Julia's Bento

365 Notebook Review

2017-03-13T00:16:00.003-07:00

The 365 Notebook is a happy little find from my local Japanese bookstore, Kinokuniya. I actually purchased two of them, the one you see here is the 365 Notebook Premium in A6 and the the 365 Notebook Pro a larger sketchbook about A5 size landscape with a charcoal gray card stock cover.

Today I will focus on my little A6 Notebook Premium as it has been giving me such joy as of late. It is just one of those things...when you get creatively stuck and the plethora of journals you have squirreled away are just not inspiring you. Then the right 'journal' enters your life and boom off to the creation realm you canter hehe...

Specs:

Hard Bound in Sakura (light pink)

(also offered in 4 different colors, sumi (charcoal grey), yuki (beige), and kiri (light blue)

Inches: 4.3' x 5.9' x 0.9'

cm : 11 x 25 x 24

The notebooks are made of a special pure white Japanese paper called, Junpakushi. It is a paper traditionally used in calendars and important Japanese gift wrapping. The best way I can describe it is, think glassine envelopes. The kind people like to use to store stamps. That is pretty much what this paper is like.

It definitely has a transparent quality to it and a has a delicate texture to it, however that doesn't mean it can't take a licking with all your yummy art supplies! Here are the pages and supplies I've used thus far:

Collage: magazine cut out, Tombow adhesive tape, and sticker.

Gouache (dries beautifully with no puckering), paper punch (slight puckering around pressure points) scrapbook paper, stickers, marker, gel pen.

Collage: water color (completely saturated the background with water color and no puckering) washi, Copic marker (did not seem to bleed, but you can see through other side of course), tissue paper, decoupage glue (wrinkles paper a little, but if you can get a brayer, may alleviate that problem).

Pen drawing on magazine scrap, collaged with decoupage glue. This paper was thicker so the glue did not seem to pucker the paper as I used a hard surface to smooth the image down.

Drawing on separate paper washied onto the pages.

Acrylic Paint and brush pen. No puckering, but did take a little longer to dry.

Blackwing pencil and pentel colored pencil took beautifully to the paper. The shading did not smudge.

Here is another example of how transparent the paper is. This particular notebook comes with a thick cardboard Shitajiki (usually a hard board used to protect the pages below, will many times have grids on it as well, for writing).

I will have to caveat though and stress that it is a delicate paper by nature, so when heavier things are used on it like my collage bits, the seam of that particular page does become a little weak and may sort of shear off a bit if you handle the page too much. This also may because originally it was made to be able to tear off since it's original intention was to be used as a calendar. Not quite sure, but that is my assumption.

Oddly enough though... since I am using this as my creative sounding board, I actually don't mind this too much. I just patch work it with a bit of washi and it is right as rain. If it is used strictly with writing supplies, this may not be an issue. That being said, we shall see how it fares as time goes on. I've only been in it for less than a week now ^_^.

The company actually has many different sizes and page orientations available. This particular one cost $22.95 at the local Japanese bookstore since it is considered to be their premium notebook that is hard cover, but the other ones, usually covered in a heavier soft card stock like, traditional Japanese paper called Satogami, are more affordable.

Here is a PDF offered by the company that further explains their notebooks and offerings. I would definitely try it out if you get a chance. It's another one of those paper experiences like I had when I first started playing with tomoeriver paper (take a gander at an old post of my first experience with it ^_^). The crinkly sound and the transparent nature is so fun!

Music of the Day:

Aurora : Runaway

My Favorite Magazines

2016-11-29T17:20:00.004-08:00

Hi everyone!
Thanks for stopping by and watching my little video. Here are the links to the magazines I spoke about. Hope you become as inspired as I do with all this lovely eye candy. If there are any other creative magazines out there, even if they are in another language that you can recommend. Please do comment below and share ^_^.

Bella Grace U.S. : Inspirational, Self Help, Creative

The Simple Things U.K. : Slowing down and enjoying the little things.

PopShot Magazine U.K. : Short Fiction and Poetry with illustrations peppered through.

Artful Blogging U.S. : Back stories of the people behind creative blogs.

Frankie Australia : All things creative such as art, films, fashion music, etc.

Uppercase Canada : Covers things that inspire and spark creativity.

Flow Netherlands : Mindfulness, creativity, enjoying the little things in life.

Writer's Workbook (Writer's Digest) U.S. : writing tips and inspiration.

Omoi Zakka The website that sells interesting issues of magazines as well as stationery items.

Flow Bonuses ^_^

Happy Friday Vlog: Jet Pens Haul

2016-05-05T23:44:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday everyone! Alas, I am back and today's video is edited by my kiddo aka Mr. Boss Kim and art directed by little miss (yes they both have their own channels). I let them have at it with minimal direction from me and not bad... not bad at all :) He was pretty excited to have his mama's footage to edit and I have to admit... it is a strange and surreal moment when you realize your kids are not only self sufficient but... going beyond your skill set?

Haha... can I just have that pivotal mommy moment? Tears of happiness ensues...

