B is for Believe

Each month Tim Holtz provides new techniques through his tags of the month. This month it was all about stencils. Our local store hasn't received all the stencils yet, so I just had a few of the new ones. Fortunately, I had lots of backup.

To see the techniques used, please check out Tim's Blog.  His tag says "encourage your creative possibility -- mine says "believe in possibilities" and the stamp I used is one of my all time favorites - it says "be yourself". So it's all about the B's for me.

"She Believed She Could

So She Did"

Believe in yourself!!

WOYWW #223....or Look, There's Grass

Howdy Folks!

It seems that one of my pictures actually shows one of our accomplishments this summer - grass!

I snapped this because it shows what a terror my window sill has become...but I did have to brag on the grass just a bit. We spent many months looking at rocks, so we are much happier now! But why, you ask am I showing you my desk extension at all? Well, it WEDNESDAY!! The day I kind of wonder how much fun it would be to live in England, with Julia and Jan, and many other lovely ladies live who craft, and sew and create. Each Wednesday, Julia provides us with an opportunity to  link together, literally around the world to share our work spaces. So from Alaska to the United Kingdom, to the Netherlands to S. Africa I go looking about. 

This is considerably cleaned up from this morning. I took a day off work (shhhhhhh) and three hours at home and then packed up and headed off to a friend's house where we spent a lovely, lovely afternoon creating and crafting.  Alas, she is leaving for a few months, but we are already planning our December day!

One of the accomplishments of the day was to finish the major project for an upcoming class at the Stamp Cache. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out - wish the wooden leaves on the right were a tad lower, but hey they aren't so we're just all going to have to live with it. Please note I immediately lost the washer for the second screw. Oh well. Perfection is so boring. 

Totally love the raven stamp! Ravens are everywhere in Alaska. They certainly have my admiration. I don't know anything else that can land on a metal lamppost in 70 below zero weather  or -56 Celsius). It's pretty damn impressive. Plus in Southeast Alaskan mythology,  the Raven is mixed in most everything. You will find him appearing in one form or the other. He was legendary, talented, full of magic, benefactor, bringing good will or casting an evil spell. Pretty cool bird. A big shout out to Paula Chaney, who totally came up with the grid idea for the burlap piece. 

I absolutely love the colors of fall - there are so many of them!!  Hope wherever you are has lots of what you like! 

Is There Even a Desk Here?

Yikes! My desk is the antithesis of Julia's. C'est la vie. Julia who, you ask? She of the Stamping Ground who hosts us each week for a look about the world and our work desks.

It's a bit of mess. I think I might need to change out the paper, but that requires way more energy than I happen to have as of late. We've spent a glorious week being ill at our house; he who is never ill, with a sinus infection, and I with dental issues that resulted in oral surgery. In between bouts of ouches and pain meds I would stumble into the fun room and mess about. Didn't really get too far. 

Filled up the last page of my first journal. So to make the bookends complete I decided to take a picture of my first ever journal page.

I had to laugh, because there is that same double pen lettering. I've probably done it a total of 4 times in my journal, but the universe knew to do it now. I love it when then happens. 

And then there is this:  

the well used spiral that I once thought would drive me crazy and that  I've come to like the look of.

Now if we could just start feeling better, get the cat back from the vet hospital and get going on all those before winter projects life would be headed towards normal. A girl can always hope....  Have a good week. 

Waiting for Blue Skies

Several months ago, I became resolved to certain colors being linked in my physique to certain months. This July I saw lots of medium greens, bright yellow flowers and the fuchsia -pink of our most beautiful weed, the fireweed. Of course by the time I made the August background, the fuchsia had pretty much evaporated. But it was on the calendar....

We have a saying for the rain in August....it's Fair-time. For 21 years my life revolved around the 11 day annual event as I worked for the organization that produced the Fair. Best job ever, with a group of wonderful people who only wanted to make it better every year. Now 17 years after I had to leave the Fair due to health issues, my husband still tells people I have it in my blood. I think he's right. 

But I digress once again. It often rains in August which can put a tamper on the festivities (or not)  but is often sunny immediately after the Fair ends. True to form, it's been raining for a while now and I am ready for the blue skies!

I made my September page for Kate Crane's calendar project...I don't even know if it's a challenge any more, but it does have a fun Facebook page. I stopped for a few months, but find I missed my little squares. It's kind of fun to look back over the time and see - in a glance - what was going on. So I'm back in. 

In true autumnal colors, I created a paper background of what the country around me will look like in a few weeks...with the minor exception of the actual color of the leaves. Although all the colors will be found in the ground cover, the leaves from our beautiful Birch trees will be yellow. I used the new Bo Bunny paper Autumn Song in the 6 x 6 paper pack and theTim Holtz Sizzix Autumn Garland die cut for all the leaves. My big discovery on this page was how will a Pitt Pen works. Man, those things will go over anything - glue, paper, adhesive, etc. pretty impressive. 

So I am waiting for blue skies....in September.