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Category: Thoughts and Ramblings

15

Published on 15 Comments on So Many Notebooks
Detail of my writing practice notebook cover

Today is going to be a bit of a ramble, just some things I'm thinking about. I love notebooks. If you have been around my blog or any of my other online spaces for a while, you already know this.

I keep trying to find The Notebook. I keep trying to convince myself that I should pick one and go with it. But I just finished up this composition book where I do writing practice, and the Happy Planner I thought I would use as my writing practice book and catch-all notebook didn't do it for me. So I'm on to another composition book for writing practice (still need to decorate the cover!). And I've been beating myself up about having too many notebooks.

But yesterday I asked myself, "Is it really too much? Do I really have too many?" Do I use them all? Off and on. I've been using the Happy Planner (the latest in my slew of disc-bound notebooks) for my everyday book, my catch-all. So great. That one has a purpose and gets used a lot. But I love a composition book for writing practice, and I use it. So still good. I also love Moleskine cahiers. I use them for on-the-go writing practice sometimes, for notes for classes when I'm taking longer classes with lots of notes. I don't use them as much anymore, but I still use them.

I do have a hardbound faux Moleskine that I was going to try bullet journaling in, but I can't quite seem to get the hang of that, at least not yet.

There are a lot of notebooks around her. But some of them are older and used to get used. Some of them are in use now. There aren't actually that many that aren't being used. And you know what? I love them! That right there means they belong. They make me happy. I'd love to get them all into one place. One shelf maybe, with filled books on one side and empty books waiting to be filled on the other. So I could see what I have. But right now I'm going to stop insisting that I pick one kind and stick with it. That's NEVER going to make me happy.

So, lots of notebooks it is! Check that off the list, stop worrying about it, and move on to what kind of stickers I need for the covers!

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10

Published on 10 Comments on Free Time
Photo by Ivan Sumlikin on Unsplash

I have a three day weekend starting now. I'm not even working every day right now, but those words "three day weekend" put a bounce in my step and a lightness in my heart. Why? What does this mean?

It's a freedom. And openness. Space that's ready to be filled with endless possibilities. There's so much energy in knowing you have this space and time to fill how you want. I want to feel like this more.

I don't have any answers right now. Just questions. How can I feel more of this three day weekend energy on ordinary days? How can I cultivate that enthusiasm and excitement and feeling of open space and open-ended possibility more often?

New paths start with the right questions. I hope I'll be back here, sooner rather than later, with some answers or at least some things to try.

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4

Published on 4 Comments on The Creative Body
Photo by David Charles Schuett on Unsplash

I don't always have the best relationship with my body. I spent my whole life from age ten into my forties trying to make it into the "right" shape and size. Then I spent a lot of time trying to break that diet, cult of thinness mentality. Then old injuries caused new injuries, and a medication caused tendon damage in my hip, and so chronic pain came along.

When our bodies are hurting or not working quite right, or when we have those bad body images foisted on us by society, it's easy to spend as much time as we can living in our heads. But one thing I'm learning more and more--especially now because I've started some new physical therapy stuff for the various injuries--is that our bodies are ourselves, and they need our love and attention.

I think our creative work can flow better, can come out better, when we spend some time doing good things for our bodies. What good things? That depends on the body, of course. Just like with other experts, it's important to not just listen to and jump in on whatever the fitness gurus say. Here too we have to find what's right for us.

I know that when I'm giving my body attention, I can find things that feel better (maybe not completely get rid of the pains, but make them better which is good). And I feel like this attention to my body helps me when I'm trying new things in my art--I can feel the difference in ways to hold a pen or brush, how much pressure is light versus heavy. The physical transfers itself into my creative work.

Giving attention to my body also helps me have more energy because I know when to rest and when to stop doing something that's putting too much strain on me. It touches on all parts of my life, including my creativity.

Our bodies are part of our creative journey. We should decorate them, care for them, love them, and give them all the good things so they can carry us along our path.

