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Reading «Legion», the first solo book of Kami Garcia. Just finished «Graveminder» by Melissa Marr.

Watching my favorite now oldies Supernatural, Criminal Minds, The Vampire Diaries, Grey’s Anatomy of course… and some newbies like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., American Horror Story: Coven (I like Emma Roberts, and well, it’s about witches, I could not let this one go), Sleepy Hollow, Reign.

Confessing that I watch iCarly on Netflix with my daughters, and actually find it quite funny most of the time.

Falling in love with Parenthood. I have 5 seasons to catch up with. Thanks Kelly Barton 😉

Listening to several Pandora Stations, my fav: The Civil Wars station, Eminem station when I need a good kick, P!nk station.

Simmering my first online class.

Hoping that we will continue to bond as a strong family

Planning our Christmas presents. (AND Cheridoo & I will pass the big 1.0 dating anniversary this December. Want to do something fun).

Embracing who I am.

Avoiding laundry. yup. And people sometimes, too.

Cooking and prepping in advance, so I suffer once and for all and limit the meals to just being assembled.

Feeling overwhelmed. lonely. hopeful.

Loving the sun on my skin. How obsessive my daughters can be (it has its reverse as well and can be a pain). Emails exchanges with TrueSisters.

Still Loving how self-portraiture is a tool I turn to.

Obsessing over my new spirograph set (not that easy actually).

Pushing off doing the work that I know needs to be done. This fear of failure will have the death of me.

Learning InDesign thanks to the book suggested by my TrueSister Mindy.

What’s going on in your world ?

Curently…

Obsessing over Alice In Wonderland. Do you believe I’ve never actually read the book ? booo hooo

Listening to the newest album from The Civil Wars, can’t get enough.

Loving my art journal all over again.

Eating the Rainbow (in form of salads).

Enjoying regular walks with the Witchlets, while they are riding their bikes.

Missing the Water.

Reading Brené Brown about imperfections, Mary Oliver’s poems…

Writing pages and pages of letter, that will then go overseas. Snail Mail powa.

Sharing my spiritual beliefs with the Witchlets (finally).

Looking forward to a lot of things (Parrain Pierre’s visit, Grenouille’s Birthday, back to school, my birthday…)

Playing Plants vs Zombies 2 on my iPad Mini. ooooh I’ve been waiting for it, and harassing my husband to know where it would finally be out. Currently in the Sea levels.

Going deeper thanks to Visual Quest, learning shamanic Painting and Journeys.

Trusting that I will have it all figured out again.

Believing in the power of art.

Thankful for the long learning curve that my life is.

In cleaning and tidying mode, my Mom arrives in two days for three months with us.
Excitement.

I’ve been looking for help in our parenting. I know there are some stuff we desperately need to change, automatic negative responses that need a shift.
I discovered that 1-2-3 Magic book through Kelly Rae Roberts Instagram (thank you) and after some research about it, talking with my Husband, we decided to give it a go.
I really want to believe it’s not too late to change. And to become better parents. For the kids, and for us as well.

I also decided to go further in my knowledge for running my shop and boosting my career.

It’s been more than four years now since I’ve really worn contacts instead of my glasses.
I learned at my last eye doctor visit that one of my eye has astigmatism. And so when I went to order contacts, I was told I can’t wear color contacts anymore because of this (I even need a special ordered contact for that eye apparently) … which sucks because I love wearing grey ones.
Anyway, I am getting used to my face without glasses again (and that we can now actually see when I have make-up!).

I ordered weeks worth of pictures to get up to date in our Project Life album. Happy to get back to it. And I’ll finally be able to introduce it to my Mom.

What’s currently happening in your World ?

With insomnia kicking my butt unexpectedly, the few hours of sleep I had before having to start my day and the fact that the sleeping aid I took in the middle of the night to finally fall asleep seems to take forever to get out of my system, I feel pretty crappy right now.
I wish I’d have the knowledge to understand what causes the glitches in my body. What is actually nor working properly when we suffer from Fibromyalgia (come on, there has to be something wrong that causes the neverending pain and all the other symptoms, right ?).

