Today I Know – Looking Back

Today I know was a gift from the Soul Comfort class I took towards the end of 2013. And it ended up being one of my favorite projects from 2014. It never felt burdensome or cumbersome.

I really liked doing such a wide variety of pages. The art was fun. Learning to navigate the thin and non-waterproof pages of the book was fun. Playing with such a variety of mediums was also fun.

But the best part was the journaling. Getting to write out such interesting topics. Using the pages to collect my thoughts. I really loved it.

I seriously considered continuing the project for 2015 in some capacity. But I like to change things up. So I decided to bit farewell to this particular project. However, I am keeping my prompts and may end up using them in some other way.

In the meantime, I love love love this book that I ended up with. And I will go back and visit it regularly.

It was one of the few projects I didn’t abandon or modify in any way. I found a system early on in the year and it worked well enough for me to carry it throughout. Partly because I think this was a very flexible project. It was fun, diverse, introspective and rewarding.

I am very grateful to Melody for her wonderful ideas that never let me down.

January 2, 2015 | Mixed Media, Today I Know | Leave a comment

2015 – A Year of Being Brave

Some years, it’s a hard to pick a word. Some years, I have too many words and I am not sure which one to pick out of the lot. Some years nothing stands out. Some years, they all stand out.

And then there are years like this.

This year’s word came to me all the way back in April. I was sitting at the Spring Luncheon for my kids’ school and I heard the new PTA president give a speech. I was feeling grateful and serene and suddenly had the thought that I should do more for the school. I should participate in the school’s PTA. I emailed the president that same day and asked her what she needs help with. A few weeks later, another opportunity came up where there was a need and I volunteered again. I was scared, unsure, but I just kept going. I said yes.

I listened to the small whispers again and again. And they paid back. They made me feel a stronger sense of belonging. I felt more alive. More involved. Happier.

And it didn’t stop there.

I got an email with a job opportunity. I considered it. I pursued it. I talked about. And I got more of them. Thing kept rolling. They were in motion now. I was listening to the universe and it was rewarding me again and again. Encouraging me to practice courage. I loved this brave, new Karen.

It became clear to me that I wanted to continue this trend.

2015 was going to be my year of being BRAVE.

I want to practice courage in all areas of my life. Remind myself that I already am brave in so many ways so I can use that energy to fuel more courage.

I want to embrace this new, bolder side of me. I want take more chances, big and small. I want to show up, step up, and take a chance.

Here are some things Brave is about, for me:

  • Being myself is brave. Owning who I am. Not trying to hide it or change myself to fit others or the situation.
  • Choosing a different path is brave. Not always taking the easy or common route.
  • Taking Action is brave. Not just talking about things but doing. Not just planning, scheming, hoping, dreaming.
  • Doing it Anyway is brave. Brave is not about not being afraid. It’s being scared and moving forward anyway. It’s having faith.
  • Listening to the whispers of the universe is brave. Paying attention to what my soul wants. Listening to and honoring its wishes.
  • Doing the hard thing is brave. For me this has a lot to do with self care. Working out, eating well, taking care of my body. Choosing the harder path.
  • Doing the right thing is brave. Speaking your truth. Standing up for what you believe in. Standing your ground.
  • Letting go is brave. Apologizing. Not holding on to anger or disappointment. Giving more chances. Forgiving.
  • Responding is brave. And not reacting. Not screaming, not being cruel, not panicking. Not making it about me.  Remaining calm. Taking the time to pause, and respond.
  • Equanimity is brave. Embracing serenity. Slowing down. Way down.
  • Choosing to thrive is brave. Not settling. Not trying to make myself small. Standing up tall and owning my life.
  • Feeling my feelings is brave. Being able to be sad, disappointed, scared and even happy.
  • Celebrating is brave. Acknowledging achievement. Patting myself in the back.

These all feel brave to me. All of these are hard in some way or another and require courage on my part. (There are many others, too.) I hope to be braver in all of these areas by practicing as much as I can.

Here’s to a brave 2015.

January 1, 2015 | Thoughts | 6 comments

2014 – Looking Back

Twenty-Thirteen was my year to Listen. My goal was to listen to my kids more. To my husband more. Not to multi-task, but to really listen. On this front, I feel I still need a lot more work. I can do better here. I want to do better here, still.

But then there were more layers to my word:
Listen to myself: My body, my soul, my heart, my brain/thoughts, and my gut I did a lot of this. I listened to my gut. I took bold, scary moves listening to my heart.
Listen to others: be open, stop and hear as opposed to preparing a reply, choosing to receive In this area, I feel I could have done better. I still talk more than I listen. I still want to change this.
Listen to the universe: Pay attention and see the signs, listen to messages, listen to what the universe is whispering, the sounds of nature
 I did a lot of this. The universe sent me messages and i responded.

