Turning The Tides Of The Day

Today started out pretty rough, what with arguing with my ex and helping a friend through a shitty situation similar to the one I had been through.

My first and only dog was a sweet border collie mix named Anonda. I only took pictures with Snapchat so you can add me. The name is kiwikat39. She snuggled me and made me feel a little better.

Her owner gave me the tip that would ultimately determine that I was getting my Bluetooth keyboard today. This will enable me to better keep up with the blog on the go without lugging around my computer.

My mom bought me an SD card for my camera which now has a charge since the cord finally came in for it. I also bought a book that will ultimately be destroyed and sacrificed to the art journal gods.

Here is a sneak peak of a page that I am working on. I haven't figured out exactly where I am taking it, but it brings to mind the question of what it is that I can resist. Is it truth that I can or some lie that I have told myself to make me believe that I am stronger than I am.

I brought out my big visual journal for this project which was simply inspiring quotes to make me feel better when I start to feel down. Whether or not that works is yet to be seen.

I think that's all for today. I will try to work in my journals some more so that I can update more.

Musings And Momentos

Despite being off, I didn't manage to accomplish nearly as much as I had planned to. It seems life always strives to get in the way somehow.

I did manage to finish what is supposed to be the second page of a two page spread; ironically enough, without ever touching the first page. Oh well, I will get there.

With my career at Petco coming to an end, it was time to start cleaning out my things. Amongst these were a heart made out of tie wraps from the treat bags and just some little creatures and such drawn for me by my subordinate, otherwise referred lovingly to as my "minion". These seem to have finished the page as far as I can tell along with the code to the lock on our cabinets. It just seemed appropriate to keep it.

This page is attached to the "Endings Are Bittersweet" one. This was not the original plan, but again, it seemed appropriate. This is my original name tag and discount card from when the original manager that hired me was there. As you can probably see, the page is far from finished.

As this blog progresses and my journals progress, I will probably reference back to previous pages as is the way with life. We are always referencing the past and it oftentimes helps determine our future.

Much like my life, I have no idea where this blog is going; the parts of my secrets, my past, my life that I find myself sharing with others.

I suppose that is something only time will tell...

Be patient with me. Things will get better.

Ultimately, this blog is about sharing with you; my life, my goals, my hopes and dreams, my art; be it in the form of my journals, jewelry or whatever else comes to be.

As always, comments and opinions are welcome and appreciated!

On Hope And The New Year

With the new year comes the promise of many new things; with the new year comes the promise of hope.

Hope for love and hope of resolutions yet to be broken. The new year is filled with it. 

Lovers rejoice that they have made it this far and vow to make it to the next. Friends celebrate and swear to be as they are forever.

The night before is filled with drinks and celebrations; of romance and of happiness.

This is a good thing and time not to be squandered. If only we all carried the same amount of hope, of drive throughout the year. Think of how much we could get accomplished; how much we could do.

I hope this year is different; for you and for me. I hope it's the best year of our lives so far. I hope it's filled with happiness and healing.

I hope to finally make my own path, to learn to leave the past and the pain behind; to finally learn to be happy.

I hope to fill page after page of my journals; both the regular journal and my visual journal for that is where I believe I will find my salvation; my own little piece of paradise and happiness.

I have my chance. I have my hope.

I just pray that I can make the most of it.

Updates On Some Pages

I know I'd been way longer than I said, but it couldn't really be helped with the holidays and with work. Yesterday was the first chance I actually got to work in my journal besides just placing the random line here and there.

I did manage to get a few things done. (by done, I mean I put something-anything on the page)

I put a simple border in watercolor crayon on this page which is still far from finished. I'm just simply not sure what I want to do with it at this stage in the game.

Here, I just outlined the word "Alive" and colored it in with yellow watercolor crayon in case I wanted to do anything with it later.

Again, I used watercolor crayons and actually used the waterbrush on them. I outlined the word "Breathe" as a simple reminder to myself.

Here, for some reason, I decided to jump to the end of the journal and start drawing flowers the way my cousin taught me to do so very long ago. Then I decided that I needed to honor the fact that it was the very last page.

Last night was a night of reflection and of cake liquor. I spent the most time on the last page and thinking. The words ring true and that's all I'll write on that lest a blog post turn into a journal entry.

More to come soon!!!

More Progress On My Two Page Spreads

I didn't have much time today. The weekends are always a terribly busy time, but I did want to include some kind of update on my work.

Now we see why not changing the past is important. I sometimes have to remind myself that I cannot and therefore, there is no use in dwelling on it.

I'm hoping keeping these journals, keeping this blog will further help me to heal. Perhaps I shall make a list of more rules for healing.

A friend said this to me the other day when I showed him the first page in my journal that had the words "Never Too Late". The words stuck with me so I decided to surprise him with a spread using them. It's far from done, especially the first page, but so far I am quite pleased with results and progress.

I need to find the cord to my camera so that I can take better and more detailed pictures. You can see a bit of the border on the second page at least and everything but part of an "e" on the first page.

More updates to follow though it may be Sunday or Monday before I get a chance to post again.

On Unfinished Two-Page Spreads

I managed to get a little done on my day off. I started the second page of a spread (first has not been started yet). The background was red gauche that i was playing with yesterday, but I deemed a plain red background with nothing on it as pretty uninteresting. The border is stolen from Zentangle and as of yet, unfinished as you can see.

Hmmm....So what is starting again. What exactly does this mean? Well, that's for me to know (assuming I do) and for you to find out.

The second is another gauche page that I did yesterday. The words were added today and are part of another two page spread. The second page in the spread is sponged gauche that I worked with today to see how light I could get it while still having it match the first page of the spread. I am pretty happy with the results. 

Words of Truth That We Should All Keep In The Back of Our Minds

More on this will come after I get at least the words onto the second page of the spread. 

All In A Day's Work

Today has been a busy day, what with working at my day time job, shopping for miscellaneous art supplies and actually working on some journal pages.

The Day's Score

I acquired some pockets and glued then into the backs of both visual journals that I'm using at the moment for ticket stubs, memorabilia, or whatever other things I decide to cut out and use. I bought some stickers, (just because they were pretty) glue sticks, modge podge, craft brushes, mini erasers and portable pencil sharpeners. I also went back later and got some gauche and a tiny portable palette to experiment and play with.

The Beginnings of my Test Page

The Page I Used To Clean Off My Mixing Tool

An Experiment Page With Mixing Gauche

Just Playing With Outlines

My Goodies

The Visual Alphabet is taken from Doodle Revolution by Sunni Brown and is based on the principle that everything can be drawn or doodled using those simple shapes and figures. It seemed like a good idea to put it in the other visual journal that I just started using.

That particular journal also hold the test page for most of my travel kit; some Prismacolor pens, Derwent watercolour pencils and my set of miniature colored pencils. I have another page with tests from my watercolor kit, but I'm not happy with the results and therefore not ready to post it.

The Visual Alphabet