illustrations: go.

I have always loved to draw with words and so I have decided to challenge myself to share at least one illustration of a quote each week with you, my dear readers.  This week, it's simply the word "Go," said from me to you. Go and do, go and be. 

All of my illustrations will be free for your personal use. To download the full size picture you can visit this link. Please attribute where you got them from if you share.

Hope you have an inspired Tuesday!

illustrations: thomas jefferson

I have always loved to draw with words and so I have decided to challenge myself to share at least one illustration of a quote by a famous poet each week with you, my dear readers. This one is from Thomas Jefferson, "The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do."

All of my illustrations will be free for your personal use. To download the full size picture you can visit this link. Please attribute where you got them from if you share.

Hope you have an inspired Tuesday!

book it

The New Year has also brought with it many new projects, and I am especially excited to share this one with you! I have been a life long lover of super fat little spiral notebooks, and it is so hard to find good ones that aren't too skinny, aren't traditionally bound, and don't have some generic geometric design on the cover. So what did I decide to do? Make them myself!

Let me introduce Old Magic notebooks from Favoring Brave.

Each book includes a sheet in the back with information about how the book was made, how old it is, where it was found and what book number it is - book number being the number in which it was made. That means I'll be able to keep track of how many I make total over time!

The first five are available on Etsy now! Here they are - click the picture for a closer look.

the plan

Today is a new day, part of a new beginning. Friday was my last day at my job and though I will miss the people I worked with, I am very excited and nervous about what is to come, mostly because it involves a lot more writing, making, and wearing clothes I like than the last few months have.

But change is scary. I am artistic but practical, and part of me is terrified that I will not grab this chance my the horns and wrestle every last drop of potential out of it. I'm afraid of fear taking over. Pretty ironic, isn't it?

The night before I spoke to my boss about my plans to leave I couldn't sleep, so I got up and made myself a schedule for my days without office hours to plan around. Then after the schedule I wrote myself something else, a mental plan, if you will. Here it is, for your enjoyment, edification, and reflection. I know that every stage of my life could use an extra dose of this kind of outlook.

" Cultivate silence, trust, prayer, and peace. Humble yourself before the Lord’s plans and be realistic and fair with yourself. In all moments of disquiet, bring yourself back to center with God. Lay your moments as well as your hours before him in reverence and in humility and trust His Voice, wherever it reaches you. Bless the Lord with your actions, your art, and your attempts. Strive only to serve Him, and live in accord with your vocation.

 And when the bad days happen, as they surely will, have the grace to cry deeply and freely, offer it up, and move on. Our trials water the gardens of our souls in such a way that gives them flavor unmatched by easier times.

Focus on embracing your gifts, flexing your abilities, sacrificing your security for the sake of growth, and judging yourself more gently. Begin to trust others to do the same. Look for the lovable in all things. Become the lantern all artists are called to be, even when the divine spark is so close to consuming itself. Will and pray for the light to radiate, for we are often darkest to ourselves when our light touches others most deeply. Seek the approval only of God and listen also to your husband, whom God has given to you to help sanctify and in turn helps to sanctify and lead you. Allow yourself to see your soul though their eyes.

Respect your limitations as well as your strengths. Push yourself, but remember that life is given just as much to be enjoyed as it is to be struggled through. Give yourself permission to stop working and be. Focus. Learn to be where you are and nowhere else. Love."

That's the plan.

peace&love,

Jill

Writing Makes the World Make Sense

This is not my first blog. Oh, no. Not my first blog at all.

This time I’m finding myself with a bad case of audacity and I’m going to *gasp* actually be honest. The bubbly sweet thing of the previous blogs? Sorry honey, not me.

I am a bit of an obsessive person. Type-A, very ENFP for those of you into Myers-Briggs, I am all about production. I can’t do yoga if I’m not in a class because I feel like I’m not really doing anything. Unless there are at least two things going on (three is best) I feel under-stimulated. However, my penchant for doing everything at the same time doesn’t exactly lead to outstanding work. I’m not Superwoman—I don’t do lots of things at the same time better than your average person, I just like it more. So a lot of times I fall into the category of being busy without being productive.

The internet certainly keeps me busy. There are so many new posts every morning on Google Reader, my Facebook needs to be updated, my Etsy stores need items relisted, and I have to keep track of all the great ideas I find all over the place in my trusty Evernote. And that doesn’t even include posting on my former blog, commenting on other people’s to increase traffic, or wiling away the hours on Stumble. I am a Twenty-First Century college student—and I have the Firefox full of saved passwords to prove it.

But all this internet mumbo-jumbo isn’t helping me be productive. At the end of the day, I’m just moving inspiration around. I’m bookmarking tons of diy ideas to try some day but never doing them, I’m “updating” friends on my life without really talking to them and, perhaps worst of all, I’m internalizing intense jealousy over all the people who are happy, successful, and actually doing what I want to do. I want to write. I always have. But I’ll be darned if I can sit down and do it without worrying about my audience, or how this is going to generate traffic, or how my mother will take it, or whether the world really can benefit from my opinion. I usually get a title typed and then the stress of it all is just too melodramatic to allow me to continue.

Writing is, however, what actually makes me happy. It’s what is missing from my life when my day is just okay, even though nothing bad happens. It’s what makes my day better when it has gone well on its own. Its what I want to do for a living. So it struck me the other day: Why aren’t you doing it? Hang Google Analytics and AdSense and empty followers lists. I’ll talk just hear myself if I have to. Writing just helps the world make sense, and I’m not going to deny myself that any more. And that's why this is a blog about courage. It's time to hang up the expectations, do what makes me happy, and risk enough to sleep soundly at night.

So am I scared its just phase? Definitely. Did I try to just spell “phase” f-a-z-e? Yes. I like to write, but I’ve never been much of a speller.

peace&love,

Blue