Relating to Mr. Darcy...

By the title of this post, anyone familiar with Jane Austen's work should easily deduce that I am a fan of "Pride and Prejudice". 


I have read and re-read the novel countless times in its entirety and skipping through to my favorite parts. My sweet spouse has endured countless versions of the movies - to the point that he has finally drawn the line, and I can only watch the "blithering females" when he's not at home.  He despises Mrs. Bennett and the younger Bennett sisters that much! 


It's interesting how some cinematic versions take very little creative license, while others use broad brushes with their spin (the Bollywood version "Bride and Prejudice" comes directly to mind).


Through it all, the depth and personalities of the characters remain true to Ms. Austen's original version.  This is what pulls me in every single time - I can relate to what the characters are experiencing at an emotional level...  Well, that and my hopeless romantic side enjoying the journey to Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth's happily ever after.


Specifically I feel akin to Mr. Darcy - not in the I'm wealthy and the world is my oyster kind of way, but to the aspect of his personality portrayed in his admittance of his inability to talk with strangers:

"I certainly have not the talent which some people possess," said Darcy, "of conversing easily with those I have never seen before.  I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns, as I often see done."

There are a few people with whom I feel a kindred spirit and can chat with as though we'd been friends for ages; however, most of the time I get tongue tied and suspect I appear aloof and uninterested to the people around me.  I can assure you that in most cases I am interested, and usually a few hours after the event my brain has come up with something that I could have introduced into the conversation. 


On the flip side of this coin, are the people I am comfortable enough around to show my true self.  A recent trip north (with Joel in tow) to reunite with high school classmates allowed the more relaxed version of myself come out to play. 


I had no idea who would be there, but the car was filled with my excitement to meet up with classmates I haven't seen in years.  It turns out there were a half dozen of us and several spouses.  Despite the small turn out we laughed, caught up on what each other had been up to since our lives' post-graduation chapter had begun and reminisced. 


Our three hour long dinner proved to me that I can carry on full, in depth - sometimes thoughtful, sometimes flighty, sometimes frivolous - conversation.  When you spend nearly all of your first 18 years with the same core group of people (there were 66 of us in that group), they become a form of family.  Sometimes you get along.  Sometimes you don't.  The bond is still there. 


My post high school years has yielded several close friends, but I still freeze at the prospect of striking up conversations with strangers.


Perhaps I need to take a bit of Elizabeth's advice to Darcy - practice...


I'm certain my life will be filled with more color when I learn to get out of my own way...


~Kathy

Finding My Voice

It has been quite a while since this blog has seen any action.  It has been patiently waiting for me to return.  Looking back through the existing posts I see snippets of me peeking through the projects that I was interested in at that time.  As is typical for me, my interest peaked and then waned off to nothing.  It's a regular cycle for me - I think I get it from my mom...  Something new and shiny, lots of fun for a time, then less fun or interesting, then off to something new and shiny.


It strikes me as amusing to see this trait in myself.  I prefer routine, knowing what's coming and being prepared for it.  My furniture rarely if ever moves (unless it's time to vacuum the dog fur from beneath);  I've had the same career for twenty years - the exact same career - and despite not being enamored by the work, I have found the routine / ritual of it comforting.  Until recently. 


I began taking Tara Mohr's "Playing Big" leadership program in May.  Working through the course, and with my small breakout group I am starting to find my voice.  I am learning how to share my voice with others.


One thing that has remained constant for as far back as I can remember, is my love of words and writing to express myself. 

• The early elementary days of drawing a picture and writing a story to go along with it.  The tale was endless.  Words spilled onto page after page. 
• The notes I would leave on my parent's pillows, like a chocolate at a fancy hotel, when I could not find a way to express my thoughts with my voice.
• The journals we were required to keep in our 5th (or was it 6th) grade English class.
• The journals I have scattered throughout my home in various stages of use.
• The few dozen fiction stories that are also in various stages of creation. 

