Playtime

Podcasts, Postcards and Playing

May 9, 2022 2 Comments

Happy Monday.

I am sitting in a sun filled room, at a messy desk with a cup of tea that is getting cold. There are lots of things I should be doing. I probably should be starting dinner. I should probably fold and put away some laundry. I should probably clean something-or a hundred somethings. I should probably be outside getting some fresh air.

Instead I am doing what I am feeling.

I am feeling that some time with my creativity is where my attention needs to be right now.
I am feeling that tea can be reheated, laundry can always be folded and there will always be something to clean.
So those things can wait.

I am feeling that the call of my creativity really and truly matters.
I am feeling that I have spent far too much of my adult life doing what other people said I should be doing instead of following through on what I was feeling called to do.

I am feeling that that no external validation of me, my work or how I spend my time is needed for it to be a value. For it to be important to the world in ways I could not possibly know or understand.

I am feeling that when one person chooses to do what they are truly called to do they make, in that very moment, magic that ripples out into the world and changes things for the better.

I am feeling that when a creative person does their thing the energy of that inspires countless others to follow suit-like an energetic ripple that tears through the Universe, unseen but felt.

And that each time that ripple touches another and they also choose to do their thing that they also send out a ripple. And so on and so on.

I believe these creative ripples can spread faster than any viral video and best of all-hold lots more staying power. This is where change initiates. This is the fertile soil where dream seeds are planted and hope is inspired in others. Creativity does all this. It matters. Yes yours matters.

Even if you don’t share it with anyone.
Even if no one hearts it or thumbs it.
You see, each moment that a creative person does what they were put here to do-they make magic true and real.
They start the movement of giant cosmic gears to shift and change and bring about light, love and joy.
Your creativity matters so much. Even if you don’t think it does-it does.
It matters to you.
It matters to me.

Here’s to play time.

Until next time…

–Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

P.S.

I recorded a new podcast today. You can listen here if you like.

My Week in Doodles: #1

April 4, 2022 2 Comments

How have you been? I have been MIA a bit around here. I had my hibernation week and then I was just feeling very tired so I rested, made art, watched some art classes and just tried to take care of myself. How about you? How have you been feeling? Are you making time for art? Please do comment and let me know I would love to hear.

I had an idea that woke me up this morning and I couldn’t wait to have a play with it. I thought it would be fun to make a sheet of little doodles, little memories of what I did the previous week and share them in a blog post for you. I also thought I could make my little doodle sheet available for download so if you wanted to use them in your personal collage or mixed media projects you could! All you need to do is to right click and safe the image to your computer-that’s it! The full sheet is at the bottom of this post. If you do use it please share with me I would love to see how you use them!

So this week was a bit of a roller coaster for us. The weather hadn’t been the gorgeous spring weather we were teased with in March but my youngest loves being outside so we bundled up a bit and went outside to gather up some sunshine. My son joined us one day and he cleared out his vegetable garden getting it ready for planting. He managed to harvest about 4 tiny and one large carrot from his garden. When I told him we could use the large one for dinner he was just so proud! He has his garden plan all made up and set up his support poles and planted his first round of snap peas (his favorite!).

I also managed to get in some gardening this week. I cleared a few more beds, put some cardboard down to suppress the weeds and added fresh topsoil and compost to 2 of my beds. I was able to mulch my herb garden and plant out my poppies, lettuce, snap peas, radish and parsnips. I’m in Zone 6 so we are pretty limited in what can go out in the ground but everything I planted should do just fine. I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.

I finished 2 books this week. I’ll share it with you in my next Book Club update but in addition to finishing 2 I added 4 to my list after some library requests. I laugh at how man new ones I am adding and reading in addition to what was already on my shelf but I think that’s the best part isn’t it? To know you’ll never run out of books to read?

