There has always been something that compels me to reflect on my life, my thoughts, my fears, my blessings. I don’t know how much truth there is in the old saying “The unexamined life is not worth living”, sometimes I think I spend too much time thinking about life rather than getting on with it.

In the past I have kept a written journal, but I always found they ended up being very negative. When I was using only words I somehow strayed away from exploring the joys in my life (and there have always been many I assure you) and instead focused on my anxieties. It became a rather depressing past time. So I stopped that.

For a long time I didn’t keep any sort of journal, but I missed the outpouring of self onto a page. And then some time ago I discovered Pinterest. (If you haven’t yet encountered the joys of this website you should pop on over when you’re done here. Not before because you’ll be consumed by the need to PIN ALL THE THINGS  and may never come back.) Through the magical world of Pinterest I discovered art journalling and this ridiculously obvious solution to my negative words issue have given me a new lease of creativity, which I wanted to share with you lovely people. So here are some pages from my art journal (apologies for the poor quality photo’s – when I figure out how to use hubby’s fancy camera and we get some decent daylight around here there will hopefully be some better ones!)

I use a lot of quotes and doodles in my journal, most found through Pinterest or in books I’m reading. Chbosky fans will recognise the one in the top right as being from The Perks of Being a Wallflower (one of my all time favourite books). The ‘If I had an extra hour’ page is copied from a pin I found and now can’t find again (it’s on one of my boards somewhere) and added to to make it my own. Sometimes I see other peoples pages and think I just want that exact page. So I recreate it as I see it with just a few tweaks to make it mine, fully endorsing the ‘steal like an artist’ philosophy. Whilst all the actual artwork from these pages is my own, sadly only some of the ideas are.

I loved how my Christmas wreath turned out! This was from Christmas 2012 which was the first Mr H and I spent in our own home, so I wanted to record it. I printed some instagram photos out on photo paper, stuck them in in a circle and doodled a Christmas wreath around it! It’s one of my favourite pages. I was also really pleased with the lettering for the “all great changes” quote…which you actually can’t see all that clearly. Anyways there’s really something about lovely lettering that makes me happy. I’m no typography expert but I know pretty letters when I see them!

These are some of my more recent pages. I got given a spirograph so had great fun playing with it in the pages at the top. I did this spread in the run up to the penultimate exam for my degree and with 9 weeks left before our wedding. It was a very busy and exciting time and doing this page, simple as it is, just took me away from the chaos for a bit. The quotes in the bottom two pictures both really spoke to how I was feeling at the times I did them. I think that’s one of the lovely things about quotes, sometimes you just find one that says exactly what you’re thinking or feeling and suddenly you know you’re not alone in that. You realise someone else has felt it too and there’s a beautiful moment of connection, sometimes across continents and centuries.  I don’t know about you but it always make me feel very real and somehow grounded.

That’s all I’m going to share for now but I am currently working on some pages from our wedding and honeymoon so you’ve got those to look forward to! Lucky you! Please feel free to share links to your own creations or Pinterest boards in the comments.

Hope you’re having a happy weekend 🙂