2014 - Update! Goals and Chasing Joy.

Good Morning!
Yes months and months have gone by, we have had Christmas and new years, and a long line of family birthdays! My my the last few weeks have been tiring and lovely all at the same time! I made it one of my goals to try and blog and do a video at least twice a month! (start small and work my way up) The school holidays are in full swing currently, with a lot of minecraft happening...

 we had a big Christmas this year, as we do most years now John and I are together, between us there is a lot of family members. Elijah turned 7! and is on his way to grade 2 this year! and little Boo, is ready to start her journey at big school staring Kindy this year aswell.

 2013 started off with a bang, with me getting engaged, and a whole whirlwind of things happening, including the highs and lows of my weightloss journey which I have written about in the past on here. I am still struggling with the balance between this journey and the rest of me. So I decided that for 2014 I would chase one thing, and one thing only.

I decided that this word would pave the pathway for my everyday for 2014, I want to chase joy, and chase it with my arms wide open...so if something doesn't bring me joy...I need to change it up.

With my word safely thrown over my year like a butterfly net, I decided I needed some other goals to live by, as it seems I always set out with the best intentions as most people do! but this year I really want to do the things I set out to do January 1st. I joined a group 12, 52, 365 where we pick goals to do once a week, once a month and everyday....or just one of those, I jumped in with a goal for each category!

To read a book every week for my 52 goal...currently I'm on my second book for week two began yesterday.  Below is the book I finished for my first week..and what a wonderful book it was.

 I decided that for 2014 I wanted to put pen to paper for at least 10 mins a day in my written journal, and in my art journal...of course my new beautiful art box my dad gave me, made that job an absolute pleasure to work in day in day out, I can tote my fave supplies from the studio to the couch each day with no problems...Its one of my fave gifts of the season.

My Midori Travelers Notebook  is my written journey, and it is where I put photos, and daily writings, which I am dating for the first time in years! my way of staying accountable is to date the pages so I dont miss any...everyday commitment. It doesn't take me long, I've been inking my pages up with splashes of distress stain just to give it some visual interest, and sometimes some photos or stickers, as I take so many photos, this is a way to use them in here, and in my art journal.

 It has been a long time since I've kept a proper written journal, and I am enjoying the process again. It doesn't take up much of my time, and I know once I reach day 365 I will have a nice little line up of finished Midori notebooks to show for it.
I will do a whole post devoted to my Midori Journal in the coming weeks, as I know there are many that would like to have a look at it.

 and of course, the other thing with my 365 goal is pen to paper in my art journal, now 2013 was not a good year for my art, I barely picked up my art journal in 2013, and when I did, what I created within the pages felt wrong..and lacking life and love. Once I finished my big sewing book, no journal seemed to feel like home...I even tried getting out 6 or 7 journals and working in heaps! which was a train wreck waiting to happen.
So this year, I picked up my strathmore journal which I got last xmas as a gift from my mum, and just started working in it, it already had pages from my Jane Javenport Stencil post in there, so there was some bright life on the pages already...so I ran with it... The Friday Pages blog post will come back this year, with everyday arting, there are quite a few pages that will need to be shown!

 Last year, I won a scholarship to the amazing Print and Scan Workshop with Jane Davenport...I was humbled and totally overwhelmed with emotions at getting a spot when only two were given away, this year I am taking my business to full flight, once I work through the course, and do all my homework, my images and journal pages will be available as Fine Art Prints in 2014. I also want to start working on one of a kind Fabric pieces featuring my artwork, so keep and eye out for that!
There will also be one off original canvases going up into the store as well, I have to finish off my commissions and then I will be jumping onto that moving train with gusto. As of now, I will no longer be doing commissions until further notice.

as for planners! well there will be many a blog post on those! from what I'm using for 2014, to the amazing binder that now has my wedding planner in it....stay tuned! It is lovely to be back, and thank you to all who emailed me over my hiatus to check to see if I was doing ok! It is such a heartwarming feeling when I got the odd email here and there. They are all appreciated.

How is your 2014 shaping up! and what is your word for the year!
xx Courtney.

