Happy Spring - and a few experiments in my journal

All of the images are "double-clickable" for a larger and more detailed view

SPRING

"For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; 

The flowers appear on the earth; 

the time of the singing of birds is come, 

and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; 

The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with 

the tender grape, give a good smell. 

Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away"

Song of Solomon 2:11

Well, despite the rain and winter storms we have had recently here in the the Spring holidays surely mean that Spring has truly arrived - somewhere!  The other day I was remembering how, when I was growing up on the East Coast, we would buy new Easter clothes that were invariably warm weather oriented - light colors and short sleeved or sleeveless. The weather, also invariably, was never warm on Easter ! How is it that every year we hope that it will, indeed, be warm enough on Easter to wear summery clothes?! If I was - or had been- more of a fashionista I could say that it was an excuse to buy new clothes - but alas- here I sit in my comfortable clothes with not even an Easter ham to cook. The holiday slipped my mind this year some how!

These are some experimental journal pages that I have recently been playing with. I seem to return to the Artist Trading Card Workshop by Bernie Berlin for new techniques to try. They all work quite as well in journaling as they do on ATC's. This technique is using embossing powder as a resist with acrylic paints. I would never have considered this method unless I had read about it. I had bought some embossing powder years and years ago - and had never used it - nor had I thought that I would ever find a good enough reason to use it ! Wrong! The embossing powder works like any other resist and, when heat is applied after fixing the powder - it allows the background to show through -- lifting the powder and leaving the color. It's a very interesting technique that I know I will use more in the future. I used some of the verbiage from the Song of Solomon to highlight the images.

I have never been very facile in using light or pastel colors. The unfinished journal page below is an attempt to force myself to use the soft colors of Spring and also an experiment is using gaffer's tape to create a grid. I interspersed some of my favorite short quotes in some of the block. My plan is to use some more pale on pale in some of the areas. I still seem to have issues with pastels! 

I think this aversion stems from when I was in high school - a private all girls school. For dances and deb parties everyone always seemed to wear pastels - which left me uninspired even then! I used to choose things like a moire silk in deep burgundy - or a slinky black gown. That being said I truly wish that I could learn to use soft colors more adroitly since they do now hold a certain fascination and beauty for me. I plan to try more and more experiments with soft colors.  Anyone else have "pale aversion"?  What have you done to overcome it? Or did you even want to?

Yesterday a friend and I went to a great local quilt show on the mainland - I came away from it really energized to get back to some fabric works. Tomorrow I will be posting photos from this fun day. When we returned to the island we found snow and hail oiled a bit on the sidewalks! First snow of the year and we missed it !  What did my hummingbirds do in this cold? I gave them fresh, warm solutions in all four quart feeders this morning as a treat.

Note: as far as the doctor went - I have surgery scheduled in June. Since Lauren and I had some time before the appointments we did a little shopping. While I waited for Lauren to pick me up from one of the shops I wandered into pet store. I have a special fondness for white cats - always have. We are down to one resident kitty now - a hardy 16 year old. As I went into the store I thought "wouldn't it be funny if I find a white kitty here" - well, sure enough, there she was- with a heart warming story attached to her. We did not have time after the appointments to go and get her - but she is being held for me to come and get. I can;t wait to be able to introduce you to her when she comes home!