Monday Post ~ February 14, 2011
Give yourself
a creative valentine
What would you like to accomplish creatively this week? Given the specifics of your schedule, decide on a realistic task or a milestone to reach for. Share your goal(s) as a comment to this post, and let us know how things went with your creative plans for last week, if you posted to last week’s Monday Post.
Suggestion: When you’re deciding on your creative intentions, it’s a good idea to think about WHEN you’re going to write those 2,000 words or paint that canvas. Try to schedule the time slots in your calendar (if you keep one), understanding that flexibility may be required. If things don’t happen when you wanted them to, that’s OK. Give yourself a gentle push with one hand, but pat yourself kindly on the shoulder with the other if you don’t reach your goal for a given week. Sometimes it’s easier, sometimes it’s harder. Ride whatever you’ve got.
It’s also useful to have a sense of your minimum requirements (come hell or high water I’m going to write 100 words) while keeping a lookout for sudden opportunities to do more. You know, the day that the baby takes a monster nap or your partner takes the kids out to run errands and you find yourself with an unexpected “extra” half hour. Grab that time for yourself. You can catch up on the dishes and the laundry later. If you keep something creative in the back of your mind for those sudden opportunities, you’ll be more likely to use them to your advantage — rather than squandering your precious bonus moments on Facebook or vacuuming out the sofa cushions.
Studio Mothers: Life & Art 
Here’s what I wrote last week: “Speaking of Valentines, I’ll be needing to help my girls with theirs this week. I’m also currently taking two online courses, one with Wyanne (Paint Free) and one with Alisa Burke (Sketchbook Delight…I see Bonnie Rose is taking that too!). I’m two weeks behind on Wyanne’s class and would like to at least finish week 3 this week (the class is currently on week 5). I think I’ll be able to keep up with Alisa’s class a bit more since it involves minimal , easily travelable, supplies. But thankfully, it’s also open ended. I’ve done pretty well keeping my website and Etsy stores updated here lately, but still have a gazillion photos to edit. Don’t think I’ll get to any of that this week though.”
Valentine’s done…and then some. We even made brownies for their teachers. I didn’t get any farther in Wyanne’s class but I’m at least keeping up with the videos in both her class and Alisa’s class. I think Alisa’s class will be easier to tackle, so I’m probably just going to download Wyanne’s videos and finish the course later. This week we got sidetracked making these:
http://happyshackdesigns.blogspot.com/2011/02/mix-it-up-monday-alisa-burke.html
Happy with that little detour !
Kelly, I love your arm warmers!!! So cool. I am totally going to make my own. Thanks for the inspiration 🙂
My intentions for last week were: “Whatever else happens creatively this week, I must get those valentines made. That’s my big goal!”
Outcome: Got the class valentines made, although I had wanted to make some for the grandmothers, as we did last year, but I had to let go of that one. Everything takes longer on crutches, and I’m trying to get better about not pressuring myself too much (ha ha). I did make a collage card for my son who had his first solo recital at college (just got back last night). I had fun making it and was pleased with the outcome. I also managed to submit a couple of things to the new Stampington magazine, Create with Me, so that was an added bonus.
This week: Homework for a new class I’m taking (blog post forthcoming). Essay: one hour. Plus some fun in the art room with the little ones.
Help! Is it Monday? No it’s Tuesday and I still haven’t set my Monday’s goals. Oh I know, How about try to learn two more things about navigating my website. I would say plan my birthday, but never do that anyway, I just plan the cake. As you can see, my goals are pretty simple this week. I’m thinking. A lot. About what direction to move in. Many ideas as well as people tugging on my shirt, maybe I’ll meditate the week away.