Prepping for Africa and the Tale of the Errant Passport

cover of my Africa travel journal

 I am leaving on another adventure to Africa on Saturday.  I can finally say, with some degree of confidence, that my passport will arrive tomorrow as I have a tracking number---finally!!!  I had sent my passport off to Washington, D.C. to get some needed visas and it has taken ages.....and caused me much stress and worry.  Now I have a firm confirmation that the passport is in transit, due for delivery tomorrow.  Need I say that this is cutting it a tad close???  Did you know you really can sweat bullets?

I made the travel journal by using techniques I learned from several of Mary Ann Moss' online journal classes.  If you have never checked out Mary Ann's classes, you should.  She is away on her own adventure right now (Amsterdam), but her classes are on sale on her blogsite.  That's right!  Hurry over there, but then come back here.

Please?  Pretty please?

I used a lot of vintage Africa themed ephemera in making up the journal pages

 Nonie is going with me, and she, too, as been anxiously awaiting the return of her errant passport.  Tomorrow will be a big sigh of relief day for both of us.  And don't even go there with that awful comment that is struggling to get out of your throat.  I don't want to hear it!!!  Shame!  WHY would you taunt me that way....fie on thee!  

Our passports will come tomorrow.  The will, I say, they WILL.  (They better....)

lion photo from my trip to Kenya and Tanzania in 2012

 This time we will be going to South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana.  There will be lots of animals and birds.  No telling what we will see!

I am so ready for this trip!  New camera.  New long lens.  I'm packed.  I'm ready.

(My passport WILL be here.  It WILL.)

elephant photo from Tanzania, 2012

I am hoping to get lots more photos of birds as I have a project in mind the would incorporate my photos of birds from Africa well.  Keep your fingers crossed for me, please.

die cuts from Tim Holtz, photos from my personal photos from 2012....tricky glueing them in!

 We are going with my alumni association on a small group tour.  One of the tour members is a very lovely lady who hoste,d for the alumni association, the trip I took to China.  I am very much looking forward to sharing another adventure with Rhoda.

corner pocket holds ephemera I plan to incorporate into my journaling

 I won't be able to blog from the places I'll be staying.  I will be back towards the end of October and I will be posting about my trip upon my return.

African designed paper napkin incorporated into the pages of the journal

 Do come by and see how this journal is written in and filled up with goodies from my travels.  I hope to have some new, good animal and bird photos to share, and maybe some stories worth sharing with you.

photo from my 2012 trip

Bye for now!

More Patterns

Since I have started painting my own patterns for the SEWN online class I am currently taking, I am finding I spot patterns everywhere.  During the 4th of July parade in my little town, I spied stripes and fields of stars (naturally), but there were other patterns, too.

The tartan plaid of the Bagpipe and Drum corp that marched in the parade leaped out at me.  By the way, why is it that for any American parade worth it's salt, a bagpipe and drum band is a requirement? Our local 4th of July parade just wouldn't be the same with out this band.

And then, too, you begin to notice patterns that aren't just visual.  There are the patterns, the components, that make up high summer in Edmonds (or any season, for that matter), and the Saturday Market is certainly one of the main summer seasonal components to me.

I went up to my cabin early on the 5th to do some heavy cleaning and maintenance.  I noticed the patterns of sunlight on the daisy meadow and the pattern of light and shade the big vane maple leaves make in the early morning with the sun streaming through them.

 And here are some of the patterns I have been painting for Mary Ann's class.  I have had such a good time just sitting and randomly painting any old idea that comes into my mind.  I find I get more fun from of the complicated ones when I'm actually painting, but visually I rather like the more simple patterns.  Funny.

This mess below is the as yet unfinished feather pattern.  I have no idea where it's going, how it will turn out, and if I even like it.  It is, however, great fun to paint!  And that's really all I care about, the fun part.  I'll figure out the rest as I go along---as long as it's fun!

Six Days 'Til SEWN

Six more days until the start of Mary Ann Moss' newest online class, SEWN.  It's going to incorporate patterned paper, sewing, flights of whimsy, imagination and perhaps a bit of pixie dust, just like all of MA's classes.

I haven't had much time to paint many of my own designed papers, but I've done a few, sampled here for your perusal.  The ones I have done, I like (mostly).  I have NO IDEA where all the shenanigans of this class will lead, but having taken Mary Ann's other classes, I know it's going to be fun, fabulous and extremely creative ride.

I have rummaged through my paper stash, found my washi tapes and my paper-only sewing machine (with LOTS of needle threaders, as I can barely thread that darn machine on the best of days!), assembled glue and scissors and my paper cutter and now, NOW I'm reduced to doing a blog post about how excited I am.  And counting the days....

tick tick tick.....

Handmade Journal for My Africa Trip

I wanted to make my own journal for my trip to Southern Africa in the fall.  Frankly the idea was daunting but having taken Mary Ann Moss' online class, Travel to Venice, I felt that it might just be possible I could turn out a journal that would make me happy.

I found fabric for the cover that delights me!  It has guinea hens and geometric designs and is in the colors of Africa.  It is just what I wanted for the cover of my new travel journal.

I decided that this time the journal needed to be big.  On my last safari trip I had a terrible time deciding which photos to use for my daily pages.  There was so much to see and I had been lucky enough to take lots of good photos, but because of the small size of the journal I worked in, many photos had to be excluded.  Not this time!  I have (probably) way too  many pages.  Better too many than not enough, right?

I used five signatures of six pages each.  The paper is a mixed lot----some vintage, some pages composed of vintage ephemera,  some heavy book weight text and one sheet in each signature is 140 pound cold press watercolor paper, my favorite.  I used what I call signature "wraps" for lack of a better work on each of the signatures.  It's the stripy paper you can see in the above photo.

Here is the book completed with the spine sewn in the Double Diamond stitch that Mary Ann taught in her Travel to Venice online class.  It nearly drove me bonkers working with five signatures at the start, but by the second set of diamonds it all came together and was much easier.

some of the vintage ephemera I used through out the book

these are vintage postcards

I used the original end papers from the old book I cut apart to use for the construction of the journal.  I liked the old design so much and I knew they would fit perfectly as I used the covers (cut from the book text) for the substrate of my covers.  The title page has a copy of a vintage luggage tag for Victoria Falls, which I will be able to visit on my trip. 

This is a real bill from Zimbabwe.  I bought several of these from a local shop (Fabric of Life) that sells lots of free trade imports from all over Africa.  It seemed so improbable that there would be an actual one hundred trillion dollar bill that I just had to have a few.  I put one in each of the nieces and nephews Christmas cash envelope and they were a big hit.   I gave one to Nonie for her journal and saved the last one for my journal.  What you can't see from the photo is that I sewed it in upside down.  Alas....
If I'd wanted the journal to be perfect I'd have bought it, right?

This transparency here is one I printed using one of my photos from my last trip to Africa.  I believe this shot was taken in Tanzania.

I used another copy of a vintage luggage label for the last page of the journal.  My trip will end in Cape Town next October so it seemed appropriate.

Now I have to be patient and wait for autumn!  That will be the hard part.

LK Ludwig nominated me for this and I am passing it on to some of my favorite blogs, in no particular order.

• my very own Jen
• Dneese from Oz, otherwise know as grrl+dog
• Mary Ann Moss of Dispatch from LA fame
• Maryam in Marrakesh
• The One, the Only Pioneer Woman!
• Wendy from Theatre of Dreams
• The amazing Ann Wood

and last, but certainly not least,

• Julia Rothman of Book by Its Cover

The Rules:

1. Put the logo on your blog
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4. Add links to those blogs on yours
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs