this pilgrim's progress...

{{{For all photos, please click on each one to enlarge if you wish...}}}

Happy Friday! Allow me to present my March collaged calendar spread (on March 6th, I might add...feels great to be caught up finally...here's hoping I don't lose steam...my next objective is to show April's on April no-foolin-1st).

I found myself in the groove of telling the story of March - of what happens there. This close-up of the clock for Daylight Savings Time (this coming Sunday at 2 a.m., by the way) is my favorite cuz it just looks so cool to me.

Here's a close-up of the section I made to celebrate Women's History Month...

...and panning out a bit to show the entire collage. I was tres pleased with how it came out. Never saw a collage for Women's History Month before, and I didn't realize that I'd used vintage images except for the laughing woman at lower right. It's like all of the vintage women were born before women could vote, and the one modern woman is joyous...she has their back. Who says collage is not sub-conscious? Mine usually is, which is why I get a kick out of doing it. :-)))
I included an entire poem for the first time in the section describing March weather, and was able to use clip art I had of a lion and lamb, as well as the umbrella girls. The kite was already on the calendar background. I used my white Sharpie paint pen and my orange Sakura Souffle gel pen to visually bring it forward to play.
Here be my homage to the most famous March event: St. Pat's Day. You may recall that I went overboard last year making Irish art cards and greeting cards, and I used up most of my printed images. This is the one section that I did not stick to using what I already had.

My lovely altered book muse and friend Elizabeth in NC offered some very sweet vintage image freebies on her blog recently, so I printed 3 of them out to use: the large boy, large girl, and the large harp. Thank you, Elizabeth! I love how each of them add phrases to the calendar collage that refer to St. Pat's Day and Irish traditions. Vintage stuff often does that beautifully... just one reason I love Vintage. :-))) So, continuing to pan out to the full view....
Here is the entire spread. I used crayon pastels to color the borders. I have no idea who makes them as they came in an art set that Missy left behind (another great find from her room!), and they glide on like butter, not like a Crayola crayon and not like a dry or oil pastel. So, I will just enjoy them and not worry what they technically are. winkwink

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I got very frustrated with my Canon Pixma ip4500 printer yesterday, and if it continues to act up I am going to just call it a day and get an Epson, I think. What ticks me off about the printer are the 5 finicky ink cartridges.

I have had a few ink jet printers in my time, so I know you have to practically print something every day or two to keep the ink fresh and flowing. And that's what I do. But every freaking time, I have to open the hood and pull out one or more of the cartridges, shake, and then put back in, make sure everything clicks back well enough for the computer diagnostics to clear, and then I can print.

It gets really annoying. I wonder, do Epson's good printers have 5 finicky cartridges, too? Am I just stuck with finicky technology if I want to use a photo printer that's a step up from an all-in-one? Do I just have a lemon? (I got this latest batch of cartridges straight from Canon, so there should be no excuse!)

If anyone has any experience or advice, please tell me in your comment! I am spending almost $100 to replace all the Canon cartridges, just to have half of them act like they are almost dry from the get-go. Not fun!

I cannot help comparing my finicky printer to my finicky car, as far as diagnostics that don't work right and get in your way. I do not look forward to any more technological advances if they are going to act like these!

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So, changing channels...I sit at the cusp of a potentially gorgeous weekend. The weather for the next several days here at Casa Miguel is for sunny temps in the high 70's to low 80's with cool nights in the 60's. Spring weather preview! The sun feels so nice on my skin. I do have a bit of @#$%@%^#% paperwork to complete, but otherwise I want to spend all weekend creating...and standing in the sunshine. :-)