practice....

I had an interesting conversation with a friend a few days ago. It is a photographer friend, and he sent me a link to a very good article about practicing and exploring. In the article, the author spoke about photographing a mailbox for an assignment, and having to take 35 photos of the mailbox, all different in the quest for that perfect perspective. It was a great article that got me to thinking.

Have you ever read The Artist's Way? I have started the journey so many times, and stalled... But, even with not really finishing, I have learned a great deal.

For instance, a few years ago, I set out to learn to draw faces. I just wanted to. No particular reason, it just sounded interesting. I took a few online courses, did some reading, bought a nice mechanical pencil, and started. Tamara LaPorte's classes have influenced me the most I think. When i draw a face, I usually go back to her ways, and even, sometimes,hear her sweet voice in my head.... Ah, anyhow, I quickly became addicted to drawing faces, and found myself drawing every evening. Guess what? The faces got better and better.

As I keep mentioning, I am doing DDP yoga. It is a program that requires practice in order to build flexibility and balance. Six months in, I am still falling over. But it is fun, and my health has improved exponentially.

Why bring up yoga in the middle of this? Because, after the conversation this morning, I realized that pretty much everything requires regular practice to build skill. Everyone else in the world probably knew this already, but, for me, I think it just clunked into place. It is all coming together!

down time

Every year, between Christmas and New Year's, my family has down time. We don't make a lot of plans, we don't do a lot, we just ARE. We eat together, we hug as we pass each other in the hall, and we just generally chill. I forget how much I love this time until it comes around again and I experience it. Then, I languish in it and enjoy every second.

For the past few years, I have been making art during this time, and this year has been no exception. I have started 2 new classes already!

The first class, is called Book of Days, and is taught by the wonderful Effy Wild. In order to prepare, I made a journal. I took water color paper, linen book binding thread, a big needle, an awl, and a hunk of raw canvas and I built a journal! This is about the 5th journal I've made this way, and I am addicted to them! Effy taught me how to make them in a workshop a couple of years ago and they are all I use!  On New Year's Day, my art tradition is to decorate the journal.
Here are my hands during the creation. I LOVE how they look! Happy hands, happy heart!

Here is the latest journal cover.

It is yummy turquoise and electric blue and white and more blue. I used all kinds of things to make it. The base were torn up pages from a book I bought years ago on the bargain table at Barnes and Noble for $1.98 called "Just like you, only prettier" I never read it. I bought it because I thought it would be the perfect thing to cover up by using for art journaling. I was right! :)  It makes me smile knowing that it's there. I didn't set out with a plan this year. I just picked up things and used them. I have no idea where the butterflies came from or why there is chicken wire mixed with butterflies, but I'm not going to worry about it. The cover is done and it is delightful! I'm ecstatic with it.

My second class is called The Documented Life and for it, you modify a Moleskine planner. THAT was scary! I've never bought a Moleskine, because they seem so.... professional? I don't know. Just never have. So here I not only saunter into Barnes and Noble and buy one (50% off, YES!), but then I come home, mask off the elastic strap, and dump GESSO all over it! Horrors. My heart was pounding!!!! But, in the end, it all came out beautifully.

Here is the cover.

Here is the side view. I took watercolor paper, some ancient Chatterbox paper, some mixed media paper, and a few other things and made "tip in" pages, which are held in place with strips of washi tape. It took forever, but it's gorgeous and chunky and fun and was SO worth it! 

So, each week, we will get a prompt that we will do a bit of art with and some journaling with. The first prompt was about your front door. I cheated. I put a different front door, because sketching is best kept simple for me. :) (right now!)  Here's what I did. I have not done my journaling yet, but I will! And on the other side of this page I plan to do a drawing about my word for the year (valor).

That's all for today! Thanks for stopping by!

a year in the life of...

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get so caught up in the day-to-day of life that I forget to appreciate the “big picture.” A few days ago, I did one of those “year in review” things on Facebook. I sat there waiting while it churned, thinking “yup, ok. another year, not much happened.” Then, when it finished, I looked and my soul smiled as I realized how much I’ve accomplished this year.

One of the things I really started to work on a few years ago was art. I started to really dig deep and create. This year, in the art area:

- I sold some art.

