Things went a little crazier than anticipated last night and I ended up working late again. The good news is that I didn’t panic or stress at all about my todo list that was being completely neglected. I told myself that I would wake up tomorrow (today) and get a bunch of stuff done and feel better. I managed to not stress even a tiny bit and I was so proud of myself.
This morning I woke up and exercised and then I sat down to journal. Just as I began, I received an email about something technical that was suddenly going to require my attention. Something I really didn’t want to have to deal with but I was already stressing about it before I even finished reading the email. I sighed. Here I was ready for a calm, quiet day and this one was already going downhill and it wasn’t even 6:30AM.
Since it happened right as I was journaling, I decided it would be a good time to see if I could journal this new problem out of my system. I don’t understand how these things happen daily, I wrote down.
And then I realized the truth. I wrote, Then again maybe it’s just a sign that small annoying things do indeed happen daily and I need to find a way to let it go. Because if I let all the little things get to me then I will surely stress every single day.
We all know that’s not sustainable.
So I then told myself that I had to find a way out. A way to let all these little things go. I needed to find a way to allow these small incidents to flow in and out of my life without letting them disturb and stress me to the extent they seem to.
I journaled some more about specific ideas on how I could resolve this particular problem. It came with a lot of unknowns – which I am not a fan of. And it also depended on other people’s choices which meant there was little I could do to fix it – another situation I dislike. But alas, that’s life. Many things happen all the time that I cannot control, know, or fix. The more I grow up, the more these occur. I have kids, a husband, a home, a job. I am surrounded by things outside of me and bigger than I can conquer alone. I will need to find a peaceful way to deal with the fact that things will not always go exactly my way.
Indeed, I am now convinced, we will have small things go wrong every single day. It’s just life.
And such, I’ve decided to let them go. I will do what I can to resolve them, move them forward, eliminate what I can and then I will just accept the rest with grace and patience. I will not let it determine the quality and content of my day.
I have faith that the rate at which these things resolve themselves will not change with my new attitude. What will change is my personal happiness and sense of peace.
And I certainly would never turn away peace.
So after journaling some ideas and implementing a few of them, I just let this little problem go. Later in the day, I got a response and I did a few more things to resolve it and then I let it go again. I am hoping and planning to do that again and again until the issue is resolved one way or another.
In the meantime, I am pretty sure something new will come up tomorrow and I hope I will have the grace to handle that the same way. Letting the little stuff go has never been my strong suit. But I am realizing that the amount of stress these little things can add up to is considerable and that investing in learning how to let them go is very worthwhile.
So I am officially working on it. Time to walk more firmly and consistently in the direction of peace.
As promised, here I am to tell you my new setup for The Savor Project. The first thing I want to do is repost the paragraph that talks about the thinking behind this project:
The idea is to create something that’s sort of an amalgamation of Project Life and December Daily. I did Project Life a few years ago and really struggled to keep up with it. Because I already process and post photos here weekly, it felt uneventful and like a chore to have to print them all out and do it again each week for my book. However, I liked the idea of keeping the odds and ends of ephemera that come into our life. I wanted something more creative and the setup I use for December Daily seemed ideal to me. My plan is to create a minimum of four pages a week with photos, stories, ephemera from that week. If I do more, great. But there’s no pressure. For now I am using my Polaroid Printer for all the photos. It’s crappy but quick and convenient. And quality is not my number one concern for this book.
The reason this is called The Savor Project is because I choose to write longer stories about little moments in my day where I am filled with gratitude. I think savoring life is all about paying attention to those moments more and more. The greatest thing about this project is that I appreciate my daily life, my simple moments, the “ordinariness” of my life that much more. I cherish these moments more. I am more thankful and aware of everything I have. I get to appreciate my kids, our life, right now. It’s like getting to look back up on the “good old days” while they are still happening. It increases awareness, gratitude, and joy.
Since I process my photos daily, I get to savor the moments as they happen, once again as I process the photos and then a third time when I am putting them in my book. That’s a lot of gratitude!
All of the above is still true. However, the more I thought about how to scale this project to create one book to hold my year and the more I saw all the Project Life posts around the net, I thought maybe I could combine my two ideas and find a way to make it work. I struggled over this decision (obsessed even) for a few days. And then finally I decided to try it to see if it would work. (and it did! more on that next week.)
