Sketchbook Snapshot: DuckTales
We’ve been watching a LOT of the new DuckTales series over here.
My Musical History
Music is something that runs in my veins. One of my grandmothers sang in a choir that traveled the U.S. and then joined her church choir later in life and the other plays both the piano and accordion. My parents met in their high school band and my mother was part of a rock cover band for a while. I followed in my family’s footsteps and joined middle school choir where I was quite bored with the dated songs but my love of singing was nonetheless nurtured.
My freshman year of high school, I transferred schools early on in the year and was ready to start anew. A talent show was happening in a month and my new friend and I wanted to participate as a singing duo. We practiced singing along to a karaoke version of The Chicks’ Goodbye Earl, a song about a friend helping out a friend by killing her abusive husband. We even choreographed dance moves all while donning cowboy hats (mine was zebra print). Rehearsals went well.
On the day of the talent show, we were nervous but excited. We climbed up on that stage, hands trembling, and began to belt out our murderous song. However, unbeknownst to us, there was a teacher on the corner of the stage holding a giant cymbal. As we rounded the first verse, I could tell the crowd was not pleased. I gave my friend a quick sideways glance of concern. Before we had even made it to the first chorus, there were very audible boos echoing off the gymnasium walls and the cymbal wielding teacher in the corner stood up and began to dangle the cymbal from his hand. The boos amplified. We continued to sing, but he moved closer, and the boos got louder still. And then suddenly he was smacking the cymbal to loud cheers as our song was cut short and we were escorted off the stage.
Sooooooo that’s when I stopped singing for a while. But I couldn’t keep the music in my veins quiet. I got a guitar and took Guitar 1 my senior year of high school, acquired a keyboard and drum after college and then one very ordinary day, I tried my hand at writing a song for my friend and her new baby. And, as they say, the rest is history.
Now I write, compose, record, and mix my own songs at home around the rest of my life as many multi-creatives do. To check out my music, go HERE.
Doing Begets More Doing
I knew I was in trouble.
I knew I was in trouble when my brain was composing short, little Tweets at random. I knew at that point, I had been on Twitter too much and it was starting to change the way I thought.
Ever since I started this little experiment, I’ve been writing and sharing with regularity and I can feel my brain changing but in a better way than overusing Twitter changed it. It’s now beginning to think in my writer’s voice. I’ve been stretching and working that writer muscle and it’s been getting stronger. The ideas are coming without much effort and at a more frequent rate.
So doing the thing means that it’s easier to continue to do the thing.
This is not a new concept to me but I’m relearning this particular piece of knowledge in a new, deeper way. And I’ve seen this principle apply to lots of things in my life. When I’m already in the habit, it’s mentally (and sometimes physically) easier to continue doing the thing. When I stop, it’s much more difficult to get that momentum going again. So for now, I’m going to enjoy the benefits of a newly strengthened writer muscle.
P.S. This is not to say that I support our society’s obsession with productivity. Because I don’t. I think it’s good to quit and take breaks and I think it’s vital to take good care of ourselves.
Artistic Evolution
I was going through old watercolor paintings today and found quite a few that had evolved and changed over time.
The first evolution: I am Living the Dream. It’s clear I was learning how to even use watercolors and learning different styles of lettering. These were my first ‘real’ watercolors – my previous experiences being the crayola washable watercolors for children.
The next evolution: Get Messy. At this time, I was learning new-to-me watercolor techniques via YouTube videos. I love this one where I used a straw to blow the watercolor into the ‘splat’ shape. I was also further expanding my lettering skills.
It’s fun to go back and look at old art and see how things have changed and progressed. I really had no idea what I was doing at the beginning. As a recovering perfectionist, it was hard to even start knowing that it wouldn’t be very good. But, like my art, I’ve changed and grown and I now know that everyone starts at the bottom of the barrel when learning something new. And I’ll never get to where I want to be if I don’t try. It’s doesn’t have to be perfect or even good – I just have to start.
