I’m loving my new clutter free work zone. I’m working very hard at putting things back where they belong when I’m finished. I’ve also been purging some items that I will never in a millions years use. Mostly items that I’ve picked up at sales…when you get a whole box lot of things for one price. Sometimes you find real treasures but others…ick…awful cutesy scrapbook supplies from the really early days.

Another reason for me to keep things clutter free and organized is that I’ve gotten a few new supplies and they of course need a home. I’ll tell you more about those tomorrow…I know…such a tease.

I will show you the journal page from yesterday though. I used one of my new supplies on the background. Can you guess what it may have been?

I’m continuing to be drawn to my new Gypsy jounral. I’m going with the flow…letting it happen naturally. This is not a favorite page in it’s entirety but I am fond of parts of it.I feel as if I could have married the two pages better for a more unified look.

For some reason the flower makes me think of an artichoke…not a fully mature one but it has that shape in my mind. Or perhaps if an artichoke and a water lily had a love child…this would be the product.

Our little kitchen fire this weekend got me thinking about how quickly accidents happen and what a giant fire hazard I had going on at my work desk. I didn’t take a before photo…I really should have but I just dove in head first to cleaning. I got my main work area totally cleaned up and a good dent on the “standing workspace”.

Of course, whenever I get it cleared off it calls to me to create.

I completed journal page #2 in my new journal which I have nicknamed my Gypsy journal due to the title of the book. I didn’t like the spelling of it though so I changed it. My book, my rules.

I was a really good girl and cleaned up all of my materials when I was done with my journal page including washing up my glass paint palette which happens to be a vintage art deco style pickle & olive tray. I picked it up at Goodwill last week and only after cleaning the price sticker off did I notice that one handle was broke. I couldn’t take it back at that point so I decided to repurpose it. It works really quite nice having 3 different wells to work from. And it’s stylish too. 

The cold wind howling outside made this journal page possible.

I really couldn’t wait to starting using my newly prepped journal. I grabbed it an opened it randomly to a page and applied some gesso. 

See…a very random selection. In fact, I don’t ever start from the front of a journal. Something about doing that intimidates me. It’s as if I feel like that first page is going to set the tone for the whole book.  This is way less pressure. 

The background may look familiar to some of you as I did a painting a while back using the same technique.

Once I got the background colors down and dried, I felt like writing.  Not my usual thing but you have to go with it when it strikes.

” The road of our lives is paved with so many possibilities. Things unimaginable to us.  We make choices. Turns. Detours. What is around the next corner? It could be a brick wall or it could be the greatest opportunity you will ever find. You will never know unless you put one foot in front of the other. Be open to new things, experiences and people. Not all of them will be good but they will shape you into a better person if you let them. Either by learning from your mistakes or by teaching you how incredible you were meant to be. So go explore….”

Wowsers…I usually don’t get deep with my journals but when the mood strikes I must give in and go with it.

I’m linking up with Inspire me Monday this week.