I’ve kind of been avoiding writing this stuff down. On one hand, I want to always remember Dan and how amazing he was, but on the other, writing it down forces me to sit with it. To remember all the good things, the sad things, and the things I can’t do anything about any more. As vibrant as my memories of Dan are, as admirable his passion, dedication, and talent were, he is gone and the future will give me no new memories with him.
We’re creeping up on 2 years since I broke my leg. It’s a little frightening to think about how much time has passed and how quickly it feels like it went by. Even though the bone was mended well enough for me to walk without crutches or a boot in about 4 months, the rest of the year felt lost to pain and physical therapy. The past two years have been a series of ups and downs, but they’ve helped me define and refocus on what makes me happy.
I’ve come to the moment that every pet owner avoids thinking about. I avoided it so hard that I developed a mythology in my head that my cat was some kind of vampire who would live forever because he always looked so damn young and healthy. But over the past month or so, my cat Midnight has been telling us that he’s ready to go.
I really like the word "Kaizen". It is a Japanese word that means "Good Change" or "Change for the Better" and represents the idea of continuous change to improve all functions of an organization. It is a popular business philosophy that helps increase productivity using increased awareness and action informed by that awareness. The idea is that when changes (great or small) are made over time they can result in great improvements on productivity. While this is most often used as a business strategy, it's easy to apply this idea to one's personal life. It's been an helpful tool for me because I can easily become overwhelmed when I try to change too many things at once. This weekend, my Kaizen focus was cleaning and organizing my studio/office.
One quick post for the night because I accomplished my mission and got the apron done. thought I'd show it off a bit!
Aaaaaaaaannnnnnnnddddddd It's time for bed...I need to start getting more than 6 hours of sleep a night...I'm getting old. but hey, getting farther in season 2 of Lost and now know enough about making this apron that I can make another for my friend quickly before she starts traveling. I really hope she likes it!
So tonight I got the pocket made and attached to the right side of the front panel, cut out the back panel and attached the front to the back. All that's left is to make the strap for the neck and the ties. Maybe throw a couple of buttons on for decoration and be done with the first one! I'm sure the second one will go faster, and I won't bore you with process images, but I'll show you what they both look like when they're done! Maybe we'll model them for you too.
Got my goal accomplished for tonight...albeit at 3am...(Hey, gimme a break, I was watching Lost Season 1, I was distracted) Got the front of the apron totally cut out and assembled. I think it looks pretty snazzy so far.
So that's that, I'm quite pleased with it. The other one I make will be the reds and purples of the group. can't wait to see how this looks when it's done. I'll have to cook more now though...you know, to justify having a crazy awesome apron...mmm cooking. I'm hungry...we'll it's been quite a while since dinner time so I guess that makes sense...I forget to eat when I focus on projects...*shrug* Morning will come soon enough.
Not sure if I'll get to work on this more tomorrow or not, but that's alright, after 8 hours of working on it tonight, I could use a break.
New Years Eve day I got my hair cut. Now it's fun, spunky and remarkably versatile! Today I decided to run out to Target and get some new headbands for it but when I got there I realized I didn't want to drop $5+ on each pretty new one I got. Instead I bought a pack of three plain black ones for $3 and took them home to decorate with whatever I had around the studio... so for my "drawing of the day" I'm breaking the rules a little...but this was a really fun creative act that turned out to be quite rewarding. so :p
I did do a drawing yesterday and I'll put that up later tonight when I get the chance. I promise :p
I hate the idea of making New Years Resolutions. The stat that I found said that 78% of people who make New Years Resolutions fail to follow through with them. The quarter that do, use tools like journaling their progress, asking their friends for support, rewarding milestones and focusing on all the benefits of achieving their goals. (Resource Link) But regardless, the idea of making goals for the upcoming year is very appealing. A new year feels like a fresh start, the chance to make changes for the betterment of your life.
With that in mind, I have made goals for this year. And I'm asking any readers I have out there for help and support. Comments, ideas, recommendations and whatever else you feel like offering, heck, just showing me numbers on Google Analytics is enough to make me happy. :p
The First goal is to start doing a drawing a day. A concept made known to me by a lovely blogger named Daisy. I attempted this last year and made it about 30 days in before I let life get the better of me. I'm hoping that by making it slightly more official, making daily updates here and getting feedback from readers, I will start making art more a part of my daily life. Currently, I'm working on covering up a journal I wrote in a year or so ago, some therapy for covering up past demons. The journal itself is beautiful with a deep dark blue slip cover and heavy cold-pressed watercolor paper. It was a joy to write in but now I think I can make something more beautiful out of it.
See! Darn Purdy!
Some Extra Credit, pages I did about a month ago:
This is the one I did today:
The Second goal is to follow the concepts in the book I'm reading at the moment called "The Four Agreements" by don Miguel Ruiz (full book review to come when I finish it). I think Ruiz makes very valid points in this book, providing ways to destress and improve your own life, creating your own heaven. The four agreements you choose to make with yourself are:
Sounds so simple when it's just those four ideas written on paper but already today I have felt myself stress out about things I took personally and I made assumptions that put someone in a negative light (I asked for clarity and my assumption was wrong, I felt silly, but was really glad I made the effort to get clarification.) If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend it.
Third big goal is to reconnect, get together with friends more often and build stronger friendships based on trust and good experiences. I lost touch with a lot of people over the course of the years I've been in college and it's proven to be a great disservice to me.
And last but not least, the Fourth goal is to really start working on my career. I start my new job on Monday and it's going to be amazing. The doors that it will open and the experience I will gain will be limitless. It's time to put all that hard work done at MCAD to work and start building on it.
Life is good... very good. I'm blessed with a close family that's helped me through a lot of hard times and a core group of friends that has stuck by me, I also met some amazing people last year that have welcomed me into their lives with so much joy. 2009 was a really hard year that taught me a lot about myself. I am determined to grow more this year and learn more about what I'm capable of achieving.
Happy New Year everyone! May 2010 bring you great happiness and success in all your endeavors!
It's a tradition in our family to have fun, unique hand-made Christmas stockings. Deb's and my mom's are simple felt stockings with fabric painted names and fabric decorations, mine is a green and white checker-board pattern high-heeled boot and the pets each have their own as well, a fish for midnight and a bone for Jett. When I was dating Bryce, he had just gotten back from Iraq so we teamed up with his mother and drafted a pattern for a Christmas stocking from his army boot. Deb created it and it looked amazing, sadly I didn't take a picture of it before I mailed it to him last week so he would have it in time for Christmas. But it was awesome. So this past Friday, I designed a Christmas stocking for Chris, inspired by his favorite book series The Dark Tower by Stephen King. As you can tell by the book cover I posted last week, the main character is pretty much a cowboy, so this Christmas stocking is based on an image of a cowboy boot I found online and distorted a little.
Here's the pattern (sorry it's a pdf)
and after working on it all day on Sunday, this is the final product Debbie and I created from scratch.
It lost some of the detail of the patter obviously (and turned out super tiny...oops!) but I think it turned out great! Somehow I found the perfect button for the spur and the way I wrote his name ended up looking like fancy lasso work.
And even his kitties, Inigo and Fezzik will be getting a Christmas Stocking this year!
We had so much fun working on these! I need to have more craft days, but I always say that and never actually make it happen... I'm not going to doom it by calling it a New Year's Resolution...
