karenika

Gratitude PostCards – Week 34

Here’s this week’s card :

It says: life is ephemeral, savor it.

something slightly different this week 🙂

Gratitude PostCards is a weekly project for 2013. You can see a detailed post on my goal and the postcards I use here.

A Book a Week – Creative Lettering

I picked up Creative Lettering because I’ve constantly been trying to get better about my handwriting and I am definitely interested in lettering. It’s one of the things that I’ve wanted to get better at and not have spent the time on for a few years now.

Sketching was like this for me until I finally sat and took it seriously. I know I have to do the same thing for lettering.

The artists in this book are a great start. There is such a wide variety and range that it’s great to look through and explore and see what style might be interesting to me and what I might want to explore more and/or use as a starting point.

If you’re interested in lettering, I highly recommend this.

2013 Sketching – Week 31

My goal for 2013 is to make three sketches a week. If I make more, great. If I don’t, that’s ok. Trying to keep the pressure low while still encouraging myself to draw.

my one sketch:

that’s it for this week. just managed one. feeling a bit blah so not motivated to do anything apparently.

Sketching is a weekly project for 2013. You can see a detailed post on my sketching journey here.

Giveaway for My BPC class – Book of Stories

My very first class for Big Picture was one on journaling. My style, supplies and even taste has changed over the years but my love of journaling never has. I still believe that journaling gives your layouts that extra bit of depth and meaning and is the best way to add your individual voice to each of your pages.

When I was teaching that course (and a few others) I got a lot of comments around people not knowing which stories to tell, or how to make sure there was enough room on the layout, or how to remember each story. That’s when I decided to write Book of Stories.

This class is designed to help you generate, write, collect, and organize your stories so that when you sit down to scrapbook, your stories are already there waiting for you. It’s a class that is unique to each of you individually. I don’t tell you what to do, but how to find what works for you. How to customize it for your own needs and preferences.

My classes are always full of student participation because they are meant to be organic and customizable. So if you like process classes and if you want to get better about your storytelling journey, I hope you’ll join me in the class!

Click here for a lot more info.

If you’d like a spot in my class, just leave me a comment below. Like last time either tell me a class you’d like me to teach, or something joyful from your day or just say hi.

I will leave comments open for a week for this one because my class starts next Thursday.

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask in comments and I hope to see you in class!

Gratitude Journal – Week 35

By the way, I finally posted last week’s here.

Here’s this week’s gratitudes and celebrations:

Before:

it says: trust that, no matter what, the sun always comes out again and again.

and here’s what the page looks like with all the gratitudes and celebrations:

Just another excuse to create art and remember the present that is my life.

Gratitude Journal is a weekly project for 2013. You can see a detailed post on my goal other details here.

Weekly Diary – September 14 2013

Here are some photos from this week:

we were lucky enough to go to Martha’s Vineyard last week to visit with Jake’s family.

this was the kids’ first time so they spent a lot of time discovering the corners of the house and exploring everything.

and playing with their cousins.

and lots of opportunities for me to take photos. I didn’t bring my favorite lens for several reasons and regretted it a lot. I love my 85mm even if it’s not ideal for group shots.

we got to visit the Gay Head Light House.

the kids weren’t afraid of heights at all.

David loved being there.

and climbing all the stairs by himself.

at night we had sparklers thanks to Andee and the kids loved it (so did I!).

there’s just something magical about them.

David loved our youngest cousin and I must agree that he was just super sweet and cute.

the boys went rock-walking at the beach.

and explored the nooks and crannies between the rocks.

and were just super happy.

I loved watching from afar and taking photos.

and hoped they wouldn’t slip. Though Nathaniel did and managed to scar his face and lip within moments.

I hadn’t seen Jake’s brothers in so long, I snapped all the photos I could.

and this is wonderful Andee, married to one of Jake’s brothers. I wish I saw her more often.

Nathaniel liked climbing the trees.

this is another super-cute cousin. Isn’t he amazing? I could not snap enough photos of this little boy and he was so patient with me.

I’ve known this brother since he was fourteen; it’s so odd to see him with wonderful little boys of his own now. How quickly the time passes.

more of my favorite subject.

more climbing trees.

I love how these three are 2, 3, and 4.

David really wanted to go fishing so Jake took him and to everyone’s shock they even managed to catch some. David also went through the backyard and collected a whole bunch of bugs. Caterpillars, leaf catydids, daddy longlegs and more. He did release them all back into the wild a little while later because I couldn’t bear the thought that they might die in the jars.

and here’s all of us at once. I’ve been with Jake for almost twenty years now and looking at this photo makes me realize how big the family has grown and how wonderful everyone is and how really lucky we are. And how we need to do this much more often. So very grateful.

and then it was family shot time, of course.

and tickling too, surely.

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.

