Get up. Get Dressed. Paint.

It’s rare to start with a blank page but for this week’s 15 MINUTES OF MIXED MEDIA©

with Rae Missigman that is how this page started.  It was an easy going page without much thinking; simply painting then using the end of the paintbrush to scratch in some blooms in the wet paint.

The carnage

I used this page to remind myself I am a good teacher and to not allow the powers in charge to take that away. To catch you up, I have now been moved 3 times this school year.  Two weeks into the school year I was transferred from teaching Chemistry in the high school into an elementary school teaching science to 6th and 7th graders.  Five long, stressful weeks later (and just after I was getting the hang of things) I got word I was being transferred back to the high school to teach Biology, Physics, and 7th and 8th graders in the alternative ed program: again, no experience in this.  Last week I packed up my stuff, yet again, and moved.  This week I started with a whole new set of kid learning the ropes of teaching alternative ed students.  *sigh...

Noticing

She removes more paint than I seem to be able to by scraping an old credit card over the wet paint, leaving her page with much more white space than mine.  I also find I’m hesitant to wipe up too much of the paint yet I always like her finished page better than mine because of that. 

Free Mixed Media Workshop

Wednesday via a fellow blogger I discovered Permission to Play- a Free Mixed Media Workshop with Carolyn Dube.  Yesterday I watched the introductory lessons, downloaded and painted my Permission to Play permission slip.  My plan is to use this class to play in paint on week nights when I normally do very little creating.  Winter is a struggle for me and my hope is to begin a practice of spending time in the evenings creating to ease the stress after a long day of teaching.

Do you want to play along with me?

Joining Paint Party Friday where having paint under the fingernails is the norm.  What colors are under yours?

Get up. Get dressed. Paint.

Recreating her mop up page

I made it through the first week in the new teaching position and new building but it was overwhelming!  I often felt like I was air dropped into a country where I didn’t speak the language or understand the customs. I was unaware of how different the vernacular of high school is from elementary.  I often would have that deer in the headlights look when asked for something.  Communication is non existent which I have a hard time understanding. The two hurdles I found most frustrating were professionals assuming I knew things then getting angry when I looked at them with that blank stare because I din't.  And the schedule is often altered which means suddenly having kids stay in your classroom for 2 hours rather than 1.  Grrrrrrr!   Elementary teaching is so far removed from teaching high school, which is all I’ve ever done.  For whatever reason these teachers think I should have a handle on it after just one week.  News Flash:  I doubt that will happen even by the end of the school year!

The carnage

So I needed to paint this week but company was coming Saturday putting my painting date with Rae Missigman’s  15 MINUTES OF MIXED MEDIA© off until Sunday.

It's inevitable that "help" will arrive when wet paint is laying about. Allistair loves "helping".  His favorite thing is laying on the computer inhibiting my view of the video.

When it was done I hated it.  My mind was frantically trying to figure out what to do with this disaster.  There was no way I was going to post this!  A few days later I decided it didn't look that bad.  I had to remind myself that this is not my style of painting and it's okay to not like it.  Again, it's all about the practice, showing up, getting the paint on the page, learning from it.

What I learned

• It’s not necessary for me to start by recreating her mop up page.  Often, it’s covered up and very little is seen afterward.
• She makes mistakes while she is painting too!  In this video I watched her go through the process of fixing several smears.  I always get frustrated when I smear what I just painted.  It seemed like it never happens to her.  I thought her paint simply dried faster than mine.  Watching her make them then fix them helped me let go of some of that perfectionism I place on myself. 

How do you handle mistakes?  Do you fix them while the paint is still wet or do you walk away and comeback to it after you have had time to let it go?

   Joining Paint Party Friday where having paint under the fingernails is the norm.  What colors are under yours?

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday: Working in the Early Morning Light

Taken at my favorite time of the day…when the early morning light begins streaming in the windows filling the dark craft room as I work.  I am an early riser; 3:30 is the norm.  On weekends like this I make a pot of coffee then walk upstairs to my waiting craft room.  I flick on the OttLites, the computer, sip my coffee and begin painting or art journaling.  I will work until Good Morning America comes on at 8 o’clock or I feel I’ve worked as much as I can. 

On my desk you can see the newly arrived Dylusions paints.  They scare me a little as they are in pots which means open paint for kitties to put paws into or the clumsy artist to spill.  I plan to paint with them Saturday so I’ll let you know.  Sitting on the left is a new pad of scrapbook paper.  I would have preferred an 8.5 x 11 pad but this is how it came so I make do.  I mainly use it in the altered book you see spread out on my desk.  The 2 plastic boxes are filled with paper, old books, postcards, ribbon and an odd assortment of ephemera to use in this book.  The book pages are from Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s book Gift from the Sea (free from the library giveaway cart).

