My Library Peeps

 The Friends of the Key Center Library sponsored another #CraftWithAnna class on Monday and it was SO much fun! The theme was Faux Batiking, and the idea I had was that we would use bleach on fabric with wooden block stamps to create some unique impressions.

The images were decidedly not distinct, except in their originality! There was hardly any way to predict what would happen. Depending on the fabric, the amount of bleach and water ratio'd, the quality of the stamp and or the image of it, they all created something! I made sure to caution each participant that the most important thing to remember was that the goal was to experiment, and have fun, not to expect perfection, and to enjoy the process.

Judging by the feedback, I'd say those goals were achieved!

 

All About Those...Shoes

There comes a certain point in every girls life when her feet just, stop growing. This must have happened for me around the 6th or 7th grade or so, coincidentally, I've been wearing a size 6.5 or 7 shoe and ring size ever since!

And, I love this size I've been gifted with. It's a thrill every time I (or my mom) go shoe shopping- almost all the displayed items fit me perfectly so I rarely have to dig through boxes underneath looking for my size. Mom can be shopping 100 miles away and text me a few pairs that I don't even need to try on to know, Yes, I want them!  When I worked at Famous Footwear, I almost always wore slip ons in case I "needed" to try on a few pairs while tidying up the store :-0

 

My feet have been good to me- only for a few months during Rainiers incubation did they swell to grotesque-for-me proportions, leaving me with the fear of shoe replacement shopping. I managed to turn that fear into joy at having to replace the 70+ pairs I owned at the time; reward for a baby delivered lol. But, lucky for Ray I quickly returned to normalcy and it's only through an act of extreme will power that I've been wittling down my "collection."

 

Enter the children's feet... and the fact that, because they are still growing, we get to go shoe shopping! I can hardly believe it when we leave without a pair for mom... I take mine home in photo form, now. This way, I have all the joy of the purchase without it affecting my small wallet, and none of the, I don't know where I thought I'd wear THOSE, guilt.

Hi, my name is Anna, and
I LOVE SHOES!

That's right, guilt over the dust film that forms on the tops of my heels. Guilt that the riding boots don't go riding. Guilt that I've never worn my boots with the fur out clubbin' (ok, that's a lie, but it was like, 5 years after the song was a hit). Guilt that the one pair of boots that actually cost more than $30 get worn?! I know, it's an Anna thing. A shoe lover, that's me!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone

Basking in the Sun

 Ahh fall, I know you're not long gone, but I sure do miss you! I miss the crispness in the air, the warmth of the afternoon sun in the windows, and I still have a lot of fall embellishments from 2013 to use...
but wait, this is Washington's warmest winter on record! And the air is still crisp and the warm days have kept on coming! Oh yeah, and I STILL have a lot of fall stuff in my stash lol.

When I saw Rainier getting a sun tan on the living room floor, it reminded me so much of a few pictures of myself at just about her age, doing the same thing on the deck of what would become a sunroom on the house I grew up in. In my mind's eye I can still feel my puffy purple coat cushioning my back as my big poodle mix Daisy sniffed about me.

Rainie loves to get her Vitamin D au 'natural, and we look forward to playing with the sun as it falls through our living rooms picture window. Have you ever had a scoop of sunshine poured over your head? Or drank a warm cup of sunlight tea? Those are just a couple of the cute ways she's taught me to enjoy God's radiant light. That love is echoed with the border strip punched with hearts running down the page. I'm a fan of Jen Gallagher who usually includeds a tied piece of twine on her borders somewhere. I'm an even bigger fan of lifting cute ideas like that so with all those bordering bits I figured this was as good a layout as any to attempt that look. (Success!)

I had to reflect some of the sunlight's sparkle on my page and there were a few items in my stash that I've been holding out on using due to their high glitter content, like those bright green thickers.  Long titles can be tricky, so I tried to use complimentaryy colors there, as well as the natural cork thickers to balance all that glittery goodness.  I was also mindful of stacking my phrases so that all the letters fit into a block shape of sorts. You know I love to use my trash, so look up at the top of my title and see how I used my paper's manufacture's strip as part of that design.

Part of the reason embellishments like that large subway-art typography piece doesn't usually work for me is that I feel like the words all have to be relevant to my family or the pictures I'm working with. Don't know why I hadn't thought to do it before, but I simply used some sticker phrases to cover up words that didn't fit my layout and voila! I had the perfect glitter backed piece to include on this page.

There is a little hidden journaling card as well. There isn't really anything on there that needs to be hidden; no super sentimental gushings or words I'd rather not have read by the average lookyLou, but with so much text already on the page, I felt it best to tuck my handwriting away. I've had that little envelope on my desk since last spring anyway so it was time to find it a home!

Do you remember sun filled days from your youth? Does it seem like you were a lot younger even just a few months ago? Go digging in your supplies for some sun themed embellishments and brighten up a winter day with sparkly memories. Or, find a picture that is the epitomy of a good time for you and touch it up with a photo flare! There's an app for that- I like to play with Android's LightEffects.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you get inspired to punch a border, tie a twine, or stack some fonting! Hey, if it's crafty, its good, right? And if it brightens your day, that's the best kind of crafty there is :-D