Love On Track

Until recently, I was never much of one who liked to walk around an athletic field on a track. I much preferred to walk to a park, or walk around the neighborhood. But now that I live with a track right in my back yard, I've come to enjoy the convenience that it affords. Having it so close by has given me no excuse to keep from going on my after-lunch walks. I'm starting to love it.

It's been rainy and windy this week. The track has all these white bits on it. I can't tell if it's paper or egg shell or maybe even flower blossoms (seems the wrong time of year for that), but they're scattered all over the track on the north end of the field.

The track seems to be glad I'm out there using it, though. Because the white bits are loving me back.

My Personal Epiphany

 This is going to take a while. I may need some help.

Sigh

Jumpstarting an Old Habit

In Gretchen Rubin's book Better Than Before, my favorite happiness expert explores twenty-one strategies to make good habits and break bad habits. In the strategy of pairing, she suggests tying two tasks together, so that one habit starts to seem incomplete without doing the other.

I'm attempting to get back in the habit of my daily walks. My intention is to go for a walk after lunch, rain or shine (because, face it, there's a lot of rain in Oregon winters). 

This year I also want to listen to more audiobooks. I have an Audible account, and have already garnered an intriguing library of books that I've not yet listened to.

I need motivation for both of these habits. So I'm going to use the strategy of pairing. I'll go for my walk while listening to a good audiobook. I'll listen to that audiobook only while on my walk. So if I want to find out what happens next in the book, I must put my shoes on and get out the door.

For this to work, I'll need to really want to listen to the book, not pick a book I think I should listen to because it will be good for me. So I've decided to start with a book by one of my favorite comics, Celeste Barber: Challenge Accepted!

If you're not familiar with Celeste's work, I highly recommend checking out her Instagram feed. If imitation is the greatest form of flattery, Celeste is flattering an awful lot of Instagram influencers and models while provoking belly laughs heard all around the world.

The Time Has Come

I've been carrying this book with me from home to home for nearly 30 years. I plucked it off the shelf today intending to read through the introduction so I can decide it it's finally the year for me to work through it, or the year to give it away. I bought At A Journal Workshop: Writing to Access the Unconscious and Evoke Creative Ability all those years ago because the very title spoke to a deep aspiration.

What would it be like to have the time, the money, the headspace, the self-indulgence, and the emotional fortitude to go to an intensive journal workshop? That sounded like heaven to me.

But it never happened. When I opened the book today, it was clear that I'd never even cracked the cover.

This year, I'm exploring a different way to journal. For several years now, I've written Morning Pages as taught in Julia Cameron's The Artist Way. I like that method of journaling. It worked well for me -- until it didn't when the pandemic hit. I haven't been journaling for six months, and I miss the practice.

From what I've read so far in the book, and from the YouTube videos I've watched about this method, "intense" is an understatement. Some of the method sounds awfully familiar from other self-help psychology books I've worked though -- and they were intense. Will this be repetitive? Have I already done this inner work? Am I up for it? Maybe. I'll see.

One way or another, this book and I will have a new conclusion this year.

Wrap It Up & Move Ahead

Wrapping It Up

I had a superb year of completing all my goals in 2020. Here are the results:

1. Transcribed my session with John Holland from Skamania Celebrate Your Life retreat
   
   
2. Created a watermark for my photos
   
   
3. Bought a car
   
   
4. Lost 25 pounds
   
   
5. Found a new medical team
   
   
6. Put 42 jigsaw puzzles together (my goal was 20)
   
   
7. Filed all my digital photos once per quarter
   
   
8. Zeroed out my email box once per quarter
   
   
9. Learned to make 16 Keto recipes (my goal was 6)
   
   
10. Listened to 28 short podcast series (my goal was 20)
    
    
11. Found 33 geocaches (my goal was 20)
    
    
12. Watched 120 movies from my Netflix / Amazon / Hallmark queues (my goal was 20)
    
    
13. Celebrated 28 minor holidays (my goal was 20)
    
    
14. Read / listened to 26 books (my goal was 20)
    
    
15. Wrote 27 Throwback Thursday blog posts (my goal was 20, then to finish my photo transfer series from my old website).
    
    
16. Made a preliminary design for furniture and fixtures in my Studio and built my worktable
    
    
17. Completed a master bedroom closet organizational system
    
    
18. Sent 23 cards and letters via snail mail (my goal was 20)
    
    
19. Painted 40 rocks (my goal was 20)
    
    
20. Bought needed furniture for the house
    
    
    I made progress on these alternate goals:
    
    
21. Completed 12 projects that were waiting in the wings for years (my goal was 20)
    
    
22. Made a food treat or dessert each month. (my goal was 12, and I did all of them)
    

My Word of the Year for 2020 was Settle. 

Dale and I feel like we did this well. We feel well-established in our home. We've made friends with some of our neighbors. We can get around town without having to use Google Maps all the time. Some of our settling within our new community was thwarted due to the pandemic keeping us in our home so much. But considering our restrictions, we feel relatively settled into our new home of one year.

