creating

Creating OUTSIDE the journal

I have been thinking really hard about how I wanted to approach the second day to journaling.
yesterday we pretty much started out with a fresh page to start out the fresh new year, But I want this year to be different for me. I want this year to be better. I want this year to be FANTASTIC!!!! I feel the need to create something a little different.

I have been trying all kinds of fun new techniques for being creative, or behaving artistically.  I have been trying to submerse myself in color and I feel a rainbow explosion coming on strong! I want to decorate the cover of my art journal.

Instead of today journaling about something specific, try something you have never tried before on the cover of your Journal!
Try and just let your colorshow I have seen inkblot backgrounds for journal pages and may even do that for myself however I really want to make something unique.

January 1, 2013

Being today is the first day of the year, a time for new beginnings and fresh starts, Grab your journal and open to your first page and journal your first impression of 2013.

the first thing you see, the first person you see, the first thing you experience

Whatever your first is, document it in your journal. paint it, draw it, describe it, take a photo of it. However you experience your first moments, your first day of 2013.

I started this year out with my new journal that my grandmother gave me for Christmas and started thinking about my first experience of 2013. I wanted to gather my thoughts about my experience and I just let the pen dance through my thoughts. Without much effort at all, I just let it flow and I was happy with my journal entry. I really wanted this to be part of my ArtJournal!I liked that it said everything I wanted to say ans everything that I was experiencing as we rang in 2013 so I scanned my entry and printed it out on photo paper. I decided that The meaning was there and I didn't need to go overboard so I decided to keep this one quite simple.  I also printed the picture that my husband sent me of himself in the dining area of the ship he is on next to their Christmas tree they set up for the crew. This is the only picture I have seen of him since he left right after Thanksgiving.  I know I am Blessed in so many ways but i cannot believe how lucky i am to have such a great supportive guy in my life that I am fortunate enough to call my best friend and my husband at the same time. He makes me so happy, even when we don't get to see each other for weeks at a time. 

Both of my sisters are military wives who have been through deployment of their husbands and I do now have a completely new appreciation of everything they had to go through trying to make it work and being so far apart and not knowing if you would get a chance to talk for awhile. 

This is my first impression of the new year and I couldn't have wished it any better.

Welcome 2013 Our BEST year yet!

Thank you all,

Valerie Boggs

The Merchant Mermaid

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Happy New Year

2013 is officially here!

Happy new year to all my mermaid friends and family!
What a fantastic year 2012 was! From newly-wed to the birth of the Merchant Mermaid, Craig graduating college, My surgery, Us both completing our Captains course, Craig starting a new job, us celebrating our first anniversary (apart) and moving back to Oak Island where I grew up!
It has been a crazy fun exciting never ending Roller Coaster. I was so busy that I hardly had time to keep it all straight. This year is going to be be better.

This year I hope to catalogue my year in the form of an art journal.

One page at a time.

Please feel free to journal along.

I will let my creative juices flow in whatever form they deem appropriate. although I have no control of how messy it can get. When i get involved in color, things tend to get a little messy.

I will post my journal topic, feel free to use them as a guideline or a journal along.
I will post a new topic every few days or so to try to get into a rhythm.
I myself have about 10 different journals and I use them for everything to my deepest darkest secrets to simple writing down a grocery list.  I want to create something totally different and unique! I want it to be everything and nothing at all. I want to describe things without using words. I want to convey the passion and excitement I have for everything I do and I want you to feel the love that is poured into every page i touch.

I hope you enjoy and I hope you play along!
Happy journaling!

love,
Valerie Boggs
The Merchant Mermaid