Happy Galentine's Day!

 

Last weekend, a friend and I got ready for "Galentine's Day," a time when ladies get together to have brunch and socialize and show their appreciation for each other.  This unofficial holiday was started in the popular TV show "Parks and Recreation," by the character Leslie Knope.  Galentine's

Day is officially (unofficially?) the day before Valentine's Day, but I and some of my friends will be getting together tomorrow for brunch and games, seeing as how tomorrow will be a lovely Saturday.

 

I went an unorthodox route with my Galentine's Day cards, as you'll see below.  I decided to make a little card for each person, like those mass-produced Valentine's that we used to exchange in class in elementary school.  Each card featured the recipient's first initial.  I made mine out of cardboard, fabric scraps, lace ribbon, colored duct tape, and fabric paint.  So they're a mix of traditional and non-traditional materials to create a non-traditional party favor.

 

I started out by stitching triangles of my two base fabrics together with my sewing machine.  Then I laid each square of fabric over a smaller square of white cardboard.

 

Next, I dabbed glue on the underside of  my lace ribbon--I used a thick machine-knitted lace, with threads that are almost like yarn, and I dotted glue where the pattern wove the threads more thickly together, to keep the glue from seeping up onto the front of my card.  I pressed the ribbon down along the diagonal join of my fabrics.  Pro Pointer: As you can see, all of my gluing was done on a sheet of cardboard, to protect the table.

 

I wrapped my fabric squares around the cardboard and taped them in place with my blue-green duct tape, lining up the tape so that it framed the front of my card.  I then left the cards to dry for a bit, and socialized.

 

When my fabric cards were ready, I laid out my fabric letters.

 

Looking good!  I dabbed glue onto the letters, and pressed them into my fabric.

 

For a final, whimsical touch (inspired by the glue!), I added white polka dots to my letters, to brighten the cards up.

 

The finished product! 

My friend's cards followed the slightly more traditional route of featuring hearts and flowers (some adorable little sheep made appearances, too, as you can see above).  I'll show you some other examples of those tomorrow.

 

Happy Galentine's Evening!

 

And Happy Friday!

 

HOW is it WEDNESDAY already??

In brief: Greetings--2nd weekend of February--how?--tired--Galentine's Day.

A review of my JANUARY (5th) - MARCH (26th) ROW80 GOALS:
Part A (Creativity & Social Media)
1. 1-2 blog posts per week (Ideally: 1 ROW80 post, 1 crafts-based post).
2. Do something creative every day.  Doodles still count.
3. Social Media: Check in with all of my accounts/communities every week.
4. Catch up with/update blog & Facebook photo galleries.

Part B (Catching up with life):
1. Exercise--Ideal goal: 3x3x3 (3 sets of 3 exercises for 3+ days). 
Bare minimum: 1 set of stretches.  Get outside on weekends.
2. Get my finances in order.  Also, address insurance, taxes and a new budget ASAP (however vague).
3. Decluttering, and re-organizing/re-claiming my room.
4. Aim for having my 100th post in May the blog's 2-year)>>At least try...

Let's see. No doodling.  Averaging one post a week.  Thinking about some new posts.  Still being tired during the week.  I did cook and eat a lot this week, which was a win over my uninspired meals last week!

Friday, I finally took some pictures to finish up a mostly-done blog post.  Saturday, I puttered around the local farm during volunteer hours (I was too short to prune muth, so I "supervised," but I did help weed).  Then in the afternoon, a friend and I made valentines, which was social AND crafty. 

Some of us are getting together on Saturday to have a "Galentine's Day," a la "Parks and Rec"--a girls' brunch with card-exchanging and games.  There will be tea, scones, crepes, and brunch-related games that include "Elevenses--the Card Game of Morning Tea," a kickstarter-funded game, and "Marrying Mr. Darcy," a game where ladies from the book compete for various skill points to try to bag a "Pride and Prejudice" gentleman (an "Old Maid" can roll to become Jane Austen, so all is not necessarily lost if you don't make a match.  Although I eloped with Darcy last time, as Caroline Bingley.  Just saying.).

I have been doing bare minimum on the exercise & life catch-up goals.  In terms of social media, I finally went back and added to/opened up my Pinterest boards.  I'm not sure if I'll maintain them that often, though--I like posting original content and comments on Twitter, and photos on Instagram, but Pinterest seems more passive.  But the visuals can be inspiring, and I like how YouTube writer/director Yulin Kuang uses Pinterest to construct environments/flavors with her set decorators.

