Sunday 7th June 2015

Can't believe we're already in June!  Have you noticed this seems to be how I start every post!!  It feels as if I've turned around at the end of last year and turned back to find myself here on a bright, sunny Sunday in June.  What happened to the time?  I've just realised that It's over a year since I've posted anything!!!  What has been going on???

Well in just one word 'LIFE' has been going on.

Quick round up - since last posting my son has turned 18, he's passed his driving test and we've helped him buy his first car, he's working part time at both Dominoes and Morrisons and is due to go to University in September.  Needless to say I'm a very proud mum indeed!

I've been working as usual and have found it difficult to find time to blog - and now sitting here I'm realising that I've missed it.  It actually doesn't matter if anyone else in the world is reading this, there's just something so good about getting stuff down on paper.  I'm a touch typist so I'm probably getting this down quicker with the computer than if I had to use pen and paper.

What I have been doing in 2015 is joining in the fun with The Documented Life Project run by the fabulous ladies at Art to the 5th.  Click here to pop over to their site and see what's been happening - it's never too late to join in.

These are some of the pages I've done since January.  Not all of them brilliant, not all of them even good but it'll be interesting to sit down at the end of the year and go through what I've managed to get down on paper and to see if I'm any nearer to getting to understand what my style is and what I like doing the most.  So here goes:

This layout was the first week in January when I celebrated my birthday.  I like the colours and the depth I managed to get in the background.  Looking back now it's rather apt as I haven't been much good at being the keeper of my goals!

The Documented Life Project works by the ladies at Art to The 5th post on their blog a monthly theme, January's was 'The blank page and how to face it' and then each week there is an Art Challenge and a Journal Prompt.  January's challenge was to use Book Paper and the journal prompt was 'be your own goal keeper'.  As you can see all this went into the page which really helps as a starting point.

I also started out using the pages as a weekly planner but I think that was far too adventurous for me!  The face was drawn on tissue paper and then painted from the back and the flowers were drawn on to greaseproof paper and again painted from the back with some embellishments done to the front.  As you can see I need so much more practice drawing faces and doing the lettering.  To date I'm still not good at it but keep on reminding myself that being good at it doesn't actually matter it's all about just having a go, enjoying the moment you're in when you create the page and as Dina Wakley always reminds us 'oops never mind' is what we should be chanting whenever we make a mistake, because we can always do something to 'fix' it!

I've been watching Dina in her you tube videos and I've managed to get a copy of her book Art Journal Courage as that's one thing I've identified that I need more of and that's the courage to do things like this blog and to not over think my pages (this I find hard to do as my job involves a bit of thinking and I realise this is a flaw I have - I'v so good at thinking about things I forget to do them!)  No doubt there are others in the world who can relate to that?

I can also see I may have a tendency to ramble so for today I'm going to call it a day and take a deep breath and publish this page!

My challenge for the coming weeks is to publish a page a day and see how I go from there.  Wish me luck as I'm going to need it.

Take care and thanks if you've managed to find this page and read to here - if you're in fits of giggles that anyone can be so  . . . (you can fill in the blank) I'm so glad you've left here with a smile on your face.

Cheryl