I can Breathe! and Art Journals

You are probably wondering why I am posting this blue square. Why? Because it's a picture I took of the sky today! Where I live has had horrible HORRIBLE air lately with nasty inversion and mucky yucky stuff in the air making it hard to breathe and the schools haven't been allowed to let the kids out for recess due to the bad air conditions.  Needless to say, a lot of people have been getting sick and I myself have had a sinus infection which gave me a nasty awful migraine plus the kids have been really stir crazy with cabin fever. So today when I saw the glorious blue sky I was determined that we would go on a walk and spend some time breathing in the clear air. The kids were so excited to go to the playground and be outside. Here's a crazy video of me on the swing.

I also took this video of my little guy on the swing - warning it may get you a bit seasick as I was taking it while I was swinging and then while he was swinging, I think it's a fun dynamic but I had to stop swinging myself when I was done taking this video because I was getting sick.

I also had some fun with the fish eye setting on my camera - I took these really fun pictures of the trees with it and I love how they look so strange and yet they also look like they could be actually growing that way. I LOOOVE Trees so I love seeing pictures of them and taking pictures of them and yeah, you'll probably see a lot of tree stuff on the blog.

The other thing I wanted to blog about is Art Journaling. I love Art (funny tangent story, I was on the color guard in High School and when we had our first meeting to get to know each other I said that very thing "I love Art," and everyone laughed because the band instructors first name was Art - but I didn't know) anyway, I love all kinds of art, painting, drawing, sculpture, all sorts of visual art. I wanted to be an artist when I grew up. I took summer art classes. I went to college with the intent of majoring in Art and was starting to take classes but I never was able to get in to the program. This ended up being ok since I found costume design which is artistic also and I loved it but I had never known/thought of it as a major. Now I really admire art and often I'm more comfortable admiring art instead of doing it. I love to do art but there's a lot of times where what is in my head doesn't come out on the paper. Conversely with costumes/sewing in general, there have been times where I can have an idea in my head and whip something out quite well.  I do feel I have artistic talent though and lately I've been missing doing art a lot. While playing around on Pinterest I started finding a bunch of artwork that I really like and some of it is the kind/styles that I've always liked and wanted to try out but never gotten the guts to do it. Mixed media is one of the main styles I'm referring to and in looking up (and drooling over) various mixed media stuff on Pinterest I found some really cool tutorials done by Tessha Moore. I liked them A LOT and so I went to her website and I went CRAZY watching all her tutorials and I spent hours, yes hours, looking over her journal pages and stuff on her blog and I even made a journal using her directions she has on her website and at YouTube http://youtu.be/1z6qmXGRrsE

So how is it that I have done a lot with art over the years and liked a lot of mixed media and yet I don't recall ever hearing about these Art Journals?  - yes there's my whole memory issues again but still, I was simply blown away by these Art Journals that Tessha has done. Then I got a little curious, especially when Tessha mentioned other people doing this kind of thing, so I googled "Art Journal" and O MY GREAT GOLLY! Wow! This is so amazing - this is huge - this is something I need to do!!

 I mean look at these pretties:

From Miles Beyond the Moon (love that blog name)

From art-journaling.com - see! There's even a whole website about it

From jans-gonestampin.blogspot.com

From Magpie's Nest ~*~ Patty Szymkowicz

From Allen Designs

From The Tin Goat 
This one is one of my favorites - it reminds me of
James Christensen, he's one of my all time favorite artist

From Teesha Moore

Also From Teesha Moore
I had to post two of Teesha's because it was
so hard to not post 10 or more of hers

And yet I have this huge part of me holding back.

