Getting My Sketching On!

Hi sweet little neglected bloglet!  I'm b a a a c k !

Honestly it has been awhile and lots of odds and ends have been going on.  Let's see, on the arts side, I am doing Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way". I started an on-line group, "Exploring The Artist's Way" to go through it with (can you say accountability)  There is about 60 participants, of course realistically I'm sure much fewer will stick with it.  It has been interesting.

The primary activities are morning pages (a 3 page long brain drain each morning) and a weekly artist's date (a solo creative outing) and weekly writing tasks to go with the readings.  It has been more time intensive than I anticipated.  I'm not sure how much I've gotten out of it yet but I plan on following through as much as a tangible show of will power as creativity unblocking.

I've also been in a major reading and sketching mode. Figured I'd share a few here. Not even Art Journal drawing, more random doodles on whatever I can get my hand on. I really should keep true drawing paper with me as usually I'm drawing on grid or lined paper but of course the advantage is it makes me stay loose and not precious which is really nice.

Finally, the most exciting general life thing is that I just got home from Nashville for Thanksgiving! Such a wonderful time with family! It is what I miss the most about living so far away (yes, even more than my bath tub) My girls will be down in Key West for Christmas so even more wonderfulness to come. There is nothing in this world that I care for more than my kids.  I am so proud of the amazing young women my daughters have become.  Yet seeing them bloom and fly, reminds me just how fast time is zooming by and how important it is to make each moment count.  Goodness, it feels like they were my messy little munchkins only a few years ago.

On the topic of time rushing past -sometimes when I see myself, I am surprised, I expect to see a face maybe 20 years younger.  I don't think you ever actually think of yourself as older (well except maybe when the aches and pains kick in) What a mixed blessing aging is.  I do think that I've finally started becoming comfortable with myself, well at least most days anyway. My next goal is to try to become more comfortable in my actual skin - my body issues are so big. Literally as well as figuratively. besides wanting to become physically smaller, I want to let it matter less.  Not judge myself so harshly.  Well, that will be an on going task but hopefully this time I'll make it stick!

I'm going to try and be more regular in my posting so I'll be checking back in soon.  Of course, if you like you can catch me on Facebook as Artfulbitsandbytes and Instagram as as artfulbitsandbytes_laurieanne  -I tend to be a bit more active on these venues and would love to connect with you there.

Music for November:
Thanksgiving Song - Mary Chapin Carpenter

(Oh Yes, we went roller skating in Nashville & it was not quite as easy as I remembered but still just as fun -hence the following roller disco youtube links, lol!)

So Electric - Lifelike
Moves - Tahuna Breaks
Get Lucky - Daft Punk

Ciao Bella! Sweet Dreams!