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Here are the sketches from last week: Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:
Still enjoying these watercolors so for now working on that as well as the handwriting. I was supposed to do only four a week but I am loving these so much I just don’t want to skip a day. Daily Sketching is a weekly project for 2012. You can see a detailed post on my steps here. I am taking two year-long classes at Big Picture Classes this year. I am pretty sure you must have heard of both. Even though these are not amazing, I still thought it would be fun to post my progress each month. If for no other reason than to record things. One is One Little Word with Ali Edwards. I took this class last year, too. But even though I watched all the videos and kept up with the class, I didn’t do any of the work (well I did the first month only.) As it worked out, I got the Pink Paislee binder she used last year so I decided I would do the assignments as well this year. (Of course, she’s changed format since then but I am still doing them in my Pink Paislee binder anyway.) Here are my OLW pages so far: the opening page:
and a photo of me on the back. this was the only photo I had that had just me so I decided to go with it:
and here’s the assignment for january:
and there we go. If you’re not taking this class but do pick a word for the year, I highly recommend the class. It’s a wonderful way to keep your word close to your soul and mind all year long. The second class I am taking is Cathy’s Move More Eat Well. For me, this class is to do the most important part of the health work I started last year: maintaining. It’s hard to lose weight and eat well, true, but it’s much much harder to maintain it for the rest of your life. And I hope to never have to gain my weight back or lose the exercise routine or start eating badly again. But I know it can all happen if I don’t pay attention. So the class is here to make sure I continue to pay attention. Here are my assignments so far. Opening page:
back of opening page. all this was hard work for me, for some reason. and, yes, I used the same photo.
and here’s the page for January:
And here we go. That’s where we are now. I will post a February update once we get there. Are you taking either of these classes? Do you like them? Here are two more spreads from our book:
The left side of this spread is a drawing David made (I should have photographed it, too!) and the right side is a little art project we did at the Children’s Discovery Museum. And the next spread:
The left side has two items in this case. David has some spy teams at school and he wanted a special code they could communicate in so Jake downloaded and laminated this one for him. (I can’t remember what it is but it’s some kind of code.) On the bottom is the sticker from the Exploratorium from when he and Jake went to meet Jake’s friend Geoff and his son. David got to look through a microscope there which he thought was awesome. The right side is our ticket of the Train of Lights we took during Christmastime at Niles, CA. David loves that train and the yummy cookies he eats when we takes it. There we go. That’s all for this week. More coming soon. 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 crazy week. I had five appointments on top of my crazy work and assignments for CHA. But it all worked out. I dyed my roots, got my teeth cleaned, went to book club, etc. etc. I still managed to get all my CHA work done and did a lot of work at work, too. Jake helped out a lot so I could run around like crazy and get stuff done and I am grateful for that. The kids were doing great, too. David had a full week at school and is loving his afterschool lego class and his swimming class. He seems to be doing great socially too and I am very proud of him for being a kind boy. Nathaniel’s loving being back at school, too. He decided (or David told him) one of the lego man is “bad guy” so we call him that, now. And he’ll occasionally shoot the bad guy and bad guy will be dead. They both like shooting each other and playing dead (especially the falling to the ground part.) He’s also working on going to the bathroom, now. He likes to sit there for a long time but today we actually made progress which was great. All in all, quite a busy but lovely week for us. Anyhow, here are some highlights from last week: Nathaniel’s been really enjoying playing with legos lately. Building things and making noises. I love how he smiles when he knows I’m taking a photo.
David watching Harry Potter.
Nathaniel “driving” his creation.
And, of course, wanting to watch the movie with David.
I can never have enough of those eyes.
even when he makes the faces.
little boy posing for me.
and this is what he looks like most of the time.
i told him no blankie in the photo. he smiled.
he’s been loving the binoculars too.
even when he uses them the wrong way.
I love this photo. He loves being able to put his hands in his pockets.
he thinks it’s so super fun.
And I especially love when they conspire and play together.
more of my blue-eyed boy.
Nathaniel still loves getting inside this box.
more playing together. Legos are just the best toys ever.
and some fun family photos. a lot of laughter.
