It's All About The WHIMSY!

Art Journaling

A few recent additions to my No More Excuses journal...

Ho! Ho! Ho!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

 

Fa La La La La

La La La La!

Weekend wandering

A weekend away in the Berkshires of Massachusetts..

lovely long hikes through the woods

great friends, music and food!

What a pleasure to see John Williams conduct the Boston Pops..and a special treat that Morgan Freeman narrated the event!  Such a fabulous time!

Just glorious, the magic of nature!

Edith Wharton's home, The Mount.

A beautiful morning that ended with a Mozart concert at Tanglewood

and a drive home through some rather nasty weather.  

Inside my NME Journal

A quick peek inside my daily journal

So much fun and not at all time consuming-just enough to get the creative juices flowing in the morning.

Care to play?  Then head on over here!  You will love it!

Atelier Artistico

Artfest Preparations!

Artfest in Port Townsend is but a few days away!  Oh how I love this annual trek to the Northwest to "play" uninterrupted with like minded artists for a few precious days.  Much advance work needs doing and this is a sample of my efforts.

A small handmade journal for the trip to record the experience.  And below the making of a bound painted paper book.

After several hours spent ripping and painting papers, now comes the fun part-binding.  This technique is a tape binding I learned last year at Artfest  from the lovely and talented LK Ludwig.  This book is for her Saturday workshop " Parts of a Whole".  

A recycled vintage children's book will provide my cover.  I know that some have "issues" with this practice but trust me, the inside pages were badly water damaged, so much so that I could not rescue any of them for other projects.  My local antiques dealer kindly saves these lost souls for me at a very reduced price. 

And how perfect that it is Alice in Wonderland!  Because that's exactly where I am headed...down the rabbit hole!

I'm no Jane Austen but I can write..

      
 

"I am not at all in a humor for writing.  I must write on until I am."

 Jane Austen

 

And write I do! I can't remember a time when I didn't keep a journal.  See the shelf above?  These are but a few of my journals.

I have a garden journal that spans 10 years of garden growth and change; travel journals for each and every adventure, and project journals for workshops and classes.

All of life's events...pregnancy, birth, moving across the country..check. It's all in there.

 

Some journals are full of photos and poetry.

                   

Some contain nothing but my record of the events of the day and whatever might be foremost in my mind.  These are occasionally amusing, and sometimes heartbreaking.  Such power in words! 

                                            

As each one filled I would search store shelves for the next "right" journal...

Love the cover!...eh, not so happy about the paper...

Great paper!, hate the cover image.

I've given up and now make my own, filled with whatever paper suits my fancy!  And I control the cover art!  Sweet! I don't know what took me so long to reach that brilliant conclusion!

These are a few of my favorites..

                                                  

                                                    

    
                                                    

I finished the last page in my current journal this morning.  Tomorrow morning I will begin anew with that blank page staring at me.

 

Do you keep a journal?  Care to share?