Monday, Monday

Monday ... the beginning of yet another week. Time sure flies ... it's almost June already, the last month of school. After that, the kids will be home for two entire months! It seems like this school year has just begun, how can it be ending already??? I'm getting old so fast, and lately that fact has been hitting me hard. Is it because I'm going on 40 (well actually, I'll be 39 coming next January, but that's still pretty close to 40, right?)?? Is this what they have been talking about all along when talking about midlife crisis???? Because really, I actually never thought it would bother me all that much, numbers don't say that much to me. I always say I'm still waiting to grow up LOL. It seems to me that my mom at my age was much more of a grown-up than I am or ever will be. I have a home, children, a pet, bills to pay ... well, lots of responsibilities in life. So why do I still feel like a 20 year old??? However, lately my body has been telling me, not even all that subtle, that I am by no means a 20 year old! And time seems to be passing me by. I feel I should soak up every little detail of the moment, but I can't, it's all going too fast. It's like my brain isn't able to keep up with the pace. My beautiful children are growing up so fast, and I can't shake the feeling I'm not registering that fact consciously enough. They're growing up right in front of me, I should notice every little change they're going through, but I feel that I'm always one step behind. Am I not paying enough attention?

Okay, I have no idea where this came from!!! I was actually just going for a simple introduction to show you my latest work. Now there's proof of how disorganized my brain works, right? Just be grateful I didn't start on "the meaning of life" ... I can go on and on about that one LOL.

So let's just move on to showing you a LO I made with the Kreatorville Krafts May Kit. If you'd like to know more about how this LO came to be, check out my post over at KK!


This is my gorgeous red headed girl Chloë, who's 9 already ... again, where has the time gone??? In these pics she was almost 9 months old and she just learned how to sit up straight all by herself. This made her so happy, it opened up a whole new world for her, hence the title. I used my paints again to create this background. All of my May projects for KK have been painted on one way or the other. I can't seem to help it, right now, all images/ideas that pop up into my head include painting. I've noticed I've gone through several phases like this before, so I'm sure this will pass ... or will it???

I had so much fun painting, I actually (and finally) was able to finish another page for "One Year in The Life of an Art Journal". I'm so behind, but eager to get caught up. Prompt #3 (yes, prompt 3 ... told you I was behind!!!) was all about "The Unknown". This prompt could be interpreted in so many ways! Like for example wouldn't it be nice to know all there is to know about medicin, so that we could cure every disease possible?? Or wouldn't it be nice if I knew all there was to know about so many topics ... that way, I wouldn't lose every time I played Trivial Persuit LOL????? But the more I thought about it, the more it made me think of the future. Sometimes I think it would be nice to know things beforehand, that way maybe I would stop making some of the mistakes I make. However, thinking about it more, made me realize I don't think I would be very happy knowing the future, knowing all that's about to take place before it happens. What if I learned that I would survive all of my loved ones? Or the opposite, what if I learned that I had only so much time to live? Doesn't sound like much fun to me. And if we knew all there is to know, would we still have goals, and would we truly know happiness once we reached them??? I don't think I would handle knowing the future very well, so this way is fine by me.

Back to the journal page then, I guess it wasn't a big step to go from knowing the future to using the image of a fortune teller ...


I searched the net for images and combined some of them to draw in my art journal book. I used my watercolour paints to colour in the page and my black marker to finish it off.

The prompt also included using the stitching technique. It took me some time to figure out how to incorporate stitching into this page ... I didn't really think stitching on this page would look good somehow. Then the idea of adding beads to her head scarf popped into my head, and it actually ended up looking really cool!

I also used some stitching thread to "hold back" the curtains.

On this last image, you can see very clearly that I used some acrylic paint to dry brush some strokes over the entire page to soften up the image (I think you'll be able to see it clearly when you click on the entire page as well). The colours were pretty bright, and it kind of ruined the mystical effect I was going for. Going over the painting with a dry brush turned down the brightness and really pulled all of it together. If there's one colour you should have in your acrylic paint's collection, it's "Buff Titanium", even if it's for this purpose only!

I'll leave you with some pics of our weekend. The kids had their annual school festival this weekend, and it was fun seeing them perform.

Here's Yannis on the catwalk, modelling clothing they made themselves out of plastic bags and fabrics.

Chloë was part of a band playing on home made instruments ... really cute!

Christina took part in the circus performance. She's the one on the far right, standing on her hands. She did really well!

And I couldn't resist adding this picture ... makes me sick just looking at it. The kids loved it though!

Have a nice week my friends,
Love xxx Peggy