Wow! Summer is two-thirds over, why does it always go so fast!
But, my journal pages are ready, and waiting, for August and I am sharing them by linking to Kate at The Kathryn Wheel!
So, here is my second journaling page for August…….
My completed July pages look like this now………
The first half of the month the dog was scared to death of the fireworks going off in the neighborhood and the family spent the weekend at the beach.
A trip to the farmer’s market today, inspired this little watercolor sketch……
My interpretation of this……..
All sorts of eye candy…….
I love this time of year and all the fresh vegetables and fruits….we brought home kale, beets, zucchini, vine ripened tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh green beans and this…..
Yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Woo Hoo….for whatever reason, I have been on a bit of a roll this week! A creative binge, shall we say!
I’ve been playing with my produce, as I bring it in from the garden, like this….
My birthday was this week and I received two dozen fresh from the farm organic eggs…..photo and journaling worthy!
Played with flowers, watercolor and lettering……..
Since I have been art journaling everyday, I think I should link to Julie Balzer's Art Journal Everyday Linky party. Come with me to visit.
A few weeks ago I picked this little ledger (9”x7 1/2”) at a yard sale for 38 cents. It was priced fifty cents but I only had 38 cents or a $20 bill…..the lady opted for the change.
I have a few ideas for decorating the cover but, at this point, I’m busy finding papers to use for the journal pages…..like these…….
that include maps and rice paper and
….charts and files…….
….and hand dyed and hand painted papers…….
…..and little sketches on scrap paper…
I’m throwing in some grocery list/doodle practice pages, too.
So, this is the first collaged page I’ve made for my new journal……..
I used a hand made paper base and added the paint advertisement and cut out words…the lettering is a little hard to read, but says “like living in the land of perpetual blue sky & sunshine”!
I’d love to live in this neighborhood! I’ll take the yellow house, you can have the blue, now wouldn’t that be fun?
This side of the page is my front garden, it is full of color this time of year!
I’d say this page does not photograph well…too much going on, hum! Is it possible to put too much on a journal page!!! I think I just did.
Other than that, I think this is going to be a fun (and my first) truly art journal! My other journals are what I call my everything journals; garden, daily, art journals….I want to include more photos and arty stuff in this one! We’ll see where the journal decides to take me!
Friday, Hubby and I headed to Salem…..the one that is the capital of Oregon!
Every year, for close to 40 years the Salem Art Association has organized and event call the Salem Art Fair & Festival. The art fair is ranked one of the TOP TEN art fairs in the U.S. and it attract artists from all over the country. So, the work is good, varied and there are close to 200 vendors in all! It’s quite a weekend.
I thought I took a lot of pictures but after I got home I realized I had barely captured a good representation of what all was there…..hope you enjoy this sampling!
Assemblages…….
Engraving……..
Glass yard art………..
Metal sculpture……..
Acrylic and ink…….
Acrylic…….
Pottery that, to me, is reminiscent of the 1920 art deco pottery made by Roseville.
Amazingly, beautiful woodworking…..
More colorful acrylics……..
I loved this shot of three color coordinated booths, even the men’s tee shirts match…
Collage and watercolor in the background…beautiful aqua colored glaze in the foreground…….
This is an awesome collage made with pieces of maps and other papers……..
Truly, this is just a sampling…..there was clothing, jewelry, hats, shoes, leather goods, weaving…..every art form know to man, I swear, plus food, entertainment and music! It is exciting and inspiring and daunting, all at the same time.
You can tell by my photos that I am attracted to the bright colors, if you don’t like bright colors…..you would have still found things there that you would love!
So, if you are ever in Oregon the third weekend in July, be sure to include the Art Fair in Salem’s Bush Park in your plans.
The red poppy was cut from a garden magazine and attached to an acrylic painted background….I added some washi tape, a little lettering and I love it. On the right side I tried writing with acrylic ink using a wood skewer….sloppy and not legible, but that’s O.K.
All that blue reminded me of one of my favorite old songs “Blue Velvet” by Bobby Vinton, so I circled the poppy with the words. That in turn reminds me of an old boyfriend…that was “our song”!
That was a really long time ago….I’m pretty sure I’m “over it” and that I’m not working through any issues with the journal page! However, if you can read something revealing into it…I’d love to hear it! Well, that’s enough reminiscing for today…be sure to check out Julie’s blog.
I haven’t participated in WOYWW in a while, Wednesday’s roll around so fast I seem to forget or I don’t have anything that I’m working on……well, yay! today I remembered that it was almost Wednesday, AGAIN, and had something I was working on.
I am participating in a journal page swap organized by Michael Geller, appropriately, named “Vintage Back To School”. These pages are due the middle of August and I’m trying to avoid being too last minute. This is only a sneak peek! I don’t want to spoil the surprise for any of the other thirteen partners in the swap.
I’ll share the journal with you when I receive it the first of September, including this page finished.
If you look closely, you will see one of the stamps I carved to make this card is on my desk, too.
Thanks for stopping by, please join me at Julia's Stamping Ground where snoopers from around the world share their work space with each other.
Hubby and I spent a wonderful Saturday celebrating Lavender….that’s right Lavandula, the lovely, fragrant plant and all of it by-products.
In Oregon some of us, reserve the second weekend in July for the Oregon Lavender Festival, when the lavender is at its peek and local growers are in the middle of harvest. Statewide some 24 nurseries, who specialize in growing lavender, are open to the public this weekend….all offering plants, bouquets and many other lavender crafted items for sale, along with special activities.
We choose to take a pleasant, twenty mile drive through Oregon’s Wine Country to the little town of Yamhill to visit Beulah Park, the location of the Yamhill Lavender Festival. There we sampled wonderful food, bought a really cool tee shirt, admired an art show and saw some awesome, inspiring crafts made by the nicest, friendliest crafters ever!
For a few weeks before the event, artist are invited to go into the lavender fields to paint plein air and to enter their work into the judged art show. These are just a few examples.
Most of the work was framed under glass, sorry for the reflections and glare, but I think you get the idea….there was some beautiful work in this show.
Our tour of the crafts area started with this demonstration of lavender oil distillation. There was some really fragrant steam coming of the piece of equipment!
Next, I discovered this wonderful booth full of goodies and inspiration by Kristin at Moontea.
She is carving her own stamps, stamping and, also, doing silk screening on paper and fabric.
Are these cute, or what? To learn more go to www.moonteaartwork.com.
Susan has an Etsy store where you can see and buy her colorful and whimsical art, go to www.SusanFaye.etsy.com.
Janet at Winged Thingz raises parrots and preserves their feathers between glass to make these lovely charms. Visit her at www.parrots.com.
Then I met the this generous woman who makes beautiful books and teaches her craft. Learn more at www.focusonbookarts.org.
I’m sorry I don’t have contact information on the rest of these talented crafters, but they all deserve credit for the high quality crafts they are producing….like this woman who is making lovely arrangements of dried botanicals between glass and framing them.
Beautiful, healthy plants locally grown and for sale……..
A fun day! If you live in Oregon, and you like lavender, you should plan on being a part of this fun festival next year.
