Olympic Fever

I need to write about this, but it has to be somewhere where my family can’t read it. Long story there which I won’t get into, it’s not important. But things do need to be said, so here it goes… memories.

I’ve got Olympic Fever … BAD. Wednesday night was the first night I could sit and watch some of my favorite events and just SQUEE! Medal sweeping all around … Shaun White (Gold) and Scotty Lago (Bronze) in men’s half-pipe snowboarding, Shani Davis (Gold) and Chad Hedrick (Bronze) in long track speed skating, and Julia Mancuso (Silver) and Lindsey Vonn (Gold) in Freestyle skiing. And tonight, I heard Evan Lysacek took Gold over his Russian rival in Men’s figure skating, although I didn’t get to see it because of work, however before I left, the other half of me… the honorary Australian half cheered and cried when Torah Bright took Gold in Women’s half-pipe snowboarding. The SECOND Gold for an Australian in any Winter Olympic game. The first one by Stephen Bradbury in short track speedskating in Salt Lake City by accident!

This weekend brings more Apolo Ohno and J.R. Celski in short track speedskating and the first of the Ice Dancing and others. The past week, I’ve fallen in love with Biathalon, a sport I never knew existed but is so exciting.

Doubles Luge confuses me… “Here, lay down on this sled and I’ll lay on top of you and we’ll head down this icy pipe at 90 MPH and see what happens.”

I’ve cheered for Americans, Australians, Japanese, Canadians, and Norwegians. The medals have not gone to any ONE country but so many different strengths around the world.

My first Olympic memory comes from Calgary … when I watched Katarina Witt and Debi Thomas figure skate and win medals. I was babysitting, the kids were sleeping, I was dancing around the room imagining myself on that ice and winning that medal. Man, I was so young.

But my real memories were from Lillehammer, the first Winter Olympic games I was glued too… not only because of the fact that Norway is the country of my Heritage, but because there were so many exciting things that happened. I remember the name of every Athlete I followed that year… Free-Style Skiing’s Jean-Luc Brassard (Can), Ski Jumping’s Espen Bredesen (Nor), and Speedskating’s Dan Jansen (USA) and Johann Olav Koss (Nor).

It was the year that Dan Jansen took Gold in long track speed skating and broke a world record. I knew this was his last race ever, if he didn’t win it, he would never win it. I waited all day to watch that race in prime time and then when I got home from school, my dad spoiled it for me and told me he won earlier in the day. But it didn’t take away from the fact that when I watched it, I cried buckets.

There is a Visa commercial on now, about how he skated in Calgary and lost, mere days after his sister, Jane passed away… then in Lillehammer took Gold and skated a victory lap with his baby daughter, Jane. I remember it like it was yesterday. I get weepy every time I see that commercial.

That too was the year I fell in love with Speedskating… I always loved figure skating but there is something so perfect, so graceful, so precise about Speedskating that is will forever be my favorite winter sport of all time.

I leave you now with a short video of Stephen Bradbury’s historic win in Salt Lake City. Apolo Ohno took silver. It’s awesome and hilarious at the same time!

2010 Projects - Jan and Feb

So I mentioned in a previous post that I was doing one project per month and we are coming through to mid February and I am pleased to say that I have done one for both January and February.

Please note... my photography sucks.

January - Sleeping Baby Scrapbook


This came as a scrapbook in a box kit. It took about three days total to finish. The first ten pages were part of the kit and then I had extra photos needed to complete the book, so I also had an 8x8 baby girl paper pack which allowed me to complete all the pages for the number of photos I had. I added some paper flowers to each page and all the small journaling and date tags were done using textured paper cut to size. The theme is an age progression of my daughter sleeping.

February - ATC Display Book



This was hashed together because I had some 8x8 cardstock I didn't know what to do with. I started with 2 sheets each of about 16 different colors. On one side of one sheet, I covered with Mod Podge, then I stuck onto the adhesive three craft (popsicle/icypole type) sticks, covered those with Mod Podge and stuck the second sheet of paper over it, creating a sturdy book page.

I had some scrapbook paper scraps, so I used those along one edge which is the same edge I punched holes into (reinforced with hole stickers), then each page, front and back was painted in random designs with acrylic paint. Then the ATC's were mounted (within appropriate sized plastic ziplock bags) onto the pages and labeled.

Then the entire book was bound together with book rings.

The cover is letter stickers on double sized sticky paper with microbeads around the letters to give effect.

March is my daughter's baby book. I've decided to wait until March to do it so I can clear out a couple of journal swaps, rather than starting early which is what I did with the ATC book!

Until next time!

Mixed Media

I've been working on my February project which is a ATC display book, handmade. It's looking very awesome. I have some more pages to paint and put into the book and mount the cards onto the pages, which I will be doing tomorrow night and then this project will be done.

In addition, I have been art journaling like crazy. Not so much writing, but a lot of art. My baby journal that I take to work and doodle in is almost full. I have been doing a lot of great prompts and challenges with a friend of mine, mostly drawing, writing, and doodling. And then there is my art journal which I received through swapbot, already decorated and filled with prompts which are forcing me to try things I've not done before. Here are some of the materials I've added to my collection in the last month or so ...

Gesso

This is a surface primer for canvas. It works great for paper (ie. journal pages) making them a little sturdier and hold up to watercolors and acrylic paints. I love working with this stuff.

Watercolors

I'm talking about the tube kind, not the Crayola pallettes. I have always had acrylic paints because I like the color intensity and the thickness. But every since starting the use of gesso, having these watercolors is so much. I love how you can do light color washes or up the amount to have really intense color. You can also let them dry out in the palette, add a little water later, and they work good as new. Awesome

Watercolor Crayons

These are similar to watercolor pencils but are of course crayons. More intense color and I find use them in conjunction with the pencils for different sorts of watercolor art.

Gelly Roll Pens

They are the original Gel pen. They are awesome! I have only the basic ones... black fine line; black and pink metallic; and pink, blue, and purple stardust. I can't wait to add more. They write over practically anything... acrylic paint, watercolor, gesso, different scrapbook papers, etc. There are some really neat puffy and gold and silver color halo pens.

I've just committed myself to do three different journal swaps so I'm sure I'll be putting many of my new materials and the techniques I've learned into these journals!!

Sayonara until next time!