Here are the sketches from last week:
Sunday:
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
that’s it for this week.
Daily Sketching is a weekly project for 2012. You can see a detailed post on my steps here.
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I’ve been spending some time evaluating my life and choices lately. As I’ve mentioned before, the last few months have been tough on me and I haven’t bounced back like I would have liked. I am frustrated with myself for how long this is taking and how bumpy the ride is. So, as I was thinking about all this and how there are a few items of my regular schedule that fell off way back in March that I haven’t managed to pick back up, I decided to put two together. I haven’t journaled in a long time. Well, let me rephrase: outside of the writing recommended by the classes I took, I haven’t done any personal journaling just for me in a long time. I used to take 15-20 minutes to write every morning and that quiet time of reflection was really profound for me. I miss it. But for some reason, I can’t seem to get back on the horse. I can’t seem to pick the pen up and make it habit again. I think about it a lot but don’t do it. I am not sure if this is subconsciously a way to protect myself. Maybe I am worried all the negative thoughts hiding in the corners of my soul will pour out and take me to a dark place each day. And I can’t afford a lot more dark moments. In fact, I don’t want any of those. This might not be the issue at all. It might just be that I am more rushed and do not take the time to slow down lately. I have also given up meditation and the strength training. In fact, I haven’t read to the kids in two weeks. But coming back to my topic of journaling, I’ve decided to try something for the month of July. (And I won’t even be anal about how it’s already July 2 and I haven’t done it so far. I will give myself permission to start now.) Instead of doing the typical journaling of pouring whatever’s on my heart or mind on to paper, I am going to do positive journaling. That means I am going to fill a page in my notebook writing only good things from my life. This is not to say I will avoid the bad stuff (I am working on looking at the bad stuff, too.) but that I will turn this journaling exercise into just focusing the good things. Here’s why: the problem I’m struggling with that’s really bringing me down is in an area of my life that I’ve purposefully decided to focus less on. So while I can’t get rid of it, I can definitely not let things get to me as much. I can definitely shine the light on the abundance of good things on my life. And I think writing a page will help me refocus. It will allow the things that matter to come to light more often. Those are also the things I take for granted more often. They are the “working” parts of my life so I don’t “worry about them.” But I also don’t pay as much attention to them. I don’t celebrate them as much as I could. I don’t deeply enjoy them because I am putting so much focus on the areas where I am struggling. So I want to move the studio lights to where the joy is. And I think journaling the good for a page each day will help me do that. I am not exactly sure how it’s going to work yet. I might spend one day listing all the things I am grateful for. Another day on all my happy wishes. Another on what made me happy the previous week. I might spend a day on all the things I want to learn. Whatever I do, I will focus on the good. I will focus on the joyous moments. The nuggets of happiness from each day that I normally let wither. My hope is that this will allow me to see my world in a different light. And show me that my life is full where it matters most. And maybe that can squash the darkness better than no journaling or pouring out the angst. It seems worth a try, at least. This is a layout I made for My Mind’s Eye for June.
And the journaling says: details:
And the next spread:
And this is a picture one of David’s classmates made him for his birthday! We loved it so much that we didn’t want to fold it up. more next time. David’s Book of Good Memories is a bi-weekly project for 2012 with my seven-year-old son David. You can read more about it here.
This was a low-photo week. But, we still got some wonderful ones. Here are some snapshots from our week: the kids got a new table for the backyard where they can play with sand and water.
Nathaniel loves the water table at school so I figured he’d love this too.
I was right.
i took this one out the backyard window while they were playing. I love how he’s laughing with David.
having the kids at home all summer has challenging moments.
and purely wonderful ones, too.
david and i started a new project, more about it in a few months.
mid-week i decided i needed some more photos.
nathaniel wasn’t as accommodating
and just wouldn’t smile.
by the time he did, i was way out of focus.
during family photos this week, we shouted fun words and laughed and laughed
and then we said “we love daddy, we love ne-ne (nathaniel), we love david, we love mommy!” and we laughed some more.
it was a great way to end this long week.
and here we go. i hope your week was lovely, too. Weekly Diary is a project for 2012. You can read more about it here. Page twenty-six:
I am still a little gaga over the washi tape so I just wanted to have fun with it. I covered my background with Pink Paislee tissue tape. Added some washi tape on the edges and some stitching rubons for borders. The quote says: You are writing the story of your life right now. If you don’t like it, change it. Here is one more shot of it: Journey into Collage is a project for 2012. You can read more about it here.
