Shop Girl

12 of 12 ~ July

Welcome to the July edition of 12 of 12 here on shopgirl (so I'm a few days late - gimme a break).

Check out Chad,the guy who started it all and see what all the other 12 of 12ers are up to. Maybe you should play along next month?? 

It's a fabulous Saturday in the pacific northwest. It's gonna be a hot one.

My Saturday ritual - sit in my studio, listen to music and drink my coffee to wake up.

"I like my sugar with coffee and cream." (First one to guess that lyric gets a prize...! Serious!) 

Toddlers and kittens are the same species.

Sorry - my blog is all about cute kittens lately.

 

The wall by my front door catching morning shadows from outside.

 

Will be too hot for a fire tonight.

I love Green.

And more Green.

And a hippie marching band...

Told you it was gonna be a hot one - still out and about 9:45 at night - normally my bedtime.

Through the window into a very dark bar.

And a bike I want to borrow and go for a ride on. But don't.

See you next time!

summer oh summer

long time no post, my friend.

It has been one hot and busy summer so far. I'm sure for you too. As I sit here (eating a popsicle - orange creamsicle actually) my computer is downloading 434 pictures off my very full memory stick. So at least I have something to show for it. But I miss you guys - have been cruising blogs this evening trying to get caught up.

I'm a hopeless summer blogger. I usually do this in the evening, but now with summer here... there is that watering to be done, cant ship my monster child off to bed until it's at least dark, it's too hot to eat dinner before 7 and oh the summer reading...have read six books in six weeks. So lovin' it. Summer is glorious and she is here - bing cherries, tan lines, mojitos and all!

Where oh where to catch up? This is my only journal after all...The June vacation? The trip to the lake? Me, turning 38? Alex's Pokemon Birthday Party? Maybe the latest Circle Journal entry? How about 4th of July at the Ball Park? Nope - probably should begin with the latest 12 of 12 from last Saturday. (Am now eating an Eskimo Pie).  But I think we will begin with introductions...

Everyone meet Buffy. Buffy meet Everyone.

Buffy is the newest addition to our family.

Nice to meet you! I'm 10 weeks old now and weigh two pounds. Alex named me Buffy after one of his Mom's favorite TV shows.

I'm a pretty girl, don't you think?

But I'm no lady. I'm trouble waiting to happen.

I blend well into my natural habitat.

I'm very curious.

I'm interested in everything and anything you are doing but take lots of naps. 

I keep my humans good company.

 

My favorite things to do are: maneuver myself into really small tight places, make quick escapes into the garage or out the front door, crawl up the trash can shredding the can liner only to fall inside and the play with the trash, attack my humans and fling myself onto their pant legs (or skin) as they walk by, and my most favorite activity - claw my way up the screen door and get stuck at the top and whine until someone gets me down. Oops I forgot, I also love to chase my tail, preferably at 3am onto top of my humans bed.

 

And I have a new BFF. His name is Oscar. He just loves when I attack his tail and jump on his back with my claws. And now I'm eating his food instead of my own, who needs kitten food?! And the best part, we cuddle together.

But I'm a good girl and use my litter box with not one accident so far. I don't scratch and only bite a little. Alex carries me everywhere. I love my humans! 

 

And we love Buffy too!

Did I creep you out with cute-ness or what?  Tomorrow less cute-ness / more pictures. Promise!

xoxoxo

  

mermaid circle journal

I joined in a circle journal group that Celeste is hostessing and first up was Michelle's very lovely Mermaid journal.

Isn't is gorgeous??

The sign in's are mermaid tails! I didn't take a picture of my tail :( Forgot.  What a creative idea, huh?

Michelle has a thing for mermaids. I participated in her mermaid swap earlier this year and it was great fun!

The right side begins my layout.

And another one using a snippet of the story of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen.

And for fun, I added a little glass vial of mermaid treasure to the fibers on the cover.

And now the journal is off to Kristie.

Until next time xoxoxo,  Andrea

12 of 12 ~ June

Welcome to this month's edition of 12 of 12, courtesy of our friendly blogger Chad. If you are just tuning in, on the 12th day of every month we take 12 pictures to document our day.

Today I'm not so much about documenting as about finding pictures to take of things I haven't already shared. There are only so many pictures of my meals and my kid that I'm sure you can stand!

So here we go ~

First thing this morning after getting ready I noticed the poppies in my backyard have another round of blooms coming out. I love them.

Another beautiful thing - stumbled upon at work. Don't you just want to unwrap all the bundles, toss them in the air and roll around?

 xxxxxxxxxxxx

My cubicle partner and I went out to lunch today and she had on r e a l l y cute shoes so I said "Can I take a picture of your feet?" and you know what, she didn't even think I was crazy...

Saw this window and thought it would be a good fit in my green collection.

