Out With the Old..

I have been absent from this blog for almost a month. I finished up the busy Christmas season at work, got ready for the holiday and the week of Christmas recovering my energy and my soul. Downtime is so good for the soul. :)

For the past few weeks I have had a sense of anticipation for the new year ~ fresh starts, new beginnings - a new year always brings with it a sense of being able to start over and this year I just feel like I want to move beyond some things and get on with life. But more on that in a future post (hopefully this weekend). Before I get too much into looking ahead at the new year I want to finish the old.

I didn't get to participate in Advent creatively as I have done over the past few years. I just didn't have the creative energy this year. I followed an Advent devotional online and participated in the planning and conversation at church, even giving the 4th Sunday Advent message and candle lighting (it can be found here: http://gracetoledo.org/2013/12/advent-peace/). But Advent art journaling just didn't come easily this year. This is the only page I made:

The cry of Advent is my desire for the year ahead. The past few years have been rough for me on a number of levels and I'm ready to move out of that place of feeling down and stuck. I need a fresh dose of hope and it is only through the God of hope that it can be found. Again, more on that in future posts.

My current altered book art journal is so close to being complete. I have only 3 or 4 pages left to journal on and it is done. This is a great accomplishment for me. I am such a great starter, but I have numerous unfinished art journals on my shelf. Most of the time I'm okay with this. I think it goes along with just letting myself flow creatively and being okay with that. But I have also discovered a clue to my finishing a journal: no theme. For some reason I can't connect with now, when I first began art journaling I felt I needed to have themed journals. But the problem is that I carry so many things in my head that I would need too many themed journals to keep up with and that may be why they don't always get finished. I move on to the next thing that has captured my attention. (Wow, that sounds rather A.D.D.) With my current journal I didn't care about theme. It contains everything from this past year and therein lies my secret to completing journals! So as I wrap up my current journal here are some of the pages I've completed in the past month:

That pretty much wraps up 2013 for me. I am so ready for 2014 and am glad it is here! Hopefully you will hear from me again in the next few days and we can begin the next chapter!