Step 1: Outline ambitious goals.

• Write and illustrate a children's picture book
• Produce 2024 wall calendar

Step 2: Declare these goals to the world in the form of a YouTube video.
Step 3: Life happens causing an avalanche of non-productivity.
Step 4: Do anything creatively that still feels good.

• Sketch in the tiniest sketchbook so that I actually have a chance to fill a page.
• Start a sketchbook journal where I write/illustrate news headlines from my life. I try hard to miss the real news and focus on the quirkier stories.
• Make banners/garland to hang in my house. I've been posting a lot about these on Instagram.
  • Try out new mediums. My favorite being drawing with water soluble fountain pen ink and then strategically washing over certain spots with water.

Step 5: See if what you did can somehow accomplish the goals you outlined in Step 1.

• Scanning these berries that I plan to turn into a banner/garland gives me some fun ideas for my calendar and maybe even a creative way to illustrate a book. We shall see.

The park next to my house isn't pretty. The sidewalks are cracked. The bathrooms are closed. The storm drains get clogged.

But the fog hangs like a veil concealing blemishes and deficits. When the world is covered in a haze, it is easier to take in what you can see. Somehow the "less" is even richer. Trees that normally blend into the landscape emerge prominently, declaring their existence. A row of rocks calmly fades into the distance.

Do our brains work the same way, when there is too much to take in, too much to deal with? Should we curse the fog that rolls in or should we embrace it? Sometimes our brains work the way they should. They override systems and keep us from doing too much... seeing too much at once. Unfortunately sometimes brains don't work like they should. What was once a valuable self preservation tool, is now a crippling wall preventing the cognitive thought necessary to live.
​
Whenever I think...
"Why don't they just take their meds?"
"Why don't they just get a job?"
"Why don't they just stay away from drugs?
"Why don't they just..."
... I will try to remember that they are stuck in the fog. They can't see the door that's 6 feet in front of them because there is a white wall.

2024 is off to a start and the first two weeks haven't allowed much time for art. It is hard to explain and I'm aware that there will be many times that family will be take priority over my creative work. However, I'm becoming painfully aware that if I don't prioritize my creative work, I probably won't be able to function. 

So on that note, let's talk about plans for my 2024 calendars. There will be two calendar versions in two formats this year. The two formats will be the same: large format and small self-print. The first version will be simply the same as 2023. I'll just re-date it for 2024. The second will be a completely new set of art.  I am most excited about an art style that reminds me of linocut, but is done with black ink. Here's an example of one I did a year ago from a picture I took in Arizona 16 years ago. However, I want to dig into my local area and so all of the scenes will be on the Kitsap Peninsula.

Every morning in August I woke up energized and eager to see what footage the GoPro had captured over night. I had snippets of the time lapses up on Instagram the whole month of August. It was a blast and I finally got compiled into a YouTube video. So fun to see them back to back in landscape format. 
Such a great project to do with kids to learn through observation!

This is a follow up to my previous post: Daylight Long Exposure that has details about how I use the ND filter. Obviously, at sunset you can do a long exposure without using a Neutral Density Filter. However, by using the ND1000 filter I was able to do very long exposures. I enjoyed the smoothing effect much more this time.

I picked up a ND 1000 filter that I could use on our Canon Rebel XS DSLR a couple weeks ago. You can use it to flatten out water or blur parts of your image that are moving because it allows you to take daylight long exposure. Part of the reason for the delay in trying it out was because I would need to use the Manual setting on the camera. This would require my brain. I'm going to detail the steps here so that I can reference it in a couple years when I have forgotten.

1. Use a tripod and a 2 second delay.
2. Take a picture using the No Flash Mode.
3. Take note of the shutter speed and aperture that the camera used.
4. Switch to Manual Exposure Mode and dial in the same aperture that was used for the first picture.
5. Multiply the shutter speed from the first picture by 1000 because this is a Neutral Density 1000 filter. The result is your new shutter speed. I made a chart for handy reference in the field.
6. Switch to Manual Focus and focus the camera.
7. Put the ND filter on being very careful not to screw up all that focusing you just did.
8. Take the picture.

