The themes for weeks eight and nine of the 2011 Weekly Favourites Journal Challenge at ScrapChat really threw me. Week eight's challenge was to scrap your favourite room. Week nine's challenge was to scrap your favourite time waster. Uh-oh.
Week 8 - Favourite Room
My favourite room should have been a cinch. Really. We've only been living in our newly built home for a little over six months. Honestly, I have favourite rooms in our new house ... as you would hope! In fact my favourite room in the house is our lounge room (as opposed to the open plan 'living room'). It is a beautiful room which reminds us a little of our old period home in Brunswick, perhaps because we have a gas 'fire-log' heater in the lounge and at Brunswick we had open fireplaces? Maybe because it is 'our' room. LOL that sound so strange yes? The whole house is 'our' house but this room has just two chairs ... gorgeous leather, modern looking recliners ... a very large, vintage Tibetan drum for a coffee table, an enormous red feather African headdress hanging above the 'fire', a Buddha wall hanging from Bhutan, an old children's rocking chair from when GB was a toddler, antique cabinets from China, and more. Oh and last but not least, this room has one of my gorgeous Yhi ceiling pendants by Brian Steendyk. Seriously this room is stunning. It is a tranquil room. Everyone who has ever relaxed in one of the recliners in that room has loved it.
I love it. The only problem was that I couldn't photograph it because right now all those beautiful things are gone, the room is empty. Without all those 'things' its lost its tranquility, its soul I guess you could say. 'Come again' I hear you say, 'empty?'.
Several weeks ago when Melbourne had some serious freak storms come through, our house was hit pretty bad on the west side. Although a new build, as a result of the combined ferocity of the winds and the angle at which the rain hit our house, we flooded. Compared to the loss of life, and damage and destruction mother nature is leaving in her wake wherever she stomps her feet, we are blessed. We are still in our home. We still have our roof. We are safe. We are simply waiting for our flooring, plasterboard, light fittings, etc to be replaced.
So if I couldn't scrap my favourite room what could I scrap? Then I remembered our laundry at our old home in Brunswick, and how that laundry was the 'bane' of my life for a good 15 years or more. Which caused me to stop and think about just how much I love our new laundry. Which prompted me to stop and remember how excited I was every time we came out to the new house during construction and how I would stand in what would become the laundry and just wordlessly turn around in delight picturing what was going to be my 'dream' laundry. What a relief ... I had a new favourite room to scrap. But again I had no photos and the current state of the laundry was really not something I wanted to share. You know the saying along the lines of 'not airing your dirty laundry in public' LOL?! Well needless to say I was
not going to share the current state of our laundry! But I had photos of our old laundry from the day we locked up our home in Brunswick for the final time. I also had the elevation plans of my new laundry. Add the two together with some crisp, white fabric to represent bleached and starched ironing and I had a page in my Journal for week eight ...
BTW I didn't really use many products when creating this page but must mention the fabulous arrows are a Sizzix die, Arrows #2, and the perfect sized hearts are from the Stampin' Up Heart to Heart punch.
Week 9 - Favourite Time Waster
Tell me ... what does someone who almost compulsively multi-tasks every minute of their day do to waste time? Let
me tell
you ...
nothing!!!!!!!!! I cannot abide wasting time. If other people want to do it that's their choice. But for me, wasting time goes against everything I try to do to be as efficient as I possibly can. I don't waste time! Everything I do, LOL even relaxing, has a purpose ie, relaxing!! This was not a challenge LOL this was seriously big time 'freak Alz out bait'!!!! Time spent online has a purpose ... whether that be shopping, researching, social networking, or whatever! Time spent scrapping is, for me, a version of occupational therapy. Time spent watching TV is relaxing, entertaining, informative. The only thing I could think of that 'some' might possibly consider wasting time was colouring. Doodling. Drawing. 'Some' might think that a 42 year old sitting down and colouring when her laundry is in such a state she can't photograph it to share (LOL) is wasting her time. I disagree. For me, colouring, doodling and drawing are types of occupational therapy. Finally, I had an 'angle' from which to approach week nine's challenge. Colouring, doodling, drawing ... occupational therapy? Call it what you want ...
Products used include "The Crafter's Workshop Template" (Daisy Cluster), Sizzix/Tim Holtz Paper Rosette die, Sizzix Dots & Scallops die, Stampin' Up! scallop circle punch, Carolee's Creations AdornIt Sleek White Alphas, and various colouring pencils and pens. Oh and a brad (LOL).
The background was originally a piece of pale blue 12x12 Bazzill which was fairly marked and faded in places. Using the leftovers of a spray mist I had made up, and the TCW template I created a faint patterned background on the cardstock. After diligently drawing around all the outlined daisies, I coloured them in with various coloured pencils I borrowed from a girlfriend (I was away at a retreat). I used an aqua brush to soften the colouring lines and I used a white pen to add highlights. Finally I coloured the external border of the template in black and again used an aqua brush to soften the colouring lines. Did creating my own background with this technique take a lot of time? Yes!!! Did some of the girls on the retreat think I had completely lost the plot? Yes. But it was enjoyable and relaxing, and something I could stop and come back to. And I created it at a time when I was feeling a little anxious, out of my depth and like a fish out of water. So it served a purpose ... it gave me something to do (an occupation) and it helped me to relax (therapy).
Oh and did I mention that taking the time out to sit down and colour like we did when we were children, is fun???
We interrupt this broadcast to bring you a technical hitch ... LOL ... please excuse me whilst I test something with this post ... stay tuned ... BRB ... it worked!!!!!