Back to work. Not my desk but my cubicle mates. You've already seen my desk way back in Dec 06 and today is about NEW views. She has the pretty decorated & clean side. Mine is filled with stacks of catalogs and crap. So I have a nice view of her area and she has a ____ view of mine.

Had an afternoon meeting and for a treat (?) we got to tour an old jail. That was interesting. As soon as you walk in there is this oppressive feel hanging over you. Not a surprise I realize but I have never felt anything like it. So we were walking around and did I even take one picture inside? NO. A co-worker startled me by hiding around a corner in the basement and I screamed. Screamed like a girl I might add. How embarrassing. So I was too spooked to take pictures and sadly realized my dream of being a Ghost Hunter could never come true after all since as it turns out I'm a big wussy.

Had to get gas after work and my plan was to take a picture of the pump.  But I was shell shocked by the EIGHTY SEVEN DOLLARS so after pounding my head on the steering wheel several times while driving the 28 miles home I just took a picture of the receipt for you.

Home Sweet Home. Aside from the ugly power lines (that I could photo shop out but since I like to keep it real, will leave in) and the silly name of Beaverton - it's a pretty nice place to live. Been here a little over 2 years and it's growing on me more and more.

Spent over one hour tonight helping my son clean his room. Tomorrow is the last day of school and we want to start the summer with a clean plate. Been purging allot of toys. His most prized toys always get to be on his nightstand and these three have the current honor. Next week however they could be under the bed, in the dirt outside, or be who knows where and new ones will take their place. It's a competitive world for toys.

Getting some air outside and noticing the trees in the evening.

8:15 pm and I like the light.

  

Thats wraps up my 12 so thanks for looking.  Now go check out the other 12 of 12 ers!

the end and a beginning

Hello my friend, it's been awhile and I have lots to share...

My circle journal came home and I have been savoring it now for about two weeks.

I've been quite the last couple weeks while I got caught up tending to some household tasks and finishing up Cheryl's journal ~ which I will get to momentarily because first you have to check out the gorgeousness that was lavished upon me. Look at my Color Journal!

 

Sign in page with gorgeous tags from each journaler ~

My page, which I know you have seen before but I love how the colors flow in the journal with the clear acrylic pages ~

  

Back of mine / Front of Cheryl's ~

Back of Cheryl's / Front of Anita's ~

Back of Anita's / Front of Michelle's ~

Back of Michelle's / Front of Claudine's ~

Back of Claudine's / Front of Jaclyn's ~

Back of Jaclyn's / Last page which I will need to do something with since it's ...well...blank!

This circle journal round went extraordinarily well! Everyone journaler was committed to the process which I know everyone appreciated and definitely made the experience positive for everyone! So a huge THANK YOU to you all!

It still amazes me how complete strangers will join in on a circle journal journey and I have never been disappointed! To connect with people of like creative minds is so inspiring. I love my Color Journal and will enjoy looking back and reflecting on the art and the friends I have met. You guys are awesome! 

Now onto Cheryl's Destination Journal which I know I've had longer than I should...sorry Ladies I just couldn't help myself. And yes, I did read every letter inside each envelope! I will leave the explanation of the journal to Cheryl herself which you can read here. Hold onto your seats because this one rocks.

    

   

    

Lovely, isn't it?

And so ends this circle journal round!

Believe it or not, I actually met a new friend in the middle of this circle journal who emailed me that she wanted to start her own and asked if she could use my um... "guidelines" shall we say? Yup, I'm a little organizer freak when it comes to these. So this time I've joined a circle journal group rather than starting my own. Which is very relaxing to actually have someone else do the organizing. 

And so another journal was mailed out into the world yesterday to once again be filled with artsy goodness. 

Cant wait to see what comes back. It's always a surprise!

Stay tuned, more updates to follow...xoxo, Andrea

how we spend our time

taking a break

As you can see I haven't posted for awhile. Just been tending to the family and household and enjoying it. I know it can be annoying when people don't post for awhile and leave you hanging. So please don't delete me from your blogroll or feed. I will be back, don't know when...could be 2 days, 2 weeks, whatever. But just wanted to let you know in case you were wondering what was up. All is okey dokey, just living life. Promise to be back soon.

Since its Friday and we haven't had one for awhile here is Lloyd to start your weekend:

Lloyd Dobler: [leaving the last of a series of messages on Diane's answering machine] "Maybe I didn't really know you. Maybe you were just a mirage. Maybe the world is full of food and sex and spectacle and we're all just hurling towards an apocalypse, in which case it's not your fault. I'm been thinking about all these things and... you're probably standing there monitoring. And one more thing - about the letter. Nuke it. Flame it. Destroy it. - It hurts me to know it's out there. Later."

See you,

xoxo Andrea

the method to my madness

Stay up until at least 1am every night. Drink way to much coffee the next day. Repeat for 7 days. Crash and burn. That's been the method to my madness for the last 7 days. In. A. Row.  Tonight will be an early one. But I've been a busy girl...