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16

Published on 16 Comments on Listy–April 10
Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash

I'm sluggish today. My allergies are trying to murder me, and I can't seem to get anything going. So here's a list of things I'm thinking about, in no particular order.

  • I need a different storage solution for my water soluble mark makers. I don't like having the art crayons in plastic tubes in with the watercolor crayons that are paper wrapped. And definitely I don't want the watercolor pencils mixed in there. So, something different needs to happen.
  • I want to take pictures. In high school and college I took photography classes and did a lot of shooting. I want to do it again, but I'm not entirely sure what to take pictures of. I think I might be overthinking it.
  • I absolutely love my art cart, and it doesn't fit in the space I have for it in my studio, and that's just not going to do. I need a new plan. Meanwhile it can stay next to the dining table where I've been doing all my art for the past year.
  • I have been aware for a while that part of why I don't go sit at my desk or art table to do things is that I am physically uncomfortable. Not really sure what to do with that. I've tried different chairs, but no luck so far. I am hoping the new physical therapy exercises I've found, along with the PT ball I got for them, will help with my hip and leg, and then maybe I will be more inclined to sit in my spaces and work. Meanwhile, I want to figure out all the other things that will make the space appealing to sit in so I can break my habit of sitting on the couch constantly. I don't get much of anything done here beyond writing blogs and newsletters and browsing the internet. And I want to do more.
  • I'm doing this 365 mile challenge (walk 365 miles in a year), and I'm afraid I'm not going to make the goal. I'm very slow and don't have the stamina to do more than a mile at a time. And now I injured my knee (recovering though!), so I've had to dial back a bit. By now, according to my plan at the beginning of the year, I should be walking 1.5 miles 5 times a week. Now I have to rework that plan, but I think I also need to rework how I'm thinking about this and start celebrating the walking I am doing and the progress I'm making. Because two years ago I could walk half a mile on a good day, and I had to use a cane. So this is really progress.
  • I kind of want to get a couple of friends together and form a writing critique and support group to give myself a push to get back to writing stories again.
  • I think I need to make myself a separate list of the things I need to get done over the next few days and get on them, because I've been procrastinating so now I'm behind, and I feel like I don't know where to start. When in doubt, start with a list.

That's about it. I mean, I could go on, but I'd just be babbling. I'll be back tomorrow, possibly with less babbling (but possibly not, so don't get too excited!).

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21

Published on 21 Comments on Creative Experiments
Photo by Chuttersnap on Unsplash

I love to try new things. And I like goals. But I don't always like super big things (like New Year's resolutions). Quite a few years ago, though, I felt like I needed something for the year. We had moved the year before (moved in together!), and we were in a new neighborhood. So I decided that I would try one new restaurant near our new place every month. It was so much fun! I went with various friends and with my partner. We all had a good time, and my partner and I found a couple of new favorite restaurants.

Another year I wanted to get better at knitting, so I decided I would make something every month. That experiment didn't work as well. I made a few things, but the monthly goal was too much for me (I'm a slow knitter!), and it started being not so fun

In 2019 I set the goal of going to each of the reciprocal venues that had free admission with our zoo membership, and that was the best one so far! So many fun trips!

This year, I'm trying out a new recipe every month, something that's a little tricky or intimidating to me. So far I've made bao, dolmas, and homemade pizza, and this month I'm going to try egg foo yung.

I've learned that my experiments work best if they're something I can do, something that happens on one day, rather than something that stretches over the whole month. I've also learned that I enjoy them more if I share them with others. So the years where it didn't go as well, wasn't as enjoyable, when I didn't make it to the end of the year werent' failures at all. They helped me see what works for me. And that's a thing I am trying to learn about all sorts of "failures." I thought this story about how things not going as planned or hoped are still helpful might be useful to some of you out there. I hope you are finding fun experiments of your own no matter what the outcome!

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8

Published on 8 Comments on What If

In a group I'm in we were talking about how "what if" can really hold us back from doing things we want to do. I joined the conversation, agreed with what we were all saying, gave encouragement. And then I was thinking about my own what ifs, and I realized something really big.

