The Adventure Pact

Hi everyone! Is it too late to still wish everyone a Happy New Year? I often question when it has passed the point when you can still speak well wishes, I guess when people start giving you funny looks in return. As I'm writing this we still haven't quite reached double figure dates, so I'm gunna go with it and wish everyone a fun, creative year ahead!

(This is from a recent wander around a local nature reserve)

With a new year comes the inevitable talk of “New Year Resolutions”, to speak the truth I'm not a great believer in making them. Too many people seem to drop them within a week or two when the hype and positive outlook begins to wear thin or the self applied pressure starts to weigh heavy. Too bigger a step and you're destined to struggle, if not fail. I don't wish to set myself up to fail so rather than burst into the new year (seriously how many times can I get that term into this blog post?) all guns blazing I try to think of things I'd like to do and perhaps pick one or two. I consider them in a general sense, none too specific, allowing them to grow and change throughout the months ahead.

 (Southport Beach in January)

A couple of blog posts back I mentioned that I was hoping to go on an adventure, a holiday abroad, over the festive period, unfortunately due to circumstances cropping up this didn't pan out. Instead I spent my first Christmas with just J at our house. It was both Christmas and not Christmas at the same time. A new experience, with old traditions thrown in. It got me thinking about how I wanted to do more in the year ahead. We've been progressing on our house (renovating an old house) and it has meant that much of our 'thinking space' has been occupied with wallpapering and roof tiles and the like. We've stopped going on as many adventures and have been sticking to a similar rotational regime of coffee, food shopping and pet supplies.

(Me on Southport Beach!)

In 2016 we made a pact to go on 12 adventures throughout the year, generally speaking these fell once or more. Often there were more, but we set a minimum of 12. It sounds weird to plan spontaneity, it feels somewhat of a contradiction but it also makes sense. It pushed me outside of my comfort zone and forced me to think outside the box. We plan to resurrect the Adventure Pact this year and to continue doing and seeing more, like eating doughnuts on a absolutely freezing Southport Beach in the middle of January to visiting Beeston Castle.

Similarly, how I had intended to keep a record of my Christmas Holiday, I intend to document my Adventure Pact. I decided I wanted to change it up and push the boundary of my creating style. Whenever I journal it has always been in a bound book (save Project Life) whether in a Travelers Notebook or a sketch book of some kind. So with that being said I've set up my Nude Filofax Original as a journal. 

I've used Tomoe River paper for my pages, they're not quite B6 but taller and wider than actual personal inserts, I've also added the off cuts for a bit of variety. I'm sure I will be tipping in other bits and pieces, photographs and the like as I go along. I'm hoping the rings will actually make this process a little easier and allowing me greater flexibility to change things and swaps bits around as I go along! We shall see. 

 

I've decorated my inside, I would say pockets but the Originals do not have traditional pockets, just an annoying elastic loop. I've cobbled together, using some scrapbook paper pieces, some make shift pockets and slips to place my paperclips and bits of ephemera. I finally used a piece of 12x12 scrapbook paper I've been hoarding for a long while!

I've tried to include things that inspire me to keep challenging myself to find adventure, whether it is big or small, a tangible experience or a fleeting moment. There are moments to be had and I'm going to find them.

Don't forget to check out Anna's fantastic course on Adventure Journaling, she has some amazing tips and tricks to get you started.....and also can I just say Cambs Con! Remember to put the date in your diary!!

Till next time!

Making your own Christmas decorations with the Marblous Marble class

Recently I attended a workshop at Hobbycraft on Advent Calendars and made this:

While I was there, and was in the festive creative spirit, I picked up some ceramic baubles, decorations as well as a ceramic vase with Anna's Marblous Marble course in mind.  I thought they might make nice Christmas presents along with a box of chocolates for those people I buy something little for.  I'd done the Marblous Marbling class a while ago but I'd only created my Marble creations on paper (I found deli paper to be amazing) and I shared a page in this link where I'd combined my marble paper with one of Anna's Patreon lessons.