Whyyyyyyyyyy??? Why must I be afraid?? Blah blah, I feel so silly about it - but I'm afraid it would go the way my attempts at scrapbooking have gone - I get everything out, spend tons of time trying to figure out what I want to use and what should go where and I do a page or maybe even two but then I freak out, FREAK OUT, because I cut the pictures - they are marred forever and this part doesn't look just right and my handwriting is awful and should I really have done that color there and that was hours of work for one little page and there's no way ever that I'll get these boxes and boxes of stuff scrapbooked so why even try. Whew, I'm really letting a lot out here - I hope I can find time to blog other than late at night before bed, who knows what I will end up writing. wink wink :) But really, I was watching some of Teesha's videos thinking "I have this great piece of wrapping paper I've saved for just that kind of thing, but if I use it then it's gone so I should just hold on to it." But I loved how Teesha was just slapping things together, working fast and just going with the flow - I want to be able to do that - and not tear it apart the next day. It's the same thing with this blog. I'm putting a lot of energy and exertion into not going back to old post and changing things.

One way I get around that part of me that holds me back is to go about things in a different way. For example, I made my mom this huge 80 page scrapbook but I did it by scanning in the photos and doing a digital scrapbook. With that I could alter the pictures and add in all sorts of fun font captions and easily change it and save it and do multiple types of the same page and pick which one I liked best. A lot of my best sewing projects happen when I make up my own pattern and don't think about it much but just go with my gut feelings. So yes it's true that I don't have the fancy moleskin paper or expensive paints but I did have a sheet of poster board that was the same size and so I was able to make the blank book. I think I'll have to just go for it and start working on making my own Art Journal. It will take time since I don't have a ton of free time but I want to stop simply looking at these pretty things, I want to try and make them myself. And the same goes for this blog - I want to just keep going with it and it's ok if I post about a party I did last week or a couple years ago, it doesn't have to be in chronological order, it doesn't have to be just like the other blogs, it's mine and I can make it what I want.

And hey - I could blog about my art journal as I work on it - thus catching two birds with one stone kind of thing.

Yep - I'll have to do that.

Inept computer skills

(Update: Thanks to codeitpretty I was finally able to understand how to do fun buttons on the side of my blog!! I also was able to find some fun free buttons at Shabby Blogs Hooray! Also if you go to this link you can get Instructable buttons too! It makes me so happy! I probably went a bit overboard with buttons LOL)

I wanted to do a bunch of spiffy things to my blog today, like a button that took you to my pinterest stuff and such but my inept computer skills made it so that after an hour or so of working on it and nothing working out I gave up. I went to trusty old google and looked up directions and such but still no luck. At some point I'll get it figured out but for now I figured I'd just put a link here since I do know how to do that!

My Pinterest

Also, before I decided to do a blog, my favorite place to put up some of my DIY ideas has been Instructables.com and I'll probably still do a few things there and I couldn't find any way to put a widget/gadget/whatever to my instructable stuff so here's the link for that!

My Instructables

On my Instructables you can already check out how to make a Monster Book of Monsters, Tardis Quillow and Jack Skelington Jug Lights.
It'll take some time but hopefully I can make this blog efficient and run the way I want it to.

A little about me

Whew - I was reminded why I haven't done a blog as this post put me into anxiety attacks and depression the last few days. Yep, I was pretty close to deleting the whole thing and giving up already. Pretty bad huh?

Why was it so crazy? Why am I deleting every other sentence I write and rewriting a bunch? Communication. I have a whole ranting and raving post to do one of these days about communication and how these days we have many amazing ways to communicate, we've gained a ton of ground with new technologies and such, but we've equally lost the ability to communicate. If you don't believe me just look at facebook updates, twitter, text, etc. etc. It's not just grammar and spelling, the ability to convey what you truly mean has been (I feel) lost to many and thus you never know what people will understand/interpret from what you write. If I have a person physically next to me I can open up and talk for hours (or longer, especially if they are an adult and the kids are occupied or not present) and sometimes the same can happen over the phone. But, if you get me in a group of people or on facebook, I'm always nervous that I won't be able to express myself in a way that will be understood.