My husband had a work function to go to one night so I took the kids out for a little adventure. We went for a drive then stopped at a fast food restaurant and went inside to eat which they loved. After dinner we stopped at Starbucks for cookies and a cake pop (popcorn for my girls) and Decaf Caramel Macchiato for me. It was a nice time just the 4 of us.

On Friday my husband called us all out to see a full rainbow that he had seen in the sky on his way home. Unfortunately we couldn’t see it from out house but he was so happy to see it and it added a simple joy to the day.

On Saturday my husband took the kids to the park (where my 3 year-old made a friend and had the best time!) and I had the house to myself. The sun was shining and I lounged in my hammock with my dogs at my feet. The neighborhood was silent except for the chorus of birds and I could feel myself recharging and healing.

We also gave our guinea pig Trixie a little pedicure-her nails needed a clean so we had her in just a little bit of water to soften and give her feet a gentle clean. She was quite content with all the attention and enjoyed the special treat after even more.

Sadly our week had started off with the loss of our cat Piper. She was almost 14 years old and was a very special friend to me and my oldest daughter. She is the one I credit with showing me how to be a Momma long before I was one and she has guarded my oldest all of her 11 years. My daughter had asked the we cremate her so we brought her to a really fabulous place not too far from us and it made me feel grateful for people who extend compassion to others. We are all managing well though and are so grateful that she went so peacefully here at home with us. I hesitated to include this as I want to keep my site positive but I drew a little picture of her in the download and it felt only right to share her with you.

Here is this week’s doodle sheet:

I hope you like my little experiment. I had so much fun doing it and would love to make it a regular part of my blog. I would love your thoughts so please share them below and if you would like to make your own doodles to share on your blog then be sure to link it up below using my link party. Just link directly to your blog post with your own doodles so we can stop by and say “hello!”

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Snow, Creativity & The Full Moon

January 17, 2022 Leave a Comment

Happy Monday morning!

I am sitting at my kitchen table with a delicious cup of decaf coffee. Why decaf? Well I have learned (repeatedly because, well, human) that caffeine makes me anxious. Like, zombies are about to crash through the front door kinda anxious. So, decaf. I buy good stuff (yes, there is good decaf) and I make it in my french press with half-n-half (no sugar) so it’s quite yummy and I don’t miss the caffeine. Coffee was never something that woke me up and gave me energy. I have just enjoyed the ritual of it so the decaf serves me quite well.

Outside is blanketed in snow-I think about 3-4″ accumulated from late last night followed by rain. It’s also predicted to warm up so I imagine, like a typical Jersey snow it will rush in, look fabulous and then disappear before we know it only to return again at a later date as if it never left.

I had quite a bit of creative time this weekend. The moon is full today and that resulted in my usual crash of energy and need to retreat into the solitude of my creative corner and wrap myself up in books, paint and glue. I did some collage and I am prepping a new journal to utilize as a moon tracker for myself which I think will be fun. I am really focusing on making my art my own and to spend more time having fun and less time worrying about results. Having lived this life as long as I have I have never enjoyed myself when I focused simply on results. Results quickly turn things into chores and things that need to be weighed and judged as either worthy or unworthy and I usually stomp off in a huff taking my crayons and going home.

Instead, I want to enjoy my play time. I want to glue, paint, draw, doodle and just enjoy myself. I can’t possibly know where I am going but I believe with my whole heart that if I am present, aware and focused on Joy I really can’t go wrong and wherever I find myself will be quite lovely all around.

So today I am focused on making art and having fun while doing it. I am taking part in a swap where I am making a new art journal and recording the process. I will probably share that video over on my other blog but will try and link to it here if you are interested. It’s going to be a journal that myself and my swap partner will each make art in and go back and forth adding our own spins on it. I have never done anything like this and think it’s going to be a lot of fun.

I also have quite a few sewing projects on my list and if I manage to get through any I will be sure to do a little round up of what I got to this week. I also hope to record you another podcast and I really would love to do a little studio chat where we can hang out together and make things. I love working alongside some of my favorite creatives so I thought I would create something similar for you here. I just need to work out a time where I can record uninterrupted. I’ll keep you posted on that.

