Journaling and the Tootsie Pop Owl

Hello again.

You've read the title, now lets begin.

When I say "journal" what do you envision? I'm assuming it's a notebook of sorts, maybe one with today's date on the top of the lined page. When this imagery is applied to traditional journaling, you'd be correct.

To the more hipster among us, this may seem appealing. However, to the rest of us, we would probably rather cut off our fingers rather than write a standard journal entry every single day in that.

Don't take it personally, hipsters and boomers.

Personally, I could never finish a traditional journal. And trust me, I've tried multiple times since I was a little girl. Over the years I've stumbled across many journals with only a few entries in them, as well as a ton that didn't have any entries at all. Apparently I stocked up on them in case I got bored with one I could just switch to another! Dedication at its finest.

Full disclosure; I am way too much of a doodlebug to keep a notebook only full of words. Like anyone, journaling would start off fine for the first few entries, and then the artist in me would come out and before you knew it I was burning edges, ripping pages, taking sharpies to the covers etc. It wasn't until a few years ago that I finally decided to give it another go, and this time I decided to do it in a way that I felt suited me. No more traditional little book with the lines and the stamped date. No more forcing myself to do something so absolutely boring.

Instead, I did what any American does when the time for a change comes;

I hopped in my car and made my way to Wal Mart.

I made my way to the craft section where there were blank sketch books available, and purchased a few sharpie pens to go along with the new book.

This is when I discovered:

*Journaling doesn't have to be traditional.

*Journaling doesn't have to be boring and feel like a chore.

*You don't need to journal every single day.

*You don't have to include anything from your day to day life in your journal.

In my book, I could doodle, paint, share embarrassing stories or scribble everything that angered me. And I did. I painted the page in splatters and crazy designs before actually doing a journal entry. And none of those entries actually contained any sort of daily activities or current events. Naughty!

My entries contain a fine mixture of hurt feelings, broken hearts, drug stories, and even some things I don't want revealed until I'm dead and buried. Juicy or just horribly revealing? As the old Tootsie Pop Owl commentator guy would say, "The world may never know!"

Thanks for joining me on this Tidbit!

These are a few pages from my own art journal in a collage for you. Sloppy, huh?