So very very grateful for my family.
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. Here’s the next page in my book:
And this one was really meant to be homework for my I Heart Drawing class. It was to practice drawing hands. I did my journaling inside her dress. All of her is painted except for the balloons which are from Pink Paislee tissue paper. even less collage-y. ugh. i know. Journey into Collage is a project for 2012. You can read more about it here.
I watch a lot of TV. A lot. And I’ll be honest, each time I read about how to increase your productivity you need to turn off the TV, I scoff a little. I’ve been watching a lot of TV since I was about 15 and I often can’t do work without it on. Well, in the name of 100% honesty, I will say that most of the time I am not actually watching the TV since I really use it for the noise. I am often processing photos, doing art, or some other recurring task at the same time. When I was in high school and college, I couldn’t do my homework unless the TV was on. And I dare someone to tell me that I am not productive. TV is not the problem. At least not for me. Alas, this is not a post about TV and whether it will kill your productivity or not. While I am not very selective about my subject matter and watch just about anything that’s on the air between 8-11, I do make one exception: reality TV. I don’t watch any reality TV. None at all. When this genre first came to be popular, I watched a few of the shows but it didn’t take me long to realize that they were more focused on humiliation and drama than just about anything else. And I just couldn’t take it. I couldn’t watch people’s worst sides being exposed again and again. Seeing them cry, be made fun of, or just outright humiliated was too much for me. I decided early on to give the whole genre up and have never looked back. (disclaimer: I am sure there are some truly good ones so please don’t take this as a judgement if you do indeed watch them, it’s just my personal opinion.) After I wrote yesterday’s message, Ann commented: And as another of my friends says when other people’s chaos seems so urgent, “don’t just do something, sit there!” It’s amazing how often crazy-making people will move on to the next person on their emergency list if they don’t get an immediate drama-gratification from me. Of course, that means I don’t get to be their hero; instead I have to be my own hero. That’s substantially harder. I’m not one of those people who slows down to watch when I see an accident on the road (unless they need help of course). I don’t try to get involved in other people’s drama. While I do also get curious sometimes, I try to stay out of gossip and negative talk. I’ve always tried to be good about this. Sometimes I failed and other times I was more successful. But for 2012, I decided to make a more drastic change. I’ve basically wiped out as much of the sarcasm, drama, and gossip out of my life as possible. I just decided that reading sites with negativity or sarcasm was adding to my overall discontented feeling. I’ve stopped reading super-depressing books. I’d already stopped watching the news a long time ago. I just feel like these were taking away from my life and not enhancing it in anyway. Maybe it’s because when I get into it, I am really involved, I deeply care and it ends up becoming a big part of my life. I’ve even been known to care and worry more than the original person. So now I give it up. This doesn’t mean a friend cannot come to me with a genuine grief or worry. Of course I am here for that. I am here to support everyone I love and care about. But I am no longer getting involved with the needless drama or gossip. In my life or online. I am trying to move away from people who favor drama and sarcasm. I am trying to focus more on positive and on the real people. I made a point to go through my RSS reader and cleared out a lot of blogs. I took my reading list and eliminated several titles. I don’t know what it is about the spiral of drama that sucks people in but I just know it puts me in a bad place where I don’t like to be and it takes me away from being the best version of myself. So I’ve chosen to clear the noise around me. And Ann’s right, of course, it’s hard being my own hero. But it also is so much more satisfying. And so much more worthwhile. This is not the same set as the original Roma papers I used but it is still Roma paper so I am going to continue with the title for now. So here are the pages I did during the end of last October:
The full text reads: Beauty is all around you. And here’s the next page:
The full text reads: Take time to Breathe. And here’s the next page: I posted this one a few weeks ago on Julie’s blog.
The full text reads: It is ok to ask for what you want. And here’s the next page:
The full text reads: It is easy to get lucky when you work hard. I dislike this page.And the next one, too. And here’s the next page:
The full text reads: You deserve to shine. I really dislike the colors in this one. And that’s the full set for October:
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.
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: 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. |
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