Ah... ok I'm done. I have to say, although I created and edited multimedia videos and animations almost 20 yrs. ago, I had no real love to go back and learn the current editing software. Which is painfully apparent in my low key iMovie bits of the past, but... now that I have the kids... maybe... just maybe there will be more videos...

Anyways moving along... in this particular video, there is a little look see into my studio/craft room as it is today and of course the mother load of Jet Pens Haul I had this week for my self awarded mother's day present ^_*.

The items from this haul can be found at www.jetpens.com and they are as follows:

• Uni Posca Pain Marker Medium Point 7 color set
• Uni Posca Pain Marker Bold Point Fluorescent Pink
• Uni Posca Pain Marker Bold Point Fluorescent Yellow
• Tombow Dual Brush Pen Grayscale 10 pen set
• A few stray colors in Tombow Dual Brush Pens
• Pilot Color Eno Mechanical Pencils and Leads
• TWSBI ECO White Fountain Pen
• J. Herbin Ink Tears of Black Currant Purple
• Zebra Double-Sided Highlighters Fine / Bold - 5 Mild & Fluorescent Color Set
• Zebra Double-Sided Highlighters Fine / Bold - 5 Cool & Refined Color Set
• Zebra Sarasa Push Clip Gel Pen - 0.5 mm - Milk - 8 Color Set
• Pentel Art Brush Pen - Gray
• Pentel Art Brush Pen - Pale Orange

• Kuretake Disposable Pocket Brush Pen - Fine

• Kuretake Disposable Pocket Double-Sided Brush Pen - Fine & Medium

and one I forgot to cover in the video • Dove Blend & Flo Brush Pen Set

Thanks for popping by and lots of love to all the mamas out there!!!

Music of the Day:

Lake : No I Wonder

(to an Adventure TIme clip)

Random Monday

2016-03-07T00:32:00.002-08:00

Hello everyone... its been a flurry of randomness after I attempted a hard core online class. Kind of stressed me out for a while and threw me completely off the beautiful art practice I had going. You know one of those classes where it has you questioning your skills or if you should even be trying?

I was definitely in bit of a funk I will have to admit. Ah well.. you live and you learn and then you move on ^_^. Slowly got back into the groove and just began to enjoy creating for myself again and so with out further ado... random Monday.

Music of the Day:

Aurora : Running With The Wolves

Happy Friday #68 : Midori Traveler's Notebook Love

2016-02-12T23:25:00.002-08:00

Happy Valentine's weekend everyone! Its been a while and yes... my daily habits, I will have to admit, went to the wayside these last two weeks. Adjusting to my new online class for home decor products, took more out of me than I thought it would. Whew~ but that is a whole other thing...

Today I wanted to talk about my love for my Midori Traveler's Notebook. I was attempting to make a video, but alas, my kiddos killed the battery on my camera, so unfortunately I lost my window for filming. Therefore today, will be an image fest! I decided to go back to my tried and true brown leather original MTN. Yes... the one that started it all. The obsession for leather notebook products that is haha.

Inside this one I have a sketchbook, new bullet journal, and Midori 2016 Weeks with Notes Diary. I was able to get it this year which was nice. If you can't get a hold of the 2016, you can get a free weeks with notes diary, in which you write in your own dates.

The way I used it was to put my events and to do lists on the calendar portion and then use the notes section to add the paraphernalia from my week, ala Smashbook style.

I would glue, tape, or tip in anything from business cards, stickers, postcards, to images from my week with my Canon Selphy.

This particular week was filled with my daughter's birthday tasks and party. Whew~ it was spa themed and amazing amount of work, but all was good. Kids loved it and still talk about how awesome it was haha.

This week featured our day trip down to Santa Cruz and a new Kombucha I found. It was definitely more mild than the Synergy brand. I would recommend this if you've never tried a Kombucha before. It takes some getting used to as it is fermented black tea, but I like it now. It has that bubbly effect to it which has helped me cut the soda cravings down. Check out the link to find out the health benefits :)

Not much went down here, but I did get my new journal from Stalogy (as if I needed another one). The paper is not as thin as Tomoe River, but it does have a smooth surface. I decided to it as my morning pages journal and catch all.

See the little the little "Currently" card peaking up at top, this was a free printable I got a few years back and I printed them onto old scrapbook paper. I can't remember where I got them, but if you google "currently printable" you'll see some that pop up. Its great to use as a monthly or weekly snapshot of the things that you are into at that point in time.

And finally our current week. I am going down to L.A. to visit my mom so... I have more things that will be tipped into this section soon.

Now... onto my next little booklet. Yes! I have decided to start a bullet journal!!! I realized with all that was going on now, the planner style that I showed you previously , just was not enough. I didn't have room to schedule my tasks and such soo... I decided my 2016 Diary moving forward will be more SmashBook and recap of what happened that week and my Bullet Journal, will be my scheduler.

For those who do not know what the Bullet Journal is, there is a ton of beautiful information out there. I won't add to the specifics as of yet, since I'm just diving into it myself, but these are the pages I have thus far:

Index and Key: I used a small sticky note from Muji here for my temporary key, as I'm still feeling the system out to see what works for me. This particular key is mostly derived from Dee from decadethirty. She has been doing it for years, so I would definitely recommend checking her site out for more detailed info.

