Category: Introspection

Art, Introspection

Without a plan

 

  The prompt for this lesson was a quote on creativity from Alan Alda (an actor known for M*A*S*H).  I’ve extracted just the part that feels most personally important: the “not quite knowing what you are doing.”  I’m so accustomed to having a plan, to knowing where I am going, how I’m getting there, what I need for the journey – literally and figuratively, acting from a place of confidence.  But it’s been clear to me for more than a year now that I need to do something new, and I’ve been totally stymied.  I don’t have a sure-fire plan …

Art, Caitlyn, homeschooling, Introspection

Kids Art Week, Day 1

 

Caitlyn and I are following along with Carla Sonheim‘s 2016 installment of Kids Art Week. Five days of free how-to art project posts with each project inspired by the work of a famous artist. Caitlyn’s a good artist already, having produced some nicely drawn dragons last December. I like the idea of making more art myself, but I find myself frequently stymied by the blank page. One would think I’d have some clue how to handle that since I write a fair bit. Maybe it’s that I can call the writing “journaling” and string together free-association thoughts until there’s something …

Introspection

Thinking about Rocks and Time (Trail of Two Forests)

There’s something surreal about rocks that clearly show they were once liquid. Reading about lava flows is one thing. Sure, it says the rock was liquid, and I don’t doubt it. But getting up close to a rock, with all of it’s solid hardness, and finding a curved and rippled surface not unlike some cake batters kind of puts it in perspective. Once upon a time, this solid surface moved like water. You can see the ripples in this photo, at about the 2 o’clock position on the tree mold.  Roughly 2000 years ago, Mt. St. Helens erupted lava which …

dreaming out loud, Introspection

Happy New Year!

Ok, so I’m late. It’s just so I can be sure that you hear my New Year’s greetings over everyone else’s. I’ve got a stack of posts to write to share the last minute creating from December. My sewing corner is a big pile of stuff since I was making things (and coming up with more ideas for more things) and then abruptly stopped to focus on actual Christmas prep. I always feel that my version of Christmas dinner is a lot less complicated than the traditional turkey feast, but somehow I still spend two days before Christmas in the …

Introspection, sewing, Wardrobe Improvement Project

Appearances Matter (news only to me)

I’m a freelancing, work-from-home techie mom, a crafter, and a gardener with small-scale urban homesteading tendencies. I cook, I clean, I do a lot of laundry. I’ll usually make the first attempt at various home maintenance tasks. I tend three gardens: the ornamental front yard, the edible backyard, the p-patch plot down the street. I can spend a large part of my day at my desk with my computer or at my other desk with my sewing machine. Most days, the farthest I travel is all the way across the street to the mailbox. When I travel further, I’m usually …

dreaming out loud, Introspection, random thoughts

Long-handed

The prompts answered above are: 1. Name 2. Blog address 3. Write: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” 4. Favorite quote. 5. Favorite song (of the moment). 6. Favorite band/singer (of the moment). 7. Write anything you want. 8. Tag 3-5 bloggers. I have always had romantic notions of handwriting. I like antiqued paper. I’ve tried to write with a feather (although not recently). I’ve played with calligraphy (again, not recently). And I love the idea of long, “meaty” letters, the kind that I imagine far-flung family members or friends wrote to each other before we had …