A Little Imagination and a Pile of Junk

we have a winnner...

According to the ever-powerful Random Number Generator, the winner of our little giveaway is...Mary Ellen Little! Thank you all so very much for joining in the fun. I only wish I had a copy to send to each one of you. Good luck in all your new creative adventures this year. Keep trying new things, don't be afraid of failure, let yourself make splendid mistakes, and remember to have fun with your art. And, most of all, don't be afraid to share your art with others. You never know who you may inspire!

ten

My daughter Maisey's birthday is December 27. As those of you with birthdays around the holidays know, no matter how hard we try, she pretty much always gets the shaft--fewer presents, less friends around to celebrate with. We usually have a little family party on her actual birthday, but this weekend we'll be celebrating her very special 10th Birthday, Part 2 with afternoon tea and a sleepover. I don't know how we'll make it to tea time with all this excitement.

You might think that having a artsy, creative mom my kids would have handmade clothes and toys and decor. But you would be oh-so-wrong. I'm ashamed to say that Maisey has been begging me forever to make her a journal (she made her first journal when we took Mary Ann Moss's Remains of the Day class together several years ago. Highly recommended--and it's on sale!). She had already picked out the cover and papers she wanted me to use, so I decided to surprise her with a new journal for her big 10th birthday. You know, using the fact that she'd asked for so long she'd probably given up hope of ever actually seeing one to create that element of surprise.

 
We're both pretty happy with the way it turned out. I included lots of blank pages for her to write and doodle and dream in. I was even able to use a little flower I saved from a cardigan she wore as toddler. The cardigan itself is still waiting around to be unraveled for yarn. I must google how to do that soon! Ten years old (and going on 16)! I can hardly believe it. Happy second 10th birthday, sweet girl!

new year giveaway: book & inspiration pack!

It's a new year and that means it is time to clean out last year's clutter (me), bring in some new inspiration (you) and get those creative juices flowing to get us through the cold winter months ahead (both of us).

Now, you could focus your new year's aspirations and newly found motivation to lose weight, stop eating junk food or run a marathon and all that's great, but why not resolve to do something else that's equally (well, maybe not equally but close) as good for you and fun, too? Let's resolve to make more art! And if we can't make the world a better place overnight, we can make it prettier. And that's a good start.

So, in the spirit of fresh starts and great art, I'm giving away a copy of Jenny Doh's Journal It: Perspectives In Creative Journaling, in which I had a tiny little role, and a package of goodies I put together to get you inspired and on your way to recording the new year in your own art journal. One of the things I love most about visual journaling is simply keeping a record of daily life. There are so many things we think we will never forget--special occasions, words of encouragement, funny things our children say, the way the light falls through the kitchen window on your morning cup of coffee--but the truth is we do forget. And writing down every day's highlights alone takes more time than most of us have in our hectic and overfilled lives. But when I glance back through my journals, I don't have to read everything I've written to be instantly reminded of what seems like just yesterday but is quietly slipping farther into the past. It's the visual element that instantly transports me back, and I may not remember what I had for breakfast this morning, but I can tell you exactly where I was, what was going on around me and what I was feeling when I doodled those flowers over my lunch receipt from that too warm afternoon in July.

So now is the perfect time to get started with your first visual journal or just get a little inspiration for your art in the new year by getting to know the 19 visual artists featured in Journal It!, which includes signature techniques and an in depth Q&A with each artist. And all you have to do to enter the giveaway is leave a comment on this post telling me something new you'd like to learn in the coming year. (And don't forget to leave an email address so I can contact you if you're the winner.) It's as easy as that! And on January 31 I will announce the winner on this blog, chosen randomly.

And if you have been wanting to finally take the plunge into art journaling or just want a new journal for the new year, take a look at the hand bound art journals in my Etsy shop or contact me for a custom art journal made especially for your needs and personality!

best wishes

This past summer as we approached my son Soren's eleventh birthday, he naturally began making a Wish List of presents he hoped he might see on his special day. That's half the fun of a birthday, right, planning and dreaming and looking forward to the big day? Well one afternoon, feeling a little left out of the fun, his sister Maisey began moping around the house with nothing to do. She found me in the studio not wanting to hear every parent's nightmare--the dreaded, "I'm bored! There's nothing to do!"--all afternoon, I told her she should make her own wish list--with a twist. She should come up with 8-10 things for her list but only two of them could be material things (toys and books and such). She immediately ran back inside the house and I happily started back to work thinking that challenge should occupy her for a couple of hours. But about 15 minutes later, she returned with her list. So sweet and innocent and full of hope it made me cry and want to give her everything she asked for.

