Journal Pages : My Favorites

I've done a few journal pages that I really love over the past few weeks. The most recent have been very inspired by Samantha Kira and Sabrina Ward Harrison (especially because I bought India ink for the first time and have been loving using it for the title of my pages). It's been a lot of fun to get really messy with paint instead of just working with paper and pens.









Happy Memorial Day, y'all! I hope all of you in the states are enjoying the holiday weekend!

Foodie Friday : Cooking + Art

OH MY GOSH, PEOPLE. I have found a seriously amazing site. It's art, it's graphic design, it's food... It's all my favorite things rolled up into one beautiful package.

I introduce you to They Draw and Cook. A recipe site where art directors, designers and artists submit illustrated recipes. ILLUSTRATED RECIPES. Such a beautiful idea. This site is my happy place.

Here are some of my favorite entries, although I strongly encourage you head over and see how beautiful the site is for yourself. This needs to be a cookbook. Now. NOW.

Beautiful : "Moments" by Radio Lab

Just watch.

Project : Sketchbook

I'm starting on a new project! Ever since I got back into art journaling recently, I've felt something was missing. The pages just aren't as deep or as personal as I want them to be. I love the mixed-media style of the "Tell Your Story" class, and I know Elsie and Rachel are catering to a wide range of skill levels, but it doesn't take much to cut paper and paste it to a page. That is great for some, but I want to push myself a little further. Which brings me to Project : Sketchbook!

I have a brand new 5" x 7" journal that I'm dedicating to improving my drawing and sketching skills. If you couldn't tell from the links I shared yesterday, I am quite smitten with people's art journals that have that hand-drawn elements, whether they be precise and accurate drawings or loose, interpretive sketches. I'd like to do at least 3 drawings per week, and then slowly begin to incorporate drawings into my art journals.


In particular, I have such trouble with people and faces. And I'm not about to go stare at a real person while I practice sketching for an hour. So I had the genius idea to turn to a wonderful website that regularly features vibrant characters (and clothing!)-- The Sartorialist!

Here is my first attempt as a sketch. It's obviously not perfect, with a wonky nose and too-big eyes, but I like him. I think he's got personality and I think it's a good start at getting back into drawing. I'd love work on loosening my style and doing more gestural and contour drawings. I'm excited to see how my skills change with regular practice!

Links + Love 05.24.10

As soon as the temperature outside rises above 80 degrees, I become quite the hermit. Most people love the sun and summer, but it's no wonder I want to move to Portland, Oregon. I long for 60 degree, overcast, drizzly days. So this weekend, with the temps approaching 90, I had ample time to do some fresh exploring around the internets from the cool comfort of my air conditioned abode. And I discovered a slew of great links that I'm here to share with you today.

Linky Loves:

* Pugly Pixel amazes me with her free clip art offerings, especially her most recent, "Paper Buffet." AAAA-mazing.

* I love this 3-part blog series about how to art journal: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

* This art journal Flickr set by Geninne is stunning. And check out her illustration work as well.

* This sandwich from Kate Miss was dinner last night, and it was holy delicious. We swapped out the garlic aioli for goat cheese mixed with garlic and basil and used sliced sweet potatoes instead of mashed.

* My face is soft as a baby's bum thanks to this tip by makeup artist Kandee Johnson.

* I was so excited to see that I was featured on the "This Week In Design" blog after blogger Jennifer Wilke came across my art journal through Explore on Flickr. Thanks for the mention, Jennifer! :)

Real-life Loves: AIR CONDITIONING! Teal nail polish. Sandwiches. Hummus. Packages in the mail. LOST finally being over (My husband was a fan, me not so much). Being surprised with chocolate truffles. Cuddling. Netflix streaming to both the Blu-Ray player and the Wii. Iced tea.

Have a great Monday!

Thursday Things : Darlingtonia Moccasin Co.