- I created 2 very large abstract canvases. This is one. It's called "Spring."

- I filled 1 ½ art journals (45 pages double sided in each one)

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- I learned to make art journals from blank watercolor paper and canvas cut from a roll, including stitching the binding and creating a beautiful cover.

- I was brave enough to give away one of the art journals I made to someone very special to me.

- I contributed one of my quilts to an auction that raised money to buy a safe house in the Philippines to help victims of human trafficking.

- I volunteered for a day with Habitat for Humanity and helped build a “Minion” themed playhouse.

- I blended a bottle of Merlot in a wine cave!

- My son turned 20. TWENTY! can you even believe that? I can’t. wow. yes, I know, not really my accomplishment, but still. wow.

- I talked about my career with 15 beautiful teenage ladies in The Gambia, Africa. It was a life changing hour and a half. Really. wow.

- I started doing DDP Yoga. I’m still doing it, after 180 days, and I’m down 33 inches and 28 pounds so far. This is a lifestyle I can do forever.

Not bad for a year where nothing happened, right? Even as I close this post, there’s so much more I could add, but I think it’s all good for now. 2013 has been unpredictable and a bit of a roller coaster ride, but it’s been a very good year! I am grateful.

Sunday Checkin

I haven't posted in a while, sorry about that, but I haven't been online as much because I have been completely consumed with creating things!

Last weekend, I set out to create a canvas for my dearest friend's daughter who is expecting her first child. This is what I ended up with.



The canvas is huge, 12 x 24! I used all of the collating and mixed media skills I have been learning on this one, let me tell you!! Tons od papers, stamping, Rubons, acrylic paints, India ink pens and markers. There is also a lot of doodling, the kind where if you look at this canvas long enough you will find little messages to the baby and parents. :-) this truly was a labor of love!! I am hoping to send it down with my husband, because he is planning to visit his folks pretty soon, but since that keeps getting postponed I may have to ship it.

A few weeks ago, I created this weird little art journal where you start with a 22x30 piece of watercolor paper and cut it and fold it and then sew it together, bookbinding fashion, to get a journal. I have been steadily adding to it... Very slowly. This was my first page.



It was inspired by a video that had a row of houses, which turned out to be an inspiration of a stamp of a row of houses. Mine looks nothing like theirs. LOL mine has way more houses, and the background is completely different. I want to do another version, on canvas, using book pages for the houses to add more dimension. This one is straight white gesso and acrylic paint. I think I dripped some watercolor paint down the tup too. I adore it. My husband uses the word "interesting." LOL

The next page in the album is this one.



This page makes me smile!! I used book pages, water colors, acrylics, pens, I doodled, and even distressed the page edges with ink. It is so pretty in person!!

This weekend, I decided to take it out and do another page.



The original page was a brilliant green. I added layers of glimmer mist, Radiant Pearls, paper flowers, acrylic paint, stamps, white wash, rhinestone designs, and more. It was crazy fun!!!! I love the quote too!!

I am almost done with the cover too, but I think that's another post.

Thanks for joining my crazy art journey. Notice I am calling it art now. I have decided that I am an artist, and I am toting with pursuing it more definitively.

I will be back tomorrow with a special canvas, and a special post!!!

Have a delightful and relaxing Sunday!

How can it already be March?

January and February didn't just fly by, they flew by at supersonic speed. I think it was because of the Soul Restoration class I took from Melody Ross. You know, the one I've been talking about nonstop. Yup.

It is over, sadly, but I have learned what I learned and it is Oh. so. amazing. If you are a woman, you need to take this class. Do it for yourself. Do it for those who love you. Do it for those you love. You will learn more about yourself by taking this class than you could learn in 100 therapy sessions. Truly. And it's all gentle and friendly because you let go and create with your hands, which frees your mind to focus on the true issues and true things you need to resolve. It was probably right up there as one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced. Right up there with visiting a Monarch butterfly migration area and seeing 5,000 or more butterflies. Right up there with the birth of my son. Yup. Truly. Take it. You'll be glad you did!

