Tag Archives: journal

One Little Word: A Project Update

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This year I joined an online workshop, Ali Edwards’s One Little Word. I’ve wanted to try something like this for a long time, to be part of a creative community even if we’re all miles and miles away.

Ali Edwards_OneLittleWord2014Promo2
I haven’t updated on a regular basis at all (in January and April), but I’ve been working along with monthly prompts and reflections. My One Little Word is “dare”, as I explained in my January post. Below you’ll find a gallery of my journaling so far. Just click on the pictures to see them larger.

Earlier in the year I worked on intentions, taking a look at different facets of my life: spiritual, physical, emotional, creative, relationships. It took a while, but I also came up with a symbol for this year. The fleur-de-lis. I love this symbol for so many reasons: it reminds me of Montreal, (where my husband and I went on our honeymoon), New Orleans (vacation spot and amazing culture and food), and it reminds me of St. Joan of Arc (incidentally also the name of my elementary school). And if you don’t think she was daring, I don’t know who is.

I made actions cards that have goals and ideas for the year. Some have been successful, while others… not yet. I’ve reflected on letting go. One month, I put together pictures that connect with my word. It’s been so much fun making time to be creative and introspective.

The best part of all of this has been meeting a pen pal and connecting with the community in a private Facebook group. My pen pal was chosen randomly, but holy cow, it’s crazy eerie how we have a lot of similar craft tastes. She and I send happy packages of mail to each other (last picture in the gallery).

Most recently I created artist trading cards with the phrase “I am” on each of them. I’m looking forward to sharing how I put these cards together.

One Little Word 2014: Art cards

Mugshot Monday: April in Review

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I felt like Spring was finally in the air…

Mugshot Monday: April 7, 2014

… until it snowed like this on April 14. I was so stunned that I forgot my mug in the shot.

Mugshot Monday: April 14, 2014

Tax Day came and went. Then I got down (literally, on the floor) to work on some projects, like One Little Word.

Mugshot Monday: 4/21/2014

Here’s the finished Vision Board.

Mugshot Monday: Vision Board

And, I found an old artist trading card series I made in 2008 for an “Encouragement” swap… It finally has a home in my One Little Word binder.

Mugshot Monday: 4/28/2014

Work-in-Progress Wednesday: Prepping for Paint

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My son's wooden toy shield with Chinese name

This past weekend, my son asked An-kong (Grandpa) if he would draw his Chinese name on his wooden shield. It turned out better than I could’ve imagined. Now it’s up to me to paint it. Wish I gesso-ed* before my father-in-law drew the characters, but no worries. I’ll make it work… (Hehe, “make it work”. I’ve been watching too much Tim Gunn and Project Runway! HA!)

Work in progress: gesso layer on brown paper bag

I’ve also started a brown paper bag journal – made it with three lunch-size paper bags from our take-out dinner the other night. (Upcycled product project, yay!) This has been something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time. I totally want to break out all my paint… and if you’d like to follow the journal journey, hop over to the my Facebook page where I’m winging it, as usual.

*Acrylic gesso (jess-o), in case you’re not familiar, is a basically a primer you can use on canvas, fabric, paper, wood, etc. It makes the surface nice and smooth for painting or drawing.

Mugshot Monday: Catching My Breath

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Mugshot Monday Catching Up

I’m joining this art journal collaboration and the leaders of this journal come up with prompts. You can either share pictures or your art journal book entries. Pictures are easier for me… let’s face it, not enough time to pull out my paint and supplies. So, while I’ve shown this mug before, it was perfect for their prompt today of “ONE WORD”.

I use this mug often. It was a Christmas gift from my brother-in-law (and probably with some help from my sis-in-law, ha.) Love, love the design; there’s a stamped picture of a tandem bicycle on the other side. It’s wonky, it feels like a handformed vessel, it’s imperfect and I dig that. The stamped letters that spell “BREATHE” are indented in and it makes me think of the artist who took the time to push each letter in. There are three other mugs in this set – one says TREK, the other says PEDAL and the last one, CYCLE. But, BREATHE… that’s a good word for me this year. So when you look it up in the dictionary you find:

To inhale and exhale freely.
To pause and rest before continuing.
To feel free of restraint.
(of wine) To develop flavor and bouquet by exposure to air.
To take in.

We should all try to breathe a little more deeply and relax, breathe and stay focused, breathe and enjoy.

Other stuff
At the top of the site, I’ve included a couple new pages for easier navigation. Now there are curated lists of projects, recipes and reviews. No need to be poking around and wandering aimlessly about the website. (Unless you want to. Don’t let me stop you.) I’ll post a list of “on location” entries in the next few weeks. Have a great week everyone!

So This is Julie screenshot

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