Journal 52, Week 49: The Gift of Self Care

Chelle's 49th prompt for Journal 52 is the gift of self care.  She offered these prompts:

• Eat healthy delicious foods you enjoy.
• Make light exercise a part of your daily routine, such as walking or cycling.
• Spend time with positive people who bring out the best in you and make you feel good.
• Listen to mood-boosting music.
• Make your own “sacred spot” for relaxing or practicing something you enjoy.
• Relax with a warm cup of tea.
• Keep flowers, plants, or tend to a garden.
• Take breaks as needed.
• Use aromatherapy – choose soothing scents and smells to relax you.
• Write down/Sketch any thoughts or emotions in your journal.
• Spend time with animals or pets.
• Take a long bath or shower.

I decided to give myself many gifts that would go under and on my Christmas tree.  Each gift was wrapped with a bow, although they are hard to see since there are so many gifts I've given myself this year.

It stands to reason, I would give myself lots of fruits and veggies, since I'm a vegetarian.

I'll also give myself a deep tissue massage, which I'm sure my shoulder will appreciate.  And I'll have lots of dreams of what I'll accomplish in 2016.  Please don't laugh at my bows.  I don't make them any better in real life, either!

The love of my life!  I can't forget my adorable Bleubeard, although I'm getting pretty cozy with Squiggles, too.

I always appreciate the gift of music, so why not give it to myself.  Gosh, it looks like that candy bar wrapper has chocolate on the outside, but it's just the way it scanned.  I actually created it before anything else, thinking it would be a humorous gift as part of a collage for Art Journal Journey hosted this month by Valerie.  Added to the candy wrapper is the safety seal from my Asian hot sauce.  Everything is eligible for collage fodder at my house.

This isn't so much a gift as it is a requirement, although the cappuccino and Biscotti are a rarer treat.  Actually, that looks more like a latte, but as long as it has caffeine, I'll never complain.

I'm also giving myself a book to read by the pool, which sounds really good now that winter has reared its ugly head.  The trunk of the tree shows the week number, which I didn't forget this week.    Above the trunk is a lovely decorated dish of fruit and veggie wrap.  Similar to real estate location, appearance in food is everything, too.  So I'm giving myself the gift of great presentation.   Finally, I'm giving myself permission to make messes with paint.

Now that you've seen all my self care gifts, I'll explain that the journal entry was created using a used file folder as the substrate, over which I painted lavender acrylic paint.  When it was dry, I added my Christmas tree, then various magazine images, a candy wrapper, and safety seal.  They were outlined in silver ink or green ink.  I used a black pen to make the tree trunk.

Thanks for looking and even though this was intended for this week's Journal 52 entry, I'm also entering it in Art Journal Journey's December collage challenge.  As always, I appreciate your continued support of my art.