TERI ANNE STANLEY

The really awesome thing about a Bullet Journal is that you set it up in whatever way works best for you. I usually set up about a month's worth of weekly spreads at a time, and have pages in between with notes about a variety of topics, lists, and trackers (pretty checklists of daily to-do items). 

You'll want to check out some of the awesome ideas on Pinterest or Instagram, and visit these websites for ideas: 
​Kim, at Tiny Ray of Sunshine
Kara, at BohoBerry

By the way, I've use affiliate links to Amazon here. It doesn't cost you anything extra, but I get a small commission if you buy through the link

My author friend Jessica Lemmon is a big planner addict. She's not only an awesome writer, she's The Supreme Goddess of Washi tape.  She uses the Erin Condren system, which is also very cool. Click HERE for a detailed explanation of her system, if you like something with a little less of the dorky home made look. 

While Teri's busy in the editing cave, working on her Big Chance Dog Rescue series (about cowboy military veterans who train rescue dogs to perform service, therapy, and support; and manage to find loooove along the way), I'd like to tell you about a real-life group that trains dogs to help veterans and first responders with PTSD.

I think it's so awesome that we dogs can provide relief to those people who've put their lives on the line to keep us safe and free, so read on to learn about GOT YOUR SIX SUPPORT DOGS! 

Check out the Website and click around to learn more about this awesome group! 

It takes a lot of time, effort, and talent to train a dog to help someone who's suffered trauma, and a lot of money (I should know. I'm not even that fancy, and I've heard how much it costs to keep me healthy!). 
Needless to say, GYSSD can always use help, so click here to donate! 

Look what Santa brought me! It's a Silhouette Cameo 3, which is a digital cutting machine. You can cut all kinds of cool stuff, like cardstock and paper for scrapbooking and card making, or vinyl for a dorky (okay, I secretly think they're awesome) rear window family, or heat transfer vinyl for shirts and stuff. I'm thinking I can spiff up tote bags with Teri Anne Stanley on them to use as giveaways, wouldn't that be cool? 

So the first thing I did was make a name tag for it. The Cameo has a lot of cool features, not least of which is the pretty amazing software, but it wasn't too straightforward right out of the box. I did, however, find this wonderful, amazing woman who has a website called SilhouetteSchoolBlog, and she has All The Tutorials. Bless you, Melissa, you are AMAZEBALLS!

And THEN, my Favorite Daughter got engaged over Christmas to the most awesomest sweetest guy ever, and I have FIRED UP THE PINTEREST BOARDS!
First thing I did was find ALL THE WORKSHEETS for wedding planning, print them out, and put them in this swell binder, then I got to make another vinyl decal with my Cameo. 
We haven't written much in the planner yet, she's not getting married until she finishes college, but we're going to be ready when she's done! 

So with all that experience under my belt, I decided to monogram some hankies for my menfolk. I did pretty well with getting the monograms set up. I even remembered to reverse the images so they'd be right-side up when I transferred them. How hard could it be to hold an iron down on top of the corner of a handkerchief for forty seconds? 

Apparently, it's not as easy as you might think. 
​Only the one on top came out without sticking to the transfer material! 

Oh, well. The good news is these weren't exactly silk from Brooks Brothers. I can go back to Walmart and get more, any time I want. 

I wish I knew if it was my poor iron handling skills, or if the HTV is crummy since I bought the cheapest stuff I could find on Amazon, or if I need to buy a big-ass heat press, because an iron just isn't going to cut it (Hey, honey? Want to get me something cool for my birthday?). 

​​I can spend hours on Pinterest browsing other people’s art journals (and Bullet Journals, and scrapbooks…) but it’s only been recently that I started to mess around with the concept in my own practice. I’ve signed up for a few challenges here and there where you’re given a daily prompt and are supposed to make some art and post your project on Instagram or other Facebook with the appropriate hashtag.

Last fall I got interested in pretty lettering (aka #brushlettering, #handlettering, #calligraphy, etc.). To be honest, I’ve loved fancy writing my whole life. It was something we learned in high school art, and when I started scrapbooking as a young mother, revisited the concept. But that’s a whole ‘nother post.

I signed up for a challenge at Dawn Nicole Designs and made a few pages with words about color. My attempts are pretty beginner-ish compared to the rest of Instagram, but I’m willing, in this case, to let my hiney hang out there for y’all to laugh at. ​

I also came across Allyson Bright, who has an art journal prompt group. 

But ultimately, for the moment, I decided to work on New Year's Resolutions (or as I like to call them, "Goals," because "Resolution" seems to be a bad word (as in, "Oh, I don't do resolutions"). ​

Anyway, I started a little booklet with some artsy/craftsy/messy pages about what I want to do this year. I'm posting everything on Instagram as I do it. If you want to doodle and post along with me, use #2018ArtJournalGoals and let me know to look for you! ​

I've changed web hosts, so this is my first blog on the new site. In my mind, this is going to be the start of a new, improved, social-media savvy me. We'll see how it goes. If posting regularly makes me crazy (er than I already am), I may back off, but right now I have good intentions. 

In a perfect world, I'll post at least three times a week with specific topics on specific days, but let's be real--I'm trying to be a full-time author with a full-time day job and a very active Attention Deficit habit. Although "deficit" isn't exactly the problem. It's more like Overactive Attention. There are WAY too many things that keep me busy, and I definitely focus on each one at the detriment of the other things I'm supposed to be doing.

Like right now, I'm supposed to be sleeping. And if I'm not sleeping, maybe I should be working on my book. I've got edits to do on my first Sourcebooks Casablanca title (Big Chance Cowboy, coming out in fall of 2018, a story about an Army veteran who reluctantly begins to train his high school love's Rottweiler T-Rex to become a service dog). I've got to get those done, because my Entangled Publishing editor is going to be sending me edits for Accidentally in Love with the Pilot (July, 2018) any minute now. Eep! 

But I also set that whole, "Step up your web presence" goal, so mental meandering on the blog is valid, right?