Leibster Blog Award!

So I am pretty new to the blog world and am quickly becoming an avid and addicted fan. I tend to play hopscotch and click links from blog to blog to blog... It is so refreshing to see so many creative people sharing what they love with everyone possible. What an amazing community with such incredible talent.

Today I was delighted to receive a Leibster Blog Award from the lovely Carolyn from Little Gretel Dolls. I may or may not have used up 30 minutes of company time when I got lost in the magic of her blog at work. Whoops. But hey, we all need a little magic in our lives right? Her blog is beautiful... the perfect place to get lost. Thank you so much Carolyn :)

The way the Leibster works is once you receive it, you want to share the love. Pick three of your favorite blogs (I have read somewhere that blogs with under 100 followers are preferred?) and pass the award on to them. Here are three blogs that brighten my days:

Such Pretty Canvas by Shahrul Niza. She is a mixed media artist with a fabulous eye for color. I am in love with her art journal pages!

Also loving Sasha Fitzgerald's blog, lacewinged.com. Fashion, findings, art, life, and LOTS of eye candy. It's a happy feel-good kind of place.

Imported Eyedea by Kt... this girl writes with charisma that will make you crack up... like out loud. She shares her life in her blog and is what? Oh, a fantastic and unique jewelry maker.  

Well... time to get to art journaling... is it Friday yet?

Rainstorms and Symbolism.

It rained today, for the first time in seemingly forever. I am pretty much 100% guilty of being all sad and gloomy when it rains; the sun and warmth and glow just feed me. Yet there is something magical about those certain rainstorms that end and then the sun comes out immediately afterwards. Like the old has been washed away and the new is coming in loud and strong. That happened tonight. So I took a walk and decided to try to appreciate the rain. Of course I took my camera... here is a bit of my journey!

NOT Just Another Manic Monday.

By Starlight Woods on Etsy

Monday mornings are not my friend. As a general rule, Sunday nights are not either... because I spend them dreading Monday mornings. Currently I am trying to break free of the "living for the weekend" mindset that I have become completely entrapped in. Sure, ideally I do not want to spend eight hours of my day at my desk at work. But right now, it is what I have to do. So I need to make the most of it, even be thankful for it, because after a long work day I appreciate my free time even more. 

So of course, today my alarm went off at 6am, and I felt the grumpy feeling creep in as soon as I opened my eyes. Normally I hit snooze as many times as possible because I don't want to get out of bed and face the fact that my worst enemy has arrived... then I frantically rush around all fussy because I'm borderline running late. So this morning I thought, "Hell, what's an extra 30 minutes of sleep?" and I got up. Drank a Red Bull. Turned on the 90's music station on TV. Opened the patio door to let the sunlight and breeze in. Watered my pots. Then started thinking of things I was thankful for and things I was looking forward to. It was just 30 minutes, but it changed my entire mood and outlook on the day. I'm trying to do little things like this lately, just to stop and breathe and appreciate. 

SO, that being said, I am now super excited for summer, weekend trips, days by the pool, the State Fair (so I like fried things on sticks, don't judge!), taking pictures, taking walks, candles and wine on the patio... this is such a wonderful time of year. There are some fantastic summery treasuries popping up all over Etsy right now... here are some of my favorite items!

By Crimson and Finch

By Joliejye

From Duryea Place Designs

By Land of Dante

By Katlix

I could go on forever but better get back to work...

Garden Fun!

Four years ago on my birthday, my mom was stumped when it came to a birthday present when she suddenly had an idea. I had just moved to a new apartment; it sits on the corner of the building and I have a cute little patio and a decent-sized mulch bed (for an apartment). She said, "How about I buy you flowers and we plant a garden?" I was skeptical at first. I am not so much a domestic goddess and only cook using the microwave. Wasn't gardening hard? How would I know how much to water, or where to plant, or what to trim?? Long story short, four years ago I discovered I have a wicked green thumb. Someday when I have a house of my own, it will have a huge garden. Like the Secret Garden. And I will do it all myself, because I like to. It was the best present ever and now the day I plant my flowers becomes, never fail, one of my favorite days of the year. This weekend was flower weekend. Some photos of the process...

Once I start planting, I go into this craze where I cannot stop until it's done because I cannot wait to step back and see what everything looks like. My mom always helps me lay things out because she is also a fabulous gardener and know how tall things grow... things I am still learning :)

Finally finished!

View looking in sideways...

Found some interesting geraniums and some black velvet petunias to put in pots!

My brother got me those little lights for my birthday... they have solar cells on top and charge all day then light up at night! 

Decided to pot the million bells this year... they always go nuts when I put them in a hanging basket.

Herb corner. This year is basil, parsley, cilantro... and my "rescue plant" that I think is spearmint. Someone left it by my patio, probably knowing I'd make use of it.

Now I feel like it is officially summer. Garden is planted, pool is open, sun is shining. I love how life just kind of flows a little easier this time of year. Can't wait to light some candles, pour some wine, and have a patio art journaling session tonight. 

Album Cover Collages: A College Love.

