Project Life week 14, April 1- April 7. Yes, I am very very behind. Not just in posting them here, in actually doing the spreads. Getting this one done felt like a big win for me. I am determined to do a week for each week of the year. Of course, it can be done any way, that's just how I decided to do it.

This spread was hard for me for a few reasons: 1. Too much time had passed since the week happened. 2. My printer died and I had to get a new one and get up to speed on it. 3. There were 2 extra inserts; one, my going away, and one my daughter attending a wedding and 4. I went away- being away from home always puts me behind in everything it seems. For all those reasons, I was having a hard time starting again.

So I forced it. I used embellishments to fill in where I couldn't remember the stories I wanted to document. And I'm totally fine with this week now that it's done. I remember that it really is about the year in whole.

I found that little blue heart (velvet flower petal) above on the floor when I was putting the spread together and although it has nothing to do with April1-7, I liked how it fit so used it. An example of leaning on embellishements to fill in the week.

I used a postcard by artist Dinara Mirtalipova that came in my Uppercase magazine subscription for the date header card.

The left side of spread.

Here's the front side of the first insert and some closeups of the embellishments:

And the back side of this first insert, all about my trip to Meg's Whatever Craft Weekend:

The second insert was a photo of a photo booth pic my daughter took at a wedding on the front:

The back side of this insert has another photo booth photo, a text to me when she was heading out the door to the wedding, and phone photos from the wedding:

And the right side of the weekly spread:

At the end of the week my daughter ran in her first 1/2 marathon.(!!!) How funny are her snapchats to me during the race? Love that she took them and sent them to me.

The three cards above were all hand made. The United States was a print of a google search for "United States map free clip art" which I then stitched my route taken.

So happy that I got this week 14 done, 15 should be easier, because it was less full of activities for the family, and because I'm back on the proverbial horse.

We are currently in the middle of week 21, in case you're counting. :)
 No pressure Pam.

(Riiiight.)

 

Oklahoma.

I love what my friend Mary Ann wrote on her post last night:

Of course, it goes without saying, that I'm thinking about the people of Oklahoma this evening. We all are.

And today as well.

Lots of times, I turn to my journal to capture some feelings, thoughts, as I did last night. I was downloading photos from the day's field trip and turned on the news for the first time all day, my journal was next to me on the couch here:

so I picked it up and used it.

For me, art journaling is not about the result, just the process. The above page is ugly to me, but allowing myself this method of processing information is a positive in my eyes. 

Other times I use the pages to solidify a concept I've just read and am pondering:

Sometimes it's a "checking in" with myself method in the morning:

Sometimes it's about trying out new supplies:

{the pens referenced were: this pen, and this one, and this set of waterbrushes, and this pen too, as well as these, and this set of watercolors along with this one and this one too.}

Sometimes it's just playing with the materials I already have and enjoy using:

Or time with old loves; paper, scissors and glue:

or mixing the two types of materials:

Suffice it to say, I think there is no one right reason to art journal, just play time. And after, I sure do love seeing a whole bunch of pretty pages, like this:

I snapped the above pics before Mary Ann realized I arrived and came out to greet me. We promptly began a garden tour. It's always fun to discuss plants and watering methods and transplanting and garden plans and future projects. We admired all the new growth most. Something so exciting about fruit appearing, no matter how old one is (at least for me anyway!).

I was focused on capturing the beautiful steps she tiled all by herself while she carried  all my bags of art supplies in.

Perfect for a little house in the hills of LA.

We continued our garden tour on the back patio.

I was completely struck by the beautiful colors and healthiest succulents I've ever seen. We had plans for me to take many cuttings, but I realized on the drive home we never followed through on that, as always our plans exceed the time allowed. Next time!

We then moved inside for our usual exchange of various items we'd been saving for each other and as she went through my box of goodies, I snapped some of my favorite sights in her studio.

More beautiful colors everywhere.

This collection of water and sand and other items gathered all over the world is pure genius. I hope I remember to do it the next time I am somewhere special.

They are striking in a group but each on their own as well.

After a delicious lunch we settled down for an even more delicious dessert in the form of journal viewing and play.

(And no, that does not say what it seems to say on first glance!!! I didn't realize it until the funny instgram comments alerted me to it. Look at it again, you'll see what I mean.)

We were especially focused on sketching and watercoloring, as her dreamy  travel journal from her recent trip to Umbria was front and center in both our minds (and the table too). I truly can not wait for her class on it, she already had much to share I want more! So many fun different rabbit holes for us all to go down, even within the world of travel journaling. I love that about art, endless possibilities.

We discussed different pens and ended up trading a few, tried all different watercolor sets while discussing what colors and brands would make the best travel set, did a few blind contour sketches (I can't show mine here because I don't want to embarrass her, mine were so much better than hers haha- let's just say that I don't think either of us captured the fact that we were drawing a human, let alone each other), and did a couple excercises in shapes and patterns. Just play and just perfect.

And like every other time I've visited, I left with a desire to return SOON. Art time with friends, so so important. Sometimes I forget how much. Sometimes I think I don't have the time. I'm glad I have these pictures of me taken by Mary Ann to remind me it is, and I do. Always, always time well spent!

