What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday (WOYWW)

In my last What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday post, I showed you a picture of a neat, organized, two-project desk. Today. . .chaos reigns. There's so much going on that I simply labeled the pictures for you.

Left side of desk

Right side of desk

I've been a labeling madwoman; not only am I making jewelry and working on my second Journaling by 5s journal, but I'm in the process of reorganizing and sorting through the found objects and old jewelry elements I use in jewelry making. I spent a good portion of yesterday labeling organizers and picking through the bulk of my stash.

Getting to sort through this stash and see exactly what I have has been so inspiring. I hope that mojo sticks with me long enough to get some items made, hence the chaos.

So, what's on your workdesk?
I'm linking mine up to WOYWW at Stamping Ground.

Documented Life Project: Week 1

Despite my love of beads and found objects, I still find myself drawn to paper and paints and all those other 'basic' arts and craft supplies. My discovery of Art Journaling a few months back only snowballed into a full-fledged obsession. Early in my discovery, I stumbled on The Documented Life Project which gives out weekly journaling/art prompts in order to help you document your year. You can find more about The Documented Life Project at Art to the 5th.

I jumped aboard this project wholeheartedly late in this past year and was really excited about the new year so I could start the project from the beginning. I was so excited to start anew, I even recorded a video of the spread I made for the first prompt.

If you don't feel like watching the video in full, here are a few pictures of the spread I made using these prompts:

January Theme: The Blank Page and How to Face it!

January 1 - 

Art Challenge: Book Paper

Journal Prompt: Be Your Own Goal Keeper

And here's the final product in whole.

I'm really enjoying this process as it gives me a little direction with my art journaling and should help me keep track of my year too. Are your documenting your year in some way? I'd love to hear all about it.

Crafter's Devotional: First Hop

You may recall me mentioning last month that I was joining up with some other artists for a Crafter's Devotional group based on the book by Barbara R. Call by the same name.

The purpose of the book is to help unlock your creative spirit and the purpose of the group is a sort of support group for all of us trying get out of our creative funks.

Today is our first. . .blog hop/check-in/thing on our progress with the book. The book has daily inspirations, activities, tips, tricks, etc. to get your creative juices flowing. While you don't have to work through the book in order, I've decided that was the best way for me to keep track. Let me admit that with our vacation and other busy activities, it's been hard for me to keep up DAILY. However, I have attempted to catch up when I've fallen behind on the days.

The book has definitely gotten my wheels turning about a variety of topics and has helped me explore some of the inner workings of my mind. And, I kinda like that. It's also pushing me to write in the suggested journal and I realize how much I miss putting pen to paper in that manner. (I used to be a devout diary/journal-writer.)

ANYWAY. . . onto the questions for the hop
**Questions for the blog hop:  What activity has inspired you the most?  Or if the book hasn’t grabbed you, why?

The book HAS grabbed me, so I'm going with the first question. Yet, I had to go back through my journaling to answer it. I think the activity that really inspired me the most was altering the front of my journal. There was a lot of introspection on this one for me. I know it's weird  that something so simple as decorating the cover really had my wheels turning. However, it wasn't about how I would decorate it. Instead my thoughts were tuned toward the actual act of altering something from it's original state.

My journal in its original state (actually this is the back, but the front looked the same before I altered it)

While I'm a self professed 'Mixed Media Artist' and make altered jewelry, I realize that my first thought isn't always how to personalize or change up something. Instead, it's often a forced process. As long as I can remember, I've admired people who weren't hesitant about painting a piece of furniture or slapping stickers on their laptops or performing other acts of altering something from its original state. I think I know where this stems from as well. Growing up on the lower side of middle class, we were encouraged to respect and care for our belongings as they needed to last as long as possible. In addition, there was a lot of renting of homes so all decorations had to be removable. Through all of this, I never really learned to throw caution to the wind and permanently change anything for fear of RUINING it.

The act of personalizing the front of that journal (even though it was just with some scrapbook paper and glue) really helped free me from that mindset. Well, let's not say I'm completely 'free' from it, but I don't feel as caged in by it.

Oh. . .and here's my journal cover. I want to change it up yet some more, but this was a liberating start for me.

My altered journal

A big thanks to Elisabeth at Beads for Busy Gals and Patty at My Life Under the Bus for starting up this little group to kick-start us out of our creative funks. I definitely think the Crafter's Devotional is exactly what I need right now and I don't think I would have discovered it without them. As well, without the group and this upcoming blog hop, the activities might have fallen by the wayside. Having a deadline like a blog post has definitely pushed me forward in getting through the book. So THANK YOU!! I'm definitely looking forward to next month.

Here's the list of the Crafter's Devotional group so you can hop and see how they're doing with the book.

Beth - Stories By Indigo Heart

Elisabeth -  Beads for Busy Gals 

Holly -  Silver Rose Designs
YOU ARE HERE --->  Hope - Crafty Hope 

Jeannie - Jewelry by Jeannie 

Jen -  Jen Judd Rocks

Kristin -  My Bead Journey

Patty -  My Life Under the Bus 

Sally - The Studio Sublime

Sandi -  Sandi Volpe 

Vonna -  Just Vonna

 
Finally, if you are interested in joining the group or getting any other information, Elisabeth has a Crafter's Devotional link at the top of her blog.  Happy Hopping!