Although the class ended a week ago, Melody decided to throw in an extra week of curriculum for us. It was closure. What to do now that class is over, and what to do to keep growing until Soul Restoration 2 starts in June. Yea! Lovin' it! I did a couple of pages as a result, so I thought I would share. Since I had already filled in all of the pages in my album, I decided to add an acrylic page and fill it in front and back, instead.

On the front page, I used one of the graphics from the class, and then I added a little battenberg lace flower corsage that I have been carrying around for about 15 years. I guess at this point, it's vintage! I bought it at a Pacific International Quilt Festival and I've hung onto it for all this time, as I planned to put it on a baseball cap. See how well that's worked? Well, when you work on an acrylic page, it's clear. It's not easy. You can't just do whatever you want, flip it over and do whatever you want! You have to pay attention. Therefore, before I stuck anything down, I decided what the back of the page was going to look like. Here it is. I LOVE LOVE LOVE how this page turned out!!! Did I mention that I love it? Yea, I do. So, a few months back, I watched a tutorial on making flowers from a strip of silk. I made a few, then put the stuff away. Well, this past weekend, for this page, which is very important to me, I decided to make a flower. This is MY flower! I made it!! It was fun and I added a bit of tulle underneath it to add a bit more depth. Notice you can see the leaves from the battenberg piece on the other side through the acrylic. I like how it looks. I also added a strip of the satin on the right behind the circle. Very pleased, and now my soul album is complete. I'm a happy girl!

Now that Soul Restoration 1 is done, (and you can sign up for it by going to Brave Girls Club, it will be offered again in April), I've signed up for an art class with Christy Tomlinson called The She Art Workshop. It started yesterday. I'm having a blast, but so far, I don't have anything to show. It's a 3 week class, and I've watched this week's videos, but not much else done. I'll try to be better about posting what I'm doing as I go. Tonight I plan to work on things and get tons done!

Take care and make it a wonderful day.

A Girl and Her Art Journal

So, that's my art journal. can you believe how thick it is?? And that's with me trying to not go too crazy on adding thick things. I had it out last night and was thumbing through it. I LOVE my journal!!! I can see so much growth, in me and in my technique, in the year that I've been keeping it!

The page on the right that says "peace" is part of my Soul Restoration work (Content has been blocked, things you don't need to know! :) ). I've been doing a lot of work in my journal as part of this class. In fact, I've almost filled the journal, which is something I NEVER would have believed I would do! To be honest, the empty journal was a little daunting to me, because there was so much space and so much opportunity.
Here's part of another page for Soul Restoration. The title of this one is 'Do my actions fit my heart". This was a phrase in one of the class lectures, and it really struck a chord with me, so I doodled it onto a page, and later I came back and journaled, and then watercolored all over the page. If you saw the whole page (which you can't, because the journaling is kind of private!), you'd see that I watercolored a silly yellow flower in the center of the page. I'm having SO MUCH FUN doing stuff like this. Really. Who knew I would love this so much!

This journal is really special to me. I found it at University Art, and it was handmade. It's called a Punjabi Watercolor Journal, and is made by hand in India. I love it. I love the feel of the pages, and the deckle edging and the stitching in the center! It was ridiculously expensive, I thought. I think I pade $45 for it. Now, I'm glad I did, and I'm even happier that I went back and bought another one, so I'm ready to go when this one is full! :)

Make it a great day and craft something this weekend! I'll be at a scrapbook crop with the girls, giving a very brief workshop on collaging. Yay! So excited to share!

Week Four - Soul Restoration

I am still loving the Brave Girls Club Soul Restoration class. It's fabulous. I've learned so much about myself and why I am who I am and how I got here. It's been an amazing journey so far! I recommend this class for every woman. Really. It's that good! You can click on the Soul Restoration link on my blog to go and take a look. The next one starts soon, so don't wait! It will be the best money you spend this year! Plusalso, if you take it next time, you can take Part 2 with me in June!!!

This week is all about "She did it Anyway".
In other words, no matter what happened in the past, no matter how difficult things got, or what got in her way, she pressed on, persevered and did it anyway. You know there's lots more to it, but that's what I'm sharing. Here's one of my pages from this week. When I first finished this page, I didn't like it, or its companion. They were jumbled, messy, the new art technique, which I'll talk about in a minute, didn't quite do what I envisioned, and I just overall had a sense of displeasure.