Waking up to my mind racing has once again become the norm.  I try to stop it but it seems as though gravity takes over and the thoughts gain momentum as I awaken more fully.  Weekdays I have to get up and finish the lesson plans I was too exhausted to complete the night before.  I would prefer to art journal every morning, even if only for 15 minutes.  That is my goal, to get ahead and be able to have time for myself the first part of the workday so I can release the runaway train of thoughts that haunt me when I awaken.

 

This book is helping me to find my own style.  As I progress through the pages, I am finding what suits me as an artist.  Here, I’ve given up typing out my thoughts on the computer, printing them, then gluing them in.  Too time consuming!  My impatience to put the page together in one sitting has forced me to slowly learn to accept my handwriting. 

Today is the first day of fall.  I'm sad as the summer seemed to speed on past without my being able to enjoy much of it.  This weekend I will have to get my fall art journaling supplies out.  Funny, as most of you deskers are thinking Christmas by the looks of what's on your desks.   

Joining up with What’s onYour Workdesk? Wednesday where desk snooping is not only allowed but all part of the fun!

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday

My desk early Sunday morning cluttered with an odd mixture of stuff.   I was trying to catch up over the weekend.as I had several ATC's to complete for swaps.  I cut out a piece of the wedding veil remnant to use for texture. The the fairy collage sheet is out to create something that begins with F. The bag of Halloween feathers is a recent purchase.  I needed an orange feather for that pink and orange rolo last week and did not have one.  BTW, the recipient of that rolo thought I nailed it with that orange game card.  That orange paint on the paper towel is from my painting the previous morning.  I have a painting practice which I have properly named, Get up.  Get dressed. Paint.  Saturday mornings I have a regular painting date with my paints (and coffee). You can click on the tab at the top to see the pages in my painting journal.

Which leads me to some unexpected news:   I moved to a new building and am now teaching in an elementary school.  A HUGE change for me. I have always taught high school with some middle school mixed in but now I am teaching 6th and 7th grade.  Instead of listening for bells to tell me when the end of class is I have to watch the clock.  Instead of students walking freely through the halls to their classes I have to line my students up and walk them everywhere. At the end of the day instead of kids rushing to meet buses I now have to escort them one-by-one to their parent who is waiting in their car in the parking lot.  Yesterday was my second day and it all feels so overwhelming! You can read about how this all came about HERE.

Swapping

Butterfly Fairy: ABC letter ATCs - Make Up #2 Letter F

 ABC letter ATCs - N Nest

Joining up with What’s onYour Workdesk? Wednesday where desk snooping is not only allowed but all part of the fun!

Get up. Get dressed. Paint.

The story behind this week’s page

This week was the first week of classes for students.  Yesterday was truly a day of mixed bag of emotions, the ultimate roller coaster!!!   In the middle of teaching a chemistry lesson,the principal entered my room, told me I was being transferred.  I was to report to the other building immediately and the other teacher was to take over.

I have been trying to get this transfer and wanted it badly but I did not expect it to happen in this manner.   I expected to have time to pack.  I am happy to finally get out of that building and be somewhere I am welcomed, respected, and wanted; where professionalism is honored and consistency rules the day.  So yesterday afternoon my dear hubby helped me move about a third of my stuff into my new classroom. While creating this page I released all the emotions of yesterday, allowing them to be.

Painting with Rae Missigman’s  15 MINUTES OF MIXED MEDIA©

One of the challenges is recreating her “mop page”, a page where she tests new stencils,  new paint colors and uses left over paint she can't bear to throw away.  She starts with these pages to avoid that dreaded “white page”.  

The carnage

What I learned

•   Use Dylusions ink spray like a watercolor to fill in spaces & loops in handwriting; this adds a pop of color.
• When I show up ready to release the anxiety it is easier to find the words to scribble (finding words to scribble always seems to be a problem for me)

I feel lighter now.  There is anxiety but it's different.  That black cloud that has been hanging over me since I was in that building (2006) is gone.  It's been there for so long it became a part of me, pushing down, the pressure not allowing me to breathe.   This new anxiety is more about not knowing, making the transition from teaching 10th, 11th, and 12th graders to 6th and 7th graders.  Comeback next week to see how my first week goes!

Joining Paint Party Friday where having paint under the fingernails is the norm.  What colors are under yours?

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday

This was a busy crafting day.  The desk was overflowing with cards I decided at the last minute to make for the anniversary ATC exchange. Making 16 cards proved to be warring.  The gluing magazine, if you are wondering, is an old magazine I glue and paint in so my under-paper stays cleaner.  I do not always remember to use it.  