First of all, I apologize for the lack of thoughts posts this week. It was an exceptionally hectic week at work and when I was completely brain-dead at the end of each day, I decided it was ok to give myself the night off. I still did some art because that’s good for my soul but my brain wasn’t working enough to write. So, I apologize. Though, it’s been quiet here on the blog, too, so maybe the rest of you are on vacation while I work so hard! 🙂 Secondly, I have been doing well on my summer of calm. I’ve had several situations that came up and I was able to keep my cool. I have been better (not great but better) at not yelling and staying calmer in general. I am working on it. Considering the craziness of this week, I am proud of myself. I’ve also been working on my little changes. Slowly but I’ve made headway on several. I’ve also filled the download I mention here and done some journaling, some of the assignments from Christy’s class, etc. I’ve got a long way to go, but I am making progress. Slowly. I was thinking today that when I look at myself, I often see the holes in my life. The areas where I am struggling more and wish I were better. Like driving, riding a bike, eating healthier, etc. I just see what’s missing. And I take what’s there and good for granted. My job, husband, kids, whatever it might be. Even the things that were not there but are now. Like being thinner and healthier. Whereas when I look at others, I do the opposite. I take what’s best about them and don’t even notice anything else. I might see their success where I am struggling and not notice their struggles in an area that’s already well for me. But that’s what life is. None of us are perfect. We all have holes. I have a friend who used to introduce me as “This is Karen, she speaks seven languages.” And it drove me mad. So I told him that if he had to say that, he had to say it this way, “This is Karen, she speaks seven languages but she can’t ride a bike.” Because then you see my holes. You see that I am far far from perfect. And it sort of evens things out. You tell yourself “ah i might not have learned languages, but I can ride a bike!” and that’s important. It gives much needed perspective to each of us. Life is mostly a game of chance. Sometimes we get stuff because we put a lot of energy and time into it, and other times we’re just lucky (or unlucky.) And sometimes it’s a combination of both. But none of us can have it all. We each make choices along the way. Sometimes we regret them and other times they turn out way bigger that we’d hoped. Either way, we never have it “all” and if we continue to look for the holes, we will never ever feel good. Or complete. Or done. Or “good enough” as the case is for me. This is where gratitude plays a big role I think. Where you spend time truly focusing on the great things that you do have. So much of what you probably are taking for granted. Gratitude shows you that you don’t just have holes but you also have these magical, wonderful areas in your life. Areas where you’re soaring. Thriving. And it’s crucial to pay attention to them. So while I will continue to work on filling some of the holes in my life, I will also make myself pay more attention to the incredible fullness I have there, too. Life changes in a moment. And I could lose it all. I don’t want to take a moment of my life for granted. Not one moment. Here are some more pages I did:
The full text reads: do not ever be afraid to show your colors to the world. here it is with the outlines on the feathers:
And here’s the next page:
The full text reads: love can be devastating and hard work but so worth it. Well here we go. More coming next week. I am creating multiple art journaling pages a week for now. You can read more about this project here. This set uses the Fabriano Roma papers. And here’s the spread for week twenty-four. This is the second week from being at home:
here’s a closer up of the left side:
The first story here is about the joy of watching my whole family laugh together. Then one about my sister and her kids and then the wonderful drivers. And here’s the right side:
The first one here is about the doggie that visited us every morning at breakfast. The second one was about the help of ipads during vacation. And then the last one about the four cousins together. Since I didn’t have art as usual, I put some photos I love on the bottom. This was the end of album one for me so I used the last page to save ephemera from the barmitzvah and the trip:
here are some closeups:
So there we go, album one done. So far, so good. Still enjoying this project a lot. Happy Savoring. The Savor Project was supposed to be a weekly project for 2012. You can read about my setup here.
I have a rule about reading the book before I watch the movie so when I saw the previews for The Descendants I knew I had to read the book first. Especially since it got good reviews. And I am so glad I did. It was a fast read but also a great read. A rare combination in my opinion. I loved the characters and the story. Now I can’t wait to actually see the movie. I hope it won’t disappoint after such a lovely book. I am looking forward to reading more of this author. Here are the sketches from last week: Sunday:
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
that’s it for this week. Daily Sketching is a weekly project for 2012. You can see a detailed post on my steps here.
I was thinking about abundance and sharing this morning as I ran on the treadmill. I was watching one of Donna Downey’s Inspiration Wednesday videos and thinking about how some people worry about sharing tips/tricks or thoughts or ideas freely for fear that you will give your best ideas away and you won’t have any more. But that’s the thing with ideas: there’s so much more where they came from and the best way to generate more is to use up the ones you have. Sometimes, when we hold on to them, they become so precious. It almost paralyzes us with fear that it’s the one and only good idea we will ever have. I find that the freedom you get from sharing many ideas freely is that no one idea becomes all you have. You get more ideas and then you realize you’re capable of generating endless ideas. There’s a common saying in fiction that there’s no such thing as a new idea. And I think this is true. Most stories have already been told. What’s not been told is your unique perspective on life. Your way of seeing life. Your way of recounting events. Your way of processing emotions. Those are unique to you and can never be copied or taken away from you. I know I don’t make my living from creating art so I respect others might have different opinions, but my recommendations is to not fear putting your ideas out there. I feel like sharing creates abundance. It feeds a part of your soul that puts seeds of new ideas down inside you. At least that’s what I found to be true for me. And I also appreciate it when others share their ideas, creativity, way of seeing the world with me. I took several of Donna’s Pan Pastel classes because of the free inspiration Wednesday videos. I knew her style of teaching and doing art would speak to me and I might not have taken them had I not seen her style for free first. Same for Christy. I took her classes cause I’d seen her free videos and liked them. Just like in everything, there’s a balance to be reached here, too. If you’re hoping to have income from your art, you don’t share everything for free, of course. But you also don’t have to be super-secretive. You don’t have to think that if you give a bit for free, people will never pay for the rest. And you don’t have to worry that you only have one good idea. If you use that up, you will see that you have more. Sit down to do art and they will come to you. Open up to the world and start a dialogue and more will come to you. Look around for what truly inspires you in the world and more ideas will come. Connect with others and more ideas will come. Soon you will have an abundance of ideas only because you were brave enough to let the one precious one go. |
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