enjoying these warm spring days...

it is my favorite time of year...when the weather warms up and i can run around in flip flops and cute skirts and spread out a blanket on the lawn with all my art supplies and lazily document the day-to-day in my journal...

here is just a sampling of what i drag outside with me...actually, i would be happy with just these few supplies thrown into a bag for a road trip or a jaunt to the beach (i had to say "jaunt", i couldn't use the word "trip" again in the same sentence!) i was inspired by kelly kilmer to take a photo of my current journaling supplies. i've gotta have: japanese masking tape, washi tape (there's a difference. the masking tapes are bright and colorful and plastic and cheesy in a cute way and the washi tape is more like paper tape and usually comes in more subtle and simple colors and patterns), scrapbook border stickers (i love the ones from crate paper, sassafrass, echo park, and K and company), diecut stickers and shapes (same companies), paper scraps, cavallini & co stamps and post-it notes, rub-ons, glue stick, kids scissors, tape runner, staz-on stamp pad.

i go back and forth between journals. right now i'm really into this coptic stitched journal i made a while back. the pages are all so random, a mix of my favorite vintage and newer scrapbook papers. i love to layer with paper scraps, ephemera, diecut shapes & stickers, japanese washi (masking) tape, scrapbook sticker boarders and stamps.

oh, and a layer of tissue paper first is really fun, too. the kind you use in gift bags. you can buy some real cheap at target in the giftwrap section, or any place that sells gift supplies. i recently got some cute matyroshka doll tissue paper from cost plus. i'll have to go back and see what other kinds of paper they have. cute!!!

interesting piece. this one was a lot like my other pages and then my friend kelsi came over one night to make art and we started chatting about dreams and she got this great idea to help me interpret a recent dream i had about a double plane crash (i was in two plane crashes in the same dream!) so i guess some of my subconscious spilled out onto the page that night!

and in between journaling, i'm snapping photos of my youngins. here's the youngest climbing on her little playhouse/slide. i love that she is able to play close by while i journal. her older helps corral her, keeping her in our yard. and i'm always a big leap behind her in case she decides to make a mad dash down the street (and she does. often. ) i'm comfortable letting her explore the yard and even walk along the sidewalk. she hasn't run out into the street, but i'm not taking my eyes off her for a second! she is my little daredevil and if another little toddler came roaring down the street on a motorcycle, well, she wouldn't think twice about hopping on and seeing where the wind will take her!

hunting for little bugs/creatures is a favorite pastime. my middle daughter knows just where to find the weirdest little living things. she is definitely my little nature girl. (and the little one is eating a pickle, not a bug!)

she is proud of her finds. she wants to keep them all in a little jar with holes poked in the top. and i have to remind her that bugs were meant to live free in the grass and will die if you keep them trapped. (sneak in a little metaphor about kids right about here!) i guess that applies to our kids, too. can't keep them locked up forever! you gotta let them out, gotta let them take risks and leaps and watch them fall and pick themselves back up again.

i want to attack life the same way my baby daughter does. she doesn't waste a moment or a chance to have fun and laugh and play. i hope to always run headfirst into life the way she does! i can always count on the return of spring to feel renewed and refreshed and excited for life and all it has to offer.