Join Me for the Gratitude Junk Journal 2024

 

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be one of the instructors for Gratitude Junk Journal 2024, hosted by Tiare Smith! You can sign up right here: Gratitude Junk Journal 2024.

Together with 12 other talented artists, we’re bringing 30 days of joy, creativity, and gratitude straight to you. This is a fantastic opportunity to kickstart your gratitude practice while nurturing your creativity. Through daily prompts, art, and reflection, we’ll embrace gratitude, opening our hearts to more love, joy, and creative expression.

I’m offering a FREE spot in Gratitude Junk Journal 2024! The giveaway ends on September 30, 2024, at 12pm NOON, so make sure to enter before time runs out.

How to Enter:

• Simply sign up to my course platform for the FREE Art Resource Hub. If you’re already a member, you’ll be automatically entered.
• For extra entries, you can increase your chances right here: Sign Up for the Giveaway.

What can you expect from this workshop?

In this 30-day workshop, you’ll:

• Learn how to create a beautiful, altered book to capture your thoughts and art.
• Discover techniques for making art journal pages you’ll love.
• Practice daily gratitude through fun, creative challenges.
• Find joy in your everyday life—reducing stress and enhancing positivity.
• Use “junk” from your stash or around your home to create amazing art.
• Explore techniques for creating vibrant backgrounds.
• Gain skills that will empower you to make inspiring art again and again.

Each day you’ll engage with thought-provoking questions, actions, or creative exercises designed to help you reflect on your own gratitude journey. By the end, you’ll walk away with a heart full of joy and a beautiful journal to remind you of your creative journey.

Ready to join us?
Click here to sign up today!

Let’s create, reflect, and grow together. Stay blessed and be a blessing!

Moments to Ponder - Feeling Grateful

What are you grateful for?

It has been a while I know and I miss posting for those of you who have been visiting my blog.  I think we have all been there where so many things come at us at the same time that you feel that something has to give.  You make choices, and changes and often the very things that you put a pause on you miss the most.

I have really missed blogging and intend to change things up and start my regular schedule again, and will be sharing in another post some of the things that you can expect each week.

For this weeks Moments to ponder which should have been posted on Monday the question is What are you grateful for?

In the past I have done a Gratitude's and Celebration Journal in which each week I posted a journal page and something that I felt grateful for, along with a word for that week.  It was a great way to remind yourself of what you have at your disposal, but what you can do to be a blessing for others.

I am grateful that I have a platform, many that I can share my writing, art and more and be a blessing to someone who may see my work.  I am also grateful to be able to work in beautiful surroundings and feel the sunshine and sea breeze.

Take some time each day to think about what you are grateful for whether you do it first thing in the morning or last thing at night, take 10 minutes out of your day and write something down, do a journal page, record your own video and post it so that others can share their heart as well. 

Let me know how you get on, if you start an art journal or depict your gratitude's in a creative way that is great!  

Listen to the podcast



Stay blessed and be a blessing.

Gratitude's and Celebration Journal - Week 85 - Hope

Hope is something that I can never tire of writing about as it makes it way through our existence.  We hope and wish for better things to come, we look at our day to day and are grateful for that which we receive, it gives us a new dimension to hope.

I can think of many times through my life where I have hoped for a different outcome, wanting so badly for things to go my way, and not understanding the eventual outcome.  My hope that my mum would make a miraculous recovery and the dementia to disappear, or that my brother would be healed from Cancer and live to see old age with his big sisters, while chasing around after his grandchildren, but I have had to reassess the hope that I had with the present I now see.

Hope caused me to look at things in a different light and perspective.  With a slightly different eye and as painful as it sometimes was, situations didn't always play out as you intended them to.  When I looked from an objective perspective it enabled me to see where there was room for change that would allow me flexibility and growth.

I have learnt so much through illness and death of those people around me that I love and thought would be here forever, and I now see the world with new eyes, still hopeful, not taking it for granted, but expectant.  As you reflect on aspects of your life what key things are you learning?

