One of These Days

One of these days, I'll get around to finishing up my recap of my trip to Western Kentucky and Tennessee.  I'll probably show the little travel booklet I made.  I'll show the stamps and stencils I got.  And I'll talk about the Dina Wakley journal I bought, the one with pages made of watercolor paper, burlap, canvas and kraft paper.  Yep... I will, one of these days...

Mini Getaway - Part 2

It only took me--- how long?  over a month to write part 2.  I blame it on working night shift.  I don't think I'll ever get used to these hours.

But I vaguely remember going to Paducah recently.  :)
On day 2, I was so sleepy when my alarm went off in the hotel (see comment about night shift).  I knew there were a lot of places I still wanted to visit before I hit the road again.  I got up.  I made coffee.  I fell asleep again.  My alarm went off again.  I got up.  I made coffee.  I took a shower and made friends with the housekeeper who was knocking on my door.  I'm sure she was checking to make sure I was okay.  Or maybe she just wanted to clean the room.  Due to the language barrier, I couldn't be sure.  Through hand gestures I finagled more coffee from her.

After finally feeling human, packing and re-loading the car, I was off again, very much later than I had planned.  But since part of the plan was catching up on sleep, I guess I was still on track!

First stop was Ephemera Paducah.  This is a little shop that sells mixed media art supplies as well as vintage goodies, and regularly hosts some very talented nationally known artists.  I would love to attend some of the workshops there. .

My pictures really don't do it justice, but I was on a shopping mission.  There were lots of cool things all around the store.

 This old ledger was huge!  I probably could not even have lifted it to look at it!

On the right below is what I refer to as the Tower of Stencils.  You can't tell just how many stencils there are, mostly on the back side of the tower.  The only reason I didn't buy more stencils than I did is that I already had most of them!  There were all the latest art supplies from Tim Holtz, Dina Wakley, and Dyan Reavley.  The owner, Kristin, could not have been nicer.

When I left there, I noticed all the wonderful Victorian homes along the street.  This big yellow house was right next door and undergoing some renovations.

I headed toward the river, but I was also looking left and right at the homes.  I wanted to take pictures of everything, but at the same time didn't want to linger too long.  I should have spent more time looking straight ahead, as a lot of the streets were one-way and I was so busy looking at houses, I almost turned the wrong way down a one-way street.  That made me stop looking at houses and pay attention to my driving!

I made my way down to the center of town which was along the riverfront.  One of the places I had planned to visit was the National Quilt Museum.  But that has to wait for another visit as there wouldn't be time.  It has become a big claim to fame for this little town, and they have an annual Quilt Festival.  It has spurred a growth of new hotels in the area.  The one I stayed in was new, and my room had a full size kitchen and 2 queen size beds, for only $72 per night.  That is unheard of.  I'm sure it's more during Quilt Week, but I'd stay there again in a heartbeat.

And there is the river, where the Tennessee  River meets the Ohio River.   If it looks cold, it was.  It was below average temperature for late March/early April.  Wind was blowing off the river and I was quite cold!

There is a very long flood wall along the river, and each concrete panel is painted with a mural.  it is quite impressive.  Another time (on a warmer day), I will take the time to study each one and read each plaque in front of it.

There is a steam train down at the far end of the mural wall.  There is a large parking lot across from the wall, which is very convenient to the riverbank and also downtown.  This was painted on the street, but is no longer legible.  Something about being careful what you put in there as it drains to the river.

As I drove out of town, other things caught my eye, like this large painted butterfly on the side of a building...

 ... and this painted honey advertisement.

One of the things I had envisioned myself doing before my trip was sitting at a coffee shop and sketching some of the old buildings in Paducah.  I didn't have time to sit outside at a coffee shop plus it was too cold anyway.  I had scouted buildings on google earth before I left home.  I had practiced sketching a couple of them, so I cheated.  When driving around, I found a church I had sketched at home, and held up my sketch.  I'll pretend I had a lazy coffee on a sunny day while sketching it.

There were lots of interesting buildings that require further exploration.  And I was surprised at the number of antique malls.  One could spend at least 2 days just going through those!  But I was off on the road again before it got too late in the day.  Headed south, to see my family!

Mini Getaway - Part 1

I am seriously behind in my blogging, my play, and my sleep.  I'll tackle the first one today!

I have had a series of unplanned job changes over the last 3 years.  I work in what used to be a very stable industry, which has become the most unstable place to be (healthcare).  I only mention it because that's the reason I have not been to see my family out of state in almost three years, not even at Christmas (It's that healthcare thing - hospitals don't close on holidays.)

I finally accrued a few vacation days with my new company and started planning a long weekend trip.  In the past, when I drive from Kentucky to Tennessee, I always passed the Paducah exit on the interstate and think, I should stop there sometime.  So, as I was making my plans, I decided to make an overnight stop there.

Paducah is a small town on the Ohio River.  I did some exploring on google earth and felt like I didn't even need a map or GPS after just a few minutes of getting the lay of the land.  I made my hotel reservation and in a couple of weeks, I was on my way.

Along the way, I made a stop for gas and visited the Cracker Barrel restaurant and store nearby.  They are famous for their rocking chairs on the "front porch" and I discovered chairs in several different colors.  It was a pleasantly warm March day, and I sat in one of the chairs enjoying a soft breeze, and caught up on text messages and missed calls. I'd forgotten what it was like to be away from all the demands of work, to just sit and relax for a few minutes. That's what the whole weekend was about for me.

