#UncomfortableTopic...#DontLikeThisOne

For my journal it was suggested that I place hash tags of the subject matter of my journal entries at the bottom of the pages. That way if I need to find a topic without having to read my whole journal again it would make the process easier. The title to this blog post is the hash tags I came up with for today along with "#pretty" and "#smart".

My journal topic tonight was would you rather be less attractive and really smart or really attractive and less smart. (dun, dun, dun...) I know, a really deep thinker, at least for me. Without revealing what I wrote I would like to show you what was in my head the whole time I was writing:

Yep!! Barbra Streisand!!

This is the scene from Funny Girl where she looks in the mirror and says to herself "Hello Gorgeous". AND she is looking stunning in this leopard print coat and hat. In this movie Fannie Brice is a girl who has grown up feeling less than pretty, as she points out throughout the movie. But in the end we see professionally that she was smart enough to get herself top billing in the Ziegfeld Follies. 

Regardless of whether this portrayal of the real Fannie Brice is accurate or not, the message is clear in regards to my journal topic, really smart wins over really pretty. Though if I dressed like Barbra does in this movie, I would settle for that too. 

Until next time...

Book Readings

I have three pages here on my blog. One is for creative endeavors, photos to share and funny stories of my life. One page is accomplishments I have achieved in the scrapbook realm. (Those of  you who have ever worked on a Design Team for a website you will understand.) The third page is devoted to books I have read for my book club.

I have been a member of the Steele Creek Woman's Book club since 2009. We have members come and go but a core group of us have stayed together all these years. I really enjoy the time I get to spend with these smart, funny, opinionated women. We laugh together, get misty eyed for one another and cheer each other on when someone needs a hug. It has been an experience I have had the privilege to enjoy and be a part of.

Each year our members nominate and vote on books we would like to read and discuss. We throw care to the wind when it comes to the nominations. Any topic is welcome. But eventually we have to vote. And then it gets serious. I honestly look up all the books, make a check off sheet and number the books from 1 to whatever to pick the top twelve i would like to attempt to read. I say attempt because it is not a REQUIREMENT that we have to read the book to participate. But I try.

Anyway, back to page three on the blog. I have noticed that my participation in our book choices has depleted each year. Whether it be because a particular book does not strike my fancy, I just can't get through it, or the dust jacket (do they still have those?) doesn't have an interesting enough graphic, I just can't put my finger on it. So this year I nominated MANY books in hopes that a few would be interesting for me.

I am happy to report a number of books look interesting this year. I am hoping to get through the majority of the list. I can only improve my standing over last year. I read three books from the 2014 list, one left over from the list in 2013 that I never finished but wanted to get through before the movie came out in 2014 and one extra book that looked interesting in the public library. THAT'S IT!!! I think that is the least amount of books I have read in about 20 years.

Here is the Steele Creek Woman's Club book list for 2015:
Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight
The Pearl that Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
The Kindness of Strangers: Penniless Across America Written by: Mike McIntyre
A Cold Day for Murder: A Kate Shugak Mystery Written by: Dana Stabenow
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen: A Novel by Susan Gregg
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
Moloka'I by Alan Brennert
The Cherry Cola Book Club by Ashton Lee
Landline by Rainbow Rowell
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

At least 9 look good, one is iffy and the other two, well, we will see. Gotta get to reading. 

Until next time...

The Short Cut, Kind Of...

One of the things I like about the book I am using to journal is that the author gives you ideas on how to decorate your pages to give yourself some variety from page to page. Tonight I decided to utilize one of his suggestions. I cut photos from a magazine and added or didn't add scrapbook paper scraps to the pages. I plan on adding additional embellishments as I come across these pages in the journal. But for now, I have the beginnings of 6 pages.  Here's a peek:

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Until next time...

A Day In The Sun

My hubby and I have recently been very sick and our pup Dakota has been feeling neglected. At least that is the voice we are giving her sorrowful face whenever she realizes we have to take her outside to do her thing on a leash AGAIN. No running. No playing ball. No Frisbee.