Friday Round Up - Art and Life.

Instead of just Friday pages, I thought I would change it up, and do a Friday Round Up, tidbits from our week, more mine than ours I guess, as I am the one behind the camera all the time!
the 6:30 wake ups have been KILLING me!

 

barely awake, but trying hard! I have a goal to reach by Christmas, and maybe just maybe I will make it. 

 

trying to keep up with my daily writing, knowing it is helping me, get ideas out of my mind and onto my paper. and my planner, the brains of life hehe.

working on art for a dear friend of mine, just the base layers so far, soon they will have more on them! little canvas board filled with original art.

a page from a journal swap I am in, where each month I sent a journal page to a woman in the group, this page's theme was 'black and white' I struggled very much with this, till something clicked and before I knew it, I was finishing it up!

working on homework for Jane's class JOYnal, a dancing flower fairy! she is still very much a work in progress, but I am at least liking how she is turning out!

every afternoon, I pick this little man up, and he makes my heart sing, telling me all the things he did that day, asking me way too many questions and generally being adorable.

so how was your friday?
xx Courtney

The Evolution of a Journal Keeper

I am a journal keeper, and have been for as long as I can remember, my first journal was a little fairy one with a padlock that my nanna gave to me one Christmas. Now I am an Art Journaller, and that' s how most of you who read my blog know me as, but before I got to where I am now....there was alot of journals that came before the arty art ones...

to help give you an idea of my journals, I did a couple of videos, showing you the pages of my older journals, that haven't really been seen on this blog before...

I kept my life between the pages of these now well worn journals, from cheap notebooks to leather journals, I wrote and wrote, filling pages with my life, an odd collage here, a stack of self portraits, some doodling, stickers and journal fodder...I never expected to expand my journal keeping into what I do now...so we all dont magically have amazing journals, we grow into them...we get better, more refined..with more doing..comes more learning.

I didn't care how pretty it looked, I didn't care what supplies I used, most the time it was a glue stick black pen and some coloured pencils..the occasional sticker and a folder of scrap paper.

If you haven't taken the steps to keeping a journal, and you want to..then just do it! there are no rules, you keep a journal for yourself, and only yourself.

I intend to keep a journal till the end of my days, I believe its made me a better person, and now I can say that it has definitely made me a better artist. I've traveled many steps with a journal in my bag, to far off places and home again, documenting, writing, drawing, photographing. Sometimes all you need is a black pen and a notebook..strip it down and just enjoy

there are more parts the the video's I just have to finish uploading them...I want the barrier between just starting, and being an 'old hand' at journalling to be broken down...we all started somewhere.

xx Courtney

around the nook

It's a little wet and windy here at the moment, and our zoo trip had to be postponed, the teacup humans were very grown up about the decision which I was surprised about, but they wanted to see the animals happy and not hiding from the rain. So here are some of my snaps from during the week on whats happening around the nook.

playing with ideas, as I create the notebooks and writing papers and digital download sheets filled with nook dwellers.

making sure that I don't get behind on project life, by having pictures printed daily so that they are a constant reminder that they need to be trimmed down and popped into my album, we popped out today to grab some grey ink, we had been running low and soon my images were much too bright! (like highlighter bright) so I relented and replaced the grey ink.

some of my custom 3 by 4 cards in these spreads, about our we try it Wednesday cooking, and the kids making puzzles. 

I organize my images in two folders in iphoto, 3x4 and 4x6 so I know what images are being printed and for what pockets, I found this much easier since printing at home can be wasteful in photopaper when it comes to varying sizes. 

with the school holidays, we tend to let the kids do more electronic treats. which end the moment school starts. One of the little mans fave past times, is playing skylanders on the ipad.

with the weather being awful, there is nothing better than curling up on top of a bunch of cushions with a book, I was half way through this before I stopped for some reason, so I took it from the bookshelf and began devouring it once more.

my inside desk at the moment...yes I have several desks out in the studio, but some days it is just much too hot, so we put up a little desk inside for me to use on things I'm currently working on. My gelli prints waiting to be cut up for my scrappy journal pages, my rabbit book, some books I'm currently reading and odds and ends.

and working on that commitment of being a better friend above is a custom writing paper and envelope I worked on...maybe these will come out in the shop! who knows.