So in the same vein of my Gratitude Friday ritual, I notice that when I mentally list what I am currently loving, my energy shifts almost magically. I guess this is simply because my mind then focus on something more positive, it puts myself in a happier place.

Today.Currently.Loving:

• New tv shows like “The Following” or “Cult” (both filmed in BC, lovely coincidence)
• Collaborations
• Connection
• Muted colors
• Creative visualization
• New ideas sprouting
• New learning curves. Creating digital artwork on my iPad mini
• The prospect of being in Port Townsend (WA) in June
• Ezechiel sesame bread, toasted, with a little bit of salter butter that will melt on top
• Packing orders
• Thinking about what  we’ll do next month for K.’s birthday (our Koala is turning 6)
• Crockpot meals

What are you loving, in your part of the world, right now (don’t overthink it) ?

Hey there ! I’m happy you liked the first edition of this new blogposts serie. You know how much sharing is something I love doing. In this second edition, I am sharing about the current Art Journal I am using, the use of stencils everywhere, and more.

The Dylusions Art Journal, by Dyan Reaveley for Rangers

I discovered Dyan a few years back, as we were both in the same Art Journal Round Robin group (not the best experience but grew a lot from it however). I then noticed she had a pretty big shop in the UK and became a customer. At this time, Dyan was selling ink sprays and paints exclusive to her brand, and I quickly fell in love with them (some of these sprays are now available under the big brand Ranger, but not the paint. Maybe in the future, who knows…).

Recently, she released a beautiful art journal (still under the wings of Ranger.

Here is their «technical» description of it:

• Ideal with Dylusions Ink Sprays, Stencils and Stamps
• Sturdy cover, elastic closing and string-tie envelope included
• 64 pages of unlined white matte cardstock
• Sturdy cover, elastic closing and string-tie envelope included
• Cover measures 11 13/16″ x 9″; book pages measure 11 3/8″ x 8 1/4″

And it really does take spray (heavily applied) very well !!
It is quite thick though, so it may take a while to finish filling. But that is a good thing for me, who tend to work in several supports at the same time, as my friend Melissa told me when I showed it to her «you have to commit to it !», this is why I put that word on my front cover, as a reminder to actually finish what I start.

Stencils from The Crafter’s Workshop

It is not a secret that I absolutely love stencils. In my art journal, as in my paintings. AND now in cards I create too. Everywhere.

My go-to brand is The Crafter’s Workshop. They have original, fun, symbolic even stencils that I can use for my background (because this is the most use I have of it, but this is just me, though. Backgrounds are AS important as what is coming on top of it).

Each stencil comes in both 6×6″ and 12×12″. Which is perfect for both art journaling and paintings.

I love using them with different media: spray ink/paints obviously, but also with paint and a make up sponge, with an ink pad and a mak up sponge, with PanPastels… and more.

They have artists designing some of the lines, and of course my favorite ones are created by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.

Stabilo «All» Pencil

This is my «go-to» pencil when I create. I use the black all.the.time. 

These pencils are watersoluble, so I use the black to outline and then shade with my acrylic paint.

I recently bought the brown pencil for my faces and I am hooked.

As a Mixed Media artist, I always am on the look out to find the tools that will work on all kind of textures, on all kind of surfaces. And this pencil is the only one that does that job for me.

Silk Paints by Luminarte

I discovered this paints online but tried them only a few months ago, when I attended a workshop with Finnabair in my local scrapbook store. She used plenty of Luminarte products (their pigments, the Silk glazes etc). 

You probably have heard about the H2O watercolor cakes, that are highly shimmery and loved in the art community.

These are glazes, which means they are partly transparent and are not opaque colors.

I am still playing with it, and I know there are a lot of possible uses for it that I don’t know.

I may take one of the classes from Jodi Ohl or Dion Dior to learn how to better use them. But for now, I love them for their bright shimmer and gorgeous colors.

NOTE: this is not a sponsored blogpost; however, if I have an affiliate account with one of the products I share, I use the affiliate link to it. Also, this only states my point of view.