When your mojo goes on vacation- shoot photos!!!

The wall- I've hit it.
All my former "no mojo" fixes are out the window.
I'm supposed to be working on a page for Punky Scraps that is due by thursday- so I will TRY to eek something out tonight- it might be hideous.
I'm determined to work through this dry spell!!
Here is an attempt to stamp my way out:

Foiled AGAIN by the ipod's low resolution camera! 

THANK YOU to Adele H. for recommending I check out Nat Kalbach's Creative Jump Start. I joined up today and was rewarded with a GREAT video from fave artist Louise Nelson (YAAYYY!)
If you guys are also hitting a wall, I suggest you swing by and check it out- it's free. (best price ever!)
Today I took photos at a place I have ALWAYS wanted to visit-

Keith Haring's "Crack Is Whack" mural in East Harlem. This is a DREAM COME TRUE! I've been wanting to go for YEARS. It's right next to the FDR so it's hard to get there via public transport but we managed it.

The 80's in the Bronx were like the wild west- with zombies. Burned out apartment buildings, crack vials littering the playground, junkies with half closed eyes walking in circles on the sidewalk. Our neighborhood is actually one of the better ones in the area and my parents did their very best to shield my siblings and I but we still saw a lot. So this mural has a lot of meaning for me. And it's freaking AWESOME.  Can't you just HEAR "White Lines" by Grandmaster Flash playing softly in the distance?

I have to keep reminding myself that there are many ways to stay creative. There's no need to panic. Creativity ebbs and flows- the ebb part sucks.
I also finished my December Daily! YAY!!!

12/24/11 My brother treated us all to the Christmas Ever performance of
The Nutcracker Suite at Lincoln Center- AWESOME!

BY this point the pages had stopped matching- I just grabbed the prints I liked best.

My FAVORITE image from this year's holiday take. I didn't have space inside
so I added it to the back cover.

There's 4 more pages but these are the best bits. Years from now I will look through it and laugh at the first pages being so beautifully detailed and the last so obviously slapped on quickly. I did make sure to take time to journal. I really enjoyed the process of making a holiday mini book. I see many more in my future- if for nothing else- to have a reason to buy KEUUTE holiday themed stash.

MuChOs SmOoChEs!
Michelle

ACK! It's DECEMBER! A True Xoxo page

It's that wonderful time of the year! CHRISTMAS!!! The radio plays annoyingly cheerful muzak all day. The streets and subways are packed. The stores full of clueless temps who would rather you fall headfirst down the nearest escalator than help you. Your mailman is away on vacation so your packages get "lost".
Oh how I LOVE Christmas in the city!

Here is the December prompt for True Xoxo Girls:

It's me and I am.
Materials: Me and My Big Ideas paper, Ormolu tags, spots and pin, Sassafras Lass journaling tag and piano border strip, October Afternoon Brown Bag and Buttermilk mists, Technique Tuesday stamp.

First of all I must apologize for being away. I am a woman sans mojo. No motivation, no ideas, no NEED to communicate. Everything I touch falls apart. See?

The mojo has taken an extended vacation. Just so you see- I'm trying. 

I've been watching movies and sulking all week. I saw the new Conan movie- whoa that actor is HOT! I also saw Benicio (my main MAN!) in "The Wolfman"  which was awesome. And I got to introduce Miss Lola to Batteries Not Included (she LOVED IT) and Annie (meh- for now). Somehow I haven't been able to put a single thing together so instead of freaking out I will write about it.

Things I did to bring on the mojo:

Read blogs- only made things worst as I now have idea overload

Shop for more scraps- suicidal- I know.

Read catalogs- refer to the above plus the awful feeling that I will always be too poor to have space for  a cushy sofa and a window with actual light- ironic! Maybe less SHOPPING???????

This- life risking exercise billed as an innocent hike. Trail name? 

Breakneck Ridge- shoulda KNOWN!

• Talk to David about what a looser I am. Dave has zero pity party license. I was told to shut up and MAKE SOMETHING already.
• Put up the Christmas tree. Lola tried her BEST to bring it back down again.
• Cut up 4 x 6 papers for my inevitably disastrous "December Daily" project. My "theme" is Christmas in NYC- all the main attractions will get hit. Feel sorry for me- it's 1 a day with a 2 year old and 65,000 other humans for 31 days. I will start today with a photo of Rockerfeller Center- I feel the crush of the crazed crowds already.

Here's a quick close up up of the page:

I ordered some Ormolu items as a lark and now they are my favorite brand
(after Sassy- I'm a sucker for unrequited love)

The December True Xoxo challenge is based on this quote which I DEEPLY disagree with.