Four years ago, when Project Life was originally introduced as a Kit-of-the-Month club from Lisa Bearnson (it was called Project 365 then and was originated and designed by Becky Higgins, just sold through the KotM), I had bought two of them. I have no idea why I did that since I don’t tend to buy in multiples usually. Anyhow. I use the one back in 2009 and, as I explained above, I wasn’t super happy with the process. I then put the other one in a closet and there it stayed.
Until this week.
I told myself that if i was going to try this out, I wouldn’t buy anything new. I was using the kit I had even if it wasn’t as pretty or “nice” or flexible as some of the newer options. Often times we get carried away in all the possibilities and end up spending more time setting things up “just right” than just doing it. So I dug out my kit, put aside all the stuff that came with it, except for the page protectors. And came up with a system that would make my Savor Project work within the confines of the Project Life system.
And I love it. There are limits that the notebook didn’t have but in general, this system will scale and still allows me to create the concept I wanted. And if it doesn’t continue to work, I reserve the right to change things up yet again! (But I really do hope this will stick.)
So I will start sharing my pages next week but I wanted to show you what I did to my cover and intro page. The original project 365 came with a binder but it has some print on the cover that I didn’t like, so I covered mine with textured fabric paper, velvet, and some sequins. Here’s how it looks:
I covered the back with similar fabric, too, but it’s just plain. And then for the first page, I took all the photos we took as a family last year and made a big collage. That’s 64 photos. And then on the bottom, I added the word Savor since it’s the Savor project and the year. Here it is:
And there we go. So now this is truly an amalgamation of Project Life and December Daily because I will be telling longer stories of small moments throughout the year using the Project Life setup. More specifics next week.
I am more comfortable with this setup as I can see it scaling and working for the whole year. Let’s hope it does!!
Now that I was on a dystopian roll again, I decided to plunge right in and read Incarceron which I’d been putting off for months as well.
Even though there were parts that were very unappealing to me, I finished the whole book in a day. Somehow, the story sucked me in and wouldn’t let me go. I liked both of the characters’ stories and I really wanted to see how the whole thing would play out. I just didn’t want to stop reading it.
Once I finished it, I resisted the temptation to jump into the second one. I know sequels are rarely as good and I often like to take some time in between just to let the story digest in my brain. Eventually I will read Sapphique as well, I’m sure.
In 2010, I made a list of 52 Things I wanted to do that year. One of the list items was going to or hosting a retreat. And while it didn’t work out exactly as I’d envisioned it, we did end up having a girls’ weekend. That weekend had a lot of interesting side effects on me. But one of the biggest one was the overwhelming urge to take better care of myself. (I wrote about it some back then.)
Here’s the paragraph I wrote in 2009:
I’ve always hated having my picture taken. I think many photographers do. Anyhow, I really did. I’ve had issues with my looks for as long as I can remember. And this retreat was no exception. I just didn’t want to be photographed. For the first day or two I wore my hair up and didn’t wear any makeup (like always) but then one day, I wore my hair down and one of the girls grabbed my camera to take a photo. The shot was mostly of Nathaniel but I could see my hair in it. And it completely freaked me out.
I cannot even tell you why exactly but that one image caused a complete switch in my brain. My hair, my face, my clothes, they all disgusted me. I mean that literally. I decided that was it and I would not continue to look this way for one more minute. Yes, ideally I would exercise and eat better and look better, etc. And I do plan on doing those things, but I wanted to look and feel better about myself right this minute. Without waiting for the pounds to come off. This wasn’t something hypothetical for me. Not like “I should really do this..” but it was tangible and it was going to happen.
So I listed a few things I did back then to remedy the problem:
1. Cut off my hair
2. Buy and use basic makeup
3. Get rid of excess clothes and shoes in closet
4. Buy a new bra
5. Buy a few new clothes
6. Get some jewelry I love and wear it
These were the items I listed in April 2010. What I didn’t know back then was that in less than 6 months, I would start my daily exercise routine and end up losing over 30 pounds. But now, when I look back at that time, I know that the exercise, the finally doing it was due to that same trigger. While those tasks above gave me a short term boost (one I really needed), that boost gave me the confidence and the path to make some bigger and longer lasting changes.
This ended up having a huge trickle down effect. I lost the weight, I started to exercise daily, I started eating better, more whole foods. I started flossing. I started taking care of my hair, teeth and skin more regularly. And I started to care about taking care of myself.
I don’t mean this in the “go to the salon and get my hair and nails done weekly” way. Not that there’s anything wrong with that but I am not the kind of person who prioritizes that and I don’t this that will ever change on such a scale. However. I am trying more.
