I actually have Gidget doing a lighter schedule than her regular school year. She will continue with Math, Reading, and working on her writing. Gidget is actually on board. She will actually be a grade level ahead in a Math and Language Arts. Which is favorable since she will be starting Latin in the Fa;;, along with an outside Science class, and we will be starting a Charlotte Mason Co-op as well. which we are both super excited about. 

Also this summer Gidget will be getting brand new choreographed dances for her Irish dancing, so she will be working hard on that all Summer to be ready for Fall competitions. Her dance school has a choreographer coming from Letterkenny, Ireland in a few weeks to teach the Champion level dancers all new dances. She is both anxious and excited. 

Today I made myself a list of about 15 things I am going to work on over the Summer. In hopes that 1. I will relieve some of the stress in my life, 2. I will enrich myself by learning new things, and 3. Feel a sense of actual accomplishment by completing my long overdue list.

One of the things on my list is the "Summer Of Color: Artists Choice", which is blog event that will take place over a 6 wk period. Each week we will be given a color prompt in which to create something artistic. It can be any medium we choose. Please feel free to click on the button on my side bar to read in detail more about it. I never seem to follow through with things these days, so I'm hoping this will change all that. After all, it is only one color prompted project a week, right? 

I've also been working on a few other projects which I will be post about next time. One of my biggest goals is to work on separating all my art stuff onto a separate blog from homeschool stuff. I'm also working on changing my homeschool content around. All a very tall order for someone who can't blog regularly, who is techno challenged, and struggles with my pain levels 2/3 rd's of the month. One can hope….

Well I am hoping that this finds you all well, and please feel free to check out Summer of Color, and join in.

Blessings,

Kimmie <3

Gidget's Last Feis, she placed 4th(19) & 10th(25)

New Journal Pages

I'm working on some new Art Journal pages. I decided that working out this whole Art Journaling business on my own just wasn't going the way I had hoped. I thought after almost a year I'd be further ahead not only in technique but confidence as well. The jury is in and I'm not where I'd hoped.
I have plenty of different products to use, I have several styles of journals, I have Moleskine's, a Global Art's Watercolor Hand-Book (9x12), a Dylusions Journal, a 9x12 Strathmore Visual Journal with 140lb. & 90lb. Watercolor, and a few altered books. (which I had no clue what I was doing, so they are fragile) I also have a few basic style sketchbooks. I have been collecting stamps, stencils, sprays, acrylics, water soluble crayons and pencils, glues, loads of ephemera, and more. I have spent endless hours on the internet perusing blogs, google, pinterest, and YouTube watching tutorial after tutorial trying to get past the blank page.
I have ideas swimming in my head, but then I face that blank page and my ideas get lost between my brain and my hand. Now I have managed some journal pages in the past year. More often than not I hit that roadblock and have no idea how to accomplish my thoughts.
There are quite a few talented folks who choose to share their artistic gifts with the rest of us. They are not only talented but are inspiring. One such artist by the name of Julie Fei-Fan Balzer of balzerdesigns.typepad.com, like many other artists, offers online classes. One in particular called "30 days in you Journal", has been so helpful in getting past the blank page.
Julie shows how you can create a beautiful page in 10 minutes or less everyday. She breaks down her thought process, gives you substitute products if you don't have the product she's using, she takes you step by step.
I have started a 30 day journal, I'm taking her tips and creating my own style. Or trying anyway. Julie has also made taking an online class fun and easy. Something I'll definitely do again.
So I'm going to be brave and share what I have done so far. With any luck I'll get busy with other products and projects to share as well. Have a great holiday weekend.
Blessings,
Kim

KDSF Dress FS(dance-again.com)