My what ifs do hold me back, but it's not only the potential bad things that could happen. I have a really huge, anxious reaction about the possible good things that might happen. Unpacked that a little more and found this big, loud voice saying that if I do have some success I won't be able to do it more than once or won't be able to sustain it. Lots of reasons about why those things are true.

So wow... is this a fear of success? Not exactly. It's a fear of not being able to be successful in an ongoing way. I have work to do, clearly, but this is really interesting, and it's very cool to have this new piece of information.

This work of growing and moving forward is ongoing, and if we stay open and pay attention we will always find new clues, yeah?

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Photo by Alex Iby on Unsplash

This is something I think about a lot, and a tweet just reminded me of it again. There's a lot of talk that floats around about how if you find your right path, if you choose the right thing, then life will be easy and breezy and you'll have energy and just float along your path to success and happiness.

This is garbage. And it's really starting to make me mad.

Finding your thing in life (and you might have more than one, sometimes at the same time), finding your passion, that doesn't take away health issues, depression, anxiety, the need to cook meals and clean the kitchen and do laundry. It does not mean that everything else will fall away and clear a path for you.

Your passion is not a bulldozer, it’s a guide. It doesn't make your path easy. It makes it worth it to keep going.

Finding your passion gives you a focus. It gives you something to aim for. It can give you bursts of energy. It can also give you a reason to keep going when you're too tired and sad and want to lie down and give up.

If it is difficult, if you are struggling, do not think you are doing it wrong. Do not think you have chosen poorly. Know that there will be easy times and hard times, up and down times, smooth times and stuck times. Life is like that.

Remember that the path doesn’t have to be--probably won’t be--easy. And you don’t have to be able to see the whole path. Choose one small step and focus on that. The next step will be there for you when it’s time.

Hard is fine. Hard doesn’t mean failure. Your dream is worth traveling a tangled path. You can do this!Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

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Photo by JR Korpa on Unsplash

I think we all end up returning to something in our lives--a city, a person, a project, a career. Sometimes we find ourselves returning to something we didn’t even know we missed. That’s how I’m feeling about my MuseCraft™ work. I was so busy, I thought I didn’t miss it, but when things calmed down I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

But how do you return from a hiatus that you thought would be a few months but turned into more than a year? (Closer to two, I think, because my brief foray back into the blog last year was pretty short lived and unfocused.)  How do you return to something you thought you were finished with? How do you return to something you love when you’re a different person than you were when you left?

I think you return--to anything, after any time--by not trying to catch up. By just saying, “Hello, I’m here.” And then moving forward from there. Start where you are now, and take the next small step. Let what you learned last time inform your choices, but don’t try to recreate how things were before. You know the old saying--you can’t step in the same river twice. It’s best to not try.

Here are a few ideas for returning to something you’ve been away from for a while.

Step 1: Revisit what you’ve already done. Don’t make changes or edits. Revisit it as if you’re viewing someone else’s work as much as you can. Don’t write anything down. Don’t look for changes. Look at it with curiosity and appreciation.

Step 2: Make a list of what you want the project to be when it’s finished. How do you want to feel about it? How do you want your audience to feel about it?

Step 3: Make a list of steps you need to take to get it done. Make them small. Smaller than you think you should. So small they seem silly. Make them smaller than that. Small is good! (So is silly.)

Step 4: Pick a target date or create a timeline for doing the work.

Step 5: Find some support. An accountability buddy or group. A hashtag to use to share your progress with others doing similar work. Something to give you a place to check in and talk about how things are going.

Now get started. Pick that first, small step to take. Tell someone about it. Do it. Don’t look ahead to what’s next. Just do the step in front of you. After that you can pick the next one and do it. The others will still be there when you get to them, so don’t worry about them right now. Just focus on the step in front of you and start heading toward your goal.

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This is a newsletter I wrote a few years ago, with a couple of updates because technology changes all the time.  Some friends and I were talking about technology and how much we use it, and a couple of people I know are talking about taking time away from the internet or at least away from social media.  Now seemed like a good time to repost this.

