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12

Published on 12 Comments on Summer Dreams
Image by Tyler Nix on Unsplash

I'm starting to feel that summer vibe. It's almost June. Just over three weeks of school left. It's time to make plans!

Summer is one of those times of year for me that makes me want to make plans and do projects and get things done. (I also get this bug at the new year and in September). I have so many ideas whirling around my head! And you know what that means. Time to make a list!

Things I Want To Do This Summer

  • A summer vision board, maybe on the Solstice to roll me through the end of the year (anyone want to join in?)
  • Turn that piano we got into an art desk for my studio
  • Finish setting up my studio
  • Day trip to the coast (it's been sooooo long!)
  • Set up my own mini writing retreat in the yard
  • Go on at least one photo walk (and learn how to use the fancy DSLR camera we were gifted last year)
  • Try out at least three new-to-me walking trails

I could go on, but I won't. I shouldn't. I tend to think summer is forever and that I can do a million things. And that's just not true. Especially because we only have two room ACs, so when it's super hot I'm either in the living room or the bedroom just trying to stay cool (and trying not to get anxious ahead of time about how I will handle the heat food wise and exercise wise and whatnot). And now apparently we get fire season here, so I know some part of the late summer (please please please not too much, not like last year!) will be all about hunkering down trying to stay cool while having to keep the house sealed up (and the fire season thing makes me so very nervous, and I'm trying not to let myself get too anxious about it months in advance).

I'm trying to remember the excitement of childhood summer and keep the anxieties quiet so I can enjoy the season, make some things, get some things done. Weird that there can be so much excitement while there's also so much worry, isn't it?

Anyhow, what are your summer plans? Any projects in the works? Travel? I'd love to hear what you're planning to be up to!

Until next time,
Kim

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16

Published on 16 Comments on Five Things, May 19
Cute new lights in our yard!

I was trying to write a different post, but it's not quite working out, so how about a little list of things I like right now in my world? I've had a couple of weird and cranky days, so I think I need this.

  • We have pretty lights all around our yard now, and they make me smile every time I look out the window and see them all lit up at night.
  • I have several books loaded onto my Kindle for reading, so I'm spoiled for choice, and I love that feeling. It's very comforting knowing I have lots of good things to read.
  • I got some new stencils and paint, so this weekend I'm going to have some good play time.
  • It's been really chilly the last couple of nights, so sleeping has been extra good.
  • All of my closest people have received their second doses of vaccine, so very soon we will get to be together in person (and we're putting in a patio and fixing up the yard for the occasion!)

What about you? How's your world? What good things are there for you right now?

Until next time,
Kim

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6

Published on 6 Comments on Around Here May 16

Here's a little glimpse of the hodgepodge of projects I have going on right now. Is it possible to have too many good ideas? Nah...

First, the big new project that came on suddenly last night. We're doing a piano to desk conversion for my art table in my studio! It really did come together fast. My partner found a photo and showed it to me because he knew I would like it. I said, "I want it!" I didn't even realize at the time that it used to be a piano; I just thought it was a really cool desk. So he checked to see if anyone around had a piano. He found someone who had posted two minutes before about a piano they were giving away because it could no longer be tuned or repaired (apparently people give away a lot of pianos!). This morning he texted the person. They said come get it. He texted his father and brother who both happened to be available (a rarity because they're busy guys), and now a piano is at my house waiting to become a desk!

Next up we suddenly found ourselves in possession of two bases from old treadle sewing machines! One is going to become a patio table with a reclaimed wood top, and the other is going to be the base for a stand-sit desk in my partner's office. And the old machine that came with one of them is going to be garden decor, possibly where it is on my favorite big stone in the front of the house or possible on a few paving stones in our biggest plant bed. That part's to be decided. We also had been talking about using the metal from a park bench to make a patio chair from if we could find one, and then his father said they were getting rid of an old and damaged bench and asked if we wanted it! And of course the answer was yes!

Finally, a friend who knows I love old typewriters (I have a small collection) gifted me this fabulous mid-century Royal that I'm cleaning and tuning up to use in a cool bookbinding project I'm just starting (the paper in the second photo is for that).

Sometimes you tell the Universe you want a thing or two, and the Universe is very generous and sends it all your way. I feel like that's been happening the past week or so, and now I'm pretty sure I have plenty of projects to last me most of the summer. Stay tuned! I'm sure there will be plenty of photos as I go along.

Until next time,
Kim

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4

Published on 4 Comments on Follow the Rules

I made this over the weekend from a Wanderlust lesson. I was really resistant to this lesson and kept letting myself get busy and not get to it, but finally I told myself to just do it so I could move on. I wanted to change the instructions, do some other things, do something easier than cutting out the fussy silhouettes... But I made myself follow the rules so I could learn the techniques.