I am grateful for life's lessons, for the hope that we have within us that can change the course of our lives.  I celebrate the life that we need to make more of and those wishes I made as a child and the ones that have come to pass.

I am on a creative journey in my journal and hope you come along and join me. Why not start your own journal, keep it as simple or complex as you wish, but do something!

Gratitude and Celebration Journal

Gratitude's and Celebration - Week 83 - Transitions

It has been a weird week as we get ourselves settled here in Barbados and find a routine as individuals and as a family. Without family or close friends here I have found myself experiencing a feeling of displacement.  

My week largely focused around looking after my mother who has dementia and then everything else came after, now being so far away I try to create routines in an environment that had previously only been a holiday destination and it feels weird.  

I retreat to my studio, but even that felt unfamiliar, a larger space that holds so much promise, but I didn't know where to start.  But you need to start somewhere, and so I regroup.

At the moment I am reliant on others to do their part as I try and sort out my official papers for my time here and I guess that is the biggest thing that is contributing to to my feeling of displacement - I am not use to having to rely on others and on top of that I miss my family.

Gratitude and Celebration Journal

I think about what I am grateful for and what I celebrate and I am truly grateful for the experience to be in a warmer climate and appreciate our environment.  I am also grateful for the opportunity to reflect on the experience  and hopefully be a blessing to many far and wide as I share my creativity.

I am on a creative journey in my journal and hope you come along and join me. Why not start your own journal, keep it as simple or complex as you wish, but do something!

Gratitude and Celebration Journal

Gratitude's and Celebration Journal - Week 82 - Hot, Hot, Hot!

Gratitude's and celebration Journal

Well, we are finally here, in sunny Barbados!  We have been here for 2 weeks so far and it feels like months already.  I have promised to keep another blog going with the transition, but I have been distracted, with all the newness of everything, and by the time I think about getting round to it another day has passed!

I still do want to share for those who are interested in the journey and so will have to set aside time to start writing and it might be a daily post until I have caught up, so bear with me!

We have been in the throws of unpacking and putting things where we feel they should go, there has been some negotiation needed when we decide on the shared areas.

All my art supplies so far have turned up and I have been arranging my new studio, I have more space than I dreamed of and it will take a while for it to operate exactly how I want it to with all my supplies to hand.

My new studio taking shape

 I am grateful, so very grateful.  I take stock on the journey that we have made so far and have yet to make, one full of adventure, risks, uncertainty, new environments, tastes, smells, creepy crawlies every now and then, friendships, and hot sun to top up my vitamin D deficiency and a new flavor to my art and creativity.

I also think about my family and friends and celebrate the deeper connections that we can make even if we are a plane ride away:)

Gratitude and Celebration Journal - Mixed media art

I am on a creative journey in my journal and hope you come along and join me. Why not start your own journal, keep it as simple or complex as you wish, but do something!

Gratitude and Celebration Journal

Gratitude's and Celebration Journal - Week 81 - Home

I am having to reassess my view of home.  Having been in my current one for the past 20 years we are in the process of moving and it has brought up a lot of emotions for me.  I have also been making changes to my mums home and the impact of that has also stirred up different emotions that I will share another time. 

They say one of the biggest stress factors to our lives is marriage, death, divorce and moving home.  Having to pack up my own home and my mothers has meant that I have at times had to go on automatic pilot to get through.  

I am not the first or last person to move home, I guess it's the feeling of familiarity that I will miss, as well as family and friends being so close - sometimes taken for granted that they will always be there.

Home is where the heart is....

and a new home calls..

Along with adventures anew we make ready, things packed waiting to be shipped, a thousand thoughts running through our minds, each of us with a different perspective.

I am grateful and celebrate the home that I am leaving and look forward to settling in and making the new home an environment that is full of Joy, Peace, Love and Creative outpouring....

I am on a creative journey in my journal and hope you come along and join me. Why not start your own journal, keep it as simple or complex as you wish, but do something!

