Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Art Journal Update: New "In the Sun" Pages

I am taking a break from WOYWW this week, in order to share a few more pages from my art journaling project with Natalie's In the Sun e-course.

On the 4th of July, Natalie asked us about our first memory of summer.
My father's side of the family used to meet every July 4th in Sumner, Michigan, at my grandparents' house.  With seven kids in my dad's family, I had plenty of aunts, uncles, and cousins to surround me for the summer holiday. 

As a shy kid, I found the whole experience kind of intimidating most of the time, but there are so many memories and so much fun wrapped up in those summer days; it has hit me hard this year that we no longer meet like that as a family.  My father and his siblings choose to meet for their own holiday, and my cousins and I are just trying to restart a "cousin reunion" (and had one rip-roaring success last Labor Day), but we are at an awkward stage--many still in college, or just getting settled into jobs, marriages, or babies.  (My sister and I are at the "older end" of the cousin spectrum!)  No one has a lot of money and/or flexibility for travel just now.  I am hoping we'll be able to get our own Cousin Reunion on track for the future, though!

Another prompt asked us to consider how we enjoy vacations at home when we can't get away.
Nothing too "deep" here:  I think you can't beat a dinner on the grill or a backyard picnic.  In either case, lounging in the shade is mandatory!

When Natty asked us to think about what our modern-day drink stands would include, instead of the lemonade of days gone by, this is the page I created:
Any slushy, fruity drink works for me! 

We also did a page about picnic favorites:  favorite foods, favorite places. 
I loved the red gingham picnic-looking paper I used, as well as the little ant rubber stamp, but overall the page didn't look like much, so I just included a detail. 

Favorite picnic spots include on a blanket in the backyard, next to a river, where live music plays, under the trees, when the air is breezy, and with a group of friends. 

My favorite foods are pretty traditional:  sandwiches, chips, deviled eggs, soda, and fresh fruit.  The most unusual food I ever brought along was one picnic when we ate California rolls; it seems a little weird to bring sushi on a picnic, but it comes very conveniently packaged!

Natty also had a prompt to get us thinking about our favorite summer flowers.
As you can see from my page:  If you want to see flowers at my house, you're going to have to draw them!  Gardener, I am not.  Someday I would like to start gardening; everyone gets so Zen-like and contented when they talk about their gardening experiences.  But to me, it only conjures feelings of heat, sweat, and buzzy bugs!

Natty asked us about a nightmare travel experience.  I happened to be on a family road trip to Kentucky to visit my mother, which involved twelve hours in the car with my 2 and 3 year old daughters in their car seats behind me.
We had a GREAT trip, so it was far from a travel nightmare.  But hearing, "Mommy...Mommy?....Mommy!" for hundreds and hundreds of miles was a little wearing!

When Natty asked us how we handle our boring days in the summertime, I went in search of a good quotation related to boredom.  I found so many great ones that I made them the whole content of my page:
The consensus seemed to be that we are responsible for our own boredom and activity; if we are feeing bored, it's our own responsibility to find something to do to remedy the situation!  I never have much of a problem with boredom.  There is always so much to do, and any "free" time is easily filled.

Natty is keeping me focused on appreciating summer and all it has to offer with her fun journaling prompts!

7 comments:

Carin Winkelman said...

I really like the page with the flowers and adore the little ants on the picnic page, too cute! ;-) I'm not a great fun of summer myself, I don't like warm weather, I'm just not built for it. I love fall and winter most, but it's nice to answer questions like your getting through your art journal. Fun!

Carin Winkelman said...

Um, I meant to say great FAN of summer. I so am FUN! ;-)

laurie said...

great pages that seem to have really made you think about the season and all that it brings!

scrapwordsmom said...

Your pages are very inspiring. I haven't done one thing with Natty's prompts YET-LOL!! I will get to them soon:)

Thank you for sharing. I love how you just put the mouths of children on your page and then the one with all the boring quotes. Sweet!!

Beansieleigh said...

Natalie's e-course sounds like fun! I have been working on my own junque/art journal, on and off, and have been loving every minute of it! Loved your red gingham page, even if maybe it wasn't your favorite! I've got to find that ant stamp. It's so CUTE!!! As for me, Summer has ALWAYS been my favorite season. It still would be, except I have no air conditioning, and the heat is starting to bother me a little more and more each year... But I love going for walks, going swimming, my flip-flops and sandals, ice cream cones, watermelon and corn on the cob!.. All those good things!!! Loved your flower page.. And don't feel bad. My thumb has been a VERY pale shade of green at best! (0; Have a great day! ~tina

Janet said...

This must be a very inspiring journaling course. Your pages all look great. I love the ants crawling along the edge of the picnic page. I like your thoughts on boredom, too. I'm seldom bored. There's always so many things to do and new things to try.

Parabolic Muse said...

This is just filled with sweetness. Yes! I heard a few times through childhood and it stayed with me, something like, being bored is a choice! There are so many things in life to dive into. Sometimes, particularly in summer, it's just that we're tired and need to just sit and watch for awhile...

Thanks for sharing these.