This spring I received a call from my BFF Erica  who wanted to know if I was still interested in getting back to the hospital.  I’m a nurse by profession and have enjoyed the last ten years at home raising my kids and supporting my husbands online business.  She knew that I had reactivated my RN license  and was tossing around ideas.  Apparently there was a position just opening up in the same nursing field I had left… but at her hospital system.  ”Okay”  you say,  ”Very cool…so?”  Well,  she live accross the country. ACROSS the USA We are not just talking about a new  job here. We are talking about relocating our entire lives.

Long story short… it was “stars aligning” and within two months we had packed up our entire house and storage unit (we had for 10,  yes, 10 years….Don’t get me started on that.)   and like the Beverly Hillbillies,  we loaded up the truck and moved “Quir-ky”.  Albuquerque that is.  Land of Mountains and hot air  balloons.  We drove 1800+ miles in our SUV and a 26 foot U-Haul truck pulling a 12×9 foot covered trailer all the way from from Florida.  My dad came with us to help drive and what a blessing he was. (Thank you again Daddy!!)  It’s been wonderful.  The people here are so friendly and everyone seems to be into health and well being.

Well, needless to say my arts and crafts have taken a back burner to unpacking and working full time.  We still have a room full of boxes to put away but for the most part we are settled in and functional.  I’m happy to say I got a craft room/office out of the deal. hehehe.  I’m still setting it all up but hope to be able to start printing pictures of this adventure soon and get them put into albums.

This was the first year I was attemtping the Becky Higgins album system and wow do I have some catching up to do! lol  Luckily my daughter kept a log book that my mom gave her on the trip.  She was great about writing things down.  I know we are taking plenty of pictures to use.  Everywhere you turn here is breathtaking.  What a heck of a year to document already!

I also signed up for Ali Edwards One Litte Word at BPC and am way behind on that now. My word is “Participate”  Damn did THAT open a can of worms or what??   Did I mention I have to get my Bachelors in Nursing within the  next two years too?    The hospital requires and supports it so I’m quite happy to take on this endevour as well.  Luckily for me,  my first class going back to college  since 1988 is taking care of  3 credit of a Fine Arts.  Yup!  I am really looking forward to “Drawing 101″ all fall.  Starts next week.  Hmmm 5 hours of mandatory art… lifes rough but somebodies gotta do it.

I’ll do my best to keep up with it all  Hope to hear from you all soon and do some catching up.

Hugs, Claudia!

Good luck!

Claudia

Sorry I’ve been missing in action!  Between Spring Break and normal chaos I’ve been pretty tied up. I am finishing up a great class at BPC called I.scrap. I’m still working on the journaling so ill take pictures for a later post when I’m done.

Below are the pics of my desk from today .  Trying a phone post so crossing my fingers they are there. Lol.  I’ve been wanting to sort my embellies and odd n ends by color like Stacy Julian (shown here). I couldn’t find the right sized containers all in one color until yesterday.  Keeping in mind size and cost has made the search a little hard. My friend Denise called to let me know the dollar store had planters like we were considering but slightly smaller. At 15 inches they were actually perfect!  Plus the cheaper version turned out to be thin enough for me to squash the curled edge enough so I could fit my cropodile over it and make holes for the ribbon handles!

I’ll add some links for you when I get to my computer!
Hugs, Claudia

Thanks for stopping by!  If you didn’t come from Julia’s blog please check out the other ladies giving you a sneaky peak at their messes!  lol

http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/

I’m truy enjoying my foray into online scrapbooking classes and Ali Edwards One Little Word class has been the diving board that has immersed me into the wonder world.  I am so thankful.  I have to admit though, I have discovered I have some creative issues this month!  I’m not the photographer in the family.  I take the everyday shots,  yes,  but I had a rough time with this February Prompt from Ali.  I’ve always loved scrapping the pictures of our lives and I can appreciate beautiful photography but I got this mental block on this assignment  and I have only about half of the pictures picked  out.

My One Little Word may be part of the problem.   It’s more of a concept than a noun.  Participate is my word.    I had thought of setting up a game board and take some micro shots of it and find a fun angle on things. I also still might get  a picture of my kids riding their bikes but other than that I’m kinda stumped.

My husband took this gorgeous shot of some strangers walking on the beach at sunrise that hit me as appropriate.  I want to “participate”  in my own life more activily so this fit for me.

Any suggestions would be awesome and very much appreciated.  Below is the main list if you are lost and need to figure out who’s blogs you have seen or haven’t.  I’m number 14 on the list so Rebekah is where you should go next.  If not start at the beginning at Margie’s blog the lovely lady who conceived of this adventure.