Overall, this was a big year with lot of changes. I can’t seem to remember the early months but I made a lot of changes starting in April and more so in the fall, and the biggest one in November (my job.) So far, they’ve all been changes for the positive and I am so very grateful I listened to the universe. This was a great year to pick listen as my word. I am deeply grateful for it.

As I do each year, I’d set some specific goals for 2014, here’s what they were and how I did on each:
Family
1. Have Nathaniel read one book to me each week (Project Nathaniel Reads to Mommy). This worked out wonderfully.
2. Take photo of full-family and write updates weekly (Project Weekly Diary). We took the photos very regularly. However, I stopped doing weekly updates after the summer. Not sure why. I’d like to do better next year.
3. Write weekly gratitudes and celebrations for me and the boys (The Savor Project) This, too, needed more attention in the second half of the year but at least I did use all the photos.
4. Take online classes with David and focus on learning (Project Learning with David) Not such a big success.
5. Spend an hour with each kid a week on mommy-me time. Just me and the one boy. Didn’t really do this one. One to carry over to 2015.
6. Volunteer in both David and Nathaniel’s schools oh yes, a lot of this.
7. Schedule minimum bimonthly date nights with Jake I’d say we didn’t do this. We did have some but not 24.
8. Capture and Tell our family stories (The Savor Project) meh. semi good at this.
9. Visit my family and Jake’s family we did this.

Health
1. Continue walking/running daily, work your way back up to 5K a day uhm not so much. I did try to keep active all year. But this needs A LOT more work.
2. Find three strength exercises that I can do regularly not so much here either. though I did the 7-minute exercise for all of the 8 weeks of WLC
3. Work your way up to eating whole foods 80% of the time briefly did this one but really one to carry to 2015
4. Get minimum 7 hours of sleep every night and 8 on the weekends did pretty well on this one. i cherish my sleep.
5. Take weekly hikes with family we so didn’t do this. maybe 1-2 hikes this whole year.

Serene
1. Read a book a week (Project A Book a Week) – oh yes, many more.
2. Journal daily. (Project Today I Know, Project Remember This) I did those two projects but didn’t journal daily. I’d like to have. I still want to do more. Each time I did journal regularly, it was profoundly impactful.
3. Spend time stitching (Project Stitching Circles) semi successful
4. Set weekly intentions around listening (Project Listen with Intent) set intentions but didn’t really follow them
5. Experiment with meditation, yoga, breathing yeah. uhm. did none of these.
6. Go camping we did. once.
7. Take a walk with Nathaniel for 15 minutes a day (this could also be health or family) nope. didn’t really do this one.

Grace
1. Make and keep regular pedicure and hair appointments (every 6 weeks or so) yey did this. at least for my hair.
2. Find a volunteer opportunity for David and me. failed miserably here. want to make sure i do it for 2015.
3. Send one kind email to someone each week definitely didn’t do this one.
4. Have and end-of-day ritual each night and a welcoming-the-day ritual each morning didn’t do this. i briefly lit candles but for the most part, i had no established routine. i still want to do this.
5. Clean up closet and only keep what fits yea. didn’t do this one.
6. Come up with a self-care routine (lotion, floss, etc.) hoping to do this for 2015.

Engaged
1. Learn to do lettering (Project Listen with Intent) done. yey.
2. Take at least 6 online classes that are not art did not do this. i took a bunch of art ones but not much else. only one non-art one, i think.
3. Teach Nathaniel to Read done and done!
4. Tell the longer stories when scrapping i did this too. love my pages from this year.
5. Take classes with David all year long we took only one. we tried three others.
6. Practice doodling, drawing (Project Today I Know) i have finally come to terms with the fact that doodling is not my thing. I did do a lot of drawing.
7. Learn new art techniques (Project Remember This) a lot of fun new things thanks to life book.
8. Experiment with new art mediums i did do this. a bit. not a lot. but still…
9. Continue to coach clients and offer more options i am continuing this. loving every moment of it.

Whole
1. Create a new Savor Project for 2014 (The Savor Project) done
2. Go out to breakfast/lunch once a week with a good friend (or a potential good friend). If not possible, call/email a friend to reconnect. i did some of this. not as much as i intended to.
3. Extend an invitation to someone new once a month wasn’t so organized with this.
4. Speak up more and participate more yes. did this.
5. Attend all book clubs attended all but the december one due to my trip to zurich.
6. Journal daily (Project Today I Know, Project Remember This) nope
7. Regularly attend all three book clubs hmm same as #5, one went defunct. attended the other two regularly
8. Drive on the freeway more regularly yes!
9. Learn to ride a bike (it will happen one of these days!) no!

