Layouts based on sketches

The farmer’s market experience

October 17, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Blogtoberfest Day 17

I created the layout below based on a sketch provided at the Pencil Lines blog because I wanted to spotlight these beautiful photos I took at our Austin Farmer’s Market this month.

It means a lot to us to support local farmers, especially in light of Texas' drought.

What is it about going to the farmer’s market on a Saturday morning?

We have to get up early on the weekend to get the best selection.
We have to drive several miles farther than the one-mile trip to our regular grocery store.
We have to pay for parking.
We have to be satisfied with whatever selection the farmers bring to town that day.
And we sometimes have to pay more for our purchases.

So, if it’s such a pain to go to the local farmer’s market, why do so many of us do it?

Perhaps because being out early on a Saturday morning feels like you’re really starting your weekend right—getting a jump on your to-do list (if, like me, you live by your lists, ~~even~~ especially on the weekends).
Or it’s that driving farther just to buy fresh produce makes it feel like an outing—a fun little jaunt you’re making with your partner or partners in crime, hot coffee in hand and hopes high for what you’ll find at the end of your drive.
I’ll admit that it’s more difficult to put a positive spin on having to pay for parking… but what if paying that fee makes you feel good about supporting your city’s economy?
And if you’re “stuck” with whatever the farmers bring, you’ll always be eating seasonally! By shopping at the local farmers market, what you get is fresh and ripe. This is a great way to increase your overall health because food that is picked before it has ripened suffers from decreased vitality.
You can find a variety of fresh, organic produce at more affordable prices than in a supermarket. Not to mention the fact that even if you’re spending a little more, you’re paying it to a fellow human being who lives and gives locally instead of to some massive agribusiness.
Shopping in the fresh morning air and talking to some of the people who grow these fruits and vegetables can really provide you with a deeper connection to and appreciation for your food and the nutrients you derive from them.
Last but not least, ripe and seasonal produce and flowers are gorgeous! They’re masterpieces. I’m sorry to say, but food just doesn’t look that good at SuperTarget.

So, if you’ve never been to one, or it’s been a long time since you last visited, I urge you to get thee to a farmer’s market. It’s such a satisfying experience!

Blogtoberfest Day 15

October 15, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 11 Comments

Sketchabilities sketch #57

Sketchabilities has revealed its latest sketch, #57. Be sure to head over to the site to grab the sketch, then create something and link it up! 🙂

Here’s my Design Team layout inspired by the sketch.

Celebrating 14 wonderful years together

These photos were taken on the evening of our 14th wedding anniversary earlier in October. Matt and I really like to try to take a little trip for our anniversary, but when it occurs on a weekday that’s hard to do. There’s a fondue restaurant close to our house that I have been eyeing since it opened, but it’s the type of place one only goes to for special occasions. So we headed there to celebrate our 14 years of wedded bliss!

Matt had never had fondue before this, if you can believe it! I have had it a few times, and I loved it each one. We had a beautiful four-course meal, a great waiter and lovely conversation. So, even though these photos aren’t the best because they’re taken in a darkened restaurant with a flash, I wanted to remember this celebration with a layout.

I went a little wild with the patterned paper on this one. I decided to limit the color palette to black/grays and yellows/golds with a tiny hint of pink/red to highlight the strawberries in the main photo. This made me feel free to use a greater variety of patterns than my usual. I combined papers taken mostly from My Mind’s Eye Lost & Found Two collection and Authentique’s Blissful collection. They worked quite well together, in my opinion. The doilies and flower/swirl embellishments were cut with my Silhouette and highlighted with a bit of bling.

I am so pleased to be starting my Sketchabilities design team responsibilities! I hope you’ll check out the site and play along with us on the sketch challenges. 🙂

Blogtoberfest Day 12

October 12, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Enveloped in love + freebie

Twisted Sketches has revealed its latest sketch, #123, and the twist is “envelope.” Be sure to head over to the site to grab the sketch, then create something and link it up! 🙂

Here’s my Design Team layout inspired by the sketch.

This is Mom, Phil and me in October 1972 in front of our Willoughby, Ohio, home.

Before I begin work on one of the Twisted Sketches assignments I always spend a little time thinking about possible variations on the “twist.” In this case, the twist was “envelope,” so I knew I could use an actual envelope on the page to either house my journaling or just as a decorative element. But as I turned the word over in my mind I thought of the similar word, “envelop.” If I used the past tense of that word I could still satisfy the twist! The title “Enveloped in love” occurred to me soon after. Then I went on a hunt through my photo organizer for the perfect picture to use with it.

I don’t think I could have found a better photo to represent this idea. It’s of my mom, my brother and me in October 1972. We’re out in front of our house in Willoughby, Ohio. Mom’s arms are actually encircling us. She wrote on the back of the original snapshot, “Daddy’s family.” Everything about this photo speaks of love and being enfolded in it. Happy sigh.

