art journaling, a personal historical perspective... part 1

My Art Journaling Journey to date: A Retrospective- Part 1... (lol!!)

(photo heavy post)

This post is a bit of a 'walk down memory lane' about how I got started in art journaling. Where did this come from, you might ask? Well, I took one of my journals to work with me last week where I got some mixed reactions: a few strange looks, a few interested ones, and a couple 'hey, that's really cool!' comments. So, I thought I'd take a look back at where I came from art-wise, and how it came to be that a 43-year old woman would bring gelly roll pens to work so she could doodle during her break! Let's see if I can connect the dots (pun intended- lol!), shall we?

From a journaling sense, I've always loved notebooks and school supplies, and I think I tried keeping a diary off and on, as most adolescents do... I'd find a cool notebook, write a dorky-sounding entry or two in it, then abandon it. My grandmother kept a journal / diary as long as I could remember, and I had always found it fascinating to see what she had written; it was neat to go back and read things like the entry that said she was watching my brother and sister because my mom was at the hospital waiting to deliver my other sister!! Even with that, I never kept up with my own journaling. 

Fast forward to my mid-30s during my treatment for depression, where my counselor suggested journaling.  So I picked it up again using regular spiral notebooks. It was therapeutic, but writing in long-hand is slow, so while I was writing I would get 'out of the moment' and start to think too much about what I was writing (if you know what I mean), and it would get awkward again. After doing this for a couple years I wrote more sporadically, then finally quit altogether.

Artistically, I started out doing card-making with rubber stamps, then moved into traditional scrapbooking using photos, and dabbled in other things like making Artist Trading cards (2.5x3.5 inches) and inchies (1x1 inch pieces of artwork). After I moved to Phoenix, I realized I could attend Art Unraveled, a week-long art event that includes workshops on all sorts of things, taught by instructors from all over the country.That year (2007) I took three classes); one of them was called 'Off the Wall' and was taught by Kelly Kilmer. (little did I know that this class would basically change my life, and what I thought about journaling! and I'm being totally serious about that... lol!) 


I remember some aspects of the class quite vividly... some people brought their journals to work in, but for those of us who didn't have one, Kelly handed out large sheets of paper to work on (like, 20x30 inches large). I remember being scared to death of that paper!!! seriously! LOL! I had never worked on anything larger than a 4.25 x 5.5 inch card, or at the most, a 12x12 scrapbook page! She suggested tearing it into smaller pieces and starting with that. (I was concerned that since I didn't have a paper cutter, it wouldn't be straight-- LOL again: I needed some loosening up, didn't I?!?) 

Anyway, this is one of the pages I made in that class: the techniques taught (I think) were how the paint fades from dark to light across the page, and the placement of the collage elements that draw your eye across the page. I like this page alot since it's one of my first efforts, and I have it hanging up in my craft room.

This page is another reminder of one of the other things I remember very vividly about that first class: it's collaged paper, paint, rubber stamps, and other things that create layers, texture, and interest on the page. I remember my overwhelming feeling about starting it was, "what am I supposed to do?" and "what if I do it wrong?" Of course, there is no 'wrong' in any of this process, and you can do anything you want to do, but that's something I (being a perfectionist from way back) hadn't learned yet! This page also stays in my craft room, to remind me of those things.

graffiti-style journal #1

I liked what I did in that class, so when Kelly came to Scottsdale in the fall to teach classes at a local store (Frenzy Stamper), I went back for more. This time, we worked with paint, stenciling, mark-making, and book-making to make two small pamphlet stitched books. Again, these were all things that were very foreign to me at the time, but I was starting to learn that I liked getting messy with paper, paint and glue!! 

graffiti-style journal #2

After that I decided to start my own journal. And no, I didn't use the ones I made in the class; I think I didn't want to 'mess them up' or something... just one of those hang-ups I still had about perfection! Instead, I used a 99-cent composition notebook. Cheap, yes- but in retrospect, I really wouldn't recommend it, especially not for someone just starting out. The pages are extremely thin and because of that they don't take paint well- the paper gets really wet and can warp or even rip. (I was sometimes frustrated that I couldn't get the pages to look as good as I wanted them to, and now I realize that a large part of that was due to the paper.)

