Beautiful Place

Whenever I like to get lost in a colorful paradise, all I need to do is

snuggle into a gorgeous scarf made by Marian of Beautiful Place.

Some of the fibers are from the lovely Chopstix Waits,

who was a real talent and unique person.

These scarves are magic, they make every day a little bit brighter.

Magazine Jackpot

A total score from the local resale shop, 33 scrapbook magazines!

Creating Keepsakes is eye candy, even the ads.

There are so many pages of square layouts,

and since my book will be square, lots of ideas!

Journal artists and scrapbook artists may not always share the

same design aesthetics or emphasis on words vs. images,

but there is a lot of meaningful overlap.

I'm jazzed to learn more about using artifacts

and complex layouts, the timing is perfect!

Sparks

Before I had migraines, I really enjoyed doing exercise "sparks,"

multiple intervals throughout the day, starting as low as 10 minutes

each, and reaching about 30 minutes each, three times a day.

That led to being able to do fun videos (like the Firm, Tracie Long,

Mindy Mylrea) and triathlons.  Well the headaches are gone, and to keep

them away, I'm trying the "sparks" to elevate low blood pressure.

Additional sparks on some days are a mix of low-grade

stimulants: coffee, tea, ginger, and ginseng.

And plenty of meal sparks for energy (with occasional salt).

In the spirit of things, I'm adding journal sparks too.

A day just can't be too sparkly :).

Library

Nothing beats spending time in a beautiful library.

My favorite days are when the floors are waxed clean, early

morning sun streams in the windows, and the stacks are deserted.

I have a wonderful collection of Christmas and art books, but

the library has books in other fields that are fun to explore.

The Blue Pig

A new favorite spot in Portland: The Blue Pig Cafe.

The white chocolate mocha with whipped cream and caramel?

I should have snapped a photo, but it disappeared too fast.

The Chile Relleno Omelet and Vegetarian Hash did too.

My Aunt Yvonne used to draw piggies all the time,

and now I get why they are so much fun.

Martha Stewart Christmas

Among my favorite art reference materials are the December

Christmas issues of Martha Stewart Living (1996+).

Poppy Seed Grapefruit Torte?  I'm never going to make it,

but I sure like looking at its picture.

The simple layouts and photographic depth are stunning.

Dissecting the artistry behind these magazines

fuels my journaling during dry spells.

Back of the Napkin II

What can possibly be more useful that a visual planning matrix?

This is from Dan Roam's The Back of a Napkin, and it is an

elegant choice codex for picking an approach to a problem.

I'm finding this approach useful in tackling some of my design issues.

For example, determining why it was more challenging to visually

represent that "Christmas is Art" than "All Participants are Artists."

Back of the Napkin I

I've been reading Dan Roam's The Back of the Napkin

that has basic problem solving and project design ideas

that can easily extend beyond business to art and science

The book starts with basics on Looking and Seeing.

The idea is to take in large amounts of information

and filter, organize, categorize  to the essential bits.

The next steps are to Imagine and Show, expanding on the

information to make the previously unseen visible.

The steps provided are intuitive and well organized in a
manner that can be quickly applied to many types of projects.
This book is a winner!