Art Journal.....Do you keep an art journal?

I love looking at Art Journal's that people create and I am in awe of them.  They just inspire me so much, I don't have to take on another "hobby" but I really want to start one.

I mean I can have one and just when I feel like working in it or when I have time I will.  I love quotes and I have tons written down and tons that I have pinned so I figured this would the theme of my art journal.  Just words that I like and use techniques I want to try.  After all it's art, or my interpretation of art, lol.

Now choosing a journal was the hardest decision for me.  I like the ones that were bound then I like the ones that were just pages and people put them in a small binder or handbook.  After I thought about it for a while I decided that a handbook was the route I wanted to take.  So I created my first art journal page on a 6x8 sheet of card stock with the idea that I would buy a new cute handbook.

This my first art journal page ever:

I was all prepared to find a handbook but then, as I was trying to clean up my craft area and I was getting all my 2014 project life stuff together I came across a book that I bought while at a resale place.  I love the the title and I knew this was exactly what I wanted to use. The title is "The Heart of a Woman" by Maya Angelou.

 I tore out some pages here and there to help thin it out a little and then I got started with the inside cover, here is what it looks like.

I am so excited to have this as my place to just be creative with just whatever comes to mind.

Starting off 2014 the right way....

Well we will see how well I can keep up, my goal is to blog once a week.  Realistically I know I will not blog everyday and not even every other day but once a week, I should be able to handle that.  Maybe, at least I'm going to make an attempt.

I figured I would start off the year with some picture of my "creative space".  I call it this because it's just that a space, an area in our game room/family room upstairs.  I do my editing here, my scrapbooking, my project life and any other crafty type thing I can come up with.

My area consists of a huge desk I got for $20 on craigslist, a kitchen island cart from Ikea, a white desk from Ikea (formally part of our family command station) and my newest addition the small gray metal cart I got from Ikea this past weekend.  I was so close to getting the Raskog cart but I saw this one and it was $20 cheaper and would do the trick.  Along the back wall I have these black metal shelves that hold albums, paper, tools I don't use, a typewriter that I got for $5 (currently not working), and then my daughter's sewing machine that I took over.

My area is functional but I long for the day that I can have a room to myself and I can do all cute functioning matchy matchy stuff. LOL

Sorry for the phone pictures but 1. I didn't feel like getting out my "big" camera and 2. If I wanted to make this post happen and have pictures I needed it quick and simple.