It’s the end of November already - this month has passed by so fast, and I’ve both accomplished a ton of stuff, and not done everything I’ve wanted to do.

NaNoWriMo: I didn’t reach my 50,000 words on the one hand, but my initial goal was never to do that. It was to simply get myself sitting down and writing. So I must say, I’m looking at my official 32,532 words with great pride.

Here’s what I’ve discovered: for me, the biggest obstacle is the first step of sitting down and opening up my writing software. Once I place my fingers on the keys, the magic happens. I’m not sure why I have such a block about sitting down and just doing it, since I really enjoy the process so much. But one step at a time, right?

Starting tomorrow, I will have a new widget thingie on the sidebar, showing my word count for whichever novel I’ll be working on. I wasn’t able to keep going with the NaNoWriMo novel these past few days because of deadlines, and also because it suddenly seemed to me that I had to change the narrative from third person omniscient to first person, but only for the scenes involving the main protagonist. Who also wants a name change, too. (I’m not too sure about that one.)

NaBloPoMo: I was actually on track with blogging every day in November (despite what the dates on the posts tell you - I personally count a day as that period of time before I sleep and wake up to the next day. Blogging software has a more rigid, machine-driven view of “a day”.) And then I went and forgot to post yesterday!

So I very nearly posted every day here. Not too shabby, I think.

Art Every Day Month for November: I couldn’t keep up. Too many deadlines, and I also discovered that the writing took priority. I only did four pieces of work, and only posted three of them because I truly didn’t like the fourth one. I may do this challenge again, but probably not until the new year.

It’s been a good month. Ive still not had the time to check out all my favourite blogs regularly, but hopefully, because the deadlines are lighter in December, I’ll be able to get back to it. It’s one of the most enjoyable things about blogging, I’ve been discovering.

Tags: Art, blogging, fun, NaNoWriMo, Thoughts, Writing

I just came across this video for this amazing ABC3D Book over at The Miss Rumphius Effect. Borrowing from Lily, all I can is Wow.

Tags: Art, children's books, video

I know … kind of a sappy title, but that’s what Dylan drew! Our little guy was sick today, but with a bit of Vicks Vaporub (which really has worked to ease his cough) he’s fast asleep now and probably already thinking about the “parade” that he’s decided he wants to play tomorrow.

One of the sweetest things about Dylan is that he insists on seeing everyone out the door when they leave. We all get this special treatment - he’ll race to the front door to give hugs and kisses before you go, and then you can’t forget to wave as you’re walking by the front windows, because he’s planted himself there, waving at you ahead of time.

When Ward takes Dylan out to clay class or for speech therapy, Dylan always insists that not only should Mommy get a kiss from Dylan, she should also get a kiss and a hug from Daddy. To prove his point, he drew this picture the other day:

Mommy and Daddy Kissing

Tags: Art, Family

A little bit more of a hectic day today, but I did manage to finish this little mandala - very relaxing, and I didn’t blow the colours as badly as the last one!

Mandala No. 3

I spent far more time today with my nose buried deep in my work, and the funny thing is, I worked slower and ended up taking far longer than I expected. On the weekend, I had reversed this - I had worked in a focused way, but with lots of fun little breaks, and I ended up getting more work done in less time.

So there’s a lesson for me there!

Tags: aedm, Art

Dylan’s been missing The Big Draw - he loved seeing his work up on “the website”, as he calls it. So I’ve decided to give him his own category here. Afterall, he does have quite a passionate fan club!

Dylan’s Day Yesterday

Yesterday, Dylan had a busy day. I had to stay home, of course, since I’ve got these deadlines (you know, the ones that have been coming out of my ears all week?), so it was just Dylan and Daddy. First they went to speech therapy:

Mommy: How did speech therapy go?

Dylan: Good.

Mommy: Did you have fun?

Dylan: Yes. (with a very nice emphasis on the “sss”, I might add)

Mommy: What did you do?

Dylan: I don’t remember.

(Yes, I think he’s trying on teenager-ese for the fun of it.)

But then after speech therapy, he did something fun - he and Daddy only had an hour before his chess lesson, so: “Mommy, I went to Ol’ McDonald’s and I got this!” (flourishing a little metal car which was part of his Happy Meal. Of which, Daddy reports, he ate the fries and nothing else.)

We had a more eloquent report about the chess lesson (which we’re doing with a group of homeschoolers and a private instructor - Dylan’s the youngest there, and we were a little bit hesitant at first because it’s a two-hour class. But it worked and he loves it.)

