sneak peek friday return

finally ready to share from the studio again and to link up with jennifer and friends over at studio jru.

i made most of my gifts for christmas and didn't want to post until they were all given.  here it is the second half of january and some still sit waiting for their home...

this week i began preparing for a retreat i will soon take.  this is the third year i will attend and each year the four day retreat held at a nearby conference center gets better.  

it is a time of prayer, meditation led by someone wiser than i, and listening.  the hardest part?

it is silent.

those of you who know me well, know that being quiet around people is hard for me.  yet it is something that has become a part of my spiritual discipline as the time allows me a new way to experience community (meals the first morning will be rushed through as silence is hard with people you don't know well, yet our final morning meal will be leisurely as we enjoy being together).  

it is also a time to be still in a way i am unable to be at home.  i find myself writing more than normal when i am there.  last year i made a journal using a Moleskin journal, this year i created one...

the front cover is made using some scrapbook paper i have loved but was saving for something special, a little fancy trim, a tiny bow, and some letters that were a gift (a whole great big pad of punch out letters!):

the inside pages were "painted" with watered down acyrlic inks:

and the back cover used the same materials as the front with a piece of the trim to "hide" a seam:

i used two of the packages of 8" x 8" Zutter pages and a set of covers and put them all together with my Zutter (my best ever ebay buy!).

excited to see what fills the pages!

how did you create this week in your studio*? 

won't you share here and over at studio jru?

* a studio is any place you find yourself creating