I got a real craving for some new art stuff this week end. In addition to all the things that I bought, I also carved a new eraser stamp. This was just a quickie border stamp, but I like the way it looks. I got the idea from a bit of fabric I saw on someone's web site. This was a fun page, but I'm not quite happy with the way the receipt overlaps the border. I'm not sure what would have looked better though. This is my journal, so I don't mind if it isn't wonderful visually. It's all about the process and the memories contained. 

I'm not too thrilled with the way my purse sketch for the Everydaymatters Yahoo group challenge turned out. I think I am doing better sketching more structured items. I find all the folds really hard and black watercolor is difficult too. I had some trouble with my pen running out of ink in the middle of the sketch and the one I switched to had too fine a line. I think I need a thicker line if I'm going to be doing dark watercolor on it. I had planned to sketch more of the things inside the purse, but wasn't very motivated after the lack of success with the purse itself. I do like way the page turned out. Have to love those metallic gel pens. I looked back just now on a sketch that I did on October 4th and this one isn't any better. I shouldn't complain I guess. I went nearly a whole week without sketching. Maybe I'm just out of practice. 

I joined the Ancestor Deck group and finished my card for my Uncle Joe on Thursday. I can't wait to see the ones I'll get in exchange.  

My niece came over and drew in my journal. She loves the gel pens, especially the glitter ones. 

I usually finish a page the same day I start it. This one I worked on off and on over a period of 11 days and I'm still adding to the book list. Speaking of books, I added some Amazon links to my sidebar. If anyone buys one of these books or any other book by clicking on the link to go to Amazon, I get a small percentage. I'm not going to get rich, but it's nice to have a little extra for books or art supplies so thanks in advance for clicking on the link. 

This page started out yesterday morning with a full page ad from Chico's. I love the weathered look of the photo. I glued it down and painted the background using 5 colors of cheapy fluid acrylic paint while the sausage cooked. I often paint backgrounds in the morning before work. Then last night I finished the page. I started out to draw my desk chair and wound up drawing the whole computer area. I was really surprised at how well the water colors covered the fairly dark acrylic background. 

I was out on the deck taking photos of my journal in natural light and thought I would favor the world, or at the least the small portion of it that visits here, with a photo of Bay Creek. 

This is one of my favorite pages lately. I prepainted the background a couple of days ago. Yesterday morning I used the little eraser stamp below the page to stamp a couple of sections. They don't show up very well in the photo, but I love the effect. Then last night I was feeling yucky with a cold. I sat on the couch and listened to Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech and journaled. First I drew the lamp that was closest to me for the Everydaymatters challenge. The pen I chose didn't show up very well and I wound up going back over the main lines with a darker pen. I kind of like the two color effect. This is by no means my favorite lamp. I have been wanting to get some new lamps lately and don't really like any of the ones I have now. When I first heard what the challenge would be I wished that I had my old ugly fish lamp. Now there was a lamp worthy of a drawing. It was the first one we got when we were married in 1972, olive green ceramic in the shape of three fish stacked one on top of the other. It was the ugliest thing I had ever seen, but it was a lamp and it worked. After years of suffering through the ugly lamp, we started making more money and I gradually got other lamps. I actually grew fond of the goofy thing. I have no idea what happened to it, but when I needed a lamp to draw suddenly I wished I could see it again. Anyway, back to the page, after I drew the lamp I grabbed a couple of magazines and snipped a few pictures. By the time I was finished writing, it was bedtime and I was feeling a lot better. I still had the cold, but my mood was great. This is what I love about journaling.  

For some reason I felt a bit funny about using this rubberstamped face on the photo of an outfit we bought for our little sweetie. I didn't want to use the face that was on the origial in the sale paper. I'm getting over it. 

Journaling part of my Valentine's page. I will probably put a photo of Madelyn on the smaller page. I took some cute ones over the week end. 

