Okay, I Lied...

This is another Cancun post. I forgot that I was planning on sharing parts of my journal entries with you from my trip to Cancun. I'm know you're sick of hearing about Mexico already, but this is more about journaling than Mexico!


The first couple days there, there wasn't much to do other than journal, play cards, eat, drink. And I started thinking that we should've brought some board games, or more art supplies, or something....

But after the first couple days, I didn't end up journaling as much, since the sun was out and the beaches were beckoning to me to come out and play. So I only did one page of journaling for the entire trip, unlike my European vacation, where I almost filled half of a composition book with entries!

I planned the page like a weather board, with my "days of the week" tape, and a little depiction of the days' dominant weather patterns at the top. It was a nice way to remember a little bit about each day, and didn't put a lot of pressure on me to spend too much time working on it. Usually I ended up working on it the next day or night after. 


I wasn't surprised that I didn't work that much in my book. Typically with beach vacations, I'm rarely indoors. I will sometimes only make my entries after returning home, and only using scraps and bits that I collected during my trip.... more like a scrap book than a journal entry. They definitely aren't as fun as art journals, though, so I try to add something to them. This was an easy way to do that. Like I said, I am a beach girl, and if there's an ocean out there waiting for me, it won't have to wait for long!

Putting Together a Travel Journal Kit

My kit, journal & some of the things inside my kit.

Whenever I go on a road trip, even if it's just for the day to somewhere interesting... like a beach, or a hiking trip, or to a public or private garden, maybe, I like to bring along my travel journal, and my journaling kit.


I've put together a list here for you, in case you should want to be prepared on your next trip to somewhere interesting! You'll be ready to create some lovely journal pages to go along with your memories...

• You'll need a container of some sort to hold everything. Make sure it's sturdy and won't accidentally open up on its own.
• A journal, some loose sheets of watercolor or sketch paper, maybe some thinner papers for rubbings, or some sun print paper
• A ruler, alphabet stencils, paint brushes, scissors, pencil sharpener, erasers
• pens, pencils (I like watercolor pencils, as they do double duty), watercolors, cake temperas in some basic colors, a bottle of ink, small closable plastic container for rinse water
• A watercolor pen (you fill them with water, and it has a brush on the end) can take the place of a brush and bottle of water
• Small glue stick, a bottle of PVA glue, craft tapes
• Stamps, stamp pad
• Paper towels & wet wipes

Some optional items that I like to keep, but depends on how much room you have:

• Wood carving tools and extra corks for stamp making
• Linen thread, an awl, or paper punch
• Binder clips and paper clips, brads
• Some glassine envelopes for stashing found bits into your journal

Obviously, what you decide to put into your kit will depend on the media that you like working with. I like to have a lot of options, as I never know what I'll feel like using when I'm out and about. It's nice to have a smaller kit for traveling abroad, and a larger kit for road trips. Maybe tomorrow I'll show you a few pages out of one of my travel journals. I start a new book for larger trips, like when I was in Europe for three weeks last year. Then I added to that when I went to Mexico and then my road trip across the states, and lastly, my trip to Hawaii in December. So one travel journal held about a year's worth of travel. You could do a few loose pages for each trip and then bind them together, if you liked. There are lots of ways to chronicle a journey... it's all up to you! 

Reuse ~ Repurpose: Week 8

Whenever I get a bag of small potatoes, or bag of lemons, and I see the plastic mesh it comes in, I think, "Oooh, what a great texture!" I save these bags, as well as any kind of porous packaging that might make a good background on a journal page, art card or something else you want to layer up.

Netting from fruit bags (red) and old acrylic wash cloth (pink)

 Whether you use the negative space of the texture, which isn't the easiest, or the surface texture, which is easier, you get an interesting layer to your work. In these pictures, I've just used some acrylic to show you what the textures can look like, although these aren't very artfully done. I just used a roller and on one, tried to get the background texture to show, and on the other, rolled the paint onto the texture, then flipped it and pressed the painted surface onto the paper.

Using the negative space of one fruit bag

Using the positive space of the other fruit bag

Using positive space of the wash cloth

Try different things with textures! I'm definitely going to. I have only ever saved these bags and never used them. This is my first time, too! You can wash these and reuse them many times.

The other use for them is as dish scrubbies! They won't scratch your pans, and they're just like the ones that you'd buy from the store, only you already have them! Just gather them up and use a strong rubber band to hold it into a scrunchy shape. The rubber band will deteriorate over time, but you can replace it. Also, it's easier to clean these out after you use them to clean up your plates, etc. 

