Do that thing update -- When progress is slow

This post is part of my do that thing series.  For previous updates, in handy reverse chronological order, click here.

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I've been working on one particular project that I can't wait to show you.  In my mind's eye, it's something really special.  Only, it's not finished yet.

It's a new journal.  A pocket journal that you can take with you wherever you go.  It will be simply made and staple bound, with a limited selection of bright covers, but on the inside, oh the inside, it will be filled with some of my best doodles and prompts yet.  There will even be a new category of prompt, one that you haven't seen yet, one that will nudge you even closer to your goals.

I have made it so easy for myself.  One page per day, I tell myself.  I can do one page per day.  One page per day and I'll be finished in, like, a month, maybe two at the most.

Except that I've been working on this project for more than a year.  I'd say it's about half-finished.

It's Friday today, and I look back on this week, a week punctuated by sick days for both girls, a day-long meeting outside my city, an afternoon commitment, a volunteer commitment, a couple of appointments, a longer-than-intended-but-totally-worth-it lunch with a friend, dinners to make, baths to run, a couch to pass out on when the kids are finally asleep, and I see that I've only opened the file twice and never even came close to finishing one page.

I won't lie.  There's a measure of dread here.  That I'll never see this through.  That I just can't do it.

And then there is the thought that this is life.  And progress is slow.  And that's no reason to give up.

Valentine's Day Crafts

If you follow this blog on a reader, you'll see that I've already half-published this post.  I hit the wrong button and the post went up long before it was ready.  That's the first time that's ever happened here, but I suppose it was bound to happen at some point.  At least there weren't any first-draft bad words. :)

If you saw the draft version, you might have seen that I have not strayed from my usual post-writing protocol.

Anyhoo, what I meant to write, which I didn't quite get to before prematurely hitting the publish button, was that we've been working on crafts for Valentine's Day.  Right at the last minute, of course.  But they've turned out to be rather sweet, I think.

These little butterflies (inspired by this post at Skip to my Lou) are headed for my four year old's kindergarten class.  Except it's not called kindergarten at her French language school; it's called maternelle.  Which I just love.

The paper we chose totally reminds me of spring.  Next we'll work together on adding all of her classmates' names. 

My nine year old wanted to try something a little more ambitious this year, so after we saw these hearts at the Purl Bee she decided to give sewing with felt a try.

She drew her own heart and decided to sew only the bottom, leaving the top open for goodies.

I just love the look of hand stitching and I think my daughter does now, too!

As a general rule, I don't have a lot to say about the merits of Valentine's Day, but this year, I don't know, so far it has been a real treat!

Hope your 14th is lovely.

hugs,
Christie

Do that thing update -- Skill building

This post is part of my do that thing series.  For previous updates, in handy reverse chronological order, click here.

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A happy byproduct of settling on one major goal (i.e., growing the blog) is that it helps me to focus in on the skills I'd like to acquire or improve upon in order to reach that goal.

Right near the top of a very long skill-building wishlist is learning to draw.  I've long wanted to expand my ability to create on paper and, yet, I've often felt limited by the perception that I can't draw.  I suspected that learning to recreate bits and pieces of the real world in a reasonably realistic manner would improve my approach to my journal pages.  So I signed up for a beginner class at a local art school.

All of a sudden, after just a few lessons, the world feels so much more interesting.  When I'm looking at a wintry scene outside my window or at an everyday object on the table in front of me, I can really see it -- its edges, its volume, the way the light hits it.  It's a total creativity boost.  Which is true, I think, of learning in general; it presents the world in ways we may not have considered.  It offers us perspective, wisdom, possibility.

Anyhoo . . .

Here are two of my first attempts at drawing from the actual 3D world -- something I thought I was not capable of doing just a few weeks ago.

Part of the tree behind my house.
(The object of this exercise is to draw the spaces between and
around the thing you see, rather than the thing itself.)

Paint tubes.
(Here, you start with a painted board, which is then covered with graphite. I erased
and sandpapered off most of the graphite to try to reveal the shapes of the tubes.)

(The process behind both drawings remind me of that old joke that asks, How do you carve an elephant? and answers, Just take a big slab of stone and remove all the parts that don't look like an elephant.)

To my eyes, both pieces are full of mistakes and missteps, but they have given me a level of confidence that I still can't quite believe.

Thanks to a wonderfully talented and supportive teacher, I know that with a lot more practice, I'll be able to incorporate a new skill into my work here.

And that takes me one step closer to doing that thing.

What about you?  Are you learning something new these days?  Has doing your thing changed your perspective, even a little bit?

hugs,
Christie

Do that thing update -- Fear and indecision

My sister and I met up in Toronto last week for an appointment to have some foreign documents certified.  (Sounds rather intriguing now that I see it in writing, but I assure you it was quite administrative in nature.)

Anyhoo, we were walking side by side and I was listing all of the supporting documentation I'd brought with me:  a copy of the email confirming our meeting date and time, just in case they didn't have us in the system; extra identification, just in case one piece wasn't enough; a copy of the email confirming the charge for certification, just in case they tried to charge us more because I'd noticed when reviewing the website that the service we needed carried a range of charges that hadn't been mentioned in the original email.

