I'm so exhausted, I've had typepad open for at least ten minutes, just sitting here watching mindless TV while I try to relax.
Okay. I can post. *G*
Oops. There I went again! Looking up crafty totes and notebook covers as, well, at the rate I'm going, I'll burn through my current journal by the end of the month. Ohh, but if only my sewing machine wasn't broken! I'm tempted to buy one of the $15 chainstitch machines made for kids (and powered by batteries!) in order to sew. While I adore hand-sewing, I miss the quality and ease of using a machine.
Considering how late I slept today, you wouldn't imagine me exhausted! After a late-night viewing of "Weeds," I fell asleep to the inspired stories of "Living the Creative Life." I've been feeling a bit dry lately...well, not exactly dry, per-se, as I'm working in my journal every night, but uneasy? Wondering about my future as an all-around creative person after a job interview yesterday (well, beforehand, as I learned of the interview late last week). Do I really want to make a living as an artist?
Perhaps the real question is, can I?
Or, can I, working only in a journal?
While others speak of creating elaborate pieces, of paintings and assemblages, I'm content and excited to work in an illustrated journal format. I just do. Sitting or laying in bed with my journal open upon my lap, collaging and painting and writing -- I am overwhelmingly passionate about art journaling (as if you couldn't tell!) and have little desire to create paintings and pieces. Then again, I can work for days on a page in my journal, invest tons of supplies, of techniques...several journal pages have been carefully cut out so I can hang them on my wall (of course, only one "page" of two can be seen at a time!).
But I'm a writer at heart! A journal is the perfect place for me. I love it. I will always keep several journals, spend as much time on a page or spread as a painter might on a painting!
Hmmm.
Have you ever had one of those mornings, when, while floating out of sleep (not wanting to get up yet!), an idea leaps into your head that is so amazing, so...God, I can't even explain it! Let me just say what happened: I was slowly waking up after sleeping like a log last night when a page I'd done the night before (I do most of my journal pages late at night, when everyone's gone to sleep) suddenly changed... I love Ugly Dolls, and have always wanted to make a doll or stuffed animal of my own. Even though I'm in my twenties, I still sleep with a stuffed animal, and thought...why not me? So I was waking up and remembered some wool felt (I actually have no idea what it is...it's wool...but like felt) I'd gotten at a flea market about a year ago that was sitting in my sewing box that would be PERFECT for a small doll.
Ahh...I haven't taken a picture of the entry yet, but anyway, the idea got me out of bed and at my desk sketching out a pattern before I even put on my glasses (I can see okay without them)! I didn't move until all the pattern pieces were cut from the wool felt. But then! Then I realized I didn't have a needle to use!
So I went to Wal-Mart...everything I saw sparked an idea! I wish I could have gotten the whole store and come home and make everything that popped into my head! I just felt like I was seeing the store for the first time.
OMG, have you seen the Martha Stewart commercial where Tim Gun's using table cloths and such to design a dress? It was like that (except I don't shop at K-Mart)! Oohhh!
I'm getting ahead of myself. I came home and sewed. And more! And here's the first of (hopefully!) many Goddess Dolls!
What else did I do? I totally journaled all over my purse! Wow! Journaling on something other than paper or fabric! I was smiling SO wide when I played, spilling things, drawing things, just GOING CRAZY! OMG! Defiantly process over product!!
Now I'm just dead tired. I don't even want to journal...just watch TV and play sudoku and I KNOW there are so many more ideas that will come alive tomorrow! I want to make more journals like the one I use because I adore it. Finally, one I love! And make my own journal "bra." And more dolls. And more purses to sew and journal all over.
Here's me with today's wears!
