Hiya sistahs!

did you have a great weekend?  We kinda chilled at home.. Ryan ran around with Tyler for hockey playoff games and practices and Jayden and I just hung out.. did some art, watched movies  etc…  When we do our art is when she decides to recap her whole week to me.. what happened.. who said what.. what said where.. she said this… can you believe I said that… AND she told me that her friend is scared of me.. So I stopped and said, why on earth would she be scared of me???  So she says to me “because you have crazy curly hair and wear glasses”…. LOL.. So jayden says to her friend (instead of really defending me).. “doesn’t matter.. she’s the COOLEST MOM EVAH”…LOL.. so basically does that mean she agreed with her friend? LOL

Then we spent Sunday shopping for clothes.. Jayden has a VERY unique style shall we say.  Friday was the straw that broke the camel’s back where I INSISTED we go shopping.  She emerged from her bedroom wearing a pink pair of printed leggings (which were now CAPRI LENGTH).. actually MAUVE… with a RED shirt and a TURQUOISE sweatshirt and pink socks.  She walked around quite confidently I might add WHILST Tyler and I looked at each other with mouths agape.  She looks at us and says “WHAT”.. I said to her kindly to please point out WHAT in her outfit matches.  She told me point blank that there is WHITE in everything and I TOLD HER that white matches everything.  HMPH.  what could I say to that?  I did tell her to march herself upstairs and put something on that matches..LOL.  I guess in hindsight I shoulda let her embrace her individuality.. which I usually do.

Soooo Sunday comes and we go to this store called JUSTICE.. my friends have been talking about it but I have never been in there.. everything was 40% off and if you go to the “BACK WALL” you get 50% and an additional 40% so I guess they paid us to take the stuff away.  So at the beginning of 2012, I forecasted that NEON would be in style.. and sure enough I walked into the store and it was like 1984 WHAM!  Wake me up before you gogo.. remember that era?    EVERYTHING was neon.. so we got Jayden some goodies.. and some SILVER blingy ugg type boots which I think she slept with.. and some other stuff..   I am so happy that she has stuff that matches and pants that are long enough..LOL  .  Tyler got some goodies too.  It’s so funny.. Tyler since the age of 2 would pick out his clothes and has a great eye.. his sister?  the ONE TOOTH WONDER.. not so much..LOL (shh.. she’s like her father).

Anyway, enough personal boring stuff  Let’s discuss AJ monday shall we?  The theme this week was to use pencils.. coloured pencils, HB pencils..   Let’s see what our sistahood did shall we?

Cindy Redding's page

Lindabella's Page

Lori (PINKY DINKY DOOO) card inspired by the oscars

Violet's page

Here is my page.. whenever I am in front of the TV, I ALWAYS have to do something with my hands.. and since I am staying away from RUBBAH (discovered an allergy).. I practice zentangling etc.. so I came up with this BIG flower and then decided to stamp my ARTSY HOUSE stamp and our THINKING BIRDS stamp.. I love the "villagey "feel of the different sized houses.. I just love that stamp The flower was coloured in AFTER I visited JUSTICE with alllll The new NEON colors included in our NEW COLOR PRISMACOLOR KIT

Here's a closeup of our village

Here is Beth's page.. a different theme but I love it!

So that’s it for AJ monday today … Thank you for posting some suggestions for our themes.. I’m gonna use them all!  So NEXT WEEK’S THEME IS ARROWS (thanks PINKY!)… you can use them as a background.. as your focal point.. pointing to your focal point.. Get creative!  Can’t wait to see!!!   Since AJ monday is supposed to be FREEING, I just suggest themes.. you don’t have to follow them.. you can just send in anything you worked on that we can drool over

Mwah to da sistahs who participate and who match

Em

THIS WEEK’S BELLARIFIC FRIDAY THEME is POLKADOTS!  hope to see your creations!  And Bellarific Friday doesn’t have to be a card.. if you would like to use our stamps in a 3D project, mixed media project etc.. do NOT hesitate!  just follow the theme and use a bella stamp and you’re good to go

Hiya sistahs.. I am down in my basement/craftroom and boy did I get stuff done this weekend!

