Midweek Muse
3 days ago
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Check out my article in Create With Me magazine!
Stand Up 4 LOVE!
My Blog List
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Day 29 of 30 in 30....6 years ago
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January's Daily Drawings6 years ago
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Banana Pudding Pie9 years ago
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Desk view9 years ago
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Kelambu Modern9 years ago
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A New Passion, A New Vision…9 years ago
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Introducing Dream Digger Studios10 years ago
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More Journaling11 years ago
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OUR MOVE11 years ago
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In the Mending11 years ago
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may self portrait11 years ago
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Finally, some art time...12 years ago
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oh can't say...12 years ago
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Fairytale Fashion Show13 years ago
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About Me
- Jennifer R.D.
- San Bernardino, CA, United States
- I have a degree in Child Development and have been teaching for 25 years. Most of these years have been spent with second graders with the exception of 4 years in first grade. I love introducing my students to the joy of reading "chapter books" and the language of literature. I am a mixed-media artist and am lucky to be teaching at a fine arts magnet school. I use music and visual art every day in my classroom. I have been married for 29 years and my husband teaches High School English. I have raised 4 wonderful kids and am still working on the yellow labs that live in our house.
Made with My Cool Signs.Net
19 comments:
Jen, I really enjoyed looking at your journal pages - great blending of images and ideas. And, it's fun to be spurred to think of Christmases past - I think one of my favorite memories is a Christmas morning breakfast of my mother's homemade donuts - loved the smell, loved shaking the warm donuts in a brown paper bag filled with cinnamon and sugar, loved the taste.
Joanne
I love your journal pages! Oh, and I received your PID ATC jackpot today. Wonderful! When I think of family celebrations, I think of times when a large number of the extended family came over; aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents. Adults crammed around a medium sized dining table, us kids a few steps away at a rickety card table. We all dressed up! No jeans, no Ts. The food was fabulous! Oh, for some of my grandma's home cooking again!
Eileen
(you've made me nostalgic!)
Jen, I'm new to ATCs and Blogging and saw your post through ArtChix. I lost my job almost four weeks ago, and have been insatiable about altered arts. I've spent a good part of my time seeking information on the internet, and also trying to find others in my area that I can connect with.
Your art is wonderful, and I applaud you for your wonderful smile in your artsy pictures and for the time you spend molding our young ones.
The reason for the season is family togetherness. My mother always likes to get us together and provide some form of entertainment during the holidays. But she also likes to teach us a lesson about giving to others.
One particular Christmas a couple of years ago sent my mother months ahead of time looking for props and costumes for what was to be a "Christmas Mystery". She wrote a "Mystery" that we were all to perform for Christmas. We each were given costumes and our lines to be said. It was almost like a Dinner Mystery Theater. We all carefully prepared ourselves, putting on the costumes that she so carefully had picked out for us and started to "perform" my mother's version of a "Christmas with meaning". I'm not sure that we all "got it" that year, but as I reflect back on it now, I gather more meaning than I did that day. What we all can do TOGETHER is much more than we can do by ourselves.
Thank you for reminding me to take a look at what we have and not what we don't have. What we can do, and not what we can't do.
Happy Holidays!!
Christy Laudig
Jennifer, love the journal pages!!! I remember as a child we always opened gifts early Christmas morning and one of the funnest things was finding them all. Little gifts would be hidden in the tree and so we would have to carefully look through the tree to be sure we didn't miss anything.
Jen - Your journal pages are wonderful! My favorite memory is of my grandpa and I picking out our big tree, getting it put up...then I remember sitting on the couch with him, admiring the gorgeous tree when, suddenly, it fell on us!!! No one was hurt, but talk about remembering the fragrance of the Christmas tree! :o) Lynn F.
Hi! I am so sorry that I have not been participating in the journaling. I had pneumonia for weeks and lost a dear friend to a car accident the day before Thanksgiving so haven't been up to a lot!! But I'M BACK!! I am taking 10 days off from work - YAY!!! - and although I have to move out of my 2nd house (I'm giving it to my son). I have plans to put together a journal so i can play along in January! I LOVE the Christmas journaling challenge - my fondest memories of Christmas is my grandmother - who I miss every day of my life - and her special typical Cuban desserts she made only in Christmas. Just thinking about that makes me smile.
Merry Christmas Jennifer...here is a quick little story about Christmas when I was 15...I wanted a Mouton Coat (you are probably not old enough to know about Mouton coats) for Christmas, but I couldn't find out if my parents were going to get it for me...aahhh but I knew my brother knew (he is 3 yrs younger than me) so I told him that I would tell him what he was getting if he would tell me what I was getting...so he told me...lol... but I wouldn't tell him what he was getting...he has never let me forget about that...plus to this day my mother (88) still "glues" my packages shut instead of using scotch tape...I am 67 now and I think it is time she used scotch tape...lol...Hope all of the little elves at you hous have a Very Merry Christmas...LE
Jen, I would have come to look at your blog even without the give-away because your art is always so awesome!
I don't have a Christmas memory to share, because it's not my holiday, so how about a birthday memory? :)
I recall when I was just turning 9, I was so disappointed that my grandmother (Muff) wasn't going to be able to travel to be with me for some reason. She and I were so close..she taught me so much...and I adored her. Still do and will always miss her.
Anyway ~ I came home from school and the scent of peppermint was so strong coming from our kitchen! This is a scent I have always associated with Muff and my little feet couldn't carry me fast enough to the kitchen! There she was ~ Baking my peppermint birthday cake :)
Joy of joys! She was my big birthday present and my parents had planned this surprise for me!
