Summer of Color - Weeks 1 & 2

I'm participating in Kristin's Summer of Color Challenge for my third year.

I decided this year to do some 3D style mixed-media projects - specifically - altered bottle art.

I saw my first altered bottle at the Frisco Mercantile in April with Melissa. I was quite taken with the concept.  Since then I've been collecting bottles at flea markets for between 25 cents and about $3 a piece. I won't pay more than the $3 for a base for a project.  Anyway....

Week 1 - 2 blues + 1 green.  I chose a sapphire blue, a turquoise blue, and a lime green:

This took me awhile and I got side-tracked with a nasty summer head cold that's had me out of commission for about four days.  But I finally finished!

I used decoupage to adhere the lace and twine and used hot glue for the shells and beads. I actually bought a necklace at the flea market for $1 just so I could take it apart for the beads and charms!

 Here's a close up of the detail:

Week 2 - 2 pinks + 1 orange.  I chose baby pink, fuschia, and a bright coral-orange:

I'm not really sure about that fuschia ribbon at the top.  Help me decide!  Do you like it better with the ribbon....

Or without the ribbon???

Here's a close-up of the yummy detail.
Keep in mind, these bottles have been washed. But they are old and imperfect and I really like them that way!

THRIVE - May Review

I'm trying to stay accountable to myself for the things I have set out to do. THRIVE is a big word. This is what thriving looked like in May...

1. Read A Book:  I read "The Silent Passage" by Gail Sheehy. It's an old book, probably somewhat out of date from a medical standpoint, but still an interesting read. And timely for me.  And just for fun, (thanks to a birthday gift from my sister Deanna) I snuck in "Looking For Alaska"  by John Green (author of The Fault in Our Stars).  It was odd reading a book written from the point of view of a teenage boy, and I can't help but wonder if the author could have made the same point without the gratuitous teenage smoking and drinking to excess, but in the realm of Young Adult novels, this was  a decent read.

2.  Try A New Recipe: Well, let's say I created a new recipe - I really enjoy Panera Bread's Napa Almond Chicken Salad.  It's a basic chicken salad plus sliced almonds and halved red grapes.  So I consulted Google, read a dozen or so different recipes, and then made my own! Becca thought it was bland. I thought next time I'll skip the tarragon, which just wasn't the right flavor. But my family will eat chicken salad, so this is one I'll be tinkering with!

3.  Declutter:  There was no big easily defined project in May, but I did cull my Spring wardrobe down to about 1/2 of what I had owned and found it necessary to buy some new clothes. And I'm still working on the rest of the house. Bit by bit. Baby steps.

4.  Complete An Unfinished Project:  I'm counting finishing off three of the re-upholstered chair projects that had been started earlier in the year. I haven't made anymore progress on the School of Life albums because I haven't gotten back to digi scrapping yet.... maybe this month???

5. Improve Flexibility - No loss, no gain in May.  Just holding steady at 6" from the touching my toes.  I've lost the advantage I had gained from the therapeutic massage which my chiropractor is no longer willing to bill to my insurance.  Just means I'll have to try harder on my own!  

6. Scrapbooking - My Favorite Five - So what I indentified as a Favorite Five in this post back in March remain unscrapped at this point. Hey, I was busy painting and recovering chairs, remember? So they will remain on my list for June. 

7.  Photography - I'm slowly catching up with Kim Klassen's "Be Still" class.  The class is on Week 21. I'm on Week 19. I haven't done all the assignments, but I have read the information and watched the videos. And I've learned that in the future I need to avoid year-long classes with weekly assignments. I can manage monthly, but not weekly. So I'm learning. Classes with a shorter time commitment really work better for me. 

8.  Art Journaling - Truthfully, I still can't get anywhere near my craft table. So now, it hasn't happened and isn't likely to happen until we get this whole refinished furniture thing under control.

9.  On the Wellness front - During the month of May, I ate healthier and exercised more. And held steady on all the classic measurements of wellness - no loss, but no gain either.  

And here are the May pages from my One Little Word Planner:

 I thought it was quite appropriate that the pre-printed "don't forget" graphic pointed directly to my birthday!  And I was thrilled to be able to include the card I got from Karen! I was able to cut it down to fit without cutting out anything as all her writing inside was nicely centered!

 A couple of my best photos from May, along with a marvelous postcard from Miriam.

 The May assignment for One Little Word involved creating "I AM" statement cards. I decided to play with digital using the Studio Rosey Posey I AM kit. The timing of this kit coming out was perfect for this assignment and I really enjoyed creating the cards!

On tap for June:

• I'll be participating in Rinda's 2015 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt.  Now it is just a matter of remembering to have a camera with me (last time I was out I even forgot my cell phone!)  Are you playing along?

• I'll finish reading Thrive: The Third Metric by Arianna Huffington and participating in the companion online class through Oprah.com.  I joined in on this because it seemed to be perfectly aligned to my word. So far there hasn't been anything really new, just a lot of validation that I'm on the right path and doing the right things to care for myself!

• I've just joined a Beginner Fitness class. My first time inside a "gym" since my Fibromyalgia diagnosis in September of 2011.  I'm in a class with women in their 60's, 70's, even 80's some of whom can run circles around me (okay, but I can hula hoop better than the rest of them!). The first class totally kicked my butt. But I've paid for 24 classes and I'm definitely going back!

• My Tai Chi classes start back up in the second half of June. I'm looking forward to that!

• I'll be participating in The Summer of Color 5 run by Kristin Van Valkenburg  Kristin provides color prompts. You choose your own media and do whatever projects you like using the weekly prompts. This will be my third year participating and I'm so excited to get started!  I haven't chosen my medium yet, but I'm hoping this will be the impetus I need to get started on at least one of a number of mixed media projects floating about in my brain.  

             The class is free. Care to join me???