Gratitude and Celebration Journal

Gratitidute's and Celebrations - Week 79 - Travel

Arriving in Barbados

It has been over a week since we got back from Barbados, still in the throws of making plans for a potential move there, my ideal is to be able to spend 6 months in both locations getting away from the cold of the UK.  While I work towards the potential of that I spent time trying to get fitter, walking and when we could get to the beach spend some time in the sea, the sunshine like a healing tonic, helping my body to get the much needed vitamin D.

Spending time on the Beach

While I was away all the work that I said I was going to do on my blog and other areas was put on hold and I decided that having too many things to try and do just didn't work, taking a step back and re-evaluating was what was needed, and I did. 

Early morning walking

Working in my art journal

Art Journal Page - the Journey into paradise

It is hard to believe that time has flown so quickly and nearly 7 months have passed since we did the program about what it would be like to live in Barbados, and we have been working on putting things in place that would facilitate a move.

Last day in Barbados - off to a concert!

Right now I am grateful for being able to travel to see new places and experience different communities and environments.  I celebrate the changes that are to come and embrace the new adventures that await.

Gratitude's and celebrations

I am on a creative journey in my journal and hope you come along and join me. Why not start your own journal, keep it as simple or complex as you wish, but do something!

Gratitude and Celebration Journal

Gratitude's and Celebration Journal - Week 77 - Health

Every so often I get an urge to turn my health around, usually prompted by some ache or pain and it pushes me to take action.  This time round was no different, but it was also coupled by the desire for all round change.  I found a Groupon voucher recently that enables me to take 10 swims at a reduced price and that is what I've been doing, I have tried to go daily, having to be at the pool between 6.30 am and 9 am really has challenged me to make the effort to get to the pool.

I am always surprised at how much I take my health for granted and going swimming 3-4 times a week has really made me value the health I have.  There is always some weight to loose and a eating habit to either break or cultivate. It has meant that I am eating healthier as well.  I make a smoothie full of fruit, seeds and vegetables and this keeps me going until around 2pm.  I want to start adding more raw foods to my diet.

There are some illnesses which we are susceptible and also impact on family so where possible it is vital that you take steps to avoid mistreating your body and look after yourself.

I celebrate and I am grateful for another opportunity to do something about my health now, that will affect my health tomorrow.

Take a moment to think how you can impact your health in a positive way and see what steps you can take today.

I am on a creative journey in my journal and hope you come along and join me. Why not start your own journal, keep it as simple or complex as you wish, but do something!

Gratitude and Celebration Journal

Gratitude's and Celebration - Week 76 - Vision

I took another break from the routine, not really knowing why I couldn't write about the things that I was grateful for, but I guess not feeling quite on top of things.  I told myself that some time out would enable me to look at things from a different perspective.  

Life goes on in its own merry way, people come and go and at the end you have to decide what to engage with and what to leave.  Life has at times, a way of putting things in to perspective.  We cannot run from those things we are not quite comfortable with, neither can we run from ourselves, but facing the uncomfortable and facing ourselves can be really difficult, especially if your not quite sure what you really want.

My plan at the moment is writing down all the things I want in my life, from the very small and controllable -  like ' I want to get fitter' to the big dreams of wanting to travel round the world and bless people with my art and creativity.

As I work through my lists of 'wants' I am looking at how I can make them SMART and attainable, and I am grateful for the ability to dream and dream big, to take those steps one at a time, each and every day to not only see my dreams come to pass, but to effect the lives of millions of people in a positive way.

Gratitude's and Celebration Journal

I am grateful that it can start with the seed of an idea and really take root in the hearts and minds of others.

Take a moment to thinks about what you are grateful for today, leave a comment if you dare!:)

I am on a creative journey in my journal and hope you come along and join me. Why not start your own journal, keep it as simple or complex as you wish, but do something!

Gratitude and Celebration Journal

Dream, Create, Enjoy - Art Journal Video process

I created this page a while back for my Gratitude's and Celebration Journal, and thought I would share the video of how it came together.  The great thing about working in journals is that you can come back to a page if you wish and see it change and take on a new direction.  Much like life we have to be flexible and sometimes make changes to a plan that seems immovable.  But you never know when making changes or taking a new route will unfold something really great that you never thought possible.