I have been thinking about possibly attempting a crafts-based A-to-Z in April, a series of short crafty blurbs inspired by the alphabet.  I was browsing through a Twitter-Buddy's blog, and I saw that she did a lovely story about a relationship through photographs, 5-sentence texts, and other writing prompts.  I liked the condensed, emotional effect.  And I've never tried the April A-to-Z Writing Challenge.  I'm always tired during the week, so I would probably have to start early.  And I don't want to make it so complicated that I give up.  But I am thinking about that, and possible topics.  So we'll see where that goes.

LACMA & The Tar Pits: ROW80 Check-In

February, how did we get here already??

JANUARY (5th) - March (26th) ROW80 GOALS:
Part A (Creativity & Social Media)
1. 1-2 blog posts per week (Ideally: 1 ROW80 post, 1 crafts-based post).
2. Do something creative every day.  Doodles still count.
4. Social Media: Check in with all of my accounts/communities every week.
5. Catch up with/update blog & Facebook photo galleries.

Part B (Catching up with life):
1. Exercise--Ideal goal: 3x3x3 (3 sets of 3 exercises for 3+ days). 
Bare minimum: 1 set of stretches.  Get outside on weekends.2. Get my finances in order.  Also, address insurance, taxes and a new budget ASAP (however vague).
3. Decluttering, and re-organizing/re-claiming my room.
4. Aim for having my 100th post in May (my 2-year marker for the blog!). At least try...

So where were we?

On Thursday night, I was moaning on Twitter about not having enough energy to blog, and one of my writing-buddies goaded me to finish up a draft and post a blog about wanting to blog but being drained.  So she helped me tick off that box!  (Thank you!) Overall creativity is still down as I adjust to a new routine.  However, all week there have been lovely rain clouds and sunsets, and as I drove home Friday evening, I got to drive towards a rainbow.  All of its colors were visible in distinct bands, from purple to red.

Saturday was a very nice day.  January 31st is "Museums Free-For-All" Day in Los Angeles, so some of us got together and went to "Museum Square" for a day of wandering around the Page Museum/La Brea Tar Pits and the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA). 

The Page Museum:

 

 

We saw a very wide range of dead animal skeletons (kind of morbid, but extremely well-preserved).  These 404 dire wolf sculls and several hundred eagle leg bones represent a fraction of the museum's collection of each:

 

"Pit 91," a tar pit that is still being excavated.  There are little flags marking bones from different kinds of animal remains.

 

Then we took a break to stroll along an entire block of food trucks to choose our lunches (I chose a falafel wrap over fish tacos or pupusas--a tough decision--and I also grabbed a lavender milk tea with mini-boba). 

The air was cool and cloudy, and the LACMA had a wonderfully broad range of artwork, both 2-dimensional and sculptural (a light piece and some inches-thick paintings we saw could qualify as both). 

These are Matisse portraits of one woman, Jeannette, as he pares her down further and further:

Two musician sculptures:

 

Some more of the paintings and sculptures that caught my attention.  You'll notice that my interest is usually sculptural:

 

 

 

An installation piece representing smoke fills up a large, sunken, indoor courtyard:

The Japanese Pavilion's architecture could be an installation piece all by itself, but it also housed some beautiful kimonos, swords, and scrolls. 

 

I took several dozen grainy pictures, got some fresh air, and hung out with nice people and a sweet little dog.  So it was a good day.  The nice things about museums is that the art can give you inspiration, and also trigger thought-connections that you might not have otherwise had.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today (Sunday) has thus far been pretty quiet.  I reviewed my 2014 plushie sales in preparation for taxes (and learned a lot about the California Sales Tax form).  It was neat to see that I've had 18 sales since I started developing my plushie prototypes in December 2012, 13 of them this year alone!

Some friends have been over this afternoon, designing characters for a game in the warm, sunny living room.  We've had 60-70 degrees this weekend, so the windows are open and letting in a breeze.  I need to catch up on some crafting, and I still need to finish going over last year's expenses, but I think that the change in routine yesterday really did recharge some mental batteries and emotional states.  So here's hoping that that feeling lasts.  My head has been all over the place this year.

