{memoirs of a geisha}

I started reading Memoirs of a Geisha on the ride back from Lake Tahoe on Sunday (it was a 10 hr. ride) and then had trouble putting it down the next couple of days. I couldn't stay up any longer last night so this morning I finished the last few pages. :) What a great book! I definitely recommend it if you're the reading type. I love to read the book before seeing the movie so now I'm ready to check it out!

SPT {Traveler}

Wow! This has to be the latest in the day I've uploaded an image for Self Portrait Tuesday. In keeping with this month's theme {Exploration of Identity} I took a variety of shots while in Lake Tahoe for Thanksgiving of my "feet" (well, shoes).

If you look at my list of things to do before 30 (and really, in my lifetime) you'll notice a lot of places I'd like to travel to. Traveling has always been an exciting adventure for me. I've been lucky to travel to a few different countries outside the US and many states (this side (West) of the Midwest). I'm one of those people that even enjoys traveling just a few cities over. I love nature and I love culture. I think it's beautiful and magnificent to see such color and vibrancy in the world.

More self portraits found here and here.

PS- Sorry for the lack of comments on your blogs! I've been reading when I can but haven't had a lot of time for comments. It was something just posting this today! :) Hope to be around more very soon.

Thanksgiving in Tahoe

My parents invited Alex and I to join them, and my sister, Sarah, in Lake Tahoe, Nevada for Thanksgiving. It was such a beautiful and relaxing trip. We enjoyed watching movies and playing games (I finally won the very last game we played!!), shopping, reading in a bookshop, riding the gondola for a grand view of the lake, and walks to the beach. It was just what I needed to rejuvenate and greet the holidays. For more photos (and there are a lot!) of our trip go here. Thank you for a wonderful time, Mom & Brad!

PS- Yesterday was my blog's ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!! :) Yay! It's been such a wonderful year spent sharing and getting to know so many people around the world. I look forward to what this new year will bring!

{color}

{color} mosaic of flickr favorites.
go here for more!

I'm on vacation until Sunday! Have a Happy Thanksgiving! :) I will miss you! {hugs}

{exploration of identity} SPT

I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a busy day getting ready for our Thanksgiving trip to Lake Tahoe so I'm posting this a day early. This month's Self Portrait Tuesday theme is "Exploration of Identity". I literally stood in front of the mirror making faces and cracking myself up for the "looks of Joleen". Cracking up at myself with no one else in the room only made me laugh even more. How often do we act completely silly when we're all alone?

More self portraits found here and here.

{Thanksgiving} Part One

My sister, Aimee, and her husband, Vince, won't be joining us in Lake Tahoe for Thanksgiving. This Saturday my parents served a Thankgiving dinner at their home so we could all be together. It was yummy! :) The left photo on the second to last row is my Mom saying, "I know you're not going to take a photo of me". Hehe! :) She also surprised us with warm hats and scarves for the trip (and otherwise)! My charge was with us (I'm a nanny) and she got a wee hat, too. It was great to be together. I'm sorry I didn't take more photos and I just noticed there aren't really any of the people. Oops!

{children}

Another source of inspiration for me is: CHILDREN
For me they symbolize life and hope & bring color and happiness to the world.

If I haven't heard from you yet, what's one of your sources of inspiration?

{love, joleen} Holiday Update

♥ We've been working night and day to bring you new items for this Holiday Season! We have gift items for everyone, including you! In the spirit of gift giving we're offering:

♥ Updates all week in the various shop sections! Now available: New Original Artwork & Accessories.

{color}

One of my biggest sources of inspiration is: COLOR
What's yours?

♥ Don't forget to go bid!

beauty

The directions were wrong but look at what i was able to see! :)

{love}

9" x 12" mixed media collage. It has been beautifully matted and framed in a black wooden frame. Overall Dimensions: 14" x 18". Go here to bid or search for Ebay Item number: 7366738716. Thank you!!

