{ my stuff }

When it's cold and dreary outside ya gotta have good stuff inside to do. Here's what is stacked on my bedside table and around my corner of the sofa. Above is a photo of the books I'm reading or have read in the past month. The bottom book on the stack is called When Wanderers Cease to Roam. It's a journal/sketchbook of a woman who lived all over the world for many years, then settled down in a small town in Maine. It tells of her appreciation for staying put. She includes charming little watercolors of favorite scenes around her town. The top book is my current favorite self-help book - You Can Be Happy No Matter What - SO GOOD that I re-read (skim) it about once a month. I loved the book in the middle called A Heart Like His. Inspiring and thoughtful, Virginia Pearce talks about being aware of the needs of others.

The photo above is my journals. I write in several journals and notebooks. The book on top is the journal where I write brainstorms and ideas - I have a constant flow of ideas, but I don't have the ability to DO all of them (or dang nearly any of them). If I don't get them down on paper, I get all busy in the brain - so thus my idea notebook. Also pictured is my journal where I keep track of the books I read. And my daily journal where I write what's going on - but I do not write daily, more like once every other month. The wire-bound journals are where I write my morning pages. Also not every morning, but at least a couple of times a week. Morning pages are a writing practice suggested by Julia Cameron in the book The Artist's Way. Marty Cannon turned me on to the idea and I love it. I just write what's on my mind when I wake up in the morning. I also have a gratitude journal and a health journal and a journal where I write 'angel nudges' - little bits of inspiration that randomly come to me and I want to remember. Obviously, I like to write.

If you're going to spend any time writing, good pens are a must. These are my favorite pens - they're the best to write with: Triplus Fineliner by Staedtler. I order them from Dick Blick.com. I especially love the brown and green ones. They are so smooth you just want to keep writing. Combine a good marker with high-quality smooth paper, and I'm willing to stay in for another three months and just write!