Happy Monday!  Most of you know that I filled up my old art journal and needed a new one.  I made this one out of materials laying around the house.  My employer threw out a stack of perfectly good manila file folders because they were flooded.  Rather than risk handing a potential customer a water damaged folder, they tossed them.  Since water damage doesn’t really offend me, I collected them and have a couple hundred of the things lying around.  That, some old cardboard boxes, some newspaper, string and masking tape and voilà: A Brand Spanking New Art Journal!

The stitching is a method I picked up from Samantha Kira and the binding I picked up from Leslie Herger.

It’s a great size and I’ve already started playing in it onThe Artistic Biker Live! Be sure and join us every Thursday night from 7-9p U.S. Central time to see what happens next! It’s a crazy good time for everyone.

The video for the new Art Journal can be found at The YouTube, or you can just watch it in the embedded player below:

A week or two ago I mentioned a time saving system I had discovered that might win me the Nobel Prize.  Most of that was sarcasm as I have desperately been struggling with ways to balance art, work, and family.   However, since I received a couple of e-mails on it from other people struggling with the EXACT same issues, I thought I would share with you what I’ve learned.

As artists we all face a two-headed demon.  We love the simplicity and elegance of lines and design and composition; but we hate being squished into structure.  I am a list maker.  I have been a compulsive list maker my entire life.  If there were a List Maker’s Anonymous group, I would be the charter member.  Maybe I’ll add that to the list.  I am probably the world’s worst list follower, doubly so because I’m a man.  Once I’ve made the list, the problem is solved and we can all go about our business, right?  Wrong.  Making the list is only half the problem.  That’s key so I’ll say it again in man language, it’s only HALF of the problem.  If you are going to solve the problem, which is what we men pride ourselves on*, then you have to address the second half, the follow through!  That’s the bit I’m working on now.

The two biggest breakthroughs I have made recently are to right down my to-do list and keep it in front of me, and to learn to say no.  The first part, the list and keeping it in front of me, that was easy.  As I said earlier, I’m a list maker.  However, I found a video from Erika Douglas a couple of weeks ago that showed me how much of an amateur I am at making lists.  She’s almost half my age and a self made millionaire.  I hate her.  :)  But the little cute-heart made a video and a blog post that really hit home for us list makers.  In her post, “Getting Things Done,” she not only outlines the way she makes and keeps her list, but she explains that if you go several days without addressing something then you should recognize you either don’t have the time, knowledge, or desire to do that something and should outsource it.  That’s brilliance.

The saying NO is the harder part.  I was brought up to always say yes to my parents and school teachers when they asked me to do something.  That works when you only have one or three people asking you.  But then you hit the real world and you have spouses, children, neighbors, city officials, employers, coworkers, and yes even your parents and teachers for some.   At some point you have to learn to say no to some of the requests, no matter how reasonable they may seem.  I have been saying no to some things like watching TV and working on Saturdays and it has freed up TONS of time to do more of the things I love.  Try saying no to some of the time eaters in your life and see if it gives you more freedom.

Do any of you have any tips for getting things done?  I would love to hear them and I know I’m not the only one.

*I really don’t mean to be offensive to the ladies here, I’m just trying to get the men’s attention.  I don’t have a pork chop or a picture of a scantily clad young lady so I have to sort of challenge them.  You know how they are.)