i should have been in my classroom today setting things up. but i wasn't. i was here. making a new "temporary" visual journal. my paper order isn't here yet {fabriano hotpress 140 lb. from dick blick}. so i put off classroom duties by a day. but let's face it manual labor, clean-up, and reassembling a classroom is just not as fun as sitting at my art table and listening to music and painting and cutting and pasting and stapling. and all that. but since school DOES start on tuesday i guess i'll haul my reluctant arse to school, roll up my sleeves and begin.
since i finished the other temporary journal i rummaged around and got out one of my old Snow & Graham calendars and started folding. it's pretty easy to imagine how a great big calendar with super thick pages and cool graphics can be turned into a journal.
i started reading THE CHAPERONE. i found it over on cornflower, thanks to loretta for mentioning them on her blog a few posts back. i started GONE GIRL and something about it disagreed with me. so i unstarted it. while i was briefly in between books i satisfied my reading thirst over at loretta's. she is a dazzling story teller.
thanks for the book recs! you always come through. they look really good and i'm anxious to dive into a big fat stack of them. i have half a dozen samples on my kindle ready for my reading taste buds to assess.
before i forget!!!
my sister, dottie, is moving to san diego and i couldn't be happier! for the first time in over 20 years i'll have another moss within a couple of hours. she is looking to rent a cute little place in the HILLCREST neighborhood for under $1000 buckeroos. if you have a lead on a place, do let me know and i'll pass the info along.
Yay for SD! What Mindi said about rent though. Hillcrest is trendy. = expensive! If I run across something, will let you know. But personally, I recommend OB. (Ocean Beach) Laid back & funky.
I can’t stop looking at your scissors o_O
The are awesome ♥
Happy for you that your sis is moving closer! (and I also like the calendar journal idea) 😀
You just gotta stop with the pics of your scissors. I am too jealous!!!!
I’m not sure how much Stephan King you have read, but if you liked 11/22/63 you will also like The Stand (his best) Under the Dome (Second Best) and Cell. All on the same idea of a saga story. Loved them all! I stay away from his real si-fi / gore stuff.
Orange sherbert! After I gave birth to my first son, I just dove into that stuff. So soothing and satisfying, isn’t it? And a sister that will live closer than middle of country? Do I hear lots of road trips in the future???? Lucky you!
oh susan im so glad you loved paris! i wish i was there RIGHT NOW.
yes im back on a conventional traditional calendar, except were early start. start in august end on 5/31 june & july off
Playing with paper, scissors, and glue is ALWAYS better than setting up a classroom. I go back Monday to a library that has been used as storage for a remodel/addition that just got started. I’m not sure when I’ll get my space back.
Have fun playing,
Amy
Good luck finding a place in Hillcrest for under $1000! Not that its any less expensive, but she might also want to look in Kensington, it has a similar funky neighborhood feel. Golden Hills is in the process of being “re-gentrified” and might be a more affordable alternative. I’d highly suggest looking at places in person there, since one house can be gorgeous, and half a block away a crack house. Benefit is lower prices, still has a neighborhood feeling, and great farmer’s market on Sat morning. If she really wants to shoot for the moon, Bankers Hill is adjacent to Balboa Park.
Thank god I didn’t get rid of all my old calendars. You just never know do you. Now I just have to recall where I stashed them!
Yes, more of your calendar-jpurnal process please.
LOVE that you make journals out of calendars. I would love to see more pics – or how about a new class 😉
Mary Ann,
Since you are about to start with your little craft monkeys, does that mean that your school year has returned to a conventional school calendar??? Also, as one of the larger craft monkeys, I’m wondering if you will have another online class up your sleeve in the next year or so??? I so love FTB and ROD!!!! Also, all of your travel suggestions for Paris were fab and I am plotting to try to find my way back there ASAP!!! LOVE it!!!
Susan
Love the calendar turned journal idea…can’t wait to see you work your magic on the pages. Your new book sounds inviting, I read the synopsis on Amazon…sounds like a delightful read…and I am so happy, happy, happy for you that you will have another Moss girl close by…no wings needed for a visit…4 wheels and the open road….that is fantastic news….
The postponing of the “classroom assemblage” project:::(trying to look at it as an art project….not working) must be contagious…..was on my way and I just couldn’t do it. I guess I’ll sneak around and do it in between those amazingly fun and informative inservice sessions next week….I’ve taught long enough to remember when we got a couple of contract days to put our room and beginning of the year stuff together….can you say “common core?”. Bring on the kids!
The sherbet in the cool bowl … summer beauty. I loved The Postmistress by Sarah Blake – excellent!
Loving the colors in your world right now! How about The Language of Flowers by Vanessa DIffenbaugh?
Ms. Moss, I applaud you for shirking your professional duties. However, my family is most dismayed by you. Due to your paperly influence, I have taken over the table at Pom cottage and it is covered with bits of painted watercolor paper, labels, glue sticks that roll onto the floor, and sticky brushes.
I cannot tolerate this! I am supposed to be writing The Novel.
But it’s cool – I write by day and paint by night!
How lovely a Moss sister is going to live in SD. Don’t have any leads on rentals but Hillcrest is a very cool area. Lots of hairdressers and great places to eat or quaff a pint or two. I am reading the Weird Sisters. It is written in the first person of all three sisters and that is weird, but that’s not why it is called the Weird Sisters. So far, it is entertaining but not compelling.
I loved The Chaperone so so so much! I hope you’ll enjoy it even a fraction of how much I did. I have to admit I am a huge Laura Moriarty fan. She creates characters I can’t help but be in love with, especially the main character in that book. I have to admit I might be a little biased since she lives in my town (Lawrence, KS – I think your sister likes to visit here as well). She had a reading at the library here a couple months ago and she was super charming and obviously not tired of having people fan girl over her. Happy reading!
So what makes a journal “temporary” as compared to…permanent? Or does it just refer to the fact that you are in between paper deliveries? Using an old calendar as the actual journal is a cool idea. Doing it instead of real work and while eating orange sherbet is, in true Mary Ann Moss fashion, genius.
P.S. Love Pam’s stamps!
I LOVE the idea using the old calender for a journal. Now i know what to do with them (I kept a few)!
Thanks for sharing.
I’m reading Gone Girl now, for my online book group and also for my in-person group. What didn’t you like? (I haven’t gotten very far.)
I think a bowl of sherbet is a very good reason for putting off school work, by the way.