In the last few months, some of the items on my list had fallen by the wayside. My hairdresser became unavailable, the flossing…well let’s just say it took a backseat. I never got the bloodwork done that my doctor requested. I canceled my last dental cleaning appointment. On and on. Before I knew it, things were on a downward spiral.
On January 2, I was lying in bed and sent myself an email. (yes from the ipad and yes to myself. yes, i know it’s crazy.) But I had decided enough was enough and couldn’t stand it one more moment. I had to find a new hairdresser and get my very long roots dyed (this is a personal choice and I, for one, have absolutely no problem with gray hair. however mine is more like a skunk, super-white only in one spot in the front. trust me, it looks terrible.) I had to schedule a dental appointment, get my bloodwork done, and find a personal trainer. (I want to work on toning now that I did lose so much weight and I decided I need to gain some strength.) Back to flossing regularly. Putting cream on each night since it’s cold and my skin is getting dry. And learning to paint my nails. Even if just clear nail polish. I emailed myself the whole list.
Then, on January 4, I finally sat and made all the appointments and have already dyed my hair and cleaned my teeth. I’m flossing and putting cream on my skin. And I am still working on finding a trainer. And the nails. But not only have I made progress, I’ve setup recurring appointments to stop myself from falling behind again. I know that if they are on my calendar, they are considerably more likely to get done.
All this is to tell you that it makes a difference. Taking care of yourself, in big ways and small, makes a huge difference in your life. If you’re like me and tend to put yourself last and tend to put off these annoying-seeming tasks, I am here to encourage you to stop. Even if it might feel vain, here’s what happened to me:
Once I started taking better care of myself, I felt better both physically and emotionally. I started feeling proud of myself. I started feeling happier. Which then meant I was kinder and nicer to those around me. Including my family. I was more willing to go out an socialize. I felt lighter in my soul. I felt happier, more willing to say yes. It ended up having a huge positive effect on everyone around me.
And this sort of change has a snowball effect. You start by doing a little (like I did in 2010) and next thing you know you’re running three miles a day. Like they say, it starts with one step.
One single step.
So I hope you make the pact with me this year. To take better care of ourselves inside and out. Kinder, gentler to our souls and kinder, gentler to our bodies.
It’s so worth it.
Here are the sketches from last week:
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
Still enjoying these watercolors so for now working on that as well as the handwriting.
Daily Sketching is a weekly project for 2012. You can see a detailed post on my steps here.
One of the things I realized last year was that one of the keys to happiness and living a peaceful life was getting to know myself as well as I could. When I discovered my scrappy “voice” two years ago, scrapbooking became considerably more fun for me. I felt like I’d found my little corner and I was finally at home. And over the next year I realized more and more that life is similar. If I can figure out how I work and what I like and what I dislike in more areas of my life, I can be a lot more clear about my path, my intentions, my friends, my relationships, my choices, etc.
So I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Whenever I do or feel something, I try to step back and be more aware so that I can see if it’s one of the pieces of the puzzle that defines who I am. Journaling every morning helps me with that journey quite a bit.
This morning, as I journaled, I realized that I was feeling off. Not really upset but just off. There was an underlying level of anxiety and I didn’t like it. As I dug in deeper, I realized that it was because I felt like I still had a lot of items on my todo list for work. Some of these items were not clearly defined for me so I didn’t know their scope, making it even harder for me to have them undone.
I’ve learned over time that having things undone is not a comfortable place for me. Neither is lack of clarity. I tend to prefer clear deliverables with deadlines. And I will always, always, always deliver under the deadline. This is important to me. So because I know it’s important to me, I tend to get anxious when I have things due. All I can think about is getting them done. And this morning’s anxiety was of this kind.
So I did what I know works best for me. I sat down and got a bunch of stuff done. This helped clarify the scope of some of my items and eliminated others from my list. And guess what? Anxiety went away. Even though I didn’t actually finish the list or even clarify all the items, I still felt much better because I made solid progress and that’s what I needed.
The trick is to know what works for you.
In this case, I just needed to sit and get stuff done. There are cases where I need to sit and journal. Or get up and take a walk. When I am really really upset emotionally, I often need to take a nap so I can “reboot” and look at things with fresh eyes. If I am really really angry, I need to take a break and play with my kids so the joy and gratitude comes back and I can remember what matters most. If I am conflicted and super-frustrated emotionally, I tend to journal so I can sort out my feelings/thoughts on paper. There are cases where I just call a friend because I know I can’t resolve it on my own or just need to hear myself say it out loud.