Here are the first completed pages in my composition book journal-- they turned out very 'scrapbook-ish' looking in my opinion. At this point, I still hadn't worked out my art journaling style. Plus, pretty much the only supplies I had at that point were acrylic paint, a few metallic pens, and Sharpie markers. (While Sharpie markers have their place, I've found that there are so many fun supplies out there to use, lol!) The other things that's 'scrapbook-ish' about these pages is that the writing is very much 'who, what, where, when' type of writing, much like the matter-of-fact journaling I do on my scrapbook pages. I had to work my way into writing on these pages like I had done in my earlier, written journals.


for me, art journaling sort of encompasses the best of written journaling, but better-- when I get into the flow of a page, making the art on the page (backgrounds, collaged paper, pen detailing, etc) is similar to meditation. 


Some pages are more about the words, like this one:

Some pages are purely about getting emotions onto the page, like this one made earlier this spring after I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer: 

To me, there aren't any words needed on this page: the colors, shapes, and feeling of this page captured what I needed it to when I made it.


Some pages have plenty of meditative penwork and doodled details like the details on this one:

Some pages are purely about cutting and gluing pieces of paper (meditative, again) to other pieces of paper, like this one:

 Remember what it was like in kindergarten to use the scissors, paste, and crayons? Who said we have to give that up when we 'grow up,' anyway?? Not me! For me, art journaling isn't about 'making pretty pages' at all (although sometimes they may turn out that way, that's not my goal); it's about using the art as a way to get out my emotions and document my thoughts and emotions in a visual way. (plus, why should school kids get to use all the fun supplies, anyway?!? haha!!)

if you made it this far, thanks for reading the entire thing! I recently realized just how many journals I actually have, so I think they deserve a post of their own, which will be Part 2-- coming soon to a blog near you.   :D

AU swap page madness

This was the scene in our house last week as I scrambled to finish my pages for the Art Unraveled Technique chunky book swap. I was very ambitious in my page design, so it took more time than I thought (of course, like everything). I made 30 pages total, 4 x 4 inches, but they were painted on both sides (all slightly different abstract designs), and each page also had an ATC-sized (2.5 x 3.5 inches) mini-book containing 10 pages, decorated with art related quotes and other ephemera.

So, the last night before the mailing deadline, the dining room table looked like Hurricane Paper had hit, and it was definitely a Category 5! Every space was covered, and most of it was more than one layer... I was looking for my collected postage stamps, or the cigar bands, and would have to lift up four or piles of paper, scraps, and dyed paper towels before I'd find them. I work best when I can see my supplies (unfortunately, though, working this way means everything ends up piled around my work space).

But I got them finished, and packaged for shipping, as you can see below. (I would have liked to do more decorating in the mini-books, but I had to draw the line somewhere.) The return pages have already been sent out,; I got mine already (since the hostess is in the Phoenix area) and they're great!! All the pages are inspired by techniques learned in various classes, and they range from funky fabric bead decorations to etched metal and aged patinas. The swap hostess even made wonderful decorated covers for us, so all we have to do is bind the book together, in any fashion we choose.I don't want to show them just yet, though; I want to wait a little longer to give the mail a chance to catch up to farther-away participants! (so, you'll have to wait, but I promise to show them soon...)

I also have been working in my journals, since I had all the paint and paper out... the pages below are decorated with a very simple stamp that I got for free- a wine cork! Well, okay, not free, technically, since we had to buy (and drink!!) the wine, but they do make great impressions. Some people also use corks to make some pretty neat carved stamp designs, but I haven't ventured into this yet; it's a pretty small space for carving, in my opinion.

I use coated paper plates as paint palettes; I squeeze 4-6 colors onto the plate, and leave small spaces for mixing the different shades. Eventually the colors get a bit mixed up, so these circles are swirls of marbled acrylic from the paint leftovers on my "palette" (the paper plate).

I may do more (painting, stamping, etc) to these pages before I journal on them, or not... I tend to prepare backgrounds, then let them "sit" for a while till I get inspiration for journaling on them, or inspiration for the next layer of color.

a weekend in pictures-

Before: a creative project of a different sort- After: (oatmeal scotchies bar cookies... very tasty!)

It's mine!!

No, it's mine!!

Glimpses of my desk- Art Unraveled Chunky Book Swap Pages, in progress:

backgrounds, bookbinding thread, and printed quotes:

paint, glue, rubber stamps, and various papers... It doesn't look like much right now, I know, but I know where it all is! (or at least most of it, anyway...)

how did that happen?? (a long post... you've been warned!)

(edited a few minor spelling errors- thanks to my BF, who pointed them out to me! It still surprises me sometimes that he- or anyone else, really- reads my blog... does anyone else feel this way sometimes??)

