Working alone gets you thinking. A lot. There aren't any distractions from other people or orders from your boss. And I've come to realize that is not completely a good thing! Being with other people can sometimes generate ideas you don't think of yourself and there is nothing like authority to light a fire under your butt. Though there is one thing I have now that I didn't before and that is definitely creative freedom! But how to stay on track? I recently did a little self reflection exercise with my mom in which we both came up with 5 life goals or rather guidelines to remind us what is truly important and to help us make major decisions. I took my goals one step further and made an art project out of them and you can follow the "tutorial" here: But coming up with the goals was a bit interesting in itself. I didn't want them to be so specific as to only be relevant to what is happening in my life right now. They needed to be things that have always been important to me and some of them I had forgotten how to do. So the five I came up with were: Stay Healthy, Experience Everything, Be Authentic, Find the Positive & Make a Difference Staying healthy is a no brainer for me. Though I admit I am not the healthiest I can be, I make it a point to not eat junk and to always be active in some way whether it be going to an intense combative class or just walking for 4o minutes. Following your dreams is hard enough with all the obstacles in the way. I don't want my body to be one of them! Experiencing everything is a little more difficult for me. But when I thought about it I knew it was something I need to do. Obviously I can't do everything in the world because I just don't have the time, but often I pass things by for no other reason than I don't FEEL like it and that's only hurting myself. Because then I end up staying in the house missing out on things. I also meant it in the way that I should REALLY experience what I am doing in the moment instead of trying to always hide my emotions. Being authentic is probably the most important of the goals. I never do anything that I feel is against my own nature but at the same time I stopped allowing the real me to shine through. I'm always so concerned that people will make fun of me that I don't ever fully let go and truly be myself. And that's not very helpful. Because how will I find other kindred spirits if I'm not signaling to them that I am here?
Finding the positive is another really important goal for me. It's so easy to get wrapped up in all the negative that is going on. We're usually exposed to more bad then good. Just look at the news. But I find that complaining about something doesn't really make me feel better. I usually just feel even more annoyed. One of my favorite sayings is: It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. I just have to remember to light that candle. And finally, to make a difference, is not really all that surprising is it? I think that is something we all want to do. But it seems that in order to make that difference you have to do something very large and that gets discouraging. But really, it can actually be something pretty small. Like say you make someone smile. That person in turn feels like their day has brightened and then because they are happy they may come in contact with five other people and make them smile. And so on. Like a ripple. I would prefer that the differences I make are tangible things that I can see but I have to remember that sometimes I can't see them and just have to keep trying. Anyways, this was a really fun project and I encourage anyone reading this to try it out. Even if you don't transform your goals into a piece of art as I have the process of coming up with the goals can be fun and even a bit nostalgic.
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Awhile back when I was first starting to crochet I got a bunch of amigurumi books and did a few patterns. One in particular was this cute little hot dog set complete with ketchup and mustard bottles. (If you'd like to make one yourself you can find it in Ana Paula Rimoli's: Amigurumi Toy Box) So I had this little crocheted replica of a hot dog sitting in my living room for about a year now and I wanted to do something with it. I just didn't know what. My friend Jackie a.k.a. Jackielantern had recently come over for a visit and had said she wanted to do a video with me! And there was that hot dog staring us in the face. We decided to do the video in stop motion, just on a whim but didn't really know what to make the plot about. So we basically had a brainstorming session mid-production and put ourselves in stitches trying to figure out what we wanted to do with this crazy crocheted food. The result was this. Enjoy! All in all, we took 107 pictures and probably got 300 belly workouts from laughing so much.
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