Happy New Year!

The first day of 2012 is a bright and sunny one here. Most people would probably not guess it, but the prairies are one of the sunniest areas in Canada. Five prairies cities top the list in fact. I imagine that many people are eagerly beginning new Painting/Drawing/Whatever A Day today. I tried to do this once and petered out around February. I'm not sure how successful I'll be either as I go back to school next week. But I'm going to give it a good try with a book I bought a couple of years ago called The Crafter's Devotional by Barbara R. Call. The bumper book of 365 creative ideas are coded in different ways such as Monday-Sunday, 1-365 and by category such as ideas, journalling and collaborating. Or you can pick a page at random and get going. I'm indebted to my friend and fellow Etsian Craft Quotient for telling me about this book. Since craft books can be hit or miss, friend recommendations tend to be a sure thing. In fact day #1 is journalling. I do keep a paper journal, but I often prefer the online ones. I buy cute little notebooks and then usually they get misplaced around the house :-D Maybe I'm just an idea squirrel at heart. Sometimes I find half-filled journals from when I was younger and it makes me glad the Internet wasn't around back then :-D. We don't really get a feel for how we grow and change over time. Memory isn't as reliable either.

The activities are pretty free-form and a variety of genres and techniques are represented, which must have been hard to do. Beads, wire, collage, stamping and mark making are just some of the things to be explored. Sometimes it's easier to just have an "assignment" to try instead of thinking up something on your own. The inclusion of personal and family history was interesting to me because interviewing family members and preserving family history is an art unto itself. This book will definitely keep crafty types busy all year long!