Straining for Messy

Anyone who’s read my blog for any amount of time knows I have a HUGE love affair with my art journals…I adore art journaling; it is my passion. I feel like a weight is lifted from my shoulders each time I am creative in my studio and my art journals take the brunt of my creativity and let me pour out my soul in an artful and not just a written way.

I just have this problem with being messy. I love to see journal pages or art pieces others create that have that grunge feeling to them and that style is one I would so like to replicate in my own way…but I find it almost impossible. I have to really strain and stretch to be messy, to be grungy.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all kinds of messy around the house…when I cook, when I throw my clothes on the floor, when I overlook the dust bunnies in the corners, when I’m at my art table with paints and papers and brushes, pens and magazine clippings strewn over every surface in the room…but on the page or the canvas, that is another story.

No matter how I try, putting clippings or borders on a page without lining them up perfectly brings a cold sweat to my brow. My heart races a bit if I force myself to let lines not line up just right or if I don’t equalize things on the spread.

What is the deal with that? Am I really that anal retentive? *rolls eyes* And how do I just let go and let it flow? How do I let those perfectionistic tendencies fade away when I’m creating and allow myself to just feel free to do whatever comes to mind?  Or, in the alternative, is that exactly what I’m doing in my own special way? Is my way, this lined up/right angles/even borders/non-tilted clippings way, just MY way?

I don’t have any answers, I just know it’s something I’m working on…not necessarily trying to break myself from doing but trying to branch out and see other ways of doing things. I’m trying to see what fits and what makes sense to me, artistically.

Just what is on my mind at the moment.  I just keep on creating my pages and see where they take me.

If you are wanting to take your art journaling to the next level (like I am) or if you’re just wanting to begin an art journal, and you’d like do it in the {virtual} company of others who love their art journals, there is a new art journal workshop being given by my friend Connie of Dirty Footprints Studio.

Connie is fun and hopeful and encouraging and absolutely full of creative energy and this workshop, Art Journal LOVE Letters, is bound to be full of that energy and creative spirit. If you sign up early (by Valentine’s Day, February 14th), Connie is even giving an early bird special of only $20!!! I know…unbelievably inexpensive, huh?

So come join us…it’s going to be amazing! Sign up here (and tell Connie I sent ya): Art Journal LOVE Letters

Peace & Love,
Barb

Makin’ Progress

I only have a few minutes…we’re about to head out the door to eat Chinese for dinner…but I finally took pictures of the window seat cushion and I just had to share.  Not to mention that I found these awesome curtains at the thrift store today and they are making it even cozier there on my little window seat.
Let me know what you think…





The last ones show a close up of the fabric on the cushion and a closer look at my sweet curtains. Hey, for $5.00, I couldn’t pass them up.
So, it’s looking better, don’t ya think?
Welp, gotta run for now but I’ll be back tomorrow with some art journal pages, some info on a FABULOUS online workshop a friend of mine is doing, and other goodies.
Now…time for Chinese food…I’m starvin!
Peace & Love,
Barb

Just Keepin’ it Real

I know I said I would hopefully post pictures of the dining room window seat post decorating but, well, I can’t yet.

I have actually worked on those cushions for the dining room window seat but….yeah, you knew there’d be a but in there, didn’t ya?….BUT, I kinda sewed myself into a corner of sorts. 

Instead of using a pattern or directions of any sort, me, in my infinite (NOT!) wisdom, decided to wing it.  LOL  I should have known from the get-go that this project wasn’t going to be easy since when I wing it things are always a bazillion times tougher than they need be.

*sigh*

I’m trying to work out (on paper and in my head) how to make my closure/flappy things without having to do zippers…no way am I putting zippers in these babies!…and it’s really taxing my brain but I think I have it figured out.

If all goes well maybe I can post pics later this evening *crossing fingers* and then maybe, if they turn out well, I’ll even tell y’all the secret details. *snicker*

Wish me luck…I’m goin’ back in!

