Focusing on Life: 15 Minutes...or more

I have a lot of free time.  I never really thought about it until I got challenged by Sally this week to take some time for myself and just chill.  Uh.  I do that everyday.  Heck, last weekend, I had a full day of nothing.  Through the course of the week, I was conscious of how much time I spend alone and, while chatting with the cat, I figured out that I'm probably a bit unique. Maybe I need to get the hell out of the house and do something.  Maybe I need to volunteer somewhere.  Hmmm.  Maybe I need to move!  We shall see...

I did, though, try a little something new this week to get my solo groove on.  I started on a big art journal.  Those flippin' prismacolor nupastels are now one of my favorite things ever.  I haven't really ventured out of a monochromatic schemes so far, but my new 96-color pack allows for lots of rich mixes.

So, playing by myself was my fun chill time of the week.  I can't wait to keep on filling this book with experiments and color and fun and gripes and laughs.  For now, I need to get on the road for a crafty weekend in Maryland. Whooo hooooo!!!

I Faced the Blank Paper....

...and I didn't back down!   

I've been wanting to "doodle" in a productive, meaningful way for a while.  But, it's a little intimidating.  I bought myself a new book, Doodles Unleashed by Traci Bautista.  I liked the bright colors and text when I was wandering around Amazon.  I spent Sunday afternoon thumbing through and thinking.  Then, I used the book as an excuse to buy some new markers and paper.  (Because 48 paper pads on my dresser aren't enough, apparently.)

Using Traci's book for inspiration, I wanted to think about layers and color.  So, for tonight's projects I used some waterbrushes.  They're a really cool combo of brush and water container all in one that I heard about at an art journaling get together.  (I used Niji brushpens that I got on Amazon.)  I used them with some Prismacolor nupastels and colored my heart out.  I'm thrilled with the way the colors mixed and the pens were super-easy to use.  I'm going to layer on some other colors, textures and whathaveyou, but that's for another evening.  For now I'm going to eat some of my ma's manicotti.  I love raiding my parents' freezer!