What's your Goal?

We are over half way thru 2018?  How did that happen??????????

I thought since I sorta abandoned the New Year's Resolution updates in my monthly (well, sometimes monthly other times quarterly) blogs, I would do it here.....and this is one of those blogs that is really for me to maintain accountability in goals I set.  I hope it's not to boring for the rest of you...

Resolution #1
At least 26 'Something to Think About' Journal entries.

my journal and a page prompt.

I have done 10 and I am completely ok with that number.  I'm not as consistent with them as I thought I would be, but I've noticed a trend in my journaling-from April to August, I don't typically write as often, but from September to February, I'm a writing machine, March can go either way..  I may not get to 26 by the end of the year, but I've definitely done more that any other year.

Resolution #2
Bucket List items

Here's why I think Resolutions are such a good thing to tie with Bucket List items, 3 of my resolutions are actually on my Bucket List.  

Resolution #3
Get outdoors more!  Hiking, snowshoeing, x-country skiing, rowing, camping, etc

It's funny on this one, because sometimes I think nature is against me.  The winds have been blowing this summer and it has kept me off the lake and rowing less than I would prefer, but they are not keeping me off completely.  The other thing I've realize about this goal, you have to plan and make it a priority if you want to get out there, otherwise life will get in the way.  I made a goal for the summer to go out once a week for a small mountain adventure.  I'm now aware of it and look for days to go and make the actual plans...

Resolution #4
See if the idea in my head really is a novel

This is a slower process than I believed it was going to be....  The characters may of been in my head, but the plot had massive holes in it.  I saw a quote in January from a writer that basically said always have an outline of where you want your novel to go otherwise you can write yourself into a dead end faster than you will ever believe.  I have the opening and closing chapters written, but have spent the majority of my time planning in a small notebook plot lines, characteristics of the main and secondary characters.  This matters to me more than I thought and I want to do it right...I don't know what I'll do with the end product, but I will finish this.

Resolution #5
More water

Every month I have set a goal which has increased until June when it hit 80 ounces of water a day.  Somedays I go way over 80, but 80 is a reasonable and healthy number for me.  I have for some crazy reason missed 1 day every month, not by a lot, but every dang month...

Resolution #6
 Work on my lettering/calligraphy

I bought a kit from Crayola and started from there.  I thought I couldn't ruin Crayola markers while I self taught myself pressure and shapes and I think it turned out somewhat ok.  I did a 30 day challenge starting in February where I practiced everyday and made HUGE strides.  I'm still working on creative placements and finding my own style and still learning...  On July 19th, I took a workshop from Melissa Esplin whose work I really admire and is a distant relative. Utah has a ton of well known letterers (who knew), so I got some in person help there.  Being a leftie in this has had its challenges and the hardest is that my natural slant is slightly different from all of the others that I see, but the workshop helped me to embrace my natural style, now I just need to get consistent with it.....

some of my practicing.....

Resolution #7
Try something new every month....a restaurant, activity, etc

This is the list of restaurants I am working from.  All that I have been to have been AMAZING!

I keep a list of what I do in my written journal every month.  It just makes me happy to see my world expanding from new restaurants, classes, museums, etc...

Resolution #8
Find and maintain my Meditation Practice

This is still a work in progress.  I'm finding that once a week I do a formal meditation of 20 minutes or longer and it's not the same day of the week, I just do it when it feels right.  The thing I am noticing the most, is that I am doing mini meditations almost daily, I am taking time to do 5-10 deep breaths and just stop and focus.  This has been a very happy and welcome addition in my day to day life.

Resolution #9
Travel Solo

My plan is still in motion.  I'm not going to say more than that for now, but this is going to happen.

Resolution #10
Penny savings challenge

I have a plan, but I switch up weeks according to whim and knowing how my money is in certain months.  I am on schedule and very happy about this.  Here's to almost $700 by the end of the year for fun stuff during 2019!

my money jar...

Creating for Happiness....

7/13/18 Just a Note...I have had this blog written for basically 5 months, but just haven't put the art in it.  I have no idea why, but I finally did, so here you go and a friendly reminder, if you want to see a larger version of the photo, just click on it.....I hope you enjoy it :)

my small art journal where all of this took place...it's about 6 x 4 inches

I saw an evolution in my art during this...

During the month of January, I set aside at least 15 minutes to do something creative.  I thought it would be just a fun way to use some of the art supplies that I had purchased and gain some value out of them but as it progressed, it turned into something more--this is the story of how it happened ..

Signing up for Creating for Happiness was a....

Almost every Tuesday evening, you can find me at Purple Flamingo Studios, owned by my now friend Marti and run with another pal Melissa,  for open studio.  It's part art time and part time with some amazing people I have the honor to call friends.  We range in age, talent, background and almost any category you care to put us in....the one thing we have in common, we love to create.  This is a fairly new concept for me to describe myself as creative and yes, even, an artist.  The group on Tuesday gets quite upset with me when I say I'm not creative or an artist and making the switch in my mind has been a process......

this was day 2...about letting go of my fears of doing art

Near the end of December, Marti posted on Facebook that she was going to participate in something called 'Creating for Happiness' and invited everyone to join.  As I am a big fan of mini challenges and had been wanted to use my art supplies at home, or quite frankly open some of them up, I jumped at the opportunity and signed up.  It is free and is done thru a daily email and facebook.

a page about taking time for the things that matter

"Creating for Happiness is a gentle program to get you creating, build happiness and set a solid foundation to your daily creative practice.  It provides daily motivation and tips that help you build creative habits.  Just be warned - gentle does not equal easy, superficial or frivolous.  This will be a rich, deeply personal and rewarding experience."  From the guidebook for Creating for Happiness.

finding your own personal style.

