Travel art kit

Travel art kit, originally uploaded by Trish Nonaka.


I wanted to share what I included in my travel art kit: I needed it to be small enough to carry in my purse but keep me going until our things arrive in NC (which may be a couple months). 
-  a small Pentalic unlined sketch book
-  a Compendium lined notebook (the one with the shell on it).
- a bunch of clips, pencil sharpener and a couple rubber bands
- American Craft pens .03/.05 black
- mechanical pencil with refill leads
- 5 drawing pencils various sizes
- 4 water pens again with various brush tips/sizes
- plastic 6 inch ruler
- small scissors (may need to switch those for the airline but I think these are ok)
- mini mister
- small container filled with gel medium
- glue stick
- 2 sketch and wash pencils
- set of watercolor pencils
- white eraser
- post it pad
- black gel pen


The books won't fit in the plastic pencil case but everything else does so I am quite happy with it. I usually carry this with me wherever I go but without the gel medium, and the mister. Normally I have more wc pencils. I debated on including my small Windsor Newton travel kit since I  love the colors so much and it is pretty compact. In the end I decided to send that ahead in a separate mailed box that I will pick up on the mainland. It will include the travel journal that I showed you yesterday.


Oh did I mention  we are driving cross country? We are! Los Angeles to NC. Are we crazy? Probably. But I will stay sane having my art goodies with me. 

Catching up?

Did NOT realize its been since MARCH that I posted here. YIKES!  Lots of stuff going on...
Health wise - working really hard on finding the balance of numerous, short, daily workouts that don't cause fibro flareups and still yield some results for health. I am now seeing a nutritionist regularly to avoid going into full blown diabetes. Reminds of my pregnancy days - was diabetic with all three girls; with each pregnancy being worse. I knew it was always a risk that I would develop diabetes over time but am glad I managed to keep it at bay til this age! Need to work really hard at this though and try and turn it around and not just manage it.
Life wise - getting ready for our final move with the Air Force. Headed to North Carolina for a bit (about a year and a half) and then its retirement! Amazing. Really. Truly. All the things we used to dream about are arriving now. Life is amazing!
Daughter wise - C2 is moving to CO to live with C1 and they are so excited about it! I hope they have a blast living and growing together.  C3 is coming with us for the time being and then will probably head to CO after retirement. Her sweetie is getting stationed to CO in August so they are excited about that and future visits.
Emi wise - so happy she is healthy! She has not had a seizure since Jan 26th so apparently we have her meds at the right dose at last. She is coming with us to NC as well! *S* Of course!

Art wise - have not been doing much recently but I am good with that because...
Scrapping wise - I am getting TONS of scrapping and digital pages being done because of TWELVE.
Writing wise - gathering more and more stories of family history and journaling for scrapbook layouts.

New Projects wise - Patti and I have been working on indexing the 1940 US Census. Its been lots of fun and so interesting to be able to index the Hawaii census. We learn so much about this beautiful place and how things and people have changed over the years. Mainly for the good!  We also both are involved with AWAIAULU which is a transcription project of Hawaiian newspapers dated from the 1800s. What an honor and privilege to be able to assist in saving this part of history for future generations. You do not need to speak Hawaiian to help just be able to copy what you see and save it digitally. I am sure that every little bit helps me learn more of the language though.

This morning I just finished putting together the materials for 8 mini books. Patti and I made and completed 2 yesterday and so I went ahead and got the rest of them ready to be bound together soon. I added some distressing to some music paper and am including that in the books as well. This all came about because I was trying to empty some drawers filled with journal papers, etc. in anticipation of our upcoming move. Two drawers got emptied and future journals of various uses are being created. I will share them once I get them all done.

NC Road Trip Journal

NC Road Trip Journal, originally uploaded by Trish Nonaka.


Here's a sneak peek at a travel journal I made for our upcoming road trip.

C'est si Bon! La Joie de Vivre: Rainbows

C'est si Bon! La Joie de Vivre: Rainbows:

'via Blog this'
This post is from a while ago but I just came across it today and had to share it! Enjoy!