So that's whats happening around the nook.

enjoy the rest of your long weekend if you are an Aussie...and stay safe to the readers in the tornado cylone flood zones in Australia, my thoughts and prayers are with you guys.

xx Courtney

Being a Better Friend

One of my new years resolutions was to be a better friend, and I think that is a really big one for me, in this day and age, we lose touch with friends...we get lazy. So I'm making the effort to write more letters to friends. To remind them, that even though our lives are very busy, I still think of them often.

So I set out on a floor art exercise today, as the last few days in our little nook, John has been very sick, and yesterday I came down sick too, so it has been tiresome few days for the both of us.
So today I decided that I would take things easy, put on a movie for us to watch and set up my little floor table that my dad made me when I was a teenager...even though I had a very expensive fancy desk...I continued to do my homework on the floor...so he made me this cute little table that is still just the right height.
this is how it looked...my journals, an ikea tin full of my distress strains, and washii tapes.
a tin from my best friends wedding filled with prisma pencils. My little deer pencil case filled with markers and pens, my planner and a stack of white cardstock ( which isn't so white anymore!)

I started making my own writing paper, which will serve as masters, so I can just scan and copy several of them, I made quite a few, this girl is my favourite by far.

I know we all get busy sometimes...but I think we should all make time to write a few letters, taking that little bit of real time out of our day, to do something tangible for someone...not electronic but tangible. It shows them that you love them.

these are just two of the crazy things I did while watching the movie, but I think they are sweet..and will be turned into some pretty funky writing paper when I'm done.

hopefully tomorrow I'll show my friday pages post to you, pages from my journal that Ive worked on through the week.

take some time out of your day..to write a letter...and be a better friend.
xx Courtney

Inky Pages - Art Journal Spreads.

Good Evening my darlings, it's a cold Saturday night, the little ones are tucked up in bed, water bottles warming their souls, and I sit at my desk, in a scarf and green ugg boots getting things done in my altered journal. I never expected to get so attached to a book. It goes almost everywhere with me, and yes, I have shoulder pains because of it lol, but it's worth it, I sit at my little man's school with it open just working on odds and ends, washii tape in my purse, a few photos tucked into the back to whip out when I think a pages needs some love.

the below picture is a girl I created with some watercolour markers, some india ink, prismas over an old letter I had lying around. the ink from the letter did morph a bit, but it made me love it more.

a photograph, a day tag, a cute fabric off cut from some random thing in my drawer and I was rolling along with this page, the waves were drawn in the windy cold of the primary school hehe. Some of those red flowers I love so much, they have become a big part of these pages. Photograph is one of my bus stop self portraits I do on instagram sometimes.

in the last moments of last night, I grabbed my pencil and created this little long necked odd girl. I played with colouring her in today, I like the look of her, shes simple, I'll keep playing with the long necks in a few sketches to come I think

below I found an old image on a clear oht page, turned it into a little pocket. Making use of the random junk that lines my bottom drawer.

Have a beautiful Saturday evening, curl up with your journal, and the junk that lines your drawers, letters images, tags..anything if fare game...and its all part of your life.

xx Courtney

Why I Keep a Journal...

I did write this for a friend of mine, but life gets a little busy, so it never got published...so I thought I'd share with you guys why I keep a journal..and some pages of past journals of mine.

I'm a young mother of two very personality driven little ones, I'm an artist, a writer a crafter..and an avid journal keeper...
here is my story...

(A page from my overnight stay in taipei, even for just the night, it is etched into my mind as the night I was a little bit wild.)



I remember my first journal, it came wrapped up in Christmas paper, tagged love nanna, it was a little square journal with a fairy on the front cover, and a little padlock. It was from then on, I kept a journal. These pages held my life in them, from my first crush, to graduation, to getting accepted into uni, to my life in England, marriage, parenthood, divorce, and finding myself again. They have comforted me through many many journeys of the soul.