When I was young, we used to take summer vacations with the whole family up to northern Wisconsin. One of my favorite parts of the trip was the days we'd spend browsing the numerous gift shops in the tiny towns. And without fail, we always made a stop at a Minnetonka Moccasin outlet. I still remember my favorite moccasins-- white leather with the characteristic fringe and seed-bead red eagle embroidered onto the toe. Definitely the depiction of high-fashion, let me tell you.

I thought my interest in moccasins had completely faded as soon as I realized that it wasn't cool to wear a beaded eagle on the toe of my shoe. However, I just about died when I saw these DARLING moccasins from the appropriately named Darlingtonia Moccasin Co. I'm so smitten with these. The beautiful colors, the careful details-- it's all perfect. Charming. Sweet. How many more sugary adjectives can I come up with? Now if only I could remember who owes me $129.00.....

Do you know why my husband is the best?

Because this is what he brings me when I'm having a bad day.
He knows flowers don't do anything, but chocolate truffles go straight to this girl's heart.
They're totally gorgeous, right? (That didn't stop me from eating them, though.)

Minted Birthday Contest.

I hadn't planned on doing any more Minted design contests for a while, since I had a small snafu with my last winning entry; however, once I start playing around with an idea, I can't always stop. I ended up liking this design for a boy's birthday invitation and submitted it to the Infant/Baby category in the current Birthday Challenge contest.

My entry: Around the Sun
I had fun with the space theme and playing with the wording. I've gotten some great comments on the design so far, including several comments from some well-known veteran Minties, which I greatly appreciate. Voting is now open on the Birthday Challenge, so if you happen to be registered on the Minted site already or want to share your support and vote for my design (and the many other wonderful entries), I would love you forever! :) [You can just click here to go to my entry or here to view them all.] Thanks to anyone who votes!

Don't Judge.

[Attention Non-Gilmore Girls Fans: The first few paragraphs might not make any sense at first, but I promise I do get to my point eventually. Also, WHY DO YOU NOT WATCH GILMORE GIRLS? What's the matter with you? I kid, I kid.]

Yesterday morning I was curled up in blankets on the couch, moaning and cursing the world thanks to the most miserable time of the month. To cheer myself up a bit I turned on an episode of Gilmore Girls that was on TV. Gosh, I love that show.

The episode that was airing was when Lorelai helped Rory move into her dorm at Yale for the first time. Ignoring the fact that the episode made me cry (remembering my own brave first days at college, and being overly emotional thanks to PMS), I happened to find one scene in particular to be kind of hilarious.

Rory's neurotic and high-strung former-arch-nemesis-turned-sort-of-friend Paris arrives in the dorm room accompanied by a young man.

Paris: "This is my life coach, Terrance."

Rory: "Life coach??"

Paris: "DON'T JUDGE."

Then yesterday afternoon I went and met with..... a life coach. Having already been embarrassed that my life is to the point where I feel like I need a life coach, I now have the joy of comparing myself to Paris Geller and all her over-controlling and obsessive ways.

All kidding aside, talking with the coach was an interesting experience. The appeal of coaching is that it is very goal- and progress-oriented. As the coach described it, the process is about moving forward, rather than looking back as you would do with traditional therapy. I saw a traditional counselor a few times last year, and never felt like I was getting anywhere. Some people like to have someone to listen to them and have legitimate issues to work through from their past, so in that sense traditional therapy can be wonderful, but I think I'm at the point where I really need to make some changes and have been looking for support in doing so. The woman I met with specializes in working with creative and artistic people, so I felt that she understood where I was coming from.

Specifically, I'm focusing on my career direction. I've talked a bit here about my general confusion over career choices and my seemingly disparate interests (art, design, writing, environmentalism, cooking, teaching), so my coach is giving me some exercises and concrete goals to work through to help me explore some different options to see what resonates with me. I like that there's someone I have to be accountable to, someone who's job it is to make sure I'm making progress. She also brought a new point of view and some ideas that never crossed my mind before.

