I'm going to Art School!

In my own little fantasy world, I am a prolific writer with great wit, a keen eye, and a finger firmly on the pulse of humanity. In reality, I'm a blogger with a chronic pain condition, a great sense of humor, and a poor grasp of time management. The thought of even attempting to participate in a massive writing event such as NaNoWriMo leaves me in a cold sweat. If you are undertaking the endeavor this month, my hat is off to you!

Nevertheless, I feel a bit left out and feel the need to attempt my own bit of stunt journalism. Earlier in the summer, I became fascinated with art journaling. I dabbled a bit, but with the beginning of the school year I let it slide. Now that I am generally able to stay up until 8:00 (sometimes even 8:30!) most weeknights, I have the time to pick it back up again.

After browsing through the Autumn issue of Somerset Studio's Art Journaling magazine, someone referenced Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's Art Journal Everyday Challenge. Basically, she takes away all the excuses for not getting something done every day. I have all these lovely art supplies on hand, so I decided to put them to use by making my own challenge to do some art journaling every day in the month of November. To make it more fun, I enrolled in Julie's Technique-a-Palooza. That's right, I'm going to (online) art school!

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If I can keep it up for the month, I would love to enroll in her Art Journal Everyday: December! class. Ultimately, I would like to enroll in Life Book 2013.

I love having a creative outlet. Something outside my roll as a mother, a wife, a teacher. I look forward to the few minutes I have at my art table in the evening, which in turns motivates me to stay the course of exercising to manage my pain and fatigue.

But don't worry, I won't subject you to a daily array of my artistic efforts! Unless they turn out really, really cool.