Back on track

Yesterday was a pretty frustrating day. My beloved scooter Clive was stolen right out of our apartment complex parking lot. I stayed up late making Food Mayhem's soft pretzels, which are delicious and great to have around, but I stayed up so late making them that by the time I was done, I was too tired to clean the kitchen properly. I find clutter in general and, worst of all, a cluttered kitchen, to be incredibly stifling and discouraging, especially starting the day with one. Add in that I still feel overwhelmed and disorganized with the last dregs of moving boxes (where is that flippin camera cable!?) and today was a pretty discouraging day overall.

I wallowed in negativity for awhile but around 8 or so, I got really tired of my own whining monologue, I finally decided to finish off those framed scrapbook paper pieces, especially since I had picked up more paper and an x-acto knife at Jo-Ann's on Saturday.

(Again, forgive the pictures. I can't wait til I have my camera back ...)

First I switched out the yellow background in the big frame for a more lemon yellow one. For some reason when I was paper shopping, I pictured the yellow in the shower curtain as a goldenrod. I got a sheet of the scrolly paper in teal, so I'll likely use the goldenrod sheet behind that in the living room/dining room area.

Before and After

Not THAT different, I suppose, but it was enough to bother me how it was before. I also made the smaller frames. In two of them I layered the yellow textured paper I had with some more of the green scrolly paper. In the other two I layered the textured green paper, the lighter green gingko paper, and the yellow paisley beadwork paper. It was an exercise in futility to get them exactly perfect, and there are some imperfections in my cuts and in my proportions, but after an hour of cutting and recutting and ruining, I decided to call it done.

I know I keep harping on my ridiculously simple paper crafts, but I'm pretty proud of myself. I plan to expand my horizons soon by stretching some fabric on stretcher frames for the living room and making simple flowers out of either Sculpey or paper to make a mixed-media piece for over the bed. In my head, I'll sketch and paint a simple branch design and attach the flowers to it, but we'll see how that turns out in reality.