Visual Journal

I am pretty good at filtering through fun crafts, art techniques, and sewing crafts.  It is kind of hard when you have a wide range of interests.  There is definitely not enough time to do them all regularly.

My latest interest is in creating a visual or art journal.  I have watched a lot of videos on the subject, looked at a lot of pictures of journal pages, and I have finally prepped my own visual art journal!

Many people will take an old hard back book and use that.  I had a book that I was getting rid of, so instead I held onto it until I was ready to start my journal.  I began by tearing out 40% of the pages.  This is necessary, because as you journal, you will most likely add things into it, adding thickness.  Not to mention that would just be way too many pages to have to journal.  I counted 10 pages folding them over, then tore out the next 10... and so on throughout the whole book.  Then I tore off the cover liner.  It was a plastic type of material making up its cover art, so once I cut into the edge of the hard cover, it peeled off quite easily.  

This is what it looks like after that step.

Then I glued every two pages together in order to create a thicker sturdier page to paint and craft on.  

The theme that I chose for my visual journal is along the lines of tender mercies of being a mother.

I have a lot of material to go with this theme, so it seemed like a given!

I finally got my first page spread done!  I'm excited!  Have a looksie!

Here is the full spread together.

This whole process was a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to more creations!

This post was for Kendra, my sister, so she could see my progress.

Busy Busy Summer

Hobbs, New Mexico has so many summer activities and programs for kids to enjoy.  Many of which are free!  Sweet, I know!  So, we signed the girls up for tennis class and volleyball class, not realizing how busy that would make us.

The tennis schedule was Monday -Friday from 8-9 am, lasting from June 3rd - July 26th or so.  Volleyball is Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30-6:45pm.  It started one week later and goes until the end of July.  Bunny and Bug have really enjoyed it, but it has been super busy!  I also joined a summer volleyball league, and that was a lot more rigorous in schedule than I hoped for.  We started out having games three nights a week.

We have been running one car, because the Hog needs a new battery.  This week, in order to save gas money, I decided that we were going to take a break from the endless driving to sports and such, so Hoss took the van to work yesterday and today.  I have to say, it has been nice to not have anywhere to drive.  We have taken a break from tennis and volleyball, which has been nice too.  Unfortunately, the break at home ends tomorrow.  So with most of the house chores caught up, my mind actually feels somewhat free to write and to be creative in other ways!  Yaay!  I've missed a clear mind!

I am looking forward to the sports for the summer being complete.  There are so many books that I was supposed to read in order to prepare for the upcoming school year that I have not been able to get to.  I have nearly finished ONE!  Yipes!  I have a lot of reading and planning to do for the rest of the month!  I hope to start school back up in September.  Next summer, I do not plan on taking a break for the summer... at least, not like I did this year.  I felt like we needed this summer to regroup and prepare for the fall.  I think that was inspired, because with how busy we have been, I don't think we would have been able to get much structure out of the day for school.

Here are some pictures of the last few months.

The week of Independence Day, a sister from church planned a Constitution Camp.  It was one day, and there was a lesson on the Constitution, some word games, and the kids painted the American flag on their shirts!  They had a lot of fun!

Then on Thursday (the 4th), we went to a fun run put on by our Stake President's family.  We walked/ran 1 mile, then had breakfast and games.  It was a lot of fun and tiring!  We then went home and had a nap.  We had a light dinner and went to get a spot to watch the fireworks.  While we waited for them to start, the kids played with pop its, and sparklers.  We had a pretty great view of the fireworks from the spot we found, and we'll probably go there next year too!

There are three pools in Hobbs, and two of them have been free for the entire summer!  One of those is a nice pool for little kids.. with enough deep for the older kids too, and it is just a block away!  We have gone swimming a lot this summer, and look forward to more swimming days to come!

That is all I can think of for now!  I hope your summer has been a great one!

Evelyn

We didn't plan on the guy on the tv being in the picture too.

Little Cowboy wearing "gaggies" and Bug's hat

Bug giving Little Cowboy a horsie ride!

Bunny, Hoss, and LC

Me and my green juice during my 40 day juice fast.

LC "keeping his eyes peeled for daddy's UPS truck!"

LC playing with his truck.

Beautiful Bunny.

Beautiful silly Bug.

LC sharing his "num nums" with Elmo.

Little Cowboy doing a somersault. 

Silly with mommy!

Church dance: Bunny dancing with daddy!

Again!  Twirl!

Little Cowboy dancing with mommy!

Bunny and Bug at the Lubbock, TX temple.

Close up at the temple!  Little Cowboy was asleep in the car.

Going to church with my honey!

My garden of kale!  It didn't get much bigger than this.

My garden of spinach.  It didn't get any bigger than this.  I couldn't really do much with it.

My fruit bounty for my juice fast.  We went through all of that in about
3 days between Hoss and I both juicing all day.

My salad meal.

Bug made herself a dress of bags... very creative, that one. :)

Hoss helped the girls tie ties!

Bug and Bunny on one of their first days of tennis class!

Bunny in action.  I need to get a picture of Bug.  I thought I did, but couldn't find it.

Bunny waiting in line for her turn with her friend from church Drew.

Hoss, LC and Bunny swimming.

Bug getting ready to show me her back flip in the water.

Constitution Camp: LC painting his shirt.

Constitution Camp: Bunny painting her shirt.

Constitution camp: Bug painting her shirt.

Hoss and myself at the fun run.

LC made it a little more than half way through the mile walking and running!  He's a little athlete!

Daddy lighting the sparklers:  Notice the kids wearing the shirts they painted.

Bug had a primary teacher that made each of her class a little shield.  It used to say CTR and looked pretty
but it started to come apart, and this was her parting picture with it.  She was sad to see it go.