There’s no right or wrong thing to do here. The trick is to know what works for you.
I don’t always get it right, of course. Sometimes, even when I know what I should do, I don’t do it. I whine. I wallow. I live in self-pity. I let it get out of hand. I scream. I do all these things, too. But more and more, I am trying to pay attention to what works for me so that I can have it in my arsenal of things to try when the need arises. I think the more aware I am of their existence and use, the more likely I am to look for them when the time is right.
Or so I hope.
ps: If you’ve sent me an email or left a comment in the last few days, I am deeply sorry that I haven’t replied yet. I’ve been desperately catching up on a long list of tasks and I have class tonight and a lot of work all week. So just please know that I will reply as soon as I can and I am not ignoring you in any way and also that you words are really important to me (which is why I am not just rushing with a precut reply.) I truly appreciate your patience with me.
One of the reasons I start my yearly projects early is to get a chance to test them out and make sure I have the process part down and make sure that I am going to actually enjoy working on the project. While I always reserve the right to change my mind, alter the project throughout, or even stop it, I tend to prefer to stick with it so I like to give each of them a test run before the year starts.
Such was the case with The Savor Project. I talked about it at length on this post and talked about my plans. I made pages all throughout November and then took a break for December since I was doing the December Daily album then.
When I came back to it to finish my last two November pages, my book looked like this:
It didn’t take long for me to realize that this system wasn’t going to scale. If my book was already this fat in one month, how would I fit 12 more months in it? How many books was I going to need? As much as I liked the idea of having this book and this specific format, I knew it wasn’t going to work for me. So for a few days I completely obsessed over it. And finally found a new format that was a little less ideal than I’d like but will scale to hold the whole year. I will do another post to talk about that project in my next post on Wednesday. For today I wanted to show you the full November album. I changed the cover slightly to reflect the changes and decided to declare this album the Savor November Album. And there we go.
So here’s the new cover:
I just changed the year to 2011 and added a little “nov” and that was done.
Here’s a quick look at the first pages I’d already shared with you with the text explaining them:
That page of journaling comes out and you can read more:
Here’s one from November 7:
And here’s one from November 8:
This one is quite involved as the left page flaps down to tell one more story:
And the right side has a top flap and a tag that comes out from the side and the heart is a journaling tag that also comes out:
this is an extreme example and most of my pages are simpler but it does show how far a spread can be taken:
and here’s an example with ephemera. My jury duty papers:
and our safeway (grocery) receipt from that week:
this is November 10 and 11. On the left is the kids playing together and David’s new desk which we spent all night putting together and he’s already lined up his legos on. I also added the box for the Robitussin because I was sick that week and absolutely hated taking this medicine.
this page has the back of the medicine and then a printout of a bug that caused me to work on a day I was officially off work. I took the 11th as a vacation day but then we had a compatibility issue and I ended up chasing it down all day so it wasn’t really a day off. I printed the public bug report out and put it in the pocket to remind myself.
Behind the printout, I put a photo of Nathaniel surrounded by diapers. This is to remind me that he finds ways to self-entertain when I am busy with work or being sick. And it ends up okay. It might be a mess but he’s happy.
The next spread is just a photo of the kids playing on the left. I was still sick and Jake was out of town. The kids were just sweet as can be. Played quietly and happily. I just feel indescribably lucky. The right page is about when Jake gets home from his trip and the kids are so happy to see him and hang out with him.
And finally the last spread. The one on the left is my performance evaluation. Just wanted to be able to come back and look at them. The right side is both the kids writing at different times of the day and how much joy it brings me to see them at the table and how much they enjoy writing.
and here are the rest of November pages:
November 17. On the left it’s about David and my reading project and the book we were reading then: The Westing Game. The right side talks about Nathaniel looking at all the catalogs we’ve been getting for the holidays and telling me all the toys he wants. And then on the bottom of that page is the first book in my new book club.
left side of this spread is Nathaniel’s sharing day at his school and how fun it was to watch him. The right side is about going to see the fourth Twilight movie with the same friends I’ve seen the last three.
And this page is November 20 – 22. Left side is David feeding Nathaniel and how much I love seeing them help each other. And the right side is about how silly they like to be together and how they always make me laugh.
November 23. I love how Nathaniel loves to go through my notebooks and look at my sketches and my art. So I have a photo of him doing that and some words on how it makes me feel. The right side is a surprise I got in the mail. Even though I had sent an email to Christine, I’d completely forgotten about it so I was very surprised when I got her card in the mail.
so I put the card in a pocket on the right side with the envelope it came in. I love the whole thing. Thank you, Christine.
