Bleh!

I think I'm catching this cold crud that the boys have had. I don't feel terrible, but just haven't felt like doing much of anything today. Did the bare minimum....some laundry, I did mop the kitchen floor because it NEEDED it & I made Ashley a batch of home made granola. Other than that, I just piddled.....watched part of a movie, worked in my art journal. Speaking of which......I have some pages to share.

I bought my first thing of Peppermint Mocha creamer the other day & as I sat there drinking my first cup of the season, I got the idea to draw the pepperminty-striped cup on the front of the creamer bottle. It's a little wonky, but oh well. And notice the little drips of coffee......that was done on purpose. ;-)

Just another fun piece of mail art that got sent on it's merry way today.

Mail Art

I am in love with these awesome envelopes! You can check them out here at Living Creatively.

Between Sandee & her love of REAL mail & these happy envelopes, I've been inspired to decorate & actually mail some of my own. I sent a card....for no reason, but just to say HI.....to Ashley & her room-mate last week. Decorated the envelopes & was so excited about mailing them that I forgot to take a picture first. Silly me!

Here's one I did yesterday. Forgive the scrap of paper....I had already addressed it & didn't want to show the address on here. But you still get the idea. Fun to do & hopefully fun to receive.

Fall Walk

While the boys laid around feeling crummy today, Alli & I went out & took a beautiful Fall walk. Since we didn't do book work today....because of the sickies......we got some physical education in. Also figured a little  vitamin D from the sun couldn't hurt either.

Just starting up the hill......looking across to our house.

We thought this cow had gotten left over in this field all by herself......she was the only cow we saw the whole time we were out there. But Clay said all the rest of them were just down on the other side of the hill.

Such a pretty view from up here. Looking out across toward our house. That's David's house in the foreground.

Love this one! My pretty Alli-Cat.

The kids go sledding down this hill in the winter time.

We had to take our shoes off to cross the creek.  Nothing like the feeling of wading through the ooey gooey gushy cow water. LOL!

Alli ended up with it up to her shins. I fared a little better than she did. Such a fun time together! Times like these make me ever so thankful that we homeschool & can do things like this! And just for the record.....Alli, Micheal & I took Rocky & rode out to McDonald's after this to get an ice cream cone......and a cup of ice water for Rocky. Love the everyday memories we get to make!

Sunday Sickies

Jon started with a cold the other day. Not terrible, but he keeps coughing & sounds so hoarse! Then Chris came home yesterday evening saying her felt like he was getting it too. Scratchy throat & drainage. Thank goodness he's off tomorrow & can just take it easy. Jon ended up sleeping on the couch last night so his coughing wouldn't keep Chris awake & also with the hopes of propping himself up enough to keep the drainage from bothering him. Needless to say, he didn't feel like going to church with us today....so just Michael, Alli & I went. Now don't you know that Michael is sick too. He came in for supper saying his throat was really sore! I guess it's going to make the rounds. I'm sitting here at this very moment drinking my echinacea  tea.

Just thought y'all might like to see what Jon found out on our sidewalk yesterday afternoon. It was a wounded little garter snake. I guess one of the cats drug it up there to show us.

A couple more pages from my daily art journal. This inspiration came during some of my blog browsing the other day. The background is made up of torn phone book pages which I glued down & then put a thin coat of gesso over top....scraping it really thin with an old gift card so you could still see the phone book pages, but giving me enough grit to paint on. I painted the outline with acrylic paint & then colored it in with my trusty sharpies.

For this page, I had found a list of journal prompts that I had written down a while back & so I randomly selected the one about 'What I Ate Today'. Granted Friday is NOT the best day of the week to document what I eat, but anyway. I'm sure I'll go back & end up adding color to some of these pages.

I've started tossing this journal in my purse on Sundays.....it's the perfect size. And I can take notes at church & still come back later & decorate to my heart's content! I sat out under my tree this afternoon did all this doodling.

It was such a perfect Fall day......just right at 70 degrees!

I also did a little hooky work while outside this afternoon too. I'm plugging along with Alli's afghan. I think I must have 'CREATIVE A.D.D.' I work in my art journal for a while & then I'll crochet several squares. Sometimes I'll even whip out the cross-stitch I'm working on or maybe that dish cloth I'm knitting. I just LOVE it all & have to make sure I have time to work a little bit on all my projects. LOL!

Daily Art Journal Pages

I'm going to catch you all up on some of my art journal pages.........

Just a Pinterest post that I copied

This one was fun. I've been playing with lots of layering. I love the look I see in others' art journals & I think I'm getting better with this technique. I started off with a lettering stencil & sponged the letters on with acrylic paint. It was kind of a poor job of stenciling, so I outlined the letters to make them stand out. Then I pulled out some random rubber stamps & stamped some images here & there. I also glued on some tidbits of paper ripped from an old phone book. After that sat & simmered a while, I came back yet again & wrote out the lyrics to one of my favorite songs.....'10,000 Reasons'. Next was a very thin layer of light blue acrylic scraped on with an old gift card. Lastly I painted those zig-zag borders that I recently saw on someone's blog. Stamped the orange paint cap around randomly & last of all, I flicked some red water color & let it run. I guess I'm done......who knows, I may still come back & add something later. That's what's so fun about this......you can always come back & add to what you've done!

Just some journaling & doodling with my markers. It doesn't show up very well, but I've also added some sparkles with the blue glitter glue along the swirlies.

More marker doodles along with a few Bible verses.

Another fun layering page. I showed part of this earlier. Acrylic paint background stamped with corrugated cardboard. There are bits of an old security envelope glued down along with some washi tape up the middle. I stamped the dotted border with a pencil eraser & then  outlined with a white crayon & washed over it with green water color. I glued down a couple of tea bag tags & stamped that 'laugh' banner. Again, not sure if this one's finished or not.......

I got this idea from another new blog I've been reading.......just draw flowers.....lots & lots of flowers. I've actually gone back now & started adding more color here.

Another layered page. Phone book page pieces glued down. Yellowish-green acrylic paint, then bubble wrap painted with blue paint stamped on randomly. Washi tape & some doodling along with some pastels colored & smudged here & there.

This one is NOT finished. I wrote the verse across the middle & then came back & painted some orange paint on with an old gift card.

Yet another layered version here. This time I put down some pieces of duct tape. I kind of stuck it & unstuck it on my jeans first so it wouldn't ruin the paper. Then I painted the light turquoise color on. When it was dry, I peeled the tape off leaving the blank spaces for my journaling. I again, used the bubble wrap to stamp on some red paint & then smeared a bit of gesso over it to tone it down a smidge. I stamped the  diamonds with black ink. Glued down the ghostie figures that I had cut from a scrapping magazine then journaled & doodled.

Traced around both ends of a medicine cup here. Journaled & doodled with my markers.

Love how this one turned out! It's totally copied from an Art Journaling magazine. Sketched out & then painted with acrylic paints. Outlined with a fine tip sharpie. Then I actually cut around those leafy-thingies. Lastly I added my journaling.

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Hope I can inspire y'all to create something this weekend!