Onward in 2021!

.

My goals for 2021 are simple and should be a lot of fun for me. I plan to attempt 21 new-to-me artforms! This means I get to try nearly three new types of art each month. 

I've made a list of possibilities, but I'm open to trying other options that present themselves throughout the year. My options include:

• Artrageous book
• Braided cord (using the loom I already have)
• Broomstick lace
• Crochet a corner to corner afghan
• Embossed foil labels
• Felt embossing
• Finger painting
• Hairpin lace
• Heat embossing on paper/cards
• Macrame
• Metal punch jewelry
• Mosaic
• Nail art
• Needle felting
• Paint pour
• Paint with string or chain pull technique
• Painting on canvas with oil or watercolor
• Postcard journal or other journals / bound books
• Potato stamps
• Pottery / Clay vessel
• Quilling
• Resin
• Roman shade (for my bathroom)
• Scratch board
• Screen Printing
• Sculpture
• Security envelope art
• Silk ribbon embroidery Studio sign
• Solar printing
• Sparkler painting
• Spinning
• Stained glass
• String Art (heart)
• Tatting
• Tie dye
• Weaving

My Word of the Year for 2021 is Explore. Where my hope last year was to get to know my new hometown and nestle into our home, this year is a bit of the opposite. It's to learn more about Oregon. Once the pandemic subsides, we hope to find new favorite restaurants. I need a new favorite nature walk area. We want to visit state parks and see the waterfalls.

It also means exploring more inside our home. Obviously, my 21 goals are all about exploring art. But I may also explore more photographic techniques. Maybe I'll try more home decorating ideas. I might do more inner-life exploration by journaling in a different way. I'm considering exploring a different way to express gratitude as well.

One more idea I have for 2021 is to play with the concept of Try It Toosday. I have a folder on my desktop called "Blog Fodder." In it are all kinds of ideas I've gathered from other artists/writers/photographers that sparked an interest in me. So on some Tuesdays, I'll attempt to re-create one of those ideas and write a blog post about it -- because I want to try it too!

I'm looking forward to giving these new goals a try. I think by exploring and learning, my eyes will be open to many more possibilities.

Week By Week: 27 - 52

Here are more highlights from each week of my 2020 year.  Tough as the year was, it was satisfying to go through my blog and recognize how much good happened along the way.

Week 27: Amazon Creek mural. Jodie and I stopped by a trailhead not too far from my house to see what there was to see. We found a geocache not far from this mural.

.

.

Week 28: Sometimes in July I felt wonky. 

Week 29: To celebrate Jodie's birthday, the two of us had an all-day outing. She took me so her favorite covered bridges, and we explored places in the countryside we'd never been.

Week 30: I completed my #throwbackthursday multi-year project. All of the stitched items that I originally shared on my old CameoRoze's Stitcher's Studio website are now available to view on this blog.

Week 31: The elementary school behind our home was empty all year. The administrators left this great reminder for the community.

Week 32: My summer sun pompom wreath. It makes me smile.

Week 33: Dale had surgery to remove a massive growth on his thyroid. The benign growth may be related to his stroke in February. It was unnerving to be in a hospital during this Covid 19 year.

Week 34: I came to celebrate the fact of getting to the end of each day by taking sunset photos.

.

.

Week 35: Willy Wonka got it right.

Week 36: This was one of my better weeks. I found a superb dentist who repaired a broken crown

I completed a stitchery for Jeanne that I'd started over a year earlier

I played with my food in the very best of ways

Week 37: Oregon had some horrendous wildfires. Entire nearby towns were destroyed. We gagged on the smoke and ash. It was so sad and dreary and hard to breathe.

We put one foot in front of the other, and stayed inside with the blinds closed.

Week 38: The rain finally came and cleared the air. We had a visible sign of hope. Plus, I learned how to make a watermark for my photos.

Week 39: Our eldest daughter moved to Springfield! We're so glad to have her nearby again!

Week 40: One of my photographs won Fan Photo of the Day. It was a welcome pat on the back. I took the photo through the window of my Studio the week the air was filled with smoke.

.

.

Week 41: Even though the kids couldn't go trick-or-treating, that didn't stop this family-friendly neighborhood from getting all decked out to celebrate Halloween -- Covid style.

Week 42: After procrastinating for over three years, I finally picked out a new car. I was able to gift my old car to Jeanne when hers died right before she moved to Oregon from eastern Washington.

.

.

Week 43: I got busy with my needle. I made a gift to make my friend laugh (it worked).

I stitched another pumpkin for my growing autumn patch.

.

.

Week 44: I tried a new-to-me artform: painting on canvas. I'm super-happy with the result.

.

.

Week 45: The election results came in. We had a first wave of relief, 

even amidst the continuing sorrow we felt over Ruth Bader Ginsberg's death. Along with others, I dressed in her honor.

Week 46: I completed all of my 20 Goals in 2020!!!