On and on I went, until I looked over at my sister and noticed that she was looking at me as only a family member can -- like I'd finally gone right around the bend.

"Yeah," she said.  "I didn't bring any of that.  You're hilarious."

And that, right there, has always been the difference between us:  she rarely considers the what-ifs, let alone worries about them.  Me?  I'm all about the what-ifs.  She skips happily along, ably managing the rare crisis that presents itself, while I trod a little less happily behind her, perpetually crouched in full crisis alert mode, carefully planning my response to every conceivable (and usually, unlikely) eventuality.

Which tends to mess with my ability to focus and to move decisively forward.

Which also brings me back to Wednesday's post.

Jamie approached me last year and very sweetly asked if I'd consider creating a themed page for a baby shower she was planning for a friend.  I agreed.  It sounded like a fun challenge and it gave me the chance to determine whether my drawing and writing style would work as a card, which was something I'd been thinking about for a while.  Jamie was up for a card, too, when I suggested it, so I made it up and sent it off.

Shortly thereafter, Jamie threw a truly lovely shower for her friend Natalia and generously included my card in one of her posts about the shower.

But even before her post, I started to worry about the what-ifs.  I worried about what would happen when Jamie wrote about my card.

And before I launch into it, can I just let you know that I'm quite nervous about the remainder of this post?  This is the stuff of fear and indecision and I'm not sure how much to reveal.  What's fair to say and what's not?  Possibly I'll say too much.  Or maybe it's no big deal.  All I know right now is that I really need to write about it.  To sort it out.  As you probably know by now, trying to sort things out is what I do.

I've written about this before, not in great detail or with particular clarity, but I've struggled with the decision to offer my printables as free downloads.  Was it a wise decision?  I really don't know.  I went into this entirely by feel.  When I started Grace is Overrated, I had no readers and no subscribers.  Its growth to date is directly attributable to my journal pages and your amazing support.  I am so grateful and happy to continue to grow into this space and I am proud of the work I've done here.

And yet, I struggle with the possible expectations I've created.  Not necessarily actual expectations, mind you, but the ones I've created in my own head.  Sometimes, I feel that since I've been offering pages for free download all along, I must continue to do so.  Please know that this is my issue.  No one, not one reader, has ever suggested such a thing.  But I worry that I have created that expectation and I lose sleep over what will happen if I make a change.  On the other hand, I worry that I have already given too much away.

Somehow, creating the baby shower cards amplified that concern.

On top of that, I totally stressed over what to do with the baby shower cards over here on this blog.  From my perspective, they're a one off.  They don't really fit with my other work.  But I have a zillion ideas for how to proceed from this project to a whole bunch of new and exciting things I'd like to create for the shop.

Except when?  In my spare time?  (Hardy, har, har.)  After sending the cards to Jamie, I began to feel this overwhelming sense of urgency to move forward, to keep up the momentum, and yet . . . no time.  So how did I deal with it?  By avoiding it.  Of course.

Ultimately, I couldn't see the baby shower cards for what they really were:  a fun project.  I worried the process into a chore, into something to be avoided, and I left Jamie in a difficult spot in the process.  Her readers were asking her whether the cards were available for download and, thanks to me, she had no satisfactory answer.

So.  Where does this leave me?  A little exhausted, truthfully, and very much trying to learn from this experience.  I am now actively planning for the future of this blog and my work as a whole.  In the process, my most immediate goal has to be to stop avoiding the tough questions and the difficult conversations.  It scares me a little, but it's really the only plausible way forward.  Just gotta keep putting one foot in front of the other, right?

How about you?  I'd love to read about your things.  Are you moving forward?  Are you making (or possibly avoiding) the tough decisions?

hugs,
Christie

Baby Shower Printable

Oh, you guys.  This printable gave me angst.  Actually, it would be more correct to say that this is a project in which I created a whole lot of unnecessary angst for myself.  From which I am trying to learn.

Tomorrow, or possibly Friday, I'll write about the angst in a do that thing update, but for today, I'd like to show you a fun, printable, fill-in-the-blank, baby shower note card that I created for the lovely Jamie who threw a fantastic, beach-themed baby shower for her friend Natalia and who, by the way, has also been wonderfully gracious in waiting out my many months of indecision regarding this project.

Jamie used the printables in place of a guest book.  After her guests had completed their cards she punched holes in the corners, tied them together with ribbon, and gave them to the mom-to-be as a mini-book of best wishes and baby predictions.

The version I sent to Jamie was a diy, colour-free version, but for today's post I've added a colourful option as well.

Front view

Inside view

Inside view

Back view

The diy, colour-free version

If you find yourself in the planning stages of a baby shower and would like to download my fill-in-the-blank baby shower card, you'll find it here (the colour-it-yourself version) and here (the colourful version).

Just one more quick note -- The printable file contains a two-page pdf.  To create the card, print the first page of the pdf on one side of your cardstock and the second page on the other side of the same sheet of cardstock.  Then fold in half and you're done!

hugs,
Christie