 

I continue to stretch when I am already sore--before would be better.  And I have started doing a couple short meditation sessions during the week, in the hopes that it will help me stay calm and positive when I'm tired and veering towards low spirits, which has been happening fairly often.  Some of my stretches are a bit meditative anyway, but I'm making a more conscious decision to be in that headspace.  I hope to use some of the energy from the museum day towards projects of my own.

 

Adieu, January (ROW80)

Greetings, Earthlings!

People all over the country are gearing up for multiple snow storms, and here in Southern California, we've had a couple rainy and foggy days, and are expecting another one or two over the weekend...It's so weird adjusting to desert "Seasons" sometimes...

To recap my January-March writing/life goals, which I was trying to make more specific but also more wide-reaching:



JANUARY (5th) - March (26th)
Part A (Creativity & Social Media)
1. 1-2 blog posts per week (Ideally: 1 ROW80 post, 1 crafts-based post).
2. Do something creative every day.  Doodles still count.
3. Exercise--Ideal goal: 3x3x3 (3 sets of 3 exercises for 3+ days). 
Bare minimum: 1 set of stretches.
4. Social Media: Check in with all of my accounts/communities every week.

Part B (Catching up with life):
1. Continue to track my exercise, increase my fitness levels, and get outside on weekends.
2. Get my finances in order.  Also, address insurance, taxes and a new budget ASAP (however vague).
3. Decluttering, and re-organizing/re-claiming my room.
4. Aim for having my 100th post in May (my 2-year marker for the blog!). At least try...

Let's see.  I'm still adjusting to my new work schedule.  My weekends are getting to be more productive (by necessity), but I am still quite tuckered out during the weekday evenings.  If I'm somewhat social during some evenings, AND do some stretches, that is a win, basically.

I've been running errands, and dealing with some small car repairs, so I haven't gotten outside as much the last couple of weeks, and I'm really feeling it.  So I really do want to make sure that I get some fresh air and some sort of aerobic activity on weekends.  I'm inside all the time during the week, and by the time I get home, it's dark...

I feel a pressure over my head to write, and to keep being creative.  I love the energy of an idea, but I hate feeling like I "have" to do something, like my creative time's become homework or something...And yet I loved art assignments in school, and being part of an artistic community, both at school and in my weaver's guild the last couple of years.  Some of it's clearly mental...I'm in transition, and I need to build new traditions and edge out of my comfort zone.  I've moved away from my weaver's guild, and I feel like I'm not getting as much of a creative community now, to give me ideas and encourage me to finish up assignments. I'm kind of wondering if, if I were to join a guild member's online guild, I would get the same feeling of camaraderie and inspiration and social re-charging, without being in the same physical space?  I really like the ROW80 community, but our interactions are definitely a bit sporadic, and writing's a very solitary sport.  And yet, weaving and crafting often are, too.  Anyhoo, here I am back to waffling about choices.  I want to be inspired to create, not weighed down by "lost" opportunities.  I've got to figure out how to re-frame the dialogue in my head...

Any big plans for February?  I still need to address most of my goals.  They all remain active and relevant.  How about yours?

Regrouping (ROW80)

Well, I posted my January ROW80 goals a few weeks ago.  They were as follows:

JANUARY (5th) - March (26th)
1. 1-2 blog posts per week (Ideally: 1 ROW80 post, 1 crafts-based post, however minimal).
2. Do something creative every day.  Doodles still count.
3. Exercise--Ideal goal: 3x3x3 (3 sets of 3 exercises, for 3+ days in a row).  Bare minimum: 1 set of stretches.
4. Social Media: Check in with all of my accounts/communities every week.

I was trying to be more specific with this round's goals, so that I would have concrete boxes to aim for and (hopefully) check off daily or weekly.

But...life...

I've been adjusting to a new work schedule, which gives me more free time in the evenings, but I get more tired and often end up staring at the internet until bedtime.  If I'm lucky, I run an errand on my way home and prepare the next day's meals before I run out of steam.  And I think vaguely about my creative projects.  I have a crafts blog entry that's pretty much finished, except for one or two photos I still need, that I never get around to taking.  And my unfinished NaNoWriMo story is starting to look at me reproachfully.

