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Living Wild and Precious

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Living Wild and Precious

Category Archives: creativity

30 Day Challenge Day 4: Indulged

12 Thursday Jul 2012

Posted by Carla in 30 Day Challenge, creativity, savoring

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

indulging, prioritizing something fun, self care, sketching

Blue sky this morning – first time in a few days.  This is the tree I sit under in the yard during my ten minute grass time.

And I indulged in more than the allotted time in my sketchbook today – I had a class on the phone and while I listened diligently and took nine pages of notes, I also produced this:

After the fall cypress swamp drawing I was ready for some green.  A snail on the palmettos from a photograph during one of my wordless walks.

It doesn’t have to be good.  It just feels great to do it.  In middle school I would doodle excessively in the margins of my notebooks, especially in history class.  Castles, eyes, girls, dresses, branches full of flowers, trees, cats —  and I still remember those lectures like they were yesterday.  I was happy to indulge and prioritize creative time for myself today.

30 Day Challenge Day 3 – honeymoon!

11 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by Carla in 30 Day Challenge, creativity, making change, managing time, nature

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

cypress swamp, grass time, taking time to make art, ten minutes at a time

What a difference it makes to feed your soul while you get things done, and to make that a priority!  3 days, just 30 minutes a day, and I have this:

It’s no Van Gogh, but it makes my heart happy, and that’s what matters.  If you’ve ever been in a cypress swamp in the fall, hopefully you’ll know what you’re looking at.  Otherwise it might appear to be an interesting abstract!

And ten minutes in the grass soothed my soul, and produced this pretty pine cone photo:

Lastly, keeping up with my paper stuff for ten minutes a day means I can take things like bank statements that come in the mail and deal with them immediately instead of putting them in a pile for later that grows and grows until there are three months of bank statements in the pile along with all kinds of other put-off tasks and decisions.  There’s power and momentum in taking care of things now.

But the most power comes from giving myself the gift of time to play at making art. I can’t tell you how delicious that is.

This is typical for me – I start strong, I’m intoxicated by the challenge and love the rewards.  When I have to pay attention is when I get tired or a little overwhelmed or I miss a day and go into “Abort, Abort!” mode.  But right now I’m in the honeymoon phase and I’m going to bask in that!

Want to join the challenge?  Come sign up to our Facebook group so you can have a community of supporters – you can start anytime this month as the challenge goes through the end of August.  Come have fun and make a positive change! Or share more in the comments here about your challenge.  I’d love to hear!

The story of the tree with a heart in it

24 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by Carla in creativity

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

call for creativity, creativity for fun, drawings, logo, stories, tree with a heart

I love drawing.  I especially love drawing with super-creamy water-soluble oil pastels.  They’re messy and imprecise and I feel like a kid when I use them.  I don’t draw as much as I’d like to.  But that could change anytime, and maybe putting it out here will help it change.  I especially like drawing just for the sake of drawing.  Sometimes I get an idea in my head of something I’d like to draw and then copy from an image online, like this woodland path:

And sometimes I access my inner sixth grader and just make quick scribbly drawings like this garden of hearts:

So, months ago when I was trying to imagine an image that I could put on a business card that embodied wild and precious, I thought of the tree with the heart in it, and then remembered I’d already drawn one, about a year before.  And in my quick way of doing something without messing around with it much, I just used a photo of a scanned copy of the tree and tossed it onto a lime green business card that looks like this:

I’ve drawn other trees with hearts in them, all over a year ago. The hearts are always a little lopsided, and I kind of like that.  Maybe I’ll turn them into notecards one day soon – they make me smile; maybe they’d make someone else smile too!

There’s the original one,
one with a seasons theme,

and one with the Buddha (the Bodhi tree?) I love this one.
Maybe I’ll go make some more in the next day or so.  I’ve been away from those oil pastels for too long!

Is there some creative outlet that you love, but that you don’t do as much as you’d like?  Do you keep yourself from doing it because you’re not “good enough” or not an expert?  Do you fail to allow yourself the pure joy of creativity just for the sake of doing it?

Well, today, and tomorrow and the next day, go dance, write, draw, sing, or act. Take pictures. Make something with clay or paper or metal.  It doesn’t have to be useful.  It doesn’t have to serve any other purpose but being fun to create.  More of this coming soon!

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Hi! I'm Carla and I'm so glad you've stopped by! Relax here a while and find out how to bring more wild and precious into your life. Pop over to the Blog tab to read what I've been up to lately, or check out the Happenings to see what's coming up on the calendar!
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