Taking Breaks
Our lives have shifted quite a bit since the pandemic began and some of them have been good shifts. In March, after many mornings of waking up grumpy, I started a morning exercise and stretch routine. All I committed to was 5 minutes of stretching or exercising each morning. Some mornings I would do random stretches for 5 minutes, other mornings I would follow along with a yoga or exercise YouTube video and some mornings I would dance and exercise for an hour. This has been the first time in my life that I’ve ever exercised with this much regularity. And I’ve seen the results – I feel stronger, I’m less grumpy when I start the day with exercise, and I’ve seen improvements in my menstrual cycle, back health, mood, and stress levels. We had to go on a short weekend trip in August and I even did my morning exercise and stretches there! At that point, it had been months of this routine so it was nice to have it to ground me and help reduce stress. It was almost like my morning cup of coffee.
One of my fitness goals in particular is to learn the splits, something I’ve never been able to do. And although I’m not there yet, I can definitely see that I’ve made progress. I even watched this YouTube video by Physics Girl about the science behind stretching and improving flexibility. My daily routine was just the ticket because improving flexibility requires around 1 minute of stretching that particular muscle, 6 out of 7 days of the week.
I also set a goal of learning to hold a handstand but I hurt my wrists early on in that endeavor (pretty common in learning handstands) so I had to table it as it healed. Did you known that wrist injuries take a long time to heal? Me neither. But they do. Did you also know that you use your wrists in about everything you do? Another thing I discovered.
Some other routines I’ve started since this pandemic: setting out a nightly surprise for my daughter, doing a big clean on Sundays, and morning nature walks or outside time with my daughter.
And every single one of these routines, including exercise, was abandoned this past week.
It wasn’t really a conscious choice – I just didn’t want to do any of it. We’ve had heat advisories and high humidity for most of the last week so going outside at all has been…unpleasant to say the least. The nightly surprise for my daughter was fun for a week but it has since fizzled. It was no longer a surprise, but had become an expectation for my daughter and was stressing me out. One morning she raced downstairs before my husband and I were even out of bed to see her surprise. Next thing I heard was the Google Broadcast of her saying she was unimpressed by the friendship bracelet materials I had left out for her. At least we got a nice morning laugh out of it.
As for the big Sunday clean and daily exercising, I just couldn’t. No reason. I just needed a break from the routine. In the past, I would have forced myself to do these things that I set for myself despite my exhaustion which would then lead to hating the activity more and more until I abandoned it completely, never to touch it again. Thankfully, I’ve grown up a bit since then and no longer hold myself to such punishing standards.
And then this morning and yesterday, after a week of not exercising, my body felt sluggish and achy and just tired. So I decided to pull out the old trusty yoga mat and stretch for just five minutes. And then I remembered why I had set that morning exercise routine in the first place – because it feels good! Because my body gets a chance to stretch and wake up and feel better and stronger.
In her book, I Quit Sugar for Life (another thing I’ve been trying to slowly incorporate because it feels good to eat well), Sarah Wilson talks about ‘lapses’ – moments when someone who is following a no sugar diet indulges a little too much in sugar. This is what she has to say:
“Well, first, I don’t freak. Quitting sugar for life simply means making the best available wellness choices and doing your best (by yourself). It’s a gentle, curious experiment, not a mean diet. Also, this: so-called lapses are good! They are perfect for reminding us why we choose not to eat sugar.”
And that is exactly what happened to me – by taking a break from ‘making’ myself exercise, I was reminded why I’d started the habit in the first place: because it feels good! And by taking a break from a big Sunday clean, I was reminded I was not alone in keeping a clean house (my husband stepped up and did some of the things I normally do) and I was also reminded of why I do a Sunday clean – because I like a clean house! Of course, not being able to go outside for an extended period of time has definitely reminded me how much I enjoy being outside and how much I’m missing it right now.
Of course, not all things I take a break from end up back on my daily routine. The surprises I left out for my daughter? I feel relief at not having to do that on a daily basis anymore and our days flow much better without it. And now, I have the opportunity to leave out a surprise every now and again when I am excited to do so and I think she’ll enjoy the surprise.
Plus, I think breaks are just good for having time to curl up on the couch and read a good book which is exactly what I did this past Sunday. 🙂
Mom Jokes
My daughter is an excellent game inventor. Today, she came to me after drawing these two pictures.
The game goes like this: one person tells a joke that they’ve made up on the spot. The other person then gives a thumbs up or a thumbs down. And then we switch.