Close-Up x3

Sketchbook Challenge for February is "Close-Up"
I wanted to see if this was something that I ever do in my artwork. I know it do it with my photos but couldn't recall if I did much closeup in my sketching. I was happy to discover these three tiny drawings in one of my journals. I tried to clean up the scans a bit by removing some grayish-purple cast and apologize that you can still see some and most certainly you will if you go larger in the views.
I did discover that typically I do NOT draw things zoomed in so to speak. It is something I will be trying this month though.

Imagine

I am not loving this very much but am posting it anyway. The background is a copy of an original painting I did last year and the small zentangle was inspired by one of Shelley B's. The entire time I was working on it I kept thinking that my life is MORE than I could ever have imagined and that I am living it exactly the way I want to be. Married to my best friend, parents to wonderful young adults, blessed beyond measure, creating art, all in the middle of the sea. IMAGINE. 
Comments welcomed!


Here is the original painting with much clearer and vivid colors.

Mama and Baby Sketch

I did this sketch some time LAST YEAR and then never got around to scanning it so it sat in my sketch book unloved til now. But the coloring and angle is wonky so I am not sure I am doing it any favors in sharing it now. It was done from a photograph I saw online of a mama and her then new baby.

Another Class - 10 Tips for Better Type

Although I just took a type/font class a few months ago I was excited to see Cathy Zielske was offering one on BigPicture. I love her clean and classic style for scrapbooking and was anxious to pick up some ideas to improve my layouts. This is a short class (2 weeks) but man is it jam-packed with great and highly useful info! I cannot wait to begin implementing these simple but brilliant concepts. I am planning to post some things and will point out the concepts. Growth is good.

January Roundup

I have been using Katie the Scrapbook Lady's idea for roundups for a while now and really like doing them. It helps me gather my thoughts and ideas for journaling throughout the month. I took a class on this at the beginning of the month and got some wonderful ideas to take it even further!


I thought it might be fun to share a portion from this month since I went crazy with my KINDLE FIRE that I got for Christmas! (Obviously, I am loving it!)
I really like Katie's idea of printing out the Roundups each month and putting them in a binder so most likely will be incorporating that idea this year. 

** What reading/learning did I do this month? (books, blogs, magazines, ebooks, podcasts, classes, etc.)

Reading:

The Bleeding Sky – Brandsdorfer

Ruby – Snelling

One Life – Rumzi

Annie’s Ghosts – Luxenberg

Out of the Darkness: The Story of Mary Ellen Wilson – Shelman

Rena’s Promise: Two Sisters in Auschwitz – Rena Kornreich Gelissen

Daughter of Joy – Morgan

Wildflowers of Terezin – Elmer

A Heart for Freedom - Ling (began reading 1/31)

Podcasts:

Family History: Genealogy Made Easy

The Digi Show

Webinars I Participated in:

Chat with Stacy Julian

Chat with Katie the Scrapbook Lady

Personal Geographies with Jill K Berry

Classes:

Twelve (all year)

One Little Word (all year)

Roundup (completed)

Are YOU doing Roundups? 

What's on your reading list so far this year?

Avon Breast Cancer Walk

Thought I would share something I worked on recently that also is for a great cause. For those of you who may not know, this is my mom and my oldest daughter when she was almost 3. My mom got to hold our second daughter shortly after she was born but died soon after. She never met our youngest daughter.


My mom died from breast cancer. And until last week we didn't know if this would be a legacy she had passed on to me or not. Happily, it is not. I am forever grateful that I was able to be tested for the breast cancer gene and majorly relieved that I do not have it. My mom's cancer was probably an anomaly or environmental cause. We will never know for sure. But my girls, as is the rest of my family, are committed to finding a cure for this horrible disease and eradicating it. Our oldest one is currently preparing for the Avon Walk in June. If you would like to make a contribution please visit her page  or visit her on facebook to leave her a note of encouragement! Your support is deeply appreciated by every member of our family.

We are in it to END it!