I love this spread! A lot. I will probably do this again. I will probably add some of the things I was going to do in place of the stencil and mask to see what happens. But I wouldn't have that base to start from for experiments if I hadn't first followed the rules and learned the techniques.

So what are my takeaways here?

  • If you're really resistant to something, you should do it to find out why. For me, I don't do silhouettes and I was uncertain of how to do the paint around the edge of the mask, and I wanted writing in the cat silhouette but don't like my handwriting, so I was avoiding all of it.
  • Follow the steps. Learn the techniques the way they're laid out (like when you're learning to cook a new food), then you can change things up, experiment, make it your own.
  • Try out things even if the final product looks like something you don't like. You still might find techniques that you can use to make things you do like.

That's all I have today. It's been a busy week, and I'm tired but want to spend some time reading some blogs before bed (it's such a great way to unwind!). What things might you stretch yourself by doing? I'd love to hear what you're trying out.

Until next time,
Kim

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15

Published on 15 Comments on Beginner Mind
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Sometimes when I'm trying something new with something I do a lot of (writing!), it becomes a real struggle. My brain doesn't want to take in the new information because it says, "But I already know all sorts of stuff about this topic!" Even though I know the information I'm trying to take in is new or might give me a new perspective, I run up against all the things I already know, and I think I know enough and don't need the new stuff.

The thing is, new stuff is pretty much always good. A new perspective, a new way of approaching something, all of that can lead to creative growth. But you (I!) have to bring yourself to a place where you can let in the new stuff. You have to get back to beginner mind.

When I'm in that place I return to Natalie Goldberg's writings about beginner mind to help me open up to new things and look at new things the way I would have as an absolute beginner. This article shares some of her thoughts on that. I'd like to also add a few ideas of my own.

  • You can't unlearn what you already know to get to beginner mind. I find that it's not a forgetting of what has come before. It's more a quieting of the voices telling you what you already know. Self-talk helps a lot with this for me. "Yes, but I don't know this thing from this person's perspective." Or, in the case of things like writing exercises and things to do, "Just do it and see what happens even if I already know how to do this a different way. See if the two ways go together." Things like that, acknowledging that I do know things but am trying new things anyhow really helps me get past the resistance and into more of a beginner mindset.
  • Talking back to the judgemental voice helps me, too. My brain sometimes has a fit about the new thing being different from what I already know and likes to throw out "this is dumb!" or "this is wrong!" messages. I tell myself, "It's just new. Just try it and see what happens." (That "try it and see what happens" is my favorite!)
  • As I work through new techniques and ideas, I do a comparison to see how they are like what I already know. Then I find where the differences are. My brain likes to analyze things, so doing this opens me up to moving forward with the new stuff.
  • Finally, sometimes I fall back on a favorite KaizenMuse saying. "So what? I'll do it anyway!" I just add a bunch of attitude and plow forward.

I'll admit, I am mostly writing this to remind myself that trying new things is good and useful. I'm butting up against my "but I already know stuff!" voice a lot as I work on The 90-Day Novel, I need the reminders to keep going anyhow. I hope some of this is useful for you if you're trying something new in an area you're already knowledgeable in, too.

As an aside, I always feel weird ending blog posts. I feel like there should be something that says, "the end," but not just a wrap-up paragraph as if it's an essay. So I'm going to try a sign-off.

Until next time,
Kim

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14

Published on 14 Comments on Odds and Ends, May 5
Just a small selection of project scraps from the table next to me. Don't worry, I put the cap back on the marker!

Just a little wrap-up after my daily blogging with Effy Wild during April.

  • I love doing blog challenges! I had forgotten how much fun they are, and I'm so glad I did this and connected with a bunch of other creatives and stretched my blogging muscles.
  • Daily blogging is way too much for me, at least long term. But I like the push of "blogging must happen today," so I'm trying out a set schedule of blogging on Wednesdays and Sundays. We'll see how that goes.
  • Back on April 1 at the start of the blog-along I wrote about these cute habit trackers I found. I loved them! They were adorable! I completely forgot to use them after two days. It turns out having them glued into my planner does not remind me to fill them in. I did do some of the things on that list (blogging for the challenge which I did each day in April, story writing which I did very little of, and cleaning something which I also did very little of). I do great with my monthly exercise calendar which has my goals for the month and squares to put cute stickers in every time I exercise. And it also hangs on a board in my bedroom where I see it several times a day, and I'm wondering if that visibility is a much more crucial element than I realized. I'm going to rearrange a few things and make space for hanging up more trackers, and I will try again in June (or maybe a half-month thing starting mid-May).
  • I'm working through a 90-day novel writing book with a couple of writer friends. We started May 1, and so far it's different from what I imagined and seems pretty useful. More about that in another post, maybe on Sunday.

