Drought,Quotes, and Morning Musings

We've had quite the drought here in the midwest and I have been in a bit of a creative drought myself.

After some very warm days it has cooled down quite a bit and my morning walk was quite invigorating.  Some morning musings:

" We are all born artists of some sort if we care enough to believe it."  Orly Avineri
This was in a blog I like to follow and it really rang true for me.  Believing in yourself as an artist is always a struggle, at least for me, so we have to put the self doubt aside and just "Believe".

"Normal is in the eye of the beholder"   Whoopi Goldberg
Not even sure where I saw this but it struck me as being so true and thought provoking.  What is "normal"?  Who and what defines  "normal".  Is anything really "normal"?  Do we need "normal"

So back in the studio and referring to my "idea book" that I made for the online class I am currently taking,
The Julie Prichard Mixed Media Variety Hour http://thelandoflostluggage.ning.com/group/the-julie-prichard-mixed-media-variety-hour?

Very old elementary school library book

The idea book is not really an art journal but more of a place to record ideas for future projects.  So I gathered some papers, an old elementary library book that I had purchased just for the pictures, and my 40 year old sewing machine.

selection of papers for pages of book

After some very frustrating machine and hand sewing I did manage to put together several pages to glue between the old book covers and make a new book.  the inside front and back cover of the original book were a little stained and moldy and after gluing the front and back end papers there still was some original showing that I didn't care for.  I decided to trim that out with an old measuring tape keeping with the "old" and "sewing", "hand made" theme.

signatures that will be sewn together for inside of book.

And I also decided to embellish the covers to put my own spin on them and make it more personalized to me.  Also took the leftover cut papers and embellished a few of the inside pages.

Finished book,front cover.

Here are the inside pages that hopefully will be filled with lots of new ideas!

Pages waiting for creative project ideas!

Now for some ideas?????????????  Have a few I'm working on.  Come on up and visit me in the treehouse studio and we can talk about them.