Future Log: I scaled down a free printable at 85% to fit 3 on a page and still be able to see the dates.

Style Add Ons: so I have a little area to refer to when I want to doodle boarders etc.

Collection : Books to Read

Month Tracker and things that I am 'Waiting On' meaning orders.

Month Calendar and Tasks this Month

Week Task and Event pages

Still have a lot more to go with different collections and generally hashing out how I am going to use this, but I thought I would share my initial set-up with you guys :) Have a wonderful Valentines weekend and hope you enjoyed my image fest down Midori lane!

Music of the Day:

Spazzkid : 40 Winks

Happy Friday #67 : Creating New Habits: Few Weeks In

2016-01-22T09:42:00.001-08:00

Happy Friday everyone! Habits, habits, habits... oh my! So adding some art challenges have really helped amp up my output for sure. Not all was good mind you, but I generally drew everyday. Yes, even those days I was tired, sick, activities cropped up, or I had kiddo things. Those days it was def. hard to sit and commit, but I persevered.

Kind of like the highs and lows of the New Years work out resolution people make. I had a high and did things right away the first few days. By day four...when things would crop up, I would have that moment where I would consider not bothering with it... and fight the overwhelming need to procrastinate, but by day six I would say, I just kind of fell into this groove and did most if not all of my challenges daily.

This is interesting turn for me because like yesterday for instance... it was one of those off days. I wasn't feeling a 100%, my son was having one of his teenage moments, and I had a parent technology meeting to go to at night. Even though my output looked horrid... I just powered through and... posted the stuff in all it's messed up glory. This is something I def. would not have done in the past, much less post them up, but this is the reality of the sketchbooks no? The good and the bad.

Any who, this month I haven't necessarily committed to a specific schedule yet. I wanted to see where organically, it was ideal for me to fit in my tasks. Since making new habits are really my focus for this year, I do not want to fall into the trap of the lofty goals, unrealistic regimented schedules, well at least not right now, burn out, and thus setting myself up for failure.

So far the power of observation seems to be playing a strong role for me. I've been jotting down when I am the most creative, what helps me be more creative, and at what points of the day or during other tasks I can fit in a drawing session. I have also been experimenting with the Pomodoro Method to see just how long tasks take.

So what is the Pomodoro method you may ask? Check out the link above as it will explain it in a much clearer fashion than I, but boiled down it is simply a method where u put the timer on for 25 min. to do a task, take a 5 min. break and either continue on with said task in this 25 min. on 5 min. off session or start something new. Idea is to take breaks so you don't burn out, stay productive, and keep track of the time you spend on each task.

Now mind you I don't time everything... well not yet any ways haha, but I definitely see the benefits. For instance I now know when I write in my journal, I roughly write 4 pages in the space of 25 mins. For a blog posts, so far it looks as if I spend at least 4.5 Pomodoros on them.

I eventually want to get started on the uber organized world of the Bullet Journal or BuJo as some call it, so I think the Pomodoro method can only complement that system. That being said, one thing at a time... here are some of the pages from this week:

Paint A Day Challenge or 365 Paint a Day Challenge

Daily Illustrated Journal (Hobonichi Techo)

Creative Bug 21 Day Challenge with Lisa Congdon

Music of the Day:

Tokimonsta (Feat Gavin Turek) live : Thump Session

Mini Palette for Jane Davenport's Wonderland Class

2016-01-20T22:43:00.000-08:00

Wonderland watercolor Workshop with Jane Davenport from Jane Davenport on Vimeo.

I am currently ramping up for Jane Davenport's Wonderland class. All things Alice in Wonderland seems to be heading in my direction. I will share more on that and my thoughts as the class roles on.

Mean while, it was so sweet of Jane to send out goodies to all the members. A few got a bit more of said goodies... but we won't get into that haha. Any who, so I had some Daniel Smith paints already, in fact I had all but 4 on her palette here, but they were floating inside a larger palette and also inside my drawer waiting for a place to be used. I toyed with the idea of getting another larger one, but then my friend Courtney decided to use one of her smaller tins she had lying around for this specific palette.

I thought... why not, so I scoured my collection of stuff and found the Korean Masking sticker's tin. This tin is the perfect size. It is low in profile and will house 20 half pans with a slight quarter inch space to move around. I left 2 spots empty because I'm contemplating ordering a few I did not have from Jane's palette.

As you can see I also added a few more from my own collection that I thought complemented it. In terms of keeping them down I may either cut a small wedge of sponge and fit it in there to see if that will keep them sitting nicely, or use double stick tape to keep them down.

For the swatch sheet I just took a piece of watercolor paper and cut it down and rounded the edges on the large setting of my Japanese corner rounder and it fit perfectly inside..

By the way, if you don't have a corner rounder, or you have one of those old ones where you have to press with all your mite to get a corner... ditch it and get this one. It is so easy. Not much pressure is required and you get 3 settings: S, M, and L. It's called the Sunstar Kadomaru Pro.