It went from being summer in Arizona (regular daytime high temps of 105F +) to fall (it's only supposed to be in the high 70s today...) in the blink of an eye! It was nice to finally see the end of the summer oven-like temps, though... waiting for the end of summer here is similar to waiting for spring back in the midwest- you're sick of the "same-ness" of the days, and can't wait for a change. At least here it's sunny most of the time instead of cloudy and gray, but to me, even sun gets boring after a while. Pretty soon, I'll be complaining that it's too cold!

(Anything under 70 F is cold to me; yes, I know I'm now officially a wimp when it comes to cold temperatures.) Hard to believe I used to live where you had to scrape frost off the windshield and let the car warm up for 15-20 minutes before it was even warm enough to sit down on the seat! I'll take hot over cold any day, now... you can always crank up the A/C, but I remember times when it took me two hours to shovel my driveway, and it seemed like I'd never be warm again!

And how did I go from being "afraid" of art journaling, worried about what kind of journal to buy, afraid of the white, blank page, to someone who now has 6 different books for journaling in, and two altered books waiting to be started?? That also happened in the blink of an eye, it seems- last summer was my first time at Art Unraveled, where I took my very first class with Kelly Kilmer... (I was so nervous- all those artsy people, who seemed to know soooo much more than I did!!) Since then, I've purchased and/or made all 6 of those journals, and I will be making another one in November, when Kelly's back in town to teach another class! (reminder to self: call Frenzy Stamper and sign up for that class.)

I work on pages and projects for a while, then realize I haven't taken pictures of any of them along the way... I also tend to get pages half-done, then they sit for a while till I get more inspiration, but I'm finally okay with that. I have finally (mostly, anyway) realized that art journaling, for me anyway, is as much about the art-making process than the words, if not more. And, I'm not so worried (most of the time) about whether the art on the page "goes" with the topic I want to write about. (Some of my pages are like that, but not all of them.)

It's hard to explain art journaling to someone who's never heard of it before; does anyone have a good explanation for non-artsy people that's easy for them to understand?? A couple of people have asked me about my doodling/artwork, and it's not easy to answer. So far, my standard answer is, "art journaling is sort of a cross between a diary and a sketch book" but I don't really like that explanation....

Anyway, on to the pictures... the pics below are from/of all but one of my current books; for more, check out my Flickr page (as soon as I get them posted, that is- hopefully later this evening or tomorrow). Now I know why I put off the photo/posting part of it- it's time consuming to take photos, edit and crop them, and then get them onto Flickr with all the tags, titles, etc. But it will get done!! (eventually)

This is the first "book" I bought to do art journaling in- it's one of those black and white composition books that you can get at any WalMart, etc. around back to school time for less than a dollar. It contains wide-ruled notebook paper, which isn't the greatest for painting on, but I started with it so I wouldn't "ruin" a "real" sketchbook if I didn't know what I was doing. (which seems kinda funny, now, because art journaling is doing whatever you want- there aren't really any rules!) I painted the front with my favorite mix of blues, green, pink, and purple, and the other favorite, stamping with bubble wrap. The arrow is a stencil from a 12x12 stencil sheet (technically for scrapbooking, I think), accented with gold leafing pen. Gold leafing pen also accents the zig-zag strip at the bottom (another of my favorite colors, a barn red.) The ribbon along the left edge was glued on to cover up the crappy painting job I did along the edge of the binding. (I can't take credit for that; I saw it somewhere on Flickr... but it works, doesn't it?)

This is my newest art store purchase, a 9 x 12 sketchbook containing 93 lb heavy weight sketch paper... much better for painting on; it doesn't wrinkle when its painted like the ruled composition book paper does! I remember back when I took that first class at AU with Kelly; I was so intimidated by that 10 x 14 piece of paper she gave us to work on- it seemed soooo enormous to me, I thought I'd never be able to work on anything that big! She said we could use a different size if we wanted; I think I folded and tore that 10 x 14 paper into at least quarter-sheets (remember, I started out rubber-stamping cards and making ATCs, so I was used to working 4.25 x 5.5 inches, or smaller). I recently purchased this sketchbook because the composition book pages were starting to feel too small to me! Decorating the cover is going to wait till I get inspired, but you can see some of the inside pages here (soon).

