Slowing down…

Well, what a difference a few weeks make! Last time I posted I could hardly keep up with the creative urge; since then possibly the most creative thing I’ve done is pick which DVD to fall asleep in front of each evening. Still, the rest was appreciated. J

Motivation’s starting to perk up again now, so here’s Twenty-four:

This is one of those layout designs I always come back to - think it shows up in the last post, come to think of it. I like having a few dependables like that; I find it takes the pressure off when I'm only feeling semi-creative. And why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to, hey?

Have a great weekend  :)

Catching up...

It’s been a good week, in terms of productivity! Here we have Layouts Nineteen through Twenty-three:

The first is a “now” one, but the others are all catch-up pages. Feels good!

Was sorting out some of the final boxes leftover from moving house, and realised that the last page I’d done for my son’s album was from late 2008. So the layouts over the coming weeks may be fairly heavily Joel-based…

On a final, completely unrelated note, I just wanted to share a little bit of wonderfulness I picked up last week - biscuit cutters from Typo:

Genius!

Have a great week J

The course of creativity never did run smooth…

Back again! Life appears to be settling down a bit now, so I’m renewing the resolution of a layout a week. We’ll see….

Layout Eighteen was sparked off by this picture in a magazine:

I  loved the look and colour combination of the jade and amethyst necklace (slightly to right of centre) and since I don’t have a spare $600, I decided to channel it into a layout. I’d had these summer pics on my desk for a while (waiting for inspiration to strike) and thought they’d combine well with some sea-toned sparkle. Went with my Old-Faithful-for-multi-photos, the trusty grid, and then filled in the gaps:

I was actually pretty happy with the result – it all seemed to blend nicely with the photos and suggest summery things, like sunlight on water, etc.

And then we hit a wall.

All the bits and pieces of paper and extras I’d dug out to go with the layout just looked wrong. Really, really wrong. Everything I tried just looked faded, dull or insignificant. The layout had become a bling sample, with some photos attached.

Had to face it. It was time to start again. Telling myself sternly, “if it’s not working, it’s not working,” (to balance out the other side of my brain that was bleating, “but it took so looooong!!”), I pulled off the photos and began afresh.

On the plus side, I still liked the arrangement of the photos, so it wasn’t really starting from scratch. And being able to use the little tree badge (which I really, really liked) cheered me up no end. I’m finding I’m really drawn to that style of artwork at the moment – sort of folksy, simple and graphic; the kind of thing Kikki K does so well.

So here ‘tis; Layout Eighteen, Take Two:

Less innovative, yes, but I’m much happier with this one. My favourite layouts are always those ones where everything’s blending harmoniously into a whole, and you only notice individual elements gradually; to me, this fits the bill. And the aqua/spring green combination is a definite new favourite. Oh, and I’ve kept and stored the first background – couldn’t bear to take it apart! Will probably use it for a collection of pool photos or similar eventually.  

The whole process this time around reminded me of a quote from a book by one of my favourite authors, Susan Howatch. It’s part of a passage I’m intending to paint on to a canvas someday for the study. (That to-do list of “some day” projects is getting lengthy…)

“ ‘And when the work’s finally finished,’ I said, ‘does every step of the creation make sense? All the pain and slog and waste and mess – how do you reconcile yourself to that? Is every disaster finally justified?’

‘Every step I take – every bit of clay I touch – they’re all there in the final work. If they hadn’t happened, then this –‘ She gestured to the sculpture ‘-wouldn’t exist. In fact they had to happen for the work to emerge as it is. So in the end every major disaster, every tiny error, every wrong turning, every fragment of discarded clay, all the blood, sweat and tears – everything has meaning. I give it meaning. I reuse, reshape, recast all that goes wrong so that in the end nothing is wasted and nothing is without significance and nothing ceases to be precious to me.’ “

                                                                                   

Have a wonderful weekend J

Food for thought…

The other day I was listening to the radio in the car, and I heard something that startled me so much I actually had to pull over to get my head around it. The interviewee (didn’t catch who he was or where he hailed from, sorry) was saying that if you have:

a)      a car

b)      money in the bank

c)      a little extra in your wallet/purse

you’re in the top eight percent of the world’s wealthy.