And finally, since the tin is plain, I decided to add the sticker I received on top. Jan. 25th is the day... we follow the white rabbit :)

Music of the Day:

Avril Lavigne : Underground

Happy Friday #66 : Building New Habits

2016-01-15T00:44:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday everyone! Hope your 2016 is treating you well thus far. Things are chugging along for me as of yet. My life assessment and action plans are still going through a thorough over haul, but a few things I have been able to nail down are my morning pages or journal pages and more drawing/painting. I'm involved in a few art challenges, just to keep the inspiration going.

There is a new challenge called 12 Months of Paint headed by a few of my favorite illustrators on Instagram. In this challenge you follow a theme for the month and do one painting. This month was blue.

Haha... after reading the description on one of the illustrators, I misunderstood and thought the challenge meant take the theme, (this month is blue), and paint everyday of that month in that theme. Opse... they actually meant one painting a month in that theme. Note to self, read instructions thoroughly:)

I also chose to challenge myself to do a painting a day in other words a 365 challenge. I have mostly been posting to my Instagram account, but I think I may sum up my day and post here as well soon. For these I have been using a Moleskine watercolor sketchbook.

Any who, this month will be an experiment of things. I may hone in on my own theme each month just to make it less of a thought process, but a do process. Interesting to note, while embarking on my journey to a better me ^_^, I came upon this article, '5 Scientific Ways to Build Habits that stick', number 3 on the list was to eliminate excessive options. Apparently making repeated decisions, deplete mental energy. Who knew? It does make sense though. Not just in the habit making category, but just as a general deterrent, however small, that stops us from doing what we should be doing.

I am also attempting to get back into using my Hobonichi Techo as a daily illustrated diary again. This time around I just keep it open on my desk and as the day goes on, if I have a few minutes, I quickly sketch something of note at that point. Be it food, an interesting story, an object of choice.... so far this has been going very well.

To add to my drawing/painting roaster is the Creativebug Lisa Congdon 31things to draw challenge. In this one Lisa, rolls out a theme for the day and does a little demo on the topic to inspire. I'm not sure if I will meld this challenge with my 365 days of painting for this month, but it does seem like a valid idea. Hmm... we shall see. In the mean time here were my doodles for this challenge today, done in my Midori Traveler's Notebook.

Here is to making new positive habits!!!

Music of the Day:

Tokimonsta (Feat M.N.D.R) live : Go With It

Happy Friday #65 : Happy New Year !!!

2015-12-31T23:51:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone!!! So excited to start the new year aren't you? 2015 was definitely a difficult one for many I know as well as myself. It is so wonderful to have this feeling of a fresh new start.

After a wonderful week over in my home town Chicago, I came back home renewed and in anticipation for the great things to come this 2016. I had a chance to re-asses my thoughts and plans moving forward. Mind mapping really helped me see all the things on my plate and what I needed to do to organize and prioritize things.

As many of you know I'm an avid researcher and so I began my search on some great articles regarding creating new habits, how best to maintain the momentum, and how to sustain it until it becomes ingrained. I'll share more about my plans and some of my resources soon I promise.

In the mean time I hope you and yours have a wonderful New Year !!!

Music of the Day:

Technova : Towa Tei & Bebel Gilberto

Happy Friday #64 : Streamlining My Creative Diet

2015-12-03T23:42:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! It is my hope that the holiday festivities has you happy and excited. For me, I powered down and got all my gifts inline and the tree up so, this year I thought I would prep early and plan for my 2016 experience haha.

I will admit this year has been a difficult one. Many things happened this year to my family that left me at a complete loss sometimes. I would have spurts of creative activity and then I would have nothing... drained...

Also, I am the type who likes to have all my ducks in a line before moving forward with anything, which some times is the ultimate problem. Knowing this about my self, I started thinking about how I wanted to streamline my life so to speak. Become more disciplined, productive, and be the role model that is important for my kids to see. Haha... well you know the saying, "Do as I say, not as I do." Unfortunately, I think that is the case of most of us parents...

As an aside, it had me thinking about this one documentary I saw with my kids. It was about a handful of obese children and their struggles. The common theme with these kids were, the parents would send them to some sort of weight loss camp or sports/ fitness activity. The kids would lose weight, but then when they came home they struggled and ultimately succumbed to weight gain again, because the parents continued to eat the way they did. In fact one father continually yelled at his son to eat properly while snacking on bags of chips, gallons of soda, etc. He ended up having a heart attack. Luckily he was fine, but it really has one thinking yeah?

I mean, diet is one thing, but how many other things do we do to shape our children. Its scary... there are times I assess many of my habits good and bad, and can trace the roots back to the things my parents used to do, as well as their directives. Of course we all have choices, but habits my friends are definitely hard to break.

On the positive note, if one creates positive/productive habits, it can also be a good thing. This is what I am banking on of course. For both me and my kids. So alas, after that long diatribe I come down to explaining what my first focus is... streamlining my creative diet.

I thought about the things that worked for me in the past and one of the main ones was the consistent, use of the morning pages. The first time I came upon this concept was back when I was expecting my daughter. Who doesn't remember and hasn't looked at or owned a copy of, 'The Artist Way'? or for those of you who focused on writing, 'Writing Down the Bones'?

