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Hey Love Beans ! This week, I wanted to share with you my process to create a colorful cover for the first Art Journal I’ll be using in 2018 (PS: as you’ll see in the video, I use a very easy handmade journal. If you’d like me to cover how I did it with a quick video, tell me in the comments here or on Youtube).

Here is the video:

I truly came back to my first loves: layers. finger painting. texture. colors. This year, I am creating to bring joy back into my life. Last year, I was in a deep creative drought.

After long periods of analysing what I was going through, trying to understand, some few points came up:

• I was putting too much pressure on myself to create to please, to create to sell.
• Also, I was passing time comparing my path with other artists’ paths. This is never a positive thing to do.
• I lost my personal creative voice.

My solution was to go back years ago, to the techniques that truly speaks to my Soul and make my Heart sing. This art journal cover embodies all of this.

The products I used:

Some shots:

For a few months, I was SURE what my Soul Whisper for 2015 was. I had no doubt anymore because it had been in my heart, and I was seeing plenty of signs all around. But in the last couple weeks of December, for reasons I do not know (and for once, I guess I do not care), it shifted. I really thought, for quite a while, that 2015 would be my year of YES. It still resonates and I do believe it is okay to have more than one word to guide your year. It is, really, okay.

Devotion to my Creativity

During the Winter break, my family did enjoy sleeping in most morning. I am not a heavy sleeper and usually, once I am awake, well… I am awake. Tossing, turning, and staring at the ceiling is a waste of time to me, so I decided it was totally okay to gently slip into the night to head to my Studio (the bedrooms and my Studio are seperated by a floor so I knew I would not be disturbing anyone, even with my music on). And every morning, around 8am, here I was. Sipping orange juice while painting and singing along my playlist.

It worked so well for me that I decided to try to change up my routine once the school would be back. It is such a big difference in my creativity and productivity. No more excuses. No more procrastination.

And my creativity is linked to my business, this is another huge step to take, making peace with making money from it. Without killing the joy, without taming the passion.

Devotion to my Creativity means showing up.
Devotion to my Creativity means listening to the Muse. No matter what.
Deveotion to my Creativity means more explorations.
Devotion to my Creativity means more sharing of what I do with the World.

Devotion to my Wellness (+health)

I refuse to let my health define me. Not playing the ostrich game here though.

In 2014, I lost around 20 pounds all together. It was not always easy but I am so proud to finally look more of what I was seeing in my mind’s eye than in the mirror. The thing is to find what works for you; we are all different, different bodies, different stories, different struggles and strengths.

I decided that I will stop relying on the numbers appearing on my scale (that I now use only about once a month or so, versus twice a day in the past… yup…) but will focus on the feels. How do I feel in my body, how do I feel in my clothes.

I need to drink less alcohol, my husband and I went a bit too crazy, wine every night at dinner, cocktails on the weekend (he is SO good at it…). And I know it is not good for the body, for mine anyway. So stepping out of it.

I try to avoid gluten and dairies except for cheese. I am not strict Paleo but this is where I find recipes that go with what my body needs in general. And it is fun to cook differently, as well. Yes, always looking for a challenge.

Devotion to my Wellness & Health means going for daily walk after the girls are in the bus and before going in the Studio.
Devotion to my Wellness & Health means eating healthy and fresh.
Devotion to my Wellness & Health means Soul Care without guilt.
Devotion to my Wellness & Health means not giving up on myself.

Devotion to my family and close friends

I think this is where I will have to check within the most this year. I know there is a lot to be changed in this area of my life. Because I tell myself stories that do not serve me well, over and over again, and I need to find how to shift them properly, to rewrite new stories that are more positive.

I need to devote my energy for more quality time with my daughters and husband. Less anger. More play. More Gratitude. More time being together instead of everyone doing their thing individually. I want to build good memories, for them but also for us as parents.

I want to focus and give more space to my local friends. I am craving girls nights. I am craving good talks.
My Kindreds are all over the Globe. but I want to find a way to see them. Finally. I will make it work, too.

Devotion to my loved ones means no more escaping excuses.
Devotion to my loved ones means time for facetime/hangout.
Devotion to my loved ones means bringing back snail mail (!!!).
Devotion to my loved ones means going back to France for a few weeks this year.

Devotion to my Spirituality

Another biggy as my Spirituality is not the most common but yet, more and more people come out of the «witchy» woo woo closet, so it makes me more comfortable sharing about it, without going in too much details.

Raised Christian until a tragic event happened when I was 9 that turned everything upside down around in my belief system. I now have made my peace with God. And I am okay to say it out loud now, and I respect you and your own belief system. Open heart, open mind. I actually love talking with my religious friends about it, see how it could all fall into one big beautiful piece. There is no label for what I am, and this too, is okay. It is a mash up of what works and resonates deeply (thank you Jen for putting it so beautifully into words for me).

For years, in France, I was the creator and admin of a beautiful eclectic website and forum around Magic. I met many friends, still in touch decade after. Then I strayed away. Lost my voice, lost myself. Rejected everything. I am an «all  black or all white» kinda girl, or I used to be, anyway. I am passionate and it used to be all or nothing with me.

2014 saw the come back to my roots. As I described in that blogpost about coming home.

in 2015..:

Devotion to my Spirituality means trusting my inner compass.
Devotion to my Spirituality means no more shame around it.
Devotion to my Spirituality means carving time for it everyday.
Devotion to my Spirituality means knowing it is within and that everything else is just tools.

And I decided to document my year of Devotion. Back to the journal. Back to the photographs. It is okay to tell my own stories.