Monthly Archives: November 2011

Weekly Update

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I feel like I made some solid progress on my goals of taking time for my creative pursuits. Let’s see where I stand.

1. Knitting:  I made no progress this week because I needed all of my free time to read and write book reviews. I hope to remedy that this week, now the my deadline has passed.

2. Piano: I had a fantastic lesson where I managed to play all of my pieces with some level of competency. I have a couple of new pieces for this week that will challenge me by requiring me to play legato and with my hands independently. Truthfully, I’m looking forward to the challenge.

3. Cooking: I ended up not needing to make the Italian Minestrone recipe I posted last week because we had enough Sausage and Lentil Stew leftovers to last the week. This week, of course, will have a turkey theme, I will be making Turkey Noodle Soup with the leftovers of our Thanksgiving bird.

4. Painting: I also didn’t get to painting this week because of my book review deadline.

5. Writing: I’m adding a new category here. Again, I didn’t make a lot of progress this week, but I think I want to try to incorporate more creative writing into my week. For this week, however, I can say that I wrote several blog posts and four book reviews.

6. Outdoors & Exercise: And I’m adding a final new category. The quality of my life improves dramatically when I make time for exercise, particularly outdoors. To that end, I want to track my efforts here, too. I walked for a couple of hours with my dog this week, worked out on the elliptical for 50 minutes, and went for a two-hour hike with my boys. I also rode a magnificent horse named Charlie yesterday. I was actually riding him with the idea of purchasing him. I’ve decided to pass on the purchase because he really deserves a better rider than me. However, the ride made me realize how much I would enjoy taking lessons again and regaining some of my skills. So, that has become a new goal.

charlie.jpg
Charlie (with a better rider than me!)

That’s it for this week. I can see some places I would like to improve, but overall I made progress toward my goal.

Dabbling

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So, I got out my watercolors and dabbled this past weekend. It wasn’t pretty. I’m totally out of practice. And yet, I accomplished the hardest part: unpacking the paints, taping down paper, and applying brushes to paint to paper.

watercolor pansiesStill, I had a lot of fun and enjoyed the bliss of being lost in a project for a couple of hours. So, I’ve decided to dust off one of my watercolor manuals and work my way through some of the exercises.

Remember: it’s the not the result, but the process.

Creative Check-In

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It’s time for another creative check-in.

Knitting: In a continuing effort to clean up my UFO’s in case we move, I’m tackling the Priceless White Diamonds pattern in Leisure Art’s Our Best Knit Baby Afghans. I bought the yarn and pattern for this blanket on the day I found out my youngest son would be a boy. He just turned five in September, so I think it’s time to get this one done. In some strange fit of insanity, I decided to do this pattern in navy blue and teal, instead of white (or any other single color, for that matter), which should make for an interesting look, to say the least. I will say the boy I intended this for originally is priceless, so I guess that part holds true in some way.

Piano: I am taking piano lessons again. At the moment, I’m laboring over Hanon‘s exercises 2 and 3 and Alfred’s Basic Adult Piano Course Lesson book, level 1. I can now play When the Saints Go Marching In, and people can occasionally recognize it.

Cooking: This week, I intend to tinker with Stephanie O’Dea’s Italian Minestrone Soup recipe at A Year of Slow Cooking. I’ll update if my tinkering turns out well.

Miscellaneous: I’ve updated my sidebar to show my current reading material. I have a short stack of reviews due at the end of the week. I also took a class with a terrific friend last weekend where we made watercolor postcards. The class was awful, but it did pique my interest in playing with my paints again and dabbling in my art journal again. To that end, I ordered Artist’s Journal Workshop, which should arrive any day now. And with the fall weather finally here, I hope to get out of doors more with my camera.

And that’s where things stand, creatively speaking.