WITH MANY THANKS TO STACY!!!

Yesterday afternoon, on my way from here to there, I stopped at a local scrapbooking store I'd never explored before. As I'd hoped, it was brimming full of colorful papers and stickers and magazines and idea books -- the perfect place to come to get my creative juices flowing!!

One book in particular caught my eye -- the big picture, by Stacy Julian. Stacy's the founding editor of Simple Scrapbooks magazine, and I've been an admirer of hers for a long time now! After scanning the books' pages (and realizing that I had in my hand the only store copy), I hurried to make my purchase.

At home, with a cup of hot coffee in hand, I began to read; and as I read, my excitement grew. Here, on one colorful page after another, was laid out a philosophy of creativity and joyful living I could appreciate and really relate to!

Now, I'm not a photographer or a scrapbooker. I'm more of a craftsperson/self-taught artist/journaler (is "journaler" even a word?). I have filled up numerous 3-ring binders over the years with my doodlings and my writings. The writing has always been just for me. The doodles have been the way I've "played" with color and words on plain old graph paper ('cause I like having the lines to guide me) with markers & colored pencils. Sometimes I've used my little drawings as a springboard to an actual finished product (like the collages I've occasionally offered on eBay for fun -- more about that later... ). But, mostly they've been filed away in notebooks as an ongoing record of my interests and my growth as an artist.

Up 'til now, I've only rarely combined my writing and my artwork. Never really thought about doing that... don't know why. But, as I began reading Stacy's book, I got to thinking that I have the opportunity in blogging to do just that -- bring the words and the pictures together where they can be seen and shared. And that excites me!!

It may take me a while to figure this out -- I'm hardly a computer whiz. And, as I attempt this kind of blogging, I promise you that the artwork will be less than perfect – sometimes my little scribbles will be on graph paper, 'cause I don't want this to be anything but fun and real.

Many thanks, Stacy, for your encouragement toward simplicity and self-expression !! Your helpful ideas are both powerful and freeing!!!

Written 1/22/06