I also keep finding myself looking backward, into memories, rather than forward, into the future.  This can be good fodder for writing, but it can also be hard on the emotions.  I've been thinking about a quote that's attributed to Confucius (*paraphrased): "We have two lives. The second begins when we realize we only have one."  I think this is very relevant when you're at any crossroad, and a bit lovely, but I also think that a part of my mind refuses to accept the extra pressure that comes with acknowledging that it might be true.

I still really like my goals.  And I need to get more exercise and creativity going, so I still think they have validity.

But for the near future, I feel like I also need to itemize the things that really need to get done.  In life, in general.  Not as a guilt-trip, but as a reminder and a checklist that's conveniently in one place.

1. Continue to track my exercise (I've maintained this list for a whole year!), and seriously increase my fitness levels.  I'm more interested in upping my number of times exercised per week, at this point.  And continue making sure I get outside on weekends.

2. Get my finances in order.  I was tracking my expenses last year, and I want to restart-doing this.  I want some concrete numbers to mull over.  Also, address insurance, taxes and a new budget ASAP (however vague, I would like a new budget for my new year).

3. Decluttering.  My organized piles have been seriously encroaching on my living space, and I have some boxes that need to be sorted and reduced.  I need to re-start addressing this.  I feel so much better, and my head feels clearer, when I'm not surrounded by stuff.  As an avid keeper-of-things, this is a bit of a conundrum.

4. I will reach the second anniversary of my blog the first week of May.  I think it would be kind of cool to aim for that week to also have my 100th post.  I'm at 73 now, with this post, and there are about 15 weeks until the first week of May, so I would need to average about 2 posts a week, or about 9ish posts a month, which seems a little daunting, but possibly possible (...maybe?).

So that's where I am!  How are your Januarys going?  Are you encountering a lot of life changes, too??

January

Well, it's been pretty chilly everywhere that I've been the last couple of weeks.  I'm done travelling for the time being.  I didn't see any snow during my trip over the holidays, but there've been plenty of beautiful cloudy, sunlit skies, and moments of rain everywhere I've been.  It's warm-blankets-while-the-rain-falls-outside weather, yum.

I've been pondering how I want to re-work my ROW80 goals for 2015. 

To review, here were my ROW80 goals for November and December, 2014:

WRITING-SPECIFIC GOALS
1. Blog Sketches

2. Blog Posts (10+ blog posts for November & December Two ROW80/NaNoWriMo update posts & one crafts-based post per week)
3. Vlog Idea

4. Creative Writing

********************

ONGOING SOCIAL MEDIA/PERSONAL GOALS:
5. Tweet more Original Content & Reply to at least one ROW80 post or comment per update interval.

6. Keep Up with Minimum Exercise Goals (3/3/3: 3 sets of 3 exercises, 3 days in a row).

I really found that the goals I wanted to do were the ones that actually got done regularly, while the ones I thought SHOULD get done were often shunted to the side, or just barely completed each week.  But it was definitely helpful and motivating to keep reviewing my goals (and remembering how doable they were), and I liked getting feedback and inspiration from other ROW-80-ers (how's that for a word?).  And it was nice to be posting blogs more often again.
 
But the specific, small goals were definitely most likely to get done...The open-ended goals got pushed aside, to be defined and resolved later, when I had more time or energy, or different equipment, etc.  And it was kind of sad to see those bullets consistently not being met (the vlog idea, for example).  So I'm going to try to start this January session off with fewer goals, but specific ones.  Also, my schedule has changed, and my energy is directed elsewhere, so I think these types of goals will help encourage me to continue, per the whole ROW80 philosophy.
 
JANUARY
1. 1-2 blog posts per week (Ideally: 1 ROW80 post, 1 crafts-based post, however minimal).
2. Do something creative every day.  Doodles still count.
3. Exercise--Ideal goal: 3x3x3 (3 sets of 3 exercises, for 3+ days in a row).  Bare minimum: 1 set of stretches.
4. Social Media: Check in with all of my accounts/communities every week.

I still need to figure out how to encourage myself to keep working on my NaNoWriMo story, while the characters are still fresh (I keep saying that...).  But I liked how another ROW80-er simply aspired to daily "creativity" last session.  That could cover writing, crafting, or even cooking...and there's less guilt for not focusing on certain projects at a given time.
 
So, we'll see how this set works out!

Good luck with your own goals!  And stay warm (or in your perfect seasonal climate)! 

Welcome to 2015