Art Journal Prompts

Hello friends!

How many of you have an art journal?  I guess I have always done an art journal because I have always kept a sketch pad of random artwork, I just didn't realize it was called an ART JOURNAL.  I use it to keep artwork that goes with feelings, sometimes that is a rush drawing or quick sketch because I am just needing a creative outlet and sometimes it is a long process because I need a stress reliever.  

Last year I wanted to do an art journal that was more like a memoir, I am not going to show you too much of it, because I want my kids to be the first to read it (you know afterward).  The inspiration for this memoir book were two books called The War Bride's Scrapbook by Caroline Preston and Century Girl: 100 years in the life of Doris Eaton Travis by Lauren Redniss.  To say I love these books would be a gross understatement.  The illustrations are incredible and Lauren's book is EXACTLY what I have always dreamed of a book looking like, and how I make my scrapbooks.  Century Girl is non-fiction and  features a lot of photos from Doris's life and wraps them around illustrations. War Brides is a fiction book and features ephemera and lots of colorful artwork.  Both book are completely worth a gander (also check out all of Caroline's books).

My first illustrated book is my life from "birthish" to present day. 

Since I have gone about as far as I can go right now, I have started a second illustrated book.  This one has the theme of Michelle's Musings (that may be the title).  The "brand" is all about being random,  FBSP (fly by the seat of pants) and completely off the wall, this book will be full of that type of stuff. I have started with a "Strange Alphabet".  I call it that because each letter is an odd topic and not your typical "A stands for Apple" kind of book.  Sometimes the topic makes sense and other times you may think I am a lunatic (wait, you may already think that of me). I am more willing to share this one with the world in it's entirety where I am keeping the other one for my kids.  

If you art journal I would so love to see some of your work.  Remember there is no right way so if you don't journal, why don't you?  This is a non-judging, don't show anyone unless you want area where you can be free, creative and honest. If you are struggling with an issue, draw or paint it!  If you are excited about that promotion, draw it.  If you love that song and want to create about it, do it!!! You can use as little or a much supplies as you want.  You really only need to start with a pencil and a piece of paper...let your imagination take you from there. 

 

A new ride

In 2005 my husband went to Driver Motors in Mayfield while I was at work.  He brought home a 2004 Chrysler Sebring.  I fell in love instantly.  It drove like my Saturn SL2 that was totaled by a woman would did not follow the laws of a stop sign.  It was small like that car and drove wonderfully.  I had the dealer put on a keyless entry system and we signed the papers.  Over the years, she was a good car.  In the last couple of years we began to have computer problems with her.  The computer was telling the car that things were wrong and they were not.  The solution a new computer at $2500.  That wasn't going to happen because the car might be worth $1000.  So we drove on and continued to have issues with the check engine light and the emissions and really there were no problems it was all computer related. Back to the shop we go, the dealer called in a Chrysler expert and it rigged up the computer to stop sending out signals and we were on our way.  Our dreams were to get two more years out of the car.  This was last year.

 A couple of weeks ago, my daughter was driving to the other side of Paducah when my little Sebring decided to die.  I mean DIE!  So dead it had to be replaced.  John and I began a search for a cheap car with low miles.  Why?  We were planning on taking the trip of a lifetime in April, a trip to Hawaii.  This just didn't pan out.  A car with low miles and low price just wasn't to be found so we talked about it and decided 10 days in Hawaii would be great, but we could have this car for 10 years like we had the Sebring.  We upped the budget and cancelled the trip.

We looked high and low for the right fit.  I called a dealership in Madisonville because I wanted to look at a Ford Fusion they had on their lot.  The dude on the phone thought I said Nissan instead of Fusion.  It was fine, and turned out to be fate.  I had not looked at a Nissan.  John had mentioned it, but that's really as far as we got.  We drove the car and fell in love.  I loved the engine, loved the feel and loved the get up and go.  It is bigger than my Sebring, but I still can feel like I'm driving that little car.  Here are some pictures of the new member of the family.

I have not gotten possession yet.  There were a few things I wanted done before I  brought it home.  The car is still in Madisonville going through the Michelle approval process.  I got the call today that the car is ready and the dealer (Greg) will try to deliver tomorrow (barring the roads clear up enough for him to get here).  I am very excited to see her once again.  Wonder what we will name her?



















Here are some photos of the new member of the family. 