Mommy: Did you have a good time at chess?

Dylan: It was deee-lightful.

Dylan Draws: People!

He had a lot of fun this morning - he’s discovered that he likes drawing people! Note: he supplied all the titles.

Girl sleeping on a pillow.

Boy with a whistle.

Girl with hair.

Tags: Art, Family

At first, I wasn’t even going to post this for my latest Art Every Day Month piece; it didn’t exactly turn out the way I wanted, mostly because I chose the absolute wrong colour as the background. (I must admit, I did really love the swirls before I coloured in the background!).

But then I thought to myself:

Did I enjoy making this?

Absolutely! I started it on Tuesday, and in my spare moments, would pick a colour and add more blobs or shapes. I really love “painting” with these new gel pens of mine.

And isn’t that the point of AEDM? To have fun being creative?

At this point, my inner me was starting to sound just a tad sappy, but that’s okay. She has a good point. Making this mandala made the deadlines fade. I had fun. It was soothing. Meditative.

And anyway, I’m so through with the self-judgment thing. This post is proof.

Organic blob.

Tags: aedm, Art

This is my first completed “piece” for Art Every Day Month (AEDM). I enjoyed making this - it’s done with gel pens, and this new batch of gel pens flows very thick and inky; it almost feels like painting with pens! So I might actually try and complete one a day, instead of working on one throughout several days.

About five or six years ago, I actually filled up a little Italian paper blank book with these gel pen mandalas. I created one every day for about three or four months straight. It became almost a meditative experience, and in my quest for balance this month, doing something similar seems like the perfect thing for AEDM!

Mandala No. 1

Tags: aedm, Art, mandala

… and I had been worried I wouldn’t start today. But I did. And I have to say, I’m very surprised by one thing.

When something “sticky” comes up, some passage or phrase or action that isn’t working out right, I’m not stopping and trying to fix it. I’m just ploughing through the thing, going to the next sentence or paragraph.

I never realized how much easier it is to do it like this. Not stopping to fix anything, but just keeping on with the writing. I know I’ll be going back later anyway, and right now the whole point to me is to get those words down.

I only wrote 1411 words today, but that’s a pretty good start. I stopped because the 1411 words brought me to the end of my first scene. I didn’t feel ready to start on my second scene. But I did feel ready to write down more scenes. I’m not too sure in what order they fall, but at least I know they’re there to be written.

I think this will work for me. It definitely feels good!

It’s also Art Every Day Month, and my idea is to work on a mandala a week. With all the business of deadlines this month, it’s good to know I’ll keep on writing and art-ing.

Tags: Art, NaNoWriMo, Writing

No, definitely not.

I’m just writing because I’m in need of a good dollop of fun right now.

It’s been incredibly busy around here - I’ve got deadlines coming out of my ears. I took a look at my schedule and realized I’m going to actually have to complete quite a few deadlines ahead of time if I’m going to stay sane over the next few weeks. I’m very good at procrastination, so this is a totally different direction for me.

The great news is that this year it looks like my “heavy crunch” time when it comes to work is happening in November, and not in December, which means I’ll have lots of time to really get into the holiday season. Christmas is my favorite holiday - I’m one of those smiley uplifted chirpy people who adores Christmas and am all set to plunge into the spirit around mid-November (it would be earlier but like I said, the deadlines are coming fast and heavy over the next two weeks!).

I finished up a couple of deadlines yesterday, and as you can tell, I didn’t procrastinate (no blog posts for two days, see?). But after all that single-minded focus - not to mention one of my projects involved linear algebra, something about which I know absolutely nothing (still), although it did have the effect of numbing my brain somewhat - I am in huge need of other things right now. Fun things. Anything other than work.

I’m promising myself the fun of writing this post before I plunge into the next project.

Reading

Now that I think about it, maybe my focus hasn’t been that single-minded. I did, after all, manage to start and finish The Mysterious Benedict Society yesterday morning.

It was another, much-needed, distraction. After I finished reading, I felt energized and renewed, and actually plunged back into my work easily and almost happily.

Not to mention, it was such a fabulous read. It was the kind of book I would have devoured as a kid (who am I kidding? It’s the kind of book I devour now, too!). Such a wonderfully fantastic adventure, with characters you can fall in love with, a nice strong plot that holds firm to the very end and a victorious resolution that ties up all those loose ends.

I’ve got the sequel on my to-buy list.