Want to see my January prompt pages and my album I made to hold olw?  Check out these entries…

http://www.creative-moms.com/one-little-word-with-ali-edwards/

http://www.creative-moms.com/whats-on-your-workdesk-wednesday-87/

1.    Margie                          http://xnomads.typepad.com

2.    Monica B                              http://scraplifters.blogspot.com/

3.    Jill                        http://jillconyers.typepad.com/

4.    Miranda                 http://mirandasscrapsite.blogspot.com

5.    Donna                        http://www.donnabryantdurand.blogspot.com

6.    Lynn                                          www.crafty-creativity.blogspot.com

7.    Stacey                        http://www.TheAcornGarden.com/blog

8.    Lisa                                    http://backtoallen.com/writers_blog

9.    Cassie                        http://craftycassiescorner.blogspot.com

10. Abbey                                    http://athomewiththerichardsfamily.blogspot.com/

11. Nicky                                    http://seejanebake.blogspot.com

12. Holly                                    http://lovingrobots.blogspot.com

13. Karen                                    http://breathenowsmile.blogspot.com

14. Claudia                        http://creative-moms.com

15. Rebekah                        http://istampscrapcraft.blogspot.com

16. Kimberly                        http://foreverdaisies.blogspot.com

17. Kat                                    www.katswonderings.blogspot.com

18. Kristina                        http://ciqis.blogspot.com

19. Jan                                    http://mysimplelittlelife.typepad.com

20. Nikki                                    http://www.inkyart.com.au/

21. Amanda                        www.scrappnbee.blogspot.com

22. Lisa                                    http://luluoz.typepad.com

23. Sam                                    http://learncreatedo.wordpress.com

24. Maureen                        http://cookingmylife.blogspot.com

25. Kristi                                      http://theprojectofme.wordpress.com

26. Tere                                    http://terecontodomicorazon.blogspot.com

27. Karen                                    http://womenontractors.blogspot.com

28. Katrina                          http://k84mansramblings.blogspot.com

29. Monica Bergler            http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com

30. Mandy                        http://captureandcreate.wordpress.com

31. Lisa                                    http://makeyourownescape.blogspot.com

32. Chrissy                        http://getcraftywithchrissy.blogspot.com

33. Lee                             http://thelinarstudio.typepad.com/embracelife

34. Jen                                    www.byjen.com

35. Sylvia                                    http://baxtersmom1.blogspot.com/

36. Christianne                        http://christiannemarra.blogspot.com/

37. Cheri                                    http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com

38.  Joy                                    www.undiscoveredjoy.blogspot.com

39.  Beth                                    http://justbebeth.wordpress.com/

40.  Jennifer L                        www.studiojenn.blogspot.com

41.  Kathryn                        www.katlodesigns.com

42.  Heather                        www.scrappyhare.blogspot.com

43.  Cindy                                    http://seriousplay.typepad.com

44. Cynthiau         http://paperpapereverywhere.blogspot.com/

(Note: I wrote this last February and forgot to publish it then.)

Each and every piece of work you do teaches you something. The first thing Millie taught me was that I need to feel an emotional tie to my work. It not only makes me all that much more eager to do but to do it right.  I have always had the attitude that I want everything I do to be awesome.  Recently,  I made an active effort NOT to do this.  To allow myself the freedom to “waste” paper and supplies on just looking around and sketching things.  It took a few attempts  but it was liberating. I felt myself giving in and I was able to actually get a bit of pride from by sketches and water color plays.  I gave into the idea of experimentation.  I let go of my emotional bond with it.  I tend to rip out things in my sketchbooks that didn’t come out right and that’s not a good thing.  If you didn’t like something, walk away. When you aren’t as frustrated with it, come back to it and write down notes on what you didn’t like.  Learn from the exercise.  You may not be taking a formal class but we are all perpetual students. Teach yourself.

When I went back to doing something serious like a gift for someone else, I regained that emotional tie and really truly felt it this time. I can really see the difference this made in just the last two water colors I have done.  The mermaid is from a book/ kit called Faeries, Mermaids, and Angels: Creating Magical Worlds with Watercolor.  I’ve always been in love with mermaids and angels.   This really seemed like fun.  Now don’t get me wrong it was fun.  I loved sketching it out and doing it.  I was proud of how it turned out but not ecstatic.There is just a different feel or emotion when your artwork is someone who you know.  The emotions attached to the dog, in this case, not only urged me to do “a good job”   but it helped me to see deeper into the subject as more than something on the paper.  I so wanted her personality to shine through.  I wanted to exact an emotion in the dogs owner.  I wanted him to feel her love and affection looking back at him each time he sees her. I want him to see her  not “it”.  To feel like a little piece of Millie is still watching out over him.

That was the biggest lesson I learned from Millie’s painting.  I also was able to play with some more advanced blending techniques.  I realized that It’s time for me to move on to professional grade watercolor paper. The multiple layers of paint and water began to wear away at the paper and that was frustrating.  I also learned that even though I thought I wasn’t sketching too hard or using a dark  leaded pencil, I still needed to use a lighter touch.  It was distracting and hard to erase the marks under the paint.  You can add to that not to shade in darker areas like I so with graphite sketching.  Next time I’ll just make marks of key placement points.

Before starting this project I had read two books that showed me techniques that were key to my new success in Millie.  The first I have mentioned before, Lee Hammond and her drawing techniques were key to making Millie look proportional.  Her graph technique is a mainstay in my artwork now.

The second book is a new one I just bought from Amazon called Watercolor Secrets: An Inside Look at the Techniques of Award-Winning Splash Artists.  Rachel Rubin Wolf  puts together a geat group of accomplished water colorist and has them share a favorite technique they use.  I had my “Ah-Haa!” moment when I saw Catherine O’ Neill’s painting she named Two Grands.  The multiple layers of golden hues getting darker and darker were covered with browns and blacks.  When her step by step photos showed the warm golds just burn through in the richest hues by her re-wetting spots and dabbing with paper towels I was amazed.  That really helped me in putting the highlights into Millie’s fur.

Thanks for your time. I hope you like my painting and you decide to experiment a little.  I love the “forgive-ness”  of watercolor painting. Is that a word?

hugs!