This could only happen to me

So I am a creature of habit...every Saturday morning, I get up and go to the bathroom.  There I brush my teeth and comb my hair and put on my clothes.  After that, I walk down the hall (still brushing my teeth) and feed the cat because usually at this point she is begging.  Yesterday however she was not begging and slowly I made my way to the kitchen.  I was finishing up with the brushing of my teeth. I spit in the kitchen sink, tore off a paper towel and placed it on the bar.  I rinsed my toothbrush and placed it on the paper towel.  UH, the kitchen is a mess. I started seeing things that needed to be picked up.  I started with the corner of the bar.  Here there was a jug of Hawaiian punch, 3 tomatoes, a butter dish, and a toy snake.  I reach for the toy snake, all the while getting angry with my son for leaving his toys on my kitchen counter and it MOVES!!! I scream LOUDLY because at this point I realize...this is not Trevor's toy snake...there is a snake in my house.  I run down the hall and throw open the bedroom door. John is at this point sitting up in bed because he heard me scream.  I tell him there is a snake in the kitchen and he runs to the kitchen.  At this point, the snake has left the bar and we can't find it.  Callie is in the utility room looking funny and we figure out that he is in there.  He was around Callie's food bowl. 

We thought about what to do. I went next door to the game cop's house and he was asleep.  So John decided to trap him in one of Hannah's plastic drawers.  Then I pulled the board out from between Trevor's mattresses and John figured out a way to get the board under the drawer.  In the process, he cut part of the snakes tail off and that snake was very angry with him.  Together we picked up the board and the box and placed it into the back of the truck and John got into the truck and I drove to an open field.....there we left that little bugger go.  The End!

In the Ring

I don't know the terms, don't pretend to understand what is happening...I just know that on Monday and Friday nights my house becomes a Wrestlemania ring. I have a son that not only watches the matches but creates his own during the show. They don't miss an episode. I am telling you it has gotten so bad that even I can recognize a couple of the wrestlers. Not only that I can quote the tag line of a couple of the wrestlers. This is not good!!! I still hate to watch it, but it is slowly imprinting on my brain. Quite like Harry Potter craving "I will not tell lies" into his hand.

This week my son spent his hard earned cash on wrestling figures. And they were used ones...what is this coming too? He sports shirts. plays with the action figures and the last thing is that poor little spidey. Spidey is about 12 years old (having been Tyler's before he came to Trevor) and he WAS in good shape when he came to live with us in 2007. For a while spidey sat on the bed, unattended, then one day....off the bed he flew...He was being body slammed into the floor by a small boy. The boy was shouting "I pinned you". Life for spidey changed a lot. He was soon to be the victim of all the neighborhood boys. They took turns wrestling poor little Spiderman. One day, Spidey had to go to the hospital to have his sides sewn up. Since then he has had a foot worked on and a neck. He is doing well as of today. Actually, for a couple of days, he has been left alone. A John Cena action figure has entered the house and new matches are going down.

I never dreamed my son would be a wrestler, not only that he does bodily harm to defenseless spidermen. One day spidey will get fed up and choke slam (is that a term?) Trevor onto the floor...until then have needle will travel.

My vocabulary words

Here are words and phrases that I use often and their meanings....

1. SHUT UP!-stop right now..that is unbelievable.

2. Flavor-a word used to describe a scent of air freshener..."what flavor of spray do you want"

3. Tootmister-someone who passes gas a lot.

4. Evil cat-a cat that bites for no reason.

5. J.R.-ed--meaning someone has messed you up like J.R. Ewing would do to someone.

6. Oh no you didn't-i should not have to explain this.

7. Whatcha talking about Willis?-borrowed from Arnold Drummand, an oldie but a constant goodie. I shall use this forever.

8. Amazing-epic...very good, the best.

9. Fendfer-when your family members prepare their own dinner!

10. Someone better be dead-what you say to someone who calls after 9pm and before 3am

11. No noticer-someone who thinks I can change my plans at a minutes notice...like schools who tells you the day before about a program....last minute meetings...people I an a planner...even plan my book reading time.

12. On crack-an expression used to explain NUTTY behavior, not a person actually on crack.

13. Old elvis-my elvis, the 1970's elvis.

14. Death day-The anniversary of the death of someone....usually used on conjunction with a celebrity.

15. Duos pumpkin-what you say to the carnival waiter on pumpkin soup night...other times you day tris pumpkin...even have said quarto pumpkin.

16. Travel folder-my dear little wonder woman folder that always has some type of travel stuff in it. Like an upcoming trip, boarding passes, trip itineraries, shore excursion plans, etc......