Got this lovely paper mache dress form at Peddlers Pack which is a little stamp shop very close to my house. It's a strange little store, display wise, but you know it's growing on me and I stop by there more and more. I have to look really hard to find stuff to buy but sometimes walk away with little treasures. This was one of them.

So I painted her a metallic gold all over. Used Golden Gel Medium to collage on a dress pattern. I had these vintage black lacy trims and upholstery tacks from an estate sale I went to a couple weeks ago so I used those and some tulle to make her a little dress. My son asked where her shirt was...? I told him she had one on. I don't know, do you think she could get away with going topless?? :) Attached some gold glass beads I had rescued from a broken Christmas ornament at work last year. And finished her off with black distress paint over the gold on her stand.  Now what to name her, have any ideas?

These art art journal pages are really just pages I'm ripping out of an old encyclopedia. Having a fabulous time smothering them with paint and such.

I don't know if you can see but I used tulle on top of this page, was looking for a little more texture (maybe to cover up the ugly purple - because I'm not liking it ).

I'm not too concerned about the fact that there isn't any journaling on my art "journal" pages. I'm just playing around to see where it takes me and playing with the paint is fun.  Each page has taken me no more that 5-10 min including drying time so I can pretty much get a page down while I'm boiling water for the pasta at dinner or whatever. And there really is no rhyme or reason to the pages. I just get some paint going, quickly choose a picture, play with the paint and then done.

 

The red rectangles were stamped with a match book lid I had sitting on my desk. I don't think I will add anything else to this page, just enjoying it as is.

This one is from a Anthropolgie catalog. Gotta love their images.

It's cool how the pages are standing up on their own. Using so much gel medium and paint layers makes them stiff and crinkly sounding. I like the way they sound and will sometimes just sit for a few minutes changing up the order of how they will get bound one day and listen to the crinkles as I turn the pages. Now if they had that Hambly smell...Do you know what I mean? When you get a fresh package of Hambly and open it up...they must put something in the ink when they screen the transparencies. I'm weird I know.

Used a little texture paint tool on this one.

Same here...

                                              

I love the iridescence of Lumiere paint. mmmnn shiny...makes me happy.

Gosh, I still have one more project to share and it's my favorite so far. Will share more tomorrow.

I appreciate you looking and reading all my nonsense. Now, Must. Go. To. Bed...

drum roll please...

I have a highly scientific method to choose winners...and Alex was pleased to be able to help.

The winner of the justjohanna Limited Edition Earth Day stamp is...drum roll please...

Linda please email me your address.

And the winners of some shopgirl ribbon and a justjohanna stamp from my collection are ...

 

So Noel and Galina I need your address too.

And because I don't want anyone to leave this party empty handed I'm going to package up a little ribbon for the rest of you who played along too so .... Andi, Sandy, Kim and Anna I need your addresses as well. And did you guys know johanna completed EVERY challenge. We worked this woman silly I tell you. So Johanna is gonna get some ribbon too. We have winners one and all here on shopgirl! I love spreading ribbon joy!

That was just SO much fun so thanks for playing along this weekend! Dont forget there is still the Grand Prize drawings to come, so Good Luck people!

ready to win a prize? let's start the...

justjohanna Earth Day challenge!

Here is your mission, should you choose to accept it (this will not self destruct in 10 seconds so don't worry)...create something (a card, journal page, whatever) using any of my Earth Day challenges below.

To win all you need to do is post a comment with a link back to your blog or gallery. If you don't have a gallery, please feel free to post on the justjohanna forum and post under the Earth Day thread.

You have 24 hours to enter the challenge and then I'll draw winners:

One participant will win a Limited Edition Earth Day stamp from justjohanna (designed by one of my favorite stampers - Rina!)

 

AND two participants will win a justjohanna stamp from my collection and some ribbon from my my etsy shop.

   

AND all of you will be entered into a drawing for one of the following prizes: $250 justjohanna shopping spree, a $50 shopping spree, or a 25% discount coupon. Wow ~ free stuff is cool.

Now onto the 1st challenge...

Honor Nature by using it in your Art ~ I created a simple card using a twig to make flowers.

       

Re-purpose items like one of those fake credit card offers you get in the mail everyday ~ it makes a great paint tool! Golden gel medium is the perfect adhesive for bulky items, just gloop some on and it dries clear!

And for my 2nd challenge...

Reduce Waste & Re-Purpose Items for Art ~ Looks like trash huh? It's one of those plastic net bags fruit comes in.

With it I made this & this:

       

I cut the netting, added some shimmery paint and used gel medium as the adhesive. So easy!

   

Paint & stamp the back of the tag and it makes a great ribbon embellishment.

And of course everyone loves bottle cap magnets:

Now go make something and don't forget to leave me a link! ;)