It's not that far to Paducah for me.  When I got there it was too early to check into my hotel, so I drove around, checking out the area near my hotel.  The weather took a turn for the worse about that time, with torrential downpours, and I had no choice but to go inside a Tuesday Morning and check out the deals.  (Did that sound convincing?)  I found several things under a dollar, and probably could have spent more but I tried to restrain myself.

My biggest decision when packing for the trip was what supplies to take for journaling.  In the end, I packed next to nothing.  I had a small journal in my fake Midori planner.  I took a few water color pencils, a water brush, some washi tape, and some sticker paper with dates stamped on them.  I did play a little in the hotel that night.  I discovered the stamps I bought at Tuesday morning  (self-inking, set of three that stack, in the picture) were on sale for a reason.  The word Observation was missing the T.  It also leaks, which I didn't realize until later when I wondered why everything I touched left black marks!

I caught up on sleep that night.. and the next morning.  My plans for getting an early start both days didn't pan out.  But I really needed the rest and did not feel guilty one little bit.  The maid eventually came around and I asked her to come back later.  That was when I noticed the magnet on the door.  I guess they no longer have the hanger that goes on the doorknob that says Do Not Disturb!

After plenty of coffee and packing everything up, I went out to explore some of Paducah.  That will be in Part 2.

Stampaway 2016

Another successful Stampaway USA is in the books.  Gaye and I traveled to Cincinnati Ohio for the annual convention (this one being number 24).  Gaye had two fun classes which kept us busy on Thursday and Friday.  The highlight of the Friday Night Preview Party (besides the shopping and seeing old friends) is the theme for the night.  This year had a tiara theme.  It is optional, of course, to wear a tiara or crown while shopping, but I love how the vendors participate and how many attendees go all out to compete for the best one.  Here are a few I captured and the various ways the theme was interpreted.

I always love watching demos, and Mary Beth Shaw of Stencil Girl and Dyan Reaveley of Dylusions (Dyan pictured below) are two of my favorites. 

Lots of shopping, lots of walking, lots of catching up with friends, and before you know it, it was time to head home on Saturday.  That is where the story took a detour, literally.  It's 15 miles from the convention center to the Kentucky state line.  It took us three hours.  Interstate traffic was moving, but barely.  We never really knew if it was just a lot of traffic, all the construction, or a wreck... probably all three. After barely moving during all that time, we decided to leave the interstate waiting to cross the bridge over the river, and went to find the smaller bridge that we knew led to Covington, Ky.  From there, we knew how to get back on the interstate south of where the bottleneck was in Ohio.  Apparently, most of the other people had the same idea.  That route was just as crowded, but at least it was moving, and at least we finally saw the sign that we had made it to Kentucky!  Halleluiah!

I did get a few stamps, and a bunch of new washi tape. 

And I may have gotten a stencil or two.. or maybe over a dozen...  I needed to play when I got home, and this page was done with just black and red ink pads stenciled onto a page that already had gold paint on it.

I think this may be my new favorite stencil.  I didn't even know such a thing existed until I saw it hanging in a booth.  I love it.  I can quickly stencil the day and date without having to mask out the letters and numbers, because the little wheel thing turns to where I want it and does the masking for me!

Stampaway USA 2017 - year 25 - only one year away! 

DLP Week 23

Happy June-ly  (I'm still part in June and part in July!)... Seems like I really got behind on June's DLP pages.  The theme for June is Travel Journal. 

I feel like this page spread is more scrapbook than mixed media layers!  As with every month, I started out by deciding what kind of calendar to make.  I printed out a calendar off the internet, but only used the days of the week part.  I did use the rest of the calendar as a guide for where the weeks would be laid out.

I used an oval punch to punch out ovals from a map, then glued those to the June calendar, stamping the numbered days on them.  On both left and right sides, I used papers from the book Make Map Art.  I got it some time ago during a map-crazy phase.  It has several papers for making your own maps, plus stickers and a how-to book.

The Challenge for the week was Illustrative Art Journaling.  I wasn't feeling very illustrative, and instead, I printed out images from google earth of places that mean something to me.  (I am not traveling anywhere this month, but when I think of traveling, I think of going back home since I don't seem to get there much lately!)

I filled in some of the other shapes on the preprinted page with writing and parts from maps.

I am currently working on the next assignment, which has turned into one spread for the rest of June.  I seemed to have the same ideas for the assignments for the other three weeks in June, so it will be one big spread and will also get me caught up in a hurry.  I added an extra page as a fold-out for the three weeks to be combined.  Hope to have it ready to post sooner rather than later! 

Documented

Last year, I made a little travel journal when I got home from Stampaway.  I liked it so much, I made another one this year, using stencils and stamps I got while there, adding notes and pictures.  I worked on it off and on over the last couple of weeks and finally finished it.  The front cover is not shown because I haven't decided what to do with it yet.  I used a piece of duplex cardstock that is red on one side and black on the other, plus a brown file folder.

 

 

I highly recommend making a travel journal, whether it is a simple little book where you can staple cards and receipts, or something more elaborate than what I have done here.  Just have fun with it!

 

Travel Book

Last year, when I got back from Stampaway, I made a book of the trip, using stamps, stencils, business cards, and other things collected from the trip.  I decided to make another one for this year. The first page uses the same "road trip" stamp as last year, plus what looks like the same large number stencils - I saw the same stencil I bought last year in a smaller size this year and decided to get that one too!

I took my teacher's packet, cut it smaller to fit the page, and decorated it with one of the stencils I bought this year.

The packet included a map of local restaurants, and I added some notes and highlights about the trip (which included a car fire and giant squirrel statues).

Another thing I bought this year is a template stencil, so I've been playing around with making miniature folders and envelopes!

I still have lots of fun stencils I haven't had time to play with yet, and will be using those on other pages in this book.