Time well spent

Wanting to be productive while "waiting" one day, I doodled this...

I noticed it on my desk, and since I had a bunch of phone calls to make, I grabbed it and my bag of pencils and pens.  As I was talking on the phone I colored it...

 

This little reminder to myself is much more fun now...plus the image is much more secured in my memory now that I have "worked" it...Time well spent. :)

o.k.

It has been "interesting" around here...well, actually...hard.  I have been "in process"...

This verse was the beginning of my "vision" coming into focus...

As I always do when I want to process and record what is going on, I opened my journal and began...

I chose pictures that represented what was on my mind...a storm and this girl in her CUTE pink rainboots.  I cut the storm picture in two, and glued it and the girl to two of the three panels of this journal page...

 Then I added a bit of this Smash tape (to cover the text on my girl...and "ground" her).  I was a little disappointed with how much of her boots were covered though..oh well...

Next I punched a circle and folded it into a megaphone...she needed to proclaim "God is good ALL the time!" even (maybe especially!) in the middle of the storm.

 

 

All that was left to do was to "write it out"...so..ok...While I certainly don't understand it all, I am accepting...instead of agonizing, resisting, fighting these things that are "adverse" in my life right now...I am CHOOSING to give thanks for each worry, each heartache, each struggle...and as I did this, I DID find something to be thankful for in each...Amazing!  AND even though (there are still tears at times) and the hurts and worries didn't change, didn't go away, my perspective did...hmmm...my "SEEing" was altered!  Crazy!

God IS good ALL the time! and

ALL the time God is good!

a TO DO list

After my devotion this morning, I knew I needed a TO DO list for the day.  I was feeling a bit "dazed"...bleak, even.  I decided it would be GOOD for me to rehearse what I KNOW, whether "feeling it" or not...so I got paper and began...

...in pencil at first...slowly, meditatively...

 Then, with a black Sharpie pen, I inked it, processing what I had written...

Finally, I colored it with markers, colored pencils, and a gray Conte crayon.

As I worked on this, the tension I was feeling lessened...verses came to mind...truth came back into focus and I wasn't left to my "own" thinking...a little color brightened up this gray Monday just a bit...good, God "therapy."

What's your perscription for a "gloomy" day?

Playing with Color

A few months ago I read Wonderstruck by Margaret Feinberg.  I loved it.  I feel like it goes right along with my WOTY, see, and it has challenged me to be "on the look-out" for the wonder of God in my days...At the end of the book, the author includes a 30-Days-of-Wonder exercise, which I have been doing since the beginning of May.  It has been a stretch...a good work-out, in fact...and I think that the days that encouraged paying attention to the wonder of beauty, and of creation...PLUS the need for a bit of "playtime" were the inspiration for this journal page.

I wanted to PLAY with COLOR so I started digging through colored pencils and markers to assemble the colors of this months journal (gray, yellow, green, and blue).  I decided to make a palette "key"...just for fun."

 

 Then I got out my journal and hunted for the right picture...I love this picture of a girl in all white with a splash of color.  I thought it was a perfect image to add to my "color" page.

After she was glued in, I added some fun tape and the palette key.  Then I wrote the word COLOR across the corner and colored it in with some of the pens I found...jotted a few notes on the page...that's it...a little bit of playtime...FUN!

I love color and its always fun to add some to "life", whether in a journal, in my wardrobe, or in the decor of my home...Spring and all the new blossoms are all about color being added to the world after the less-than-colorful season of winter...hmmm...the wonder of The Creator...  :)

How do you add color to your life?

Encouragement for the day...and everyday for that matter.  :)  (Words of Ann Voskamp, A Holy Experience blog...processed and "artified" by me!)

Have a beautiful week-end!

Enjoy.This.Day.

Don't ask me how or why this came up...all I know is I was reading something...I couldn't even tell you what it was now...anyway, it was strange how the punctuation JUMPED off the page and well, screamed at me. :)  We know that the purpose of punctuation is to emphasize, connect, abbreviate, etc...And it seems that we are taking a lot of artistic license with it these days (The title of this post is an example of now-trending punctuation)...All of this was rolling around in my head...and  I thought of punctuating my day...in an effort toward mindfulness, add a "space" here and there...Think about the "dots" or periods that we add to a sentence.  It tells us that one thought is finished and to "pause" before going on to the next.  Hmmm....what if I...do laundry.iron Mark's shirts.make lunch.  You get the idea.  Those dots are not empty but purposeful pauses.
       oooh...how about mindful moments to "LOOK" for God IN THE MIDST of my busy day?!?
                                                          ...to appreciate Him in this day that is a gift
                                                          ...to enjoy the work of His Hands-His creation

    

                                   
                                                        ...to read a Scripture-listen to His voice, His Word

                                  
                                                   ...to breathe deep
                                                   ...to thank Him for His very breath that gives me life

Punctuate!  :)

Enjoy.This.Day.His Gift To You.

a new month

A new year, a new month, a new week, a new day...all are so exciting.  So full of possibilities.  This year I decided to make a "small" art journal for each month.  It has been very fun...easy to complete and "fill" because they are small:  so far no bigger than 6" x 6" and about 10-12 pages...This is perfect since I mostly work in 10-20 minute time slots.  (I rarely have more than a 20 minute chunk of time "just for art")  I have also been trying to stretch my color palette "muscles"...using different colors than my usual favorites.  So, this month I chose some paper I found at my favorite stamp store (Stamp Art Shoppe in Roseville) to inform my May palette:  yellow, gray, green, and blue...kind of a funky combo, if you ask me...but I am loving it!

  

This is the cover...so far undecorated.  I usually do my covers last unless I am inspired sooner than later.  Also, I spiral bound this one...just to try working in this format...we'll see...(The past 4 months have all been stitch-bound.)

Bordering my first page...tape along bottom.  then I chose catalog pics that spoke to me at that moment...probably thinking about journalling so I chose the pen...and I always LOVE script and books :) 

  ...glued those in place...

Then I punched some little butterflies, and cut a bigger one out of notebook paper.  I played around with placement, and glued everything down, along with some fun tape.  I love the sense of movement on the page that the scattered blue butterflies give.

 

I added the words "explore," "discover," and "wonder" which I stamped on white paper...(I am doing 30 days of  WONDER from Margaret Feinberg's book Wonderstruck  so I want to include that in this month's journal)...I like it so far...I will journal, doodle, and embellish it more...as I "live" with it.  That is the happy beginning...

Happy MAY!  

MAY you be happy!