Week 47: Jeanne and I planted daffodil bulbs in our front yard. "Playing in the dirt" has long been a favorite Mommy-Jeannie activity.

Week 48: I celebrated my 63rd birthday with the best man I know. 

Dale and I built a custom worktable for my Studio.

Week 49: I finished making the first eleven Grandbaby Craft Kits. To help my daughter Julie, I figured out crafts for her littles, and pulled together all the needed supplies. I added in a sample project and directions. Making these kits for my granddaughters filled me with joy and was one of the highlights of my year. It was the next best thing to being with Melody and Annalee.

Week 50: I celebrated a perfectly ordinary, very good day. In difficult years, it's good to note the days that end with a feeling of well-being.

Week 51: Dale and I completed our Christmas preparations, That included giving homemade gifts to our wonderful next door neighbors, and decorating our backyard. I've long wanted a decorated outdoor Christmas tree. 

.

.

Week 52: Dale and I shared a spontaneous and lovely evening filled with spicy hot drinks, looking at Christmas lights in well-decorated neighborhoods, helping out a woman in need, excellent conversation, and heartwarming memories.

So sure. 2020 gave our country a lot of hiccups and more than a few levels of stressful events. I'm sure tired of the isolation and am looking forward to the time the majority of us are vaccinated and we can finally be out and about again without fear. 

2020 also gave me lots of practice in trying to find the golden nuggets in a pile of rubble. That's the lesson I intend to keep with me in the new year.

Week By Week: 1 - 26

2020 had a lot of difficult moments. That may be the understatement of the decade. It wasn't all bad for me, though. In between the national news of a global pandemic, a contentious election season, civil unrest, and disasters due to climate change, I had a lot of personal bright spots. 

Over the next two days I'll share a highlight from each week of the year. Most are photos I took of activities I did to help me get through this unusual year.

Week 1: Setting goals. Who knew when I set these goals that they would be so helpful in keeping me sane this year? 

.

Week 2: Finding humor in mistakes ... and recognizing that googly eyes make everything better. Yep, that was hot wax. But no big deal, right?

Week 3: Many, many jigsaw puzzle builds. My goal was 20. I've now completed forty-two.

Week 4: Getting to know our new hometown. We got a membership to the Science Center so we could have dates at the planetarium. I was able to go once before things shut down.

Week 5: Celebrating minor holidays ... and the beginning of a "popcorn for breakfast" tradition.

.

Week 6: Countdown to Valentine's Day goody bags for the grandkids. Fourteen bags of treats for our littles. I decorated the outside of each bag, and had a special gift for each child on the inside.

Week 7: Geocaching and exploring the Oregon countryside with Jodie. We'd planned to do so much of this! But, of course, it all got cut short within a few weeks.

Week 8: Setting up my Studio so I can exercise creativity ... with the help of Girl Scout cookies bought from our next door neighbor.

Week 9: Dale has a stroke. I didn't get any photos during that trying week, but this image was from a couple weeks later when his team from work sent him some get-well-quick gifts.

.

Week 10: We sold our Post Falls, Idaho house to a lovely young family.

.

Week 11: Covid 19 hits the country. We go further into isolation with the rest of the country, though we'd already been self-quarantined since Dale's stroke. Taking photos of "tonight's sunset" begins in earnest as a way to mark having made it through another day.

Week 12: I painted quite a lot of rocks in 2020. The first 20 all had hearts and dots.

.

Week 13: Coloring to pass the time and try to remain centered.

Week 14: The last card I made for my Aunt Shirley. Her final illness left her very weak. She died in early summer.

Week 15: The Pink Supermoon.

Week 16: Granddaughter Annie's first birthday. We attended the party via Zoom.

.

Week 17: Learning new Keto recipes. We tried these soft pretzel bites as a way to celebrate National Pretzel Day. 

.

Week 18: Sticker art. Like coloring, this quiet activity helped keep me grounded. I finished the entire sticker art book.

.

Week 19: Mother's Day and Dale's Birthday. Jodie came by and we constructed these flower boxes together. The kits were made by a local group and sold as a fundraister.

.

Week 20: New appliances. We continue to settle into our new home little by little.

Week 21: Granddaughter Melody's third birthday. I made her a special card that held real coins.

.

Week 22: Jodie stopped by with roses from her garden. Jodie spent a lot of time in her yard last summer, learning the joys of home ownership and finding solace in "playing in the dirt."

Week 23: My flag wreath, made of painted clothespins and wooden stars. I'd planned this wreath for years and made the time to make it this year.

Week 24: Exploring the local countryside with Dale. He was a bit too weak for long walks, but was able to explore by driving. We thoroughly enjoyed our rides in the convertible. Fern Ridge Wildlife Area is a place we return to again and again.

Week 25: Father's Day. That's a headlamp to use while working with his telescope in the dark.

Week 26: Scrap patchwork sampler. This is another of my ongoing mindless projects that keep my hands busy and my mind calm.