PASSIE (Passion...)

Hey there, she's back! Still counting the days until my well-earned summer-vacation. But from now on it's "just" one week to get through, so...That's do-able. We still have to go to a travel-agency though and book our vacation...:S We're thinking of Denmark, Kopenhagen more specific. It's a 7-hour-drive for us. But we will have to wait and see till Tuesday.

This week I finished the mini-album I was making about my hubby. I already had these papers by Marah Johnson lying around, intending to use them for pics of hubby on his motorcycle.

I titled the album "PASSIE". It's a double title, in English Passie means Passion. And that ofcourse has to do with hubbies passion for riding and (re-)building his bikes. But, hubbies name is Pascal, which we shorten to Passie sometimes. So, it's his name and his game. :)

The other day I had scanned an old pic of him sitting on his first motor-bike, he was like 20 years old there. Instead of showing some enthusiasm for my creativeness with his pic (I made frames and antique looks in Photoscape, very cool, or so I thought) he asked me why I was using photographs of him that were 20 years old...(A little exaggerated, he's 35 years old now, so the pics were 15 years old, tops...:P )
Well, there's a simple answer for it, and I gave it to him. He never likes to pose for pictures...All our vacation-pics etc feature him with some weird funny face or a do-I-have-to-be-in-another-picture-because-I-am-so-bored-please-hurry-up-face. I HATE it! (It's one of the reasons I am dying to have kids, hopefully I will finally have a willing photo-object...!)

That being said, I took my chance when he was going away for a motor-drive some Sunday this July. Still in my PJ's, I walked outside and photographed him while he was sitting on his motorcycle and was preparing in his own way. He cooperated reluctantly, which shows in some pictures. The familiar face is there again....Even the eyes look towards the sky as if to ask for lightning to strike me at that exact time so he can get out of this utterly dreadful, totally useless and precious time-consuming posing-session.

But, I got my pictures! Some were even good, hey, I'm good... (Not to brag, but photography is one of my strong points. I am not someone who knows or acknowledges all of her strong points. Ask me for my flaws and I'll give you a list that dazzles you, but strong points...?!) Well, I mean, that sometimes the camera does exactly what I have in my mind. I capture the perfect moment or pose or whatever. And that thrills me, I mean, I can't all be coincidence, some skill has to be involved next to pure luck, right?

So, I made my book, did loads of painting, stamping, glimmer-misting, diamond-glazing, embossing, and searched for all the right details. "Rough & Tough" details. So no flowers and stuff. And I felt kinda restricted, like I was in a box and couldn't step out to use anything else. All the things I would have usually added didn't seem manly enough. Too girly and glitzy. But I made it. Barely though. Because when I was reaching the end, my pages were lying on my desk when... I topped over my mug filled with water (for the paint-brushes)...!!!

Oh man, the water just flowed over almost all my pages and I just saw all my work going down the drain...I didn't cry but I came close...I dabbed it dry as good as I could, and let it dry on the table. Fortunately the damage wasn't too big, the pages were a little wet and soaky but they dried up nicely. Not too many blobs or letting go of glue or destroyed paper. The pics were alright too. One felt a little weird, but it already had an antique look, so I decided a few more funny marks didn't matter. Man...My bad luck hadn't run out totally, because when I put the pages in my newly acquired Bind-it-all, the back-page was in there crooked...So the upper holes are half of the page. Crap...!!!

I had to wait for the black and white checked ribbon, I planned to use that as a closure for the album. It had to be THAT ribbon because that's the motive hubby has on his helmet and bike as well, so, it was perfect. Then I finally finished and proudly showed the fruits of my labor to hubby accompanied by a "Taaaadaaaaa!"

I don't know how YOUR men react to your projects, but mine never comes any farther than:"nice"... Reading some of my journaling had him laughing reluctantly (he wanted to laugh because it WAS funny but he wouldn't give me the credit...). Because, ofcourse, as far as the journaling went, he didn't cooperate either. He gave me stupid childish answers so I had to come up with my own answers. And I did my own description of him, whether he liked it or not. He's the man who likes to be dirty (greasy black) and is surrounded by waaaay to many decibels and the stench of gas...

And guess what, he even had the nerve to ask me if I was gonna do another booklet about him and his other motorcycles as well. WHAT...?! I beg your pardon...?! My jaw practically fell to the floor...Me, do another series of pictures without his cooperation, more descriptions about his bikes without his techical insight and help...Make another album that is being welcomed with a luke-warm "nice" after all my effort...What do you think, Passie...?! Dream on, boy...

Amor at Omar

Hey all you readers out there, it's time for an update again! While everyone around me is already enjoying their holidays, I am still counting the weeks until it is time for my vacation. Yeah, you read that right, weeks, not even days... :( And we may not even be going away, due to circumstances. How about you...?!

My little brother, who is in the army, has left for the Emirates last week.

I already kinda miss him, eventhough we may have the traditional love-hate-relationship a brother and sister are supposed to have. I can only imagine how much he and his girlfriend are missing eachother right now.

I made a trip to the Scrapbookstore in Heesch, the one that publishes the magazine "Creatief met Foto's". I still had 100 Euros worth of coupons for being published, so it was time to cash them in! ;) Ofcourse, the coupons weren't enough. It never is with me. :P I bought the Big Bite and Zutter Bind-it-All and loads of ribbons and waaaay more stuff. The "Rockstar" paperblock by DCWV also went home with me. I had had my eyes on it for quite some time already and it was on sale. How could I resist...?! Teehee...

I finished an acrylic tryptich with pics of hubby and I, taken during our last vacation in Istanbul. I called it "Amor at Omar", because the restaurant in which the pics were taken was called Omar. And the 2 of us provided the Amor-factor. The place was cozy, beautiful, arabic, 1001-night, and had an absolutely breathtaking view of the city!!! It was a fairytale and we were living it!!!

I had never done an all transparent background before, so it was a challenge. It became more freestyle than my usual thing, and that is what I was going for. Although somehow I can't tell the difference between one thing I made and the other. It's all ME. :)

I will leave you with some (not very sharp) pics of my acrylic-freestyle-trip. Comments are always welcome! Questions/links/ideas as well!!!

I wish you a scrap-a-licious evening/week/weekend/vacation. See ya!!!