Maisey's Special Wish List (Age 9)

1. Love

2. A good friendship

3. A little more respect

4. More privileges

5. That people would never be mean

6. That I would be super smart! (Oh, how I love that little exclamation point!)

7. That things bad would never happen

8. That Mom & Dad would tell me things when I ask! (This last one's a little jab at me for not telling her what we had planned for her brother's birthday. Maisey, like her dad, is notoriously bad at keeping anything exciting a secret for more than two minutes!)

For days I just couldn't get this list off my mind. It occured to me that most of these are things we would all wish for if God asked us make our own a little wish list for life in this beautiful but broken world. Love, friendship, kindness, peace. Who could ask for much more than that?

It is my hope that you find all of these in abundance in your homes and families this holiday season and into the new year. Merry Christmas and thank you all for taking the time out of your precious days to visit my little blog!

xo, debra

it's beginning to look a lot like...

This came from a very talented friend of a friend. I'm glad not just for the laugh, but now I know exactly what to get my husband for Christmas: two in one!! (Watch 'til the end and you'll see what I mean.)

Well, I better get back to my Christmas crafting--only 12 days left! Merry Pinterest, everybody!! You can check out more of Jeremy Ashida's music here or here.

colorful christmas goodies

Looking for something a little different this year for your holiday decor? How about colorful crochet garlands and hand-painted fabric ornaments to bring a little merry & bright to your holiday decorations?

Take a peek in my Etsy shop for more pictures and details (click here). Happy decorating!

behind the scenes

I didn't intend to be away for quite so long! But after driving 2 days for a more-than-worth-it Thanksgiving with family back home in Texas, we returned to quickly became preoccupied with sick kids, custom journals and, well, life. Plus a broken camera makes blogging a bit tricky, but I still have my phone! ...Oh, wait, yeah, the lens on the camera phone is cracked now, too. Very tricky. But I have been busily working. Even dipping into my journal bit by bit, though still not as at home in its pages as usual. But I will persevere.

Because I am working on new things! Pretty things! Some you will see in my Etsy shop shortly, others just for fun. Like these fabric beads that I just had to spend an afternoon making. Just in case I needed them. Until then, they are lovely in my Andy Warhol commemorative soup can. And making me a little hungry.

Yep, busy, busy. But you will have to be content with a sneak peek for just a little longer. Until I figure out how to get some real pictures. I mean, what's a blog post without pictures?! Blog suicide that's what! Yes, very tricky, indeed.

So, bear with me a little longer, won't you? I've got lots to show you and some fun stuff planned---including a giveaway! You know, a little pre-Christmas gifty. You won't want to miss that! Not to mention sparkly things! And feathers! And beads! You can't get much better than that in my book. Especially feathers.

know thyself, and all that

We've been enjoying some surprisingly warm & beautiful days so far this fall, making the transition to cooler weather gentler and more welcome. Even with the pleasantly warm afternoons, the mornings are still a bit too cold for me to wander far from my heating vent, so I've had to shift my daily walk from morning to afternoon. But I've been rewarded with the most beautiful afternoon sun that makes those dying leaves virtually dance and look more alive than ever.

Honestly, I've been dreading the change of seasons mostly out of fear that it would interfere with my walks. Walking and thinking has kept me reasonably sane this year, and the thought of having to forgo them strikes a particular fear in my heart. Over the course of my lifetime I've tried a little bit of everything in an attempt to trigger that latent gene for enjoying physical exercise that I've prayed existed in me somewhere. The fact is I just don't enjoy exercise. At least not enough to keep it up when there is any excuse at all to get out of it. But I know I need it. My body and my brain and my attitude needs it, but since moving hundreds of miles away from the best yoga teacher ever, I had pretty much given up hope of finding anything exercise-worthy that I would ever enjoy again. Until I started walking.

Recently a handful of families from our tiny church plant went through a weekend of training and team building together. It was loads of fun. We each took a couple of personality-type tests and learned about each others natural temperaments and strengths. It was fascinating and enlightening, and I learned a lot about myself in the process. I learned I am the most boring person in the world on paper. But, beyond that, I learned to see my natural bent and inclinations, particularly to things intellectual and analytical, as strengths that I should cultivate instead of always focusing on where I feel I am weakest.

Thinking about all that I had gleaned from that weekend during one of my walks, I realized what it was about walking that finally motivated me when nothing else did. Walking gives me time to think. Intellectually I know my body needs exercise to function properly, I know research shows exercise is as effective against the depression I wrestle with as anti-depressants, I know it is necessary if I don't want to keep packing on the extra pounds as I now approach 40. I understood and believed all of these things to be true, but it didn't motivate me to get my butt moving. Neither did the frustrating and fruitless struggle to lose the extra 10 pounds I had put on since moving to Colorado, and neither did the sluggish feeling in my body constantly reminding me that I'm getting older and my relatively good health so far is not a guarantee.

