Journal: LSNED 25 - 30

Hello.

September certainly went out in a blaze of glorious heat leaving me no excuse for not sitting at the garden table last Saturday and not moving until my Learn Something New Every Day journal was finished.

It was a dirty job but ... you know ... I struggled through. Now here are the final fruits of my LSNED labours:

Sept 24: That's the page with the Dr.Who reference which I blogged earlier this week here.

Sept 25: Look, dry hands!

Let me assure you that I am, in fact, a good driver - it's just that James does 99.9% of the driving when we go out together so he doesn't often get chauffeured around. He always used to find it hard to be a passenger ... but not so this time. Progress! ;-)

Sept 26: Seclusion

While making these pages I stumbled across an interesting alternative to splashing white paint around: I splash my white poster pen around instead. I had a white Sharpie Poster Paint Pen which was running low on paint and I kept having to really shake it up. I found that, after doing this the poaint sometimes easily splattered out when I removed the lid ... so I started doing it on purpose.

Shake it up. Remove lid. Flick the wrist  ... as if you're from Hogwarts. Result!

[If you can't find a white Sharpie pen then Posca do a very similar version. I have one. It's the one I use 'properly'!]

Sept 27: That's the page I made the 'from start to finish tutorial' about, which you've already seen [unless you haven't ... in which case it's here].

Sept 28: Just plain 'sad'

As the journaling says, it's often the simplest words, the ones we teach children, that are the most appropriate to describe your feelings.

Also, feeling sad for someone else is often far worse than for yourself.

Sept 29: Sunny day philosophy

Unaccustomed as I am to extended periods of sunshine ... I made the most of those few incredibly sunny days we had last week and took lots of photos. And started writing a tutorial and then ... my internet was cut off!!

Long story.

Anyway ... I remembered Shimelle's LSNED prompt for that day re: making time to fit in something nice, making the effort to schedule-in something you'd look back and wish you'd done ... so, rather than stay home, minus broadband, and just do some crafting ... I went for a walk in the sunshine to visit my parents and an adorable 2 year old [from my Month in Numbers post a few days ago.]

And we collected leaves in a dumper truck and played with snailshells and toy cars. Which I don't think i'd have done if I'd stayed home ...

Sept 30: Lucky

Shimelle had suggest we do a 'round-up' page:

"You don’t need to write reams, but a few words to finish your book gives it that explanation to anyone who might read it while also reminding you of the feeling of finishing such a record of your life this month, this year."

If you can remember back to when I was thinking about September's arrival you'll know I wasn't looking forward to it. But while journaling the month I began to realise that I had nothing at all to complain about. Nothing.

I had days out with James, I had interesting work, I saw my family, I had lovely online feedback, I sat in the garden ... I had a much needed haircut!

And so for a final closing page:

I was right ... October, it's only 4 days later and already you haven't been able to keep that weather up!

Here's the finshed book:

Slightly buckled and a smidge crinkly but mostly colourful and cheerful. Not bad qualities to aim for ...

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For the person who asked where I get ideas for my pages I thought I'd quickly add in a few ideas:

• I should say that this particular journal came from me taking Learn Something New Every Day - a class delivered by Shimelle Laine. While I didn't always follow the exact prompt for the day, I would say that a mix of everything she covered eventually found its way on to my pages.
• Alternatively there's a new art journaling challenge each week over on UKStampers , hosted by Effie, that anyone can join in with.
• There are so many prompt / challenge blogs out there if you have a search around.
• Emily Falconbridge did a year of journal prompting for her 52Q series which I absolutely loved!! The tiny journal pages I made in response to her prompts can all be found here and they remain some of the things I am most happy to have created!
• And sometimes my ideas come from something that happened, a photograph, a feeling, an interesting magazine clipping or phrase I come across.

If you have any interesting inspiration sites you'd like to share, feel free to leave a note in the comments.

I'll be back soon with another Purple Phase colour palette, it's an outfit this time, in a similar colour-way as the post from earlier this week.

As for today, I'm not sure how I'm going to spend the rest of it ... but I'll take a guess that there'll be paper involved somewhere.

Soon enough,

Julie x