The above spread is from one of two "graffiti books" I made in a class with Kelly Kilmer last fall... painted, stenciled, monoprinted, and written on paper backgrounds that were cut up to become the book pages. The book pages were folded and stitched into two pamphlet-style books. (pics of both books I made in this class are here.) The class was a lot of fun, but for some reason, I was intimidated to actually use the book for anything. I think it was because there was already so much work on the backgrounds that I couldn't bring myself to cover them up with anything! (it sounds silly, I know, but that's what I thought.) So, this past weekend, I actually started working in it during another Kelly Kilmer class called What's Next??? where we worked in our own books. Now that I've broken the ice with this book, I have a theme in mind for it, and am ready to do the rest of the pages!

This is one spread out of the Avante Garde book I made at this year's Art Unraveled. I don't think I've posted pics of this book here yet, but I will soon... We made covers and a spine for the book from matboard, put together the cover, and filled the book with "found" papers- magazine pages, envelopes, receipts, text pages out of other books, anything you wanted to use. (again, this class was taught by Kelly Kilmer. I know, it sounds like I take a lot of classes with her, but I really haven't- I've only taken 4 so far; one of the other students in last weekend's class has taken 19 classes with Kelly, and I think that was only in the last couple years!!) This page is eventually going to be about the Beijing summer olympics... the dragon was out of an in-flight travel magazine; I found it in February, and it's perfect for this page, I think!

(a sort of related note: I find it really hard to throw anything away now; I always have an internal dialogue in my head when I go thru the mail: "would this be useful for anything art-related somewhere down the line??" You'd probably be amazed at some of the things I save... I'd probably keep more, except for the fact that I have limited space for crafting supplies. Perhaps my "paper and supply addiction" would be a good topic for a blog post??)

This page spread is out of the miniature avante-garde book made during the AU class; it's finished size is 3 x 6 inches, I think. It's a bit harder (for me, at least) to work on pages this small, but I've made a start- I covered a couple of the pages with random scraps of paper- magazine and catalog pages, vintage book text, scrapbooking paper, etc. and it will either be painted, or left as is... who knows??

After next month, I'll have another book to add to my collection, and I really do want to start working on the altered book project I have in my head... it's translating the ideas from my head to a finished project that I have a difficult time with, but perhaps that's a limitation that every creative person has?? (people sometimes say that if they won the lottery they'd get bored if they didn't work, but I don't think I'd have that problem for a loooong time, that's for sure- I have lots of ideas waiting to be worked on!!)

AU 2008 Recap Part 1

My first class at Art Unraveled was Monday: an all-day class titled Two Art Quilts Two, with Jane LaFazio. I decided to take this class because I love fabric, I do like sewing sometimes (as long as the sewing machine isn’t involved, that is!), and because I loved the pet portraits in the class description… I still really want some sort of portraits of Cleo and Phoebe, and was really excited by seeing her interpretation.

I found Jane LaFazio through Flickr-surfing, I think. She does amazing watercolor journaling, and wonderful art quilts of all kinds. Since then, I’ve seen her work a couple more times in Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine… fabric and sewing, sometimes combined with paper: what could be more perfect than that?? (perhaps only some glue and stamping added in for good measure!)

This is one of Jane's pet portraits... I love the buttons on the edge!!

We started with the pet portrait- I only had really crappy photocopy enlargements of photos printed off my Flickr account, but I think it turned out okay, considering what I started with. We started by tracing the major shapes onto tracing paper (think paint-by-numbers, or coloring book), then transferred it to unprimed canvas using a Sharpie marker. From there, we started painting using thin washes of acrylic paints…Jane said when coloring in the shapes, don’t think about the “actual” color of the pet, but rather, think about their “aura” and their personality. I had really wanted to make Cleo’s picture a really soft, sage-y, olive-y green, but couldn’t get the paint color right, so she ended up being kind of pop-art instead, but actually, when I think about it, Cleo wasn’t a soft, sage-y kitty in real life, so I think the blue and yellow fits, after all.

I think I managed to capture her personality in the facial expression; I’m really proud of that. The next steps are stamping her name at the bottom, layering the batting and backing with the front, stitching the outlines and details, and finishing it off with an edging of some sort… hopefully, anyway! I really had HUGE expectations of perfection for the results of this project, (like everything I do, naturally) so perhaps I shouldn’t have done something with so much personal meaning for my first try, but I still think I’m going to finish it.

My tablemate for this class was a member of the East Valley Mixed Media group; I mentioned that I recognized her from the one meeting I attended, so she invited me to lunch with her- How nice of her!! This group of ladies meets once a month (in downtown Chandler, in the evening) to learn/discuss/share all sorts of things associated with mixed-media artwork… I’ve been trying to figure out how to attend regularly, but with Tom’s unpredictable travel schedule and the distance, it hadn’t been working out. Anyway, we had a very nice lunch with a couple other members, then headed back for the Landscape Quilt portion of the class.