(a double spread made on the inside cover of a french notebook given to me by a dear friend, this book needed alot of putting back together she was used so much)


Pages of ink, a lifetime supply of pens used, and several life changing moments captured. I love the fact that I can pinpoint the moment I realized I was pregnant with my first son, I had written that I wasn't feeling very well and was unsure why. Later that week I found out I was pregnant. Those are the things, that make my heart sing knowing I have that little tid-bit recorded.

(my leather journal in the above photo, I got as a birthday present from my Mum, soon became my absolute favourite journal and one of the reason I want to be a bookbinder. I turned the signatures into chapters of my year...living in England brought about the depression from lack of sunlight)

(The cover of my french notebook. inked and written all over, she holds such memories.)

As I've grown, my journals have evolved with me, going from little girl diary, to a young woman's journal, to my way of expressing myself with not just words..but with art as well.
I have always said, my journals will be passed down to my kids, for if I died tomorrow at least they would know things about me I would never get around to telling them myself.

(the journal that stole my heart...this is the front cover of her. )

(This journal kept collections of notes, cut outs photographs everything about my time in England, even though it was one of my most unhappiest journals written content wise, it helped me to keep myself from the dark dark hole that I was slowly falling into)

A journal is a life's work, and I don't think I could stop even if I tried. My handbag is much too light if my journal isn't tucked in inside it. You can feel the gap, where it should be. and to quote Anais Nin:-

''My diary is a mirror telling the story of a dreamer who, a long long time ago went through life the way one reads a book.''
Keep a journal, your future self will thank you for it.


thanks for stopping by
why do you journal?
x Courtney

Friday Pages...

I've decided that every friday, I will share with you pages from my current journal, or journals depending on what I get done through the week, I've been really enjoying playing in my hand bound one I showed off in the last entry, I am in the process of making my mum a cover for hers pretty much exactly as mine is.

So the moving in process was one of ease, with no limits, no expectations and a journal purely for my own fun, this has been a dream to work in, I open at any page and work on it, not doing things in order, just laying things down working back and forward.

playing with papers, watercolour washes, inks and paints I am creating a new world for myself between the pages, just as my life currently is all very new.

I'm enjoying trying to create little characters in my journal, working on my petite dolls using prisma coloured pencils and watercolour crayons... I spend my nights talking to my dear man, he reads the news... while I spread out on my bed with all my supplies, creating my own headlines.

I scoured the op shops yesterday, looking for old doilys with a bit of personality, to test out a little home made paint wash, using little makeup misters from the cheap shop, some water colour paints and water, and it worked a TREAT! These home made ones will do before I buy the colour washes from Tim Holtz.
I am enjoying the silence...inside my head today, its been a crazy few weeks mentally for me, dealing with some stuff, not dealing more to it lol, but this journal has really saved me, hopefully I can get my worries out in art form so they don't plague me instead.
enjoy your friday, tonight my man arrives for the weekend, so I shall laugh, kiss and art for the weekend...and enjoy the sunlight.
Blessed Be
Courtney xo

Creative Space! a little of this alittle of that

Thursday again, blink and it shall be next week! my little nook is a hype of activity! with yarn club in full swing, it seems that all my hands are doing is dyeing! (they are stained red with green fingernails, nniiicee combo hey lol)  so my space is cluttered with dye pots, half full, half empty not even opened yet, and a whole lot of undyed yarn waiting to be thrown into the cauldron of colour!

On the knitting front, Im doing some mindless stuff, but still cute, making little facewashers to sell at the markets, from soft, lovely cotton. The make great little gifts for friends and baby shower presents! Im making several for that very reason!

On the writing front, I have a new penpal, and she is just delightful. What more could a knitter want than a knitting penpal! with sheepy paper and all! Im working on her letter as we speak, with collages and cuteness, I think the art of letter writing needs some love! 

and just for her...my wheel...told you I was a spinner hehe

thats me for another thursday! if you want to check out more of the creative ladies spaces check out Kootoyoo's blog! 

Tea and Yarn lovelies

Courtney 

xx