Women do entirely too much apologizing for keeping it real. As a result, we tend to resort to behind the back talking which I despise. I will tell you up front what annoys me about you- repeatedly. I will often disagree with you- in public- loudly. But it doesn't mean I disrespect or intend to hurt you- people need and deserve space to be themselves. I also feel truth is more important than politeness. To quote Jerry Maguire- "YOU think we are arguing. I think we are FINALLY communicating!"

GRATUITOUS cute baby shot!!!
11/25/11 Grateful for  a Friday full of family and laughter- not commerce and stress.

Not for nothing but opposable thumbs are one of the features that make us human. 

MuChOs SmOoChEs!
Michelle

Scrapper Block!

Untitled Coney Island Page 2/14/2011
MATERIALS: Core'Dinations paper- mustard, London Tierney buttons- Etsy, punchinella, seahorse and twine from  Gauche Alchemy on artfire.com, Claudine Hellmuth Studio Classic Teal acrylic paint, My Mind's Eye scallop ribbon

We've all been through it once- the awful feeling- you want to scrap or you have an assignment due for a team or manufacturer but you have ZERO ideas- zero motivation- zero MOJO. OOOOOHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Detail 1- pop dot fish. Can't figure out why
photos are so out of focus- LOOK MA- no facial details!

Glued twine- hard to do but FUN

I'm battling a nasty case of Mojo No Go right now. I never get writer's block as there's always something to complain about or ruminate- just look at the world news report! But this time I'm having problems with everything from design, to titles, to putting some danged products together. I'm blaming the crapola weather and my scrap space "organization".

What do YOU do when you want to scrap but you hate everything before you?

The kitchen table- cleanest it's been in MONTHS!

Here's what I did in exact order:

• Complain to husband who volunteered I should probably clean the kitchen (AKA scrap) table
• Eat sushi- take out revenge for being told to clean
• Write to scrap bestie and complain (but she's going through the SAME THING!)
• Surf the scrap blogs for ideas
• First FREAK OUT- general freakyness
• Buy more paper and Hambly Studio trannies
• Sit down and MAKE MYSELF put a page together (result: lots of cut up paper)
• Visit favorite artist blogs and wallow in envy and self pity
• Second FREAK OUT! Why can't I whip something together like all these other fabulous women?
• Eat ice cream
• Organize supplies:

Everything in it's own place- now where did I leave my BRAIN????

• Third FREAK OUT- organizing actually made the situation worst. Now I have to remember where I put everything!
• Visit my gallery and reminisce about when I used to have ideas.
• Go to local art journal exhibit and check out some FUNKY journal projects
• Watch TV 
• Sit down and force myself to add whatever onto a page- actual page results.

Total time spent: 72 hours

Notice I never said take care of Miss Thing- that happens the entire time naturally.

I CAN HELP! I CAN HELP!

MuChOs SmOoChEs!

M.

Holiday Mojo is a NO GO!

I have some holiday ideas brewing but nothing that makes me want to sit down and stitch away or fussy cut for hours. Instead I'm longing for summer. So I offer THIS up:

MoMA- Our First Visit. Pencil Lines sketch 214 by Laura Vegas

I really love the MoMA. Dave and I visited with Gia (my best friend from college) in september and somehow I didn't get any good photos!!! I was distracted by the crowds and by Lola who kept escaping from my grasp to touch everything.

I stared at the shadows made by the gorgeous skylights in the new atrium and took a million shots of those. I also remember staring at Henri Matisse's "The Piano Lesson" for so long Dave had to come get me.

For my second attempt at a MoMA theme page, I used stitching as a way to add texture and dimension. I managed to get the lines relatively straight this time. The Pencil Lines sketch is really clean and modern so I wanted to punch it up a bit by making is a vertical 8 by 11.

I used Bazzill swiss dotted paper (which is really more teal blue than this scan), Webster's Pages 6 by 6 paper and packaging from a K & Co handmade embellishment I love so much I try to put it in every piece- LOVE that beige grid!!!! I also used 2 of my favorite EK Success punches double embossed dotted lace and the new large edger punch- circles.

But this is a second attempt. Where is the first? You ask- or maybe not- you are distracted by the pure hideousness of the page below.
Here it is. A definite FAIL.

MoMA- A First Visit. FAIL layout.

Here I tried to use the layout from Matisse's "The Piano Lesson" but the kraft paper is throwing the comparison off- as is the felt swirl ribbon. What I like about this layout is that it talks about how I screamed and screamed again for Yoko Ono's "Voice Piece For a Soprano" which gives any transgressive personality (moi) permission to do so. Dave was decidedly NOT into it. Lola tried to eat the mike. A museum guard stood by all friendly like by the 4th scream- I think I was freaking everyone the hell out. Blame it on Yoko- it's her project- I'm just trying to help a fellow art chick out.

Maybe I'll feel more Christmas ornament friendly tomorrow????

MuChOs SmOoChEs!!!
M