I plan on doing a weekly session for a month, and I'm looking forward to seeing how coaching will help me clarify what I want to do. So, yes, I have a life coach. Don't judge. :)

Well Said : E.M. Forster

I admit, I haven't been very present on my blog lately. I've had so much on my mind, and the words just haven't been ready to come out yet. This quote really resonated with me this week. Most of my thoughts have been swirling and obsessing over jobs and career paths as I try to plan out my future, to give me some semblance of control over my life. Reading this quote made me realize that I'm not allowing my life to unfold as it should if I'm trying so hard to control everything with tightly gripped fists. Quite the reality check. I also realized that I'm missing out on my present life when I'm so focused on what's going to happen months and years from now.

It's an obvious truth, but one that I think we need to be reminded of at times. It's so hard, especially when I'm in limbo right now between jobs, not at all sure of what I want, regretting the decisions I've made that have moved me to this point. It's so hard to relax and let things happen when it feels like I'm stuck in place from inertia.

But I'm going to work on it. I'm not a religious person, but I do have a spiritual side, and it is quite humbling (and scary) for me to consider that perhaps I really don't have control, that the Universe or God or what-have-you will work things out. I really don't know how much of our lives happen because WE make it happen, and how much of it happens because it's MEANT to happen for us. I don't know. But I am realizing that I will feel a greater sense of inner peace if I allow myself to believe that I don't have to figure it all out right now. That what happens today--what's happening right now--is all that matters because that's ALL that exists. The rest will work itself out.

Thursday Things : Art Journaling Books

Since I've been immersed in the world of art journaling lately, I thought I'd share some of my favorite art journaling and scrapbooking books that I have collected throughout the years. I noticed many people asking about good books during the "Tell Your Story" class chats, so these book recommendations might be useful to some of my classmates!
1. My art journaling hero, and a huge inspiration all around, is Sabrina Ward Harrison. I discovered her work and books in high school, and it was the very first time I had been exposed to the idea that art can be more than "fine art" and that you can use art as a form of self-exploration. Sabrina's pages are messy, honest, a bit melancholy and beautiful. I admit, sometimes the "Tell Your Story" class seems to be a bit too surface-level for me, and I'm left wishing we'd delve a little deeper into exploring ourselves. So I have been turning back to Sabrina's books for this kind of inspiration. Many pages are just diary-like where she shares her feelings. Other pages inspire me more directly, such as where she writes about her current fears or writes down quotes that affect her. "Spilling Open" is her first book, but I also love "Brave on the Rocks." I wasn't as much a fan of her third book, "Messy Thrilling Life."

2. "We Dare You" is a scrapbooking inspiration book rather than art journaling, but I find the style of many of the featured pages to be easily adaptable to art journaling if you swap out some of the scrapbook products for found materials you might already have. The prompts in the book are fantastic and would lend very well to art journals. There are topics like regrets, guilty pleasures, inspiration, what you'd like to give yourself permission to do, etc. I found my copy on Half.com and paid about $3-$4 for it. Quite a deal.

3. "1000 Artist Journal Pages" is great for seeing the different styles people have in their journaling. These are all TRUE art journals, in my opinion, featuring color and drawings and paint, and very little scrapbooking product. This book shows you that journal pages don't have to be neat and pretty. There is a great spread in the book titled "Prompts to Get You Pumped" with many ideas to explore in your art journals. Some are quite loose and free-flowing, like "Be inspired by dreams from the night before" or "People say I'm ____."

4. "Art Journals and Creative Healing" has an interesting approach that focuses on emotional healing through art journaling. It shares the stories of journalers (including Ms. Rachel Denbow herself) and how they dealt with an issue/feeling through their pages. There are worksheets in the book to help you start to move through difficult circumstances.

5. Lastly, "Journal Revolution" is primarily a technique book with some loose prompts. I love this book because it shows you that art journals are meant to be messy and expressive and bold because that's the truth of life. Techniques include how to distress photographs, journaling on found objects like coasters or pamphlets, texturizing paper, etc.

