Weekend Journal

It's been a quiet week and a contemplative, melancholy week.  Winter does that to me and I don't like it one bit hate it.  It's like fighting an upper respiratory infection.  You feel the first signs - that tickling, scratchy feeling at the back of your throat, the slight heaviness in your chest,  but you try to ignore the symptoms and pretend you're going to be fine.  Of course, all the pretending in the world doesn't postpone the inevitable.  Before you know it, you're hunkered down in a pile of blankets trying to make sense of your surroundings as you try to mask your symptoms with medications that make you feel like you're in a Tim Burton movie.

So here I am, feeling like I've fallen into the rabbit hole and am late for afternoon tea with Johnny Depp.  "There all mad here!" (all the thoughts that rattle around in my brain), but I hold on to the little bit of sanity I have with journal and piano in hand.

FABRIC JOURNAL UPDATE

I've begun working on the pages for my fabric journal and I'm having quite a lot of fun with these pages.  I'm making the pages as bright and colorful as the cover.  Here are a few snippets of what I've been doing.  I'll show you the journal in it's entirety as soon as it's finished.

SKETCHBOOK JOURNAL

Remember the sketchbook Keith gave me during my birthday week and my pledge to sketch every day?  Well, it took me a while to get going on it, but I've been on a roll the last few days.

I couldn't get motivated to sketch at first, so I just began doodling and writing thoughts down.

I thought it might help to add some color to the background.  Good idea except I used water soluble pastels - NOT a good idea!  My pens weren't too happy on that surface.

I used a fine point Sharpie on the left, and General 's charcoal pencils on the right.

I brushed black India ink on the page and drew in the face with a General's  Charcoal White pencil

I used my General's Pastel Chalk Pencils (another birthday gift)  for this sketch

I'm now enjoying sketching in this book once or twice a day now.  Maybe I'll get a handle on using pastels by the time I reach the end of the book!

LEARNING PIANO

Have I mentioned that I've been teaching myself piano since early May?  I've wanted to play piano since I was probably four years old. (I say four because I know my brother wasn't around yet).  I recorded myself on video yesterday thinking that I'd share it with you.  NOT going to happen!  Even though I hit every note perfectly, I was quite reminded of Frankenstein's monster.  I'll spare you - for now.  I'm a little annoyed that I can't play like Mozart yet, but to my credit, he was MUCH younger than I when he began playing!

The truth of the matter is I may never become anything more than "competent" on the piano, but that doesn't matter.  The great joy it gives me is priceless, and it puts a smile on Keith's face as he listens to me stumble through my debuts on "the newest song I've learned".

So that's what's going on in my neck of the woods this week.  How have you been?  What are you doing in your journal?  Do you play piano?  What are your favorite tunes?  Do you have a favorite website for piano tutorials?  I'll see you again on Monday with mandala number 14.

CELEBRATE * LOVE * CREATE

Weekend Journal

Well, here we are again - another week has seemingly flown by and we find ourselves here in mid-January already.  It was a busy week, and I have this strange sensation of time being a figment of my imagination.  Things that I know I did this week seem like they happened weeks ago!  Have you felt it, or is winter making me a little nuts despite the nice weather we've been having?  Nice weather - until now, that is.  Today's talk of the town is the weather, but we'll get to that later.

JOURNAL PAGES FROM THIS WEEK

Here are three journal spreads from this week, all in three different styles inspired by subject matter and imagery.  Do you recognize two of the images that I used from the calendar pages I posted last week?

Collage, gesso, Pitt pen, acrylic paint

Gesso, collage, acrylic paint, Sharpie fine point marker.

Acrylic paint, water soluble pastel

FABRIC JOURNALS

My class continues to work on fabric journals throughout January.  We are all having a great time with these!  I have assembled the cover for my first journal, and I'm really pleased with the way it.  I can't stop looking at all the bright, patchwork of colors, and I can't stop running my fingers over the embellishments!

There are sequins, buttons, fibers, beads, lace, and charms sewn to the cover.  That's Christmas garland sewn along the edge of the front cover.   I can't wait to show you the finished product!

Here's what it looks like opened with both the inside front and back covers.

Here's the outside back cover.  I'll be adding a couple things to it, but not much.  I have the signature pages prepared to sew inside of my journal, but I've decided to complete the journal pages before attaching to the book.

PHOTO JOURNAL - SNOW!

As I said, today's big story is the snow.  Snow is usually no big deal here - after all, I live in the Northeast Ohio snowbelt!  What makes this a big deal is that we've gotten use to 40 degree weather, and we got absolutely hammered with snow overnight.  Keith measured 18" this morning around 8am.  I'm just a little annoyed as I was supposed to be judging an art show this morning.  Que Sera, I guess.  It finally stopped snowing about 2 hours ago, and now that I've resigned myself to the fact that I am indeed snowbound, it's really beautiful.

Keith finally got a path cleared to the bottom of the deck stairs.  It's been a very long time since we've seen this much snow!

My little red zoom, zoom (Mazda) looks like a mini van sitting in the driveway!

Standing at the end of my driveway looking west at snow-laden pines.  Gorgeous! 

MY ARTIST SON

I'm really excited to share my son's video with you.  It's really artsy, and this proud mom has watched it....well, let's just say a lot!  I can't wait to see Mike's next artistic endeavor.  I think he's found his creative niche, don't you?  I suggest watching on YouTube and in HD if you can.  The video is set to a musical score, so you'll want to turn my blog radio off.  Please comment and "Like" (if you do!) to encourage my budding artist!

Well, I guess that's about it for this Weekend Journal edition.  I hope you're snuggled in and warm in your neck of the woods, and I hope your creative genes are bursting with inspiration.  Until next time, much love and many blessings to you!

CELEBRATE * LOVE* CREATE