As I "lived" with the page, however, each time I looked at it, I disliked it a little less. I'm now to the point where I can see that although I'm the one working the Mod Podge and the brush, I am reaching deep within to pull out the things that are important to me, and those are the things that are getting onto the page. If I look objectively at the page, I see that I am really struggling to move forward, and I think that's good! Obviously, I'm still a work in progress, but wow, what a long way I've come!

So, about that new technique. Melody did a series of new art technique videos for us, and one was just too cool to pass up. Boy did I get messy too! You take string or yarn or twine and you drench it in Mod Podge and then make shapes with it. I did the anyway in it, as well as the flower centers on this page. I had SO much fun! However, this was part of where my "diss" of the page came in. I used some leftover cotton yarn that I had from the dishcloths that I make for my mother in law every year. It was varegated in color, and I just used whatever landed in my hand. It happened to be at a color change, so half of anyway was white and half was navy. In retrospect, everything happens as it is supposed to, but once that baby was glued down, all I could see was the funky color change! By then, I had run with scissors and added all of my little phrases and stuff. Now what? I got out my bits of multi-color gold leaf and had at it. More Mod Podge, several layers of gold leaf and some medium mixed in and I was happier. :) That's when I decided to stop. LOL

The lesson for this week opens in a couple of hours. I know what I'll be doing this evening! I seem to settle in and watch all the videos on Tuesday evening and then, on Wednesday or Thursday, I dig in and get podgy. :)

On another note, I'm losing again, down another 1.5 lbs. Yea! Focus, baby. Get rid of the weight.

Last but not least, I want to throw out there that Christy Tomlinson is doing a class called She Art, starting in a few weeks, on art canvas painting. I'm totally taking it, want to join me? Sign up here: SheArt Workshop. I think it's going to be a blast! Christy does great tutorials. I did that Christmas tree canvas using one of her tutorials. I'm SO jazzed. It was $35 for 3 weeks... Yea!!!

~ Make it a great day and do something to get your hands all messy!

And so it starts...

Some years, Christmas just comes at you in a blazing flash of color, light, and fun. I think this year is going to be that sort of year, which means that the big challenge will be to hang onto it and enjoy every second!

Since 2007, I have done something called Journal Your Christmas, which is a class with journaling prompts every day for 37 days, from December 1st on. I love it, as it helps me capture the holiday and capture what we did each year. Last year, I realized that it was getting a little stale for me, because there is only so much writing you can do each year on each topic. So, I wasn't sure if I was going to do it this year, but I found a cool way to make my journal different and make it work for this year, so I am excited to get started!

Today, I sat down and created the cover. I LOVE it. It is so me. Spunky, sparkly, pink in places, and just fun. I think it also epitomizes this year, as I set out to learn more about creating my own journals, and art journaling in general.

I used two pieces of corrugated cardboard, acrylic paints in red, green, white, and silver. I also used about 5 different colors of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, plus Tattered Angels Glam in Chandelier, then I tossed on some brown and some gold Martha Stewart Glitter, and finally added a 3-D gift tag that I bought at Costco. Lastly, I add a very small photo frame with Christmas 2010 in it. (I won the frame in a raffle earlier this year, so it seemed appropriate to use!) The funniest part of the cover is that the corrugated cardboard is actually cut from the side of my latest Nutrisystem food delivery. All part of 2010!

That's my start. Watch out, it's going to be a fun year for this journal. I can tell.

37,000 words and then some...

Writing has always been easy for me, so this month has been challenging in that the writing process may be easy, but the actual writing has been very difficult at times. I've written 37,000 words. Some of it is probably good, some of it is probably fit for the round file, but all of it is from my heart. It's been an amazing process so far. I haven't even stopped to fix typos or capitalization errors or spelling, I've just really hunkered down and focused on getting ME out there on the pages. I'm so very proud of myself and I've learned so much. I'm not done, but man, I am a happy girl with where I've come!

On a side note, this seems to have opened up my art journal channel. Whether it's because I am trying to escape my writing or expand on it, I don't know, but I've been working in my art journal and I'm having fun with it. I'm going to share two pages here. First, you need to know that I took the photos with this cool iphone app called Hipstamatic. I'm SO in love with it! It intensifies the colors and adds a funky edging. I just love it.

