I'm not supposed to be here, but I am. Walking through a graveyard on the day after Halloween. On a quiet and beautiful November morning. It's not so bad, being dead like me.   - Dead Like Me

Bring me peace and gratitude

The singer, the song, and the sung

On this Harvest Moon

Come a little bit closer, hear what I have to say.  Just like children sleeping, we can dance this night away.

Be Daring

journal front

Quite unlike me, but I made 2 new art journals this year. My last journal took 5 years to finish, so maybe these two new ones will see me into my golden years (I'll post the 2nd one in the future).  I call this one my "moon journal". Which automatically makes me think of the "moon roof" from Game of Thrones, but that's a post for another day.

The lovely illustration I incorporated here is from Melissa Sweet, an illustrator I worship. I really truly love her and everything she creates. She illustrated the most beautiful book about the poet William Carlos Williams, A River of Words, and this illustration is from that book. It goes without saying that I honor her work and only use it for my own personal use in my journal and in this blog post.

A recent double-page spread. Unlike scrapbookers and many artists, I never use photographs from my actual life in my journals. I  have boards of color palettes and inspirational photographs
on my Pinterest site and I use them constantly for  journal fodder.

For this spread, I watered down some Jewel-It glue and made splatters across the pages. I covered those splatters with fine glitter.  I have to have a little bit of glitter in everything I do.

I have a close friend who's daughter is named "Dare". Isn't that the most awesome name for a child, girl or boy?!

journal back

Be brave, be daring, and just jump.

Run Miss Kitty!

One of my little guys at work is just the most enchanting artist. He always draws me pictures containing two themes; aliens & monsters.

He presented this drawing to me very solemnly. I said, "A monster is chasing me?! Am I gonna make it?!?!" Again, I heard a flat and dismissive, "No." Why am I always hearing that from the male gender?

But how can I hate a monster that has hearts for eyes and just look at his bad-ass magnificence.
At least this time I wasn't drawn as I typically am; with a regulation-length boot-camp buzzcut (why I ask ?) and an ample bossom.

Oh! The Wild Joy of Living!

My last post as guest artist for my actual BFF Vasia, who is also funny and brilliant, is this journal spread.

Life is so hard really and we all struggle. But I do try to revel in the wild joy of living.

I love Anne Lamott's work and particularly this quote about Grace.

I hand lettered the "The Wild Joy of Living", painted over it with a resist, and then removed the resist so that the lettering was revealed. More also of the brush script, "Oh!" that I am so in love with right now.

...a cold, thin,  crisp ribbon of mountain air that gets in the through the cracks. I'll take that.