The Plan . . .

You give great advice and I probably should take it.

But, allow me to explain why it is I want to challenge myself to a daily blog post in December.

Because I don’t want to lose December, that’s why.

One of the pitfalls of a crazy pace (that I seem to just make crazier all the time), is that I am not really sure what happened at any particular moment or other.

Am I actually having fun running around like a chicken? Yes.

Do I remember any of the fun? No.

So, one thing I am doing is learning the practice of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), which is something my sister is teaching out in California – to people in big companies with lots of stress. It should work for me here in a tiny company with lots of stress.

I will certainly talk more about this wonderful program in the future, but the basic premise is that it is best to pay attention to what you are feeling and thinking. It’s good for you.

I thought that if I checked into what is going on in my life every day in December, I would enjoy this season much more.

Why do it publicly? Because then, there is more incentive for me to do it.

And to tell the truth, my life is pretty darned interesting, and you might enjoy sharing some of what goes on around here.

So, the month of December will be “A Month in the Life . . .” here on my whatever blog. I have no idea what will be in that month, of course, but I doubt I will bore you. I surely don’t bore me.

“A Month in the Life” will help me take stock of where things are at the end of a very peculiar year, and perhaps become more clear on where I want things to be in 2013.

As we wrap up November, here are some of the things that are happening, and that you will probably be hearing about in December . . .

I am creating and purchasing as many wonderful things for the gallery as possible for the gift shopping season. As a consequence of bringing in lots of new things, Mark and I are moving everything around. And I realize I have never shown you photos of this location (our best ever), so I will be doing that – and sharing some of the creative process too. I have really been getting into creative displays and I will share that as well.

At LONG last, I have found a hosting solution for my video workshops and can bring them back from the hiatus they have been on since MobileMe went down in June. Like I said, this has been a peculiar year with Sheer Heaven almost disappearing in January and all my video workshops killed off in June, but the pieces are finally coming back together and I will be republishing those workshops.

December marks the final Workbook in the iPad Studio Workshop, which has been such a success that I am going to keep offering it. I will be taking the 2012 out of the title and continuing to offer that workshop through the coming year at least. There will also be several new Workbooks on iPad art offered separately, and an iPad Blog!

I am having fun making holiday cards for the gallery, using some wonderful clip art that comes from picture fonts (You can learn all about that in Volume One of Creativity Knocking), and yes, iPad students, I did create this art on my iPad.

Here are the first two cards I have created . . . the inside message is shown to the right.

And here’s good old Rudolph . . .

I need six different cards to fit my rack and make up the six-packs, so I am still scribbling away on that iPad. What a blessing to be able to sketch and paint and the file is already digital and ready to print.

Just an aside – I don’t know how many of you have worked much with making art and scanning it into the computer. If you have, you know all the problems with color shift and the texture of the paper surface showing up and having to be removed, and all the sloppy edges of ink and paint to be cleaned up pixel by pixel.

If you’ve been there and done that, you can imagine how wonderful it is to draw and paint on a glass “sketchpad” with a totally natural feel, and getting to skip all that trouble on the way to printing your results. Long live the iPad!!!!!

See you tomorrow . . .

12 thoughts on “The Plan . . .

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