lisamitchell

Tag!

Cheerio! So, you might have noticed that I have a siamese twin for this blog, in Spanish. The two blogs are not "identical twins", but rather have been created each for a distinct purpose, depending on "what's going on where". But I do, just the same, want to keep things somewhat parallel. Hence, this post. :)
Last night, I gave a presentation at a local association in the city where I live. It wasn't a scrapbooking or paper crafts association, per se, but rather a group of people interested in working with and promoting personal development, alternative therapies, and other nice things like that. They asked me to come and give a talk on what I do, in order to help promote it (paper crafts, scrapbooking, collage, altered art...all that groovy stuff) here locally, as there is not much of a paper crafts tradition in Spain and people generally have never heard of the aformentioned. So, given that it was a crafts talk, it didn't make much sense to me to just stand there and talk about it (don't you agree?) but rather, that in keeping with that Ancient Chinese proverb:
I hear...I forget
I see...and I remember
I do...and I understand
I thought it would be more enjoyable for everyone to stick a toe in the pool, so to speak--just to get a feel for what it's about--and make somethin'....'Cuz as we all know, that's mostly what it's all about. Along with having a good time, hanging out with other like-minded individuals, maybe even eating chocolate in some shape or form (that would be the complete package).

So we made a tag together. A Christmas themed tag (for a change)...and given the intrinsically cool essence of tag creation being: that you can do just about anything to a tag...I was able to show them quite a few little tricks just so they could see how much fun it is to play with "paper and ink and stamps and paint and images and make stuff"!!

The talk went well, and I think the greatest interest was shown when I began to talk about and show examples of art journalling and what that's all about. That was right up their alley, and I would even go as far as to say that there's a good chance we will start up an art journalling group fairly soon. I will keep you up to date on that one!
So, back to the tag: it's quite similar to the tryptic tag project I did last month as a workshop at the annual craft fair in Barcelona. Here's a pic:

Blog biceps

Howdy, Sportsfans! How's everyone doing tonight. I hope everything is going well in your orbit. I have been getting a bit of a blogging workout this evening, as I have added some posts into my Spanish version of my blog. Yes, you heard correctly! This blog also comes available in Español. You can check it out by just clicking on the link over on the right of this post where is says "my blog in Spanish". If you happen to speak Spanish, you could let me know what you think. If you don't, well, maybe you could learn some Spanish by reading the posts on my Spanish blog! Hey! You never know!

Other than that, I've been working on some projects for up-coming workshops the last few days (mostly Christmas related thingies) and just generally getting geared-up for the weekend. I'm looking forward to having some family time and hanging out a bit, as we have both been very busy the last week or so and haven't done much by the way of "quality family time"...So I hope this weekend will involve some of that. We were also talking about going in search of some snow (rare stuff that it is around our parts) this weekend. Most of the upper altitudes of Spain do have snow right now, so it won't be too hard for us to get to some. In about 2 hours we can be up in the mountains, giving each other a facewash. Not Annie of course. She'd be into the snow angel action.

If I don't talk to you later, have a great weekend, snow or no snow. Hope you get out and have some fun! :)

Welcome!!

WELCOME to MY BLOG!! If this is the first you have seen of my blog, then I'd like to first of all say, welcome! :)

It's been quite some time since my last post, and more importantly, quite some time that I have been trying to get this little "virtual piece of my orbit in life" revved up and running. There's been a bit of learning curve, as well as the general ebb and tide of life as it happens...
But as one could expect, I've been anxious to get things going here, get everything uploaded...and all nice and pretty to share with you. Whoever you may be--family, friends, virtual friends or just Lookie-Lus. You are all welcome.
Please make yourself at home, take a look around, and say hi if you feel like it.
I hope you'll drop by often, or at least be back soon. (Heh heh, typing that just reminded me of a song from the musical Oliver. Anyone know it? "Cheerio, but be back soon. I dunno, somehow I'll miss you...!")
So this blog is quite fresh out of the oven, and I'm still learning just how to cook this little sucker so there are a few more things yet to upload and add, but I'm getting there.
I do want to thank my wonderful galpal, gloria froese for her infinite patience and expertise (the adjective goes for both descriptors) in helping me start up and pilot this vessel. It is my hope that this blog will someday be as kick-ass as hers. I also want to thank her for the amazing work she did in creating the banner that adorns this blog. Her talent and creativity astound me and she is a constant source of inspiration, perhaps my greatest. Especially when I am percolating a project, or struggling to get into my zone. Seeing her work is an instant "creative can '0 whoop-ass" for me, and I am grateful to consider her as a true friend.
thanks for everything, g :)