As I mentioned on SPLITCOAST STAMPERS,  my BFF’s sister had a little baby Ivy (LOOOVE that name).. Ivy Hunter to be exact and she is just deelish. Now I didn’t have a chance to buy a gift (she came rather quickly) so last night I was SO inspired.. ready to PAINT THE WORLD… and I sat down at my table and decided to make a painting for Ivy.  Now, I am not an artist..  or maybe I am?  I don’t follow ANY rules at all..  I don’t know the rules… don’t WANNA know the rules.. I just want to paint.  Actually I have wanted to paint all my life and never “could”.. I always wanted to draw… but “never could”… now I just don’t care… and I just “do”..LOL.. and I feel SO much better after it is out..LOL.  My friend Melissa (BFF mentioned above) was over today and she saw my workspace and she just looked at me and said “this is so good for you isn’t it”.. and I said YES.  She is one of my biggest fans and she encourages me to just DO all the time and her MOTHER is MAD at me because she says I should sell my pieces and make OTHERS as happy as I am..LOL.. and that’s exactly what I did.  I Lol’d!

Anyway.. I was like a little elf working away last night until I saw that it was 1 AM and just had to stop my painting and continued this morning.  I had to have it ready for Ivy this morning.  It is a canvas made with tissue paper, acrylics, collage… whatever was in my way.. and I made it so that it could match her room… I included a doctor Seuss quote, and of course, her name is in there too.. Actually there are several Dr. Seuss quotes but they are buried under the layers.  Needless to say Ivy LOVED the piece..LOL.. I have a great 3 day old audience.. Oh and her mom loved it too…   Here it is… I was so nervous to give it to Amanda.. and I am so nervous to show it here.. but what the heck.  I loved it so much and loved making it so much that I need to share .. I don’t think the colours are very true below but you get the picture

Ok, now that I am “outed”.. I can continue with AJ MONDAY!  Sorry for the delay sistahs!

The theme this week was DRIPPAGE (that is when you have drips of paint running down your page…

Here is Christy S's page

Here is Corey's page

Mine

Hailey's piece! Hailey is Paulabella's niece and they had a GREAT mixed media weekend

Jordan's piece.. (paulabella's DAUGHTER who joined in on the fun!)

Here's Paulabella's piece!

Lori's page (pinky dinky)

Violet's page

How great are these?? OMG!!

Project life will be delayed til Wednesday!

don’t forget Bellarific Friday this week is a sketchypoo…

THEME for next week’s AJ monday is….. USING PENCILS on your page.. can be a regular HB or colored pencils.. or BOTH!

Anyone who would like to suggest the week after’s theme.. please put them in the comment section.. I need help!  a little brain dead over here…

Mwah to da sistahs who came here to visit
Em

crabby and rotund.. LOL.. I love that word.

When you see my art journal page, you will notice it is not the usual me… my girls are usually sassy, a bit angry.. LOL.. and BRIGHT EYED.  My girl today is sad and wistful.  Not sure why she came out that way… Wait a minute.  I DO know why she came out that way…  There is one word that my friend Melissa and I text eachother EVERY SINGLE MONDAY MORNING… it could be as early as 6am.. and as late as 9am.. but it is usually within that window.  The word is “FRESSSSSHHHHHHHHH”.  What does fresh mean?  It is an ALL ENCOMPASSING word ya know.  We have been working hard at developing it’s meaning for the last 15 years of best friendship.  Fresh means, “without going into detail… TRUST me when I say…  THAT THE DIET STARTS AGAIN THIS MORNING..”..LOL.. we may or may not discuss the sordid details of what we did over the past coupla nights (because we get together every friday night, we kinda know WHY we need to be fresh).. This morning I had to confess to Melissa over text.  See our exchange below.  SEE??? the FRESH started at 7:48 this morning from her..LOL!  it actually had a SOOO in front of it.. THAT means.. that she was EXTRA bad..LOL (i’m the green girl)

and then my discussion of which diet to be on this week.. and what I need for the diet I was last on..LOL.  WHAT HAPPENED TO COMMITMENT???? hmph.  Yes, it’s back today.. FRESHHHH.. LOL (until next monday)…