Technically Speaking
by Kim Switzer

How do you feel about technology? Does it make your day? Drive you nuts? Is it a helper or a distraction or some of each? Do you run out to get the latest gadgets, or are you still using a cell phone from 2003?

Don't worry if you and technology aren't best buds. You don't have to ditch it and go live in a cave—you can make it work for you and maybe even learn to enjoy it!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

A lot of people have something of a love/hate relationship with technology, especially the internet and social media. I see posts and notes from people fairly regularly saying they are taking a break from technology, going on a technology vacation, etc. The main culprits that seem to send them skittering away from the internet are Facebook, Twitter, and other social media, the things that can suck you in and hold you captive way longer than you intended to stay. So these people disconnect themselves for a while, then they show up again later seemingly rested, rejuvenated, and glad to be back.

I think time away from the internet, the computer, your cell phone, etc. is a great idea. I'm just not sure doing it in big, sometimes dramatic breaks from the internet is the most useful way to do it. I think incorporating times throughout the week where you aren't on the computer (or the iPhone or Android or tablet or any of that) is extremely important for creatives, and doing it regularly is better for your creative balance than doing technology binge-and-purge cycles.

Don't worry that taking regular time away from technology will put you behind or make you miss something. I do very little on the internet or even the computer in the evenings and on weekends. (Unless I'm sick, in which case I spend way too much time on Facebook reading and commenting on any random thing that comes by to distract myself, but that's a special case.) Most of the time on a work night I might check my e-mail and maybe Facebook once in the early evening. This usually takes about half an hour, and then I put down the computer and pick up some knitting or a journal or a book to read. And a kitty. I almost always pick up a kitty. On the weekends, I usually spend an hour or maybe a little more on Sunday evening doing a quick catch-up, but mostly I fill my weekends with AFK (away from keyboard) activities. I get plenty of non-technology time, and it feels really good to pop back in to my e-mail and Facebook and see what people have been up to. Lots more interesting things get a chance to pile up if I don't check
every 15 minutes.

Of course, when I first signed up for Facebook, I was on there all the time. And I still fall into that now and then—hours frittered away mindlessly scrolling and refreshing, looking for who-knows-what. And that's okay. Sometimes we need mindless distraction to let our brains rest. If you find yourself doing it a lot, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to ditch the technology, though. This sort of behavior is actually an excellent road sign. For me, this behavior lets me know that I'm avoiding something that is feeling too hard or overwhelming. And that lets me know I need to examine whatever it is I'm avoiding and find a way to break it down into smaller steps. Technology becomes a mini-coach, helping me realize that something isn't working and I need to give it some attention.

Quick Exercise: If you find yourself procrastinating or numbing your brain with the internet, social media, other technology, or anything else, try a little journaling. Grab your journal and write down this question: “What in my life needs some time and attention from me right now?” Write about it if you like—just let the words come, don't edit or censor yourself. But you don't need to push for an answer. You can just let this question simmer in the back of your mind and be open to what answers may come up later.

How else can you make technology work for you?

Timers: One of my favorite tools to use. I like to set a timer and write as fast as I can for 10 or 15 minutes. I also set a timer when I want to have a little break and poke around on Facebook or elsewhere on the internet but don't want to get sucked in for half a day. Some of my favorite timers:

  • My iPod Touch timer with its variety of cute sounds (currently, it's set to “trill”).
  • Countdown Timer, a free online timer with a variety of options.
  • Cool Timer, a nifty, free timer to download that lets you play MP3s and all sorts of sounds.
  • Insight Timer, a meditation time available for iPhone, iPad, and Android that uses Tibetan singing bowl sounds; I use it for writing and other things, though, rather than meditation.

