About that depression-era/poverty-mindset/ collector/ hate-to-part-with-anything-I-might-need syndrome, yesterday evening I listed (on Ebay) some Church Nursery Posters that my grandmother rescued from the dumpster at her church: I came by my condition naturally, I inherited it! Actually my grandmother recently had a long running garage/estate sale . She had lived on the farm in the same house for almost 70 years! She sold quilting fabric by the pound in grocery bags. Of course, she still had a stash to move because at 90 she still is quilting!

Do you have the post holiday blues? The house is cluttered, I need to do art, but there are too many conflicting projects, tasks, piles of junk to sort, etc. I've got a bad case of adult onset ADD! Its hard to concentrate and focus.

I can't seem to "get" a new technique I am working on. At the moment I’m too easily discourage by initial failure. I am trying to use Translucent Liquid Sculpy to make photo transfers but here on my 4th or 5th try - no good!

Is it usually this time of year that I get the urge to simplify? Should I buy another book or storage gadget? I didn't overspend on Christmas gifts except maybe on candy for stockings. But I do have that overwhelmed feeling.

I admit that I have some kind of depression-era/poverty-mindset/ collector/ hate-to-part-with-anything-I-might-need syndrome! So is it a lack of faith that makes me hold on to things I'm not using? Is it planning ahead/stewardship?

The mixed media art may bury me alive! Variety of fabric, yarn, buttons, beads, paper, pencils, paint, dyes, glues, leather, lots of tools, stamps, paper ephemera... I am not naturally organized and have a bad memory. If I put something up I may not be able to find it! Wouldn't it be simpler to just draw and paint? But the drawing and painting feeds the other media and vice versa.

And books and musical instruments!

I even have trouble parting with old clothes. I made some beautiful journals out of old blue jeans! I need to have a garage sale but that takes time and planning!

PAINT: shape, color, texture
preserve a moment,
evoke an emotion,
communicate a sense of time,
celebrate,
wonder,
beauty

WORDS: alphabet, ascenders and descenders, slant, spacing, font, ink, graphite, calligraphy voiced, fricatives, alliterated, rhymed
meaning, content, communicate, reason, persuade, emotion, thought

What is this need to communicate, to have communion, to find a community. It is more than a desire for an audience. It involves a desire for feed-back.

When I journal in a book I occasionally think in terms of putting it down so I can get it out of my system - the vent! But more often it is the list or the dream. Writing down the goal or defining and refining the dream. Almost daily, I journal as I read the Bible to remember and connect the ideas and concepts, to "note well" and to pray!