Then I looked in the mirror and i honestly almost fainted.  My HAIR.  All of you with curly hair will comiserate.  My darling Jayden red handedly STOLE my conditioner from my shower.  Now a CURLY without CONDITIONER is like … is like… IS LIKE… HAM WITHOUT CHEESE!! LIKE PEANUT BUTTER WITHOUT JAM!!! LIKE POP without a TART!!!! (had to add that in..LOL)- why does everything have to revolve around food?

I had no choice but to wash my hair on Friday SANS conditioner.  IF I TELL YOU what I looked like this morning… OMG.. even my CHILDREN who love me NO MATTER WHAT.. EVEN FRANKIE was a little distant when he looked at me…were mortified.   It was a STRAW BEES NEST just like a CLUMP of hay.  LIKE SOMEONE DIED on my head.  I almost choked my daughter for stealing the above mentioned conditioner.  Actually Ryan went to buy me some more yesterday.. think that was a hint?  I had to SOAK my head in half a bottle this morning.

So along with the ROTUNDED-ness… MIXED with a BEEHIVE.. you will understand WHY this panic girl came out of my pencil…. LOL.  But I DID feel better after she “came out”…

I also have been taking a KAJILLION online courses… the most recent one is that of JOANNE SHARPE called LETTER LOVE.  It’s PHENOM!  It’s affordable, SO MUCH fun and so full of content.  Video instruction ever day in February!  how great is DAT?  Joanne is so down to earth.. you feel like you are in her living room. And if you join the Yahoo group, you will see that I already misbehaved and got a “what for”.. hmph…  I am only on the fourth lesson but having a blast and the classroom is open forever!  SO on my page you will see how I practiced a little lettering goodness..

ok before I DIVE head first into a depressing BLACK HOLE..LOL.. and make you join me..LOL.. let’s proceed with our AJ MONDAY shall we?

Here was the original inspiration of my girl.. I was attracted to her look since I saw the cover of one of my favorite mags

The theme this week was FABRIC.. but it doesn’t really matter.. it’s just a nudge.. you can enter WHATEVAH you want.. just wanna share!

I need to make a canvas with her.. I really do love her. Her dress is fabric and what's tucked under her head is a heart (my favorite shape) filled with LILLIES OF THE VALLEY.. my favorite flower. So my message to myself was to always keep my favorite things in the back of my mind when feeling glum... and PLEASE NOTE my fancy letters thankyouverymuch. (the quote I used was from a very valuable PDF of great words from Joanne).. did you sign up yet? LOL

Here is VIOLET'S PAGE! I am sure she is thrilled she has her computer back! we missed you Violet!

STEUBYBELLA joined in this week!

Lindabella's page

Paulabella's page

mary's page

Christy's page

guess who else is taking Joanne's class? Yup! COREY!! here's the cover of her Letter Love book!

Have I mentioned lately how much I love AJ mondays?  Have I mentioned FRESHHHHHH lately? (you must put a stress on the SHHHHHHHH and make it last a little longer.).. Don’t forget about SOOOOOO FRESHHHHHHHHH (when you were REALLY bad..LOL).. I bet you’re all saying it out loud now aren’t ya. hehehehe

OK next week’s theme… DRIPPAGE.. sounds gross but it really isn’t lol.  Spray ink on top of your page and watch it run down the page.. that is DRIPPAGE… if you want EXTRA drippage or NASCAR drippage (I am actually giggling at myself).. Spray your SPRAY with water.. and watch it drip even more and FASTER (hence the Nascar analogy)!  you don’t have to use ink spray.. put watered down paint, watercolor etc and spray with water and see what fun designs you can come up with.. so that is your background.. and anything goes on the foreground.

READY? SET? GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! (said like FRESHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH)

Tomorrow is Project Life TOOSDAY!  Send yours in!

Mwah to da sistahs who don’t need to be Fresh.  HMPH

Em