In the meantime I hope your Monday is off to a lovely start and that you are able to get some creative time in. Please do comment below and let me know what you are working on. I would love to hear!

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante.

Some things that are really inspiring me right now….

Susan Branch’s Blog: Her post today really inspired me to just get on with writing here and sharing a little bit about what I am up to. To connect and that’s what I found her blog to do.

Laly Mille’s Art Journaling for a New Year Course: This is a free course she is currently running and I just love watching other artists mix collage and paint and words. It’s by far my favorite way to create.

Cats, A New Creative Space, Ink Blots & The Weekly Challenge

August 23, 2021 Leave a Comment

As I wrote the title for this post I am finding the irony in last week’s challenge word.

As you may remember we have been rearranging rooms in our home and my husband and I just moved our bedroom downstairs this past weekend. Our intention was to make the room pet free and that lasted about 10 minutes. For the past 3 days our new bedroom has been the favorite room in the house for, well, everyone!

I am still setting up my creative space and we still have quite a bit to take out of the old room but I’m hopeful to get that all moved around this week and then next week I can hopefully focus on painting the room for my youngest daughter. I have just started a 30 Day Creativity Retreat so I should have plenty of time. (You can read about and follow my Creativity Retreat on my other site if you like).

I did manage to film a creative corner tour and I hope to get the footage edited and up for you to see and then I do promise to share a tour of my little creative corner in our new room. For now though, I still have some work to do.

If you remember last week’s creative challenge word was: Cats. In all honestly I completely forgot about the challenge until last night before bed so I am a little late getting today’s post up. I had been reading Carla Sonheim’s book “Drawing & Painting Imaginary Animals” and I was really enjoying it. I am looking forward to picking it back up after my 30 days are up but in the meantime I thought I would have a play with ink blots to make my cat.

First, I started with a sheet in my mixed media sketchbook (It’s a Canson mixed media which I love-the one with the blue cover) and I wet the paper and used my acrylic inks to drop colors onto the wet areas. I could sit and watch the colors spread for hours it’s so pretty. Once I did a few splotches I dabbed up some excess water and let them dry.

My hope was that at least one would take shape as a cat.

It didn’t.

They all somehow seemed like Halloween characters to me and so I lightly added some details and wrote down what I saw in each blot. At first I was feeling a little disappointed with my artistic skills wishing I could more correctly convey what my mind was seeing. Then I remembered that this is supposed to be fun and since a cat didn’t emerge the first time I could just go again. So I did.

No cat.

This time I saw a horse and I realized that these were just really fun and great warm up exercise for me to get playing with my creativity. Instead of starting with an ink splotch I decided to sketch out a cat. Initially I thought about looking up an image online then I remembered my Offline Retreat and took a look at the 2 cats snoozing on my bed. (See, the no pets in the bedroom thing was a terrible idea!)

It’s a very childlike cat but you know I had so much fun making it! I loved the black and white look-something I never do and I really enjoyed blending my Stabillo graphite pencil to blur the cat. To be honest I liked it best before I added to it but it’s such a great way to learn and to play. I learned how much I liked working in black and white and with a simple graphite pencil so I am going to be sure and play more this week.

So that is my challenge for last week. For this week I thought it would be fun to do something a little different. Instead of a word prompt I am going to challenge you to: finish a project. Take something you maybe picked up but have worked on lately or maybe something that is close to being done but you didn’t quite get there yet. Pick anything you want and be sure to share your link below and check out some of the other creatives and what they are up to. I will be coming back to this post when my 30 day retreat is up to see all that you have shared. I cannot wait!

I did film a process video that you can check out below. I left in the first ink blot attempts and I would love to hear what you see in the images.

Music by Joystock – https://www.joystock.org

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

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