Priorities & Multi-Tasking

The older I get the more I learn about myself and one thing I’m learning these days is about prioritizing life in order to accomplish all that I want to do. 

For instance, I still have a box of pictures from the move that all need to be hung, the kitchen cabinets still need painting, the hall needs painting (that’s where most of those pictures in the box are destined for), and on and on and on! That list of things doesn’t even count all of the art projects and ideas that I have in progress or in my head that I want to start/finish (including the perfect purse that I have decided that I’m going to have to make myself since I can’t find it anywhere! LOL)

I guess the truth of it is that I am just not real good at multi-tasking…and I am actually glad that I’m not.  When we “multi-task,” none of the tasks we’re working on get our full attention. In this day and age we are pushed by our jobs and those superwomen on TV to do more, do it better and do it faster…we’re not good enough if we can’t do it all, do it perfect and do it quick.

I don’t like this bullshit idea of doing it all. I suppose that I am old enough now to embrace the idea of Zen…being in the moment, giving my full attention to whatever task is at hand…so multi-tasking is out of the question for me. I want to enjoy what i’m doing, even the not so enjoyable tasks, and I can only do that when I give each of them my complete attention by doing one at a time.

Do you give your attention to one thing at a time?  Do you live in the moment or are you still multi-tasking and spreading yourself thin?

One of the priorities for my right now is taking time to do the assignments (I can’t think of a better word for it) in the art journaling workshop I’m taking (Art Journal LOVE Letters).  I realized right before starting the workshop that my art journaling had taken backseat to all of the other things in my life that needed my attention (the move, work, my health, the house) but in letting my art journaling fall by the wayside, I was harming myself. Seriously.

My art journal is my friend, my healer, my confidant and secret keeper, my dumping ground, my happy place, my place of experimentation…it is so much to me, yet it is one of the first things I push to the side when other parts of life call out needing my attention.  I have realized that I can’t do that anymore. My art saves me…everyday, it saves me. It has to be a priority…and it is.

 

What important, saving graces are you letting fall by the wayside in your quest to be Superwoman?

Peace & Love,
Barb

Life in Action

Am I the only one who has these great ideas and wonderful intentions but the follow through is the problem?  I do that all the time. I have this folder full of ideas of things I want to create, paintings I want to begin, decorating ideas to try out, signs I want to paint, even some sewing I want to do…but when it comes time to actually do those things, I just kinda peter out.

I really have to stop that and get my butt in gear. There are only so many days in a lifetime and I know that I am wasting my days with this procrastination of mine.

I think it’s just a matter of making myself go into my studio cause once I’m in there, I have a blast. I guess it all comes down to drive and initiative, huh? No wait, it comes to ACTION…anyone can think of great things, it’s putting action into it that makes them come to life. I have to focus on acting on my ideas. Yea, that’s it…action.

Valentines Day is coming up and that is what was on my mind when I was playing in my art journal. (Sorry the page on the right is kinda blurry…my art journal has gotten so thick that it’s hard to scan the pages anymore.) I think it pretty much speaks for itself (click to enlarge it so you can read…if ya wanna.)

In other news, I’m really looking forward to beginning the wonderful “Art Journal LOVE Letters” workshop love affair this weekend. I know that Connie is as excited as we, her students, are about this new adventure. I hope that some of you are coming along with us…it’s going to be a blast.

Now, I am going to get up off my duff and move into the studio…maybe I’ll actually get something done…if so, I’ll be sure to share it with y’all. Wish me luck.

Peace & Love,
Barb

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