Making Time

It's been a busy week and it seems it should be Friday already. Oh well, tomorrow will come soon enough. We have had the plumber here this week for 2 days replacing our old galvanized pipe with new PVC for our incoming water. Amazing what new pipes will do for your water pressure. We actually can use our sprayer kitchen facet. I just wanted to start spraying everything although I did end up with quite a bit on myself versus the dishes. Now to remember to not have it on full blast.

I did make time for playing in my studio yesterday and actually worked in my art journal and painted a painting.

This painting didn't start out as flowers but that's how it ended up and I really like it. The colors just pop and look so much better than the picture.

This is just one page of a two page spread but the other page is just my writing that is pretty boring.

Today was all about making small drawstring bags for the kids at Mary Bridge Children's Hospital and then I decided to make a new hand cream and lip balm. Both turned out fabulous and even DH thought the cream was good and he is picky....no greasy stuff for him.

This was the first time that I tried to make lip balm and I don't know how I could make it better. I added some Peppermint essential oil for just a little zing.  BTW, if you want the recipe...so easy, see the bottom of this post. I ordered some of these lip balm tubes and filled them as directed but dang the oils cooled so fast I had to keep reheating it in the microwave in short bursts to get it to pour out evenly and not in clumps. I guess it didn't help that my mother was over and I was distracted and let it get too cool to start with. Duh.

I made this cream specifically for DH but I really like it and will probably put some in a jar for me to use on my face...I may even add some EO's for a little bit more added benefit. This is a completely unscented cream.

If you are interested in making your own face and body creams and lotions thesage.com has some great recipes a forum and a blog.

As promised here is the lip balm recipe I used. It is important that you have a food type scale to weigh the ingredients. Measure all and put in a microwave safe (glass) measuring cup and microwave in short bursts until all the solids are melted.

Beeswax (grated) .4 ounces

Coconut oil .25 ounces

Avocado Butter .25 ounces

Castor Oil .2 ounces

Sweet Almond Oil .6 ounces

Illipe Butter .15 ounces

Kokum Butter .15 ounces

This filled 10 tubes and one little jar. You will need to let it cool a bit before adding any essential oils or pouring into the tubes. You could also use little tins or pots. I like the convenience of the tubes and I think for  gifts they will go over well.

Here is a link to a basic recipe that you can customize with what you have on hand.  http://www.thesage.com/recipes/recipes.php?.State=Display&id=19 Most ingredients you can find at any heath food store such as the beeswax, coconut oil, sweet almond oil and the castor oil. For the more exotic butters you might have to order those on-line.

Have fun.

I'm Allowed

So, I've been working in an art journal and have a hard time writing over my art. I don't know, am I crazy it is after all in a journal and not on a canvas? So, this week I gave myself permission to just do the art and not write if I don't want to. So far this week, three pages done and in the past it would have taken me 2 weeks to fill 3 pages. I'm feeling a little bit better about this and it does help me learn new techniques.

This week was all about finding inspiration from Donna Downey. You can check out her blog HERE. She has a great video each Wednesday and a collage on Monday.

This one is a collage of postage stamps that I painted over which I think gives it a cool texture. I'm just calling it Abstract Flowers. This one is available for sale as prints or cards on Deviant Art. http://djam50.deviantart.com/#/d53dfsl  I already ordered some cards of this one, so some of my special friends just might get this in the mail from me.

Another abstract painting of a leaf. This one is also available as print or cards. http://djam50.deviantart.com/#/d53dh3a

This one I finished today... more leaves. I still need to scan it (this is just from my camera but it will be up on Deviant Art soon).

I hope everyone is having a great week. I'll try to post more pictures later this week.

Journaling - Layers

Yes, I know it's been awhile since I have written a post or shared some of my art but I am still here. For the past several weeks I have been knee deep in jewelry.. so I guess you could say I was still doing art.

I just signed up for the Book of Days premium (check out the link on the right hand side) and have been reading so much and ready to get into some of the special lessons Effy has for us there. But first, I did clean off my crafting table and get all my wonderful paints and supplies out to do some more journaling. I just finished this page today and my intention was to do some layering of paint and texture..which I did but the page spoke to me or maybe it was my Muse and she wanted to say a bit more about Layers.

I wrote "It is about more than what is in the book or what is on the paper. It is digging deeper into what we hold precious, the wrinkles we encounter in life. As we dig, when do we find our soul?"

We all are multi-faceted and have many layers to our life, some of us encounter obstacles or wrinkles and for others it is smooth sailing. We have bumpy roads which cause us to question our decisions and sometimes to make changes. Art is Life and Life is Art. I'm sure someone somewhere said this, I just can't remember who.

I believe we should embrace life with all it's layers and celebrate the choices we made getting there. It's never easy but it should be your choice and in the end, what makes you happy. If you aren't happy, then change the course of your life or add a new layer.

This page started out with just some gesso on paper and with some paint, collage and pen, I changed it. Just think of what you could do with your life with just a little paint.

Have fun and create ART.

Into Faces

As you can tell from my last post and now this one, I'm into faces. I belong to a Facebook group that is trying to do 29 Faces for the month of May. So far I've only done 3 but I may do another one today. I figure if I can do 29 or more they may start looking like something.

This first one is done with acrylic paint on canvas board and the other two are just pencil sketches.

I'm not sure that precision is my strong point for faces so I may go more towards the whimsical. We will see.

Have a great day and enjoy your Art.