Journal Cover Wednesday & Preserved Lemons

This is a cover on good old chipboard that I scored for free when all teachers got packets encased in chipboard. I asked everyone for theirs & they were so generous. I have quite a large supply.
What is it that makes materials gleaned in this way extra special? I love the word "Glean". There was a brilliant French movie about "Gleaners". Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse, 2000.

I preserved lemons in salt & let them brew for 3 weeks. Finally used them last evening in Moraccan Chicken with Olives. What a taste sensation! Totally new!

Journal Cover 3

I broke down & bought new accessories for journal covers. Tim Holtz makes stuff I don't mind using like the arrow spinner on this cover. I also bought some of his tissue music note tape which you see on the back cover. Its fun!
I am timid about pain. Its been a constant in my life since 2008. There have been brief interludes of absence of pain & for that I am grateful. At this point I have very little pain having taken care of those things that were the cause. So when I feel pain I over react & become on the edge of terror. Its important to remember I will be okay.
I saw that movie about Roger Ebert, Life Itself, & didn't like it. I couldn't help thinking, "whats the point of such life extension?" It was too painful to watch. Valiant? I'm not sure. Not for me I guess.

Swings Journal Cover

Standing on the swing pumping like crazy to go higher, higher. It felt a little dangerous. How curious at 63 I can still imagine that little stomach jump & the rush of wind as I fly down backward after the up-swing.
Left is cover, right is back.
I have a lot of stamps & sorted them by color into a stamp collector's notebook. It is a delicious thing!
Tracing out fish today on painted plywood. Getting ready for the mosaic re-visitation. I'll let you know how it goes.
I am excited!

New Journal Covers!

On the left is the back cover & one the right is the front cover. I have been steadily making journal covers & was surprised at my tall stack. Its time to bind pages within.

This set is made of very thin single ply cardboard that is quite wonderful in color & texture. I will spiral bind with 1 inch coil.

I am re-visiting my love affair with FISH SHAPES. You see the new stencil from transparency sheets that no one uses anymore? Well, maybe we do.....

Coping Tools for Not Belonging

Studio. Making. Husband. Sister. Dogs. Music. Home.

These are the things I depend on to enrich my day. I don’t fit into my job world very well at all. It seems like everyone else has gotten the script and knows how to navigate. Like a deer in the headlights I continually feel stunned.

Out of place.

There is no one to talk to about how the 2 images I found that morning make my soul dance.

There is no one at school to share the beauty of the frog skeleton that I found.

The loneliness makes me feel like an alien.

The repetition of days and weeks make me feel like a lunatic in a straitjacket. I fear over my continual exhaustion, but I think that I am suffering from the job that I do and the world that it’s done in.

BUT.

The job has kept me safe. It’s kept me in house and security and independence. I have developed coping skills to pay back what is leeched from me. I used to think it had to be people but lacking the skills necessary or even the interest, at this time, it is not.

I need to make. That is the end of every sentence. I am so happy about it! For most of my life I thought it was totally secondary. Now after a lifetime I find out it is primary. Now  a whole world opens each time I engage in making. Struggles, failures, disappointments. All of it marvelous and magical.