Rising Water and Keeping My Eyes On the Prize

Today, I've got my spread for the DOCUMENTED LIFE art challenge of Acrylic Paint and the prompt of Cry Me A River.  Here's what I made:

"Let the waters rise and hide the tears I've cried for that bad man."

The words on the page are from this song (except I changed it from 'woman' to 'bad man') by Justin Townes Earl, "Let The Waters Rise" :

I just love him...he can do no wrong in my eyes!

I used acrylics on the sweeping/ombre  brush stoke bits and the tags, but watercolor for the eye and the leaky tears.

I am kinda excited about the eye because, while it's pretty simple, I think I got it to look a little more 3D than I usually do...so YAY!  I love it when I notice that my hard work has started to pay off!

Along those lines...the 'hard work paying off' lines, I mean...I want to invite you over to check out my new blog endeavor, NOSTALGIC CAKE.  Before you freak out and start to panic, I'm still going to keep up with this blog (at least as well as I have been lately...which is not very unfortunately..I've been caught up in a little side project that I'm not quite ready to share just yet).

So, why start a new blog then?

 As you may know, I've had a big life change recently.  When that happened, basically all my stuff minus art supplies, clothes, and a few childhood memorabilia-type things stayed at the house while I...evacuated it.  It's worked out fine thus far, because I'm staying with my mom for the time being and she lets me use her stuff...horay!  But in a relatively short amount of time (6-10 months...ish), I'm going to have to find my own place to live.

You may have heard me mentioning *read complaining* about the fact that I am really having a hard time with this transition period I'm in.  I've been feeling uncomfortably unsettled and disordered...and I realized that I should be able to do something about it...and then I realized...of course I can do something about it.

A while back on this blog, I mentioned how I had bought three pieces of furniture (and my mom was going to refurbish them for me, so they were at her house and I actually have a desk and two dressers in addition to my clothes and art stuff).  I really love these pieces!  I mentioned that, one day, I'd like to have a home where no matter where I looked, my eyes would land on something that brought me that same kind of joy.  I want my house to declare who I am as a person...and I've realized that, even though I may not have the actual house yet, I can slowly start gathering the objects to fill it...and not just to fill it, but to make it into the place I dream about.

And so Nostalgic Cake was born...a place where I could keep tabs on my slowly growing inventory of joyfulness, and, of course, share it with the amazing friends who have been rooting for me all along!

A Weary Heart and A Perfect Place

Hi guys!  Today I've got 3 spreads to share with you from my Documented Life journal.

The first one is the last spread for February's Layers You Will Love theme, with the art challenge/prompt of USING AT LEAST FIVE LAYERS/GIVE ME A HIGH FIVE.  Here's what I made:

"A weary heart just needs a little touch."
-Justin Townes Earle

I got the words for this spread from this song, "Yuma" by Justin Townes Earle:

It's one of those songs where the Tom Waits quote fits perfectly: "I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things."


The next spread is for the March theme Making Your Mark(Doodles and Mark Making) and the art challenge/prompt was AS A LAYER ELEMENT/SURVIVING THE ELEMENTS:

"I choose the rooms that I live in with care."
-Leonard Cohen

I got the lyrics on the page from a song by Leonard Cohen called "Tonight Will Be Fine".  Here's a hauntingly beautiful version by Teddy Thompson:

Sigh.  Glorious.

This is my perfect place.

So last post, I mentioned about the fact that I've been thinking of having my own space for a while...well, the house in the spread above is my perfect place...PERFECT!

You see, ever since my sister bought her house in Bristol (Tennessee...not the England-y one) several years ago, I have noticed this same glorious house every time I drive past it...and now that I live in Bristol, I find I drive past it quite a lot.  You can see the house HERE.  So not only is this my favorite house ever, which I love more than I can say for reasons I can't even name, this awesome house is for sale.  For sale for a price that is...not realistic for me in this lifetime...

But when I tell you that this house is my soul mate, you must believe it...it is my PERFECT house.  Normally, I wouldn't be attracted to something so permanent...despite the fact that a house was bought while I was married.  I didn't want that house...or any house...

But this glorious house is different.  It calls my name.  I can see myself living in that house with Frida and going about my daily life with glee...  Having a huge studio on the top floor, having guest rooms galore, being able to take Frida down those front steps directly to a sidewalk for a quite neighborhood walk...a nice little fenced in back yard and even a separately fenced formal garden on one side of the house.  ...Old fashioned plants everywhere (at one point this place had well manicured landscaping, but now it's grown up a little) that are calling out to me to tend them...  *insert frantic and disappointed sobs here*

I have tried convincing myself to let it go...saying all the negatives and how unrealistic it is that I should ever get to live in that house...no money, too much space for just one person (and one dog), who's going to clean it, too far from work, do you want to have to shovel that driveway/salt those steps, etc...

Which brings me to my last spread to share today, for the art challenge/prompt BORDERS/BORDERLINE FEELS LIKE I'M GOING TO LOSE MY MIND:

I felt very clever in how I made my border...hehe!  That clever feeling is a rarity and I'm enjoying it!

You see that cool girl with the snazzy hair and shades, rocking her fancy dress and sweet tea while she waters unseen flowers?  Oh yeah, that's me...

"For once in your life, dream big."

All my life, I've been a realist...feet planted to the ground...ambition was not in my vocabulary...why dream about something that will never happen...pessimistic.

But, you know what, that's boring.  

What does it hurt if I have my big dream?  What's wrong with having a crazy goal that you'll probably never achieve?  Who's gonna tell me I can't think about what I want?

I've never been an ambitious person, because I was always taught that ambition was not for me...I had other things to worry about...it was enough to have the bare minimum in life and be grateful for it.

But nobody gets to tell me that anymore.

I can save money.  I can have as much space as I want; it's not too much!  I'll clean it and keep it clean.  I've driven farther for work before.  I'll shovel the driveway and salt the steps the few times it snows.  I don't need to worry.  I'd be fine.

So if I want to dream of my perfect house and slowly, slowly, slowly work towards it, I will.

In fact, I'm going to go do some dreaming right now...

Tempting and Choosing

I don't know if it counts as being an overachiever for JOURNAL 52 since I actually do this quite a lot without it being a prompt, but I ended up with another spread that was inspired by a song this week.

I was listening to this song, "Harlem River Blues" by Justin Townes Earle:

And I fell hard in love and had to make a page.  (Also, if you have the time, check out THIS version, which is a much more stripped down, live version...you can hear a really interesting difference in the way the song feels!)

There's a Tom Waits quote where he says something to the effect of "I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things." and I guess I must agree with Tom, because I just love this song!  Actually the whole album is great...I've been listening to it on repeat for days.  I tend to do that when I find music I love...I can't help it...I always feel like I've found some kind of secret treasure and I just want to blast this fantastic noise out into the universe and get it into the ears of anyone who happens to be close enough to hear...I just want to share that treasure, you know?

At any rate, here's the page I made:  

"I'm no fool, mama, I know the difference between tempting and choosing my fate."
Egads, that's a brilliant set of words!

It feels like its been a long time since I did any collage type stuff!  It was an accidental collage situation...I was doing a gesso resist technique and apparently I got a little heavy handed with the water and my page started to peel really bad (you can see it a little in the middle bottom on the right page)...so there was some stealthy collage work that managed to happen, and I really like the spread.  

There will almost always be a shout of "Huzzah!" from me for happy accidents...and, usually, the especially 'Huzzah' moments end up happening for the times I am most angered by the initial accident!

 I think 'this is going to be so cool!', then the accident happens, cursing my fate and shaking my fist in anger comes next, and then I generally figure out a way to fix it and usually end up liking it better by the time I'm finished...not always, but often enough that you'd think I would less prone to fist shaking and fate cursing!

There's probably a life lesson in there about how when things don't go as planned, we shouldn't freak out, but instead, take a breath and figure out Plan B...there are, after all, very few times when things are as bad as they first seem.  That whole "Keep calm and carry on" mentality has merit to it...even though sometimes I'm much better at 'freak out and fall over'...haha...

-

On an unrelated note, I was wondering if you could help me with something.  

I've been pondering over the pictures that I share of my art stuff and questioning whether I like the close-up, cropped views (like the picture in the beginning) that have been my go-to for a long time.

I am wondering if I would be better to include the un-cropped picture instead.

I was looking at the not cropped version of today's page:

Is this better?

...and thought that it gave the full effect of the spread a little better than the close-up cropped version did...they're the same picture, but they look miles apart.

And then I wondered if the extra stuff that I propped my journal up on (not because it needed propped up, but because my studio is a hot mess and its easier to prop it up on the stuff than to find an empty space...) was distracting or weird or in poor taste or something, so I kicked the stuff out of the way (like an adult) and took this picture:

...more clean floor space than my studio has seen in a long time...

...of the journal on the floor.  I just realized that I could have fibbed and said 'table' instead of 'floor' and then you wouldn't have to know how bad I am for having piles of stuff stacked on every available surface...but you're my friends and I just can't lie to you...

Anywho...I was just wondering if you had any sort of preference between the three photos in the post today...or if you have any other alternatives (that don't include me keeping the studio clean...I mean, let's be realistic ☺), I would welcome them with open arms and much appreciation!