Trials and Tribulations-"Storms of Life"

Trying to get through the storms of life?  Me too!
Met a lady yesterday in the Salvation Army.  It was an enjoyable conversation.  She is also going through trials in her life; doubting her christianity thinking she is not a christian.  Her daughter has severe lymes disease and is hospitalized for it.

We all go through many many things in a life-time.  I am only half way there I hope, midlife and many crisis' after crisis, but you know what, I stay focused on thinking what God has told me in his word about life eternal and I do the "next thing".  As a wife, mother, grandmother and christian, I am an artist, writer, photographer, gardener, and junk collector.  Those things keep me busy and joyful because God has given the people in my life to me and the hobbies, gifts and desires I have are from him.

This is a photo I took of the roaring Atlantic Ocean.  It is such a symbol to me of what life can try to do to  you, but if your house is built on a rock, you will stand!

Planning, Scheduling and Just Getting it DONE

Don't procrastinate!  There is a lady I have read some of her books named Elizabeth and she said "Just do the next thing!"

I have eaten apricots, nuts and have drank water.
Checked my emails and pinterested some recipes for the up and coming days
Cleaned out four drawers in my husbands desk
Cleaned and sorted my acrylic paints
Cleaned the toilet and sink from upstairs bathroom
Blogged of course:)
Went through my planner to check appointments
Let the dogs out to the bathroom 3 times already
Read the word of God

Have to:  stop at the grocery store,
               go meet a lady to look at a piece of exercise equipment
               go pick up my meds 40 minutes away
               and do a mystery shop
               take my son to the bank

Come home and make supper:  home-made hamburgers on bagels!

Sorting and Cleaning

Sorting and cleaning my art room again.  After a few to a couple art projects, my room needs to be cleaned up:  waste basket cleaned out;  I put a plastic bag inside my basket, so when I want to clean it, I just grab the bag and out to the garbage it goes.  I reo-sort my charcoal, black markers, white pens, clean my paintbrushes in the sink (usually I let them sit in water in a cup which I know is not good for the bristles and wood handles, but that is all I can manage at the time), put supplies back in baskets and on shelves so that I can start over again.  Her I am sorting through paints, deciding if I have too many, which are really really my favorite colors, throwing away the dried out bottles, giving away any if need to. 

GIVEAWAY:  That is another thing I want to talk about.  I am doing a new thing.  I am trying to use all that I have which I consider alot.  If and when I am using an item, and I don't care for it personally myself, I put it in a bag.  Recently, I had tons of stuff and I offered it on Freecycle.  A gal who is an artist and just moved back to the area needed "stuff" so she came and took all the stuff I had which was alot; she and her boyfriend hauled off about 6 armloads of bags and miscellaneous items.  So GIVEAWAY stuff that you know you will not use.  That way, if I am using say a dauber of a colored paint that I don't like, I put it in the bag.  Now I do realize that maybe a month later I will have wished I kept it, but you know, you can do that with everything.  I am coming down to what my favorite stuff is:

1.   Gesso-white and clear
2.   Gel medium-matte-heavy and soft by Golden
3.  water soluble oil pastels
4.   charcoal
5.   white markers and black markers different sizes
6.   certain colors of acrylics
7.   watercolor paper, canvas, canvas board
8.   Prisma colored pencils
9.   watercolors
10.  antique papers and french books
11.  certain stamps especially alphabet stamps
12.  my new print out word labels
13.  breyer
14.  drawing pencils
15.  glitter
16.  small ephemera
17.  small antiques to do collage on
18.  Black ink pad, and staining inks

But then there are some of the ink colors I don't like, dauber paints I don't care for..

SHARE with someone, maybe even someone online!

Post Road Vintage

Check out this site for a giveaway!  an antique bottle, soap and home-made tiles that look vintage.  This creative lady also does a magazine called Homebound that is really really really pretty.!

Old Blog Crystals Creations

Go check out my old blog http://www.crystalscreations-stillwatersgallery.blogspot.com

When I have a gallery, I would like to call it Stillwaters.
There is just something so calming and refreshing to me about that word.

When life is so hectic, crazy, and there are many questions I have that feel unanswered and just swarm around my brain like bumble bees, the sounds of the buzzing, the aggravation of them hitting your face and flying into your ears, the sting of their wings on your skin, the craziness of their patterns around your head, this is when you need that living water of the word of God and His still voice like smooth peaceful rushing waters.

How to Make Cloth Paper

Easy!

Lay out a huge scrap piece of paper under your art work.  You can use poster board, papertowel, fabric like muslin, watercolor paper...

When you are doing your paintings, wipe your brush off on the poster board, papertowel, fabric, watercolor paper...splatter your filled paintbrush over the poster board...flicker the brush or the ink pen, dab your marker, make a doodle, write an idea, practice lettering, take some gold, and swipe your brush, keep going, but keep wiping that brush or pen on a different spot...see what different colors look like next to each other or on top of each other...stamp, use those stamps that are sitting in a box or in a drawer tucked away and repeat the pattern of the stamp over and over again, add a piece of paper towel on top with some modge podge or matte medium onto the poster board and let it dry, rip up collages that you don't like and paste them on, you may even end up with a special piece of artwork this way!  OR you can rip it up and use it on another piece of poster board.  This is a piece that was in transit of change.  I have recently cut it up to make butterflies for a mystery muse swap at Artellaland.

