You can read about the start of this project here.
It says: Because you are alive everything is possible.
Loving Hearts is a Monthly Project for January 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
You can read about the start of this project here.
It says: There is a sun within every person.
Loving Hearts is a Monthly Project for January 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
 I started the year by finishing The Regional Office is Under Attack! I had read in several end of year lists that it was an amazing book. That it was a bit like Hitchicker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I have this pet peeve about how books should just never be compared to classics. I hate it when I read that a book is like Catcher in the Rye or another book I love. I feel like it’s just setting the author up for disappointment. While I might have liked this book on its own, I will now be comparing it to this completely different book. Not wise. Anyhow, this book was ok. It was funny in parts and not so funny in other parts. It was definitely quirky and different. I feel it started strong and funny and sort of fizzled out in the end.
I then read Wolf by Wolf because I had it for an upcoming book club meeting. I had no idea what it was about and hadn’t read the blurb before I started it (which is quite rare for me.) So I didn’t know it was about WWII. I usually avoid books about World War II but each year seem to end up reading a few. This was wildly different than any other one I’ve read and I really really enjoyed it. It’s YA so the pacing was quite fast and action filled. And there was a bit of a supernatural bend to it. I really enjoyed this one and am glad I read it.
Books I Read this Week 2017 is a year-long project for 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
When I was thinking about 2017, it became clear to me that one of the main focus areas I want to have for this year is feeling more nourished. I want to feed myself whole, healthy and nourishing food for my mind, body, and soul. This means I am not only mindful with what I eat but I am also mindful with what I read, what I watch, what I say and do. To me, this is the bare minimum work I have to do to get to a place where I can shine. So my plan here is to set goals and track my nourishment in an effort to encourage myself and be more mindful. I haven’t figured out a more detailed plan than that but I am having faith that one will come together soon. If it doesn’t, I’ll make a more concerted effort to make one.
Since this is the first week, I will start this one with goals instead of tracking.
Mind:
- I read: I would like to read a little about positivity and eating whole this week. I would like to have a list of foods that are both nutritious and filling.
- I learned: I plan to start a new class this week. I will give details on it next week, I will spend some time picking one.
- I watched: I was going to write that I’d like to watch a TED talk each week but I am not sure I do. Maybe I do. I’m going to be thinking about this one, too. Any ideas on worthwhile things to watch in general is welcome.
Body:
- Exercise: My plan here is to start small. While I love making the puzzles I’ve been making lately, they’ve resulted in a lot of joint paint. My back and jaw and my left knee all seem to be in a lot of pain. So, one goal for this week is to rest all of these body parts. I would like to pick a small exercise, maybe the 7-minute one and do it twice every day. That would be a solid start for me.
- Food: My plan here might be a bit too drastic, but we’ll see. I would like to just jump in and eat only whole foods this week. Not Whole 30 or any diet plan, just foods that are fresh. I’d like to eat nothing processed. No coffee, no diet coke. Tea and water instead. Let’s see how I do.
- Skin: This should be simple, but you never know. I’d like to put moisturizer on every day. My skin, my feet.
- Floss: Also, should be simple. Just once a day before bed.
- And More: If I can pull it off, I’d like to meditate for 5 minutes. Is that body, mind or soul? Maybe all three?
Soul:
- I rested: I would like to sleep for at least eight hours each night. I am better when I get solid sleep. I’d also like to make sure I don’t drink tea or eat anything three hours before bed. I think that will help me sleep more easily.
- I connected: I will be spending time with my friend Adam this week and would love to connect with Laura and Leslie, too, but honestly, this week is about connecting back with work and getting back into routine. If I manage to get back into the groove of things by the end of the week, I’ll call it a success.
- I journaled: My plan is to journal for 20 minutes each morning. Let’s see if I can pull it off.
- I made art: I made my One Little Word art earlier this week and also my January art. I will see if I can plan my February art this week.
I know this is a lot. I will take it slow and see what I can do. A little is better than nothing. I can do this.
Nourish Me Week 2017 is a year-long project for 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
You can read about the start of this project here.
It says: Only from the heart can you touch the sky.