Grades were due for the 7th Marking Period and I had to leave the confines of my crafting room to work on the dining room table. Many of these papers are late so it takes longer to get them graded.  I have to try to remember the answers, figure out how many days late it is then calculate the penalty points.  Grading papers is one of my least favorite teaching duties!   My seniors will be gone this week.  Right now we are preparing for final exams.  3 weeks to go!

I had an unexpected visitor in my craft room.  I was sitting at the computer and he landed on my screen.  Having been stung by a yellow jacket  before, I got up rather quickly and started searching for something to use to capture him before he decided to sting me.  Had the neighbors been up and looking out the window they would have seen quite a sight; me throwing the door open and tossing this glass out into the yard while rapidly retreating back into the house.  My concern is where there is one bee there are sure to be more!  I fear there maybe a nest in the attic, which is on the other side of the door in my craft room.

Yes, you are seeing correctly, a sewing machine!  Last week's DLP challenge was to add stitching to the page.  I admit, I had to get the user guide out to get it threaded.  Once I got started I had so much fun sewing the ribbon and material to the deli paper. I have been wanting to add stitching to my art journals for a while but for whatever reason kept putting it off.  Definitely will adding stitching more often!  My goal is to learn free motion stitching.

Tags I created for a tag journal swap.

 I created 16 ATC's for the Anniversary swap.  Please leave a message if you would like to swap.

  

Joining up with What’s on YourWorkdesk?Wednesday where desk snooping is not only allowed but all part of the fun!

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday

On my desk is my altered journal and DML planner.  Also a new Distrss Ink, -shabby shutters; have fallen in love with this new color.  At the base of the lamp are bits of tissue paper left over from WOYWW ATC’s. and a Starbucks coffee sleeve (a Mother’s Day treat).  My paper basket is overflowing with bits of paper, ribbon and material from creating.  

Not sure how I will finish off the left side of this spread.  I have learned to a leave a page until inspiration strikes.

I woke up this morning at 1:45, couldn't go back to sleep so brewed some coffee and worked on this journal page in my altered book.  While I feel calmer, exhaustion is taking over yet I have the whole day left in front of me.  Sigh…

I skipped several weeks of the DML simply because I felt like they have gotten away from the documenting part and more into the challenges part.   I made the planner and want to see it through the end so I am trying to find a way to incorporating the challenges with the planner.  I also have been avoiding working in it because I am in a rut, the same rut I have been in for several years now and by not working in the planner I avoid acknowledging this. 

Lately I have been forgoing my favorite color purple for green.  I never thought about one’s favorite color changing but it makes sense. 

According to color psychology, green

“… is the color of balance and harmony. From a color psychology perspective, it is the great balancer of the heart and the emotions, creating equilibrium between the head and the heart.”

“From a meaning of colors perspective, green is also the color of growth, the color of spring, of renewal and rebirth. It renews and restores depleted energy. It is the sanctuary away from the stresses of modern living, restoring us back to a sense of well being.”

Thinking about this and where my life is right now, it makes sense to be attracted more towards green than purple. The stressors of teaching are taking a huge toll.  Change is needed, it is inevitable,  I'm just not sure in which direction to head.

Has your favorite color changed as your life has changed?  Did you go back to your original favorite color once the change took place or is the new color still your favorite?

Joining up with What’s onYour Workdesk?Wednesday where desk snooping is not only allowed but encouraged!

Laying the pathway for change

The sense of calm and purpose I found over Christmas break diminished not too long after going back to school and I just haven’t been able to get myself to move past the stress and repression to make any changes.  After a long conversation yesterday with a friend I realized I was getting in my own way. I needed to release the thoughts that continued to cycle in my mind, the worries that were keeping me from restful sleep, waking me with my mind racing.  This constant ruminating was keeping me in a continual state of fight or flight.  Why was I allowing this?  

Part of the answer was fear.  In the back of my mind knowing some other eyes other than mine could read about my internal struggles was preventing me from releasing them.  Yet holding them in was holding me back.   And while I hated the way things were making the needed changes scares me even more. Something had to be done.  Yesterday I purchased a plain journal, one of my favorites to work in for smaller projects.  I wanted clean, line-less pages so I wouldn't feel the pressure to have to write.  And I wanted a small number of pages so I could finish it by summer. 

I wrote, released…breathed.  Then I painted over it, stenciled, painted some more, then doodled.   A start, yes, but starting is never the problem, sticking with it, reaching an end, this I’m not good at.  Again, fear sets in, I give up and the cycle continues.  How can I make this turn out differently?

Having Faith that I will find myself...soon

I feel as though I have lost myself this week.  Time to create, to play, to be... now replaced with a constant barrage of things that have to get done.  Every waking moment consumed with teaching.  I wake up from sleep and my mind immediately starts racing, remembering what I didn’t get done yesterday along with today’s to-do list.  So much to do… my own time spent juggling all the paper that piles up during the day …so much paper, all needing attention… NOW!  The whole day consumed leaving no time to create, read, breathe….