17. Kleenex-actually is a puffs plus with lotion and I always have some.

18. Tcb- taking care of brushing...i brush my teeth a lot.

19. Have you been dropped?-trevors therapy drops...i never can remember if we have applied them.

20. Bed-what I am doing now...night

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the summer of zanniness

Yeah, it's been a little bit of a wild summer. We have gone to Alaska (which was the highlight), we took a trip to a National Park (Mammoth Cave), saw a couple of Cardinals games, spent a day at Holiday World, and spent lots of time in the pool. I have accomplished things that I wanted to do....paint a glacier, read a book by John Muir, caught up on all my scrapbooking, designed some 12 x 12 paper of my own, made a necklace (yeah I did not enjoy this), worked on finishing the painting in my house, designed and stitched my very own blackwork pattern, and bought tickets to my first ever teeny bopper concert.

Well, it has been a crazy summer. Why? What would I have in my life to be crazy? ME? Seriously, you are asking me? Ok here goes:
1. Husband backed into a parking sign at a ballgame
2. Son wrestled with his friends all the time, as a matter of a fact for 3 weeks in a row we had to get them adjusted.....well, that is until they broke.
3. For the first time in 17 years, I was NOT able to put anything into the local/state fair (this was very sad...I had to work so I could not go enter the stuff).
4. I began to be allergic to everything including the sun. This was the first year that I went to watch my son play baseball and had to take rash cream so that I could stay outside.
5. Realized I have become absolutely nuts about large chunks of ICE!
6. Read over 50 books since I got Laputa on my phone. (thanks Kelley Kelly)
7. Not looking forward to a football game for my high school reunion (I do NOT like football...NOT one bit)
8. My son completed his last year on the pitching machine.
9. My daughter has a teenager attitude.
10. Will never again dig in flower beds...I am tired of breaking out for weeks!
11. Spent almost $100 in an Alaskan cross stitch store (cause you know there are NOT any around here).
12. Realized that my kids need to see MORE of America...and see what a great place it is.
13. Actually THOUGHT about trying camping...in a cabin...yeah maybe....I will think about it again next year.
14. Realized that the volcanoes of Hawaii are closer than I ever imagined.
15. Fell more in love with my husband than before....(gag me with a spoon, sorry to gross you out, but it's true---He is a good guy).
16. Had many kids spend the night with us...our house is a regular Champion Inn.
17. My name is Michelle and I cannot stop downloading ebooks.
18. Got stopped by the cops because my kids were screaming in my car.
19. Tried for the second year in a row to use the time share points in Gatlinburg....did not work! Do they ever have rooms there?
20. My family may be crazy, nutty, strange, loud, obnoxious, and get me pulled over by cops, but they are mine and I love them. I would not trade them for the world.

A toilet bowl story

Today I was sitting on the couch doing my disney plans...finalizing the confirmations...and just generally being busy...and my husband comes into the living room. "Come here right now" he states in a very firm voice. Who knows what he wanted, so I ignored him. He said "come here NOW!" I get up and follow him..The bathroom door is closed. "open the door" he says. I open the door and say "what". I was thinking probably the pipes were stopped up or something. I told him that I did not see anything. He angled my head to look at the back of the toilet...on the toilet brush was a MOUSE! A mouse with very large eyes and a tail at least 5 inches long....BLAH!!! I ran to grab the camera, and he ran to grab the cat. I told him the cat could not do anything she had no claws. His reasoning was that she bites every single person, why would she not bite this thing. Well, I get the camera ready and the cat starts looking at the mouse. Interested she is...she goes up to the mouse and the mouse jumps from the brush to the plumbing pipe. They just look at each other. John threw a cup at the mouse and it started running....so did I!!! I got out of the bathroom as fast as I could. I heard all types of noise coming out of there. I opened the door at one point and saw all types of stuff all over the place. I just got tired of waiting and needed to scrapbook anyway, so I left for good. About 20 minutes later, john came out of the bathroom carrying a toilet wipe box. I asked him where the mouse was and he handed me the box. I reached for it and it moved! The stinking mouse was in that box. I grabbed the duct tape and taped it shut!!! TIGHT!!! And he placed it in the trash can. In just about 5 minutes, Emily came over and I was telling the story. Emily said, "where is the mouse?" "In the trash can" I told her. Golly gee, if that kid did not go to the trash and remove it and bring it back into my house. GET OUT OF HERE!!!! She begged her mom to take it home and her mom said no, but she did take her to a field to release it in the wild. The cat? The cat keeps going back to the bathroom, she is in mourning of her long gone friend...and if he comes back I will KILL him.