Tandem Birthdays and Gurgling Creeks

These journal pages bring a smile to face ... nice how two pages in your journal looking back at you can do that. And that's one of the reasons I relish my journaling practice ... not only does it stir immediate feelings, smells, moods, tastes, but too, it quizzes my memory. I might be better than some of those brain games or memory training CDs, who knows. I also see that moments charged with emotion are easier to remember, so that my pages mostly reflect times I want to remember. And thus, these volumes I'm creating tend to reinforce the positive and the creation of more positive. And you know what? I like that! Ok, back to these journal entries.

Early June my hubby and I get to celebrate a birthday each. His, his belly-button birthday and I, my sobriety birth date. This birthday I set aside time to create a gift for Roland and his card. A lil' burro (his favorite animal) started as a demo but grew into a sweet shadow box presentation with a wild grass installed in the foreground. We traveled to Ashland for his birthday dinner at one of our favorite places, Thai Pepper, just off the Plaza. From a shot I grabbed on the patio of the restaurant, I blended his portrait, meal and the business card to capture the evening. The snippet to save from my celebration were words, "You're the kind of person who makes the world a better, brighter place ..." and stars from the card with which Roland presented me. I punched some additional stars with my own "star" paper punch, thank you very much! Can you ever have too many stars?

The other lil' item squeezed in came from a silly cooking session. We were attempting to get cumin to come out of this spice jar - to no avail. Upon closer examination, we learned there was a seal over the cover with holes. Laughing, we peeled it off and were charmed to see a cute logo of a boy in red with the addition of the cumin that had stuck to the under side of the seal. Plunk - right into my journal!

The finishing sketch on the far right was from a demonstration for a class focusing on "Creeks and Streams". You can find evidence of the white and turquoise wax crayon I'd initially used to save or accent areas as well as the reflections, rocks, twigs and cascades to replicate our Lithia Park Creek. The class and seemingly, the sketch were a success. And more smiles.

So . . . the moral of the story . . . "For more smiles, paint and journal more!"