Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Sketchbook Pages: Quick Collage

Well, we had a bit of a rainstorm around these parts. Torrential downpours and flooding to be more expansive. It was pretty crazy! My first walk home from my new 9-5 shift and it's in the pouring rain... I was drenched by the time I got home; the umbrella was absolutely no help (that isn't fair - it did help, until it collapsed in the wind about 5 steps from the entrance to our apartment, where my hair was soaked in the seconds it took to retrieve the hat that flew off my head). I literally wrung water out of my undies when I finally made it through the door.

Then we lost power. And it didn't come back until 3:30 this afternoon, nearly 24 hours later. Crazy! The subway trains weren't running, Bloor street right behind our place was closed due to flooding (I walked under the bridges where it was flooded last night - there was an insane amount of water flowing down there!), and the GO train wasn't stopping at the nearest stations. I felt like a bit of a wimp after what's been going on in Calgary, but I stayed home today.

Pat wasn't so lucky. First off, he was on the subway when the power went out last night, so he was stuck for a bit. Finally, they pulled into the nearest station - three stops from ours. They were organizing shuttle buses but Pat decided not to wait around and walked for at least 30 minutes to make it home. Luckily it wasn't raining as hard by this point, but still a miserable half hour that's for sure. He said people were still lined up waiting for buses when he passed our station... so at least it was worth it. He also went to work today and said it wasn't so bad. The shuttle buses were excruciatingly slow and the train wasn't running even after power came on this afternoon, but he made it alright. My parents called him a true Northern boy.

Anyway, I had a quiet day at home, mostly catching up on some reading. I don't have nearly as much reading time as during my 1-9 shift! The trains are more full at rush hour, so I don't always get a seat for more than half my trip on the way home, and I'm often not in the mood for reading so early in the morning. I'm also eating lunch with co-workers now, which is really nice, but not conducive to reading. But that's ok - I'm still confident I can make it to 50 books again this year!

After all that, I will finally get to the sketchbook pages I was talking about in the title of this post. I finished my travel sketchbook over the weekend, so I thought I'd share a few of the last pages I filled... expect more (doodled ones) tomorrow!
First, some really quick collages. I was cleaning off my desk a bit, using up some scraps. Instead of glue, I just used masking tape to hold everything in place. A bit of pen doodling finished it up. I love quick collages like this - they're very satisfying.

This is the very last page of the book. It was created on Pat's and my anniversary, like the previous page, so I wanted to go with that theme. I picked out a few images / patterns for their feel together (the scarf was first, and I chose it because it's warm and cozy, similar to our relationship). Then I skimmed through my envelope of words and these just fell into place. I particularly like the "utility + craft" bit - I think it sort of describes Pat and me perfectly! A bit of washi tape and doodling brought it all to this very happy place.

Love!

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