Just to recap... I am not sure I prefer the photograph with the filter. I'll have to try out some different subjects and report back later. Click here to see that post.

Here's a time lapse that I did on the GoPro Hero 8 Black.

15 years ago it was Easter. We still have a little over a week to go until Easter this year. So I am feeling extra on top of things right now! To me the big difference between Washington Easters and Louisiana Easters is temperature. Louisiana is going to be in the high 70's and Washington the high 50's. So the weather in Louisiana is wonderful and prime for outdoor family gatherings and so many bouncy castles! Family gatherings in Washington require a back-up plan in case it rains.

The only photo contest I can remember entering into:
Black and White Photography Contest
December 6-12, 2007 Vol. 16 Ed. 49 THE PRESS in Anchorage.
​I won 3rd place for this cockroach photo in the "Things" category. I won $20.

Some other headlines include:
Obama? Opening a campaign office? Here?
Russian word for "illegal"?
Chasing daylight
A rich, dark marriage of chocolate and stout

April is heavy with birthdays (including my own). I use a perpetual calendar and there are 15 birthdays on it. Typically it is my birthday gift to me to (almost) ignore everyone else's birthday with the assumption that they will all ignore mine. But this year I am going to try to send out a few more cards than normal and it made a great excuse to finally make a bunny stamp. 

I first started carving stamps when I was about 40 weeks pregnant with Karl in 2014. I've largely gotten away from it and the supplies have been stashed in a drawer. It was great fun to dust off the lino cutter and share a new craft with Karl. In reality I sat down at the dining room table and started to carve my bunny stamp by myself. Karl quickly noticed I have two carving tools. After telling him not to touch it 15 times because it is dangerous and sharp... I relented and found him a larger piece of carving block. Thankfully he required little instruction and he is quite pleased with his handiwork.

Does feeding a squirrel count as paying it forward? Not likely.

Prior to my bike trip a friend gave me some very good advice regarding noises and sounds that my bike might start to make. He warned that if I didn't take immediate action when I heard something new, it would quickly fade into the background. Then bad things would happen because I didn't take care of it early on.

I've kept this advice in my pocket even after my bike trip. It easily applies to other home, appliance, and vehicle maintenance. But it can also apply to relationships, eating habits, and penmanship. The list really can go on.

A little story about something I've gotten used to... following the purchase of our home, we discovered that it basically needed to be rewired. We made some great progress before we moved in, but it wasn't complete. Little by little more work has been done when time and motivation have allowed. 

Our bedroom hasn't had a working outlet or light for five years. We've totally gotten used to it and it rarely frustrates me. We have a nice stash of flashlights and book lights for task lighting. My husband has a magic desk (flashlights with dead batteries magically get refueled with fresh batteries). A bedroom is primarily for sleeping; an activity that requires very little light.

It will be amazing when we do energize our bedroom though. Getting that ceiling fan to work before the next heat wave would be especially awesome. 
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Good News: We got the house vacuumed.
Bad News: I can't find the blender cup we are missing in the house.
Good News: I tried out my bluetooth remote shutter control for my iPhone camera. It allows me to start and stop video recording on a tripod outside my office window while I am inside.
Bad News: Said recordings are going to be very slow going. Meaning that I set the tripod up where I think the birds are going to visit. Then I wait for the birds to show up in my shot and I also have to press record. The iPhone has to stay "on" the whole time and one battery charge I might get one or two clips. Charge the phone. Rinse and repeat.
Good News: The weather was beautiful and warm today. 

I love making these themed tic tac toe pieces! The kids get really excited about it too and I try to keep the shapes relatively simple. Just an easy space saving way to enjoy the holidays! This time I used a couple Noodler's Inks: Green Marine and Rome Burning.

I was chatting with an unnamed friend yesterday about Texas. I already knew he doesn't like Texas. But I have some fond memories of Texas and I thought I would engage him on the topic. The complaints ranged the humid, hot, or humid and hot climate to country music. He's concerned by the way Texans have more pride in their Texas Pride than they have directly in Texas. He also noted that the vegetation is completely unfriendly because it is covered in thorns. This friend who-shalt-not-be-named was able to rattle all this off and more with great confidence and authority...I don't have the same way with words in discourse and thus he was unmoved by my notes about how Alpine, TX was a "cool town". 