Loving Hearts is a Monthly Project for January 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
I take a lot of classes each year. I take classes on self-reflection, classes about drawing, literature, mixed media, and whatever else I can get my hands on. I have found over the years that taking classes is a way for me to take the time to do the things I already want to do. If I decide I want to learn to sketch on my own, I might never make the time for it, but if I take a sketching class, I will take the time to do my homework, to listen to the lectures, and to practice. I am a dutiful student which means that taking classes is a good strategy for me to encourage myself to move in the direction I want.
Ali’s One Little Word is one of my very favorites. I’ve taken this course since she’s started offering it. Initially at Big Picture Scrapbooking and then on her own site. It has the magical combination of reflection, art, mixed media and scrapbooking. This is one of those classes where I might not learn a new skill each month, but I am learning how to live my life more intentionally. I am learning more about myself. I am learning more about how I want to live my life. I am learning to pause and reflect on my life while I am living it.
This class has never let me down. Here’s to starting the year intentionally.
Stories from 2017 is a year-long project for 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
You can read about the start of this project here.
It says: Life is only as good as your mindset.
Loving Hearts is a Monthly Project for January 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
As January approached I couldn’t get myself motivated to put a project together. I was still resting, still trying to relax, so I decided to keep things really lowkey. To honor my core desired feeling of “love” I decided to paint some hearts and couple them with some lovely quotes by rumi, thich nhat hanh, khalil gibran and others who inspire me. sometimes all you need is a simple little project to get started.
It says: Your hearts knows the way. Run in that direction.
Loving Hearts is a Monthly Project for January 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
Weekly Intention: This is an atypical week for me. I will still be on vacation on Monday and Tuesday, so first day back at work is Wednesday and the same goes for the kids. Which means that the first half of this week, I want to focus on resting and reading and taking the last bits of time for myself. And then I would like to spend the second half of the week getting back into the groove of things. Catching up on my immense amount of email, getting into an exercise and food routine, doing the assignment I had for the volunteer work at David’s school, etc. I don’t expect to do a ton this week but just feeling caught up, making some intentional plans and slowly integrating back into life would be a good place to start.
This month’s intention is: Rise and Shine. Hit the ground running.
Ways to Shine this week:
- One: Bold: Showing up at work on Friday.
- Two: Open/Reflect: Listening and reflecting on Thursday when I am at David’s school for Lit Club.
- Three: Heal: Journaling for my January OLW work.
I am looking forward to: the next two days of rest and then slowly getting back into routine.
This week’s challenges: easing back into work will definitely be challenging.
Top Goals:
- Work: catch up on email. finish mentor matching.
- Personal: create nourish routine.
- Family: create some routine for Nathaniel and math.
I will focus on my core desires (bold, mindful, nourish, love) by: journaling, making a plan, starting to slowly integrate one thing at a time into my daily life.
This week, I will say yes to: being here now. not resisting. not wanting something else. just being here.
This week, I will say no to: negative thinking. overwhelm.
I am worried that: i will not have enough time to catch up on the things I want to catch up on.
This week, I want to remember: to just take it one moment at a time. and that i work well with plans and should make some. it takes time but it’s always worth it.
Hello 2017!
My goals for the blog in 2016 were relatively contained and that worked relatively well for me. Here’s some of what worked well:
- Monthly art projects: I did indeed make 20 pieces of art each month. I loved all of them. Some months were really small and none of the months were really big but I loved them all.
- Living Intentionally and Weekly Reflection posts were my favorite and even though I have some 15 weeks off in the middle of the year, I loved doing these and feel that they were the strongest contributors to my year of choosing wisely.
- Stories from 2016 were lovely. Intermittent at times but I have 46 stories that would otherwise have never been told.
- Today I Choose was a bust. I just didn’t have the time to do the sketches or even the journaling. This was lovely while it lasted but I couldn’t keep up.
- Reading – well this one wasn’t a problem. Actually it sort of was in a different way but more on that in another post.
So all in all, 2016 wasn’t terrible considering the goals I had. I sketched, lettered and used a lot of watercolors. I worked on my health some but really nowhere nearly enough. I reflected and set intentions. I didn’t journal daily. I didn’t paint enough but I told some stories. I didn’t take enough photos but I read a lot. You win some, you lose some.
Areas to Improve:
- Nutrition, exercise, self-care
- Schedule
Reflection:
- OLW & Core Desired Feelings – how much I am honoring them
- Daily journaling
Things that Make me Happy:
- art time
- photos and telling our stories
- reading
For 2017, I decided to keep the same structure, sort of, with more of a set focus on my core desired feelings.