 Calendars and To-do Lists: Don't just use these for the normal stuff—deadlines and appointments and anniversaries and such. Get creative! Do you practice The Artist's Way? Put your artist dates on your calendar (one of my friends puts the question “what are you going to do this week?” on her calendar to remind herself to plan an artist date—such a great idea!). Put little questions (like the one from the exercise above) on there so they pop up occasionally and remind you that you want to think about them. Mark off time for working on creative projects, use calendars and lists to remind you that you want to spend time researching a new skill. Put some fun, exciting, creative stuff on there and let your calendars and lists help keep creativity at the forefront of your mind. My faves in this category:

  • Google Calendar--it integrates really well across multiple devices, it's really easy to update, and you can get pop-up or e-mail reminders or both.
  • Remember the Milk--a great to-do list with options; it integrates with Google Calendar, lets you make lists for multiple categories in your life (I have categories for MuseCraft, writing, household stuff, body and exercise stuff, and a few others), and lots of other good stuff.
  • Awesome Note--I love this calendar/to-do list combo! My only complaint about it is that there isn't an Android version.

Various and Sundry Other Bits of Goodness:  you can use technology to inspire you.  Sign up for newsletters, poem-a-day e-mails, quote-a-day e-mails, travel photos, cute animal photos--whatever makes you feel happier and more ready to get back to your creativity.  Use your tech to capture things you want to read later, recipes or tutorials you want to try, classes you want to take, things you want to remember.  Use music playlists (on your MP3 player or on a service like Pandora) to set your mood, podcasts to keep up with topics you like, funny websites to cheer you out of a slump.  Use your technology, then set it aside and go outside and play!  Some of my favorite technology bits:

  • Evernote--a great place to capture notes, pictures, whole websites, whatever you want; you can make notebooks, notebook stacks, use tags to make it easy to find your stuff, web clippers that load right in your browser.  And it integrates across all the devices.
  • Pocket--you can put all sorts of things in your pocket to read later, and most of the stuff is available offline!  And you can set it up on multiple devices and browsers, plus it's really easy to use.
  • Bloglovin--If you aren't already using a blog reader, try this one (it's my favorite since the old Google Reader went away).  Or try one in general.  You can filter the blogs you follow into categories, so if you feel like reading things about embroidery right now you can open up your reader, click your "embroidery" category, and not have to sift through things you don't want to look at right now.  I strongly suggest that you make yourself a "daily" category (or weekly if that's better for you) for the blogs you especially want to keep up with.
  • Diigo--An excellent bookmare device, complete with a "diigolet" you can load in your browser to make bookmarking sites ultra-easy.  And, as with many of my favorite things, it lets you use tags, and it integrates across multiple devices, plus it has room for notes on each bookmark you create.

I could go on, but I won't.  My point is that technology doesn't need to be a burden or some form of enslavement that we need to get away from.  Experiment.  Don't be afraid to ditch things someone said you "need" (three Facebook accounts, one for personal, one for your business, one for your creative stuff?  No way!  Not for me.)  Don't follow any rules about using technology or social media that don't feel good for you or don't leave you time and space to just be you.  Do the techy thing your way, have fun with it, and don't forget to go outside and play in the sun sometimes.Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Published on

The face of "I want that!"
The face of "I want that!"

I'm reading Danielle LaPorte's The Desire Map: A Guide to Creating Goals with Soul with two of my artsy friends.  We meet on Saturday mornings over Spreecast to talk about it.  I sit in my studio in my big, comfy chair with coffee and my journal and chat with my friends and feel very girly and artsy and modern.

We're still reading--I think I'm about half-way through the book--so I don't have a fully formed opinion, but it's been a really interesting and thought-stirring experience, so I wanted to write about now rather than wait until I've finished the book.

I've been a strong believer in Charles Kingsley's idea: “We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.”  The Desire Map talks about deciding how you want to feel and using that desire to choose your path (wildly inadequate paraphrased description, but I hope you get the idea).

To me, I want to feel enthusiastic.  I want to be interested in the things around me and the things I'm doing, so this work on desire keeps bringing this quote to mind. I hope I find my enthusiasms. I hope I figure out how to live this enthusiastic life.

What are you enthusiastic about?Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail