Art Journaling Again - The Arizona Travel Journal Edition

Art Journaling Again - The Arizona Travel Journal Edition

Sorry for such a long absence. For the past two months I have been on an unplanned social media sabbatical. It started after my last words challenge ended in mid-April. It's not unusual for me to take an art break after running a daily challenge, a catch my breath time. But somehow over the past few months being on social media has felt, well, too much like extrovertion, and I just needed a break. I've been enjoying spring bird migration, walking at the park, planning a backyard bird (and people) sanctuary, reading, and finally seeing my family in Michigan after 15 months.

At the beginning of May, once we were fully vaccinated, we took a short trip down to Phoenix to visit my friend Diane. It was a great time and it felt so good to travel again. We had visited Phoenix for the first time at the end of February 2020. I had fully intended to make a travel journal about our trip. I made the journal and the cover, but then two weeks after we returned COVID hit full force and we went on lockdown, and the journal never got completed.

When we got back from our recent trip I pulled out the Arizona journal I had started and decided to use this journal for both trips. It also served to get me back into my art journal habit.

I think I need to travel more so I can make more travel journals!

I have decided not to do a summer Words Challenge this year. It was a hard decision to make but after such a crazy year and a half I find I just need to take a break this summer and relax. Hopefully this new school year will be a normal one! My next Words Challenge will be the annual Advent Words Challenge.

I hope you are finding ways to relax and enjoy the summer. :)

Sister's Road Trip ~ The Journal

The past week has been a miserable one around here. I was down for six days with the flu. I really hated losing a week of my life. The only things I felt up to, besides sleep, for most of that time was reading. Sunday my fever finally broke and with it there was finally a decrease in the body aches. So, I took advantage of that little bit of energy and finished up my travel journal from my recent vacation.

I really enjoy doing travel journals for my trips. While on the trip, thinking about how you want to capture memories helps you slow down and be more present to what you are experiencing. After the trip, it's like experiencing it all over again as you go through pictures and create your pages. Enjoy!

Meandering 2.26.2016

"Meandering: adjective; the act of following a winding or indirect course. Ramble, roam, zigzag, circuitous. A blog post about a variety of things; a little bit of this and a little bit of that."

I have a "thing" for office supplies. I love to walk into an office supply store and wander the aisles and ponder all of the new crisp papers and folders; the variety of planners and products to organize my life; labels, dividers, envelopes, pens, pencils - the list goes on and on. I don't exactly get what the appeal is, but I'm hooked! It is no great surprise then, that office supplies have made their way into my art practices. I shared previously that a stop on day one of our sisters road trip provided a wonderful supply of new and vintage office supplies. So once I was home I started playing and using these new found items in my art journaling projects. One of our great finds were two dusty boxes of old ledger paper. I had fun the other day stamping and stenciling on it.

Along with the ledger paper I have used some other office supplies in my art.

Hole reinforcements decorated with ink and paint

Mailing label, plus ledger paper as a background page.

These office supply goodies have made their way into my Etsy shop too. I now have a few Office Supply Ephemera Packs available here.

I have written posts about my recent road trip with my sister  here and here. I didn't get much of a chance to visit any parks and do any birding while on vacation, but I did see some birds. One of the highlights for me was on a walk on the trail behind my daughter's when I spotted an Eagle!

I saw a few birds that we don't have in Ohio:

Northern Mockingbird

Best I can tell this is a female Boat-tailed Grackle

And then it was just nice seeing some of the water birds again since they have migrated from the north for the winter.

Last Sunday after church Sai'Vion and I and my friend Rox went to the Window on Wildlife to watch the birds for a while. Sai'Vion is very interested in animals and is really enjoying birding. He is doing a great job of remembering the birds names and how to identify them. I, of course, am a biased god-grandma, but I'm pretty impressed with how engaged he is for a nine-year-old! We're ready for Spring to come and bring the migratory birds back to our area.

Well, that's all the meandering I have for today. 

Thanks for stopping by!