It was about a decade ago when I found both these books and the general take away was to write consistently. You can set your parameters ie. timed 10, 15, 20 mins. or specific amount of pages ie. 2, but the point is to sit down and put hand to paper. No sensor, just the mind flashing through thoughts. It is a very relaxing experience for sure, unless of course you are hashing out something that irked you ^_^. In which case it was probably best that you wrote things down anyways. It's all good therapy.

I have various notebooks sitting somewhere in storage, but fell out of this daily practice at some point. As you can see in the image above I started out with the cheapy notebooks, which are still fantastic to use, but I have a Seven Seas Writer inside my Giramondo that I want to finish off for this task.

I threw in another picture of, 'Daily Rituals', simply because it has been my favorite go to for inspiration. Looking at the habits of all these amazing creative minds, gives one a lot to chew on.

So here is to the first part of my creative streamlining... Morning Pages. It is something I intend to do for myself in the morning and repeat at night with the kids in hopes that I impart upon them a productive habit that becomes apart of our daily ritual.

Music of the Day:

Garden Grays : Wildcat! Wildcat!

Water Color Swatches

2015-12-02T20:40:00.001-08:00

I made a few swatches of my original Daniel Smith palette in both my Color Bible and a separate piece of cold press paper. Something immensely satisfying putting paint down on paper, even if it is just little blobs. The colors are just so beautiful. I have yet to do one of the new DS paints that I recently acquired, but I wanted a place for them as my current palette would not be able to fit them all.

I think once I get a handle on my paints, I will either separate them in cool and warm colors or by color palettes that work. Any who, I signed up for the Sketchbookery class a while back and decided to break in a lesson. Which is really just about sitting down and doing yeah? These flowers / leaves were growing on the fence next door. I know I didn't do them justice with their odd shapes, but I thought I would just post them anyways.

Messing up in the process of creating is all apart of the fun no? Also, yes if you have notice the little lovelies on the side they are the Zig Clean Color and a few Tombows. Gotta still love your water soluble markers you know.

Inktober 2015 : Gothic Writers Flip Through

2015-11-29T23:41:00.002-08:00

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgivings. Alas, I have finally posted my Gothic Writers series that I did for the Inktober 2015 challenge. Le sigh... had all the footage for my flip through and then the winds of Flu 'ell blew through the home.

Good grief... all but knocked me out, but after some prodding from some lovely friends I have finally edited this baby :) So without further ado.. here is my little flip through of my series inside the Roterfaden. Enjoy !

Happy Friday #63 : Flow Weekly Trip Flip

2015-11-12T22:34:00.001-08:00

Happy Friday everyone! Back in July, I did a little Flow Magazine haul and bought a few of those lovely weeklies. They are basically one week planners with little illustrations, planner pages, to do list pages etc. Other than the English sample inside the international magazine, the ones offered in the shop are in Dutch.

Although I initially bought them for the lovely art inside, the planner part is relatively easy to figure out. That being said, yes they sort of sat on my shelf, or were used as back drops to pictures, until I realized, these would be fab as a little trip planner/smash book. I love the idea of one trip being contained in one booklet, and there seems to be just enough pages inside.

Any who, I did a little flip of the Flow Weekly of my 16th anniversary / hubby's birthday celebration. We did a long weekend in Las Vegas with the family and fit in exploration time, spa for moi at Canyon Ranch, a fantastic Circ du Solei show called Ka, a little clubbing of all things haha... and of course a lot of delicious eats.

It was such a wonderful little weekend :) Any who... here is the little flip of my weekend fun!

Inspiration : Remedios Varo

2015-11-09T19:39:00.002-08:00

The Vagabond

Surrealism... as you have probably noticed I have been leaning towards a little surrealistic approach to my journaling as of late. Something about the freedom of the unconscious has me so inspired.

Recently I came upon an amazing surrealist painter named Remedios Varo. She was born in 1908 in Spain and studied at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. During her lifetime she lived in Paris, where she was influenced by the surrealist movement, and finally Mexico City where she lived and passed at the height of her career from a heart attack at age 55.

Although this is a documentary in Spanish, if you click on the subtitle icon and then go into the menu for automatic translation, you can some what get a gander on what they are saying. Another option to learn more about this inspirational artist is this website.

Celestial Pablum

Apparently her medium of choice was oil paints on masonite panels which she prepared herself. I am in love with the mystical qualities of her paintings. I hope you find inspiration in this wonderful artist.

Energia Cosmica

Music of the Day:

Bedtime Stories : Madonna

(The music video they refer to in the documentary. Madonna uses imagery from her paintings.)

Baby Steps at the local Atelier

2015-10-26T21:47:00.000-07:00

I began sending my daughter to our local art museum that started an Atelier this summer. It is taught in the traditional manner, so learning about shading with a graphite pencil, still life, lighting, etc. Baby steps so to speak, but there is a method to the madness and I decided this mama was going to prescribe to it as well :)

Ultimately I would like to learn traditional oil painting methods, but I know I have to pay the piper to get to where I want to go. For the most part, other than some fun online classes and playing in my journal, I have not had any traditional education.

