Journaling reads in part:

What happens to a person when they want to create, when they need to create, but they can't? The world calls it blocked whether it be writing, or art, or in my case sewing.

It is in there and wants to come out, but is unable for some reason to fight its way to the surface. I've decided I will think of it as bottled and not blocked. Stored up and waiting to be uncorked Ready to flow out slow and smooth like molassas or burst out like champaigne...

I wanted to try a dark page with light areas for journaling. This is what I came up with. All of the bits and pieces were laying on my work table. The baby I found in the Artful Treasures swap box already cut out. Talk about instant gratification! I used a toothpick and white paint to do the writing around the edge. 

The red box from the Artful Treasures swap arrived. Some of the things that I found that I want to keep are spread in front of it in the picture. Our mail clerk was impressed with this pretty box. Most of the things I used on this page were in the box too. I really like the way the red napkin turned out. This is the first time I've used napkins. I'm sure it won't be the last.

The journaling under the woodpecker reads, "I heard a raucus cry in the parking lot at SHS and looked up to see a large woodpecker." I looked it up later and home and found out what kind it was and printed out the photo for this page. They are awesome birds and it was a treat seeing one.

Purple and yellow always remind me of pansies. The two guys silhouette shows up again. I kind of like the eraser stamp quail in purple. The circled dictionary words read self-imposed self-improvement semester. 

Pink pens don't show up well even on light backgrounds. I'm listening to A Tale of Two Cities on CD in the car driving to work and back. I have discovered this fall that I really like to listen to books in the car. Our library has a nice selection. 

The ladies are my grandma and a friend. Grandma always said, "Isn't that awful!" when we came to this photo in the album, but I noticed she didn't take it out. She was the thin one. The photos were copied on my printer/scanner. The cutie in the tub is my son and the other baby is an older cousin. 

I'm re-posting this page with the some of the great ephemera Cornelia sent me from the Netherlands because I forgot to blur the addresses before. 

I finally finished the ABC Wild Animal Eraser Carve Swap. 27 each letter and quail cards with borders took a lot longer than I thought they would to stamp. Of course that's not counting all the ones that didn't make it into the stack. 

I saved the cover till last because I was nervous about doing it. I like the way it turned out. I sponged on gold metallic acrylic paint and did a collage of animals over a piece of mulberry paper. 

The cards are just laying here. They will be glued in to each book by the hostess. I can't wait to see what everyone else has done. 

I couldn't get my key to turn in the ignition yesterday. Thank goodness for cell phones. After trying for over 15 minutes, I called my husband. He told me to try and jiggle the steering wheel which I did. When that didn't work, he said he would come get me. Thankfully I had my journal and a pen with me so I spent the time waiting drawing the dratted key. When he got there, he jiggled it twice and it turned. I guess I just don't have the touch. 

Mostly text journaling. 

The deadline for sending the ABC Wild Animal eraser swap out is today. I'm going to miss it, but I hope to send it out by Monday. I like to save the stamp offs when I am carving. These are the first stamps I've carved in ages. I remembered to reverse the Q, but forgot when I carved the quail. Oh well, it will just be facing the other way. I heard the other day that our bobwhite quail are in danger of becoming extinct. Years ago we used to see a covey at the end of our driveway quite frequently. I've only seen a couple this year and not on our farm. I'm glad I chose this bird for my swap. 

The quote "It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be finished." is from Lisa Volrath on her Yahoo'>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gluebooks/?yguid=84100654">Yahoo! Groups : gluebooks list. I got all inspired this morning and switched this from a page on journaling to a page on getting stuff done. The text below the Create Art bubble reads, Don't stop to think. Don't ask questions. Take what you have and make something new. The blue face was on a brochure I got for subscribing to a magazine. I thought it was neat, but not my style. Guess I was wrong.

This is what happens when you are sleep deprived. I've admired this ad and I thought, "Why not? It's my book." 

I'm managing to do a page a day for once. 

After reading and looking at many pages of Danny Gregory's blog archives http://www.dannygregory.com/weblog/archives/2003_12.html I was primed to try to sketch something. Nothing appealed to me until I spotted this little watercolor sketch in a magazine. I decided maybe it would be good practice to sketch someone else's sketch. 

Somehow my first autumn page turned out pastel. 

This page was inspired by the French bread wrapper I couldn't through away. My grandma's family were Canadians who emigrated from France and Belgium. The photo was taken around 1919. 

It occurred to me that I put photos of things that do appeal to me on the same page as a list of things that don't. Oh well, it's my journal. 

The border here is scraps from enlarging the picture on the Oct. 1 page. For some reason it really appealed to me. I painted over it with orange acrylic. 

I sketched these eggs as I was cooking breakfast because I just had to write this journal entry. I'm not much at sketching and certainly not quick, in the morning, before work , sketching. I did successive photo copy enlargements at 200% of the little poster at the right to get the thin man. The flower is a white silk flower that I painted yellow. I really like the way the donut napkin turned out. I glued it down with Mod Podge and sponged some yellow paint over it. 

Every 10 or so pages I've been tearing out several pages and gluing something in between the stubs so that the journal doesn't get too thick to close. So far it's working great. I did 36 spreads in September. That must be a record for me. 

I drove some students to sell yearbook ads. While waiting on them, I got in some journaling - even a bit of sketching. Like most of my other pages this was done on a pre-painted spread in my composition book. I've been painting them either at night or in the morning before work. I also went to the library and hit the magazine exchange box. This is one of my favorite services of our library.