Reminded of the great memorization efforts I made in the hill country, I decided to to a bit of copywork. Copywork and memorization are great ways to get to know a poem better. I've had a giant book of unread Wendell Berry poems sitting on my shelf for a couple years. So lots of great material to work through. But tonight I decided to work on Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken that I referenced in the blog post below 15 years ago.

Reading it again now... I would guess that it is set in the fall because he references "a yellow wood" and then later "In leaves no step had trodden black." Traveling alone by foot with winter fast approaching makes me think of this poem differently. The choice of the road seems to carry more weight. 

In advance of my bike tour I'd printed off a couple poems suggested by my english professor (if I correctly recall). I trimmed them up nicely eventually I pulled them out as a welcome distraction. This copywork provides a similar relaxing distraction only made better by a lovely journal that lays flat nicely and smoothly writing pen. 
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Sailor 1911L Wicked Witch of the West Fountain Pen Broad Nib
Diamine Seasons Greetings Ink
Life Noble Note Ruled A5 N39 Japanese Journal

I wrote this little poem to go with my post from 15 years ago. That post is about my first day touring by myself. These days I am aware that I am more introvert than extrovert. So it is no surprise that I seemed rested, happy, and writing poems on my way to Brackettville. While Jon was a wonderful traveling companion, I found it stressful traveling with another person (any other person). Group decision making has never and will never be my favorite thing. And there were a lot of decisions to make all day, every day on a trip like this. 

This farm was hard to look away from in the evening light. Cotton farms are pretty common in this area.

I don't send out Christmas cards because I'm not in the mood in December. But in January I have a festive string of family photos and glossy cards in my hall and I feel inspired. This year I sent out a Valentine's Day Update. I settled on a booklet format and started reflecting on our last year and a half. Working around the theme Write With Love made it easier to outline each page/topic.
The other bonus about waiting until February is already having updated return addresses from all those cards and letters. I do mail out to a ton of people that never mail me anything. Sometimes I hear back and it is rewarding to reconnect with friends and family. Sometimes I never hear back. I hope that the news from our lives brings some joy to yours. 

In my writing 15 years ago I mentioned PIPs (Previously Important People). I don't think I came up with the term, but I really can't recall. Giving this some serious reflection I realize that there aren't just PIPs. I'm also considering other titles we give ourselves:

PAP Previously Adventurous Person
PEP Previously Energetic Person
PCP Previously Carefree Person
PHP Previously Happy Person

I know it is easy to get hung up on the past and think that the best is behind us. It is also easy to think that the best is yet to come. I recently watched the movie Hector and the Search for Happiness and it reminded me that happiness is in the pursuit. 

As long as I'm not a PLP (Previously Living Person), I'd like to embrace what I am:

CCP Currently Creative Person
COP Currently Organized Person

I'm probably also a CTP Currently Tired Person otherwise I would be able to come up with better acronyms.

I prefer decorations to parties. One involves fun crafting. The other involves people. These are two of my favorite ways to decorate for holidays. I made cute little egg tic-tac-toe for a birthday party and I'm just reusing the grape vine, twine, and hot glue grid again. Hearts are a pretty easy shape. The eggs were easier to cut out though. The hearts are all painted with fountain pen ink that are very richly saturated with pretty pigments. I used Bristol paper for the heart garland too. The hearts are hot glued to the string and then I needed to add a little extra to the bottoms of the hearts to keep them from flipping up. All in all, pretty easy and they will pack up small. I'm thinking  a string of clovers for St. Patrick's Day?

Please excuse the pretty rough quality on this comic... new format for me...
We do not know what was really going on here. There was a woman alone on the side of the road who looked like she needed help... but she didn't really want help from us. You can read Jon's version of the story here.
Maybe we only narrowly escaped being kidnapped? 
Maybe she was a secret agent trying to bait the bad guys into abducting her so they could catch them?
​Leave your theory in the comments!