I took a drawing class in college once... the instructor's name was Andrea Moreau and she was fabulous. One of the first things she had us do was keep a sketchbook and turn it in every week. She always said she wouldn't read too closely in case the contents were private, but it was very important to her that we saw the value in keeping one. Ever since that class, I have had an art journal. It has become pretty much a part of me. Like I'm pretty sure if my apartment was burning down, I'd run out with a kitty under each arm and my journal in my teeth. 

Another thing I learned in that class was to embrace mixed media; Andrea let us use pretty much anything we wanted in our work. Well... as a poor college student, I needed an inexpensive idea for my final project. I was in this record store one day and they had some boxes of vintage album covers. The art on some of them was really cool; I think I went through the box like five times. The friend I was with came over, saw me looking, and knowing my love for mixed media said, "You know, I bet you could make some really cool art out of those." Suddenly about 1000 lightbulbs went on and a new love was born. And the best part: they were maybe $0.25 apiece. I probably have 50 or so hanging around my studio waiting to be revived. Each one becomes like its own little world. As a very indecisive and impulsive artist (and person in general) it is amazing to have a jumping off point. I can look at an old album cover and almost instantly feel the shape I want it to take on. 

Now that I think about it, it has been a couple of months since I have whipped one of these up. Perhaps tonight I will pour a glass of wine, revisit an old love, and celebrate the fact that it is almost the weekend.

Springtime Inspiration and Thankful Things

When did it get to be the end of May? Even though June 1 is not the official first day of summer, it always has kind of been that way in my mind. Remember being a kid in school and when the month of June rolled around it was like home free? After a very up and down month, I am refocusing my attitude and energy and inspiration. One thing that has been amazing to do lately is go on little adventures with my camera on gorgeous sunny days and try to capture that magical feeling of spring. I am super amateur when it comes to photography, which is kind of nice because there is pretty much no pressure to make things look a certain way. I just do what I want and have been so so happy with the results. I love laying in the grass to get a certain angle, or pulling some sort of contortionist move to capture branches the way I want. Getting weird looks from people makes it even more fun. 

I became very frustrated with myself during the "downs" this month because honestly, it's not that bad. Frustrations at work and a feeling of not having enough time to do what I really want got to me this month, like a lot. Sometimes I would just want to sit on the couch and watch TV, but then feel guilty because I knew I should be drawing, painting, or working on something. That feeling of like I had to do it really took the fun out of something that I otherwise love, yet due to my job I have limited time to work. Pretty much a vicious cycle of frustration.

So to get through the downs, I started thinking of little things that I am thankful for, kind of a reminder that there are about a million good things to notice at any given time. Some of what I came up with...

1) walks in the sunshine with no set destination

2) laugh out loud funny random internet pictures

3) new paintbrushes, markers, paper, art supplies in general

4) cool showers after a long run

5) listening to music by the pool

6) the feeling of 5:00 on Fridays

7) weekend trips

8) pizza delivery

9) a nice bottle of wine

10) air conditioning

11) bracelets

12) nights with 1,000,000 stars

13) having the patio door open and feeling the breeze

14) discovering other inspirational people

15) websites like Etsy, Pinterest, and Flickr... more inspiration than you can handle

16) good books (and being able to read them)

17) music. Spotify. blast a song and sing it loud. instant mood lifter.

18) baby animals

19) a soft bed at night

20) flowers. lots of flowers.

Being grumpy is selfish I think. Kind of lost that knowledge this past month and was a bit too self-pitying. Time to turn it around. Bring it on, June!

Art Journaling and Life in General

Inspiration can be very fickle for me. I remember back in December/January I was never tired. I would stay up all hours of the night and work furiously and had so many ideas that I couldn't get them all down in time. I would get coffee on my way home from work at 5, throw my things down just inside my door, and be covered in paint and glue in a matter of minutes. Then life happened. I can't exactly put my finger on it but know that it was a combination of job stress, personal stress, personal doubt, and just an overall feeling of blah that pretty much sucked every ounce of inspiration out of me. I want to be one of those people who is just inspired all the time. I know that that isn't possible and even the most passionately creative souls can fall into ruts. But aim high right? That way if I'm inspired 80% of the time then that's a great. Learning to turn life's many frustrations into creative energy can be tricky sometimes, but I think I'm getting better at it. AND I keep dreaming of the days (hopefully soon to come) that my frustrations are drastically lowered... :)

So yeah. Art journals. I swear mine weighs about ten lbs now. I have had to add duct tape to the binding and inside cover because it is literally bursting at the seems (Random note: one of my biggest pet peeves is when people misuse the word literally. ie: I literally died. No, you did not, as you are still talking). I love to start with no plan and just glue and paint away and suddenly there is this whole unexpected little world right in front of you. It's like your mind, on paper. And you can see and read and touch it. Imagine if everyone had one. Maybe that is just the nosy person in me, but I'd be very interested to read certain peoples' journals. My pages crack me up sometimes because they are pretty much the perfect representation of my mind: busy, disjointed, vibrant, messy, crazy, indecisive. It's an outlet. It's something I feel strongly about and believe whole-heartedly in. Maybe someday I'll teach a class. Not so much about technique, but just opening a blank page and letting go. What you end up with might surprise you.