♥ Happy Birthday, Heather!! (go wish her well!)

i ♥ crayons

i got this idea from martha! i am making these as part of christmas gifts for my favorite wee ones. ;)

{santa's workshop}

My house is really beginning to look like a Holiday Factory. But, really, that's okay with me!

Alex is helping me with the holiday shop update (which is looking like it's going to be Thursday). Last night he primed all the chipboard shapes and tonight he's going to paint them with chalkboard paint. We're selling tags with chalk that you can use to write on them with. :) He told me no pics of him...hehehe.. yeah right. ;) Look at his pinky in the bottom pic! That just tickled me. :)

♥ Happy Birthday, Katey!
♥ Look what I just bought! :) Congratulations, Kelly!!

fa la la

Yesterday was Holiday Card Making Day at my Mom's house. The usual suspects gathered to make cards, eat yummy food, and listen to festive music. I was thankful to have my cards planned out because it made making them so much easier for me. Towards the end I even had some help in the production department! :) (Thank you!) I managed to make all 50 cards, yay me! Another thing to check off the list.

I bought that beautiful reindeer basket to display my ornaments in and everyone seemed to love them. The ornaments were really a beautiful idea, so thank you Teresa! Of course you're welcome to buy the supplies and make them yourself but I will also have them in my shop (lovejoleen.com) this week! I have about 25-30 items and plan on having a major holiday update.

There aren't many, but for more photos from yesterday go here! Thanks again, Mom, for another wonderfully fun 'event'!

'tis the season

I know, I know, what's with all the Christmas ho hum already? Well if you're a crafter then you know- It takes time to get things ready!! Heather and I have already discussed making advent calendars to sell next year starting in like February. Ha! So, that'll be fun. As you can see by the photograph above, Teresa has inspired many new holiday projects. I've made a bunch of these in various styles that I hope to sell tomorrow (to my family- haha!) at my Mom's house. We're gathering to work on our Christmas cards. I've actually already designed mine so I just have to gather everything to take over tonight. For a sneak peak of my Christmas card go here.

In other news:
♥ The {take flight} skinny fat books are now collated, counted, and bagged. Now if I could just find a binder they'll be bound. MAJOR drama at Kinko's yesterday. :(
♥ The fat book for Bernie, sold for $1, 136.11!! Woohoo! :)

{magnetic advent calendar}

Here is my finished project I was talking about before. We saw the idea to make a magnetic advent calenders here. We got these smaller cookie sheets at the dollar store and painted it with acrylic after spraying a fixative. The magnets are made of various bits 'n ends from our collections. I stamped "December" with my new (awesome!) Making Memories' "Philadelphia" set from HannahGrey. Our calendars turned out so differently with unique style but they're all awesome (in my opinion). This was time consuming but really fun!

Okay, I'm really happy to say that the two {take flight} sets are no longer MIA. So now, I have about 1370 (not a typo) pages to collate so I can take in to be bound. Yay! :)

holy cow

You would not believe how busy I am. Okay, maybe you would. But still. I think my to-do list is like the longest ever. Alex and I are constantly wishing for the magic drug that allows you to survive on no sleep because there are just not enough awake hours in a day. I know some of you have emailed me a couple of times and are wondering if I've recieved them. Let me just say that I most likely have. I have so many unanswered emails waiting and I'm sorry. There are a couple of you who I've promised blog banners to but I just don't have time right now. I promise as soon as I do, I'll be on it. Since I've been back from Heather's house I've done 0 creating. Zero. That tells you something, doesn't it? I'm not feeling overwhelmed though (thank God) because I've been really good about not taking on too much lately. Yay, me! There are a few things I've been meaning to post about so here's the quick run down:

♥ I got THE most awesome back tack ii gift from Laurie and she TOTALLY spoiled me rotten! The gift (which you can view here because she took awesome photographs) could not have been more perfect for me. She used vintage fabric in my favorite colors and the kit is a felting kit which I've been wanting to learn to do forever! Thank you so much, Laurie!

