2023 journals

These are my new journals for the start of the year. The blue one is for morning pages and occasional writing. It has dotted pages, so I can write both ways, vertically or horizontally depending on my mood.

The small one is for art journaling, I love to create in tiny journals! I finished its cover this weekend and organized the first pages.

I had in mind my word and colour of the year when setting them up: Expansion and blue!

I added my own stickers on the cover to personalize it. I only kept the message on the bottom, it goes well with my journaling intention.

I still need to work on my gratitude journal. I have a few pages left in the one I’m using now, so I’ll keep going until I have time to set up the new one.

“Journal writing, when it becomes a ritual for transformation,
is not only life-changing but life-expanding.”
Jen Williamson

A pop of colour

winter blues
it's dragging me down
bright colours

lifting up
creativity
stagnation

Middle of January is always difficult, winter blues guiding to lack of creativity. I hadn’t worked on any art page for so long, today I decided to add yellow and pink to a page. A pop of colour to lift my mood. I like my choice of colours: yellow and pink! Yellow means happiness and reminds me of sunshine; pink is related to self-care and love. This reminded me to buy flowers this weekend!

Haiku poem for Tanka Tuesday.

kindness

me time kindness
kindness
holding a door
a smile

a smile
a cup of tea
thank you

thank you
sending flowers
love you

love you
I'm listening
kindness

Tanka Tuesday – Kindness is the theme prompt for this week. I’ve written this poem but it doesn’t fit any of the classic poetry forms, at least that I could find. I love it, so I decided to be kind to myself and share it anyways. It is a syllabic poem, so I think Colleen will like. The form is 2:4:2, the last word of one stanza is the first of the following on and the first word of the poem repeats as the last one. I am thinking a name for it, but first I’d like know from the poetry experts if there isn’t already a form like this one.

Another gesture of kindness I’m sharing here, is a self-kindness. A few minutes every morning I give to myself to play with colours, images. It’s a ‘me time’ that I use for art journaling.

Hope you enjoy both of my creativity forms.

resilience

“I tried and failed. I tried again and again and succeeded.”
Gail Borden

my art and me, me and my art. i’ve tried many media and styles over the years. sketch, canvas, collage, water color, acrylics … but what i really like is messy art. to give permission to the colors and pieces of paper to talk by themselves.

“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”
Margaret Thatcher

my messy pages are like therapy, i let my feelings pour on them. most of them i keep to myself, but a few i post on IG, i share with my friends in there hoping to inspire them. once a posted a collage and tagged art page. someone left a comment saying my page wasn’t an art! sadness took over me and i didn’t post for a while.

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
Confucius

many thoughts later, i understood the problem wasn’t on my page or with myself, but with the person that commented. up and down, resiliency, and time to take the stand and enjoy my art, messy art!

WQWWC

A random page # 17

Good Morning! Here are a few pages from an IG art party this weekend:

prompt 1: yellow and turquoise
prompt 2: a quote

It’s the journey that’s important, not the getting there.

John McLeod

prompt 3: growth

Today is starting #100dayproject, where we choose one creative project and stick with it for 100 days. I’ve joined it for many years and it’s great to see all the work done at the end of the project. This year I’ll make an art card per day.

Have a great and safe week!

A random page # 15

Journaling is helping me to stay grounded during this time of lockdown. I’ve been up and down with my feelings, but in a way or another when I sit at my desk and start to write it’s like the world is back to its usual flow.

I haven’t done much art journaling recently, but here are the pages I did a few weeks ago.

Acceptance and self-care
Letting go
Being comfortable at home

And you? How are keeping your sanity these days?

a random page # 14

Happy Women’s Day!

The new season is coming and it’s time for changes. Starting by changing the clocks today, this means more day light, more outdoors activities, but the self-changes are the most important: our body, our mood, expectations …

With the Spring knocking on the door, it’s time to get rid of what doesn’t serve us anymore and make space for new things. I’m not talking about material stuff, but thoughts, regrets and old ideas. I try to live a minimalist life style, so I don’t have many things to get rid off. I don’t like cluttering, when I buy something new, the old one has to go out. What I need is to apply the same style to my mind, generally I keep everything in there, and I’m tired of the mind-cluttering.

I need to make more space for the things that make me happy and give me pleasure. More writing, gardening, cooking delicious and healthy food, in summary I need to nest the good thoughts and get rid of the bad ones.

And you? Any plans for the new season?

E.