This first page, "Power" is one that I started way back in March, after I took the class in art journaling. It was a watercolor background in pink, orange and yellow and it is very very soft, in person. I did the background and then it just sat because I could not figure out what else to do. Well, it spoke to me the other day, and off I went! I don't think I'm finished with this page (or the facing one that I'm not sharing), but I'm done for now. It says "When you run from your past - you lose your power." And, in tiny letters at the bottom, that you can't read, it says "And the past wins." This is my own personal truth, and something I've been discovering as I've done my writing this month. You can run, but you really can't hide, so why bother? Face whatever it is head on, smack it around a bit, and move on. Leave your baggage at the side of the road. Life is short and precious and the people you love are worth way more than the people who didn't love you. (Not necessarily talking about MY life, but that's all you need to know, ok?)

So the second page is a work in progress. It started out life as my first page in my journal. It did NOT turn out as I wanted it to. I kept trying to add to it, and it kept getting worse. I was not a happy girl. I was afraid I had ruined my journal with this hideous page that was all dark and ugly. Even the dreariest things I might want to journal didn't fit on this page! Over the weekend, however, I decided to do something about it and I came up with this page. I downloaded two beautiful images, the woman and the poppy. I fussy cut the poppy out and ripped the edges of the woman image. I also downloaded an image of pages from an old book, and ripped it up. I added some pages from my favorite victim, the dictionary and the catalog from the Art Institute of San Francisco, and off I went with my glue stick in hand. I have to admit, I LOVE this page.  It isn't done, not even close. I'm sure I have MUCH more work to do on it, plus I don't have a page facing it yet, but Oh my gosh, it's so pretty to look at just like it is. I realized how much I loved it tonight when I caught myself just running my hand over the page... I'd say that's a sign!

I'm finding that in my art journal at least, there seems to be a word that triggers the page, or the page triggers a word. It's a really interesting journey and I'm enjoying it immensely. I am so thankful for Julie who taught my first class, without her, I'd still be trying to figure out how to get started instead of jumping in with both feet and figuring it out as I go!

~ Take care and make it a wonderful day. Celebrate the beautiful life you have.

get it out, somehow.

Earlier this year, I took a fabulous art journal class. The instructor told us that the most important part of art journaling is to get your message out of your head and into your journal. You have to be one with the journal. She gave us tons of examples of how to do this. One that struck me as really goofy at the time was to put your words down and then paint over them. I could not imagine ever wanting to do that. Well, I'm here to tell you that it's SO liberating. I have been through a lot this year, personally, not things I want to share here (or apparently anywhere else!) and I have been writing in my art journal and painting right over those pages! It feels great to get the events out of my head and gone. The act of painting over them seems to be cathartic, as well. By the time I'm done, I find myself smiling. Yay! I love happy endings.

In other news, I am apparently participating in nanowrimo this year. I had not planned to participate, but when I started doing all this writing, I realized that I was on a roll. It may or may not be useful material, but if I can get 50,000 words out of me this month, that works for me, because it's 50,000 words that are no longer clamoring for attention in my head! The rules of nanowrimo, to me, are pretty simple: 50,000 words in 30 days of November. Nowhere does it say they have to be coherent or shared or make a complete story. I'm spilling words onto the page, incident by incident, and figuring that it will all come together somehow in the end, and if it doesn't? Oh well. At least, again, the words are out there, and not inside my little head. Some of it is really hard to write, and some of it, which I expected to be hard to write, is surprisingly easy to write. It's an interesting process, and yes, it's definitely a process. You need to have discipline to succeed at Nanowrimo, because 50,000 words is a whole lot of words. I should have close to 10,000 words done by the end of today and I'm at roughly 2500... I may not make it to 50,000 words this year and "win" but maybe I will. Life goes on, either way.

And that's the best news of all. Life. Goes. On.   Yea, Baby!

Just because I don't post doesn't mean I'm not creating!

Work has had me really busy. I mean, REALLY busy. Busy enough so that I have been working on pages in my art journal just to keep my sanity. Busy enough so that I got today off as a "comp day" instead of a vacation. Now that's busy, right?