My hope for the future of this blog is that it will be my companion as I continue to find my voice, and my conduit for sharing some of that voice with the world.


~Kathy

30 Days of Lists...

Hello again!  It's nearly autumn - my favorite season of the year.  With the days cooling and growing shorter I'm re-energized.

This past week I decided to join a month long journaling challenge called 30 days of lists.  And I finished my little book to keep my lists just in the nick of time.

Anticipating Idaho...

 

Around here it is common for vacations to be planned eight to twelve months in advance.  Sometimes I wonder if this reduces our ability to be spontaneous; but it provides ample time to build up the excitement. 

Snail Mail Project - Week 1

March 14 - 20

It's the first week after declaring my intent, and I just barely managed to sneak out one card under the wire.  Whew! 
{Note:  I've decided to wait a full week to post my progress, just in case the recipient reads my blog.  Don't want to spoil the surprise!}

Living just over an hour away from Joel's brother, sister-in-law and their 3 boys, you'd think we'd see more of each other, but somehow our schedules rarely ever mesh.  Beth is just starting out as an entrepreneur, so on top of all the time spent at the boys' activities, she's got a full plate of her own to juggle.  I decided to start my snail mail project with a note to let her know how much I admire her courage and passion for what she's doing.

One week down, thirty nine to go!
~ Kathy

Project Life - The Villages Part 1

Here's my first installment of actual Project Life pages, and already I'm off the original plan...  {smile}

The plan was a double page spread per month, BUT we ended 2012 and started 2013 in Florida with our parents.  I wanted to include the time with family in the album as well.  Without further ado, here are some of the pages for our time with my parents at their new home in The Villages, Florida.  Note:  I took the pictures of the pages before I did any journaling... 

Addicted to GOLF - with mom's help (the picture of me), I managed to get photos of each of us golfing (or at least on the course, the best I have of my brother is him taking a photo of our nephew).

Part of the allure of The Villages community for my parents are the abundance of activities.  Executive style golf courses (nine holes, mostly par 3) seem to be everywhere, and my parents have been golfing up a storm.  They sign up just the two of them, and get paired with random people to complete the grouping (great way to meet people, if you're not overly self conscious!), or they go with friends.  And then there's the men's and women's "Scramble" tournaments each week.  What's more amazing?  Until the past year or so, my mother hadn't really done any golfing at all.  She's eating up this new lifestyle in the Sunshine State!  {I'm just a teeny bit jealous.}

So of course, while we were all together we golfed, and golfed and golfed some more!  I think I went out about half a dozen times or so just in the week and a half that I was there.  That's a LOT of golf, especially when lately Joel and I have been lucky to get out once a year!

Christmas -

I absolutely loved how my mom used the extra ornaments in glasses for decor, and spent a good 10 minutes staging the shot.  So of course I just had to blow it up a bit bigger than the 4x6 slot!  Silly me, I didn't have my camera handy when we were opening gifts in the morning, so no "people" pictures.  My gift arrived on Christmas Eve, when Joel flew down to join me! 

Part of the gift from my parents to my nephew was a scavanger hunt riding around in the golf carts so I included some of that adventure instead.  Many residents of The Villages put out elaborate decorations during the holidays, and I just couldn't resist taking a picture of the flying pig (grounded at the time the photo was taken).  He makes me smile!

For each of these pages I used some of the 3x4 cards from the kit.  For the Christmas page I taped the two together to create 4x6 card.  LOVE how the circle pattern on the cards coordiante with the baubles in the wine glasses.

I'm loving the process, the hard part - selecting which photos to include. 

 



~ Kathy

Project Life...

Project Life - a method of memory keeping developed by Becky Higgins that simplifies the scrapbooking process down from full pages to little photo sized pieces.