In the two classes that I taken thus far. I learned so much. Interestingly enough, despite the four hours of class time, it seems to fly by so quickly. Shading on textured paper is quite a challenge I have to say, but that was my basic frustration when I attempted canvas a few times, the texture. So learning to go slow and small is definitely helping me understand how to deal with it more.

Here is my first piece, a little stone with cotton still life. Four hours of shading and a little sore shoulder later :)

Happy Friday #61 : Inktober Author Tid Bits

2015-10-23T01:10:00.001-07:00

Happy Friday everyone! Another Inktober post for this week. I thought I would save up the last half of Inktober and share it with you all in one go. However, my curiosity had me deep diving into each of the authors every night. It was so interesting to learn some of the back stories of one of my favorite genera, so I thought I would share a few tid bits to peak your interest.

Ambrose Bierce : Born June 24, 1842, death unknown, but last seen in 1914 during the Mexican Revolution. He was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, and satirist. He is known mostly known for his satirical compilation called, 'The Devil's Dictionary'. He has also written many supernatural stories based on his military experiences in the American Civil War such as, "One More Unfortunate".

Ann Radcliffe : July 7, 1764 - February 1823, she was an English author who is considered to be on e of the founders of the Gothic novel. Although romantic in style, her use of the "explained supernatural" is what helped the Gothic genera place a firm foot hold in the literary scene. "The Mysteries of Udolpho", her most well known novels.

Nathaniel Hawthorne : 1804 -1864, wrote in what is considered a sub-genre of Gothic fiction, the American Gothic Fiction. What makes it American is the elements of puritanism, guilt, rational vs. irrational, the strangeness within the familiar, as well as the typical elements of the supernatural in a rationalized manner. He is most well known for his novel, "Scarlet Letter".

Horace Walpole : September 24, 1717 - March 2, 1797, was the 4th Earl of Orford. He was a politician, art historian, antiquarian, as well as writer of the Gothic novel. He was also known to have revived the Gothic style of architecture when he built the Strawberry Hill House with elaborate decorations and towers. Most well known for his novel, "The Castle of Otranto".

Sheridan Le Fanu : August 28, 1814 - February 1873, was born in Dublin Ireland. He originally studied law, but abandoned it to become a journalist. Although he wrote in many different generas, he is credited with leading the gothic horror genre in the Victorian era. His vampire novella "Carmilla", is considered to be one of his most notable tale.

John Polidori : Septermber 7 1795 - August 24, 1821, was an English physician and writer accredited with the modern vampire genre. For a time his most famous short story, "The Vampyre", was incorrectly accredited to Lord Byron, a fact that was corrected by both Lord Byron and John Polidori.

He was Lord Byron's personal physician for a time and was brought to Lake Geneva, a haven for adventurous bohemians of the time. It is said during a storm in Geneva, the literary party that consisted of Polidori, Lord Byron, the poet Shelly, and Mary Shelly devised a game where each would tell a ghost story to entertain and terrify each other. The Vampyre and Frankenstein was produced during this time.

I am throughly enjoying my gothic writer series and so fascinated by the backstories. Although I have shared just tiny little bits with you, I hope I tweaked your interest in at least one if not more of the authors, for an even deeper dive into the world of the gothic genera :)

Music of the Day:

Carry Me : Eurielle

Happy Friday #60 : Inktober Gothic Writers Series

2015-10-16T02:05:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday everyone! Looks like Inktober is about half way through. This year I've been pretty diligent about doing an ink drawing everyday, but it wasn't until about a week ago that I decided to dip back into my author's series.

I guess you can say it will be a good lead into next month's challenge which is the NANOWRIMO. Haha... haven't won one yet, but I seem to be able to write more and more each time. Any who, this series of authors are specifically from the gothic genera. Very inline with Halloween of course.

In terms of the tools I'm using, I decided to keep it simple. Ink brush pens from both Pentel and Kuretake. It is all about practice controlling these pens. As you scroll down to my first drawing... it was quite a mess, but instead of doing a new one, I decided to share it in all it's messed up glory.

Those slightly turned profile pictures are definitely difficult to grasp since I don't have a way to lightly shade a side of the nose without it looking like a blob of dark growth on the person haha. So I'm definitely learning about what I can and cannot do with these amazing ink filled brushes.

The paper I am currently using is from the simple Sketch 5 X 7 journal from Barnes and Noble. I cut out a few signatures from the journal and put it inside my Roterfaden. This makes it more manageable and I can also keep these little segments for specific purposes.

A quick pointer I thought I would share is, after a day, the brush is a little dry. So this is a perfect time to use your brush pen to do the light outlines of your drawing. Then as you want to darken certain parts, squeeze ink into the top chamber next to the brush tip and it will be much juicier.

The little name tags I made were with craft paper on my lovely Olivetti typewriter. It was nice typing away on it again, although I have to admit, my pinky finger is just too weak to do it justice. So I have to go old school on it with my pointer finger.

I have to say having a theme is making it much easier to commit to Inktober. I'm going to finish the month out with my gothic series. Happy creating!

Music of the Day:

Dead Can Dance : The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove

Happy Friday #59 : Inpiration : Year of the Spark!

