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Once upon a time, long long ago, in a land far away my OCD was allowed to function in all it's rigidly organized glory.  Now to be clear - my mental disorders are not of the useful variety.  I was not perfectly spotless and germaphobic like Monk.  HOWEVER, there were PARTS that were EXACT and they were EXACT EVERY DAY -  from routines to general household stuff.  Enter children...and it all went right out the window.  Over the years I learned to let go of some of it but not all of it.  So what happens when my stuff is all over the place?  It makes my brain crazy!  I know there was a book about this somewhere along the way in the 70s.  Case in point recently MY PANTRY.  Holy. Disaster. 

When we built this house the boys were older, I finished school and was able to keep it and myself fairly organized and neat.  My pantry was very exact - every item and shape of food had it's place.  Well it has not been kept up with in 6 years - notice how that coincides with Pezza's age!  Yesterday morning I could take it NO MORE!  I took every single thing out, threw out anything expired and then put it all back in exactly the way it is SUPPOSED to go.  It is BEAUTIFUL!  I keep the door open and every time I walk by i gaze into it to get some peace in my brain!  If I could fit in it I might go IN the pantry and just hang out for a bit....if anyone needs me......

I saw the most recent mixed media challenge posted on splitcoast stampers and plaayed with it a bit this morning.  The challenge is to use a resist technique. 

I started by using Gel Medium and a Crafter's Workshop stencil on my blank page and let it dry.  Then I misted the page with water and went over it with Twinkling H20s and let them move and blend.  This much water was once again NO PROBLEM for my Stillman & Birn journal!

The gel medium resists the Twinks and makes for a subtle pattern across the page.

I stamped one of the little houses from M's Place onto watercolor paper using Archival Ink and painted it using Twinks.  I mimicked the journal page in the background of the house and then edged it with Walnut Stain ink to make it stand out from the background.  I thought it was a great match to my quote!