I debated with myself for few months in the fall of 2012 as to whether I wanted to jump in and try Project Life.  You see, I'm not one of those people who has the camera with them everywhere and takes pictures of everything.  We have a good friend who is always snapping photos, and though we tease him about it, in the end we LOVE when he shares them with us later and we can reminisce!  I like to write...  but have yet to figure out exactly how to journal my story.  I have a ton of journals, diaries - whatever you'd like to call them - scattered around the house.  Many have been started with good intentions but eventually sit on the shelf and begin to gather dust. 

Part of my Project Life debate revolved around this journal reality.  Will this be another project that I start, but leave to collect dust on the shelf with all of the others?

And then, I began to work on the gifts for my brother and nephew.  Small photo albums that I pre-made several inserts for.  Simple title pages, and cards for them to write down some notes on their thoughts / favorite parts of the days.  The rest of the pages we would fill with photos of our adventures together in Florida while exploring my parent's new home and neighborhood.  (my mother is another of those people who carries her camera practically everywhere!!!)

And while working on these gifts I decided that I would just GO FOR IT and begin my own Project Life Album in 2013. 

I wanted to start small, so I ordered a small package of the photo sleeve pages (in styles A and D).  I also looked through the core kits.  I want to make this project as easy as possible, but I want it to feel like us.  As I looked through the options I wasn't getting a warm, fuzzy feeling.  The colors were too bright, or the patterns were too frilly.  In the end I decided on their "Cherry" edition of the core kit - the designs and colors were the closest fit to my personality. 

My kit parts arrived at the end of 2012 and I have played with them on and off since then.  The core kit looks much better in person than in the online photos.  I may have to tone down some of the colors, but what's most important - I CAN WORK WITH IT AND BE HAPPY!  Which is much different than, I can work with it and get by.  The paper was thinner than I had anticipated, but my guess is that it works better in the album sleeves that way.

My Project Life Goal - to complete a double page layout for each month.  Based on the projects that I've seen posted on the web, folks seem to do a double page spread for each week of the year.  This idea overwhelmes me - and I want my Project Life documentation to do more than gather dust on the shelf with the rest of my journals.  Filling eight 4x6 slots and eight 3x4 slots each month seems far less daunting! 

My title page is a combination of core kit inserts, photos, cardstock from my stash and monogram embellishments from the clearance rack at Michael's...  oh, and I hand stamped the "Our Story" title using some Distress Ink and individual letter stamps I've had for ages.

Whew!  If you've made it this far - thanks for keeping with me through this very wordy post!

~ Kathy

The Snail Mail Project

I think I've been living under a rock - or maybe I've just been along for the ride for a bit...  Apparently people have been coming up with "birthday projects" for years now.  I learned about the phenomena from Elise's blog - one that I started following this past fall.

For those of you who have been under that rock with me, a birthday project is something akin to a new year's resolution.  You pick a goal / project that you will work toward completing by your next birthday.  Often it involves a quantity equal to your age. 

40

My age is now 40.  First thought - how on earth will I finish 40 of anything before 52 weeks roll by???  OK if I made it a simple task of eating 40 cookies I'm certain I could manage that, but I would like my goal to have a positive effect on people around me - my friends, family, even strangers.

I love to brainstorm and create crazy amounts of lists - just ask my mother.  I often run my lists by her - my ever present sounding board!  This time I came up with my project ALL ON MY OWN!  {smile}

The snail mail project

Did you notice - our address and my age match up this year?  It has to be a good sign, right?

OK - hands up - who out there doesn't enjoy getting a FUN card or letter in your mailbox??!!

To me the mailbox is like an unopened package.  It stares at you, teasing you, waiting for you to open it and see what's inside.  My sweet husband, Joel, chuckles and shakes his head at the hopeful enthusiasm I have when I venture out to our mailbox.  Often I come in with a handful of "regular mail", but the next day I'm back out there with that same optimism!  Our two dogs agree - the mailbox is a wonderful place to be!  (of course their excitement stems from the fact that they get to go on a grand adventure out the front door, with the potential to visit with the neighbors, but still the word mailbox is part of their vocabulary, and they know exactly where it is!) 