Here’s how my Core Desired Words worked out:

Serene I regularly got up early, took time for myself and to exercise. I did art almost every morning. I got a lot of sleep. But I didn’t set a night routine. I think I did better with the panic but I still feel like this is an area I want to improve. I want to slow down more. I want to listen to more Tara Brach and use the Four Questions. Get much less reactive.

Grace I’ve been making progress on wearing what I like. I am thankful and show my gratitude. I volunteer more. And yet. I am not as patient as I would like. I want to be kinder. I want to talk less, listen more.

Engaged I’ve been a lot more engaged. I show up. I step up. I have been participating. I’ve been choosing curiosity more often than not. Practicing art, too. But I still want to learn more about what makes me feel engaged in life.

Whole I want to bring back the practice of celebrating. I’ve been doing better at cultivating belonging and showing up and reaching out. But I am not as kind to myself as I could be. I want to do more here.

So here we are. This has been a very impactful, surprising and joyful year. I learned a lot. I am deeply deeply grateful. With all this, I am ready to put 2014 to bed.

Thank you, 2014.

December 31, 2014 | Thoughts | Leave a comment

A Book a Week – When I Found You

I read When I Found You because amazon recommended it and I’d read Pay it Forward many years ago and loved it.

This story, too, was very endearing. Depressing and outright sad at times but also wonderful at other times. I like how her characters feel real to me. I won’t read another one soon but I did like this one.

December 31, 2014 | Books Read in 2014, Literature | Leave a comment

Remember This – Looking Back

Remember This was mostly to honor things that I knew I wanted to remember. Messages for myself. Lessons learned, etc. It was also a way to regularly do the assignments for the Life Book 2014 class I’d signed up for. As of now, I’ve done all but 4 of the classes. That’s 46 pieces of art from Life Book class. Not bad at all.

Of course, not all of them are my favorite. Many of them are not. But I still really liked experimenting with so many different styles, ideas and even mediums.

So much so that I decided to take Life Book 2015 as well. I am looking forward to another year of wide ranging art and experimentation.

December 30, 2014 | Remember This | One comment

Listen with Intent – Looking Back

Listen with Intent was all about setting intentions regularly. Remembering how I want to feel, thinking about what I want to be intentional about in the coming week.

I wanted to combine this reflective exercise with the goal to improve my lettering so each week I picked a different style to hand letter and I had intended to sketch each week, too, but about halfway through I realized that coming up with a matching idea on what to sketch got more and more difficult and it was impeding on my ability to get the project completed each week.

So I let it go. I decided to just focus on the lettering.

And I felt so very liberated. Looking back, I like each of these pages in their own way. I like the intentions. I like seeing them now. But…. I don’t think the project worked so well intention-setting-wise. I didn’t connect with the intentions the way I did when I did my first OLW or when I was doing the Life Organizer Book.

So, for next year I’d like to come up with a way to reconnect with my weekly intentions. I’d like to set them at the beginning of the week and I’d like to be aware of them all week long.

Maybe this means going back to doing Life Organizer book again. I’ve neglected that all year in 2014 and maybe this is a signal to go back.

Having said that, I feel like on the lettering front, this project was a big success.

I’ve tried a lot of lettering styles and I’ve enjoyed every one of them.

All in all, I am glad I did this project. I feel much more comfortable with using lettering and I love looking at the pages.

December 29, 2014 | Listen With Intent | 3 comments

The Savor Project – Looking Back

This was the first year I did my Savor Project digitally. I haven’t gotten it printed yet, so I am not sure how it will look in my hands and I am looking forward to getting it ready and ordering the book just because I know it will be fun to look through it. As with most of my projects, the first half of the year was considerably wordier, more deliberate and more successful.

But I did make it to the end of the year. I have a lot of spreads and I love what’s there. So many more stories got preserved thanks to this project. So many more pictures. So much more joy.

For 2015, I’ve decided to finally put this project to bed. Or at least take a year off and then see how I feel for 2016.

For now, I will focus on getting this one ready for printing and enjoy the guaranteed bliss I will get as I look over all of the pages in preparation.

December 28, 2014 | The Savor Project | One comment

Projects with the Boys – Looking Back

As in the years past, I had two different projects for the boys this year. For David, the plan was to take online classes together and write about everything we learned. We did well for the first class. We took algebra together and learned a lot. We then struggled a bunch. We tried to take several other classes in: programming, grammar, and physics. But nothing stuck. We just didn’t seem to be able to get back in the rhythm. I feel sad about it but I am still glad we did as much as we did. Maybe we can do better in 2015.