Anyhow, I've had a lot of fun working on background pages in the journal, and I've also got a couple of pages that might even be done. I'm not sure if they are done, but I think they are. :)

Here's one of my favorite pages so far. I did this on a Saturday morning a few weeks ago. I don't know if it's actually done, but I do know that when I look at it, I feel a sense of peace and tranquility. I love it.

One of the techniques we learned at the art journal workshop was using pages from books, as well as tissue paper. I combined both of them on this page, along with a few pieces of scrapbooking stuff. The white book parts are from the Art Institutes catalog. Several years ago, I dreamed about going there, but eventually gave up because it's about $40,000 a year, way out of my budget. Anyhow, now I'm discovering my own style, and having a blast, and not spending any money at all. Gotta love it!

I'll try to keep posting them as the days go forward. I just took a bunch of pictures of what's done so I have plenty.

Finally, my "word for the year" this year is BLISS, and I'm checking in, mid year, to be sure I'm still following my bliss. I am, although it has taken a different direction than I thought it would at the start of 2010. I've renewed some special friendships, made some new friends, explored my inner hitman (by playing Mafia Wars), and done more art than in previous years. Yea. I'm living it. I'm also truly engaged at work, learning things that I never thought I could, and actually enjoying them. A-mazing. For example, next week, I'll be creating a graphic for a C-level exec's messages. Nice, huh? It's a small thing, but the graphic classes have panned out and I have new skills. I'm also the "button maker" for our team. Gotta love a good button! LOL I'm actually becoming "friendly" with the corporate graphic artist, and he's willing to take my designs and polish them up a bit to finalize them. I'm beyond excited about all of this.

Since I had today off, I made a "Raspberry-Lime Poke Cake." Mmmmmm! Steven's grilling kabobs for dinner, and we'll have cake once we finish. Can't wait.

-Follow your bliss... let it lead, and see where it takes you. <3

catch up

I can't believe the entire week has gone by and I haven't had any time at all to get anything posted. I have been constantly "at it" in the evenings, creating, sketching, coloring, but I haven't had time to get photos taken to post, until now, so here goes!

First is a watercolor background that I did this morning. I love the hills around our home, and I wanted to try capture their essence to use as a page. I love how it turned out! I am finding that I really enjoy just playing with the watercolor set that I bought. I feel very "at peace" when I work with them, and, although my pictures aren't fabulous or amazing, they make me feel good, and that's what this whole process is all about!

Second is a collage that I did last weekend. A couple of years ago, when I decided that I wanted to start taking Graphic Design classes, I got a catalog from the Art Institute. Naturally, their classes were prohibitively expensive, so I never pursued them, but I also never got rid of the catalog. I stumbled on it last Saturday, and started this collage on the pink/lime pages I had created previously. I've named the photo vulnerable. In looking at it today, I see so much that I must have been feeling when I put it together. Naked, exposed, and yet, I threw glitter all over the pages, maybe symbolizing that it was still all new and shiny to me? Unsure,but I really REALLY love this one!

Next and last for today is "start." This one was on the light blue painted pages. It has some issues, because even though they had dried for a coupe of days, the pages got stuck together.... so there are some messy spots, but it's an interesting page to look at. On the left side page, I took a botanical print and did a backwards print, then peeled off the wrong side to expose the print. On the right, I took a bunch of torn images and phrases from magazines and glued them down. I also added a stamped and built image that I had created and had just sitting around....

This last was the first page I "dirtied" in my beautiful journal. I think it was some kind of "rite of passage" to admit that I was going to do this. Maybe some day I'll do something else to the page to make it more appealing. For now, it is a humorous reminder that I need to take my time. :) I only used distress ink pads for the background, and they were pink. I don't know why it came out so down and dirty! 

Am I learning anything? Yes. Am I finding this to be a good life tool? Definitely. Am I having fun? Seriously.

What have you done in YOUR art journal?

Red

At the Juicy Souls Retreat at Work of Heart on Sunday, Julie Valentine was one of our instructors. Julie is a very talented lady, and I thoroughly enjoyed looking at all of her creations. She has a website, The Red Dragonfly, where you can see her work too. (She's also my friend on Facebook.)