Faith…I look to it knowing I will get past all this, that a rhythm to my day will come.  Yet I know time to create will be limited, often nonexistent.   

This week I found this Red Luna hibiscus trying to hide in the garden.  It's bright red plate-sized blooms gave it away. Still not sure how it arrived in that particular spot, hidden behind a dwarf sumac that decided to grow beyond dwarf.

Sharing my small joys and finds with Kim Klassen’s Friday Finds and Friday Photo Journal

Celebrating the end of the school year and the beginning of summer.

I find myself relieved that my classroom is finally packed up in boxes, stored until the next school year.

I find that when I get overwhelmed by everyththing that needs to be done, cleaning something out always helps.  When cleaning out the closet,  I discovered Allistair had used one of my jackets as a blanket.  I have no idea if I will ever get all of that white fur off of it!

Mt Rainier cherries are here!  Because they are here for such a short time (3 weeks) I find myself eating them like candy.

I found this card at the post office while waiting in line.  It made me laugh so I hard I simply had to buy it.  I think I will put it in a frame and hang it.

I drove by this car for sale every morning on my way to school.  It just begged to be photographed but it is in such a bad neighborhood I feared stopping.  One morning I was running ahead of schedule and thought, what the heck. So glad I did!

To celebrate this blog's one year anniversary I am having a giveaway.  Please go here for the details.  I would love for you to participate.  You only need to Subscribe in the Reader (in the upper right column)

then leave a comment here.  

Sharing my fabulous finds with Kim at Friday Finds.

My ADD approach to house cleaning.

I was forced to stop and ask myself, am I ADD?  I thought I wasn’t but when I caught myself last Saturday in the midst of cleaning my kitchen I had to question my response.   I wrote this Saturday after catching myself in the midst of the mayhem:

The kitchen needed cleaning so I decided today was the day to dive in and get it done.  I started by getting the dishes washed.  We have a dishwasher but these were things that were waiting to be hand washed (stencils filled with paint, palette knife with modeling paste, GladWare from my lunch…)  As I was washing I thought, “I could be getting a load of laundry done while I’m cleaning.”  So into the laundry room I go, sorting my weeks’ worth of work clothes into separate loads.  But yesterday’s clothes were still in the bedroom so I went to collect them.  I noticed the bed still needed to be made to I put down the clothes and to get the sheets and comforted straightened and the pillows fluffed up.  I then noticed my hair clips were still sitting on my night stand and they needed to be put away before they became cat toys.  Into the bathroom I go to put them away.  Noticing the sink is dirty I get the cleaner and sponge out to wipe it down, then the toilet and oh, the mirror is dirty too so I‘ll just wipe it down with one of those glass cleaning wipes.  When done I take the glass the hubby left by the sink into the kitchen to get it washed and realize I hadn’t finished washing the dishes!  Meanwhile, the laundry room light is still on and the washing machine had stopped at the end of the wash cycle because I didn’t put the lid down because I planned to add more clothes, which I never did; they were still on the floor where I had dropped them when I got side tracked to make the bed! 

Do you do this???

By the way, I stopped everything to go to the computer to write this because I was afraid I wouldn’t remember it all when it came time to write this post! HOWEVER, the dishes are done, the washer is running, the bed is made, and the bathroom is clean!

2.      Our back yard looks more like a go kart track.  The hubby always snow blows a square for Cleo.  This year, when the thawing, rain, then freezing temps came, the track became slick with ice so he had to shovel a path in the center for her.  The straw we laid down is now blown all over the yard making it look a misplaced go kart track in the middle of a farm field (can you say white trash).

3.      I found this inspiring quote on someone’s blog post last week. 

"The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we lead"                                                                    by, Flora Whittenmore

* If this is yours, please let me know.

4.      Yesterday we had a practice lock down drill at the end of the last period.  I found myself in a room with 30+ 7^th graders who can’t understand the importance of being totally quiet.  The reality of the situation truly shook me.  At this age, they shouldn’t have to understand the importance of it yet in the times we live in, they must.  With the impossibility of keeping them quiet came the reality that if it had not been a drill, their whispering, tapping, moving around would give us away.

 5.      George came last night for a late night meal.  We haven’t seen much of him with the temps being so cold.  We do worry about him but his coat is thick, he still feels firm, and he looks healthy so he must be staying warm and well fed somewhere.  He is always glad to see us and insists on getting his cheeks rubbed before he will eat.

* A follow up on the Dryer ball saga:  since the sign there have been 2 in the dryer.  I guess the teenage didn’t want to use his hard earned money on buying another set.  I kept the sign just in case. 

Joining the celebration of our week at Kim Klassen’s Friday Finds and Nancy’s Random 5 Friday  Stop by and be inspired by