I hope this keeps a few more things out of your trash bin!! :-) 

Ever Stop to Think...

... how did that person accomplish such a wonder? 

Have you ever had a dream for yourself, and wondered, "Can I make this happen?" Did you question your abilities or your resources and then put your dreams aside? Let me tell you something that I know for sure: You can do it. You can make your dreams come true.

It doesn't take anything truly extraordinary. It doesn't take a ton of skill or talent. All it takes is knowing what you want, envisioning it as already being in existence, and going forward towards  your goal with each step you take. That's how it's always been done!  And be thankful for each step you take forward, also. Love each moment that you have and know that you are making progress.


As I've said before, making a vision board with pictures to draw from will help you to focus your mind. Even more powerful, I believe, is making a vision journal. Write in is as though you already had what you wanted, and feel the gratefulness of having it. Write about it! Be excited for yourself and your loved ones because of it. Live as though it were already a reality!

People are amazing. When you think about all the things that we currently have: cars, airplanes, space flight... all these things came into being because someone SAW it in their minds eye. They imagined it, and then they worked towards it with their vision in mind.

I know you can do whatever it is that your dreams call you towards. I know it. If you HAVE a dream, then you are the lucky one! To this day, I still don't know what it is that I want! I feel like a one-off from everyone. But I know that's okay, too. I'm here to support those that have a dream. I'm here to tell you: You can make your dreams a reality!

Tell me what your dreams are! I would love to hear about them. If I can help in any way, I would like to be a helpful part of your success. I'm actually a pretty good cheerleader, and I also KNOW THINGS. Ha ha! I am always willing to try, regardless. So let's hear it! 

Today Starts My Writing....

For those of you who know me, you know that I left a career in construction this past January. I worked for a great company that supported my desires to try different things and learn different disciplines. I was there for 12-1/2 years! It was a wonderful, stressful, and fun place to work... I  miss my coworker/friends there, and I miss other things as well. Like having a regular income, ha ha. The place really was like my second home, after all.

I have been searching, since leaving there, for my Self. I've wanted to reinvent myself. I need to risk things, and to push my self-drawn boundaries. I decided back in January, that if I were to leave construction, and all the money that came with my job, I wasn't going to go out and get the same thing again, though I could. I had already decided that what I wanted was to live in a much more creative and exciting world of artists, writers, Bohemians, Beatniks, and most of all, Happy People. I had already worked with the intelligent, hard-working, stressed out group of jocks and heavy-drinkers. I really wanted to try something different. 

I moved from California (land that I love) to Pennsylvania (land that I'm starting to love,) to be with my boyfriend/soul-mate, and I set out to search for what would work for me.... as a continuation of my productive life. I started out by making art journals. I even sold some in LA, though I haven't sold many since. I made jewelry and ornaments, and sold some of that, from my etsy shop. I have had some freedom to try to sell the things that I enjoy making, and to soul-search for "what next?" I think I found my answer, but I'm not one hundred percent sure. But without risking something of yourself, you can not expect to gain anything fantastic, and so, I step out of my comfort zone, and I begin something new. A story book. 

I have always loved children's books, as well as adult books.... I ALWAYS have my nose in a book, as a matter of fact, if not two or three at once. I've never directed myself to write anything, though. Well, that's a lie. I actually started several stories when I was young, but they were terribly dramatic stories steeped in the world of fantasy, as that's what I was reading at the time. My best friend and I would work on our stories, and share the pages, and it was wonderful, hilarious, and embarrassing! I think our lack of general life experiences made the stories a bit flat and juvenile. Ha ha. Though, I still believe there was something there. I don't think we were devoid of talent. We just never really took ourselves too seriously, is all.

So.... I've started several stories, as well as an article or two. I am making this my next big effort, along with my other creative outlets. It's hard for me to stop all completely, so I won't bother. I need to have my hand in many different things at any given time, or I get antsy. I think that this is the training I received at my last job as a project manager for our Small Projects Department! I was always running many projects at once, and had to know what the stages and issues were for each of my projects at any given time. It is a learned skill that I use in my daily life. It seems that I actually need to have several things going on... I feel good that way!