Below is one of Jane's examples of a mini landscape quilt: I really like the way she used the sheer fabric in the sky, and how the frayed edges of the fabric suggests grass and growing things. And, if you look close, each of the colored bits in the lower left is an individual fabric scrap, sewn on by hand!

Again, I had definite ideas of what I wanted to do with this project, but my creative muse decided otherwise- I had purchased several beautiful batik fabrics from a (sort-of) local quilting shop, and thought I would make a desert landscape with mountains in the background. Jane’s approach to this project was to take a few fabrics, lay them next to each other, see what worked, and pull out/replace fabrics till you get something that feels and looks “right” to you. While I was pulling my supplies for the class together, I decided to throw in some other fabrics from my stash to take in addition to the batik.

During my process of pulling fabrics out and laying them down, I tried to make the desert landscape I wanted, but some of the fabrics just didn’t work, so they got replaced with my other cottons… more of this trial and error process (“no, try this one” and “how about using a piece of this?” from Lulu’s stash of fabrics) led to my landscape changing from a desert mountain scene to Midwestern rolling hills and fields, instead… amazing how that happens, isn’t it??

This landscape also needs lots of work to finish, although I have ideas for some of the details: embroidered grass, running-stitch plowed furrows in the fields, and tan buttons to represent round hay bales. And perhaps some running-stitch swirling clouds in the sky… or maybe a bird or two flying over the fields…

This class was a lot of fun, and it led me to reconnect with a group of really interesting people I hadn’t thought I would be able to again… it also showed me that sometimes pre-conceived notions and thought-out plans about projects can be (sometimes need to be) discarded in favor of what works at the time with how you’re feeling, which can lead to a totally different (but no less successful!) result in the end.

there IS life in the AZ desert...

...although you wouldn't know it by the frequency of my blog posts, would you??

Lots of stuff happened in the desert this summer, but it all seemed to sap my energy for anything besides the necessary cooking, cleaning, working, and sleeping. Bringing baby Bisbee home brought the household pet total to four (what were we thinking, anyway!?!). It's been a lot of fun to see her interact with Sedona and the cats, but I definitely forgot just how much work a new puppy is!

Mandatory overtime at work (10-hour workdays with a 45-minute commute) meant I was getting up at 2:30 am in order to be at work by 4 am and getting home about 3:15 in the afternoon. (Yes, this was definitely a crazy work schedule, but there was a reason- I took the early shift and Tom went to work later; this way, the dogs were home alone for the shortest possible span of time.) These things, combined with the summer heat and some other family health issues back in the Midwest, left me feeling pretty tired.

This is how I felt most of the summer:

(by the way, this is Bisbee relaxing after a hard day chasing after Sedona and the cats... what a life, hmmm?!? Yes, I would admit that our pets are spoiled...)

Oh, we did do some fun stuff in there, too... we went to Seattle for a long weekend before Memorial Day, where we visited some of Tom's relatives and saw a few of the sights. It was great, but I already know I want to go back because there were tons of things we didn't have time to do... I do have pictures of that trip, which I will post on Flickr sometime (soon, hopefully!). We also headed back to Wisconsin for Tom's family reunion, and spent an enjoyable weekend relaxing in the woods outside Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. (...although we did have to fight off an incredibly prolific crop of mosquitoes!) Right after we got back from Wisconsin, it was already time for Art Unraveled... I took three classes: two all-day, and one evening class, after work.

This photo combines projects from two classes: the rubber stamp is one I carved myself after taking a really inspiring class on stamping with non-traditional materials with Traci Bunkers, and the book it's stamped in is one I made myself in a class with Kelly Kilmer (her classes are always a blast, although I'm usually a mess afterwards- the way I paint, as much paint ends up on my hands as on the paper, I think). The third class was Two Art Quilts Two, with Jane LaFazio, which was also lots of fun- I really think I need to make friends with my sewing machine again! (I have more pictures of AU and my projects which I will also post sometime soon!) One of the other things that was blocking my creativity most of the summer was the absolute CHAOS in my craft room... I'm not sure how it got so bad, but it was such a mess that I couldn't really face it... it needed to be cleaned before I could do anything in there, and I just wasn't up to it. I finally started two weekends ago (although it's still pretty messy, to the untrained eye!) and this weekend, I scored some great cigar boxes for organizing some of my stuff. Tom and I ran some errands on Saturday which took us up to Scottsdale where we visited one of his favorite stores, Cigar Warehouse. The entire store is a walk-in humidor (it smells wonderful when you walk in; the entire place is permeated with the fragrance of Spanish cedar!!); they had two shelves stacked full of empty cigar boxes to pick from... I brought home four boxes for free, since Tom was buying 15 cigars (yay- score!!), but usually, they sell them for less than $5 apiece... I think last time I got some we paid either $1 or $2 each. (Honestly, if I'd known I could get them for free, I would have gotten a few more, but we'll go back again.)

