Dress your Inner Samurai
Enough. Today was the tenth and final day that I've worked on the January Take it Further Challenge. I don't think I worked more than two hours on any of the days - I did I spent more time dreaming about the challenge and those colors than I wanted to. I like the process and how I worked the challenge. Before the February challenge begins I plan to review the steps in the design process and incorporate some suggestions from Deb that she posted in comments on my Jan 8th post.
I'm going to take some time tomorrow and look around and see what the rest of the 290 participants in the challenge have been up to this month. SharonB's blog has the master list, then there is
the Flickr pool of photos for those working on the challenge and Debra has set up a blog for the finished pieces.
whew...
Living consciously...
My head is spinning. Besides the Living Consciously reading, I'm also reading through Simple Abundance (again)this year and over the last two weeks I skimmed through a whole year's worth of Romancing the Ordinary. It was all getting to be a bit too much. Romancing the Ordinary can go back to the library! Although I was tempted to copy a few recipes out of the book, I reminded myself that I have three shelves of cookbooks and a whole internet at my fingertips.
Today's practice was to actually state aloud a commitment to living consciously and then sense if that telltale rattle of a feeling betrays you. It's fear and if it does emerge Hendricks says use it to deepen your commitment. I've been saying the word "fun" so much over the last three that I am starting to get a little desensitized to it. On the other hand I do think my awareness for my capacity for fun is starting to grow.
Monday, January 21, 2008
I'm taking no further
Saturday, January 19, 2008
TIF - 8th day
I figured I only had one more day to finish this up but it looks like I'll be doing some work tomorrow. I'm thinking a few beads and a more prominent finish around the kimono is needed. I also need to finish the edges.
Living consciously...
Much of the reading in A Year of Living Consciously is sprinkled with what Hendricks learned while on his path of discovering how to live consciously. I've never read any of his other books but I imagine many of the things he presents in this daily inspirational are covered in depth in his other writings. The practice for the day was to make a conscious commitment to being open to learning what you don't know you don't know. Wonder, awe, discover... the best way to ease on down the road!
Monday, January 14, 2008
Jan TIFC - 7th day
Auditioning fabric and trying to get a better idea of where I'm going with this. I'm not finding inspiration in the colors. I think I knew that, so this is a good challenge for me as it is pushing me to think differently.
Living consciously...
I may have to let this one pass quickly. Hendricks talks of rebirth and the practice is to return to the moment of your birth...
Right. Clean slate, moving forward, no problem.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Jan TIFC - 6th day
I did spent time today thinking about and working on the Take it Further Challenge. I had sketched a kimono in my journal the other day and made a note of "inner samurai" when I was thinking about the follows her passion attribute. I expanded on that idea today incorporating the five symbols and the colors in a sketch of a kimono. Not sure if this will be the final product but I may be getting closer. Still a lot of time left in the month.
Living consciously...
Making a soul-level commitment to conscious living - how does that make you feel? This was the simple challenge for the day. The feeling part, that is. The feeling I had was one of apprehension.
Change is tough. Wanting to change isn't enough. Figuring out what it takes to make the commitment to change has worked for me - for some things! Being aware, present, is often the hardest part. I've also found that success in changing a behavior often helps in changing other behaviors. Knowing HOW to be successful that's, at least, one the keys. A soul-level commitment? I wonder how many keys that will take?
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Working with a sketchbook
I know that working with a sketchbook requires a commitment and practice but I've often struggled with what am I suppose to put into the sketchbook. I understand the short answer to that is "everything" but that just made me feel that it would be so cluttered that I wouldn't value it as a tool. An excuse? Maybe, but at least I'm going to try and push through it. Today I continued to work on design development for the January Take it Further Challenge. My goal today was to come up with a simple symbol to represent the attribute for each of the individuals I admire. 
I came up with these.
What are the process steps for working on a creative idea? Here's what I think so far - but I don't think I work strictly linearly - I think I'm working on #'s 1 through 4 all at the same time:
1. design idea (or challenge)
2. research & brainstorming
3. sketching
4. samples & proto designs
5. work on "real" piece
6. finishing touches
I don't yet know what the "real" piece is going to look like. I suppose a sketch ought to come about soon!
Living consciously...
The practice today is to take ownership for your secrets. Okay.
Write it down, put it outside yourself and remember that what's left inside still needs loving acceptance and healing. Right.
I thought I wasn't going to have to deal with the fixing/healing paradigm but rather focus on the learning paradigm. It's days like this that I'm happy I'm also reading through Simple Abundance where the day's focus is on Happiness. There's a reference to a line from Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca: "Happiness is not a possession to be prize, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind."
Tally Ho.
Monday, January 07, 2008
TIF some more
I don't know if I can do all the Take it Forward Challenges out of my scrap box but at least I've opened it up and managed to find most of the fabric I needed. I took a couple of the sketches I did yesterday and attempted to reproduce the design in fabric. These are NOT colors that inspire me - unless I was going to create a few irises. I'm still uncertain where to go next with this... I keep waiting for that ah ha moment to strike but so far nothing. I guess I'll just keep playing with the colors and make more fabric squares.
Living consciously...
The author talked about a painful breakup and how he hid away, nursing a wounded heart. The practice for the day was to ask questions regarding "hiding": what, from who, what payoff, what cost?
I'm trying not to be cynical. (Miss Scarlet in the study with the pipe.) Maybe twenty years ago I was hiding truths from myself and others but now I try to live an open, candid, transparent life. It doesn't mean I tell everybody, everything, all the time but those that need to know, know.
But in the spirit of let's play the game, I'll go back to "fun" and the idea that perhaps I'm hiding it from myself. The payoff... hmmm. I can entertain myself for hours, happily engaged in a plethora of activities from reading, playing music, working in the studio, to even bringing order to the house. But, I suppose that in the venue of shared fun or play with others I'm not particularly emotive. Although I did have a friend ask me "how many glasses of wine have you had?" - I hadn't, but I guess I was acting a little more playful than usual! Probably the payoff comes with the couple yin-yang balance, the husband is more the have fun/play first and I balance with responsibility/play later. So, I suppose the cost is the battle we have about "playing" and the time it takes me to relax and get around to "play" (after all the chores are done!)
hmmm... maybe I'm hiding from spontaneity?
I think it's time for wine & scrabble.
Tally Ho.