The finished page with the shoes all painted. Most of them turned out pretty good, but I messed up painting the black boot closest to the date. I put the paint on too thick and then it got worse when I tried to take some of the paint back off. Oh well, live and learn. 

I decided that I would try sketching a bunch of my shoes to finish this page out. These are most of my favorites with a few of the models in the background.  

I did my shoe for the new weekly challenge at Yahoo! Groups : everydaymatters last night. I had thought I would sketch all my shoes, but chickened out and went with the pair I wear most often lately. I spent the next hour trying to finish the page and didn't come up with anything. After looking at Violet's collection of sketches, I am fired up again to try. I think I'll draw them smaller and on this page. 

Waiting at the doctor's office on Tuesday turned out to be not so bad either. I hoped I would have time for a quick sketch of the stool and wound up drawing half the room. I would have been miserable if I hadn't brought my journal. Instead I was busy drawing. 

Wow, who could know that journaling would make ballgame gate duty so palatable. The people had no idea I was sketching them. I wasn't brave enough to draw them on the page and resorted to my trick of using copy paper and glueing it in. I love having pages prepped ahead. I knew I was going to be really busy and mostly away from home this week, so I painted several on Monday. 

I haven't done a completely text page in a long time. I was just going to prep this page and go to bed and I wound up filling it with writing. I like using this stamp I carved last summer. The other bits are from my son's junk mail. 

I felt a need for bright colors after looking through Sabrina Ward Harrison's Spilling Open. Somehow I think I missed what I was aiming at. I almost didn't post this one, but what the heck. I did manage to slip in a sketch. 

Also on the fourth I did a quick sketch at the traditional Irish music concert we attended. There were two performers, but I waited so long to get brave that I only cought one of them. Both of these sketches were done on printer paper because I didn't have a page prepped.  

On the fourth a couple of other teachers and I went for a walk during lunch. It was a beautiful clear sky day. I came home and made this attempt at recording it. This is my first drawing from memory. The white around the figures isn't quite as annoying in person. 

I planned on spending about an hour or at the most two in Hastings our only local chain bookstore while J was at the doctor. I wound up staying three and a half hours. I finally got up the nerve to do some sketching when I had looked at all the magazines I could stand. It was interesting to watch a few people who noticed what I was doing and who gave me some sidewise glances to get a better look. 

When I decided not to do a sketch grid for February, I didn't realize how much I would miss the daily sketches. The first thing I wanted to do on the second was sketch something. I wound up drawing this rustic little basket that is on my art table. The church hat ladies were in the newspaper.  

February's calendar page. I used up the left over paint from the Feb 1 page. I put the Post It squares that I cut last month on the unpainted page. Then I dabbed the various colors over them. Finally, I sponged the whole page with cream colored paint, blending as I went. Then I took off the Post Its and sponged on teal and blue paint. I really like the way it turned out. The photo doesn't do it justice. I am afraid that the squares will be too dark for my writing to show up well though. I'll post again at the end of the month. I really like the idea of adding these calendar pages to the journals. I have to thank Tracy for sharing this idea. You can see some of her great calendar pages here. 

First page of Volume Three! I knew when I pulled the new Daniel Smith Art Materials catalog out of the mail box that I would be using the cover art in my journal. I just didn't know how I would use it. I took it up to my art table with my brand new composition book and "presented myself to the page". That's a line I learned from one of the Yahoo groups. What I wound up doing was to extend the painting to fill my pages. Then I journaled on it. If you look closely, you can see the original artwork in the upper right corner. It kind of bubbles out on the page. 

Some people say they don't like to look back through their filled journals, but I really like to. I especially like to since I've started adding more ephemera and visual things to them. I like reading the entries too. I guess that my memory isn't all that wonderful and seeing what I wrote or drew or pasted in really brings the moment that I recorded back to me.

Thought it might be fun to share a different view. I like seeing photos like this of other people's journals. 

Determined to finish my Volume Two journal in January, I stayed up too late again. I did get it done though! On to Volume Three.