Dreamland

Inspiration.

Thank you for all the emails lately -- lots of questions about handwriting and so many pats on the back.  That is definitely what keeps my motor running!

Kathleen asked about specific practice tips.  I'm working on it.  I know there is interest out there and as soon as I can give more thought to it, I will.  (My goal is to share some general tips here on my blog, and work on more specific techniques via an online class.  It's just that the online class is always "in the future.")

In the meantime, I am a big fan of inspiration.  Seeing the beautiful work of other artists always motivates me.  Here are some sources I recommend:

Scrapbooking Life's Little Moments by Rebecca Sower

Life Artist by Ali Edwards

I don't keep scrapbook idea books for long; these two have permanent spots on my shelf.

In and Out of the Garden by Sara Midda

The Calligraphy Source Book compiled by Miriam Stribley

Summer by Susan Branch

I also do a lot of collecting of tidbits from magazines, and keep everything in my idea file.  And I keep a bin of my own old identity work (see above) -- occasionally, I even inspire myself!
 

This one's for Nancy Drew.

There's this part in the Nancy Drew movie where Nancy coerces a clerk with one of her housekeeper's blondies.  (I'm the sort of girl who remembers great-looking food in movies.)  Here's the blondie recipe I've been using for the last 15 years:

White Chocolate Chunk Blondies

3 T. prepared coffee

2 c. brown sugar

3/4 c. butter

2 eggs

2 c. flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

6 oz. white chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter a 9x13 pan.

Heat coffee, sugar and butter over medium heat; stir until melted.  Cool to room temperature.

Add eggs; whisk to combine.  Add flour, baking powder and salt; stir to blend.

Sprinkle chopped white chocolate evenly over bottom of pan.  Pour batter over chocolate.  Bake about 35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out almost clean.

Notes:  You can make an 8x8 square pan by using 2/3 of a recipe and decreasing the cooking time slightly.  Buy the best white chocolate you can; some of it is too sweet.  (You could also use brown chocolate...we don't because we have a non-brown-chocolate-eating family member.)  I make the small amount of coffee by boiling 3 T. of water, tossing in a small spoonful of grounds, letting it steep a few minutes, and then strain into the pan.
 

Spacing Tricks.

Diane asked me to share a little bit about spacing.  And when I started to think about it, I wondered:  is a good sense of spacing something I learned or something I was born with?  Some people just know what colors go together...and some are just naturally good at skiing...is this one of those things?

But then I also remembered that I love teaching, and I love sharing what I've already figured out.  There must be a way to help you cultivate a sense of spacing!

To start, I think it's more a matter of seeing than doing.  If you want to improve how you space your handwriting, you're one step in the right direction; you must have already seen writing that is pleasingly spaced.  Your next step is to gather some examples to study:  greeting cards, scrapbook pages, even typewritten projects can help you train your eye to see great spacing.

When you're ready to start practicing, try a list.  First think about the spacing between lines.  I am a big fan of not measuring, but until you get the hang of it, you can measure the lines so that your list is spaced well from top-to-bottom.  You can measure lightly with pencil and erase it, or use a light table with a measured grid underneath.

Then think about the spacing between individual words.  This is where the examples you've gathered will come in handy.  And, of course, my favorite tip:  keep practicing.

Sometimes breaking apart what you want to say into little compartments is helpful.  It allows you to work with a very small canvas, and if you make a mistake, you haven't ruined your whole project.

 
Scraplifting is also a great way to get experience with spacing.  I made this layout about 3 years ago, based on one I saw with a left-justified quote, and by writing only one word per line, the spacing was easy.

I'm now pondering on spacing of individual letters within words.  When I have a plan, I'll let you know!

Giveaway winner.

Congratulations Margaret, winner of the crayon roll from Two Little Tots:

A little yellow chick, a real one, that my father gave me one year on easter. It was the first thing I ever really felt responsible for, and it did make me feel very important, besides happy! ! 

Please contact me for details:  gina {at} sekelsky {dot} com. 

The kids are home the next two days for our fall break, but I'll be back next week with more handwriting tips and a favorite recipe.  Enjoy!
 

Four Rules of Stuff + a giveaway.

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you know I've been working on going through my stuff.  Just need a little order in my life, I guess.  On Saturday morning I devised Gina's Four Rules of Stuff:

1. Use your stuff.  Make what you have work.  Repeat after me:  Necessity is the mother of invention.

2. If you won't use it, give it to someone who will.

3. Don't buy more stuff until you've tamed what you have.  (This one seems to be the hardest for me and I am repeating it like a mantra.  Especially difficult at the Treadle Yard Goods sale this weekend. I was only there to get more thread to finish a current project, I swear.)

4. When you need/want something, you don't have to add it to your own ever-growing list of stuff to make.  You can actually buy it from someone else.  Can you believe this is a relatively new idea for me?  I'm very proud of figuring this out.  Which leads me to the giveaway:

Melissa from Two Little Tots has graciously offered to give a crayon roll to one lucky reader of my blog.   In keeping with rule number four, Melissa is making four hooded towels for me -- two for my own kids (who have loved theirs since birth, basically) and two for long-overdue baby gifts.  See, I don't have to make them myself!

Enter before Wednesday night, and I will post the winner on Thursday.  Answer this question in your comment:  Do you remember having any special little thing of your own when you were a wee one?  I remember the plaid taffeta skirt my mother made me for my birthday.  It had a ruffle on the bottom, very fancy.  I love knowing that when I was four, that's what made me really happy.

Home sweet home.

A few weeks ago in the comments, Michelle suggested I share a little bit about my working environment.  Great idea...until I looked around at the disaster that is my studio these days.  It all began with a serious need to purge, a realization that I am feeling encumbered by so much stuff.  And it's more than a bit like a game of dominoes:  I've been wanting to move my studio to the light-filled spare bedroom upstairs, but in order to do that, I need to get rid of the extra stuff down here and up there.  Which means making room in the attic.  Which means organizing what's in the attic already.  Which means a garage sale in my future.  You get the idea.

I can't seem to begin any project without providing a little inspiration to see me through.  I do so love the big picture. 

This is simply an old bulletin board on which I posted inspiring magazine clippings I've saved through the years (so much more useful here than in the folder where they were).  I added a few key ideas to focus on, and over the whole thing wrote the William Morris quote that is my guiding principle:

Do not have anything in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.

My heart is full.

 

My heart is full of joyful memories of my stepfather, who passed away early last week.  Not an easy month before that.  A very, very good man.  This follows hard on the heels of losing my father over the summer.  Complicated grief.  Can you see me sitting here for long moments, staring at the screen, fingers and keyboard silent?