So here we are. While the meditation isn’t really happening, I’ve begun the bird drawing. So far, I’ve skipped only Sunday due to the fact that I was traveling.
Almost all of the birds come from this pinterest board. The credit belongs to the original artists:
This last one, I did on the plane to CHA so I didn’t have too many supplies. Some of these I love and others, not so much. But I am definitely getting to practice drawing and painting birds which was the whole point.
You can read more about my monthly projects in 2014 here.
This week’s stitching comes from Autumn Goddess in urban threads and the little word is calm. I used only stem stitch on this one.
Stitching Circles is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.
One of my clients and I were talking a few weeks ago and I noticed that she had a tendency to equate her successes with luck. If the got something she worked for, she was lucky. If she failed at something, it was her fault.
So in the case of the positive outcome, it wasn’t her doing (it was “luck”) and thus she didn’t really celebrate or pat herself in the back. But in the negative outcome case, it was all her, so she beat herself up and felt bad and small, etc.
When I pointed out this imbalance to her, she was surprised because she hadn’t even noticed she was doing it.
I think it’s important to pay attention to the subtle ways in which we create these skewed perspectives. I’ve seen so many people, especially women, diminish the credit and exaggerate the blame. I am not encouraging bragging or taking undeserved credit, but I do want to point out that success does not automatically equal luck.
If you believe luck played a part in your success then you also have to believe lack of luck played a part in the failure. I strongly encouraged her to really look at the success, was it really all luck? Did you play any part in it?
My bet is you did.
And if you did, it’s really important that you take the time to celebrate. For most of us, we tend to remember the bad stuff easily but we have a harder time with the good stuff. This celebrating allows you to lock in the good stuff into longer term memory.
Which comes in handy when the tougher stuff happens.
This is why I made a point of having celebration parties as a family last year. Each week, each of us, have at least one thing to celebrate. Some weeks it’s something small and other weeks it’s a major accomplishment. But there’s always something. And I am a firm believer that celebrating success is as important (if not more important) as learning from your mistakes.
Not very many things are an outcome of pure luck and as the saying goes: “Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.”
So make a point to go out and celebrate your successes this week!
Just a little post today. I wanted to share my cover page. I am still working on the pages for the beginning of the year. As I take fewer photos right after the holidays, it’s partly figuring out how all that will work. For now, here’s my cover page:
I have three different ones, maybe you can help me choose.
or
or
any strong thoughts?
Savor Project is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.
The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards was a recommendation from a friend in book club. It’s a short story collection from a first-time author. I don’t usually read short stories, so I wasn’t sure about this one.
But I am so so so glad I read it.
It was absolutely awesome. I can’t even explain the weird, unusual, awesomeness of this book. You have to read it to see the creative way it’s written. For some people it might have been too cute for its own good. But not for me.
I loved it.
I’ve been meaning to share this for a long, long time but I never manage to remember so here we are. One of the sites I read occasionally is called quora.com. It’s a site where people ask questions on many different topics and others answer them. The quality of the answers are usually very high.
One of the questions I’d seen was something I hear people around me ask often:
How can I stop thinking other people’s happiness and success is my loss?
when I read one of the answers, it mirrored my personal philosophy so well and articulated it so clearly that I emailed the poster to ask if I can copy the answer here and I was graciously granted the option, so here’s the unedited reply:
I once heard a great analogy on this.
So imagine you go to a party. It opens with a buffet, where the food is spread for everyone across a few tables. The food is plentiful: there are fruit platters spilling with melon and berries, sushi stacked in all shapes and sizes and colors, cuts of meat artfully arranged on rectangular trays, vegetables cut to snacking sizes, salads, cookies, and drinks lined up for duty. But as you casually mill about, you can’t help but attempt to cut ahead of people to reach the platters, trays, and bowls. You overstock your plate with the worry the food will run out, artfully shove people out of the way to get to the sushi before it runs out, and fill your cup up the top with soda in case it’s gone.
The hosts have planned to make sure there is enough food for everyone, but the buffet style meal creates a panic in which we can’t help but believe that other people filling their plates will take away from the portions we can select for ourselves. It’s as if the entire concept of food as we know it will be gone within minutes! We frantically stab the last few chunks of pineapple, drain our glasses so we can top them off again, and refill our salad plates before we’ve finished all the pieces of lettuce. We compete with the other guests – despite our friendly conversation – to ensure we get the portion we deserve.
When the buffet is over, the event continues – perhaps with a speaker, a performance etc. When it’s time for dessert, waiters come around with individual plates for each guest. The same people who were elbowing to get to the front of the buffet table before their friends now elegantly say, “please, you take the first portion. I can wait.”
Where has the worry and panic and hurry gone? Why is everyone so patient and generous all of the sudden?