The next spread is on Thanksgiving Day. On the left is actual Thanksgiving dinner and then on the right it’s all about setting up our tree and getting ready for Christmas.
And here’s the last spread of the month. On the left side is some of the happy mail I got that wasn’t actually Christmas related. A pair of heels from my mom all the way from Turkey and some wonderful prints I’d bought from Kal Barteski. And the right side is photos from the day of art and fun and rest we had during our Thanksgiving weekend.
And that’s the end of this little book. I still have some empty pages in there which I will likely take out and use for other art projects. I love how this little book turned out. I loved working on it and I am very grateful for it. Here’s to hoping my new setup makes me just as happy.
More on Wednesday.
The Savor Project is a weekly project for 2012. I tested it out for November of 2011 and this is the result of my test. You can read more about this particular book here.
As I explained a few weeks ago, the goal of this project is to spend some time with Nathaniel, just the two of us, so he can have projects with mommy, too. I plan to keep this project simple and fun for both of us. So, Friday night, I printed some letter sheets and bunch of things that start with the letter A. I cut them all up and then yesterday, Nathaniel and I glued them down together to create this simple page:
We talked about each of the words and then differentiated between big A and little A. Then he colored all the A’s on the left side and asked me to color the one on the right side. And we were done.
Here he is coloring:
After we were done, he said “Fun, Happy.” So I took that as a good sign that this project is going well. Simple and fun. That’s the plan.
Letters with Nathaniel is a weekly project for 2012. You can read more about it here.
Our first week of the year was relatively hectic. David went back to school and Jake went back to work. I hit the ground running on work, too. Nathaniel was home for one more week. The boys are growing up so fast. Nathaniel is becoming more and more vocal and insistent and difficult. He likes to put a teen after all the numbers. So it’s not four but fourteen (even if it’s 4) and then fiveteen. Even if we correct him, he insists it’s not 4 but fourteen. He also likes to whine and whine until he gets his way. The drama level has doubled or so. David’s growing up too and getting bored more quickly. But I am working with him to try and adjust his attitude. He’s still kind and generous and caring in his heart and I just hope that never goes away. Next week we all go back to routine but I have 4 appointments so it promises to be another hectic and full week.
Anyhow, here are some highlights from the first week of the year:
New Year’s Day, David made some awesome lego creations:
This one says “you are nice” and the lego men are building the letters. Isn’t it awesome?
then, around sunset, we went to a bird pond and watched the ducks, and the birds.
it was a lovely time to take some soft photos.
the boys held hands. I love it when they hold hands.
to the right of the pond was a muddy section with some black little birds and some sandpipers.
Nathaniel insisted on holding both Daddy’s and David’s hands.
It was also right by a small airport so the boys watched the planes take off and land.
the next day was the last day of our vacation so we got out the stamps:
and the markers
and just had fun
the boys loved it and I made an art journal page sitting there with them.
after david went back to school and jake, to work, Nathaniel hung out with me and colored while I worked.
when I stopped for a minute to take his photo, he smirked but wouldn’t look up.
but I kept insisting so finally he gave up.
and laughed and laughed.
he also played with stickers to entertain himself.
I snapped this rare shot of David smiling at me that day when he came home from school.
Nathaniel also grabbed the ipod and watched some movies (with no sound) to entertain himself while I worked.
On Friday we took our family shot. but no matter how hard we tried the boys wouldn’t both look at the camera at the same time.
Then Nathaniel got into this tiny box and asked Daddy to push him around.
which thrilled him to bits.
there was much joy
and jubilation
until it was David’s turn and you can see Nathaniel crying there in the background.
he wouldn’t stop weeping until he was back in the box.
despite his brother’s joy, he got up and let Nathaniel have one more turn. Then, this morning while I exercised, the boys decided to take out all their cars and trains and line them up. It was a long, long line.
when David was in swimming class, Nathaniel and I worked on his book so when David came home, he immediately wanted to share it.
and here we go. Another wonderful week gone. Here’s to a great week next week!
Weekly Diary is a project for 2012. You can read more about it here.
Well here we go. I’ve started working on this project but I still don’t know how I feel about it. Some weeks are going to end up more mixed media and less paper. Others…oh I have no idea. I am taking it one day at a time and doing whatever makes me happy. I don’t have any collage elements and I need to work on that. Anyhow, for now, I will share one page at a time and let’s see how this thing goes.
