Creative Juice

Spring Break 2012, Part One

We are on our second week of Spring Break over here. This time last year we were in our beloved Bia. This year we decided to stay home and enjoy the DC spring. There have been sunny days spent outdoors and rainy days spent in pajamas. There has been lots of video games, reading, playing and ice cream. Here are a few photos. 

One of idea was to do something special with each boy. Today I'm spending the day with Maxi. (At his request, we are going to Ikea to get him reading light for his bed. One that he can choose himself. He didn't like the one I chose for him weeks ago.) Tomorrow I'm taking Andrea and a friend to the Spy Museum. I haven't planned anything with Luci, but I'll come up with something before Friday.

I love the break we get from the school routine although Lucien still wakes me up too early. How did you spend you Spring Break?

Discovery Over DC

I remember class being interrupted so we could watch the shuttle take-off and land when I was a kid. That memory was enough to get me out of the house Tuesday morning and see the Discovery fly (be flown?) over the National Mall. Nostalgia? I think so. 

I am always drawn to the process of how my layouts happen. This one was by chance. I printed the photo directly from my phone because I wanted to test the feature. There was 5x7 photo paper in the printer so that's how the photo size was decided. I was surprised it cropped this photo instead of re-sizing it.

A few days earlier while working on another layout I stuck two round stickers onto white cardstock. I could have put them back on the sticker sheet but I liked how the two colors looked together. It doesn't mean anything in particular "Miniature Campagne" but I liked the contrast of the script and slab (or sans serif? or both?) fonts. Along came the photo and a layout began.

Next the striped tape and title happened - again, a choice based solely on color preference. Ok, I like the graphic element of the stripes too. I added the tag to include the names of those who were there. I added the star because the tag "needed something" to hold it in place. I hand wrote my journaling last but ran out of space so continued on the back. And then I was done.

It looks bare but that's ok with me. It was fun to let this come together on it's own without a design in mind. Just being around my supplies and making something is good because I feel a little out of practice.

Un Avant Gout

Spring is around the corner but right now there are a few plants and trees that are a blooming spectacular. Admiring them does not get old but listening to me say hey, look, a magnolia tree! does. Yesterday we took our cameras and set out to document the new blooms in our neighborhood. Everything else still looks very much like winter so these trees are show stoppers.

Isn't it just amazing? You can see the rest of the photos here.

Ol' Girl : Six Months

It's been six months since we moved in and we are definitely settled. Things are pretty much the same as they were a few months ago. A few things I notice while looking at these photos of Ol' Girl : Photographing interiors is no simple task. On camera my walls look a little empty. The kitchen shelves could use some styling. I'd like to paint the couch legs. (I saw this idea on Young House Love and I like it!) I could be here until tomorrow describing everything still left to do but I said I was going to post photos so here they are! I love this house and love that we get to live in it! Happy Friday.

 

Things I Love : Colors on Canvas

This week my mother-in-law and I visited one part of the National Gallery of Art. This painting, by French symbolist painter Odilon Redon, inspires me. Overall the piece is soothing and pleasant to look at but it is the abundance of color crammed into the bottom left part of the canvas that fascinates me.

Isn't is amazing how that works? I know being inspired by a painting isn't out of the ordinary but I keep coming back to look at those colors! It seems like perfection to me. What's the last thing that fascinated you?

Happy Sunday!