Gee, telling that story sure makes me feel good. Thanks for asking us to share, Jen. What a great feeling
Hi Jen,
I am new to the blog, stamping and creative scene. I made 64 different cards this year for my family and friends as a gift of love. So I guess I've started a new tradition for myself. I left my career earlier this year due to health and have found a whole new me. A creative me after years in a logical profession. Enough said about me. I love your web pages and your creative endeavors. Makes me want to rush into my studio and dig in.
As for traditions, it is all about family, my three grown children and their spouses and don't forget my two grandkids. When I was growing up it was all about family then too. I miss my parents being around but now my hubby and I are the "older or should I say mature generation". My favorite tradition was gathering to put up the tree, and each year I would buy five new ornaments for each of us to hang. Then more joined our family and we added more ornaments for lovers, then spouses and kids. I just hung a new ornament for our newist member, a black lab puppy. How things have changed but it's all about growth and doing so gracefully. Keep blogging and I'll keep visiting you.
Salgal
H, Jen - Love your blog, your art and your journal prompts. I haven't participated in the journal but hope to in the new year!
One of my favorite holiday memories is that my dad always decorated the tree. Each year the lights would be all one color. Either red, blue, green or gold. These were the big bulbs that had to be screwed into each socket on a string. If one burned out, the whole string would burn out! Then the ornaments would be the same color with either silver or gold ones to provide contrast. Lots of ornaments. Then the painstaking process of putting those skinny silvery icicles that were packaged about 100 to a pack. He would put them on one by one, branch by branch, from the inside out. This whole process would occupy most of an entire weekend!!! But, the trees were always breathtaking to me and the family loved them. I am sure my mom appreciated not having to do it on top of cooking, baking, decorating the rest of the house and wrapping presents!
I know that his obsession with a beautiful tree became mine - my tree is always full of lights, dripping with ornaments and draped with beaded garlands. (No tinsel icicles!!! Although when I was first married, I did, indeed, use them too! What a job!)
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your loved ones, Jen!!
Hi Jen,
Love your journal pages. One of my fondest memories is watching my Grandpa at the mixing bowl putting the Tom & Jerry's together to drink on Christmas day with the smell of Grandma's turkey roasting in the background. You also reminded me of one of my Christmas presents that I was so excited to receive...my first cowgirl outfit! I believe I will post a pic tomorrow of my sister & I decked out in our outfits. Merry Christmas to you & your family Jen! Hugs, Diane
Jen .. I've visited your blog a few times and I've always left so 'satisfied and filled' with such admiration for your wonderful creativeness. I have never gotten into ATC's (although I do love to look at them) and I don't have a 'blog' but belong to a few. As for Holiday memories and traditions. When I was a young girl I grew up in New England near the mountains. Every year my dad would take us kids (4) and we'd go 'tree hunting'. We'd cut one down, often ride in a horse drawn sleigh back with our tree. When we got home, we'd put the tree in our garage to dry off and my dad would make all of us hot chocolate with marshmello fluff on top. We'd put on Christmas music, sing songs and then do up tons of pop corn so we could string it and then put it on the tree. When I had my own children, we continued with that tradition and I added a new one. Each Christmas I'd take all the kids to our local gift shops that were holding open house. Each of them picked out a special Christmas ornament for our tree. I now have years and years of memories each time I decorate my tree as my children are all grown up and I just recently lost my youngest daughter. I love these kind of traditions, now my grown daughters do this with their own children and I, 'grandma' send each of them a new Christmas ornament, every Christmas, to put on the tree from 'me' .... Thanks again for all your wonderful art, I truly appreciate it! Sandi
I loved writing my letter to santa and then seeing his signiture on it the next morning! Then 1 year I noticed it look kinda like my dad's writing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love looking at your work, all of the different textures and images. I am new to making ATC's and love to look at what others are doing. One of my favorite traditions is one that I started with my family. We have a Christmas Eve Fairy who leaves gifts for everyone in the family. In the past she's left matching pajamas for everyone and last year she left a hot chocolate pot with everything to make hot chocolate that night. I'm not sure what she is going to leave this year, (she hasn't told me yet, ha! Ha!, but she better make up her mind soon, so I can help her get it) My family loves seeing what they will get on Christmas Eve! And I love their expressions as they all open it together, then we take a pic of all of us with the present.
Jacqueline
Nice work done and Merry Christmas too.
BPO work from home
Love, love, love your journal pages. What a great giveaway. Please add my name to the hat!
When I was a little girl my Mother made all my clothes. The year I "found" Barbie one of my Christmas presents was matching outfits for Barbie and me. Ohhhh, we were soooo stylish in our fake red fur coats!
My favorite Christmas memory was having dinner at my Aunt's house in Florida. I spent holidays visiting my Grandparents and we would always go to my Aunt's house for the big meal. This was where I first got to taste wine. This fancy dinner party stuck with me throughout life and I love to recreate it at my house.
Hey Jen love the journal pages!
I have alot of memories, food, smells, traditions. I think the one that has stayed with me through thick and thin is going to church on Christmas Eve. Singing in the candlelit church, with family and friends, quite moving. We would come home and my Dad would read The Night Before Christmas as we drank hot chocolate. Then we would open one present...it was usually Christmas PJ's - so we would look nice in the morning pictures. I carried on that same tradition on Christmas Eve with my boys...church, chocolate, story and PJ's.
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