On Monday, Julie posted a challenge on her Facebook account. Red. That's all, just red. Find things that are red, create red.

For most of the week, I mulled over red. I kept seeing things, but nothing inspired me and spurred me into motion. Until yesterday. On Wednesday evening, I had been reading an art journaling workbook and the author suggested smooshing acrylics onto pages (which I spoke about yesterday.) She said a particular favorite of hers is turquoise and red. Really? It stuck in my head. I thought about it all day yesterday. On the way home, I stopped at a craft store and bought some red and some turquoise. I went home, changed clothes, and sat with "the beautiful journal." It fell open to 2 pages (Love how that works!), and I got the paint and went for it.

Now, let's back up to just before I left work. I had a conversation that I'm not repeating here or discussing, with someone at work, that kind of left me a bit angry. If you have an open door policy then you have it. If you don't, then you don't. But don't come back at someone who used the open door policy and say "I know you did this..." Whatever. TMI. Back to the subject. By the time I was at the table smooshing those colors together, I knew the page was "I saw red." By the time I printed the pieces to make the title, I knew I also needed "and I didn't say a thing." By the time it was dry, I had to add (in my own writing) (for once.)

Here is the page. It isn't done by any means, but I do think I'm starting to get the hang of this. By the time I finished, I felt better about yesterday. I think this is good. I also think it's far healthier than keeping it inside and mulling for days.

Later in the evening, while I was watching "Grey's Anatomy", I did the doodle below. I love to doodle, and I love coloring in my doodles with my markers.

I'm going to let these happen as they do and see where they go. I'm taking in so much new information on journaling, collaging, and doodling right now that I think it just has to escape somehow. :) AND THAT'S OK!

Blue Paint

Last night after work I got my nails done. They were beautiful, a French manicure with pink and white tips. Steven and I went out for pizza (Josh is away this week, being a counselor at Camp Campbell Science Camp.). When we got home, I got out the pretty journal and sat fondling it for a bit, then went and got a couple of colors of blue acrylic paints (the kind in the bottles, you know, $1 a bottle). I had stopped at Barnes and Noble on the way home and bought a book on collaging/art journaling and read about a technique where you dump blobs of the paint on the page and then "moosh" it around with your hand. Yes, I did. Really. I need more colors. :) I think I have found something that's comfortable to do in order to get the ball rolling. I did 2 facing pages, and they are really pretty!

Today, I'm sitting here at my desk and all I can think about is getting home to those two pages and adding stuff to them! And that's fine, that's what is supposed to happen. However, as I'm editing some web pages, I glance down at my hands on the keyboard and see a streak of blue paint on one fingernail. I washed my hands, I showered, really I did. I'm thinking it was there to remind me that I have 2 yummy blue pages waiting to be worked on!

My mission for this weekend is to clear off the drafting table that lives in my studio, and to find the floor of the studio while I'm at it. I've been on the go so much that I have neglected things in there, and I've got stuff spread across the house. I need to get that under control so I can focus on this art journal and have a place to relax and enjoy working on it, surrounded by all of my "stuff."

I also read an online article about artist trading cards. I've stayed away from them because I just didn't understand them. Now I'm realizing that, much like the art journal, there isn't anything TO understand. You slap them together and they speak to you as you go. I believe I have had a breakthrough!

Lastly, I've decided I need a bucket list. This whole 50 thing has me thinking about all of the things I've always wanted to do and never done. It's time to make that bucket list before much more of my life flashes past! Go me. I think I could make that a continuing page in my art journal, no? Maybe instead of a simple list I can find images. hmmmm. Liking this idea. Glad I wrote it here.

It's all in how you look at it...

Turning 50 is a milestone, but it's just a number. I am going to pursue my art and learn more and do more than I have up until now! This past Sunday I took an art journaling class and came home totally inspired to learn more and do more. I never stopped to think about the fact that all of the photography, quilts, purses, scrapbooks, journals, and other things represent a "body of work." MY body of work. Representational of MY life and MY creations. It's a bit overwhelming, in fact. I'm going to get used to it, embrace it, make it mine and own it in this next 50 years!

With a bit of perseverance and luck, this blog will be my home for all of that growth and maybe it will provide inspiration to others along the way!