The beginnings of things are typically very exciting, and this was a very exciting time in my life. Nick and I had just gotten engaged, we were planning our wedding, and had recently decided to go ahead and buy a house. Around this time President Obama decided to offer incentive to new home buyers, $8,000.00… which made our decision to purchase even easier.

I was beyond excited the first day we went out with our amazing realtor, Brian. Even at the end of the day, when everything we looked at was so far off our expectations, I couldn’t wait to go out again. The next time we went out, I felt very prepared. I looked at the booklet Brian put together for me for me, I did my own research, and I was positive one of these houses was going to be our home… Unfortunately, I was let down again… and again… and again… and again.

It really is amazing how good something can look on paper. A double balcony, a spiral staircase, a sun room, detached garage, decent neighborhood, in our price point turns into poor foundation slanted walls, doorways shorter than normal, slanted floors, and oddly laid out rooms. By the sixth or seventh time we went out I was over it. I wanted to find my house and I wanted to find it right then.

The benefit of the Obama money was the money… the downside was the deadline. Not only were we having issues finding a good house, but we needed to find something soon, the pressure was on. Eventually it all boiled over, and I needed to vent… and I vented in my journal. In my book pages I designed my dream house, craftsman style, a big front porch, fenced in yard, fireplace, curb appeal. I created this visual journal page as a dedication to it, to the hope we would find it, or something we could call a home. I knew that it existed… We just needed to find it…

CHALLENGE: Dedicate a page to your home, dream home, current home, past home. Make sure you focus on your favorite parts, and what makes it feel like home.

To create this visual journal page I only used a few materials. I wanted to work on a page that wasn’t white, so I used a tea bag to dye the page an off white, brown color. To achieve this look all you do is heat a cup of water, place a tea bag in it, and either use the water or the actual tea bag to dye the paper. I prefer to drag the bag on the page, it creates a darker color. Sometimes the bag will burst, which can be messy, but not necessarily a bad thing. The tea particles will pool darker colors around them, which can create an interesting pattern. Once the background dried I used India ink and a small paint brush to paint the house. A tip my mom once gave me was if you use a ruler for one straight line when drawing a building, all the lines have to be straight. If you free hand them all, they will blend together and create (I think) a more interesting affect. To make it a bit more interesting I took a piece of paper towel that was accidentally dyed while I was using bleeding tissue paper, and glued it down with rubber cement.

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