This was my joke:
What did the juggler say to his juggling pins?
Catch you later!
My daughter gave a heavy and very audible sigh and then gave me a thumbs down. Does this mean I’ve unlocked a new achievement in parenting?
I Have a Superpower
To be fair, I think a lot of other people have this superpower as well. And I think I’ve known about it, vaguely, for quite some time, but I don’t think it’s been this clear until today.
I have the power to take on a character’s feelings when I read a book and sometimes when I watch a TV show. So if a character’s heart has been hardened by trials & tribulations and is filled with anger, I am pissed. If a woman is furious with her thieving, cheating husband, I am angry with my husband (sorry, honey). And if a character has lost a loved one and is desperately sad, so am I. But it’s not all ‘bad’ feelings I get from these fictional characters. Good feelings pass along too. I just finished reading a romance novel and as I read it over the past few days, I was walking on air and feeling blissfully content, as if I had just fallen in love for the first time too. And if I watch a New Girl or Parks and Rec episode, I am imbued with the indomitable optimism of Jessica Day or Leslie Knope.
This power is partially what Jonathan Gottschall was talking about in The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human (which I’ve mentioned before – it’s a good book, you should read it). Stories are extremely powerful for all humans. Combine that with my empathic nature and BOOM – you have a woman who has to choose very carefully what she reads and watches. As they say, you are what you eat and we eat with our eyes first.
With all the heaviness that has been overwhelming in reality lately, I’m choosing to feel blissfully content when I can and read me some romance novels. 😉
Color-coded Joy
I’ve got a list of things I want to do to make our home more lovely and cozy and fun to live in. Some of the things on the list require lots of planning and time but color-coding our books took very little time and I was absolutely giddy during the process.
Sometimes when life gets especially heavy or stressful, I forget what brings me joy and pleasure. I know that joy & pleasure are essential but sometimes I just can’t remember what it feels like or what I might do to capture a quick moment of joy. So color-coding my books and discovering that the process as well as the outcome brought me joy was a lovely surprise. I hope it brings you a little joy too. 🙂
Collage Art
I’ve been thinking a lot about noise and what I put out into the world. During this time of self-isolation, I’ve felt a stronger desire to share but I have many issues with social media and find it’s best for my mental health if I mostly steer clear (which I sometimes forget and then am painfully reminded, as I was today). So I’m going to try an experiment of sharing more, because it’s what I want to do, here on my little corner of the web.
I recently read about a cool idea on Happiness is Here blog where, overnight, she leaves out cool supplies on her children’s table for them to discover in the morning. I’ve been trying it for a couple of days now with my young daughter, and she seems to be enjoying it, as am I. I get very excited to put things out after she goes to bed, as if I’m a fairy leaving little gifts of discovery and curiosity.
Today’s supplies were for collage art: I left out paper, glue, scissors, magazines, and a printout of some collage art examples. First thing this morning, she was very intent on playing with slime so the collage supplies were pushed aside for that. And I was (mostly) fine with it. I set these things out because I thought she might like them but I did my best not to have any set expectations that she’d interact with them.
Later in the day, she was ready and asked me to join her and we had quite a good time making these. 🙂 The rest of the day has been quite challenging but this was one good thing that happened. It reminded me how much I enjoy collage and you might just see more of it from me in the future.
My daughter’s creation. These are the eyes and lips of Helen Mirren in case you were wondering. 
My daughter’s second creation. 
My second creation. I cut out dog eyes for this face and my daughter started sobbing when she found out in case you were wondering how things are going over here. 
My first creation: Gecko For President. I started out trying to make the gecko pop out of a cake but it transformed into this.
Sketchbook Snapshot: July 5th, 2020
I was about to open my computer when I saw a beautiful screensaver photo and I had a strange urge to sketch it. Turns out it was Ireland. This is significant because before the pandemic started, we were beginning to plan a family trip to Ireland – I even have a couple of library Ireland travel books still sitting on my bookshelves.
I’ve had a rough time handling things recently and this was a lovely reminder that this self-isolation and pandemic will end. This is temporary. And we will get to live our lives, out and about in the world, again.
This is my sketch of a photo by David Soanes Photography. The photo says it is Antrium, Ulster, Ireland.
