Good Times Inspiration

Hi friends! I'm popping in today with a little art journaling to change up the scenery.

This is the first year in many where I didn't write resolutions, pick a word of the year or do any of those fun make this year count activities.  I spent 8 hours of December 31 in a hospital waiting room, then went home and took care of my 3 boys.  Then I woke up the next morning and packed orders and counted thousands of stamps and dies and took care of my 3 boys.  And again the next day. And the next day. And it's a week later and I'm just beginning to come up for air.

I started using an Erin Condren Life Planner in November.  But it hasn't been opened since the week before Christmas.  Life is hectic.  Life is messy. Life sprawls all over the place and doesn't fit neatly into little boxes in a spiral bound planner.  And life doesn't seem to ever go as planned, which makes a mess in all those little boxes. And when life is so busy and every spare minute counts, there's no time to plan. So right now for 2015 I'm just winging it. And that's okay.  I think.  ;)

The one thing I did plan on this year was Donna Downey's Inspiration Wednesdays.  My goal is just to watch them all, but I'm hoping I can participate as well.  So last night once the boys were asleep and Mark was happily playing xbox, I snuck into my studio and watched the video AND did a page. Well... after I braved the closet to find the inspiration journal I had purchased a year ago and never used!

As I was digging through said closet, I found a book of vellum sayings from years gone by that had the phrase "These are good times so don't forget to smile and enjoy yourself".  I thought it was the perfect mantra for me at this point in my life, so I set it aside.  Once I watched the video and saw there was a word going down the side of Donna's page, I just had to do my own version with the word SMILE and use the vellum quote I had found.  Because I need to remember that these ARE good times.  They sure don't seem like it most days... but every day I see little glimpses of how magical the world is through a toddler's eyes. How lovely to experience everything new.  To discover Christmas and chocolate and laugh hysterically at the sound of the words mashed potatoes.

So that was what was going on in my head as I created.  Went with my favorite paint color... cobalt teal and added some shading with walnut stain distress ink, then used some faber-castell Pitt pens and a baby wipe to do most of the black, with just a bit of graphite pencil added in as well.  The hearts are die cut from music sheet paper and the butterfly tag was found in a package tucked into the inspiration journal.  Serendipity! All in all, super fun and a great start to a new journal.

Thanks for stopping by today!