With any luck, the Snail Mail Project will put some fun back into the mailbox for friends and family as well!

In an attempt to keep my project from overwhelming me I've decided to set up a few parameters (I'll call them anything but rules - who wants rules for a fun project?). 

1. The goal is to send out FUN snail mail during at least 40 of the next 52 weeks.
2. There must be at least two paragraphs of a handwritten message contained within the snail mail.  {really, a card is nice, but a couple of short paragraphs in your handwriting is so much sweeter!}
3. Try and surprise someone new each month.  {sorry mom, you're not going to get ALL the mail from this project!}
4. Write a short blog update for each successful week. 

That's it - what do you think? 

The benefits - I get to write letters...  OK, I already do that, but not often enough.  Those letters will go out to a wider audience (if parameter number 3 is carried out properly).  Recipients will be pleasantly surprised that there's more than bills in the mystery box that sits at the end of the driveway (hopefully).

Who wants to join me???  Help return the mailbox to the happy stop on the way in from work.  And if this catches on and spreads like wild fire, maybe the price of a stamp will hold steady for a while... 

If you've made it this far...  Let's go spread some sunshine!

~ Kathy

Basket Weave

It's National Craft Month, so I decided to have some fun with yarn...

Let me first put out there - I cannot knit - at all.  No matter how many times my grandmother has tried to teach me, it just doesn't stick (I'm sure if my cousin's wife, Lucy, is reading this she is appalled!).  But I have managed to use a crochet hook pretty well.

I tend to veer toward EASY projects.  I can follow a pattern, but since I usually only get to spend a short amount of time in the evenings to do crafty things I  like to spend the majority of the time actually playing, and not deciphering where I left off, and what step is next.

I came across this basket weave pattern through a crochet newsletter which included a link to the video.

The hardest part - counting out the correct number of chains to start the pattern.  Well at least that's been the hardest part for me....  

Right now I'm a few rows in, and I suspect this will take more than just National Craft Month to complete, especially since the yarn I chose is a little pricier than what I usually go for, but oh I just LOVE the colors!!! 

Looks like I'll be making a lot of trips to the local A.C. Moore with my trusty weekly coupon to buy one skein at a time.  {smile}  Each skein seems to add about two rows to the afghan.

Eventually I'll be back to let you know my basket weave afghan is DONE...   for now I'll be taking it one row at a time!

~ Kathy

40-tude!

Well this week I will join the 40 club.  {it's getting easier and easier to say that as I've been practicing getting comfortable with that number}

One day in January, as I was driving home from work I was stopped at a red light behind a car with the license plate simply stating

40-TUDE

I'm pretty sure it was meant to mean fortitude, but I've decided to use it as an abbreviation for 40 attitude or 40 'tude.   And I've decided that my 40 'tude will be something akin to "sassy".  Now I have absolutely no clue what exactly sassy is, but it sounds FUN!

And to celebrate, I've made a fun card using today's OWH sketch #163.

I left the card blank inside to make it a little more versatile.

Have a great week!
~ Kathy

Hello March!

I'm not sure if March has come in like a lion, but I had a bit of time to play with paper today, and figured if she hasn't come in like a lion, then she'll go out like one.  My lion looks a bit odd set off-center, but I really didn't want to crop his tail!  {smile}  My apologies for the dark photo, but I figured if I didn't get him posted tonight he wouldn't make it here.

March has always been one of my favorite months - yes, the birthday celebrations and gifts often caused this euphoria as a kid. But now, as an adult, I'm enjoying the increased amounts of daylight, and looking forward to the signs of spring.

So "Hello March!", I'm welcoming you with open arms.

~ Kathy

One Little Word

Well, it seems that so far I've been a much better blog follower than actual blogger.

One blog that I stumbled across in one of those "This looks like an interesting link" chain of events is that of Ali Edwards.  She introduced me to the concept of One Little Word.

One Little Word is akin to making a New Year's Resolution. However, instead of listing of the things you'd like to accomplish, you pick one word to focus on throughout the year. 

