Journal Page: Starfish Style + Reclaiming My Journal
Last weekend was a good one, I got spoiled by my man, slept in, went out for coffee, cake, and vintage record buying. Also: I drew a journal entry! Click on the image to see it larger.
I know, yay, right? But I can hear (at least one of) you thinking:
What happened to the daily journal pages?
Sometimes people ask me what happened to my daily journal pages (on paper). Well, to be honest, after almost six years of doing daily illustrated journal pages (see them here), I was just kind of worn out. It wasn't exciting to me anymore, I felt empty, uninspired, even a little resentful. The daily drawing and sharing came to feel like a task. Another thing to do on my never ending list. With the crazy changes going on in my life last year and the months leading up to it, I just dropped it. I had nothing to say, and the things I did draw felt too personal to share.
When I started in 2007, the daily drawings were a way of getting back in touch with my creative side, to re-train my hand-eye coordination, to turn drawing into a habit. It then changed my life. I started drawing and sharing my work, I met other (closeted) creatives and collaborated with some amazing artists, I started working on my Etsy shop, got involved in the community, and finally started working at Etsy in my dream job where I can both be creative and feel inspired, use my intellect and OCD-style love for organization, and benefit from running a blog and freelance business on the side. Mission accomplished, and the daily drawings no longer felt necessary (and I'm a sucker for goals. I'm kind of like a dog, really, if you switch balls with goals, minus the drooling and hair and yucky smell. I don't like dogs). Kthxbye.
I let days, trips, travels, big life moments, go by without recording them on paper, and I didn't really care. I wrote some, got addicted to Instagram, did the occasional commissioned piece, but mostly just let it be.
Having fun again
And then I started missing it again, and now I'm ready to reclaim this journaling thing for myself again. That probably will mean that I'll do them in this new semi-digital format, as it's more of a challenge to me, and right now I'm inspired by doing this. I'll probably only do it on weekends only, not daily (unless I feel like it), but I'll make it a goal to actually do it. In short: I'm ready to have fun with this once more. So stay tuned!