Busy Busy

This title represents my life. I am busy in my day job life and busy in my private life. There is never a dull moment. Sometimes I get so tired of it all I just want to go away and veg to a life somewhere with NO DRAMA!



Although life must present Drama at times, I understand that. But what I don't understand is why is there so much around me all of the time in either life? They say you get what you ask for, and I say yes for my day job life. I chose that life, so OK, that one is on me, but I did not have a lot to do on what the drama is that goes on in my private life. Those close to me will understand that statement.




OK enough of that Pity Party. As you can see from the photo, I am off in the air again this time to Whittier CA to teach a week long class to folks who want to be comfortable getting up in front of folks who want to be bus drivers, whew! I am leaving this afternoon and returning on Friday night. And the best part? I will be out of the busy private life for 5 whole days! Yippee!

Have a great artful week!

Making Up for Lost Time

OK, am waaay late in posting pictures of my last journal I completed last weekend. So here are a few:









These next few are of my new Comp Book Journal, Journal # 3:

This is the front inside cover and first page:



This is the back inside cover:



The first spread:



Spread in progress:



So this is what I have been up to lately in the artful world. I am reading two different books at this time; Homicide in Hardcover by Kate Carlisle, fiction of course and another fiction called The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe. Love these once in a while. I usually have at least 2 or 3 books going at the same time. These I bought very cheap at my closing Border's in Modesto.

I also just found out this weekend that we got the fixed route contract in Reno. Guess where I will be spending my weeks again soon!! UGH!

New Journal & The "Will Have" List

I began a new journal this past weekend. No I don't have photo's yet as I am still working on the cover's. But I will tell you that it is a Composition Book that I paid 25 cents for at Target's Back to School sale this last fall. I glued 3 pages together throughout to make strong pages, and found out they will hold up great to paint. I want to write more in this journal, so that is the goal. We will see......

I did not have a great week last week, with the day job. So I am going to do just a tad of preaching here for a sec.........Never trust that a driver will do what they are suppose to do while driving a vehicle. Always pay attention and be aware of your immediate surroundings when walking and crossing streets where traffic and you occupy the same areas! Never ASSUME! OK that is all I am going to say, but please take note of what I just said and practice making eye contact with driver's before you try to cross a street! Thanx!

I bought a new fun book this weekend, "Picture This" by Lynda Barry. Got it cheap at my closing Border's. And I bought Traci Bunker's new book, Art Journal Workshop on Amazon that was released early. Can't wait till it gets here next week.



I have begun what I am calling, The "Will Have" List or the "Save $ For" List. On this list is a few things, you guessed it, that I want! The first is to go to Teesha & Tracy Moore's Journalfest or their Play Retreat by 2013. My friend Cheryl moved close to Seattle recently and we started discussing attending in 2013. So the first thing on the list is funds for that, since it will include the price of the retreat AND airfare.

Next on the list is funds for an IPad 2. Now before ya'll go nuts, give me a sec. The main reason I want this is so I can carry a personal computer with me easier when I work. My company frowns on us doing anything personal on my work issued laptop. But before I ever actually buy one, I am going to check them out in the Apple Store here at the mall very thoroughly. They will know my name and be saying, Hi Sharon, every time I walk in the store!

I also "Want" a Monoprice Grapic's Tablet that is cheap on Amazon. Like $51.00. You can draw on the tablet and it shows on your computer screen. Very Cool!

That is all I have on the list right now. But those are enough since the first two require large amounts of $$ for.

Well I have bored you enough with my musings. I will be back next weekend, Byeeeee

More Journal Pages & Procedures

Just wanted to show you some journal pages from Journal # 2. It is almost complete and then I am going to start another, but this time in a Comp Book that I have already glued the pages together to make them tougher, for lack of a better word.

This page was dedicated to the Pink, Love and Kindness weekend recently.



This one was just a silly page. Sometimes I must do silly pages to help me dissolve the drama I have to deal with on the day job everyday!



This was another fun silly page, but when my friend Lotus brought me over these cool images that she can cut out so perfect, I had to use them. So these were my picks.



This one started with a piece of music paper. I tore it for back ground pieces and when I glued it down, I saw the line that said "Dare to Stand Alone". And since this was the time I was still trying to clean and organize my studio, I had found the little cardboard letter's, and they were perfect for this.



I have been having issue's with my neck, not being able to turn my head very much due to my degenative disc disease. A couple of weeks ago, I had to have 10, yes 10 trigger point injections with cortisone in my neck. They were suppose to last 2 months. Well that procedure lasted exactly 2 weeks. So yesterday I went to the hospital and had a cervical steriod epidural! I survived but not by much. The so called nurse, almost killed me with trying to put in an I V in the back of my hand. OMG! It hurt so much and she tried three times until I said, "OK, can you try somewhere else?" She said yes, she blew it. I am thinking, YES you did! Anyway, then she put in the side of my wrist and I didn't even feel it!

The actual epidural was a piece of cake! They knocked me stupid with stuff in my I V and I didn't really even know it was going on, even though I was sitting up on the edge of the bed.

Drum roll...........Today less than 24 hours I can turn my head almost shoulder to shoulder without any pain!! YEA!!! I am having more trouble with the bandage!! If I could dance I would! I don't want to take any chances. And I slept 8 hours! Hope this lasts at least 6 months like he said it should! Woo Hoo!! I am healed!! Well until the next one:)

Hope you are all well and journaling everyday.

Kelly Kilmer Class Weekend

Hey, I am a little late with this week's post, but I always have trouble's with my camera and laptop fighting. They don't play well together.

Anyway this weekend was spent in 5 classes for a total of 12 hours. Yippee!! Even though I don't look like it in this photo, I was excited. I look like I am praying back there against the window. Probably praying for time to crawl. Hee Hee! This is Maria'a studio in the Nile's District. She is very fortunate to even have studio space, but she deserve's it. She is the Queen! We played with building journal's and working in them with ton's of cool collage paper's and ton's of Kelly Tape! She brings SO MUCH when she teaches! I love it.

I took some pics of some journal pages that was being worked on. There were bunches of very talented people there. I saw some amazing things being created.











I took an art journal book with me to donate to the class and we did a drawing and Maria's sister visiting from Wisconsin won it. Then Kelly did 3 more drawing's and my name was picked and I won a choice of an online class OR a journal made by Kelly!! I said a journal! Of course. Yea!! I never win anything, so I was very excited.

Hope everyone had a great journaling weekend!