With the pages in this journal the majority of them have some mark on them, where I have cleaned a brush off that had excess paint, or I just wanted to make some marks and spend a quick creative 5 minutes.

Don't be afraid to let your journals work how you want them to work and in the process much will be revealed and you will have much fun.  Hope you enjoy the video.

Gratitudes and Celebrations - Week 75 - Travel

I had quite a few of weeks break from the Gratitudes and Celebrations post, not because there wasn't anything that I could think of for being grateful, but I had spent a few weeks away seeing family and friends in the States.  

The trip away made me realize even more that each and every day is a gift to be treasured and not taken for granted. We got our first taste of bad weather and snow when we landed in New York on route to Richmond, Virginia, the flight was a bit hairy as we had to circle the airport for about an hour waiting for a spot to land and the runway to be cleared of snow.  As fast as they removed the snow more fell, and the skid of the final landing which was felt by many made us appreciate the skill and the composure of the pilot and crew on the plane.

Sometimes being away from your every day routine also shines fresh light on your life, and whether you can take a two week break as we did or if you can only get away for a few hours, it is something you should do on a regular basis.  Going away to a colder than UK environment was strange for us but we were excited to see folks and make use of our snow boots and see if the rest of the world copes better than the UK when it comes to snow, rain and leaves on the train lines.

The trip reminded me of the book that I brought my son when he was little - 'The Relatives Came' it is a lovely book about a family driving to see their relatives for the summer in Virginia, how every one mucks in and makes room for each other, the kids play the adults share memories until it is time to pack up and go back home.  It was something that we would do when we were kids seeing cousins and having adventures.  It was funny that the story had them travelling to Virginia and it was where we were going to visit as well.

Whilst in Virginia the weather picked up and we had some sunny days enabling us to get small doses of vitamin D, and we heard that folks in the UK had some lovely weather as well.  And it's funny that many a time we have gone away seeking the sunshine and the UK has a heat wave!  but you have to see the funny side of things.  The main thing about venturing to new environments is to get a different perspective or understanding, and you only get that by stepping out, doing something new, something different.

While visiting the states we took tours in Washington, Richmond and in our final destination New York with my cousin.  Travelling around we hopped on the metro (which is such value for money!) and we saw much of New York and the surrounding areas, and we have come back to the UK hitting the ground running trying to shake the jet lag and get ourselves organised. 

I am grateful and celebrate being able to travel to see different parts of the world, meeting people from different walks of life and coming back home safely.

I am on a journey and hope you come along and join me. Why not start your own journal, keep it as simple or complex as you wish, but do something!

Gratitude's and Celebration Journal - Week 74 - The Ideal

There is no situation or circumstance that is ever going to be perfect, and often we wait until we perceive it is the right time, when things fall into place, when the planets align or someone says those words that we were longing to hear.

We can prevent ourselves from using our gifts and talents, and as an artist there has been many a time when I didn't want to share a piece of work, because I was worried about what people might think, how they would see me or who they would compare me to, but whether or not they want to compare me it doesn't matter. 

At the end of the day, you can't stop yourself from doing things purely because of what others might think or stay in the neat little box that they try and confine you to.  You are a unique individual and you have to value yourself where you are, stop playing small and appreciate yourself a bit more.

There is a world out there with your name on it waiting to be explored, ideas that are waiting to be birthed by you that others are praying to see, and experience.  You have to step out of that shell you have been hiding in and show all your colours - you are extremely beautiful, I hope you know that!

There will never be an ideal moment, so start now, there will never be the right time, so take that step,  You are beautifully and marvelously made - have faith that if you fall, you will get up, and take another step, embrace those difficult times as an essential part of your training that will allow you to look back and celebrate how far you really have come.   

I celebrate and am grateful for this moment that is right here, when I can tell someone somewhere in the world reading this post that you matter.  Don't wait for the ideal moment or time, step out of your comfort zone now and live life to the full!

I am on a journey and hope you come along and join me. Why not start your own journal, keep it as simple or complex as you wish, but do something!