I will still be blogging, though possibly not as often. I don't know yet. Being at the computer keyboard too much tends to wreak havoc on my tendonitis. (Which is why I've cut back a bit of late.) But I will post updates, and photos of things around me that inspire. I will possibly put more recipes on my blog, also. I've been cooking & baking like crazy in this cold weather! I'll be asking for advice from all of you in the blogging community, as well as my readers.... so please stay tuned! Wish me luck on my next escapade!! I'm hoping that I can nurse into existence a new career as an author of many stories and books. I would so love a profession where I dictate my schedule and have loads of money coming in so I can shower my family & friends with gifts and travel with my boyfriend, and really excel at being a human being. I will be journaling, as well, and will try to post the best pages here.

Peace and good will to all.... I'll be back! (Probably sooner than I think because it's hard to stay away. I NEED human connections!) 

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo   

Journaling... Primary Beliefs

One of the exercises that I've done for my journaling pages is defining what my Primary Beliefs are about these five main areas of belief systems:

Life
Self
People
Love
Abundance

The exercise was to write down one empowering and one disempowering idea that I have about each of my specific belief systems. It was really fascinating! I found that each of my disempowering ideas was in direct contrast to my empowering ideas! That means that I have been working against myself in my adult lifetime. You honestly can't get anywhere in life if you are pushing and pulling at the same time. You just end up in exactly the same place!

For example: one of my empowering ideas about Love is that it is a beautiful thing. Love is beautiful. Love is all-important. One of my disempowering ideas about Love is that people can get jaded and close themselves off from love. However, the type of love that caused me to originally formulate that specific idea wasn't a love borne of real power. It was a love that I had for people where the love wasn't reciprocated, and therefore, it was the kind of love that stems from my ego's need for approval/validation/etc. It wasn't the kind of love that comes from spirit and truth. Yet, I have been hanging onto that as part of my belief system about Love!

If you try to do this exercise yourself, I think you'll find some similar eye-opening contradictions in your own belief system.... it's apparently very typical. We base our belief systems on past experiences, even though we may have been very young, inexperienced, or uninformed, at the time of the experience. Then we hold onto those experiences as the basis for how we perceive the rest of our experiences. It's easy to fall into, isn't it? I mean, I've grown so much since the times when my heart was broken by someone, and have learned so much more about myself and about love since those times, and yet, when asked about what my beliefs about Love are, I found that they were based on those old experiences, and not the new ones that I've formed in my adult years!

Breaking down those "supports" for your beliefs are a way to open up your eyes (and heart) to what is important and wonderful about this world that we live in. It's a way to break the chains that hold us to behaviors and thought patterns that could be holding us back from our true happiness! I challenge you to do this exercise for yourself, and see what you find out about your own belief systems! Happy journaling! Blessings to all.... xoxo
   

Started the Journal page...

...and I find that I'm procrastinating the main subject on the spread. Strange! I mean, why don't I know what I want? I'm creating this journal to help me to visualize and live the life that I want for myself and I can't seem to get past the first block. Why don't I know what I want? I thought I KNEW what I wanted.... but apparently I don't? I mean, I know that I want to be successful at something, right? I know that I have a few ventures started. But how to take that first step?

If anyone has any ideas, I'd be happy to hear them! 

I could use a little help from my friends. I need a little help to unlock that door.

Reasons for journaling

I used to be an avid journaler when I was younger... sometimes I would rather journal than go out with my boyfriend, or work on homework. I would carry my current journal with me to the beach, or the park, or camping, or at a sleep-over. It was like my friend, this little book. It was the friend I would tell my secrets to, and be silly with, without fearing any ridicule or judgment. Well, that is, until my mom read my personal journal and grounded me for life for "going all the way" with my high school boyfriend.... and then my jealous post-high school boyfriend read about the friends I'd made in college, and we argued and fought until I vowed never to put my personal thoughts into my journal anymore. It ceased, at that time, to be my retreat. And thus, I lost myself for a while. Has this ever happened to anyone else? It was almost like being unable to write things down caused me to lose touch with who I was at that time. My creativity stopped flowing. I got sick a lot more. Strange.

After a time, I started to journal again, but not in writing. I started working on art journals instead. Small projects that were only a page or two in size, and where I could be unabashedly creative or lame or silly or ugly or cool.... I found that I had gotten in touch with myself again after years of disconnect. And it was very interesting! I had changed and grown quite a bit... though I hadn't grown UP. (Thank goodness!) In making small pages of art that had no real purpose, I found a freedom that I had never known before! A release from my ego, I guess. I also enjoyed the feeling of completion that so seldom comes to a person like me: the ultimate non-finisher! The only time I ever finished anything was when I was creating it for someone else! What does that say about me? I don't care!

I really don't know where I'm going with this. I've gotten quite good at not finishing things. I just may leave it at that. For now. :-)