2015-10-09T00:25:00.003-07:00

Wow... already entrenched in October. This past weekend went by in a frenzy! I enjoyed a lovely mini-holiday and celebrated my 16th Anniversary with hubby and kids. Got to see a show, go dancing, eat a copious amount of delicious food, and had a half a day of spa-liciousness all to myself. A great refresher for my soul came at such a perfect time.

"Year of the SPARK!" Online Class! from Carla Sonheim Presents on Vimeo.

On the creative front, I thought I would share a little inspiration love that I have for this class called, 'Year of the Spark', by Carla Sonheim and Lynn Whipple. I had enrolled at the beginning of the year, but after the chaos and heartache of the first half of the year, the class sat forlorn on the sidelines just waiting to inspire me. That was until the first week of September rolled around...

There are two components to the class : one the creative, which is segmented bi-monthly in which each artist takes on a lesson. A typical lesson has a warm-up exercise and one assignment that are both broken down via video and PDF. The other component is the business side or art.

Paralysis though analysis... that is pretty much where I stood with my identity/ logo and the blog design until that Labor Day weekend rolled around. Something about the business classes just clicked with me and I decided to sit down and just do it.

Within a weeks time I hammered out my logo, banners, beat a blog template into submission (yeah not only did I have to dust off the designing skills, but my programming ones as well), and established an FaceBook business page. While I'm not quite ready to set up shop, there was definitely a great level of satisfaction getting things completely finished.

Now... since I was far behind in the class work, instead of feeling overwhelmed playing catchup, I decided to attack the class going backwards. That is my new thing now. If I feel that I haven't caught up to things, I just work things backwards not only in this class, but in my planners as well. Its just a psychological thing I'm sure, but there is something about being in the current moment, getting that done first, takes the pressure off. Then doing the back log is just a nice experience instead of an overwhelming 'too much to do' moment.

The lessons that I have done so far is just so interesting and creative. They are drawing exercises geared towards freeing your mind and your hands to wander, rather than the traditional drawing lessons that are out there. Such interesting and fun ways of combining media and play... that pretty much summarizes the creative side of this wonderful course.

The other part I really enjoy about this course are the communities. There are two set up for the class. One that is for the creative work and the other for the business side. Everyone is positive, supportive, and very good for the creative soul.

Music of the Day:

Zola Jesus : Dangerous Days

Happy Friday #58 : Whimsical Play

2015-10-02T01:33:00.000-07:00

Whimsical play inside my sketchbook this week. I am truly adoring my doodles, gals, and gouaches at the moment.

Hope you have a wonderful Friday as I sure will be. It is my 16th Anniversary and I am sooo excited for a mini getaway this weekend with the family :)

Inktober 2015 Has Begun!

2015-10-01T01:39:00.001-07:00

Here is to day one of Inktober! Used everything from Dylusion, Noodlers, to gouache. Sometimes even when there is an epic fail when trying new tools... there can be a save. Oh yeah... this one was quite a mess 15 mins. in haha.

Music of the Day:

Grimes : Nightmusic

Review: Hobonichi Techo 2016 Weeks Peacock

2015-09-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

Peacocks of Grantham Hall, this is the zippered cover I choose for my weeks Hobonichi. As there seemed to be some curiosity on the specifics of this particular cover, I thought I would tackle the task and explain.

It is covered in a material that has a slight texture to it. Underneath there is thick batting or foam that is squishy to the touch. The tassel charm is only looped on, similar to the way mobile phone charms are looped which means it is easily removable. The zipper and the zipper clasp are plated in a gold color.

Inside the pocket system is made from a very soft pink leather. This is definitely something you can use as a wallet as well. There is a zipper pocket you can use for change, underneath it a pocket for money. I was asked if a standard Midori insert would fit. It would be a no unless you cut off about 1.5 inches from the height and about 1 inch off the side.

On the other side are plenty of slots for cards or stickers you may have. However, the pen loop leave a lot to be desired. The loop is very tight so the coletto pen that they give you with it, is definitely out of the question. Even a small barrel Le Pen will not even fit, so I am not quite sure what they were designing this pen loop for.

Besides the pen loop, it is an all around nice little cover / wallet system. It gives off a very feminine and sophisticated vibe. My only concern is, since it is a light colored cover, I wonder how much of a beating it will take. Despite that, can't wait to use it in 2016!

Music of the Day:

Lowell : The Bells

Inktober 2015 Time!

2015-09-29T00:37:00.000-07:00

Wow... I can't believe we are already amping up for October. Already finished working on Miss A's costume and... getting excited to start Inktober again this year! I caught it about a week in last year and did the work in my Hobonichi with the occasional Midori in the mix.

For me it was a great time to play around with my different pens and learn the pros and cons of each.

I like the idea of committing and getting something down with ink to share with everyone. Here is the originator Jake Parker's video about what it is and the history behind it. Hope you'll join me this year in Inktober fun!

Another blue gal and some Lisa

2015-09-23T14:57:00.000-07:00

Dabbling a little more in the electric blues...