Eight percent! Now I’m aware that my life is pretty comfortable from a global perspective and I’ve heard statistics on poverty before, but something about that one brought me up short. Maybe because those are things that I’d class as essentials, rather than extras. And I never would have guessed that I’m better off than 92% of the rest of the world. I don’t know about you, but while I’m fairly definite with my kids about the difference between “needs” vs “wants”, I’m not always so good at distinguishing it for myself! (Particularly when the end-of-financial-year-sales kick in…)

Frankly, it inspired a “Pollyanna / count your blessings” moment. Which brings us to Layout Seventeen:

Happily, I re-discovered my album-for-me a week or two ago. (Unpacking those last few boxes takes a while, huh?) This is where all my contemplative / experimental / don’t fit anywhere else layouts go. I’m hesitant to call it an art journal because so far it’s really just scrapping, but it pretty much fulfils that role. Good fun – and satisfying.

On a final note, I need some advice. I finally worked out how to do a blog background / header (hurrah for on-line tutorials!), but do you think I could find how to get rid of the old background? I could not. So if any of you who are more technically-minded than me – which appears to be anyone over the age of oh, say, four – could help me out, it would be very much appreciated!

Happy scrapping!

Layout Sixteen

Well, it has been a while since I last visited Blogland! I think this year’s goal of one-layout-a-week has well and truly fallen by the wayside, although not as badly as any of the fitness aspirations (which I’m starting to suspect I only ever include to make all my other goals look slightly more achieved than they actually are). Never mind; creativity always has peaks and troughs.

Managed to get a bit of playtime in yesterday though, so here’s Layout Sixteen:

Several months ago (back when fitness was still on the agenda), I was out for an early morning walk on what promised to be a pretty dreary day weather-wise, and the sunrise was a really unusual and striking deep yellow and steel grey. I’ve been waiting for a chance to play with that colour combination ever since; I’d never think of putting those two together on my own. It was fun, too – might set myself a few more challenges of that kind.

Until next time, then :)

Less IS more...

A couple of years age I read something Ali Edwards wrote about creativity and stash quantity. She said that she'd found a really large stash of stuff can hamper her creativity; rather than actually creating, she'd spend the time sorting through, trying to find stuff, or even losing things in the clutter. At the time, I dismissed it, thinking, "Less is more? No, more is more..."

But over the past week and a half of unpacking my stored stuff - very exciting! - it dawned on me, looking at the sheer volume of product covering the study floor, that if I scrapbooked every day for the next few years, I still might not use it all up. Now, I don't think I'm particularly extravagant when it comes to buying supplies, but after ten years of collecting, the stuff really does pile up. Plus, it really was hard to find things I wanted.

So, as usual, Guru Ali was right. It was time to cull. Any double ups of a product....culled! Anything I couldn't immediately see how I'd use use.....culled! Anything I'd bought more than three years ago and hadn't yet used....culled! And do you know what? It felt fantastic! Now, I can find everything easily, and I have a stash consisting solely of things I love and can't wait to use. All very good. :)

Something else exciting (to me, at least) - I just realised I missed a layout when counting last time. So, last post was Fourteen, not Thirteen, and I'm not as far behind as I thought. :)  Which brings us to Layout Fifteen:

(Apologies for the slightly wonky photo there...) I've made a discovery over the last nine months of not having supplies: I really love scrapbooking recent photos. I used to be a strictly chronological kind of gal, but I really like hopping between the old and new. It's much easier to record memories while they're still fresh, huh?

And now, housework calls...Happy rest of the week to you and yours :)

Virginia Woolf was on to something,,,

Well, admittedly, a room of one's own is not a "must", exactly, but after ten years of scrapping on the dining room table, it's a pretty wonderful thing to have! Yes, we have officially Escaped to the Country, and after the frenzy of packing, moving and unpacking (nearly done), the whole family is loving the new house and land.

We were really blessed these past nine months to have had the rental we did  – excellent location and extremely accommodating landlord. That being said, I will not miss:

1. Freight trains at 4am
2. 3 kids in one bedroom
3. Living on a building site

The kids themselves, not being particularly thrilled by the wonderful cafes and shops nearby that were the enjoyable silver lining for us, found it a pretty challenging time. So I thought I'd make Layout Thirteen a "thank you" one to them, for how well they made the best of it all. Here 'tis:

It's been lovely to watch their excitement in their new home :) - they've earned it!

Layout Thirteen....just worked out that if I was doing one a week this year, I 'd be up to No. Eighteen. Still, moving house is a pretty good excuse to be behind. And think of all the fun of catching up, especially since I have my own room to do it in....:)

And now off to finish unpacking the study....