Happy Monday – Beginning again…

Making some butterflies that I can hang in my craft room for spring and creating cards from old watercolored pieces.

Hello and happy Monday. Oh and happy Pi Day. It’s been a minute but I am here now. I am constantly learning more about myself as time passes on. I am learning to let go of the discomfort caused by my creative ‘ebb and flow’. I don’t know why I put so much pressure on myself. Or actually, that is a lie, I know that I am both inspired and shamed when I see other creatives on social media moving along with their creative endeavors. I see them on social media and I start to think, something must be wrong with me when I take such long breaks from creating.

I put my Etsy shop on holiday mode since Christmas break with the intention of reopening it in mid-January. Fast-forward to March and it’s still on holiday mode. I found myself putting off re-opening until I have new products. Creating another barrier for myself.

So today I decided to reopen with my current products and ease back into production. I want to share my successes and struggles with you all to keep things real. Too often we only see the successes on social media and that creates a false sense of perfection. But I am learning that I will naturally have creative bursts that ebb and flow throughout the year. For example, school vacation for my kids typically means I am going to spend more time with my loved ones and that’s ok. The beauty of being my own boss is that I am supposed to have that kind of flexibility. As we approach the gardening prep season, I know I will be spending more time in the garden than at my craft table, and guess what? That’s ok! I only hope you will continue to ride with me on my journey

So here I am beginning again…

Happy Monday – Love is in the air.

I was walking around my local Target last week and was confronted by a sea of red. All the Christmas clearance has been swept away and replaced by aisles of chocolate and red hearts. So I thought I would pull out some of my dies and patterned paper and make a few Valentine’s cards. I am in desperate need of some cleaning in my craft room and I own quite a bit of product and dies to use for some Valentine’s cards but I didn’t feel like searching so I grabbed the closes ones I could find and whipped these cuties up.

Last year, I fell in love with sentiment strips and how easy they are to use so I reached for them today. I would also like to design my own. They are rather simple to create. I just need to take some time and design some on my silhouette. (adding to my to-do list).

I think I will play around some more with the ‘love’ products in my stash this week. I don’t want to just call them Valentine’s products because I feel like we should share the love all year round so I am specifically making my cards without saying, Valentine.

We had a huge blizzard here over the weekend and I have to say that I do love the bright reflection of the sun on the snow this morning. It’s bright and cheery. The main roads are plowed nicely but the back roads, as usual, are a bit of a challenge. Looking forward to some of it melting later this week with the warmer temps coming. In the meantime, I will stay in my craft room and enjoy the view from inside!

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday – a little splurging…

Hello everyone, and happy Monday! I am back to share a little splurging that took place this weekend while shopping with my boys. Many of you may not know but I am a super fan of Hayao Miyazaki’s movies that are animated by Studio Ghibli. I have been watching them since the release of Ponyo in 2008. That was the first introduction I had to his work and from that point on, I became a super fan and began collecting his movies.

One of my favorites was My Neighbor Totoro and I love collecting art reproductions etc. So let me tell you when I headed into this anime store with my boys, I was in for a lovely surprise. They had this amazing desk pad. Now before you say what is that? I will tell you my son has had a super large desk pad for years now and I have teased him relentlessly. I would say, do you need to move your mouse all over the desk to work? He would roll his eyes and shake his head. Fast forward to yesterday and it was love at first sight. My husband quickly purchased it for me because he saw the pure joy in my eyes.

Let me tell you, it is so comfortable to work on it and I love seeing it when I walk into my office. A side bonus is that I think it will help me clear my desk at the end of the day so I can be greeted by it when I enter the room each morning.

I hope you find something that brings you joy in your day, whether it’s something you purchase or gazing into a beautiful sunset. I am totally biased and believe that the best sunsets occur in the winter where I live, so have at it.

2022 Coloring Goals

The books I would like to color in this year.

Hello! We meet again. Over the past few years, I have really fallen for coloring in coloring books. To some, it may seem pointless because often completed pages remain in the books for occasional viewing. But to me I find the whole process to be a lot of fun and that is what I focus on rather than a “deliverable”. I love all the pretty color pencils and the fantastic names the companies come up with for different colors. I don’t know about you but I loved reading the names of my Crayola crayons when I was a girl. There was Razzle Dazzle Rose, Razzamatazz, Unmellow Yellow, Shamrock oh and you were quite sophisticated if you liked Periwinkle. Colored pencils have fantastic names as well and I enjoy collecting a variety of brands to see how differently they respond.

A closer look. This grouping contains two old books and one new.

Then there are the coloring books. Whoa… there is so much variety in styles and topics available today and always new ones on the way. So I can color whatever the mood strikes. It is never boring and every time I leave a coloring session, I am so relaxed from all the focus. I find pairing my coloring with an audiobook only heightens the experience.

Two new books I am itching to color in.

I had a lovely Christmas coloring book haul and am anxious to dive right in. I decided to come up with some coloring goals for 2022 to keep it interesting and to make sure I enjoy the products I have bought.

These are some of the most beautiful books I own.

The following are my coloring goals for 2022:

  • Color at least a page from the ten coloring books you see in this post. Some are old and some are new so I don’t feel like I am missing out on the new stuff.
  • Practice coloring more with my other pencil sets since my go-to is Prismacolor, I would like to play more with my other sets including the new pastel pencils I got for Christmas.
  • Complete at least 2 pages per month. Some months I have been known to do great others I don’t even pick up a book so it will push me to be more consistent.
  • Practice using more mediums in my coloring pages. Don’t always go with the safe options.
  • Give Mandalas another chance. In the past, I have found them boring and often challenging to color so I would like to try again with an old coloring book I own with mandalas. I will have to bring in my gel pens to complete some but that could be fun.
  • Learn at least 4 new coloring techniques and practice them. I want to push myself this year to create better pages so I want to watch videos and look at print resources to learn some new techniques to bring my coloring to the next level.
  • Enjoy the process. This one I don’t really need because I always do, but I like seeing it on the list.
Two old and one new one.

Do you have any coloring goals for 2022?

I hope you all are well and those of you experiencing the extreme cold like I am here, grab a cup of tea and have a wonderful day.

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