Halloween

Halloween has crept up on us. For the longest time, it felt like it was ages away. This morning we realized - hey! it’s Halloween tonight!

Dylan has changed his mind several times about his costume. He was going to be a train engineer (we bought the hat at Aberfoyle Junction)). Then he wanted to be a witch. Followed quickly by: a fairy, a pumpkin, a fire fighter, a fire engine. This morning (yes, we do like to leave things late) he decided, finally, on a witch again.

Luckily, since Hayley has been amassing props for her film-making for years, we already have a witch’s hat (every year we hit the after-Halloween sales to stock up on props, which get wrapped into a nice big prop bundle for Hayley at Christmas). And last year we bought a cape for Dylan (which he didn’t wear, because he ended up being a pumpkin). So we don’t have to go to the costume store and dig through all the left-over stuff!

(I love good news like that.)

Taking Dylan out trick-or-treating will be another much-needed distraction today. I’m looking forward to it very much.

Writing

Despite all the deadlines, I’m still trying to keep one part of my brain focused on writing. It’s pretty easy, actually. Every night before I fall asleep, I come up with a new scene or character for the novel that I’m going to write during NaNoWriMo.

I’m also jotting down all the scenes I plan on writing onto Post-it notes, which I will then be able to re-arrange to my heart’s content. I’ve also been developing a character mindmap form that I’m hoping will hold the most important information at a glance.

I really intend to get this novel written during November, deadlines or no deadlines.

The Big Draw

Dylan and I worked on another drawing together the day before yesterday (another much-needed distraction from work!). This was done, again, in our humungous sketch book (seriously, this book is something like 18 inches by 12 inches, I think), using our new gel pens. We decided to create a birthday party:

Birthday party. Gel pens.

Yesterday, Dylan drew an incredible drawing. He used Ed Emberley’s Make a World Book to jumpstart his imagination, and created an imaginary bedroom in which he gets to share a bunk bed with his big brother Sean (that’s Dylan in the lower bunk). In case you’re wondering, there’s coffee in the hot cup (Sean’s 17 and marked this very important year by becoming a member of the coffee-drinking population of the world), juice (for Dylan) in the other cup, and the plate holds gingerbread cookies.

Bedroom. Crayola markers.

Ed Emberley’s Make a World book is a fantastic drawing book for kids, by the way. When I was little, I used to borrow this book from the library all the time. I remember my delight when I managed to lay my hands on a large piece of poster board - I went wild and truly created a world. Dylan has loads of fun with this book, although it’s actually been a while since he’s used it, since he usually prefers to draw “from my imagination, Mommy”.

Blogging

Traditionally, at this time of the year when I’m at my busiest and going crazy with deadlines, I start seriously blogging. No, really, I do. So lately I’ve been thinking about reviving a spiritual blog I have, and I also decided to start a book review blog, because now that I’ve discovered the power of reading to ignite my urge to write, I intend to keep reading fiction all the time, even when it feels like I don’t have much time. I’ve gotten as far as purchasing a new domain name for it. If I get seriously bogged down in deadlines, I’ll probably have it up and running over the weekend.

(Before I discovered blogging, I would procrastinate by cleaning the house and doing laundry before Ward could get to it. He’d come home, look around, and say, “you’ve got a deadline, don’t you?”. I consider blogging a huge improvement on the whole house-cleaning-urge thing - it’s definitely a much nicer and far more fun procrastination tool.)

I think I proved to myself yesterday that reading what I love to read is beneficial even when I’m bogged down with deadlines. So time (or lack of) is no longer a detriment. If I make reading a priority, my writing will become a priority too. Which has nothing to do with blogging, I know. But everything to do with procrastination. Or rather, distractions.

That’s how my mind works.

Now, back to work. Because I feel refreshed again, after dipping in here. Which is such a wonderful thing.

Tags: Art, children's books, holidays, Life, procrastination, Reading, the big draw

This afternoon Dylan and I took a good look at this gel pen carousel I bought at Costco a few weeks ago:

Gel pens from Costco

And next thing you know, we were working away together on this picture which we’ve decided would be our Big Draw picture for the day. We worked in a humungous sketch book that we like to draw in together. Mommy drew the freight cars and occupants, and the big top tent, and decorated the back engine. Dylan drew the front and back steam engines, decorated the front steam engine and colored all of the freight cars.

Circus train. Gel pens.

Can you tell we had a great time drawing this picture together?

Tags: Art, the big draw