In 2013 I will focus on this one little word:

Create

There are so many ways that this word can be interpreted.    

In 2013, I will find ways to create:

• adventure
• opportunity
• passion
• art
• time
• myself
• happiness
• space
• kindness
• memories
• a healthy lifestyle
• smiles / laughter
• my story
• projects

This year I'll enter a new decade in my life, and with my one little word I'm pledging to take a more active role in how the days, months and year play out.  I am hopeful that this will also lead to creating more blog entries - we'll see how it goes.  {smile}

~ Kathy

P.S.   I wanted to include at least one photo in this post, but for some reason the system isn't letting me browse my drive at the moment...  hopefully  I'll get this issue figured out for the next post.

Falling Autumn Leaves

As "Sandy" approaches, and I look at multiple 16 hour work days looming ahead, I wanted to get some crafty time in this weekend!

The Simon Says Stamp Challenge this week was Autumn Leaves... with the high winds forecast for this week, I envision skies full of leaves blowing wildly about.

I added a new set of tools to my arsenal last week - a heat gun, versamark ink pad and clear embossing powder - and got them out to play.  SO MUCH FUN!!!!  I was surprised as I looked through my stamp sets, I don't have many, but as a lover of all things autumn, I was stunned that I don't have any stamps with maple or oak leaves.  So my falling leaves are less traditional looking, but let me play with the emboss-resist technique when coloring them in.

To color the leaves I used my Tombow watercolor markers and a water brush.  I swept several colors onto the back of my stamping block, mixed as desired with my water brush and applied in varying patterns onto the embossed leaves.

I really wanted the leaf design to shine, so I kept the sentiment small and simple with a tiny brad to set it off.

Hope that hurricane Sandy doesn't do too much damage, and everyone stays safe!

Thanks for visiting!
~Kathy

Grand Canyon Rejuvenation...

Nothing crafty to post today...  but thought I'd share a quick picture from our vacation in the Grand Canyon - we went completely off the grid for a week!

Back to "reality" and the cold, but feeling very refreshed from the trip on the river!

Hope your weekend is filled with sunshine!
~Kathy

Taping it up at the last second...

The Simon Says Stamp & Show blog's challenge this week is to Tape it up - using any kind of tape you desire.  I have a small assortment of tissue and washi tapes that just joined my stash and I've had a few ideas in mind all week.  I also used the tutorial to make my own tissue tape.  I'm saving that for a travel journal I'm working on for my in-laws though...

In the end I went with plain and simple, because artsy and creative just wasn't working for me this week.  I used a pretty floral Recollections Washi tape from Michael's as a border for the Hero Arts floral silhouette stamp (stamped with broken china distress ink), and combined pieces from two of Tim Holtz's tissue tapes for the butterfly sentiment.

And I'll leave you with a quick shot of the dining room table - proof that I was all over the place working on this card!

Thanks for visiting - hope you're all enjoying the autumn weather as much as I am!
~Kathy

Dance in the Rain

After watching the Tim Holtz video on the Simon Says Stamp blog for their Stamptember celebration I was motivated to fill a blank space on my living room wall...

Have you been following along with all of the guest bloggers over at Simon Says Stamp?  Fabulous tips and designs!

The past couple of weeks I've been taking full advantage of sales and coupons for the A.C. Moore to stock up on dies, stamps and papers (it's a little too convenient, since it's in the same location as my gym!).  I love that they're starting to stock Tim Holtz and MME products!

Anyway - I decided to play with paints, canvas, paper, chipboard and stamps to create a mixed media piece of art to hang on the wall in that empty space.  Here are some additional photos from the room that were used as inspiration for my artwork.

 The hardest part for me (well, aside from waiting for paint and glue to dry) was letting go of my perfectionism! 

And here it is...   My final product (note this is not in it's final location, I need to put a hook in the wall):

I love the quote, and to play in the rain - Tim Holtz seems to have the perfect products and images and it all went together pretty quickly when I had the time to work on it...