Peace & Love,
Barb

Ch-ch-changes

Still making progress on all the homefront issues…the hubby is continuing to feel better and better, the “new” house is getting more and more comfy-cozy with all the decorating touches I am continuing to add, and (drumroll, please…) we’ve adopted a new family member… 

This is Tyson, the new man in my life. LOL

He was in a very neglectful situation and needed rescuing into a loving home situation…now he has it with us. He has quickly become the apple of my eye…I adore him like crazy. I can attest to the fact that he’s pretty damn attached to me, too. He’s still got some adjusting to do in order to be completely comfortable here after all he’s been through in his five years of life but he/we are getting there.

Creatively on tap today I am going to be recovering some horribly fugly (uh, southwestern decor went out AGES ago, tyvm) cushions that I already have (it’s all about using what we already have, right?) for the window seat in the dining room, here: It’s just such a beautiful sun-soaked place to sit and relax and it needs some pretty cushions to do that relaxing, reading, daydreaming on, don’t you think?  I love funky color and patterns so I’m going with some bright and beautiful coloring for the cushion covers and for the window treatment, too. Hopefully I’ll be able to show my progress tomorrow (keep your fingers crossed.)

I really can’t wait to make this a more appealing and comfy space…I’ve got my birdfeeders on a small tree outside the windows and love sitting and watching them eat. Even saw a beautiful redheaded woodpecker out there this morning; man, was he gorgeous..

Well, the electrician is here to rewire some outside lighting that was done very shoddy by the previous tenants and to add some outlets to my daughter & SIL’s room so I think I’ll get moving and start my sewing projects while catch up on my favorite podcasts.

Y’all have a great Thursday….and thanks for all the kind thoughts and well wishes, not to mention a huge thanks to my new readers. You guys really do lift my soul.

Peace & Love,
Barb

Progress & Better Days

Thank you to everyone who left such caring and loving comments on my last blog post. Sharing the true depth of our lives with “the world” is quite scary but when you get love and support in return, it makes it very much worth it. Thank y’all so much.

My hubby is now taking meds prescribed for him (Prozac and Buspar), he has taken some time off work (with our district & regional managers’ support and approval…man, do we work for a good company!), and we are talking about things as they come up but trying to laugh as much as possible, too.

In trying to find my own way through this maze that is our life, I found myself so immersed in taking care of him and his needs not to mention unpacking our entire house, that I found myself at a HUGE creative block. I couldn’t art journal, paint…I couldn’t find any part of my creative self behind all the responsibilities on my shoulders. *sigh*

But, thanks to some Twitter friends that reminded me that my creative self was still there, she was just overwhelmed…I needed to just let go and let it out. So I did…and I feel better.

Sooo much better.

In other good news, while I was in my I have to get everything done all by myself mode, I managed to completely unpack my studio! YAY for me!

Here is the before pic, taken from the door (when everything had just been brought in and dumped, completely wrecking the room.)  Some of the things that were dumped in here aren’t even my art supplies…there is kitchen stuff in some of those tubs!

But that’s okay…in a mere 2 weeks, including 4 days completely lost to the hubby’s breakdown, I managed to turn this mess into this, my private sanctuary and little corner of bliss-making….My sewing machine is hiding on the table behind my office chair but this is my overall work area, with all my paper/journaling stuff , including baskets full of my favorite pens/markers, all within reach. 

This area is my paint station with lots of storage around it, too. (Like the CD rack I repurposed for holding my craft paints? lol)

I really am not feeling the wood paneling but it will have to do for now, until I can recruit everyone to help me paint it (going with a beautiful powder blue, btw.)  Other than that, I really feel like I’m going to get my creative mojo into high gear in here. I’m excited and I’m hopeful…I’d like to say that I’m happy but I just have to believe that happy is right around the corner.

Thanks for sticking around and leaving me your kind words of support. Truth is, I have no friends in my every day life…my friends all live inside my computer, other than my best friend, my husband. In life, sometimes we can’t always lean on our best friend, they need us to be the strong one for a while. It’s good to know I have backup in you guys during those times.

Peace & Love,
Barb