So hopefully this is of some use to some of you! I'm a huge book lover and an art journaling fan ever since I discovered Sabrina, so I've amassed quite a collection! Are there any books that you personally love?

If you'd like to see what I've been up to in the "Tell Your Story" class, head over to my Flickr here. I'm about three prompts behind though, so I need to catch up!

Happy Day!

The lovely Jenn over at Miss Pouty Pants was kind enough to award me with a Beautiful Blogger award! Many thanks to you, Jenn! That certainly makes Monday a little bit sweeter.


In order to accept this award, I must share 7 random facts about myself, and then nominate seven more blogs to receive the award!

Random Facts:

1) I'm in the midst of a career crisis, having become disillusioned with the advertising/marketing industry that all my jobs have been in up until now. So, in the past year I have considered the following careers: art teacher, interior designer, high school counselor, college academic advisor, nutritionist, holistic health counselor, barista, college professor, indie business owner/graphic designer. I often feel like a total basket case, not to mention questioning if my college education was a waste.

2) I'm obsessive about recycling. I'm the type that stores paper or drink bottles in my purse if I'm someplace that doesn't have recycling bins. I hold onto them until I get home so that I can recycle them properly instead of throwing them in the trash. I have also been known to rescue bottles out of coworker's trashcans and move them to the recycling bin (on this note, I HATE when there IS recycling available, like at work, and people are still to lazy or thoughtless to actually recycle).

3) I really love "The Hills." FOR SHAME. Not so much the recent seasons, as I've never been a KCav fan, but I like to pretend that I would be BFF's with LC and Lo if I lived in LA. (It pains me to admit this.)

4) Despite #3, I really hate pop culture. I pay zero attention to Perez Hilton or Us Weekly... Yet somehow I still end up absorbing random celebrity knowledge that I'd rather not waste my braincells on. Ex - I wish I didn't know who Justin Beiber is.

5) I haven't cut my hair in a year and a half. Craziness. This has happened for the past 4 years or so. I wait so long to get it cut that it drives me crazy because it's so long, so in a fit of frustration I have it cut really short... and then I don't cut it for a year and a half. Repeat.

6) I want to write a book someday, even if it's only for me and never gets published.

7) I hate Facebook, but I can't bring myself to delete my profile since it's the only way I have to get a hold of some people. I secretly wish that FB would go obsolete like the way of Myspace.

Seven Lovely Bloggers, most (or even all) who I "met" through Indie Biz 2.0 or the Tell Your Story journaling class:

1) Meaghan - Urban Farm Designs
2) Laura - Wonderland Papers
3) Morgan - Fits & Starts & Crafts
4) Claire - Heart Handmade
5) Sal - Love Quirky
6) Jessie B - Painting on the Road
7) Gabrielle - The Green Gal

If you choose to accept your award, then you must:
- Thank the person who nominated you and link to their blog.
- Copy the award and paste it to your blog.
- Tell us seven interesting facts about yourself.
- Pass this award on to 7 fantastic bloggers you have discovered.
- Contact your nominations and let them know they’ve won.*

*I will try and remember to let everyone know, but I think this award has circulated enough that it seems like everyone has been awarded already, thus making my nomination kind of lame! Either way, I love the blogs and the ladies that I listed above :)

____________________________

In other news, I wanted to give an update on the possible scrapbook swap I was hoping to arrange. I haven't abandoned the idea at all, but I am going to put it on hold for now, until I have more time to organize everything. BUT, *perhaps* be on the lookout for my first blog giveaway in the near future featuring some vintage papers and wonderful scrap supplies!

In the meantime, Claire at Heart Handmade pointed me to Swop Bot, which I wasn't yet familiar with. If you are interested in getting involved with a swap right now, maybe check out that site!

