Persistence

I'm a persistent kind of person. I will work and work and work at something until it's what I want it to be or I'm so frustrated I want to chuck it through the window. Sometimes both. But when someone ELSE is pushing and poking at me? I dig my heels in. That's just how I am. This is a Kellyism, because she's the same way!

Remember Angry Caterpillar? He's resisting the urge to become a butterfly! 

Where women create

I think the titles of stuff can be SO SILLY sometimes. I'm not a "solidarity, sister!" type of chick. I think division because of sex is stupid. This magazine could be called something like "Artist's Spaces" or something less sexist (oh, wait - it's only sexist if it says MEN, right?). Anyway, this is where this woman creates sometimes. 

That's my living room floor and I was sitting in the empty space! I had to get up and go somewhere with Mini Me, but I just left the stuff right there and came back to it. You don't need a fancy space to make art!

September Soul Garden

For June, July, and August I used patterned scrapbook papers as the "base" for my planners. I might have already told you I'm using a sketchbook this month and so far, I LOVE it. Here is my September page:

 I wanted to experiment with backgrounds, so this one was lightly sprayed with alcohol ink:

This one completely blank:

And this one covered with papers:

So far, my favorite is the sprayed background underneath the notecards. I'm having LOTS of fun this month!

September

It's a new month. Lots of "stuff" going on, lots of stuff to do, lots of thoughts in my head. So, this is the first page in my new Soul Garden planner. She makes me SO happy, but I was totally terrified to add color to her. Usually color is the part where I fuck everything up. But really, what's the worst that could happen?

I inked the flowers but not the face, then shaded her with prismacolors.

This is the part where I really hesitated. I carried her from couch to table to couch to table almost all day before I finally decided to add color to the flowers. I'm REALLY BAD at knowing what colors "go" together, so I just picked some random ones and went for it. They don't look bad. Maybe not awesome, but not awful.

When she was all done, I added watercolor around her. Since it's not watercolor paper, they don't act quite right, but I'm still really liking her!

Then a little stamping and Sharpie pens.

See those green spots? NO IDEA how they got there. I haven't used any paint that color today. 

Our Middle

Suzi gave me a couple of books yesterday for inspiration and one of them is a book that the lady has all these questions that are supposed to make you "think" about stuff. For me, thinking is a simple process. I would MUCH RATHER think about something that has an answer. A problem with a solution - I might not know what the solution IS, but it's there and I can find it.

One of the questions reads: What is in between our inside and our outside? The answer comes to me instantly: our middle. Done. Now, if this person was before me, asking me this question, here is where she would start backpedaling. "No, ok, but - " or "All right, but - " or "That's not really what I meant" or on and on and on. People make up these things and inside their own head they sound so complicated. Then they put them out there in the world and they're like "Look how complicated I am. Look at the type of stuff I think up. Aren't I inspiring?"

And my own friends agree and think these people are inspiring. And they expect me to find this inspirational and "get me thinking" about what is between my inside and my outside. Well, I know the answer. My middle.

But I have something for you all to debate amongst yourselves. In New York, that little ball of fried dough that comes out of the middle of the donut, we call a "munchkin". That's what they are a Dunkin' Donuts. For us, it's like when you call a copy a "xerox" or a tissue a "kleenex". Here and in Florida, they call it a donut hole. Now, before you go talking smack about New Yorkers, I want you to think about this: holes are not balls. You can have a ball-shaped hole. But a hole, by definition, is an empty space. A hollowed place in something solid. An empty pit. Look it up.

On that note, here is a stamp I carved for our Soul Garden chatters yesterday:

Soul Garden is coming up!

Today I worked some on my August planner for Soul Garden! Here's a little grocery list I made with a graphic of Finney that Suzi drew and I turned into a photoshop stamp: 

I put these little half-notecards on every page for my to-do list:

And here's my week at a glance pages:

Three more days until the class opens! 

Soul Garden, part 2

These pages are from my July planner. I'm having SO much fun with this, you have no idea! 

These are a couple of stamps I carved. Stamped on post its and stuck in:

For every day of the month, I made up these little list thingies. It's half an index card, backed with cardstock that was leftover from making the planner. I just take one, glue it in, and write down the stuff I want to do today. Cute and functional! This has been SO useful for me.

  This is just a doodle - usually I do this on my homework papers and notes.

I carved a cupcake stamp and used it for July birthdays. A stamp and a name scribbled in it so I don't forget.

Some days there's no list, no To Do's, no homework. Just pancakes and the pool.

I have Liam make me a little piece of art on an index card every day and I add it in. 

I also have these little badges that I made up. This particular day I made art, took my medicine, studied, did the dishes, went for a run, talked on the phone (twice), made some cartoon pages, and cooked. They're one inch squares and I got the clipart and the iPhone pic online. Resized and colored in photoshop.

This is a screen grab from my iPhone about a funny conversation I had with Paul. 

This is what I'm doing with my Project 365 pictures:

This planner has been SO helpful for me so far. Sometimes all I need to get me motivated to fold the laundry that been sitting, clean, on the couch for a week is to put it on today's To Do list. I know that seems silly, but that's just what works for me. And why take all these pictures for P365 if nothing gets done with them? The badges make me want to glue them in - and I don't get to if I don't actually DO the dishes or MAKE the cartoons. Those silly text message conversations? Who doesn't want to remember those?

What makes a soul grow?

This is a little preview of Suzi's next class, Soul Garden. It's a collaboration between her and Kelly, which I think is SUPER fun and a first for them. The idea is a planner. A planner for our lives. NOT just one where we jot down our appointments. One where we make goals and have rewards when we complete them. Simple goals, like getting up earlier or eating a healthy breakfast. And more difficult ones like integrating exercise into our daily lives.

 

It's part journal, part scrapbook. The ephemera of our lives meets practicality.

Just in case you can't read that To Do List, it says "Carve light bulb, Make cartoon pages, Yesterday's cartoon page, Eat chips & Cheetos, Watch Gilmore Girls". Sometimes that's the kind of list I need - one I'm going to actually accomplish. There's also an elephant I drew, a little musing about weeds vs. flowers, and the top of an individual cream cheese container - and my face, of course.

Here's a horribly taken photo of Mini me, and a page where I wrote in shiny gold pen.

There's more, trust me. Stay tuned for much, much more!