A New Year and New Beginnings

  Happy New Year everyone!! I hope you and your families enjoyed the holidays. Ours was mostly quiet and peaceful. We also pretty much stayed in as it has been brutally COLD the last week or so (in the single digits-brrrr). So I've had plenty of time to get creative and reflect. But first, I want to share this very special fabric art that arrived from Elizabeth of Altered Book Lover:

                                                                 front

                                                              back

                                                           detail

 I know I didn't do justice with my mediocre photography but this is utterly charming!! How thoughtful and kind to use that special French themed fabric. And oh how I love all the stitching and loose threads along with the darling paw print on the back(thank you Squiggles and Bleubeard:)! Thank you, thank you dear Elizabeth; I totally love it!! And speaking of, I have this to share with T Stands For Tuesday- hosted by Elizabeth:

 These are from our last trip to Cape May, NJ. I have shared food plates before from Oyster Bay Restaurant as we just LOVE the food and atmosphere here! We usually sit at the bar. I tried something new (top) - a vegetarian Mediterranean Flatbread with a balsamic vinegar reduction. It was sublime (and so big I took half back to our room for lunch the next day)! Hubby had his usual crabcake sandwich along with a side of waffle fries. For those of you who have asked how he can eat so much, along with all those luscious and rich desserts-well- he's a runner, a cyclist, he lifts weights, and he boxes!

 On to the art. I'll list the blogs I'm linking to at the end since several of my projects will work for the challenges.

 First up:

 My word of the year on a journal page. The art in the center is from a We Moon calendar from a few years back. I added the quote. I had been watching and listening to the Women Unleashed online sessions the last two weeks and this word came up to me repeatedly. What I manifested was to TRUST that the universe works FOR you; not against you.

         Did you choose a word, or for that matter did a word choose YOU?

 I created this page around the New Year full moon - the wolf moon - along with one of the lessons from the Radiant Faces online class (I still haven't finished them all after signing up a few years ago):

It's supposed to be a self portrait of reflection and the opportunities the full moon brings. Acrylics, stabilo pencil, uni ball gold and white pens, pearl medium (for the moon).

I decided kind of last minute to do a new calendar journal for 2018 and chose a different format:

The cover so far. It's a Strathmore 5" x 8" mixed media journal I covered with a handmade specialty paper I had gotten from Dick Blick some years ago.

 The inside cover and intro page:

 Patterned papers are from Stampington. The silhouette on the left was a leftover scrap piece I pulled from my stash. The words on the left of the image say "the life you always wanted" How about that!

 The first week's spread:

 The whole year will be done in this manner-weekly entries on the left and a bit of art on the right. I added the words digitally and printed my journal page to fit. I'm thinking of doing mostly collage, stamping and ink for the art pages and keeping them fairly simple.

 Still with me?  Thank you! One last project:

Texture Detail:

 Products: embossing paste; Tim Holtz Honeycomb stencil; Dylusions ink sprays- Bubblegum Pink, Calypso Teal, Lemon Zest; Tim Holtz wildflowers dies and Small Talk Occasions stickers; Versafine Onyx Black ink.

 Joining these places this week: Art Journal Journey (theme of New Year, new adventures hosted by Erika this month); the Simon Wednesday Challenge (Anything Goes); the Simon Monday Challenge ( Something New); Moo Mania and More ( Welcome); Tag Tuesday ( New beginnings); and Paint Party Friday!

 " For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning."     T S Eliot