Another finished journal page

Hooray! I finished another journal page. That makes me very happy. A couple of days ago, I went on a cheap spending spree. I stopped off on my way back from a job interview and went to a Dollar Tree and Goodwill. I almost did major damage at the Dollar Tree. It is so easy to just throw items in your cart, not thinking. Before you know it, there is $80 worth of cheap crap in your cart. Luckily, I caught myself and weeded out all the things I actually needed and carefully chose several things I wanted. I came out with an alphabet sticker sheet, many glue sticks, a package of raffle tickets, a couple of pouffy holographic gift toppers and some large beads I think would be cool as an embellishment for books, a glass cutting board I think might be tempered glass so I can try cutting stencil on it with the versa tool, and a cheapo set of watercolors. Afterwards, I went to Goodwill. The last time I went to a regular Goodwill(as opposed to the pay by the pound one) was in the late 1990s. At that point they were starting to charge higher and higher prices for things, especially clothes. I am not sure they understand the point of a thrift store was to sell cheap to people. It is supposed to be a place people who are strapped for cash can go to get an outfit or more. The cheapest clothes I saw there sold for $5.99, and that was a scarf. Now, something is definitely rotten when one can pay roughly the same amount of money for clothes at a WalMart.

Okay, rant over. I wasn't there for clothes. I was actually hoping for books I could alter. They had no books. No books at a Goodwill down the street from a university? I don't think there is any hope for them. I went digging through the housewares and misc. stuff section, and I hit pay dirt. There were a bunch of scrapbooking materials that were being sold for much less than you would find them new. I got a book of 12"x12" scrapbook paper, all photos, for a few dollars. They were one sided and many I am not sure what I would do with, but there were 100 sheets, with enough of them that were quite useful, that I picked it up. Then, to carry on the theme of alphabets, I found a package of alphabet stickers and a set of stencil sheets of upper and lower case letters (along with numbers) in a slightly fancy font. I believe I paid only a dollar or two for each. There was a Fiskars Zig Zag edger for a couple of dollars. Love it! I really want the deckle edge, but I can't really be picky. Zig zag is cool, too. I can simulated rick rack. What's not to like about that? I am thinking the last thing I bought there was a really beautiful memo pad. It is 1 1/2 inches thick, which silver mirror-like edges. It is set into a black book that simulates tooled leather with fancy flourishes. The front of the book doubles as a frame. It was only a few dollars, so I couldn't pass it up. It was just so darn pretty. I know I can do something with it, but I would hate to mess up that beautiful edge. I'll just enjoy it for now.

It has been a dramatic week for me. I lined up three job interviews, if you include the interview I have tomorrow. I feel like I might be on the verge of getting a job. The job I thought I wanted the most seems to be playing second fiddle to an admin job at a real estate company. I think I did really well there and it isn't so darn far from where I live. there are places to go to lunch, and it is across the street from the Space needle. Who could beat being able to sketch at the Seattle Center during your lunch break? That makes up for the lack of convenient espresso stands I can just run to on a quick break. And the people I talked to there were very friendly. The library is in a nice little neighborhood, but the only places to eat, save a convenient store, are too far to walk and there is only one bus that goes through...every half an hour. Not ideal.

So what else has been going on? I found out a childhood friend will be up here this coming week. I am so excited to see her! I am stressing a little that I might get a job and not be able to do anything with her after being unemployed for 6 months and 6 years of failed attempts for her to come up to see me. I guess if the worst thing that could happen is I get a job, that is just fine with me. I did some shopping for cheap stuff, which is one of my favorite things. I get a thrill out of getting a bargain, almost as much as getting something of good quality I have been waiting to buy. On the negative front, starting this weekend, suddenly, the smoke from my downstairs neighbor is seeping up through to my apartment, leaving conditions intolerable. I am extremely sensitive to cigarette smoke. My eyes, sinuses, and throat have been burning. And my poor asthmatic cat has picked up on his wheezing, to boot. My landlord is really accommodating, but the maintenance guy can't get over to seal the side of the apartment we think the cigarette smoke is coming from. In the meantime, I bought a cheap air purifier out of desperation. It doesn't seem to be doing much, but I am guessing I will need to give it at least a night to see if it helps. With that purchase, I bought another set of cheap watercolor paints. So begins the journal portion of this post.

I played around with the Dollar Tree watercolors. They were not very easy to work with, but they had nice color. Unfortunately, when they dried the surface was like sandpaper. I tried doodling with a Sharpie and it tore it apart in moments. Not good. I botched that page pretty good, so I will not be including a photo. Now, the other page, the one I experimented with the Loew Cornell Simply Art watercolor set of 36 colors was much better. I still destroyed a Sharpie, but not until I was pretty much finished with the page. It dried much smoother, and some of the colors are very vibrant. Actually, most of them are. Most of them dry and look softer, but they are still respectably pigmented. The pink is amazing.  So are most of the yellows.

Here is the beautiful little set of watercolors. Seeing all of those colors under little clear bubbles makes me so happy!

And the journal page. I played around with most of the colors, settling on a swirly pattern. I also flicked and dripped paint on the page. When it was mostly dry, I traced the speckles and circles on the page with a fine tipped Sharpie. The surface of the watercolor paper is very fibrous and erodes the tip of the Sharpie. If I did this page over, I would probably use a gel roller pen instead of one with a felt tip. Lesson learned. I decided I should put a word on it, even though I am starting to think phrases and words on my pages are not necessarily my style, even though I can appreciate it in others' work. The page looked a bit chaotic, like a storm. So, I pulled out those adhesive backed letters from Goodwill and stuck the word, "storm" on the side of the page I kind of wanted to cover up. That was where I started painting and obviously didn't have a sense of what I was going to do at that point. So, it doesn't really go with the rest of the page. After adhering the letters, I dotted them and made shadows with a silver Sharpie. I dated it , too, but I don't think it can be seen in the photo. All in all, I really like it. I didn't even realize until the letters were on it that it looks like a hurricane. Fitting.

You used paint from where???!!!!