Nathaniel’s project was considerably more successful. His task was to read me a book a week for the whole year. It started out being tough and slow since he didn’t know how to read but we finished the year strong and he’s an excellent reader now. I am very, very proud of him.

Here is the list of books he read to me:

  1. I Love My New Toy!
  2. The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!
  3. That is Not a Good Idea!
  4. Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late!
  5. The Pigeon Wants a Puppy
  6. The Duckling Gets a Cookie!?
  7. We are in a Book!
  8. There Is a Bird on Your Head!
  9. I Broke my Trunk!
  10. Are you Ready to Play Outside?
  11. Should I Share my Ice Cream?
  12. Happy Pig Day!
  13. I Will Surprise my Friend!
  14. Today I will Fly!
  15. I am Invited to a Party!
  16. Watch me Throw the Ball!
  17. My Friend is Sad
  18. What’s Your Sound Hound the Hound?
  19. Let’s Go For a Drive!
  20. A Big Guy Took my Ball!
  21. Elephants Cannot Dance!
  22. Pigs Make me Sneeze!
  23. I am Going!
  24. I’m a Frog!
  25. Listen to my Trumpet!
  26. Pete the Cat – Rocking in my School Shoes
  27. Pete the Cat – I love my White Shoes
  28. Knuffle Bunny
  29. Knuffle Bunny Free
  30. Leonardo the Terrible Monster
  31. Dragon’s Fat Cat
  32. A Friend for Dragon
  33. The Pigeon Needs a Bath
  34. Dragon Gets By
  35. Knuffle Bunny Too
  36. Dragon’s Halloween
  37. The Pigeon Loves Things that Go!
  38. The Pigeon Has Feelings, Too!
  39. Lost and Found
  40. City Dog, Country Frog
  41. Drop It, Rocket
  42. Ice Cream for Breakfast
  43. Pete the Cat – Pete’s Big Lunch
  44. Minnie and Mo – Wanted Dead or Alive
  45. Ollie the Stomper
  46. Cork & Fuzz – The Swimming Lesson
  47. Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin
  48. Cork & Fuzz – Short and Tall
  49. Dog and Bear  – Two Friends Three Stories
  50. Waiting is not Easy!

There we go. Fifty books in a year. Not too shabby.

December 27, 2014 | David, Nathaniel, Nathaniel Reads to Mommy | Leave a comment

December Daily 2014 – Day Twenty Five

Day Twenty-five is Christmas Day. I just took some photos of our breakfast, opening presents and the two boys hugging each other. The boys got presents for each other for the first time this year. it was really sweet.

(photos are a bit blurry and blue as the light wasn’t accommodating.)

and here’s the page after all the photos and words:

this is the left side:

and the right side:

and a tilted look to see all the shimmer:

And then as is my tradition, I wanted to add my tulip page with my word. So I made one more layout:

left:

right:

and here it is closed (camera doesn’t do justice to the glimmer here):

and finally a top view to see thickness:

and all done.

i love love loved this project this year. It was lovely, simple, and personal.

December 26, 2014 | December Daily 2014 | 6 comments

December Daily 2014 – Day Twenty Four

Day Twenty-four was a busy one. We made some french toast for breakfast, got some lovely flowers and then spent the afternoon in the city. I put the food and flowers on the cover and tucked some photos from the city and the opening of the Christmas eve present under the flap on the left.

and here’s the page after all the photos and words:

here’s the left side:

here is the front of the photos under:

and the back:

and the right side:

and a tilted look to see all the shimmer:

birds have shimmer too but it’s hard to capture that one on film.

almost there.

December 26, 2014 | December Daily 2014 | Leave a comment

Monthly Projects in 2014 – Looking Back

My goal for this year was to do 12 monthly projects. I ended up with five. Not excellent, but also not abysmal. More importantly, I loved each of the projects and learned something from each of them. I’ll share one set of photos for each and you can click to see the month’s worth.

January was Birds:

March was Figures:

April was Lettering Quotes:

May was Painting Faces:

And June was Shoes:

And here we are. I really really liked having a monthly focus and I am still thinking about how and if i can incorporate this into my projects/plans for 2015.

December 26, 2014 | Monthly Drawing Projects | 3 comments

Today I Know – Week 51

This week’s inspiration comes from on of Tam’s lessons from Life Book 2014. I used acrylics on the flowers and border. It was quick to make and gives me a lot of joy!

prompt says: today i know that i really like to

Today I Know is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.

December 26, 2014 | Mixed Media, Today I Know | Leave a comment

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