Cloth Paper

I love making cloth paper.  It is so versatile and can be used in so many ways and ideas.

You can rip and tear, apply to journal pages, add to collages or 3 Dimensional pieces.  Make flowers out of the paper, make paperdoll clothing out of it.

Christmas Memories

Seth the chef making the Christmas Fancy turkey,  Christmas Vignettes

cinnamon and applesauce gingerbread men

Has time gone by so fast, that you realized where did Christmas go?  Were you baking, decorating, shopping, gift giving, eating, and you didn't even look at the pictures you snapped during the past Christmas'?
Vintage Bottled Snowmen for decorating and gifts...

Christmas Pinks, Christmas Reds and Greens

In the kitchen, in the living room, in the hallway, in the dining room, in the art room...

Mama and Papa Santa Claus

Here are some of my pictures to share of my decorating and cookies and gifts and family.  Have fun and bring on the memories!

A Rusty Solution

Want to make something rusty on your own, you know, the new fad of decorating with rusty stuff or making your safety pins for your prims and folk art decorations look unique and vintage!

Solutions:  PLEASE PLEASE Be Careful, do not keep out for animals, children or anywhere as a matter of fact.  Use it and dispose of it.

1.  Take your item, pour hydrogen peroxide over it or spray it with a Dollar Tree spray bottle and then sprinkle salt and watch it go!

2.  Two parts bleach to one part vinegar and mix in a spray bottle or in a small basin.  Put your item in and let it soak.

Some metals do not rust well.  I am not a chemist, so I don't know what makes what metal corrode.

3.  Leave an item outside in the weather through out the rainy season or put it out now quick while the weather is snowy.

Go for it, make those rusty things you have always been wanting to try and add to your Primitive decorating.

There are products out there that you can spray on or paint on that you can purchase.  A bottle of hydrogen peroxide=$1.00, bottle of bleach=$1.00, bottle of vinegar=$1.00, gloves=$1.00, salt=$1.00, plastic basin=$1.00, plastic spray bottle=$1.00, safety pins=$1.00==============all from the Dollar Tree.

Rust

The bible talks alot about rust, and that actually it is like a curse along with the moth, because it decays, corrupts, and breaks down things.  So why is it so popular today?  And why do I want to decorate with it!  Perhaps it is the color, a brownish, orangish, silverish tone, it goes well with other colors, it goes great with baskets and other natural textures.

More Mantles; Where do you get your inspirations

I am so into mantles, and don't know if I ever will get rid of the bug!  A great place to put all of those little nic nacs and pictures, and stuff that you have that maybe doesn't fit anywhere else in the house.  Color and Balance is somewhat the answer to you who ask "How do I decorate a mantle?"

Mantels or is it Mantles

Oh yes, the question is? is it mantels or mantles?

This is not a spelling quiz or is it?

Mantles!

I love my mantles.  I had three, now I am down to two.  I would even have one in my bedroom if I could have gotten my sons to get it up the stairs in this small colonial home.  But I had to sell that one during the recession  ugh!

I don't know where I have the love for mantles.  I didn't grow up with a fireplace in my home, but I always wanted to live in the Little House on the Prairie Days so that may be it!

Collage

DON'T get stuck on the small stuff, just keep going.  When you don't know what to do, try it all, canvas, paper, Artist Trading Cards, journal pages, draw, watercolor, cut out papers and letters, take a picture of your favorite thing, look back and see your Progress!

PORTRAIT Drawing and Photography

I have really been into portraits over the past couple of years.

Practice Practice Practice, whether it be drawing, photography, charcoal, pencil, pastel, practice practice practice; and that I will do!  Don't be critical, I know, I am working at it, I see the mistakes but you know what, I see the progress too!

 

ARTIST of the MONTH

Have you ever wondered as an artist, whether you progress through time with nothing to show?
Do you have questions about your art work, your style, and whether you are making any kind of impact
on the world, or even just locally?  After belonging to a small art group in my little town, putting art work and photographs in shows, and changing and rechanging my art studio in my home to meet my needs like buying a piece of furniture and trying to impliment it into my room to sort all of my "stuff", and then decide it doesn't work to only have to move it out and start again, not being satisfied with how it looks or feels?  Now I know if you are an artist, you know what I mean.  Well, I was asked by Artellaland or Artbundance, a program I have been working with to become a life coach, to be the "ARTIST of the MONTH" at the end of last year 2012.  "Yes" "Yes" and "Yes".  A new approach to life for me was that opportunity.  My photos and art work were posted in journals to be prompts for the writer and the life coach.  I was more than thrilled.