Journaling for a Cause Day II
So, here is my entry for Day II of Journaling for a Cause, today’s prompt from Janel:
Journal Prompt 2: I am a huge fan of writing out my goals, short term and long term. I thought it would be appropriate to have some journaling goals for ourselves too!! What are your goals for your journaling?
Now, I was not able to make today’s entry as original or interesting as I would have liked, it was pretty much created sporadically and snatching spare moments whilst looking after Orla and Ella (her best friend), as it’s the school holidays. I feel that a lot of us Mum’s who are doing this may struggle a bit over the next 30 days, but I will do my best. I elected to post this here, and not on my art blog asI felt it was less about my art, and more about me. I will probably post them here every day, and summarise on my art blog at the end of the week.
My five bullet points for my entry are as follows:
- Be spontaneous
- Less obsessive
- Do something different
- Challenge myself
- Be authentic and true to myself
- Most of all make it fun and enjoyable
The crux of the above is this; I am tightly wound both personally and in my work and always have been. I have a tendency to OCD which I have to continually fight against (which means I can be overly perfectionist about my work and have been known to destroy as many as five or six (or many more) working versions of a piece of art. I liked the idea of a group project, and felt this would challenge me to do something different, and given that the subject matter would be dictated by another person, would take me out of my comfort zone. Above all, that I remain true to myself, am authentic and resist the urge to compare and fret over it But last and not least…to enjoy the experience and not make it too onerous and something that becomes stressful or a chore.
Journal Prompt II
Oh, and if you are wondering about the melon. I asked Orla to choose from one of her many stickers books a sticker she felt would most suit the content of the page, and she chose this one. 
Journaling for a Cause – Prompt I
So, our project kicks off today, (see post) and here is our first prompt for the new ‘Journaling for a Cause’ class being run by the lovely Janel. The prompt was to commence with a “Welcome” page which was to include a little blurb with five adjectives explaining our lives right now. Ergo: Welcome to my ______,______,_______,_______, ______ life.
So, what can I say?! I am arty, a Mum, laughing most of the time (I hope), definitely striving and most importantly loving Luke and Orla.
The little illustrations are symbolic (though not hidden). Pencil, paintbrush, a pot of paintbrushes, a winged heart, the stormy sea and I am the little boat, my crown because I am the Queen of my own little soap opera, and the sun. The adjectives are in my own long hand, which I don’t use often anymore.
'Welcome to my arty, mumsy, striving, laughing and loving life'
Journaling for a Cause
I want to tell you about a new project I am participating in that starts on Monday 26th. It’s called ‘Journaling for a Cause‘ and is being run by the lovely Janel of ‘Runs with Scissors‘ as a ‘journal class, with new prompts, new challenges, giveaways, chats, and a fun community of online friends to share it with’.
Some of you may be familiar with Janel and her last fabulous project, ‘The 30 Day Journal Challenge. Janel posted journal ‘prompts’ every day for 30 days, and people posted their journal/sketchbook pages in the Flickr group. It was hugely popular and created a veritable cornucopia of creativity.
I can’t wait to get started. I just need to decide which pretty sketchbook, or even…buy a new/another one especially for the project. Go read all about it, there are still some ‘class’ spots left on her Etsy Shop to be purchased. The money that Janel makes from running the class (and it’s only $10 to buy a spot) is going towards her and her husband adopting a child of their own.
I will be writing up my progress on my Art Blog. If you are interested, then follow me there.
Rachel Lucie Jewellery Designs + Gorjuss Art
Rachel Lucie Jewellery Designs:
Rachel Lucie Bracelet
So, recently (as I rarely buy my self anything) I treated myself to a couple of pretties as I have had quite a bit of work lately, sold some art etc. And as I feel the need to share and show off the talents of these clever people. Here they are.
I acquired this beautiful bracelet from the ever so talented Rachel Lucie (for whom I recently undertook some graphic design work). It’s absolutely fabulous, and is a charm bracelet constructed from an oxidized silver chain that is polished, with lovely stones that are kyanite (apple green), iolite (indigo), smoky quartz and silver freshwater pearls. It’s really beautiful, delicate and very pretty. It’s colours suit me perfectly and is currently my favourite piece of jewellery.
Do take a moment to go and look at Rachel’s web site and one of her many her shops, as her jewellery is so lovely and elegant, also..she has been featured in Vogue, indeed!
Rachel Lucie Bracelet
Gorjuss Art:
Secondly, on facebook recently, I noticed Mr.G from Gorjuss flagging up one of Suzanne’s fabulous illustrations on some notebooks being sold on Amazon. There were not a lot left in stock, and as they were quite reasonably priced, I decided to nab me one quick. It was being sold with a free Santoro pen and included a pretty little bookmark. I was thrilled to bits. It’s utterly gorgeous 
and almost too nice to use. It’s pages are lined, free and grid and in different colours with little icons here and there. Love it…
Gorjuss Top of the World Notebook
School Project Mark I
Have you ever seen that ‘Grumpy Old Women‘ episode where they talk about the ‘letters from school’ and having to make things for school projects? Costumes, cakes, makes etc, and the terror of looking in the school bag to find yet another letter from the school asking for this that and the other. Contributions for this, help to make that, donations for this, cartoons, carboard, this list is endless…
Well, a few weeks ago I was handed a blue piece of cloth, and a letter explaining that we needed to make a collage hand for a community project in which all finished hands would be put together to make one big collage. We had to use the blue square with which they had supplied us, and we could then use anything else we wanted. Fabric, paper, glitter, all sorts.
Being a creative person, I had lots of good ideas, but then like most things in my life, I left it to the last minute. So, realising the deadline was upon me, I pinned down my protesting daughter, drew around her hand (so I could at least with a clear conscience claim she had been involved), used the cutout as a stencil and used some pink felt for the hand shape. I Got some PVA from her craft box, and the day before the deadline start gluing on my stars and sequins, having used spray mount to affix the hand. That worked quite well. I left it for 24 hours, which I thought would be ample time for it to dry. It did indeed dry, however, when I lifted my square, all the stars and sequins started to fall off. I then re glued again with craft glue. Left it for two hours, went back..again everything fell off.
By this time I was getting desperate as I had only an hour to go before I had to hand it over, the deadline having all ready been and gone. Frantically I rushed upstairs to my studio and got my very expensive (only to be used for serious art work) pot of Golden Matte Gel Medium. I got some more glue, and carefully stuck my stars (beginning to look a little worse for wear) and sequins down and painted the gel medium over the the top, then somewhat haphazardly and over enthusiastically covered it in glitter, it actually worked a treat.
I left it pinned to the line to dry and carefully carried it to the school and handed it over with nary a backwards glance, relieved to be rid of it.
It was a stressful day all told and am so looking forward to my next school project.
Hand for school project
Hand for school project
Lorrie Whittington
Visual Artist and Designer
Chichester, UK