This is one of my new cigar boxes, now turned into an organizer for some of my small bits and pieces- buttons, spiral paper clips, beads, etc. (sorry about the glare in that photo...) I think I've figured out what happens in my craft room to make it so chaotic, and I'm hoping these organizational efforts will help to reduce that: I am one of those people who needs to see things or I forget about them, but spreading out my materials eventually leads to the chaos that paralyzes my creativity... hopefully, these cigar boxes will be the start of ongoing efforts that will assist in minimizing the chaos, so I can finish those AU projects and keep my creative juices flowing. (Not having to go to bed by 8:30 pm in order to get up at 2:30 am will help that, too!!)

meanwhile, back at the ranch...

So, here it is Superbowl Sunday, and I am once again relaxing in my hotel room with Domino's takeout pizza, wine-in-a-box (more details later about that), and the Super Bowl on the television, alternated with the Animal Planet "Puppy Bowl" with the "Kitty Show" halftime show. I got in to Illinois last Sunday afternoon, for two weeks of training for my job... Tom is sometimes gone from home from early Monday morning till late Friday night; I knew this would seem a lot longer than that, but I didn't realize how quickly I would get tired of eating in restaurants, and living out of a hotel room. Luckily, my parents live about 3 hours west of Chicago, so I took the rental car Thursday afternoon (no work on Friday, due to an unexpected computer system outage) and visited with them, and my sister Judy, for a couple days. I made it back into the Chicago suburbs this afternoon, and got settled back into my hotel room right before the football game started. Tom sent these pictures early this morning... this pic is of all the pets relaxing yesterday on the couch... Butters looks like she doesn't really appreciate the interruption, doesn't she??

Tom spend a good portion of last night outside with the telescope- the temperature at home in Arizona was in the 40s (as opposed to well-below-freezing here in Illinois!) last night, and he set the telescope up... he said he didn't even expect this pic to work but it turned out quite nice, in my opinion. There are special cameras you can get to attach to the telescope and the computer, but we don't have anything like that- just the regular 35mm digital camera held up to the eyepiece on the telescope, right now... These are flowers from the amaryllis bulbs I have planted... they're set up on the island in the kitchen, to get light from the window (and to keep them out of reach of the cats). I had a feeling they would start blooming while I was gone; hopefully they'll hang on till I get back on Friday night. (The forest of green behind them is a pot full of paperwhites that haven't started blooming yet.)

It's amazing how long two weeks is, when you're not where you want to be. Two weeks of vacation for a whole year seems really short; two weeks till final exams is no time at all, when I was in school; two weeks living in a hotel room (when I'm really a "homebody" type of person) is waaaay too long. I did bring some crafty supplies (a few colors of acrylic paint, some papers, some ATC blanks, embellishments, that sort of thing...) with me, but I really don't feel like breaking any of it out when I get in to the hotel after work/dinner in the evening. I said something to that effect when I was packing my luggage- maybe I wouldn't even use them, and Tom commented "but it will be comforting to know you have them with you, just in case..." He knew just how I felt, even though I couldn't express it!

In other news, the 2008 Art Unraveled class schedule and instructors has been announced... I need to figure out which classes I want to take, so I can ask for those days off from work. I am really fortunate to have one of the premier "art retreats" within driving distance!! I heard about this event even before we moved to Phoenix, but I never imagined I would actually get to go! (for future reference, here are some of the classes that sound interesting to me: Printing Blocks MacGyver Style with Traci Bunkers, any of the classes with Kelly Kilmer, Brassy Brazen Backgrounds with Gail Russakov, and probably lots more. Well, it's back to the Puppy Bowl on the Animal Planet channel, for me... oh, and as for the wine-in-a-box, it's something I saw in the liquor section of the grocery store... wine in 4 single-serve waxed paper boxes... "juice boxes for adults" is what the advertising said, which is pretty appropriate... and it's not bad, for $6!