Today she was finally able to run and play in our semi dry back yard. We have had many days of rain and cloudiness this past week and our climate changed for the better. Of course it may be the last warm day we see for a while. I snapped these photos of Dakota not running around as I thought she would do. Instead she was guarding her pumpkin ball, lounging in the grass soaking up the sun.

She must know the cold is coming soon too.

Tonight's creative endeavor was to write a plot line for a short story based on three rolls of the dice. I was provided six characters, six situations and six events that could happen to my character. I rolled the dice to see which parts of the story I scored. My plot line was "On a desert island, a school teacher travels 100 years into the future." Now write a short story.

My short story is four pages long and I kind of ignored the 100 years in the future part. I just made the teacher experience some short term time travel while her husband attempted to rescue her from a rouge fish that pulled her out of their boat while she was fishing. Kind of fun. Very messy hand writing. Now I need to look back at what the other plot lines could have been. But that will be another day.

Until next time...

Inka Mess!!!

I finished my journal entry for today and as I have done each day since Day Two I looked ahead to see what kind of page I needed to create for tomorrow's entry. Tomorrow is the first day we will do a short story prompt. I did not read the prompt as I want it to be fresh when I start to write tomorrow but I know I will need LOTS of room WITH LINES to keep it all straight. Since I am recycling an older journal from three years ago, there was some tea ink on the edges of the pages. I decided to "Inka Gold" it up. And this metallic purple is GORGEOUS!!! Inka is thick and will cover the ink. When it dries it is shiny and if I buff it out, even shinier!!

I am having lots of fun this week trying to spark my creative mojo by making messes and getting dirty. Bring on tomorrow's project!!!

Until next time...

Baking Dots

A scrappy buddy of mine tried a project last year of melting pony beads to make enamel dots for scrappy pages. When you purchase enamel dots, they are rather ridiculously priced and  you get very few in a package. Lynn did a whole post about the "how to's" which I will not repeat here. You can check out her post at Off the Rails Scrapbooking. Here is my process and how it came out.

#1. The lighting in my kitchen a night is NOT wonderful for photos so please bear with me. I laid out my beads on parchment paper and kept them far apart so they did not run together as they melted.

#2. I placed them in a preheated oven at 450 degrees. I started off at 8 minutes and added 2 more in the end. The purple were the first to melt. Next the black.

Eventually I took them out of the oven because my loved ones were sleeping and I was afraid toxic fumes or a fire might occur. And it would be a pain to run upstairs to retrieve them for evacuation. I removed the black and purple from the paper and then set the silver ones back into the hot oven that had been turned off to see if they would melt any further.

#3. The silver ones did not melt. They just cracked and sagged a little. They do look kind of cool, so I will keep them.

 #4. I did wind up with some nice black and purple dots in the end. Those are the colors I scrap more often than others, so I am sure I will use them up quickly. Now whether I will try this experiment again, only time will tell.

Until next time...

Keeping Up and Working Ahead

Day three and I am still keeping up with the journal. I realize this is early in the game, but I am really enjoying the process so far. I like that it allows me to do a little paper crafting as I write. I am trying to use up bits and scraps from former projects. I am using some of my die cut elements that I just had to have, but have not even opened in the past year or two.  And this gives me the opportunity to be messy with paints, watercolors, pastes and such. Here's a peek at tonight's pages, minus the words. The blue bird on the page is a die cut that I have had for at least two years. The banner page is ready for a night I may not have time to be creative.

Until next time...

New Year, New Creative Juices

Tonight I started my new creative adventure. I won't be sharing much of it with you here, but I love the way the page turned out. I have been SERIOUSLY LACKING the mojo juices for about 8 months now. Now that things are settling down at work and home, I hope to get back onto the ball. Happy New Year!!

Until next time...