- Monday: Living Intentionally: This is the same as last year. I want to think purposefully each week and set goals, choices, projects for just that week. I try to write these on Sunday nights. These help me be more mindful. They will also help me identify ways in which I can shine.
- Tuesday: Stories from 2017: I will give this one more try in 2017. Let’s see if I can do it. I think it will also help me take more photos from my life. It helps me feel grateful and present.
- Wednesday: Nourish – This is something I want to make a main focus in 2017 so I want to do reflection specifically around ways I am choosing to nourish my mind, body and soul. I plan to have a specific format for this.
- Thursday: Books This Week – I will talk about the books I read this week. Or recently. If I haven’t read anything new, I’ll talk about something else. Maybe what I want to read? 🙂
- Friday: Weekly Reflection: This, too, is the same as 2016. These posts help me to reflect on what worked and what didn’t work so I can set proper intentions for the following week.
These are the only weekly projects I will commit to. And even these I might do more irregularly, we’ll see. These all mean something to me and I’d like to do them and I believe almost all are pretty doable. We’ll see what surprises 2017 has in store for me.
For art I’d like to do what I did last year. 20 items a month. I don’t have something in my pocket like I usually do for January so we’ll see if I can hit the ground running this year but I will do the best I can. Here are some preliminary ideas of some themes I might do.
- Lettering
- Collage
- Sketching
- Doodling/Zentangling
- Mantras/My Word
- Art Journaling
- Quotes
- Photo a Day
- Month in the Life?
- Watercolor Blossoms
- Faces
- December Daily
- Fashion Ladies
- Line Drawing
- Chalk Art
All of these might happen, none of them might happen. I might repeat projects. I might do wildly different things. I commit to doing something but I reserve the right to change my mind.
Here’s to a wonderful 2017. Here’s to doing more art. Here’s to making time to enjoy art. Here’s to learning new things. Here’s to practicing more. Here’s to reflecting. Being intentional. Creating a positive cycle. Here’s to shining inside and out.
As with all the previous years, I knew I wanted to pick my core desired feelings this year, too. If you want to know more about core desired feelings, please go to my post from last year and you can see the links there.
I struggled with the process this year because I realized that I walked into the process with some attachment. I’d already picked a few words that I wasn’t willing to give up and I don’t think that’s how this is supposed to go. Unlike how I felt in 2015, I was ready to let go of my words from this year. Maybe that’s because I focused on them a lot more this year than I ever did before, thanks to my weekly intention posts.
Even though I was feeling a weird attachment and no desire to do the exercises, I decided to give it a go anyway. I told myself that I would do it and see if anything emerged.
And of course it did. Because when I do these exercises, things always emerge.
I am learning that there’s a pattern to my words each year. I always pick something around peacefulness, something around being brave, something around being open, and then maybe a few new ones.
Here’s what I came up with this year and what they each mean to me:
- Bold: This is my brave word for this year. I want to be bold. Take adventures. Be strong. Speak up. Take chances. Try new things. Take myself to the edges of my discomfort. Be willing to fail. Live in full color. I want to show up to my life. I want to always be pushing my boundaries. I think this lines up with shine wonderfully. Bold helps me go big. Be my bravest self.
- Mindful: I struggled with this word a lot. This started as easy. Mostly because I so deeply wish I were easy. I wish I wasn’t one of those people who needs to have certain things go exactly how I want it. I wish I wasn’t neurotic in some of the ways I am. I wish I were easier going. But I think that’s not what core desired feelings are for. At least not for me. Then I switched this to serene but I’ve had that before and that’s not the word I feel drawn to this time. I then thought of content which is my favorite feeling. Which then led me to google what the opposite of worry is. Because really what I want to feel is not worried. So then came this pot of gold. Mindful. Here’s what the article said: “Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention on the present. When you’re mindful, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad.” Yes. This is what I want. To be present in this moment. To pay attention to this moment. To soak in it. I want to feel mindful. Be fully here and now.
- Nourished: This one feels a bit like a catchall but honestly this was the one I just couldn’t put down. I want to feel nourished all over this year. Mind, body and soul. I want to feel strong in my body, I want to feel engaged in my mind, I want to feel alive in my soul. I want to feed myself healthy food both literally and figuratively. I want to walk away from everything toxic into everything nutritious.
