Dawn Vries Sokol is offering a ten-week “art journal stimulus project,” and, as she’s so wonderful & inspirational, I can’t help but sign up and give my 100% endorsement and encourage other journalers or would-be journalers to do the same!

If you aren’t familiar with Dawn or her blog, maybe your familiar with her Art Journal Fridays or the crazy inspirational 1000 Artist Journal Pages.

If you sign up, leave a note in the comments so we can follow each other’s progress during the project!

Seems like every blogger hits a point where they have to apologize for something on their site:  a misunderstanding, an offensive presumption, or—in many cases—a lack of activity. Seeing as my last post (in, yes, January) talked about the themes of passion-compassion, I’m instead going to be compassionate with myself. I’ve been away from the blog a bit, but that has given me more time for my 9-5 job, for family, for my marriage, even for time spent in the art studio.

I didn’t forget you, bloggity, however (cue the strains of “Don’t Cry for me, Argentina”…). In fact, I’ve been connecting with people like mad over on Twitter (follow me) and really enjoying our conversations and connections there. I’ve also been participating in ProBlogger’s 31 Days to a Better Blog. I’ve been thinking more about what I want out of my blog, what I want to share here, and how I want to continue to develop and promote my artistic/creative growth.

Like all things, this is still a work in progress, but I did want to give a suggestion that there will once again be signs of life in these parts. In the long term, I’ve started working on a redesign of this site. Since I don’t yet have a timeline on that, I also have some short-term goals: I plan to post more photos of works in progress, return to the Friday 5 photos, will be sharing my ideas about a mail art project that’s been percolating in my brain, and will host my first blog giveaway.

Thanks for your patience—now time to reap some rewards!

I’ve never been particularly taken with the idea of new year’s resolutions, though I’m sure I made them at some point in my life. Committing to improving myself is something I do year round, and I regularly revise my ideal version of myself—so doing something specific to January 1st doesn’t really appeal to me.

When I read Christine Kane’s blog post about forgoing resolutions in favor of a word/theme for your new year, however, something about the idea felt very right to me.

Several years ago, my friend Kathy and I decided that, instead of making resolutions, we would pick a word that would guide us throughout the year. It would be our touchstone. It would remind us of living our lives at the BE level.
(Learn more about this idea and read the hundreds of examples in the comments on Christine’s blog.)

Looking back on previous years, I realized there were these themes carrying through, even without me naming them. In 2006, I repeatedly said I was trying to move through the world with a word I had used infrequently in my life to date—grace. Last year, I rediscovered the place for joy in my life. Throughout the year, I could feel those words on a physical level, as real as a penny in my pocket or the ripples in a pond.

I thought deeply about what I wanted more of in my life, in what manner I wanted to approach and greet the world, how I wished to interact with others, and what would get the most out of my year.

I decided I want to bring more passion into how I approach life and its opportunities and I want to be more consciously compassionate toward others. Both of these words very strongly agree with the woman I want to be, who I hope to be closer to over the next twelve months.

• What do the words passion and compassion signify to you? What can you do to bring more of these qualities into your life?
• Do you have a resolution/word of the year/other new year’s tradition? I’d love to hear about it.

What a weighty title, no? But as I started to write in my new gratitude journal, I realized the end product would, indeed, be a compilation of the best moments of my life on a daily basis. I was inspired to start this journal by Michelle Ward’s tweet linking me to this post by Trent Hamm at The Simple Dollar.

I’m writing the entries in a small book made for me by a friend who was learning bookbinding, and it feels like the appropriate precious vessel for all these memories. Each evening or the following morning, I review my day and write/sketch something that records the best part of that day:  a conversation, something shared, an epiphany.

I started the journal yesterday, thinking that the winter solstice—when our days start to creep back toward the light—was an appropriate time to start paying attention to the light in my life.

December 21
Putting up the tree this year was victory enough, but I was surprised by the end of the night to also feel some ownership of the tree—not just that I had put up my mother’s Christmas tree. Sometimes, I think I’m going to be okay.

NB. I should probably explain the drawing, eh? It’s a small (like the size of my pinky finger) white plastic skeleton hanging on our Christmas tree. When I was a kid, he was revealed from behind a store-bought advent calendar—I have no other memories of that advent calendar, but surreal li’l Mr Skeleton has been part of my family’s Christmas tradition ever since. After each holiday, my mum took great care to make sure he was found on the tree and wrapped up in his own bag so he wouldn’t get lost amongst all the other ornaments. Coming home for the holidays whilst in college, I love searching the tree for his creepy bones. Now he hangs on my tree and is still my favorite ornament.

Photo by flamholz

i do it for the joy it brings
because i’m a joyful girl
because the world owes me nothing
and we owe each other the world
i do it because it’s the least i can do
i do it because i learned it from you
and i do it just because i want to
because i want to

Photos by (left to right) swperman and Old Shoe Woman

everything i do is judged
and they mostly get it wrong
but oh well
‘cuz the bathroom mirror has not budged
and the woman who lives there can tell
the truth from the stuff that they say
and she looks me in the eye
and says would you prefer the easy way
no, well o.k. then
don’t cry

Photos by (left to right) envagyokbenyus and karpov

i wonder if everything i do
i do instead
of something i want to do more
the question fills my head
i know there’s no grand plan here
this is just the way it goes
when everything else seems unclear
i guess at least i know

Photos by (left to right) Robert Crum and ktpupp

i do it for the joy it brings
because i’m a joyful girl
because the world owes me nothing
and we owe each other the world
i do it because it’s the least i can do
i do it because i learned it from you
and i do it just because i want to
because i want to

Photo by Jill Greenseth

© 1996 ani difranco / righteous babe music

Inspired by LK Ludwig and Charlene Kingston. Interested to know more about A Day of Sharing Words? LK explains the idea and you can also see a list of participants on her blog.

1. Instead of having children, Mr Misc and I plan on adopting greyhounds. We even picked out names for them.

2. As an undergraduate student, I had the opportunity to work with the art collection at our university museum, cataloging more than one hundred works by Milton Bancroft. It was such a major undertaking that I held onto my copy of the notes for years, just in case anything happened to the museum’s records.

3. I’m named after a character from the soap opera Dark Shadows.

4a. I am terrified of bears.
4b. I think sharks are fascinating.
4c. This makes my husband think I’m loony.

5. My family used to raise, breed, show, and train Brittanys, a wonderful and very hyper type of hunting dog. During the late ’80s and early ’90s, we crisscrossed the Midwest going to various shows and trials, and, at one point, had as many as 13 dogs (including a litter of puppies).

6. Random wedding trivia: My husband and I will celebrate our 7th anniversary in five months. Barefoot, we exchanged titanium wedding bands (made by Arnell Workshop) on the Gulf of Mexico. I wore an indigo dress and had a veil made of chainmail (by Heidi at Silver Tiger Art).

7. Today, I had cookies for breakfast. My mother, obviously, didn’t teach me a lot about nutrition and balanced diets, but she did teach me about simple pleasures. Mmmm, cookies.

Thanks to Susan Donley, who tagged me for this meme. In return, I tag Christiane, Diane, Cassidy, Kristi, Sarah, Heidi and Amy, all of whom I enjoy following on Twitter. Also, if you knew any of these tidbits about me already, also consider yourself tagged!