Because it is much more clear that there is a plate reserved for everyone. If the hosts informed the caterer that 208 people are coming, there are 208 plates waiting in the kitchen – there is definitely one for me, so I’m happy for you to get first. I’m feeling magnanimous. I feel secure in the knowledge of the portion I will receive, and there is no frantic competition between us.
We have to understand something about life: Life is not a buffet. It’s served up on individual plates for each of us. When we come to recognize this, our friends’ successes and victories and possessions will not faze us. We know that we can work for whatever we want, and what our friends work for does not affect what is coming to us. If the guy you want lands up with a different girl, he’s not the guy for you! If someone else got the promotion you wanted – it wasn’t meant for you. Work a little harder, and if you deserve it, you will get your own promotion.
In recognizing that there are portions of happiness, wealth, and success in reserve for each of us, we would be much less resentful of others’ success, and lead more secure, happier, satisfied lives.
Isn’t it magnificent? I am a firm believer that the only person you should compete with is yourself. Each day, the only question to ask is “how can I be a better version of myself?” within your own definition of “better”. And you need to remember that there’s always, always enough to go around for every single one of us.
Once I remember that, all I focus on is my individual plate.
It says: It did not happen to you or because of you. it just happened. remember it is real but not true.
This page was originally done for My Mind’s Eye. It uses mostly scrapbooking papers and paint.
This page came about as I was listening to a podcast with Tara Brach. She was talking about one time when she was working on her book, against a deadline, and the computer crashed before she was able to save the writing. She then talked about how we take it personally and think that something is happening to us. How we blow it all out of proportion and how we construct a big story around what happened and what it means.
I do this a lot.
I make it mean something about who I am. What I am worth. Or more like, not worth.
Since whole is one of my core desires this year, it’s really important to me to remember this one.
It just happened.
a few more shots:
Remember This is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.
A few years ago, I did a video for Creative Jumpstart about what I do to get creative. One of the things I shared in that video was leaving all my art supplies in plain sight. I find that it has a significant impact on my creativity and on whether I use my supplies or not.
The image you see above is the configuration I set up for 2014. On the other side of the desk are my stamps, washi tapes, my sakura watercolor box, sewing machine, and some supplies I use less often. And this side is all the art supplies I use to do my yearlong projects. The only thing not shown is my Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils which I use daily, religiously and own in every color. I love and adore them. They are far and above my favorite product.
I often get asked what I use and for Christmas this year I got a few new things and I also made a resolution to use a wider variety of products so I can learn and experiment. Due to all this, I thought I can do a post on what I have, how I store it and how I use it. Hopefully this is helpful.
For the most part, I store all my art supplies in three black plastic containers. The containers are actually the boxes from the lego advent calendars my kids had for previous holidays. I find they are almost perfect for my needs. They are not super sturdy so I keep the new ones each year and swap them after 1-2 years of use.
Right in front of me is the container with all my acrylic paints. I tend to use mostly Golden and exclusively heavy body paints. It’s what I like and what I am used to. I haven’t experimented a lot with other brand names so I am not making any political statements, just this is what I have. I paint the tops of each tube so I know what’s inside quickly.
To the right of that, I have another one filled mostly with my new supplies:
In the front are the Montana pens which I want to remember to use and experiment with this year since I just got them. Behind them, to the right, are the Conte pencils for sketching and some color pens I’ve had for years. And then RH oil Pigment sticks for facial colors, another new supply I want to make sure to play with. And finally my tombow watercolor markers which I love and use relatively often.
Next to that is a basket with my two notebooks and the ATG gun which I use a lot, and a towel to wipe paint. Behind that is my lesser used products or tall stuff like rulers, scissors, etc. I have the copic markers and Pitt pens back there, too. I use those less often, for now, though I might move them up to behind montana pens since I have room there.
Next up is the container to my right:
This one has a lot of variety. The Caran D’ache Neocolor II water soluble crayons, Derwent Inktense and Graphitint pencils, Col-Erase pencils, Stabilo CarbOthello pastel pencils, Faber Castell Aquarelles and Art Grip pencils. In the second row: Posca pens, Prismacolor Pencils, Frixion erasable pens and markers, guache paints, water soluble oil pastels, and Faber Castell gelatos. Then I have lots of Pitt Pens in black and Sakura Microns in 0.005, which I use for everything. I also have mechanical pencils, erasers, and the Stabilo All pencils which I use all the time. And finally some other pastels and sticks that I use less often. And the new Sennelier Pastels I got for Christmas (yes, I was really well spoiled this year on art supplies.)
And finally, inside the basket that holds my ATG gun, I also have this:
These are peerless watercolors and the arrangement and idea and everything comes from the awesome Jane Davenport who explains it all in detail here. I took these with me on the flight to CHA this week and I love love love them.
What you don’t see in the photo is my PenPastels which are stored away and end up never getting used. I firmly believe this is because they are not out and I am trying to find a way to keep them on my desk too so I find myself reaching for them.
