Monday Post ~ May 22, 2011
“Each of us has an inner dream that we can unfold if we will just have the courage to admit what it is.”
~Julia Cameron
What are your plans for creative practice this week? Given the specifics of your schedule, decide on a realistic goal or a milestone to reach for. A goal as simple as “I will be creative for 10 minutes every day” is what it’s all about. 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 
My creative goals for this week include:
– Sew one sundress for my girl
– Do two blog entries
– Finish up my time management plan
– Start creating an interview process for garden design clients
– Do one creative project with my son (painting or creation station or perhaps making rhubarb pie!)
– Soak up the Wild Edibles foraging walk @ Wisdom of the Herbs school in Vermont I scheduled for the 4 of us during our Memorial Day weekend camping trip
I have set aside Sunday or Monday night for my “design studio”, which means I’ll have 2 hours to work on these projects after kids go to bed. I can write one blog entry Wednesday night while I’m waiting for my daughter at her gymnastics class. I’m hoping to be more effective at squeezing in some extra minutes here and there to finish up the time management plan and do the other blog entry. I commit to letting my son watch an hour of tv Monday and Wednesday afternoons so I can work on the dress or the interview process, and I’ll do this with no guilt because I’ll set aside blocks of time devoted just to him on both days.
Creative accomplishments for this past week include planting the entire vegetable garden, planning two vacations, creating a cute little scavenger hunt for the kids with clues and pictures depciting various plants in the yard, and getting mid-way on my time management plan. I got all the basic unchangeable schedule items down, and scheduled the design studio on Sunday night or Monday night (unfortunately I only get one, the other gets devoted to paid work), and talked to my husband about picking a night to cook dinner. His enthusiasm was underwhelming but we picked Sunday night and as I was playing with the kids this afternoon (and doing paid work once they got in the groove and played by themselves), there arose from the kitchen great clattering and yummy smells and wa-la, dinner was served. You would have thought Julie Child or Ghandi for that matter cooked dinner the way the kids were going on and on about how good it was, and how they needed to buy Daddy a chef’s hat, because his stir fry was so much better than Mama’s. As my four-year old said, “I just think you cook all the time and you make all the same things and it’s just no good.” He’s lucky he’s four and cute. Nonetheless I was very thankful for the tasty dinner and clean kitchen created not by my hands!
Wow — out of the gate with a bang, jlcm! Terrific job of figuring out what you want to do and *when* you’re going to accomplish those things. Also, kudos for enlisting support from the team (your husband may decide he likes cooking a lot more now, considering his new rock-star chef status!) Can’t wait to hear how the process unfolds.
last week, scheduling my writing time was thwarted re: child care.
this week, my usual tues writing group time is taken up by a preschool end of year event, but i am trying to confirm childcare for wednesday, and have setup a meeting time for another stay at home mom to meet me at the library for a few hours in the morning.
appointment-wise, this is a rough week for writing time.
woohoo! just confirmed childcare for wed!
wow! jlcm’s list is so organized! i can learn from that. 😉
i finished just about everything on my list from last week and even got some rest. while i haven’t completely finished edit mermaids and mamas pics, i’ve gotten a good start on them (posted a couple on my blog this morning), i unpacked all the m&m supplies and got my studio back in shape, i completed a large custom order i’ve been needing to get done, i applied for that faculty position i mentioned, and i took two days off work to just veg…one day spent doing absolutely nothing (truly, nothing), and the next spent with a little retail therapy.
this week, i need to get caught up on my blog, getting back to posting more than once a week; photograph and list some jewelry pieces i haven’t posted yet; and maybe even get started on an altered book project i’ve been wanting to play with.
What a EXCELLENT morning quote!
I sent my second workbook off to the self publishing company I use and waiting now on the proof- woo hoo!
Now I need to organize all the post its and papers that I write ideas on while I am in the midst of projects. I need to get better at how to “hold” these thoughts. Right now I have “misplaced” a journal that had a couple of chapters of another idea I had. 😦
woo hoo girls! you are all accomplishing awesome things!
The two current coaching classes I’m taking both end within the next two weeks, and then I’ll have a reprieve for two months with just reading and writing assignments until August (when the next class begins). During June and July, I will get back to more first-hand creative work, but for now I need to focus on the coaching priorities. I’ll also be reaching out to some new “volunteer” coachees. (Oh, and must somehow manage to get a BIT more of my “day job” client work done — falling behind there!)
Last week’s goals:
* CCA homework and coaching (two classes) YES
* Finish one Life Assessment response NO
* Work on newsletter YES–DONE
* Finish reading book group book YES
* Journaling YES, BUT ONLY ONCE
* Project Life update NO
This week’s goals:
* CCA homework and coaching (two classes) DAILY
* Finish three Life Assessment responses MON/WED/THURS
* Journaling DAILY
* Project Life update SUNDAY
* Progress in Right-Brain Business Plan FRI
This week I need to edit and bring much closer to completion a 1200-1500 word essay. I have the raw words, but it needs serious editing.
I’ve also been thinking a lot about breaking down visual projects into manageable pieces. I’m going to complete one painting a month, depicting a semi-abstract yoga pose with collage and painted elements. I’ll begin by asking someone to photograph me in dancer’s pose after teaching my class on tuesday, so that I can use a photograph instead of a magazine picture. Then on thursday afternoon while I have some childcare I’ll take a half hour or so to work on sketches.
I love Miranda’s ideas for working on writing at the playground or outside in the yard. My kids are old enough now, if only the weather would cooperate! Still, I’ll aim to spent 15 minutes editing per day.
Oh yes, I love the idea of journalling only one word if that’s all the time you have. I’ve let journalling become an occasional thing since having kids. I’ll keep the journal by the bed and try to write at least one word every night.