Decided to play around in Lisa Congdon's More Sketchbook Exploration, class on Creative Bug. Had a rather stressful day today and I forgot how good it is to just do some doodling. Ah... feeling much better now :)

RoterFaden Taschenbegleiter Review

2015-09-22T12:32:00.000-07:00

Ok... yes this self labeled stationery addict is willing to admit she has done it again. Yes, I found the next new shinny piece that caught my attention that is the Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter. Roterfaden means red thread and is made in Germany. If you haven't noticed from the pinterest feed, I've been a bit obsessed with them as of late.

I saw it here and there for the past year and always thought the pin system in the spine was genius, but was always on the fence about the cover and interior. As many have reported the cover does feel a bit more like suede than leather and behaves some what similar, or so I hear, but I think the trick might be to get a darker color so I choose dark brown.

I almost ended up purchasing the lighter brown because of my love for the tan caramel color, but something was nagging at me. Would it be the rich tan brown that I was used to, or would it be a more yellowy in color, and how would it age? This question was answered for me by one who purchased the light brown. I was told it was much more yellow in person and the water stains and aging on it after a few months of use wasn't as pleasant as she hoped it was.

But I digress... anyways I began to see these beauties a little more often especially since they were finally introduced to the states via Baum-Kuchen. Yes, the one and the same place where I got my leather carrier. By the way just wanted to show the packaging. Simple and lovely isn't it?

Although I considered custom ordering one from Germany as you have more cover, pin, strap and felt color choices and pocket configurations, the vat plus the shipping made it a little less attractive. That being said, as I stared for long periods of time at the different configurations people had, I really quite liked the quiet elegance of the color choices from Baum-Kuchen. The dark brown with the red accents and grey felt some how looked just right.

This is what it looks like on the inside. You have your standard pockets on the left for note pads, or of course space for stickers :) and on the right a pocket that will fit an ipad mini or a top opening notebook. But wait... back up, did you say felt? I'm sure your thinking... Yes, yes I did. The other reason why I was on the fence...felt? Rest assured though, it does seem to be fairly heavy duty. From my research, the ones I've seen on German based blogs and vlogs, it seems to age fairly well on the inside. The oldest I've seen online so far was about 2 yrs. old and the felt did not look much frayed at all.

Now for those amazing little pins on the inside. I love them. You basically lift up the pins on the top and the bottom, set a notebook down opened in the middle, then push the pins back down. I only wish the material between the pins had a little more space. Only cause I know my notebooks get fairly fatty haha.

I got a few of the actually notebooks that are sold from the Roterfaden company. I purchased the sketch paper and the dot paper. The sketch seems to have a little texture to it. I will play around with it more and post on a latter date. The dotted paper feels very smooth. Not unlike the feeling of the Midori paper.

In terms of the thickness, as you see here, it is very thin in comparison to this already thin A5 Orla Kiely notebook.

A friend of mine, Courtney from Little Raven, really wanted something to cover her hard covered Moleskine. I mentioned this journal system and she began to wonder if this would work as the Moleskin large is close to the A5 size. After a little digging she found a German blogger who showed how he fit a hard covered journal inside. However, in terms of fitting things with it, I think they would definitely have to be thinner notebooks.

So how it works is, you lift the pin and then fit it in the gap of the spin between the cover and the actually signatures. Brilliant I say. For the bottom one you just slide the pin down a bit so you have more give and do the same thing.

Here is what it looks like with the Roterfaden notebook and Orla Kiely.

This is a spine comparison of the three notebooks.

For me I prefer having a few thinner notebooks inside for now, so this is how my spine looks right now.

My current layout has :

1. Roterfaden plastic pocket
2. Three signatures from the Piccadilly Sketchbook (shown on the video review)
3. Roterfaden sketchbook inside a weekly Flow journal
4. Orla Kiely A5 notebook

What can work with the A5 Roterfaden:

1. Moleskine both hard and soft cover
2. A5 Hobonichi Techo
3. Midori Traveler's Notebook Regular Size
4. In general anything A5 or has the length of A5

Piccadilly Sketch Book Review and Art Journal Play

2015-09-20T00:43:00.001-07:00

As if I needed another sketchbook haha. I actually had this one was in my stash from a while ago. It is a Piccadilly Sketchbook with a simple Black cover, the word 'Sketch' written in Silver, sold at Barnes and Noble.

The spine is designed in what they call an 'Open Bound' style. Which means it allows the pages to lay flat when opened. This is definitely a plus since I've become so accustomed to this from the Hobonichi.

The black cover flap opens up to reveal the spine if you care to look. Its an interesting binding system that looks like each signature is bound together by not only waxy thread, but a coating of glue. I'm not quite sure how well the signatures will stay together after some wet media abuse, but we shall see.

The paper itself reminds me of my old Laughing Elephant journal. If anyone ever had a Laughing Elephant journal, you may know what I'm talking about, but it has a heavier some what cottony texture to it and the pages are a cream color. (The plain paged one is no longer sold, but this one had the same paper in it.) In terms of how it takes wet mediums, I mean it wasn't really meant for it, but I've always liked how this type of paper took to light washes, acrylic, and gouache.

Sure it crinkles a little, but I don't really mind right now. I'm just having fun! Happy creating!

Music of the Day:

Girls : Slow Magic