Foodie Friday : Sushi Bowl

Recipe and Photo from 101 Cookbooks
I almost forgot about Foodie Friday! I am SO not on the ball this week. In fact, I can't even FIND the ball. So due to my lack of planning, this is hardly an original recipe, but it is one of my FAVORITES. So delicious. In fact, I have no idea why I don't eat this every night. It has the components of sushi, without the time or trouble of rolling actual sushi rolls... Who has time for that? Plus a delicious fruity and soy-y sauce to drizzle over the whole thing. The ingredients can really be whatever you have on hand (shredded carrots, slivered red onions, scallions, edamame, pickled ginger, etc.) but if I have any say, DO NOT LEAVE OUT THE AVOCADO. Perhaps this is because I have an unhealthy obsession with the green silky fruit, but I think it adds a lovely texture and taste to the dish. We made this for dinner tonight and used leftover brown rice, so it all came together in just over 5 minutes. And it's definitely healthy. Can't beat THAT.

Head here to view the recipe. And then make it tomorrow, if you know what's good for you.

Thursday Things : Feathers

Hello friends! Happy Thursday! For my "Thursday Things" feature this week, the theme is feathers, which I've noticed I've been quite drawn to lately. But I've come to realize there is a right way and a wrong way to sport the feather motif. The wrong way can come across looking like a Vegas showgirl gone wrong-- you know, the big feathered hairpieces or giant peacock feather earrings. But soft or stylized feathers can be simple and beautiful and a bit bohemian -- which not-so-coincidentally fits oh-so-well with my personal style statement. Here are my favorite feathered items from around the interwebs.

Feathery Plumes No. 10 from Etsy seller GollyBard.
And please check out the rest of their shop... It's all really amazing work.

Feather and Brass Tag from Etsy seller BrooklynGrace.

Long Feather Earrings from Etsy seller VintageandGlam

Peacock Feather Tattoo Tights from Etsy Seller Post.
A bit more bold than I would typically wear, but I think they are quite striking!

Feather Rubber Stamp from Etsy seller NoraJane.

Falling Leaves Quilt from Urban Outfitters.
(Yes, it says "falling leaves." But they look like feathers to me!)


Pure Silk Embroidered Feathers Clutch from Etsy seller ClutchThat.

And P.S., if you are interested in a scrapbook supply swap, please be sure to comment on my previous post! I'd like to arrange a mail swap if I get enough people interested!

Idea : Scrap Swap?

Image from Ohdeedoh, via weheartit.
I've been pulling my hair out today because I have scrapbook paper and ephemera and paints all over my bedroom. I wish my desk looked as organized as the one here, but it's far from it (and far too messy to even dare to take a picture to share with you). I try and keep things contained, but I'm not being very successful simply because I have too much stuff that I'm not using.

Which gave me an idea that I thought I'd run past you readers, or at least you readers who are scrapbookers or art journalers. Would anyone be interested in a scrap supply swap? I was thinking that if a handful of people are interested, we could put together packs of maybe 10-15 items (scrapbook paper, stickers, vintage ephemera, rub-ons, fun ribbons, whatever) and trade amongst ourselves. I'm thinking it might be nice to get rid of some of our old stock, and perhaps get a new dose of inspiration from some new supplies.

If you are interested, just leave a comment below. If I hear back from enough people, I'll go ahead and send an email to everyone so that we can set up some guidelines (mainly so people get the same amount of stuff that they put in) and exchange mailing addresses. And if you aren't interested, just ignore this post :)

Good Morning.

Silence.
A cup of tea.
My laptop + blogs, or a good book.
Windows open, cool breeze.
The hope of a new day ahead.
Hot showers.
Cinnamon sugar toast, which reminds me of my grandma.
The soft light.
A clear head.
Refreshed.

What's your favorite part of the morning?
Do you make time to enjoy little rituals?

More Art Journal Pages!

I hope y'all aren't sick of me talking about Elsie and Rachel's "Tell Your Story" class. Because I pretty much love it. Here are some more pages I've done in the last few days. Several of my pages have been on Flickr Explore, which has been quite exciting! I love seeing everyone's comments on the pages. :)