4/23/13

The Materials Used

Headbands

Back of dress Taken by designer

Front, Taken by designer

Day we got the dress

Taken after we added Crystals to Chest

12ss Dark Green Ab Swarovski Crystals added 

Oireachtas

Sleeve

Pic of Ruffle added for length

Showing how ruffle was added

Upclose of Neck

Back of dress

Another adventure

4/23/13

Hello to all… hoping this finds you and yours well. Tomorrow Bridget and I are on a plane to NY to visit family, and Bridget will competing in her first Champion level Irish dance competition.
I am excited to see my parents, my sisters and my nephews, as it has been almost 3 yrs since the last time I was home in NY to visit. 
This will be the first time my family will get to watch Bridget compete. There are a total of 1,200 competitors, 32 of which are Bridget's competition including her. As I was going through the competitor list, which is I don't quite get why I did as Bridget has never danced in this region, I noticed a familiar name. Bridget will be competing against her cousin. They met once as very small children, like 1 or 2. It is my cousins youngest daughter. They are in the same competition, U13 Preliminary Champion. Small world. I'd otherwise not see him on this visit.
I'm looking forward to getting away. It has been one of those weeks, well actually it's been more like one of those decades, but this week my bearings went in my tire, the brand new 2 week old lamp in our flat screen tv exploded last night, my glasses broke, allergy season in NC is in full swing, and I had a filling fall out of one of my back molars!!!! Oh and my son who is still in public HS was released early due to a bomb threat at his school today. They evacuated, then had the students return to school, and then re-evacuated, brought in the bomb squad and sent the kids home!!!! No news on what the outcome of that is. How about you all, how has your week been so far???
I'm also trying to sell Bridget's Irish Dance dress. Her dance teachers feel she need a dress that is more youthful looking. Though they LOVE her dress, they think it makes her look too much older than she is. I'm actually going to post a bunch of photos on my blog of her dress. One of the sites I have listed it FS on allows 2 photos, and asks to have a bunch of pictures on another site. So that post will go up after this one. With any luck it will sell soon. 
Well I have a bunch of stuff to finish up, and I still need to pack, so I will say farewell for now. Keep Bridget in your prayers that she does well. She really wants to make her teachers proud.
God Bless,
Kimmie

IT'S BEEN FAR TOO LONG…..

4/14/13

Hello too all. My apologies for seemingly having disappeared from the face of the earth. After my last post months ago I had many different topics I had planned on blogging about. Then POOF… not a word.
As some of you may know I have a severe chronic condition called Spinal Stenosis with Degenerative Arthritis. About 18 months ago I had a spinal fusion done. My pain was fairly well controlled with medication. I had been doing very well since my surgery, then out of no where I seemed to fall back to square one. I was flat on my back in bed in the most excruciating pain for almost 8 weeks. I needed help with even the most basic functions, such as putting on my shoes, getting up off the bed or couch, even picking up a gallon of milk. Luckily I have the most wonderful children and husband. They met my every need without complaint.
Now during all this my husband was and still is traveling for work. He is only home 6-8 days a month. I still had to get Bridget, aka Gidget, and Michael aka Meat to and from, dance, Lacrosse and other various activities, grocery shop and all the fun stuff that goes along with being a parent. I even had to take 2 trips to Atlanta, Ga, which is about a 4 hr drive for Gidget's dance competitions. (I have no idea how I managed that at all) One trip my husband drove 12 hours from NY back to NC, then had to get back in the car drive to Atlanta because I couldn't. We spent one night in ATL, then 9 hrs at Gidget's Feis, drove back home, then my husband had to get back in a car and drive 12 hrs back to NY. He is definitely a trooper. He never complained once, but he did have a few grumpy moments. Gidget also had a Feis in Charlotte, which we we sat at for about 6 hrs. I am proud to announce though that Gidget has been working her butt off and earned her final 1st and is now a CHAMPION level dancer. It is a gigantic accomplishment. What she has accomplished in 2 1/2 yrs takes most dancers 4-6 yrs. She has not stopped smiling. So traveling in pain was worth it.
Fortunately I am FINALLY feeling much better, the pain clinic has since switched my medicine, and though I still have pain, it is quite a bit more tolerable and I am functioning. I am one of those people that when I am not feeling well I just shut out the world and fall off the grid. Basically I become anti-social. 
So let me try to bring you up to speed, I had a CAT scan and it showed the reason for my increased pain levels are due to significant narrowing in my L-3 to L-4 of my spine. Fortunately I won't need surgery at this time, but will most likely in the next 1-2 yrs. Not a surgery I am in any hurry to have again. I have had a few surgeries in my time, but the spinal fusion surgery was the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. It made Natural Childbirth feel like an amusement park ride. 
Now that I am feeling better, I am ready to get back to my life. I do have quite a few topics I want to do blog posts on. Even though I fell off the grid, life moved on and lots has happened. I am looking forward to sharing what has been happening, some of the changes that have taken place in my family, what changes are yet to happen. Lots of good stuff that I hope you will enjoy.
So again, my apologies to those of you who are following me, and those that may pop in from time to time. I hope that this finds all of you well.
God Bless,
Kimmie