SixBySix – Week 37

Before this week’s art here’s the important reminder: Please remember, this is personal and hand-made and thus imperfect. If you want perfect art, do not buy mine. Also one more reminder that these are pretty small. 5.5inches by 5.5inches. That’s about 14×14 centimeters). You will just get the original piece of watercolor paper with my art and signature in the back. No mounting, no frame. I don’t want to misrepresent anything. I will put a paypal button under each (you can pay with credit card or paypal.) the button doesn’t update so you will have to click through to see if it’s sold out. I will try to update them as quickly as I can and remove the button if it’s gone, but just in case. Each piece will be $35. That’s US dollars. If you have questions please leave a comment and I will reply as fast as I can.

With that here’s this week’s art:

it reads: what dream are you keeping locked away?

SixBySix is a weekly project for 2013. You can see a detailed post on my goal and other details here.

Giveaway for Art+Science of Scrapbooking

UPDATED: Looks like lucky number 7 was the recipient!

Cameron Hernandez
September 11th, 2013 at 10:09 pm
I would for you to teach a time management class. 🙂

Today I have a super-fun giveaway for you!!

Art + Science of Scrapbooking, 16 brain-boosting challenges to strengthen your creative process taught by Stacy Julian and Jennifer Wilson

Here’s a little bit about this awesome class:

Are you a right-brained person who embraces possibility and spontaneity, thrives on imagination, relies on feelings, and thinks in symbols and images? Are you a left-brained person who practices strategy and order, finds comfort in facts, relies on logic, and thinks in words and language?

The answer to both questions is “yes!” In The Art + Science of Scrapbooking, a mind-bending workshop from Stacy Julian and Jennifer Wilson, you’ll learn to harness the creative power of both sides of your brain.

In four illuminating weeks, right-brainer Stacy Julian and left-brainer Jennifer Wilson will help you embrace your natural cognitive strengths. But they’ll also challenge themselves, each other, and YOU to find a new sense of balance and power as you explore the other side of your brain.

I am sure you know that a class with both Jennifer and Stacy will be nothing short of absolutely amazing. So if you’d like to have a spot in the class, just leave a comment with either a class you might like to have me teach or something fun that happened to you today. Or just say hi. Class starts tomorrow so I will announce a winner Friday morning to make sure you don’t miss anything.

A Book a Week – A Field Guide to Now

I can’t remember where I read about A Field Guide to Now but I am so glad I did. This sweet book is absolutely magnificent.

The author’s serene tone, wise words, and beautiful art are magnificently combined to create a book worth reading. I thought it was an especially wonderful fit since my word for this year is present. This book is a lot about the present moment.

It’s tender, honest, and really beautiful.

I highly recommend it.

Decision Helping Questions

Carrying with the theme of what I’m discovering from Gretchen’s emails, I wanted to share another one today.

She says:

When I’m reluctant to take a risk or face something uncomfortable, I ask myself these five questions, which, in melodramatic form, I call the “Five Fateful Questions.”

and then shares her five and encourages us to do the same but I decided I wanted to create my own five because some of hers resonated with me but others didn’t.

So when I am trying to make an uncomfortable decision or when I am thinking about something and it’s making me sad, frustrated, uneasy in some way, here’s what I want to ask myself each time:

What’s this in service of? What’s the bigger purpose I am trying to serve here? Why is this important? What will be possible if I do this or don’t do this?
How will this matter in five years? Will having asked for this or taken this step, etc matter five years from now? Or will it be insignificant? How will this particular thing possibly change the course of my life?
Which of my values does this honor? By doing this (or not doing it) how am I honoring who I am. How is it moving me towards living my life more authentically? How am I being more “me”?
What’s the worst possible outcome? Since I am a worrier, this one matters a lot. I tend to fear things going horribly wrong. If i really flesh out the worst possible outcome, I can see how this is often not nearly as bad as I might make it in my head.
What’s the best possible outcome? Clearly important to balance #4. And also important to help be braver.

These are the four I have for now.

Here’s how I use them. Let’s say I want to ask for a raise. Here are the questions and some possible answers.

What’s this in service of: better schools for my children, being able to afford more vacations together. So it’s in service of better education for my kids, more family time or even what i might consider to be higher quality time. Then I can think about whether these matter and whether I can achieve them without the raise. Do I really need a raise for higher quality time? Will more money really mean better schools for my kids? Will better schools really mean better education? etc. etc.
How will this matter in five years? Well, getting a raise now might mean more money saved, more invested, and it might mean i can afford college more easily. It might mean more vacations we’ve taken. It might mean less daily stress on our economic situation.
Which of my values does it honor? Maybe it honors my family and love values that I’d be doing this to provide better opportunities for my children. Or maybe it’s self-worth. Etc.
What’s the worst possible outcome? Realistically the worst possible outcome here is that I wouldn’t get the raise. I can’t believe this would lead me to losing my job without my getting belligerent, etc.
What’s the best possible outcome? I get a raise even more than I asked for and maybe my manager tells me what a good job I’ve been doing. Yey!