Category: Books

During these past five weeks of the Next Chapter’s Wreck This Journal adventure, I’ve had so much fun making my mark on this book.  I even had to change the title to Wreck Jenn’s Journal!  The cute stickers are from my friend Ana Ottman (thanks Ana!).  Here’s a look at my wreckage for the week.

I drew two disgusting, yucky true stories about my pup Emmett.  Sure he’s cute, but it’s really gross when I accidentally touch his poo or when he barfs on chicken bones.  I thought these were perfect fodder for the “ugly…poo…barf” page.  Click here to see a bigger version.

Do you remember the old-fashioned toy Wolly Willy with the metal filings and magnet wand?  While getting my haircut last Friday, I was inspired to make my own versions for the “create a drawing using a piece of your hair” page.  With journal and glue in hand, I picked up my hair trimmings and decorated my page.  My hairstylist got a kick out of it and even suggested a few of the ‘dos.

Oh, and you’ll see that there’s a blue splotch, too.  The blue soaked through several pages after I swam with my journal.  The absolutely cool thing is, the ink is from the “color outside the lines” page.  Not only did I color outside the lines, I colored in three-dimensions!

This circle page feels so cheery and fresh with all of the bright colors and fruit.  My journal actually smells lemony now because I infused it with some “Lusty Lemon” essential oil.  I got the idea of finding images of circular objects after seeing the Ganesha icon from the wrapper of my Yogitoes skidless mat.  I also added the Ganesha description, “The God of knowledge, wisdom and wealth, Lord of success and destroyer of all obstacles” to the title page.  Perfect!

On Monday, I ran into my dear friend Julie Daley at Bittersweet.  We had a lovely conversation and afterward I invited her to wreck my journal.  She signed her name with decadent chocolate cake!  Yummy.

Here’s the magazine page with my favorite words on it circled.

And here’s the “test art supplies” page on its third week of being my blotting paper at intuitive painting class.  It’s super cool to see it get messier and messier!  It looks even better in person.

I’m really feeling like the freedom to destroy, deface and make my journal my own has enhanced my overall creativity.  I’ve been in a creative flow the past several weeks.  I’m looking forward to more wrecking!

During these past few weeks, I’ve grown quite attached to my journal and it now goes with me everywhere.  It’s like having a little creative companion to inspire me throughout my day.  I look over and hear my co-conspirator asking me, “Hmmm, what mischief shall we get into today?”

After surviving a shower with my journal, I ventured into taking it for a swim with me last week.  This was quite a leap considering I seriously contemplated putting my journal into a ziplock bag before bringing it into the shower!

I swam a little on my own first, scoping out the pool.  Being the good rule-follower that I am, I even found myself glancing over to the pool rules sign to make sure there wasn’t any wording about bringing strange, foreign objects into the pool!  I felt self conscious as I brought the book into the water with me, concerned about what others might think.

But in the end, I just took a deep breath and plunged right in, journal in hand.  It was quite exhilarating!  Then we lounged together poolside and worked on our tan.

Here’s a quick video of me checking out the damage ;).

My journal was sopping wet, so my husband suggested wrecking it further with a hairdryer.  I’m amazed at the volumizing effect even without a diffuser or mousse!

Here’s my journal at the beginning of my Intuitive Painting class with Chris Zydel.

And here’s my journal after a good, messy session of painting.  What fun!!

Through all this play and destruction, I’m learning some helpful lessons from creative wreckage that apply to my life in general:

• Thinking, anticipating, fretting, and plotting about something that stretches me is usually a lot scarier than actually just doing it.
• By stretching myself, I discover new edges that challenge me and empower me to grow.
• I feel even more invested in my creative endeavors after I’ve taken a risk (whether it turned out the way I wanted it to or not).
• I’m capable of way more than I think I am.

What life lessons are you learning from your creative wreckage?  I’d love to hear.

For week 3 of the Next Chapter‘s Wreck This Journal adventure I played with getting a little more messy.  I dabbled in food stains, dragging the journal and other fun stuff.

My partner in crime, Emmett, helped me drag the journal down the street in the video below.

We didn’t get very far before the string snapped, but the cover certainly got scuffed up. I think it ended up for the best that the journal detached from his leash. I didn’t think through the positioning and he ended up peeing on the string which was really gross.

I warmed up to the food mess by putting a few stains on my stain page.  Who knew that blueberry soy yogurt has such adhesive properties?  The pages were glued together after the yogurt dried.

While savoring a tasty raw food meal from Cafe Gratitude, I figured I’d commemorate the delicious lunch in my journal (even though it says to document your dinner – so rebellious! Haha!).  I smeared on some raw pasta puttanesca zucchini noodles and fake meatballs and garnished with a sprig of watercress from the side salad.

I took my journal with me to intuitive painting class.  Instead of using a paper towel to dab my brushes, I had fun using my test page.  I will continue to use this page for my paintbrushes for the rest of the book club.

My leftover paints made a colorful palatte for my handprints!

And finally after this week’s mess, I cleaned off my journal in the shower! Haha.  Really, I had been avoiding this because I hate water-logged pages.  Oh well!!

I love Jamie’s vlog post about attachment this week.  Great insights, Jamie.