As I read the rest of the guidebook, I soon realized that this was, like most things, not just about one thing.  You needed to look at why you wanted to do this, and while I'm not going to share my reason with you, let's just say it surprised me.  The reason you do anything is so important, because when your inner critic jumps up and down saying you can't do something, your reason can say, OH YES, I CAN.  Your reason will also help you eliminate all of the reasons you may not make time for creating.   Now onto the guidelines of the program.

            Number 1.  15 minutes, just start with 15 minutes.  There were some days I barely made the 15 and others I went WAY past, but having a minimal time requirement took the pressure off.

I love this quote and wanted to do a page with it...

            Number 2.  Figure out your route.  I was a bit confused by this for a moment, but quickly understood.  Eliminate the prep of gathering supplies, figuring out what you are going to work with or on, because if you have ever taken on a creative project, you know that just getting everything ready can take a while and poof your time would be up.   Have it ready so you can just start.  I chose a small art Journal and bags of my different supplies.  I chose the bags of coordinating supplies to figure out what I liked and what I didn't.  To be technical, you are supposed to only have one supply group, but when I explained to the facilitator what my goal was, she said,  go for it.

Travel as often as you can.....even within your own city

             Number 3.  The flexibility.  You got to chose when, how, and why you were doing this.  There was someone in the group that pieced together an amazing quilt, someone who drew variations of a blue bird, and someone who did a little bit of work on large painting; I could go on and on and on with how each individual approached this.  We varied in skill, artistic medium, age, nationality, and just about every other category you could find, but the one thing that we had in common, we were and still are very supportive of each other.

And that's it....for instructions at least, now it was time to start my Creating for Happiness challenge and I did.

about a week in, this literally went off in my brain...

Some days I doodled, essentially, and others were layering and playing.  Some pages took 2 days to do....

inspiration...Japanese ink drawings.

I was tired of all the senseless talk that day...

got a little braver in my drawing that day

It kept building and I got braver as I went...

This one just made me smile...

a doodle day...

we had been having winter weather and I just wanted to get outside...

my own version of something I had seen.

As I finished the first 30 days, I decided to continue on, but by practicing my Lettering/faux calligraphy and I did.  When that was done, I did something I didn't think I would ever do, sign up for a drawing class and found out something quite amazing.....I can draw.

You never know what will happen when you try new things,

I'm just happy I decided to Create for Happiness....

Melissa

June Bug....

Please stay away from me for the rest of the summer......

Ouch...
that was my motto of June.  I got stung by a bee and a wasp and got spider bite.  NOT COOL insects of the world!!!!!!  And an added bonus for all of this, it turns out I am allergic to wasp bites, my finger where I got stung got blisters, doubled in size and ITCHED like no tomorrow, I about went cra-cra.  The test is if I ever get stung again, my doctor said I could have the same reaction or worse, I don't even want to think about worse.............

In other news, Red Butte concerts are rolling along.  In June, I worked shows for Ryan Adams, Violent Femmes, BareNaked Ladies with KT Tunsdall and Better than Ezra, and Michael Franti.  The Violent Femmes are one of my all time favorite bands and I had a job that was after the show, so I got to attend and sing along and just be a fan, but the BEST part happened after the show.  I was finished with my work and headed to the area where we check out, which is behind the stage.  Meanwhile, the band had been signing autographs after the show and were just finishing when I was done.  Can you tell what happened?  I GOT TO MEET THEM!!!!!! and have like a 5 minute conversation with The Violent Femmes!  I completely forgot to take my phone out and take a picture, but I don't care, I have the memory embedded in my brain.  They were so nice, asked if they had played my favorite song (they did and I have about 5 favorites of theirs), asked if I had ever seen them in concert before (I hadn't) and just chatted about how much they love being on the road again.   I Love when things like that happen............ The other shows have been amazing as well!  I had forgotten how many songs of Better Than Ezra I knew and the Michael Franti show was just a feel good/high energy night.

Miss Bacall wants me to tell you that she is ok but wants someone to turn down the heat.  I am vigilant about the signs of her not being ok and happy.  She is just the happiest dang soul I have ever encountered.

If you live along the Wasatch front, have you ever been to the CenterPointe Theater in Centerville?  I went for the first time in June with my mom, some aunts and a cousin.  We saw their performance of Crazy for You.  It was cute and well done!  You might want to check it out.......

Rowing is still happening, but not as much as I would love to.  The wind has been blowing here and long skinny boats do not get along with wind, plus the firefighters battling all of the fires around here would probably appreciate the wind going away.  The club cancelled 5 scheduled club rows due to wind in June.  UGH....

I know this will come as a bit of a shock, but I am still reading a lot....if you are on Facebook at all, you will have noticed that I did 10 days of my favorite books on there.  It was about the only time I have been consistent with FB in a while.   A book I read in June that  I highly recommend is "Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Raymond Arsenault". It's the book the PBS special was based on.  Phenomenal book!!!

I know this post was a wee bit disjointed, so I apologize for that, but writing at the end of the month and remembering what happened leads to that.

I hope your summer is going well and that you are able to stay cool!!

Hiding from all insects and bugs from here on out.....
Melissa