My plan was to marble them and then use embossing powder and stamps to add images onto the decorations and vase.  This wasn't very successful though, the embossing powder didn't really want to melt on the ceramic and getting a clean image on top of the marbling was difficult.  I did manage it on this star decoration though: 

                                             

 For the vase I marbled my pattern in blue, black and white and then just added embossing powder in silver in a random splodging around the middle and the top.  It took quite a bit of heating using the heat gun but I think the vase could handle it better than the flat decorations:

 For the baubles and remaining decorations I just used the marbling inks to decorate, for some, like the red and green ones I dipped them a couple of times to get more coverage.

 Check out the other classes Anna has in her shop here and please share in the Happy Place Facebook group if you've created something with the Marbling lesson.


Don't forget to check out Anna's Patreon and you can find more of my art here, or on my blog, or on Instagram.

Beginning a new Journey

Hi guys! It's been a couple of weeks since my last post and I'm feeling a little rusty! Today I thought I'd catch you all up on my progress with Anna's fantastic Adventure Journaling course. Just a little bit about the course before we get started, for those of you who may not have seen it. Anna takes us through what adventure journaling is and what it can be, quick jaunts out to the park to fabulous holidays away. Anna shares some great tips and tricks from which supplies to pack to how to create beautiful pages documenting the things you have done. 

What is adventure journaling to me? Well, because I journal most days, about the day to day goings on in the household I tend to view adventure journaling as something separate. Adventures, for me are any event or occasion that removes me from my everyday routine or where I find my myself in someplace new.

Sometimes, that'll be something big like a family holiday but mostly it's when my partner and I take the day to explore a new town or park or a road trip to visit friends or family. Although they are both adventures, I still view them differently, mini excursions for the latter is perhaps more appropriate as they happen more frequently. I also tend to journal when I am back home, in my cosy little (and messy) office. At the minute I don't have a dedicated adventure journal and these tend to go in my everyday journals.

Synchronicity at it's finest. The day I picked to make a start on the classes I  headed to the supermarket to pick up some bits for dinner. I couldn't face doing a 'big shop' so I headed to the little local one. I wandered over to the magazine section, generally speaking there is never much more than a couple of newspapers and the celebrity type magazine which are not my thing. However, that day they had a few copies of  Project Calm featuring travel, adventure and storytelling! Snapped that up quick. It is a really lovely magazine, full of all sorts of things, mostly craft related, writing and stunning photography. It is a little on the expensive side but it is definitely worth purchasing a copy if you see one. 

This year it is all change in my family for Christmas, my siblings are off to their respective inlaws for the festive period, we are having our roof reroofed (that sounds funny!) and so we are all in different places, usually we all head to my parents for Christmas Day but this year that's not possible. So J and I decided we'd take the opportunity to go away somewhere. With the pets holidays can be a little difficult, not impossible, but logistically it is added stress. We have also spent the last couple of summers working on doing up our house, so realistically over Christmas is the best opportunity for us to go somewhere together. Definitely a cold somewhere, can't be doing Christmas in a hot climate!!

As this will the first holiday away we've had together I wanted to go with something a little more special than my everyday journal. Then came the age old problem for a stationery addict....which notebook should I use? I had a rifle through my stack of unused journals and notebooks, which I'm a tad ashamed to admit is huge. I settled on the one below, which is rather fitting seeing as it is a handmade journal I picked up whilst on adventure earlier this year. J and I, after many years (and I'm talking about 8 years or so!) of driving past and me saying I'd like to go, finally visited the Imperial War Museum North on a very wet and miserable day! Ever since I was a wee thing I've always bought myself a pencil or pen from the gift shop. It is something that started when my parents would take us on outings and we'd always visit the gift shops after. I was allowed one small item, which would always, always be a pencil or a pen! I've hoarded these pencils..haha and I now have quite a collection in my pen pots.

I digress! I'm looking forward to cracking this beauty open and filling it with all the things I get up to on my holiday! I'm often nervous about starting on the first page and will often skip to the first double page spread. I'm going to follow some of Anna's tips, for example I love the idea of having a master To Do and To Pack list at the front and a list of places I'd love to visit! There are several signatures of recycled cotton rag paper, it'll be the first time I've used this kind of paper in a bound journal so that'll be an adventure in itself!

I'll be back to update you on my progress soon. But for now, thankyou for stopping by and getting to the end of the post! One of these days I will learn the art of being concise..haha. Don't forget to check out Anna's course if you haven't already!!

In a bit guys xx

You can also find me on Instagram and over on my own blog here.