{Ed: for a much funnier and less truthful version of my visit go here}

Last week I received my new custom business stamp ordered from Paper Pastries.

I  love it! (As if you couldn't tell by the going to town with it evidenced above.)

Margaret was doing a series of new custom business card designs and needed a few volunteers. Yes, please!

I choose the Vespa design which felt very fresh and modern, different than anything I had.

And...Margaret was kind enough to offer a discount code (15% off!) for my blog readers that might want to place an order themselves. The discount code applies to all the custom rubber stamps here, not just the business card design.

Use the discount code PAM when ordering any custom rubber stamps for a 15% discount (expires May 28th). I just went and used it myself for this stamp that I'd pinned on my pinterest. So excited, thanks Margaret!

This morning I got out my journal to do some journaling about my intention for the day.

I instagrammed it when it was at this phase:

Then I got out all my markers and went to town.

For those that want to know the markers I used: Copic Sketch, Prismacolors, Marvy and Faber-Castells.

I instagrammed the finished page too, I think it's fun to see the change once colored.

I thought it would be fun to make it a free printable for you, so I fixed a few things and made some changes in PhotoShop using my tablet, and made a finished colored in version as well:

And here is the downloadable black and white version for you:

Download YouChoose PamGarrison BWprintable

Happy Coloring!!!! If you do color it in and post it anywhere, put a link in the comments so we can see!

Just look at all the cute parasols above. Of course, as always, time went too quickly and some parasols might receive a little more love at home, but they're great as is.

We were surprised to see how differently they looked closed vs. open:

Love them both ways. 

Thank you to all the students that came out to play! Such a sweet group. 

Also thanks to friends Jenny and Amy who helped, gifted books, and took most of these photos!

And a really big thank you owed to the marvelous Molly Meng, who runs a tight ship with a big kind smile and killer wit. In Molly speak, "dude! you're awesome", you really are Molly, and everyone appreciated all your hard work! 

After all the clean up was done, we got a little silly with the TimerCam app... practice needed, hahaha:

And then it was over, and we were onto Sunday...Mother's Day.

I hope all of you had a nice Mother's Day weekend! 

xo

 I've mentioned before, I chose the word "order" for my word of the year, what I want to welcome into my life. Setting up this piece feels like a nice big step in that direction.

Here's the inside:

When I originally saw this piece, I dreamt of getting it for use when painting. It seemed like perfect storage for paintings in progress to dry, since I tend to work on many at once. I also thought about it for the office (technically my husband's office), where I keep all my products and shipping for my etsy shop, but I was worried it was too grungy for in there.

But after a good scrub down, I couldn't resist giving it a try. The office was very much in need, as this before pic demonstrates:

Here's how it all ended up:

It feels really great to have a sense of order and cleanliness.

As for my office/studio/room, I know I promised you shots long ago of the studio switch...it's still not done, I operate out of there, but moved in such a hurry and in a non smart way- (brought everything in vs. one bit at a time as needed), that it's in no way photo ready. I'm working on it slowly but surely. I've shown some recent progress on instagram, and will show some more here soon.

Here are a few more shots from the traditional office (There's no way I could get all my products and shipping supplies in my art room/office!)

That's my Dad's fraternity paddle from college up top with some photos (yes, I did receive a spank or two from it when growning up) and a pottery barn cubby.

I feel so much better when I walk in there now! I know order is the answer to a lot of what frustrates me, but it seems a slow process.

One bite at a time, right? As for my etsy shipping/products? done!

I'm starting to pull together items for this weekend's Paper Parasol class at French General. Always fun to gather goodies. 

I'm thankful that Jenny is gifting a copy of Creative Lettering to each student! (I hope she'll bring copies of her newest book Stamp It! for us to see too.) As for the lettering, it will be fun to see if they choose to use one of the specially designed fonts from the book on their parasol, or maybe none at all. I'll be bringing some good quotes in case they want to add one, like I did on this one that cute Sophia is modeling:

Or was trying to model until her Aunt Molly decided to photobomb her! 

Molly will be there on Saturday too...if you join us, be sure to mention her picture posing skills ;).

There's plenty to share and we still have a couple of spots if you have an opening in your Saturday afternoon, we'd love to have you join us. You can register here if so. Back to gathering more pretty things...

If you don't care for pictures of roses, this is going to be a boring post, because I just couldn't stop taking them.

The Abraham Darbys...no words needed. 

Thank you for all the birthday wishes for my boy too, he loved the orange rose support and had a good day too :)

xo

When we moved into our house a few years ago, I made some comment about wanting to take these roses out. He stopped in his tracks, "why Mom? I love those roses".  Through his eyes I'm learning to love them too...not quite there yet, but walking by them and knowing he loves them makes me happy. He has taught me to love the color orange, just not orange roses, yet.

I was very happy we had some to cut for his day today. 

Birthdays around here means the banner I made years ago comes out. 

Still have to clear my debris from the entry table though...

Time to clean up last Saturday's cuttings too.

And do some general pickup (always). (I hear they have Kantha's for $30.00 at HomeGoods btw.)

Had fun cutting out his home made b'day card.

And a few other things...hoping to catch up a little on project life tomorrow!

and spend some more time on my friend's painting too...

Here's to a lovely weekend!