♥ There is a great new "carved stamp swap" here so go read all about it!
♥ The charity chunky book for "A Place to Bark", which I posted about here was pulled by [dumb] ebay because of their new charity rules. SO, the book has been relisted here and has about a day left. It was listed at the last bid on the previous auction and is going for $500. It's for a great cause so if ou have the money, please go bid! I saw the book last weekend and it's beautiful!! :)
♥ If you're in my {take flight} skinny fat book please check the list to see if I've recieved your pages and fee. There are two sets that seem to be lost in transit (which I'm really upset and sad about) so hopefully they come today. I hope to bind the books this weekend and ship them next week. I will keep you posted.
♥ In today's post - ATCs 'n stuff to Stacie, Kelly, and Friederike.

{visiting heather pt. two}

Here are more photos from my trip to Heather's this past weekend. (Finally, I know!) The above photographs are of our arting when Shoshanah came over. Of course there is none of me! Haha! The last photograph is my finished second layout in Kara's journal that I started a couple of week's ago. And actually, this isn't even the project we worked on. I'm keeping that on the "down low" until I actually finish it. ;) The photographs below are of Heather and myself, two of her four pets, "her" tree, a totally awesome shabby chic shop called Annie's Cottage (in which I bought a cute little side table/ cupboard for my bedroom, etc.), and the cotton fields on my drive through Central California. I have one more set of photographs that I'll share another time of Heather's sweet wee one, Hannah. :)

{forty-eight hours}

I got to spend a fun 48 hours at Heather's house! (Thank you, Heather, for having me!!) In that time I think we got a combined 8.5 hours of sleep. Haha! It was totally like a slumber party with our art fun, laughing, chatting until all hours (after 3:30 am both nights). :) We had grand plans of ATC making like mad women but alas, it was not to be. We did, however work in our collaborative journals and I finally got mine properly ready to be passed on. Don't you just love those photos of her house?! So inspiring & colorful! :) On Saturday morning we met up with Heather's mom and step dad to pass Hannah off for the day. ;) We went to the beautiful Mission San Juan Bautista and I took photos until I ran out of disk space. Later in the day, Shoshanah came over and we arted it up all night. I'll share those photos and our projects later!

vroom vroom

No time for a proper post- on my way to visit Heather for the weekend!

Have a great weekend!

{subter}

We, at Subter, are having a call for art submissions! You're welcome to contribute with any type of art related to the theme. Examples include, but are not limited to, paintings, poems, mixed media artwork, photographs, etc. This will be our first call to submissions! The theme for December's issue is "Traditions".

Please send high quality scans of related art to ArtDirector@subter.com by November 20th. We look forward to seeing your work!

Be sure to check out the November issue of Subter, by clicking here. We have so many exciting new things happening in the "art department"! You can read about some of them in Katie's letter from the Art Director. Our feature artist of the month is mixed media collage artist, Enid (Yvette Michele) and she has some great work to share! You can also go read her blog. I was very excited to interview my good (and often linked ;) ) friend, Heather about her fabulous online store, HannahGrey. Go HERE to read it!

If you're interested in being a feature, writing a technique article, or submitting artwork in the future, please do not hesitate to let me know! We're interested in a wide variety of work and would love to showcase you!

"A Place to Bark"

For auction is this fabulous one of a kind art book featuring more than 30 ORIGINAL pages of art by a variety of artists. This book was featured in the Winter issue of Cloth.Paper.Scissors. All proceeds from this book will be donated to "A Place to Bark" which is mixed media artist, Bernie Berlin's animal rescue.

Posted here are just a small sampling of the gorgeous pages in this book. Each is an original, unique piece of art by a handful of artists including Claudine Hellmuth, Sarah Fishburn, Maija Lepore, Debbie Metti, Barbe St. John, Shoshanah Jennings, Heather Simpson-Bluhm and more...

Ebay Item #: 7362818211
or click here to bid!

I didn't actually contribute to this book (I suck! ;) ) but will definitely be bidding! It's for a great cause so I wanted to tell you all about it! :)

spt {halloween}

me & my charge
aka "blue" from blue's clues
More self portraits found here and here.