So! What's up? What's been going on? Been keepin' busy. Whoop whoop whoop! to coin one of my Dad's expressions :) I've been steadily busy with creating projects for the scheduled workshops I offer in Barcelona, at a LSS called Scrap House, since the beginning of the year, as well as weekly classes and workshops locally, in the city where I live. I have had lots of fun and met lots of great people. And little by little, scrapbooking is becoming more well-known in Spain; the community of scrapbookers is continually growing, and the general public starting to hear of "that hobby where you make stuff with your photos and paper and all that". So that's good for all concerned.

Took a quick roadtrip plane trip up to Holland back in February (I know, that's a long time ago, but hey, I gotta get caught up here!) with Roser, from Scrap House to one of the European distributor's warehouse facilites for their "Demo Days". I had the chance to meet Tim Holtz who was demo-ing for Ranger Ink, as well as had some time to yack with Corrine Delis, who was also demo-ing there. And bought an obscene amount of stuff...and had some fun being a tourist in Amsterdam for a day.

Then back in March, I was contacted to participate in a locally produced docu-reality style tv program, called Karakia, that focuses on people from other countries who have settled here in the region of Catalonia, Spain (where I live, in case you didn't know that ;)) and in particular, their gastronomy, as an in-route to talking about their homeland...They were missing Canadians, and since I happen to really enjoy the program, I had no problem with agreeing to do it. The cool part--in addition to getting to cook and talk about where I am from on tv--was that they were interested in what I do for a living (in other words, Scrapbooking) and even went so far as to come film one of my workshops. Of course it wasn't just any workshop! I prepared one especially for the occasion, where we created a recipe book titled, "Everything's Better with Chocolate", that featured typical Canadian recipes with chocolate (Nanamo Bars, Chocolate Zuccini Cake, that sort of thing..).

The program didn't air until mid-October, so it was quite a wait before we were actually able to see the final edited version, however we were very pleasantly surprised with what they did with the many hours of video they filmed. It was a great show, and lots of fun for us as a family. What I was most pleased about was that I was able to prepare the dishes with my daughter, Annie, as my helper. She was great about not looking at the camera and not getting silly.

Here are a few camera stills from my cooking segment:

Lisa, this next photo totally reminds me of those 1950's adds for "saturday night"...or whatever the heck they were. DO YOU know what I'm talking about? I played with it in PS. It wasn't in your post originally but I put it here anyway. ;0)

And of course the promotion that scrapbooking, my work and the LSS in Barcelona got through the eventual public airing of the tv program on the Catalan national tv channel, TV3, was pretty sweet too.

If you would like to view the online version of the program, click here but be sure to forward to the 21:26 minute mark if you don't want to watch the entire program!! And my apologies that it's only in Catalan language!! Those of you that speak French or Spanish might be able to dicipher a thing or two! :)

(Ohhh, bummer: my arm's starting to bother me (I have been suffering from a compressed ulnar nerve--in other words, funny bone nerve--since the summer and am now managing it alright. However, if I spend too much time keyboarding, my arm starts to tingle and eventually lose the feeling in my pinkie finger, which is, um, not a good thing, I think you will agree). So, I think I'll post this one and carry on a little later.)

Ciao for now! Thanks for reading me! :)

Hi Lisa.

I fully expect now, that you are going to start posting regularly and get your art posted for the world to see. I know your heart's passion is to be able to lead a creative,artful life.

You just have to tell the world you're here and show them your stuff!

Once they see how talented you are,
I fully
expect
and
believe,
many,
many  doors will open
for you to leap right on through.

Lots of luck,
love
and big hugs in your new adventure!

xoxo g

This is the photo i used for your banner by the way...

I'm gone now before I overstay my welcome. ;0)

Lifelong learning...

I've always said I am a firm believer in life-long learning. But this learning how to create a blog is taxing on this life-long learner's patience. Added to the fact that it's 2:25am and I have been battling against wi-fi interferance for the last hour or so (which translates into internet connection cutting in and out, thus causing my pages to error in reloading, losing data, etc.).
Fun, fun, fun on a Tuesday night.
Welcome to my world.
I'm off to bed now, to add to my life-long snoring sleeping.