The Documented Life

OK, you guys have heard me talk about my Cheap Thoughts Journals before (I swear, you have). This year, Kelly and I decided to do The Documented Life project. They use a particular planner for it, a Moleskine weekly 12-month planner. A page is tipped in (the instructions call for 140lb watercolor paper, but I used Stonehenge printmaking paper, like always).

They're tipped in iwith washi tape. (Which doesn't hold all that well, if we're being honest.)

Here is one of my weeks. On the left is the actually planner ptage. I don't really have appointments, and I don't actually keep a paper calendar (I'm a Geek, I use Google Calendar for that). But I thought it would be a good place for some of my Project 365 pictures, and some of the graphic stuff I design, and the scrapbook pages I do for Sweet Digi Scraps.

I tried it for about a week. I went back and filled in the whole month of January with pictures and little stories from my weeks, etc. I named it James. I carried it everywhere. And I hate it. One spread for a whole week? Plus, I hate those tip in pages. "Treat it like an art journal page" is what everyone says. The problem is that I don't "art" and "CTJ" in the same place. I used to keep noted and lists and things in bewteen art pages in my first Moleskines and then I just glued those pages together. But I haven't really done that in several years, and I don't have that need that some people seem to that says I have to keep everything in one journal.

So I broke up with James and moved on (quickly, because I'm a bitch like that) to this red Moleskine sketchbook that my friend Maggie sent me for my birthday.

I painted the new one and the name Abby is in my head for her, but we'll see if it sticks. I do tend to go with the first thing that pops into my head, so it's likely. I painted it green and of course I put my face on it.

And here is the first spread, with a tip in for the week. I sprayed every page already, so there will be some color in the background. There is some writing in the background, too - just notes I jotted when I was on the phone. Pictures that are just bits of things from my week. Actually, it's only a couple of days because it's supposed to start February first (which is not the beginning of a week).

So far I like it, but I guess we'll see!

Stupid Happy

This is just in my Cheap Thoughts Journal. I was talking on the phone and doodling. I mentioned to Kelly how something made me "stupid happy" and she decided she wanted to be stupid happy, too!

I drew/doodled this with a black glaze pen - zero forgiveness there. If you've never tried drawing with something you can't erase, I wish you would! It's fun and see how stupid my little bee is? And the flower petals are all silly? Nobody cares! Not even me!!

Then I colored them in with these smelly glittery gel pens I have. They're good times!

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. 

Genius!

No, you're probably not going to think this is genius, but you know those moments you have where you're like "Whoa! I'm TOTALLY smarter than a fifth grader!!"? This was one of those for me.

Since no one bought me this for my birthday, I got it for myself at Michael's with a 50% off coupon:

Now, it comes with all those little pans wrapped in plastic, then paper with the name of the color (and the brand and blah, blah, blah) on them. But what about when you throw that wrapper away? How the heck would you remember what color you ran out of to buy a new one? I turned the pans over to see the bottom - NO color indications at all.

This was my solution:

This is my newest Cheap Thoughts Journal. I've ALWAYS carried some kind of book around with me. Not a planner, not just a notebook, yes, I sketch in it, but it's not really my sketchbook, either. I take it to school and write class notes in it and doodle and take it everywhere. It's thick and new and will be better than putting them in my planner because that's just for August and I'm not likely to remember. I'm SO EXCITED that I thought of this, I just had to share with you. Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best ones. I could have just stuck them on a piece of paper that would end up in "the safe place" (you know what that is - the place where you're never going to forget you put something, and then you forget). Instead, there it is. All safe and sound in my CTJ. Love it!

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!

Thursday Night's Notes

I love ITT Tech. A lot. But sometimes class is just BORING. Instructional Design is a hard class to teach, I'd think. It's a class about formulating instructions. How do you teach someone to teach someone something? Anyway, I tried to pay attentions, I really did. And I took a ton of real notes, too, I swear. But then I just couldn't handle it anymore and I started to doodle. First a teeny gnome, while I tried to resist the urge...

Then an entire page...

Then another!! I couldn't stop...

Full Brain

I know it's a terrible picture and you can see my toes peeking out on one side and my son on the other, but I'm just too tired to take a new one! It's been a difficult semester for me and I'm not really sure why. My animation project, for sure, but it doesn't seem like just that. Rapid Visualization was hard for me, too, because it was so ridiculous most of the time. We had to make up new senses for the human race and design an alien race. All the projects for Typography have been a struggle. I'm not used to struggling in school. Math, Science, English - I can do ALL of those things easily. Music, too, and computer programming. This is the first time I can ever remember school being hard. Really hard. Luckily next semester I'm only taking one major class, along with Microeconomics and Math. I'm good with classes that have a question and an answer.

Suzi Stamp!!

This stamp is GIANT. When I was skyping with Kelly she said it was hard to tell, that it only looked about ATC sized, so I held it up with a stamp pad and it was TWICE the size of it. It's enormous, trust me, and SO cute! I don't even know why I love her so much, but I really, really do!! She's so pretty that I want to make cards with snarky comments on them. But for now, I just colored her with my Copics and cut her out and stuck her in my journal. 

Then I colored her again and did the same thing (in the same journal, only a couple of pages later - I was powerless to resist!)

Excuse the cocaine and crack whores talk, that's just how my c-faces and I roll. 

Journaling...

I get really blah when I have my period, so I spent a few hours just sitting on the couch and doodling. I'm kind of proud of how this profile face came out. I'm not going to paint or color her at all because I like her!

Feb 2's photo prompt was "words" but I had trouble thinking about taking a picture of them, so I sort of journaled about that.

 I made myself a little list of things I wanted to get done quickly and highlighted things as I got them done...

Full spread:

New pen!!

And a new journal, you know I love those!!

The pen was free and it writes pretty well, but it's blotchy. Most of my favorite pens are, the most comfortable ones that I could use for hours and hours, the ones that write super smooth - they always end up being blotchy. I wonder why that is? Just to annoy the left-handed chick who rubs her hand across it and leaves a smear? Seems like overkill since I do that with my pencils, too. Oh, and the boy behind me in my Thursday night class borrowed a pen - didn't give it back! Jerk. It was a new one, too. 

Lovely colors

I'm COMPLETELY in love with this color combination. You can't see it as well in the picture, but the pink and the blue sort of combine to make this really cool purplish color that just makes me happy! I tried to replicate this page on a canvas, but it didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped so I'm going to try again.

CTJ

Word for the year:

It's "mayhem". The more I think about it, the more I like it. Now, the legal and medical definition of mayhem is: willful and permanent deprivation of a bodily member resulting in the impairment of a person's fighting ability. But the more widely used definition is this: a very confused situation.

See, I'm not what you'd call a calm person. I mean, sure, in my day-to-day life, I have very little activity. But push me. Just try it, and I push back. And kick and punch and bite. But too often lately I've just sort of accepted things. Things that I find unacceptable. That time is over. I'm going to be who I am, regardless of the mayhem (confused situation) that it causes. So far 2012 is off to a VERY good start. I've harassed two shitty eBay sellers, emailed an online teacher whose class wasn't what it was advertised to be, called out my college on their crappy lab facilities in my student surveys, gotten my bank to reverse a charge for a grocery store in Georgia (I'm in Minnesota and it would be difficult to get back and forth this quickly), and had my apartment complex to threaten to evict my horribly loud neighbors if they can't be less obnoxious. Sure, the mouse was only $7.49 and there are worse things in the world than loud people or a crappy class - but I'm not willing to deal with anymore. Too many people just accept disappointment or obnoxiousness. Not me. Not anymore.

Journal Cover