The fact is it took stimulating my mind, not my body, to convince me exercise was a worthy use of my limited time. I enjoy the physical benefits of walking--I do have more energy and I have finally lost those 10 stubborn pounds--but it is the mental and emotional benefits that keep me lacing up those damn-ugly tennis shoes day after day. I don't even complain about it any more, because I know as soon as those shoes hit the pavement, that time is mine. With no one else around to interrupt my thoughts, I can process or pray, argue with myself or vent--hell, I've even been know to walk right down the street bawling like a baby (the sunglasses are great for hiding puffy eyes)--and there's no better place to think and let your mind go than outside in God's beautiful creation.

The fall has always been my favorite time of year and now that I live somewhere that has a real, glorious and color-drenched fall instead of only dropping down 5 degrees from suffocating heat to merely roasting, I want to be out soaking every bit of it in. Thankfully, we've had a mild autumn this year and I hope it's a mild winter because I don't even like bundling up in my cute coats and hand-knitted scarves let alone the horrible spandex ensembles I dread having to wear just so I can keep walking through January. But I'll do what I have to do to exercise my brain (and body) as long as possible.

So, if you've been needing that little bit of encouragement or kick in the pants to get your body moving, I want to encourage you to keep trying! Don't give up until you find that thing that does it for you. I promise you, there isn't a less athletic person on the face of the earth than me. I fall off my own shoes daily just getting out the door so I get it, believe me. But I also believe our bodies were made to move and keep moving, so there has to be something out there for those of us to whom moving doesn't come naturally. So maybe try walking, but just try something. It is good for your body and your mind. And if you ever have the opportunity to discover your own temperament or personal strengths (even if you've spent a lifetime, like me, trapped in your own head and think you ought to know yourself pretty darn well by now), I highly recommend you do it! Know Thyself, and all that. It's a good place to start, and who knows where it will lead you.

there's a me you would not recognize, dear

No you ain't gonna find me, cause I ain't who I used to be.

This past summer I did something I never thought I would do. I got a tattoo. I love my  husband's tattoos but I've always been scared it would hurt too badly! For me, emotional pain: eh, big deal, but physical pain: I'm a total wuss. If you've visited my blog for any length of time or made the effort to read the teeny, tiny writing in my journal posts, it'll probably come as no surprise to hear that I've struggled with severe depression and anxiety since my childhood. There have been some terrible, dark periods in my life, but for the most part it is something that has always been there and, I've assumed, always would be. But--without going into any unnecessary details--nothing could have prepared me for the depths of despair the last 2 1/2 years would bring me.

I know I still have a long way to go, but I've been working extremely hard the last 5 months to get my head above water, and I am doing better. I feel hopeful again and that's something I thought I might have lost forever. So I started thinking that what I needed was a kind of memorial--something easier to carry than a pile of stones--to all that we've been through and to the hard-won lessons we've learned along the way. An outward symbol of an inward change. Written on my body as a reminder to never forget and never give up.

I am the barely living daughter of a woman and a man who barely made it. But we're making it. Taped together on borrowed crutches and new starts. We all have the same holes in our hearts. --Listener

When I told my husband John my idea that we get matching tattoos, he was all for it. But I knew I'd better book an appointment before I could lose my nerve--and I almost did! Once a date was set, though, it turned out not to be the pain I was most scared of but the forever change (always, it's the change). So I reminded myself the scars were already there, I'd just be walking around with them on the outside of my body from now on.

Of course, now that it's done (it barely hurt a bit and took all of 20 minutes) I'm already planning my next tattoo! I've learned the hard way that there are times when pain can be good. It's a reminder that you're still alive. And that there are things worth living--and fighting--for.

an unveiling

I'm excited to finally share with you a little project I'm honored to have been a part of. Journal It!: Perspectives in Creative Art Journaling, by Jenny Doh, is a collection of books and pages by 19 diverse mixed-media artists that includes detailed descriptions of our favorite techniques plus discussions on why we do what we do in the first place and why we all feel so passionately about sharing our love of journaling with others.

If you've been fascinated by others' visual journals but never stuck your toes in the water to give it a try yourself, this beautiful book will be an excellent place to gather ideas to get you started on expressing your own unique voice through words and images. If you are a seasoned pro, the diversity of expression alone will motivate you to try something you've maybe never tried before (journaling is all about experimentation and play, after all) and inspire a fresh vision and passion for your own books.

Many of the journal artists you will recognize, but there are many more new faces I know will inspire you! Let me know what you think! Here's a little sneak peek: