Documented Life Week 2

Before I get to the art stuff, let me just tell you, I had an AMAZING discovery today...I am at 10,000+ page views here on the blog.  WHAT?!?

 

This was my face:

Oh.My.Goodness.

 

 

And then it went to this:

 

Yeah, just a little....talk amongst yourselves, I'll give you a topic...

 

That's right, two SNL pictures almost encompass the fantastic feeling I got from seeing the more than 10,000 page views...I can't believe it!  Thank you all for making that happen!!!  Smooch, smooch, smooches for everyone!!! <3

 

Ok, I'm better now...SQUEAL OF DELIGHT!!!  Alright, on to the art...

 

The prompt for Week 2 of Documented Life (which you can read about HERE) was to incorporate a selfie (aka a self-portrait) into your planner.  Blurg, I hate selfies (my own, I like to see your gorgeous faces...), but luckily there are ways around just putting my dorky picture on the page, so YAY!

 

Here's what I made:

 

Two-page spread of selfie inspired goodness

 Before we go any further, I just have to say that my favorite thing about this page are all the Sweet Red Clovers pasted in.  They are all written by different friends who have sent me happy mail art and I, being the extreme art hoarder that I am, kept the envelopes...and, clearly, for good reason.  I LOVE having everybody be a part of the spread in this way.  Full disclosure: I have several more Sweet Red Clovers (from envelopes) still in my stash for future similarly awesome usage!  So if your SRC didn't make it to this page, please know that I will most assuredly use yours in the future!

 

 

Left page close-up...so much fun stuff on this page!

For my selfies, I had some left over self-portrait pictures from when I was doing Inner Excavations and so I used them...I am currently out of printer ink, so new photos were out of the question...it's ok, my face looks the same as it did...my hair is just longer (now you're in the know...).  I just added a light coat of gesso to the pictures and then went over the major outlines with a Micron.  My face is there, but it's so much more...I don't know...artsy (?) now! 

 

As I was cutting to get the SRC's for the page, I was also swiping the cool stamps that were on the envelopes as well...that's where the stamp of the Queen came from.  As I was going through my box of ephemera, I saw the little 'you are the queen' paper (I think it's from Jackie, my honey) and I thought it was a cute coincidence and added it to the page...it kind of makes me wonder what I'm the queen of...

 

The little baker guy with the mustache came from a tin of butter cookies that I swiped from work (both the tin and the little paper with the man that was inside it...I left the cookies)...I wanted to write about how I was always 'cooking up' something, but I couldn't decide what that something was...it will kind of be a secret joke that you and I are in on...I like that his eyes are looking at the girl on the right page!

 

Right page close up...more fun stuff!

 

I drew my little non-self portrait lady on a page from a book of Robin Hood stories that I got from my sister, Marian.  (Drawing on book pages makes me so HAPPY!)  By complete and total accident, if you notice, the title at the top of the book page says "Robin shoots before the queen"....AAAH!  Talk about crazy serendipitous moments!  I didn't see that until after I started gluing down all the ephemera stuff!  And, yet another bit from an envelope from a friend, the little 'conquerer' logo... I like the idea that I am an active and conquering queen/cooker-upper of something!

 

 

Close up of girl's face!

This (the girl's face) is my Prismacolor blending practice page (for the Supplies Me workshop) that I mentioned last post.  Oh, baby!  This one page makes me KNOW that more Prismas are in my future!  I think the best part of the face is her lips, especially the bottom one.  That bottom lip was one of the last things I did, and I  think it's the point where I really 'got it', where I understood what I was going for and what it was possible to achieve with colored pencils.  Hubba hubba, that lip makes me giddy!

 

2014 looks like it's going to be the year of challenges for me...I didn't realize it until today, but I've got a lot of (crazy fun!) irons in the fire project/challenge wise! 

 

Here's what I've got going on so far (and it's only the7th!): Morning Pages (this one is indefinitely long...possibly for the rest of my life even...hehehe...we'll see), Root 30-day journal challenge (you can read more about it HERE), Documented Life (link is at the beginning of this post), Jane Davenport's Supplies Me (going on now...you can see all JD's workshops HERE), Jane's Express Yourself workshop (starting live in February), and Journal 52 (a year long, free art journal workshop that you can read more about HERE) that I just found out about from a friend on Facebook and the first prompt for this challenge is one of my many current WIPs. 

 

In the spirit of today's Root prompt, I'm thinking of 'gently' easing into some gardening when spring gets here.  We'll see what happens I guess.  I like flowers and I need to get some kind of physical activity happening before I need a crane to move myself from place to place...plus fresh air never hurt anybody(...with the possible exception of Bubble Boy...).  Maybe its the sub-zero temperatures (seriously, -15 F with the wind chill today...I like cold, but even I have limits!) making me subconsciously wish for warmer weather...but the thought of digging in the dirt and helping beautiful things come to be (without using a piece of paper...because my art is beautiful to me!) has been sticking in my mind for a while now.  The key for me is going to be gently starting to garden...instead of letting my all-or-nothing attitude destroy my green thumb ambitions like the last time!  I've changed a lot since then, and I'm getting better at sticking to things, so maybe it's time to have another go at it!  We'll see how I feel about the whole idea when spring is a little closer...

 

Do you have any big projects in the works?  What about your 'dream' projects...those wild hare ideas that are floating around in your brain (like my dream of gardening)?  I'm interested to know!