Day 351, Part II: More Tell Your Story

I realized that I haven’t blogged any of my pages for my art journaling class since our introduction pages. Oops… So here are some more! The babies are napping, so I’m working on all the fabulous bonus prompts Elsie and Rachel posted.

Here are my New Season pages:

The left side says:

Technically spring just started, but to me summer always began in May when school ended. Besides I’ve never been a fan of spring – I despise pastels. I want my new season to be a whole new beginning. One in which I stop waiting and start doing. I want to start fresh with my new little family. In the Bahamas or Rota or California or even VA Beach – wherever it is we end up. I want adventures – the kind you don’t know are coming until you wake up with restless feet. Okay – let’s not lie – I ALWAYS wake up with restless feet. Very few adventures though. I want to create a definitive style for myself. One that is “me”. I want to take more time to be crafty and to play. I feel like I”m stuck in a cycle of “get up, do what ‘needs’ to be done, go to bed”, and I really want to brake break out of that.

It was very difficult for me to deal with my spelling mistake. 🙂 I’m a spelling and grammar Nazi, and I hardly ever write in pen because I like everything to be perfect. But I promised myself that I would write in pen for this journal and embrace the mistakes. I’ve been using a ruler to make lines, but I haven’t been spacing them evenly or making sure they’re exactly straight. It’s still pretty anal, but it’s progress nonetheless.

Anyhow. The title reads “a new season of sunshine”. To the right of season is a road map with a glittery question mark, which corresponds with the signs toward the middle of the bottom that say “Where do you want to go?”. The right-hand page and the left border of the left-hand page have my list of things I want to accomplish in my “new season”.

I want to…

love without reservations

explore the open road

seize every opportunity

embrace motherhood

play

dance

be a fearless dreamer

travel

garden

enjoy

dream

giggle

bake more cupcakes

The last is especially important. I love, love, love cupcakes! I wavered on including “embrace motherhood” because I don’t want people to think I don’t enjoy being a mother. It truly is one of the best things that’s ever happened to me. I just feel like since J is overseas, and I’m a “single” mother, I find myself too caught up in what has to get done everyday to sit back and just spend time with my little man.

My next two pages aren’t completely done, but my printer is out of ink, so I’ve done what I can until I run to the cartridge place and get replacements.

The left page is my “Today felt…” page. I went with a monochromatic color scheme in blue – obviously. I have a photo of my flowers from last week that I’m going to put through Poladroid, so I have a sweet “Polaroid” to put at the top. The page reads:

today feels different. everything is the same, but i feel like 😀 for no reason.

That day I was grinning for no reason and was thoroughly excited for my cousin’s visit and my other cousin’s move to ILM in June. Things that usually stress me out didn’t, and I was very relaxed. I’d like to have more days like that.

The right page is my “More than Anything” page. I used scraps of yellow fabric, and I want to get purple fabric or felt to put some cut-out hearts over top. I’m obsessed with hearts right now. You’ll see what I mean in a minute. I think what it says is pretty clear, but just in case, it says:

i want more than anything is to live adventurously.

Terrible grammar, but at least I didn’t misspell anything, which was my big concern. Maybe I’ll cover up the oops. Or maybe I’ll just leave it. Imperfection is beautiful…right? 😀

My final two pages are my “Three Wishes” page and my “Deep Down” page.

My “Three Wishes” page reads:

THREE WISHES

1. I wish my little family was all together.

2. I wish my little man could meet his uncles.

3. I wish I never had to worry about money ever again!

It’s covered in hearts because I used a heart as my “cut-out” shape for my journaling, and then I started cutting hearts out of some scrap paper and had waaay too much fun with it. I do enjoy the effect.

On the day we had our “Deep Down” prompt, we were supposed to journal somewhere we didn’t usually journal. Since Little J was with his grandmother, I packed up KyBugs and headed over to Barnes & Noble. They have little round metal tables out front where I love to sit and people-watch, so I got a Reese’s Cup cookie and a bottle of cranberry juice and journaled while KyBugs played in the stroller. It was very relaxing.

The “Deep Down” prompt was very interesting to me. We were instructed not to be too idealistic, but I found myself having to be MORE idealistic. Apparently I don’t think very highly of myself deep down. Something to work on. I only took my journal and a pen to B&N and ended up finishing the page at my parents’ house later with limited supplies I’d tossed in Little J’s Easter basket. It was interesting when I realized that I’d left my acrylic block for my letter stamps, but I improvised and got a cool effect. I ripped up some of my Eiffel Tower washi tape (I keep wanting to call it “wasabi tape”…?) and then cut two hearts out of some scraps that wouldn’t fit anywhere else. It’s one of my favorite pages so far, I think. It reads:

I have big regrets.
I’m a softie.
I second-guess myself on every choice I make.
It scares me how in love with him I am.
I know I’m meant for more than this town can offer.
I feel like I fail more than I succeed.
I know I’m a good person, despite my mistakes.
I wonder if I’ll ever be able to finish my degree.
Sometimes I miss high school.
I have serious baby fever (though I couldn’t ask for a better baby than my little man).
I really do enjoy being a nerd.
I’m terrified of being left and/or forgotten.
I know we’ll be happy wherever we end up – but I hope it’s the Bahamas! 🙂