My family and I went on a walk and my daughter and I collected lovely fall leaves to do some different projects. She made a fall wreath (well, most of one – she got tired halfway through) and I made these.
So we’ve made the decision to move. Not now, but next Spring after we’ve done some home improvements and (hopefully) there is a vaccine for COVID. Unfortunately, I did a pretty ‘me’ thing to do and put all the pressure of parenting & unschooling during a pandemic, deep cleaning a house and multiple home improvements (including painting all the kitchen cabinets and all the rooms in the house) on my shoulders. Fortunately, I realized the absurdity of this a month and a half in instead of 6 months later.
I was able to talk all this over with my husband and release a lot of the self-imposed pressure but there was still some hangers-on especially when it comes to balancing my creative pursuits and my daughter’s needs. Then I came across this interview with author Austin Kleon (I’ve mentioned him before). What’s funny is that the interview was written in 2019, long before COVID hit, but I found it incredibly applicable to my current situation. For instance, this is what he would tell other parents who are juggling a career:
It’s not you. You’re probably doing the best you can. It’s just that everything is stacked against you. Everything from a lack of affordable child care, underfunded schools, crumbling infrastructure, bad health insurance, to a world that’s just really and truly insane. It’s near impossible and it’s not your fault. Just keep going. Do the best you can.
He was also very honest and wasn’t afraid to talk about the less than perfect moments of parenting such as yelling at his kids and looking forward to their bedtime. I struggle with yelling too but so often parents who share online only show the picture perfect moments or ‘tips & tricks’. It was nice to see that I am not the only parent struggling, even if his words are from a different time, in what feels like a galaxy, far, far away.
Things have been tough over here since the start of the pandemic as they have been for many, many other people across the world.
We are choosing to stay home, just the 3 of us, to celebrate Thanksgiving (minimally as it’s a crap holiday) and Christmas this year but want to still stay connected to our families. This is the first year that I will ever send a Thanksgiving card but I think it’s an important year for me to do so to remind our families how much we love them and miss them.
Watercolor and ink.
I think there is something special about sending a handmade card in the mail. It says, “I took the effort to make this for you.” Reminds me of this poster I made a while back: Ways To Show You Care. This is an updated ‘Socially Distant’ version.
I have a cast iron tea pot that looks very similar to this. I created the ‘texture’ of the teapot by drawing a bunch of tiny ‘X’s before coloring over them. It took forever but it was worth it.
I just really like drawing teapots (and sometimes tea cups too).
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.
Yeesh. So much to unpack here. Look at my eyes, the set of my mouth. I KNOW.
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.
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 andtake breaks and I think it’s vital to take good care of ourselves.
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.
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