Here is the first page in my book:
The background of this one is just Tim’s tape and then the black circles on the bottom is a stamp. The other little ones are punched out of Margie’s papers with a little clock rubon from Maya Road. The big butterfly on the right is a chipboard one I covered with blue tissue tape. The rest is paint.
That’s it for this week. Not so much collage, I know….
Journey into Collage is a project for 2012. You can read more about it here.
I had a really rough morning today. Last night, I ended up working much later than I’d hoped. There were some problems and I just didn’t want to wait until today to resolve them. It meant that I went to bed almost two hours later than I usually do. As it got later and later, I told myself not to stress and that I wouldn’t let this lack of sleep and mess up in routine get to me. Tomorrow would be just fine, I said.
Then tomorrow came. And all was ok. I woke up and exercised, journaled and even sketched. I woke up the kids, made lunch, breakfast and sat to read to David. I was feeling good and proud of myself for not letting stress and tiredness get to me. I’ve been calm for the last few days and it’s been so nice.
As we got ready to walk out the door, I realized that David had left his jacket at school. This might seem harmless to normal people but he’s done this so many times before and we’ve had so many talks about it that I just lost it. I went to that bad place and started seeing dark. We went to school, me ranting pretty much the whole time. Looked for the jacket, couldn’t find it, and then I left David and got in the car with Nathaniel.
At which point, I burst into tears. I couldn’t contain myself any longer. I felt terrible about the person I was being. About how much this was upsetting me. About how it really didn’t matter and couldn’t I just get over it already? I felt shame and frustration and anger and sadness all over me. I almost turned around several times to talk to David but he was well into classes now and I didn’t want to interrupt.I emailed the teacher when I got home and cried a bit more. (I did also apologize to David later when he came home.)
Then I decided I wanted to finish my sketch and try to ease my soul a bit. Then work blew up so I had to do that. While I was working feverishly, Nathaniel swallowed one of his peanuts the wrong way and coughed and coughed and finally threw up all over himself, the carpet, and me. Once he did and got over the shock of it, he was back to his happy self, so I cleaned the carpets and everywhere else.
We cleaned ourselves up, started a wash and I got back to work. About midday, I realized that for the last three days, I’ve been at this frantic pace where there are so many things going on that I cannot catch up no matter what I do. Every time I do one thing, I am thinking about this other thing I should be doing. I get stressed and end up not finishing any of my tasks. This is true of both work and personal projects. So now I have eleventeen (i like to use that when i mean many many) tasks that are halfway there and nothing done.
This is about as far away as you can get from my “happy place.” This is the opposite of savoring and being calm.
So I just decided I needed to take a big, long breath. I stepped back from the two computers and took a little walk around the room. I sat back down, closed my eyes and decided to show myself some self-compassion (I have a lot more to say about this some other time soon) and took a big breath. And then two more.
By then, Nathaniel was awake so I got him and as he played, I made two big todo lists. One for work and the other for personal. I wrote out everything I could think of. Everything on my mind. In detail. And then I got up again. I decided I needed a break. I played with Nathaniel for 30 minutes. Hugging him, holding his hand, remembering what matters most.
And now here I am. Trying to honor that breath. My plan is to go back to my lists and tackle them one at a time. If a new one arises, it gets tacked to the back of the list unless it’s super-urgent. I know I can complete all of this in the next 48 hours if I just stop freaking myself out. And whatever doesn’t get done, will do so next week. As it turns out, none of these are so urgent that it needs to put me into a frenzy.
The frenzy is not good.
So here I am, taking a breath. Forgiving myself for a hard day. Forgiving myself for not being my best. Forgiving myself for not being my kindest. Forgiving myself for not being at my most productive. Forgiving myself for being human. Making mistakes.
With this breath, I forgive and I let go of it all.
Then I get to start again. Whole.
Here’s the second and last set I used with the Bienfang paper canvas. I do still have a few left but I won’t be using them for now. Don’t like this paper one bit.
So here’s the second set:
The full text reads: Give your heart with caution.
I layered two stencils for this but I don’t like the colors. It just didn’t turn out the way I envisioned.
And here’s the next page:
The full text reads: Life is ephemeral.
I used acrylics on this page. No idea where this came from 🙂
And here’s the next page:
The full text reads: There is freedom in self acceptance and compassion.
I love the colors but still hate the paper. So I finally just decided to stop using it.
Here are all (but one) of the pages I made with this paper:
Starting from here onward, I am using Fabriano Roma paper and 5.25×8.25 so I can glue into my Moleskine.
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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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