River Bend Ranch - Patty Van Dorin

Rose Trellis - New Rubber Stamps

Just in time for the weekend, the new rubber stamps have arrived!!!!!!

I am so excited to finally have these in my little ink stained hands.
so not much to say because I am off headed to the studio to play

This sheet of rubber stamps features several large to smaller focus stamps plus many small accent stamps (don't you just love those little straight pins!!!). These stamps are perfect for layering stamped images and to use as a single focal stamp. 

These stamps are available on the web site Tuscan Rose.

Raspberry Schnapps and Lemonade

Today's journal page
just the page, no time until tonight to get some journaling on this one.

and in my rush today, I broke off this flowering stem from an orchid plant I have on my work desk. With the broken stem in hand, I made this quickie arrangement with the flowers and some bottles from a collection that was near at hand.

The simple beauty of this little flower and bottle arrangement was enough to make me slow down and appreciate some favorite things.

I am in love with limey green orchids and have several in different color combos. This particular orchid reminds me of raspberry schnapps and lemonade, a favorite summer drink. Even though now it's officially autumn, it is this hot and humid here in south Texas. Tonight may be a good night for some spiked lemonade. It may help with the fact that the cost to fix my car (see earlier post) is going to be more than the mileage I have on the car...that just plain hurts.

hooked on an 8 second ride

just a few journal pages to share today

sometimes I try and use the original art work or photos in the calendar book I am using for this journal

and sometimes I just fill the pages with paper and junk mail

The page above is glued and ready for journal entries.
Below is a page from the ledger book I am using as my new journal. I really like working on loose pages and it opens up the opportunity to sew, add fabric and other cool embellishments.

I found the stitchery at a local thrift shop and knew I had the perfect photo to add to it. Sometimes its good just to have fun.

***song lyrics "Hooked on an 8 Second Ride" by Chris Ledoux***

so have you seen the great vintage inspired Halloween fabric by Moda?!!!

When I heard about this fabric, I knew I would had to have some. Everything is just perfect about it. I did a Google search and found an eBay listing for this fabric. So I bought a yard and as I was paying for the fabric, I wondered where the seller was located because there was sales tax with this purchase.

So leave it to me to buy fabric on eBay from a store that is 10 miles up the freeway from me. Oh well, I spent a whole lot less on shipping than if I had made a trip to the store.  I would have spent a fortune on fabric if I had went into their store. I know my weakness and I would never have been able to walk out with just one yard of fabric.

today's self portrait or how not to start your day

I have been toying with the idea of doing a weekly self portrait journal challenge. If this was something I had definitely decided on, I found the opportunity to take this weeks self portrait.

This is how I started my morning with my neighbor ringing my doorbell to tell me his wife just backed up into my car.

I was told to get a photo of the damage and as I was taking the picture I realized it was a photo op for a self portrait. Don't you love the fun house mirror look of my reflection in the front panel of my car. AND NO I was NOT a stand in double for Cousin It on "The Monsters"...give me a break on the hair it was windy plus the humidity is terrible today.

This has been a tough year for me with cars. In January my car was stolen and I had high hopes that with my new car I could make it an entire year with no problems. No such luck.

On the positive note, I just started reading "The Echo Maker" by Richard Powers and so far it's one of those hard to put down books.

Flight of the Rhinestone Swallow

another journal finished at least finished for today.

I used my favorite vintage flocked wallpaper on the cover. I am still contemplating what else if anything I want to add to the cover.

This is the final set of pages. There is tiny writing on the left page but I kept getting too much glare to get a good picture.

this red rose stencil page I had worked on in July but added more to it today.

I love old cloudy, chippy, rusty bottles. This one had a bonus with it's original rusty lid. I have been saving this bottle for a long time just waiting for a perfect little trinket. When I found this rhinestone swallow, I knew they were a perfect match.

More Basic Grey

The web site has just been updated with a couple more of those great 6 by 6 Basic Grey paper packs

and also added are four different Basic Grey Rub Ons

Available on the Tuscan Rose web site (click here to go to site)

Sunday and AC

Spending a lazy day inside enjoying some air conditioning doing a bit of reading, a bit of working in the journal and an ice cold diet Dr. Pepper.  That's just about as good as it gets!!!!!!!!!!

a few more journal pages from my daily visual journal

and I am off to work in the last of the stencil journal which is almost ready to have the cover worked on.

constant vigilance

not much going on other than what seems to be constant rain. The past two days, I have been down with sore throat and assorted nasties but I have worked a bit in the journals.

what a treat it was to be able to lie in bed not feeling well and listen to an audio book on the ipod. Yesterday I finished "What the Dead Know" which was very good.

below is the second to last set of pages in my stencil journal. what a learning experience spray painting stencils has been.

still lots of little things to do and add to the pages yet but the bulk of the journal is finished.

revery

I have been completely obsessed with working in my journals lately to the exclusion of everything else.
Yesterday, I had a brief and I do say brief break in the rain, so I was able to get outside with stencil spray painting. The lime green plant stand usually holds pots of orchids and not wet stencils but since the plants are indoors because they are blooming it seemed like a good "wet stencil stand".

The large kitty liter bucket works great for toting cans of spray paint. Now just to find a good way to store all the stencils, for now they reside in a large cardboard flat.

Don't you just love how the stencils get all covered with layers of paint, like this bee stencil.  I think I will attach the actual stencils to journal pages. I think it would look good layered over a text page and attached with some eyelets or brads.

and some journal pages. I have several pages in various stages of completion and will be posting a bunch more in the upcoming week.

and the daily journal that I haven't worked in for a couple of days

Check out this unusual triangle shaped cabinet. I have had it in the garage for 10 years. It has sat there waiting, I had painted the outside white but when faced with the task of painting the interior and all those shelves...well it just kept getting pushed to the back.  Last week I dug it out, gave it a good cleaning and found a spot for it in my studio. I love all the different sized shelves and now I am on a quest to find an interesting assortment of boxes to fit on the shelves.

So maybe the inside will never get painted and maybe I will come to appreciate the dark olive paint that it has.

My new favorite thing: yesterday I was finally able to figure out how to download audio books from my public library onto my home computer. So now I have the best of both when working in my studio - working in journals and listening to audio books.  Does it get any better!!!!!!!!!!!