Art Journaling: Eyes Like Rudolph's Nose

Hello hello.

I was one of the many amongst us who received the gift of a head cold over the Christmas break. Yet, as my head began to emerge from days of feeling like a broken brick packed tightly with pain ... and mucus [apologies if that's spoiled your lunch], I began to feel my crafty fingers itch once again.

Clearly however, my brain was still under the cold's influence as I just ended up making a journal page reflecting how I felt - and looked -at the time:

I think the journaling speaks for itself: 

And here are some fellow scarlet-eyed characters:

The eyes are made by pressing the page on to the rim of the red acrylic paint pot [one of those tiny 'paint by numbers' size pots] then a splodge of white paint and a doodled black dot:

Alas, while my cold has cleared, my eyelids remain in varying degrees of redness, soreness and flaky dryness [aren't you glad you dropped by today to read this?] So I'm currently in the process of trying to work out what exactly it is I'm allergic to. And, in the meantime I have to try to cover it up on days I'm out of the house ... as don't want to scare people ... 

When I consulted the internet to find out possible causes I came across this vivid eyelid metaphor [yes, I did say 'a vivid eyelid metaphor'! Don't say you don't get your money's worth from this blog.]
 which read:

• Your eyelid skin is a ‘canary in the mine shaft’ when it comes to allergic and irritant reactions. [source]

... because apparently the sensitive skin there can flag-up allergies before the tougher skin on the rest of your body knows anything about it. Which is all very interesting and medical and everything  ... but it's got me thinking a bit more creatively ...

If the comparison I made for myself - between the colour of my eyes and Rudolph's nose - made it to a journal page ... then surely it's only a matter of time before this new eyelid / canary / mineshaft imagery does the same!

I'll let you know. [No pun intended].

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• Do you make journal pages about something that's happening / something you're feeling at that very moment?
• Or do you just take out your supplies and see what strikes you then and there? Maybe it's a colour, an image, a technique? 

I do both, but there are times when even when I think I'm just doing the latter and going with the flow ... the themes which emerge are often linked to something that's happening / something I'm feeling at the time anyway!

Maybe they can't be separated.

What do you think?

Julie :-)