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Here’s this week’s gratitudes and celebrations: Before:
it says: it is okay to be you just as you are. 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. this week’s gratitude is for visiting San Francisco.
there we go. more next time. Nathaniel’s Gratitude Pages is a weekly project for 2013 with my almost four-year-old son. You can see a detailed post on my goal other details here.
Here are some snapshots from our week: The kids have been playing in the backyard a lot.
this is a dream-come-true for me.
especially when they do it together.
i love seeing my boys happy.
or silly.
Nathaniel’s class had one final party before everyone dispersed for the summer.
he and daddy played a bunch.
building things.
very focused.
and super-joyful.
there’s also been a lot of posing.
and making faces.
gangnam style. (don’t even get me started.)
and origami.
i just love the creativity of this boy.
and this one! who made an origami psy.
nathaniel was being silly again of course.
i’m learning to accept that’s just who he is.
so just before i lose it, i decide it’s tickle time.
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. 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: the world needs you to be you. embrace who you are. SixBySix is a weekly project for 2013. You can see a detailed post on my goal and other details here. and here’s this week:
this week is from the trip we went on for art festival. I love these photos. I also added the poster for Star Trek that I saw with work 🙂 See you next week! The Savor Project is a weekly project for 2013. You can see a detailed post on my goal and other details here.
Another one on the list of books I must read before the movie comes was Beautiful Creatures. This book wasn’t super-tiny so it took me a few days to read it. But I did like it. I am not sure I loved it. I thought it was interesting, I liked the characters okay and the story was interesting. However, it went on a bit longer than it needed to. When I finished it, I felt no desire to move on to the next one even though it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. I guess that means it goes in the so-so pile. Here’s this week’s card:
It says: this very moment is all you have. This card uses a template from The Crafter’s Workshop (as well as a few others.) and acrylic paint. Gratitude PostCards is a weekly project for 2013. You can see a detailed post on my goal and the postcards I use here.
First of all, I am sorry that I disappeared to nowhere for the last week or so. As I mentioned last weekend, I woke up with strep at the beginning of the week and it was a rough week so I decided to give myself whatever time off I needed. That meant the blog posts were going to have to wait. It also meant I am behind in everything. And it meant we started our summer with anything but a routine. Alas, this is the way life goes. Anyhow. A few weeks ago, I was sitting at book club and I was voicing my opinion and thoughts on something pertaining to working. One of the women in my group said something like “But your situation is so unique Karen.” And I immediately went to my bad place. I could literally feel my heart beating loudly and my entire body trying to choose between shutting down or rebelling. It was not a comfortable experience. And I’d like to say I handled it with grace, but I said a few choice words first (albeit quietly) and then closed my mouth. But I was still seething inside. Actually, I think I still am. I spent my whole life feeling different, not-like-the-others, weird, blah blah. It’s one of the reasons I chose to leave the country I was born in and come here to the US. I’ve always chased after this feeling of wanting to be “normal.” As I have gotten older and reflected more, I’ve realized that, for me, these continual thoughts of being different have severed my sense of belonging. Because I feel like I am so different, I feel like I don’t belong and won’t ever belong. So when someone tells me how different I am, I immediately hear “You will never belong here.” It doesn’t even matter if they mean well. Sometimes people will say how different I am, meaning it in a positive way, like how great I am, but I don’t even like hearing that. Because it still means I don’t belong. It still means “this one is not like the others.” It perpetuates my deepest fear of never belonging. But I’ve been making a conscious effort to fight this lately. I have come to realize that we’re all different from each other. And we’re all the same. We each share some things in common and we are wildly different in other ways. So, now, instead of seeing all the ways in which I’m apart, I look for things we share. And I decided I am not okay with people calling me unique, different, whatever anymore. I am rebelling against it. All I’ve ever wanted was to belong, and I don’t understand why I have to be someone I am not to feel that way. So I am stopping the feelings inside and I am not allowing any more of the conversation that triggers these thoughts in me anymore. Maybe this is childish. Is it? Honestly, I am so deep in lack of belonging that I can’t even see if it is. I just know that it feels wrong when people say it. Regardless of their intentions. And I don’t want to undermine myself or them so that I can fit in. I just want to be me and I want to be ok with them being who they are. We’re all 100% unique. There’s no other person like me or you in the world. So maybe we all don’t fit in. Or maybe I’m still a bit sick from the fever and antibiotics. I’m not sure. 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. Only two this week. Alas I had step. Here are the ones for this week:
that’s it for this week. Sketching is a weekly project for 2013. You can see a detailed post on my sketching journey here. Here’s this week’s gratitudes and celebrations: Before:
it says: you are loved. this one’s all shiny, too:
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.
Here are some snapshots from our week: Nathaniel’s first swimming class. He was (and still is) really scared.
after class I went up to Novato with my friend Linda to meet my coach training friends and then the boys got in the car and met me in Tiburon. I didn’t get many photos this time but I got this.
and this.
and the little one, too.
who wouldn’t look at me.
until he made his face.
they like walking on the rocks.
i like to snap photos.
and watching them persevere.
and succeed.
the morning after we got home, I woke up sweating and very feverish with a terrifying sore throat. I lived that way for 48 hours until I decided it wasn’t bearable and we all went to the doctor. As it turns out, I had strep. First time in my life. The rest of the week was a wash with a lot of pain and sleep. The boys had a little fun, though.
David danced to gangnam style. he loves it.
it took a while but we eventually took family photos too.
Nathaniel was being his funny self.
you can’t tell but I was still in a lot of pain.
but I still managed to laugh.
how can you not with that face?
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. here’s this week’s card:
and the back:
this one was for the company that makes the plants vs zombies game. there we go. David’s Gratitude Postcards is a weekly project I am doing with my 8-year-old-son for 2013. You can see a detailed post on our goal other details here. |
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