That's about it in my corner of the world. Looking at what's been working. Making plans for how to use that going forward. How are things in your corner?

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6

Published on 6 Comments on Feelings

I had a few different topics rolling around in my head for today's post. Then I opened Jon Acuff's Friday newsletter, and this sentence flung itself into my brain. I almost never read newsletters when they hit my inbox, so this was kind of an odd situation. I decided it must mean something, me reading it on the day I got it, and this sentence getting stuck in my head. And so here we are.

Feelings are an odd thing for me. I used to fight mine a lot. I used to try to never cry and not show too many of them. In my family, I was known for never crying at funerals. And at the same time I was actually incredibly emotional. I just saved the tears and the expression of it all for when I was alone or with a couple of close friends. It was like this all through high school and college and beyond.

I've been practicing more at expressing my feelings, examining them and doing what needs doing with them in a timely manner rather than burying them. And I've realized that my struggles with trying to control my emotions, keep them in check and invisible, has lead me to let them rule me and make all my decisions for me.

I've had that understanding but not quite these words for it until today when this phrase came along and lit everything up for me. Emotions are important. They need to be listened to, acknowledged, worked with. But letting them make the decisions in how I talk to myself and my actions--that doesn't need to be the way things go.

This is something I know, of course. I've known it for a long time. It's so much harder to practice than it seems like it should be. So this reminder today, when I've been having a lot of hard days, is good and needed.

I don't have a wrap-up. This is just a thing that swirled back into my attention today in a way that made it a little clearer and more solid, and now I am thinking of ways to work with it to help me move toward the life I want to be living. It's good stuff, but it's still open-ended. Like life is. Like so many things are.

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16

Published on 16 Comments on Dear Diary, April 29
Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash

Thursdays are turning into weirdly hard days. I got called last minute to go to a different school, and it was an elementary school again (I teach middle school and high school for Pete's sake!). And a mix of things have added up to lots of pain in my leg, so I can't get comfortable and I can't concentrate so I can't get anything done that I really wanted to do, and it's about bed time, and I feel like there's too much stuff I need to do in the next three days. And really what I want to do is delve into this new writing book I'm working through with a friend and some writer friends of hers. We're starting Saturday, but we're doing the prep exercises right now, and being responsible and doing the stuff I need to do is killing me! I don't want to be an adult right now!

Okay, I feel a little better now. I highly recommend writing down the stuff that's bugging you. And complain about it, too! I think it clears the brain. Now I'm going to go write a list. On paper. Of the things I need to do over the next few days. And I'll get it all done. That's the power of writing things down for me. This brain is ready to go!

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14

Published on 14 Comments on Gratitude Vs. Good Things
Photo by Sebastián Silva on Unsplash

I don't like gratitude lists. I think it's great that other people like them, but I kinda hate them. They feel forced and phony, and the few times I've worked with them I've been really resentful. But I love writing lists of good things in my day (today the good things are plants--I bought gerbera daisies and polka dot plants and spearmint and curly parsley!).

Aren't they the same thing, you ask. I ask, too. Maybe they are. Somehow, the designation of gratitude list and the designation of list of good things sit very differently with me. Making a gratitude list makes me feel like I'm faking an emotion, because I often don't feel particularly grateful about the things I'm writing down. But a good things list is more objective, or at least more removed from the emotion part. I'm just looking around, observing good things, and writing them down. I'm not trying to force myself to feel anything about it.

That's really it. I don't have a point to this post really except to say that I don't like gratitude lists but I do like good things lists. Do you do either one of these? How do you feel about them?

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2

Published on 2 Comments on Five Things–April 27

When I'm tired, especially when it's the kind of tired from my body hurting and it's still hurting, it's hard to find five good things (or even three or two, honestly) in my day. But I think that's when it's especially important for me to do these lists. Finding some good things on hard days keeps me from sliding into even harder times. So here's a list for today.

  • I have a day off tomorrow, so I get to stay up a little later (I am a night owl!) and sleep in a bit in the morning.
  • We ordered pizza for dinner.
  • I was invited to do a writing thing with a group of writers starting on the weekend, and I have a brand new composition book to crack open for it!
  • M surprised me with an adorable Strange Planet mask to add to my collection of fun masks to wear at school. It even says "knowledge transmitter."
  • It's chilly enough to have the fireplace on and a blanket on my legs (under the sleeping kitty), and it feels very cozy and relaxing right now.

That's my list. How's your day?

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