Double Nickels Birthday Giveaway!

Dear Readers, It is time for

the double nickels Birthday GIVEAWAY

As a big thank you! to all of you for reading, commenting and making art, and in view of my 55th birthday (April 18, 1956 - yikes), it is just the right time for a giveaway. In fact a double giveaway.

Here's the what ... I an giving away one copy of each

Journal Spilling and Playful Paper Backgrounds (the DVD)

I love you guys, sniff-sniff

Here's the how ... Leave a comment and tell me which you'd like: the book or the DVD. I'll pick two folks: one for each.

I was pretty durned excited the other night to be tagged on Facebook by Jenny Doh of Crescendoh. She  reviewed Journal Spilling! Here is the review (and I wouldn't be sharing if it was unfavorable). When I posted this fab bit of news on Facebook, someone commented that she had just returned from teaching her first art journaling class and that Journal Spilling was her inspiration. It doesn't get any better than that. Really. So thank you. Comment away.

I love you guys, sniff-sniff

Edit: I closed comments on April 19. Will pick the winners on the weekend!

Magical

magical

Julia's mom drove her 2 1/2 hours to come to the Mamacita Holiday Show

Julia (13) didn't know when they set off on Sunday morning that she was going to meet me!

She's had my book for a year. And her journals? They are brimming over with thoughts, color, art and joy.

Going through this young artist/journaler's books brought such happiness deep inside. To see her copy of my book, well used and tattered: this is why I wrote Journal Spilling. So many people over the past year have been generous in sending me emails, artwork and love. I thank each one of you. 

Julia's favorite passage from the book (she circled it!) is on page 21, under Time to Play:

"...I've seen plenty of blank journals. We don't often get the opportunity to see the journals that are just started and brimming with promise,  half-full and beginning to splay. full to bursting, spilling over with bits of paper, overflowing with color, words, images ... .

If you go through one of my journals, you will find incomplete pages, messy ugly pages, beautiful pages. Pages full of writing and some with art. ... In this way, a journal imitates life. It is not a TV family or an ad with a successful woman wearing great boots. It is wabi-sabi; beautiful and dying; ugly and alive. It has a true, deep beauty like a woman over 50."

Thank you Julia and your mom/chauffeur.

Also ... a beautiful show.

Now, I drink tea, bundled in my blankie and give in to the cold that is coming my way.

Interview ... and other stuff

Sunday night. Magical in-between time. Catch up on laundry, watch a movie, read a magazine. Lay on the sofa stuffed with advil with my foot on a pillow.  Why, you ask?

Friday night was Wings & Beer night for Jon and I. We can't go more than two weeks without our fix. The best wings outside of Buffalo just happen to be at our local pub which also serves up a great selection of microbrew beer. What could be better? Loaded up with carbs and fat seems a good way to start a weekend.

At our favorite destination, I hop out of the car enthusiastically (yay!) and step right onto an icey bit of pavement with my ankle and foot out of alignment. Lying in a snowbank yelling "Ow" (only a bit more colorfully) is not the way to start a weekend. Needless to say, when I regained my senses and Jon pulled me to my foot, I hobbled directly into the pub, ordered a beer (wheat beer + strawberry = yummy) and requested one ice pack. No need for advil, as I'd been hitting that bottle pretty hard (snow+53 years old=hurtin' back and shoulders). It was an Olympic event! Speed Skating + Downhill = Diana at Union Jack's in a big dirty pile o'snow. Is that a di-athalon?

So it was very nice today to hear from Julie Murray that she had posted up an interview with yours truly, the Olympian. You can find it here. Many thanks to Julie for asking me some good questions! I enjoyed answering them. Sarah Anderson of The Art of Moodling has some pics posted here from a playdate with friends. They used Journal Spilling as a jumping off point and they sure jumped off. What fun. I get a huge kick from seeing how much fun people are having with JS, it just makes me smile inside and out. Many thanks to these two talented artists. I enjoy their work and blogs and am honored.

Journal Spilling: The Big Giveaway

Yay! It's a good time for a Journal Spilling Giveaway! I've been planning this for awhile but in my usual absent-minded way, just kept forgetting to get it together. SO! Here's the deal.

Comment on this post. I'll pick a name on January 20. That's right! and I won't forget either. AND I'll send you a copy of Journal Spilling, a little journal and a super cool collage pack. January is an excellent time for a present.

Here are some more enticing photos.

Journal Spilling is HERE

Guess what I am holding? My advance copy of Journal Spilling!. I've been alternating between browsing and jumping up and down since it arrived yesterday. I'm happy with it. Very. It sounds like me, looks like me, feels like me and ... those folks at North Light? They really got me. They rocked it. (It's available October 9).

You may have already noticed that I'm in the midst of a BlogAthon and it's gonna keep on goin' on. Five blog entries a week (maybe more). I'll be skipping out next Monday and Tuesday to take my son to college (happy-sad).

As of September? All journaling, everyday. The next giveaway, which will be copies of Journal Spilling will be announced at that time.

Don't forget in the meantime that the Lucky Penny Doll giveaway is coming up, so keep on commenting!

I know that my readers are smart and have probably figured out that this is self-promotion. I'm not ashamed. I'm my own best salespeep. I poured my heart and soul into this book for more than a year and am dang proud of it. I wrote it because it is information that needed to be shared. (Altruism).

Keep on commenting!