Monday Post ~ October 10, 2011
“For a long time is had seemed to me that life was about to begin — real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.”
~Alfred D’Souza
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” or “I will gesso three canvases” 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 
today’s quote is perfect for me – just this morning, i was having shower thoughts of always being a supporting player for everyone else’s life, where’s mine? this was after i set with grandma yesterday, that i will be attempting to finish the end of this draft this week, and that i needed child care support to do it. she agreed, then today’s plan fell apart a bit, but the rest of the week is set.
last week’s goals:
edit at writing group on tues. a good few hours to devote to it. maybe do another session on Wed. otherwise, the rest of my week is jammed with appts for me and kids. ~made some page headway on tues, went back for a relook on wed or thurs, and decided after a bit that i really need to let go of a little more of that chapter, but needed some space from it first.
maybe more landscaping next weekend, unless i can convince the fam to go for one last beach day. i NEED it. ~ a smidge of landscaping, picked the last of the vegs and some herbs and made a tasty risotto sunday night! started to put the veg garden plots to bed. did not make it to the beach, but had a blast on sat with honey and 2 of the kids at busch garden’s hallow-scream, and blissfully fell asleep reading in the backyard on sunday afternoon.
this week’s goals:
commit to editing manuscript everyday with the goal in mind to finish by friday. (but not stress if i don’t)
more landscaping during the week, really need to get business done out front.
appreciate the colors around me as the season begins its change, my favorite!
If we were handing out gold stars, you would get a whole pageful for dozing with a book in the backyard. Heaven….
thanks, miranda!
Wow, I’m back in turbo mode and doing everything I can to stay present and peaceful this week. Crunch mode for workshop preparation and CCA homework.
Last week’s goals:
* CCA homework for two classes [yes]
* Journaling [yes]
* Workshop materials [yes]
* Project Life update [no]
* Finish revisions to creative nonfiction piece [no]
This week’s goals:
* Final preparations for workshop starting Sunday [daily]
* Prepare for & attend Wednesday holistic health event as vendor
* CCA homework for two classes plus a final project for one class [T/W/Th]
* Journaling [daily target]
* Yoga x 2
Totally been slammed by Life the last couple of weeks….trying to stay on track and focused.
This week:
*Prepare for my first gallery talk at the museum (yikes!)
*Spend at least three hours on the glass torch this week
*Write a blog post for Studio Mothers!!!(a top priority!)
*Make three new necklace/bracelet/earring sets
*Plan out some copper etching projects and cut the metal shapes
I think that’s it for this week.
Good luck at your gallery talk, Christine — go you!!
New week, time for a fresh list. We spent the last four days camping and hiking in Vermont and my mind is still there! Sigh. I’ll focus on the things that make me happy to ease the transition back.
– Run 2X
– Yoga 1X
– Nature Craft w/ Kids 1X
– A.M. time w/ son 2X
– Immunity Kit: Make herbal lozenges
– Inner exploration/excavation work 1X
– Decluttering (aka excavation, ha ha) 2X
– Halloween: work on costumes for kids
I think that’s enough. Anyone have a white minidress and smurf-blue tights for a 7 yr old? Ay yi yi!
Jane
Quite an inspiring list, jlcm! I have a feeling that you could make a tidy sum this holiday season if you wanted to market those immunity kits to your inner circle….
Ohh…. I wish I had more to report but here goes…
1. one more drawing in the Surya Namaskara A series, lay them out on one sheet or scan them and do this on the computer- –nope
. 2. Yoga for Athletes: get a sequence down on paper and practice it. By next week I want to be working on a script.— not done but working on sequence
3. 2 more blog posts, look more at wordpress, try a post there and see if I like it. — I moved the blog to wordpress and posted my first post there. Took Miranda’s advice and will have separate blogs for yoga and art, cross-linking them at a later point.
. 4. Didn’t paint w/S last week, so this week we’ll try again: Wednesday or Friday, probably Friday since it’s already Wednesday.— no, sadly no.
5. Daily home practice: continue the same, 15 minute clean-up, 1 load laundry WDF, 15 minutes of paperwork. — tried very hard. Did pretty well with the paperwork which is down to manageable, now that I think about it I did really well until I got sick Friday and into a busy weekend, when I switched gears and just did the minimum and rested as much as possible.
What wasn’t on the list is that I also went on a class field trip and went to a fascinating artist workshop on image transfer at the library with my oldest daughter.
This week:
1. Prioritize the Yoga for Athletes sequence since the workshop is in 2 weeks. Finish the sequence and write a script to go with it. Also work on the script for the 10 minute talk. This may well mean that I need to curtail my blogging activities this week!
2. Figure out what I’m doing with the surya namaskar (sun salutation) series for the handout for the workshop (I’m a little stuck here). Continue working on smaller sketches and figure out how they all work together.
3. Daily home practice- keep it up! Daily 15 minute clean-up, paperwork, and 1 load of laundry WDF. Extra bonus credit for spending 5-10 minutes cleaning/decluttering the studio.
4. It’s supposed to start raining- break out the tempera and paint with my son. That was fun for both of us.
Fabulous, Deb! Don’t forget to keep in mind any blog posts that you’d like to share here too