There’s one extra little detail about this photo that tickles me (in addition to the 70s clothes and Phil’s glasses). If you squint you can see two little decals on the window behind us. They are a wee witch and jack-o’-lantern, stuck low on the window for our sakes, I imagine. Such a darling detail, don’t you think?

I created a Silhouette cut file to use for my title. If you think you could use this title on a project of your own and you have a Silhouette, I would be happy to email you the file if you send a request to janice at theconstantscrapper dot com.

Punch it down

September 28, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 1 Comment

Twisted Sketches has revealed its latest sketch, #121, and the twist is “punch.” Be sure to head over to the site to grab the sketch, then create something and link it up! 🙂

Here’s my Design Team layout inspired by the sketch.

I love using Twisted Sketches to inspire me to tell stories I might not have thought of telling.

I actually struggled for a while, trying to come up with a layout based on this week’s twist (punch). I knew I could always just include an embellishment created with a punch, but I really wanted my topic to somehow incorporate the twist. Then it hit me that you punch down dough when you’re making bread, and I had the perfect story to tell!

When it came to cooking and baking, my Nana—my paternal grandmother—had mad skillz. She commanded a kitchen. Of course, that came from a lot of practice, as she owned and ran restaurants throughout my father’s childhood and young adulthood. In fact, I don’t think she ever baked a loaf of bread. Instead, she always pulled out her huge metal bowl and dumped a whole 5-pound bag of flour into it and baked several loaves of bread.

And I never saw her follow a recipe. In fact, when I was a teenager and wanted to try baking bread for the first time, I asked Nana to tell me how to do it. She didn’t have a recipe to share with me, so while she baked a batch one day we captured what she did. She would pour a big handful of salt into her hand (her usual method of measurement) and then pour it into a measuring cup so that I could record the amount. We had a lovely time together putting her recipe down on paper, but honestly, how often am I going to need to bake several loaves of bread at one time? 🙂

For years now, my brother and I have been inspired by Nana to bake bread, too. Even though we don’t make it often (usually at holidays), we both love the process of combining and kneading simple ingredients to turn them into loaves of home-baked magic. It’s a slow, homey procedure. It requires patience while the dough rises. Then it offers a therapeutic opportunity to punch it back down (If you’re going through a stressful time in your life, I highly recommend baking a loaf of bread on a Saturday morning to get out your frustrations.). And finally, it’s hard to deny the sense of pride you feel when you take that fragrant loaf out of the oven and serve it to your family.

With all the fall and winter holidays that are on the near horizon, as well as the cool fall days I’m hoping to experience soon (temperatures are still rising to over 100 degrees in Austin), I think it’s time to break out my bread pan and flour. It’s time to get a little punchy!

Juicing for health

September 14, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 4 Comments

Twisted Sketches has revealed its latest sketch, #119, and the twist is “start.” Be sure to head over to the site to grab the sketch, then create something and link it up! 🙂

Here’s my Design Team layout inspired by the sketch. It’s about how we just started juicing and are really enjoying it.

This bunch of vegetables and fruit that was ready to be juiced was so pretty that I had to take a few photos!

I want to explain a little more about my layout than just the surface facts. The truth is that when I was designing this layout I was thinking about fear and how we all deal with it. This was on my mind because we personally faced a really big fear recently.

Matt began noticing some physical changes that concerned him and made a doctor’s appointment to look into it. Before having even one test run on Matt, the doctor plied him with stories about cancer in men his age. So while we awaited the day that Matt could have the test the doctor ordered, we talked about…everything. The possibilities. The probabilities. What we would do if we received bad news. How we should change our lives if we received good news. I honestly believe that Matt started making lists of things he wanted to do to prepare me to be without him. Gulp…it was a hard week.

So, with this palpable fear orbiting us, we started looking at actionable ways to live with a daily commitment to good health. The truth is that we are like so many people: we know that we’re supposed to make healthy choices, but we’re not always sure how to make that a daily priority. For instance, how do you eat good foods when you’re on the road making customer visits all day like Matt does? How can you get anything resembling a balanced day of nutrition if you eat out? The choices out there are so bad! Think about the portion sizes, the saturated fats, the additives. It makes your head spin when you really focus on how unhealthy our food supply has become.

Then, on the night before Matt’s test we watched a documentary called “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.” Sounds gruesome, doesn’t it? But it wasn’t. In fact, it was quite inspiring. It was the story of a man who was overweight and suffering from an auto-immune disease who turned to radically changing his diet as a way of getting control of his physical problems. He started making his own juice combinations (mostly vegetables and some fruits) and barraged his body with great nutrients. He drank juice only for 60 days and lost the weight as well as the need for his medications (all under the care of his physician)!

Now, I’m not trying to convince anyone reading this to juice. Really. I just want to tell you how Matt and I have dealt with the health scare that we underwent. We used the fear as motivation to take a hard look at our habits. And making a positive change in our diets (by adding fresh juice to our day) makes us feel more in control of our healthy futures. Knowing you’re making good choices lessens fear about your own future. At least it’s working that way for us!

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