I know this seems like a lot of stuff, and it is, but I use every single one of these during the course of each week and I know that’s because they are sitting right there within my reach. Each item that I put away or make inaccessible never, ever gets used. For example, I put away my Liquitex Ink! bottles and even though they are on my desk, because they are less accessible, they never get used.
So if you want to start using the art supplies you have, my first recommendation is to find a way to have them out in the open! I hope this answers some of the questions and please feel free to leave me comments if you have more.
Off to do some art!
As it worked out with the title page, this month will only have three more weeks. So this week is the monthly intent for January: Listen Calmly.
January is going to be a tough month for work, so I decided that calm would be a good way to start the year, especially since serene is one of my core desires. So this month’s intent is to listen calmly.
I’ve been thinking a lot about what calm means to me. What I’ve learned from a lot of reading and listening to talks is that when we stress, our fight or flight response kicks in and our prefrontal cortex (where we do higher level thinking) shuts down. If I can manage to find a way to calm myself down, it gives my brain some time to come back online and for me to be able to think again.
This means that I am now acting and not reacting. This is where I would like to be.
When I was discussing a situation where I often find myself reacting with my coach last year, one trick I thought of was to walk away (in this case from the computer) and take ten minutes to myself. Go outside if I can, but if not, just walk around the living room, or do whatever it takes to spend the time. Ten minutes can be long when you’re doing nothing. Long enough to have the influx of emotion pass and long enough for my body to stop reacting and for my ability to think to come back.
And while ten minutes is long enough for all that to happen, it’s short enough that the “disaster” can wait. It will not get much worse. I can afford the ten minutes.
So that’s my plan for this week. If I find myself experiencing anxiety, stress, worry, fear, I will take a ten minute break and walk around. Wait for the immediate reaction to pass and for the calmness to come back.
Here’s a before shot of the above page. I used the picture of a tree because trees make me feel calm. The lettering is Octave and the tree is inspired by the wonderful Pam Carriker.
I then colored with watercolor pencils to complete my page.
Listen with Intent is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.
Here are photos from this week:
We cleaned out the board game closet this week, which meant a lot of playing.
the boys played Chess, stratego, risk, and scrabble.
i played scrabble with them too.
it’s my favorite. i loved watching them play.
then we took a walk to the park so david could get some photos of animals.
and Nathaniel could play.
he had to make some funny faces, of course.
as he loves being a clown.
when we sit to take our family shots, he can hardly contain himself.
he looks at me.
or away from us.
or starts giggling.
until we’re all laughing too.
and here we go. so grateful for my life. i hope your week was lovely, too.
Weekly Diary is a project for 2013. You can read more about it here.
As I was thinking about what project I’d like to do with David this year, I kept coming back to my theme for the year: learning. I want 2014 to be a year of learning and growth. So it made perfect sense that I would pick a project where David and I could learn together.
What I’ve decided is that we’ll be taking online classes together, using sites like udacity, edx, coursera, etc. and we will make little cards to capture all that David learned each week.
Our first class is by udacity.com and it’s a math class called Introductory Algebra Review.
I hope to do a wide range of subjects together and I know that we might only make it through four classes since they are meant for college so we have to go slowly but it will still be worth it. Here are some I’ve found for us:
We may take all of these or none of these. Either way it’s nice to have a list to draw from.
Here’s to a year of learning!
I talked about how I had different types of goals for my projects this year. Here’s what I had in mind for this one:
Skill to learn/expand: doodling, using different mediums, journaling, collage
Topic to explore: what i know to be true, lessons from the week.
Format: Squared notebook spread 11×8.5
Paper: Moleskine Journal Squared. This is just ordinary notebook paper.
Media: Mostly dry mediums but some gelatos, watercolor brushes, crayons, etc.
This idea also came completely from the Soul Comfort class. When Melody talked about the idea and showed some of her pages, I was immediately hooked. Coupled with the fact that I knew I wanted to focus on doodling this year, I decided this was a winner for 2014.
My goal for this project is to couple lots of journaling with doodling, sketching, and collage. And whatever else I am in the mood for. This is the first page I ever did and it’s a bit different than the ones that come next. As I did more pages, the idea expanded a bit and then settled down.
As with the others, I am not married to a particular way and this might shift and morph but for now, I love what it is.
Like the Listen with Intent project, I created a pinterest board for the ideas I want to try out. I am hoping to have a wide variety and to use this book to explore, have fun, and journal my heart out.
The pages in this book are thin so even though I hadn’t intended to, I ended up glueing every other page just to get them to be a bit stronger, but I also plan to stick to dryer mediums which will be a fun and interesting challenge.
The prompts are all from Melody and this first page says: Today I know that I would like to get better at….
and I wrote about not being so hard on myself when I am learning something new.
And the feather art was inspired by Jane Monk Studio and I used copics to color the feather.
Here’s to a year of meaningful and fun pages to record what I know.
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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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