I'm terrified at something I write coming across as something other than what I originally meant. For example, I was going to say how I'm a stay at home mom - but the image that phrase conjures up is a labeled narrow box that I don't feel I fit into entirely. Honestly I feel like I'm quite the paradox that doesn't really fit in anywhere so language fails me when it comes to describing myself. And of course there's the whole issue with how I see myself which changes based on the day.

What to do then?
One of my options was to just not do this post at all - go back to the other post and delete the whole idea of me introducing myself.

Another was to write out a super long drawn out and sometimes depressing explanation of my crazy self or wait for a day where I felt good about myself - both options loosing lots of time I could be doing the fun type of post I wanted to do when I started this whole thing.

Realize that no matter how hard I tried to pontificate in a sophisticated yet simple way that would be understood by all, it just isn't possible and I should not worry so much and just write a simple little thing and get on to other things that don't make me as anxious. Plus you'll all get to know the craziness of who I really am as I do all those other posts.

This last one seems the best.


So who am I?

My name is Tabitha - yes it's after the Tabitha in the Bible Acts 9. But also really from Bewitched. There have been many times I've gotten called Samantha and I blame it on the TV show.

Nicknames - my family nickname is Taffy. In elementary I had a teacher ask if there was a nickname we went by when we called role. I said my nickname was Taffy and the whole class laughed at me so I kept it a secret from then on. Starting in High School a lot of friends called me Tabby. I even had one friend call me Tab and he brought the Soda Tab to a party I had. Tabby has stuck and there's even times when people introduce me to others as Tabby. I do love my name Tabitha though and would prefer people to use that unless they are friends - it's always strange to have someone call me Tabby when I've never met them before.

I am married to an amazing man that I'll have to devote a few posts to in the future. One of the distinguishing characteristics of my husband upon first impressions is his lovely golden locks which are longer than my own. We recently celebrated our 8th anniversary and I still think he's the best husband in the world!

We have two kids who just had birthdays so our daughter Krissy is now 6 and our son Eli is 4. You'll get to know them really really well with my posts I'm sure ;)

True Family Photo - Halloween 2011, yes that's my husband as the Pope (he drove the city bus dressed as that) and yes that's Eli as Superman with a sword in his pants - since he didn't have a scabbard

Things I like (well a small list of them) - and you're sure to get lots of posts about:

• Parties - even though I'm a rather introverted person I love to put together theme parties and I've done some pretty amazing ones if I say so myself and I can't wait to share about them
• Sewing - I like to sew clothes and costumes and fun stuff
• Geeky things - Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Steampunk, Terry Pratchet, Princess Bride and more!
• Jane Austen novels and movies, Fantasy books and movies, kid movies (what I see the most of these days)
• Makeup and costumes - that's what I got my Bachelors degree in, I may not ever be on the stage but I enjoy the behind the scene stuff
• History - I like lots of historical stuff from antique objects to retro hair to medieval reenactment. My whole family is in the SCA Society of Creative Anachronism and I love to sew our medieval clothing and go on the camping trips and to the events. 
• Going along with both makeup and history I love retro hair and makeup and dabble in doing it once in awhile on myself
• Halloween - my favorite holliday
• Native American stuff- my grandpa's grandma Minnie Hicks is supposedly Cherokee and there's supposedly other ancestors that are full blooded native americans but I haven't been able to verify any of that. Be that as it may I love the culture, the clothing, the music, the artwork
• I love visual arts, that's what I wanted to go into when I went to college and growing up when the elementary school teachers asked what everyone wanted to be and all the other girls said moms, I said Disney animator. While that never panned out I do love art still and some of the things I will share are my dabblings of stuff done with projects - some of them have turned out great even though I don't have photoshop or anything fancy like that, just paint and microsoft publisher.
• I have a bit of a crazy wild side, if it was allowed to come out more I would probably have a rainbow 2 foot mohaw (see, that is not what you picture when you hear stay-at-home-mom) ;)

Things I don't like that I hope to not take up too much time with posts but you never know:

• My memory - I have a terrible, horrible, no good memory. There have been times where my husband has said something and when I asked him who told him that he replies "you did." And there are more times when he swears he has told me something and I don't remember it at all. I get people's names wrong all the time and I have been known to have long conversations with someone who I have no idea how they know me and then realizing half an hour after they are gone that they were my college roommate. 
• My journal/scrapbooking skills - which are nill at the most and don't help with the memory problem but hey, maybe this blog will help?!
• Drama - not to be mistaken for the theater or film, I mean drama that goes along with politics, debate, the news - I'm a sensitive soul and I hate confrontation.