Some close-ups of different areas on the piece:

The craft resist letters are sooooo neat!  brush the paint on, and wipe off of the resist....  Love that you can make them whatever color, using whatever product you want!

I played with acrylic paints on the stamps - stamping onto scrap black paper to test the affects before applying to my canvas. The process required painting the stamp with the paint (layering the cream and red colors for the umbrella and the man with the umbrella impressions), spritzing with some water and finally stamping the image. 

Thanks for visiting!
~Kathy

Supplies:
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz stamps
Acrylic paints:  black, parchment and burnt sienna
BoBunny back to back 12x12 sheet Mama-Razzi Shutter design paper
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Kraft Resist Chipboard letters
The Paper Company Iridescent Silver Transparent 12x12 paper
16x20 canvas
Colorbox 12x12 brushed silver paper
Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Vintage Market Alphabet
mini mister (with water)
Mod Podge

The Power of Observation

Earlier this week I saw that the Simon Says Stamp Challenge had the option to use one of the following:
     - Hexagons
     - Neon colors
     - Chevrons

And the first thing I thought was - PERFECT!  I just bought a new set of Spellbinders dies - hexagons.

So today was the day - and when I sat down to play with them I noticed....  they're octagons.  Apparently I need to work on my power of observation!

I absolutely love the designs in this MME paper pad!  And decided to play with a variety of patterns to push my comfort zone.  I think I managed to pull together the flowers, grid, and dots pretty well.

I'm hoping that octagons are close enough to hexagons to count for the challenge.

Thanks for visiting!
~Kathy

Supplies:
Spellbinders Octagon Dies
EK Success Border Punch
MME Stella and Rose Mabel papers (6x6 pad)
Corner rounder
Fiscars Laugh with Me Quotes stamp
Tombow marker to add some low lights to the sentiment.

Wall Art Sneak Peek...

I've been busy working on some art for one of our walls...   And learning that I don't have much patience when waiting for paint to dry!!!  LOL

Hope to have the whole thing done by the end of the weekend...  in the mean time, I think I'll go work on some cards while the paint (and glue) dries...

Hope you're enjoying the weekend - weather is absolutely gorgeous here today so I'll be crafting on the deck (hopefully the wind doesn't blow the pieces all over!).

Thanks for visiting!
~Kathy

Winter's Butterfly Sketch

With the rain, I got to play a little more today with my crafting toys.  And I combined a couple of the OWH virtual cardmaking party challenges in my card:

Challenge #3 - snowflakes, but not Christmas - my DCWV design paper has snowflakes on it, as well as the sentiment being about snowflakes.

Challenge #6 - sketch with the added twist to use punches.  I used my EK Success butterfly punch and a corner punch to spice up the background paper a little bit.

Thanks for visiting!
~Kathy

CAS Butterfly

Here is another card that I started at least a week ago.  I wanted to try another CAS card using the clean & simple sketch #204, and OWH had a blog about pizazz (stitching, piercing, piecing, bling and the like). 

I have a rather large collection of embroidery floss from my counted cross stitch days, so I decided to try and embroider a card.  As much as I love the card, it will be a while before I make another one like this...

I stamped the variety of flowers and butterfly on a piece of scrap copy paper and used it as a guide to pierce the pattern onto the card front.  Once the embroidery was done I stamped the little hello, but I'm bummed that it's slightly tipped.  Ah well, hopefully all the stitching distracts from the crooked sentiment.

I managed to snap a picture of my supplies before I started:

One of the big lessons learned - adhering the front to a card base is tricky with all the string.  I tried running the front through my sticker maker - didn't work very well.  So I added a bunch of double sided tape to the back of the card front, and ran multiple rows of Tombow adhesive on the front of the card base.  I'm hopeful that it will all work together and hold together!

Hope there's some sunshine where you're at - it's raining here today.
Thanks for visiting!
~Kathy