- Love: This one came to me as I sat to write this post. I looked at all the words I’d written as part of doing the exercise and everything seemed to have a home except for words like generous, worth it, valued, kind, giving, contributing, etc. So I wanted something that encompassed all. And love is the one that came to me. I want to feel love. Love for myself. I want to show the love I feel to the people around me more. Focus on the love. Give it. Generously. I think this, too, goes wonderfully with shine.
So there we are. Even though they still fall within the themes I seem to have each year, all of these feel new to me in their own way and I like them all. I want to feel all of them. And that’s what Core Desired Feelings is all about. Here’s to feeling bold, mindful, nourished and love in 2017.
As with every year, I kept an ongoing list for my possible words in 2017. I tend to start this list around February because sometimes ideas come to me early in the year and I want to track them for different reasons. Throughout the year, different words feel like winners. They feel really strong. Here’s a peek at this year’s list:
- alive**
- shine*
- seek*
- magic?
- shift
- begin
- equable***
- easy*
- equanimity
- release
- adventure**
- learn
- magic
- kind
- beginner
- create**
- build
- forward
- nourish**
- rise
- strong**
- wild**
- wise
The ones with the stars were ones I kept coming back to a few times. I have a tough time choosing words for several reasons.
- I don’t want to pick a word for something I wish I were. Like “easy.” I feel that when I pick a word that’s likely to make me feel intimidated, I spend most of the year feeling bad about letting myself down. The word should push/encourage me but it shouldn’t be aspirational. It should be inspirational.
- I loved my 2015 word (brave) so much that I feel I am always trying to find a word that will be as magical as brave was for me. I am learning that I will just have to carry brave around with me forever and not worry about having such a powerful word each time.
- Some words are more action oriented (like brave, adventure, nourish) and some are more introspective (like easy, equable, magic) and what I want is a combination of both.
As it seems to be my trend lately, I picked my word many many months before the year started. Even though I went back and forth many times and I am still finding myself wavering at times, I’ve settled on SHINE for 2017.
This word is coming from a story I mentioned a while back. Back when I was training to be a life coach, in one of my classes, we did a visualization exercise called The Captain. During my exercise, I was sitting in the woods (peaceful, quiet woods) when this little girl (who looked like me) came over to me and gave me a box. Inside the box was light. When I opened it, it shone everywhere, it filled the forest up. She said it was my light and that she was a reminder to let my light shine and that I was here to also be the reflection for others’ light so I can show them how their light is shining, too.
I know it sounds corny. But this is what happened when I did the exercise and I haven’t stopped thinking about it even though it was quite a few years ago, now. So when I was thinking about my word, I decided this was my year to shine (and help others shine).
I was tempted to choose light for my word this year because it feels easier. And it has so much room for multiple meanings. Shine sounds selfish and like being the center of attention. I don’t like either of those things. But I reminded myself that the girl told me to shine. So I decided to stick with it and understand this word a bit better. Here’s what shine means to me:
- Heal: To shine means I will focus on healing the parts of me that feel broken. To see myself as whole and enough. It means I am going to work on remembering that I have this big source of light inside me and that part of me overshadows everything else. Light comes through the cracks and it takes over the dark. I will embrace me, all of me, and let my true self shine.
- Open: To shine means to be open and to receive and give generously. There’s no limit to my light. I will not run out. I can feel others with mine and also allow myself to bask in theirs because it’s an unlimited resource. I am open.
- Bold: To shine means to be brave. To show up. To be bold. There’s no more hiding in the shadows. No siting back. It’s being there. Being visible. Radiating.
- Reflect: A big part of shine for me is reflecting other people’s light back on to them. Reminding everyone of how they have their own amazing light inside and encouraging them to shine, too. Imagine if we all chose to shine, how amazing would it be?
So there we go. Here’s to a year of radiance. Illumination. A year full of shimmer. Sparkle. Glow.
Here’s to 2017: my year to SHINE.
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projects for twenty twenty-six
projects for twenty twenty-five
projects for twenty twenty-four
projects for twenty twenty-three
projects for twenty twenty-two
projects for twenty twenty-one
projects for twenty nineteen
projects for twenty eighteen
projects from twenty seventeen
monthly projects from previous years
some of my previous projects
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