 

We'll see how I do with the desire to be open and honest on this blog but also the fear of confrontation and not being understood. Hopefully though this will be the hardest post I'll do and we can now move on to some fun stuff.

me being my crazy self at a girls night out back in 2009

Why Tabbygram?

Ok, I know I said my next post would be an introduction but I went to do a description of the blog - the little snippet that shows up under the title - and my snippet was too long. But I rather like it so I'm going to share it here!

I love old movies and I remember people were always excited to get a telegram. Back before facebook and blogs I would send out emails to family and friends with updates of my life and I labeled them "Tabbygram" for a play on the word telegram and my nickname Tabby. Now telegrams were usually done in code and you had to know the code to understand the message. According to Wikipedia "In the Internet age, telegraphic means developed greatly in sophistication and ease of use, with natural language interfaces that hide the underlying code." This blog is a mix of both just like the title is a mix of my name - there's a few things I'll talk about that may seem to be in code unless you're a mom, fellow geek, SCAdian etc. but I also hope that a lot of the post will be "developed greatly in sophistication and ease of use" with fun things that everyone can understand and enjoy.

I've been assimilated!

This is the 3rd blog I've started. I've wanted to do a blog for a few years now but I kept resisting feeling it was just not something I could add to my load. I get sucked into the computer as it is and I didn't want to give myself yet another temptation to zone away in internet land. I should be putting time into my other blog krazykilts which was made to promote our etsy business - or actually making stuff for that business.  Be that as it may, I've decided to finally start a blog that doesn't have any strings attached and can just be whatever I want - sure I can share stuff about our business and trick...I mean gently coerce you all into buying our stuff - but really there's a whole lot more I want to share, nifty stuff I do like things I create without photoshop but only using things like Paint and Microsoft Office Publisher - stuff I'm proud of and some stuff I want to put on pinterest and, and (see this is one reason I didn't want to do a blog because I can ramble...a lot).

The other reason I didn't want to start a blog is I really don't ever read other peoples blogs. (Oh the horror! No! It can't be!) Yes, I will take some time to read a few family members once in awhile and there's favorites of mine that I'll go to for hairstyle ideas and such but really I'm not that big of a blog follower. So why should I ask anyone else to follow me and read about my crazy nonsense when I might not return the favor?  Well for one I want to share my talents because I feel they are amazing (or I'll keep telling myself that until I feel that way) and some of it I think other people would really enjoy. And you can't pin stuff on pinterest from facebook. Ok I admit it I want to be able to pin my stuff on pinterest and have it be attributed to me - not just labeled as "uploaded by user." And facebook has failed me in that they don't save post anymore. Facebook was like my journal and my main hub of sharing photos and my awesome amazing projects for all to love and share - but in trying to go back in the archives I've discovered a lot is not there anymore. boo, hiss, sulk :(  With all of that in mind I figured a blog would be a great way to tie everything together - I can post things I find fun from facebook, I can put my stuff on pinterest, and I can have it all archived and call it my attempt at a journal. ;)

So here I am in my pajamas starting off a blog when I should be getting ready and spending time with my little boy that turns 4 today (no worries, we did big birthday party already a few days ago - and that will be a post soon!) but yes, I think my next post will be a crazy introduction and then I'll dive in posting what I did years ago but can't wait to share and maybe I'll even get on top of posting about things that happened recently.  I have been assimilated into the blogging world! :)