Re: my birthday.....

My 45th birthday was sweet and simple........ I received some birthday cards from family, friends, and internet art buddies. Thank you to everyone for celebrating with me.

Don & I decided to head over to Ontario where we visited a Target store. While there I found some of the cutest sheer fabric boxes in pastel colors, some baby themed banners, cards, and stickers, a couple vials of bathsalts ---- perfect for party favors for Amber's baby shower. We picked up a few neccessities for our home before venturing over to Cheddar's for a nice lunch. Proir to heading back home we made a pit-stop into Barnes & Nobles where I purchased Somerset Studio's Weddding Volume 2 and a new book!

I've been desiring to create more art and begin an art journal so I purchased, Visual Chronicles: The No-Fear Guide to Creating Art Journals, Creative Manifestos and Altered Books by Linda Woods and Karen Dinino.

Here is the Editorial Review: Editorial Review and Book Description

The real news of our lives is not in newspapers. We must chronicle our own adventures and achievements, our brilliant observations and our comic relief, our best friends and our greatest embarrassments. Visual Chronicles is all about YOU: your dreams, your memories, your daily routines, your greatest loves and your secret pet peeves. It’s all about getting to know yourself better, savoring the wonderful ebb and flow of your everydays, and celebrating it all in visual mementos of your life journey.
Sound fun? Heck, yes! Sound hard? Not a bit.

Each chapter of Visual Chronicles quiets common fears such as "Nothing happens in my life." or "I’m just not artistic." with projects such as the "My Day Unfolds Journal", and "Experiments with Composition." Inside, you’ll learn that journaling doesn’t take big chunks of time—just bits and pieces here and there, whenever the spirit strikes. "Get Going" exercises offer instant ideas such as listening to the conversations you have with yourself or recognizing that meaningful ephemera is a part of each and every day. Soon, you’ll see that inspiration awaits all around you: a midnight trip to the store, a favorite scarf, an unexpected phone call, junk email, your breakfast plate . . .

Don’t wait another second. Make creative journaling a part of your everyday life, busting through self-doubt, time clocks, piles of laundry, and every other roadblock along the way. With Visual Chronicles, you’ll be inspired to tell your story the way only you can! From the PublisherMany people know they could benefit from the therapeutic act of journaling, but the dread of not knowing what to put on the page stops them. Finally, Visual Chronicles provides a no-fear guide to expressing one's deepest self with art and words. Sisters Linda Woods and Karen Dinino start each chapter by debunking a journaling myth, such as "I am not artistic."

They then offer:
• Exercises that encourage readers to chronicle their thoughts and lives with painting, sketching, stamping, collaging, and writing;
• Friendly projects, including the Personal Palette and Mini Prompt Journal, to make each entry easier to start;
• Inspiration for experimenting with colors, shapes, ephemera, communication styles and more.

The unique combination of diverse artistic elements makes this book a must have for artists, crafters, scrapbookers, and writers.

I'm hopeful to use this book in conjunction with Gwen Diehn's The Decorated Page already in my artistic library as a jump start to adding content to my creations. I thought I'd simply create loose leaf pages, hey! half my life is in note written pages anyways....... so this is something I'm familiar with, LOL!

My thoughts to doing this this way would allow me the freedom of not having to choose an actual journal right away and allow me to begin working at my own pace since it is only a single sheet of paper and not a book of pages to intimidate or make me feel guilty if I don't work on them consistently with my already busy schedule.

I also like the idea that as the collection of completed artwork grows, I can sort and categorize them however I feel is best and bind my own book for the pages. Anyways, it's a start and I can add just a few supplies to my bookbinding area without going too overboard and keeping the majority of supplies still in my studio.

Smearing paint on paper should be therapuetic! Allowing me to express some pent up emotions and the book suggests writing prompts on tags to allow you to write the actual journaling on the page later. I'm thinking both my blog and journal will come in handy here to inspire my actual pages as I work to complete them.