Everything I worked on in the month of November for the AEDM project can be found here on my Flickr. It was a big challenge to try to get art in every day, especially when my brother came to town and I had no alone time to work. But I’m really proud of every piece of art I made in November and it was really quite fun to do. I also had a really good Thanksgiving. The only downside to this time of the year is my energy level, it plummets. I ended up watching twelve movies! I don’t think I’ve done that all year. Anyways, winter is a time to slow down and your natural rhythms change up so I suppose it’s only natural that I become a bit of a bear in hibernation for the next few months. I can’t wait for spring!

Fun Thing Of The Month: Art Every Day Month.

Lessons I Learned: Do not stuff yourself several days in a row. It’s bad for you and makes my stomach hurt.

Books I Read:

1. Craved by Stephanie Nelson
2. Miss Minimalist by Francine Jay
3. Anything You Want by Derek Sivers

Movies I Watched:

1. Season of The Witch
2. Cruel Intentions
3. X-Men: First Class
4. X-Men: Wolverine
5. 8MM
6. The High Cost of Living (so ridiculously sad!)
7. Love
8. Thirst
9. The Crow
10. The Sorcerers Apprentice
11. Hellboy
12. Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1

1. Celebrate Thanksgiving. (Gotta have some fun/easy goals!)
2. Do Art Every Day Month (AEDM) project. This is the big one!
3. Plan out Christmas budget/gift ideas. (continuing to work on this one in December)

Thanks for stopping by this month! One more and I’ll have completed a whole year of these (I think…)!

Image by Joodie via Flickr

Busy? Yes! I almost forgot to post this! I’ve been absolutely immersed in my AEDM project this year. Every day I’m making some kind of art. It’s turned out that this means I spend the most productive and largest part of my days doing artwork and nothing else. It’s fun, but it’s a bit unnerving to be forgetting to eat and getting so wrapped up in things that nothing else matters. I’m an all or nothing kind of person I guess.

Fun Thing Of The Month: The road trip was … interesting. The most “fun” I had was using my passport for the first time and crossing a border. (Even though I didn’t get a cool stamp or anything.)

Lessons I Learned: Family road trips are tough. Three personalities are tough. Two’s a crowd. One is bliss. Three was a bit much.

Books I Read:

1. Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick
2. Focus by Leo Babauta
3. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
4. Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder
5. Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder

Movies I Watched:

1. Melancholia

1. Celebrate birthdays.
2. See Niagara Falls.
3. Continuing working on TheUnmappedPath.com
4. Plan out any November trips I might want to make.
5. Take time for myself.
6. Wrap up drawing class.

1. Celebrate Thanksgiving. (Gotta have some fun/easy goals!)
2. Do Art Every Day Month (AEDM) project. This is the big one!
3. Plan out Christmas budget/gift ideas.

Thanks for stopping by this month!

Art Every Day Month 2011

A visual artist’s version of “National Novel Writing Month” (NaNoWriMo), Art Every Day Monthis coming up this November 1st.

I plan on trying to do something each day and posting it to my Flickr. We do celebrate Thanksgiving here in November so it’s going to be hard to smash in some art making on those days. I’ll be working in a visual journal I started recently for most of the days, unless I’m really inspired to do something bigger.

I thought I might take a vacation in November but BAH, I just got back from a road trip with my family and… well, I’m not in the mood to travel again so soon after that. I’m thinking that vacation will have to wait until January. Though I still have  no idea where to go since my Mexico trip was cancelled, I know I want to go SOMEWHERE.

So, follow me on Flickr to keep up with my art. What kind of plans do you have for November?

Image via Wikipedia

This is a month for sitting, contemplating, viewing and a bit of celebrating. My birthday is on the 17th after all and I’m going to visit Niagara Falls for the first time. I’m not planning anything huge in my personal life right. I’ve really enjoyed curating content for TheUnmappedPath.com and reviewing my body of artwork so far. It’s a good time for slow change and slow, careful movements forward. The trip to Niagara should be relaxing and a nice time to connect with my family.

My big vision for October is to go day by day, enjoy the scenery (and the leaves, fall is so beautiful), and try not to go too fast. No burn out! The 12th is a day that would have been my dad’s birthday if he were still here with us, so I plan to have a quiet day of reflection for that.

All in all, slow. steps. forward.

Fun Thing Of The Month: Drawing. Class is fun. Don’t take myself too seriously. It’s all good.

Lessons I Learned: Balance. This month was business heavy and not very focused on me. Add balance. Remember me, remember me.

Books I Read:

1. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
2. We Are All Weird by Seth Godin
3. City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare
4. Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson
5. Poke the Box by Seth Godin
6. Palo Alto by James Franco

Movies I Watched:

1. Thor

Thanks for stopping by this month!

Image by arellis49 via Flickr

Does time always speed up like this in the second half of the year? I was going along at a leisurely pace with nothing but time on my hands and now… my birthday’s in October. I’ll have been kinda homeless for a year. Then Thanksgiving, the holidays, OVERLOAD! I want to take a trip but I am starting a drawing class on the 15th so I’m kinda location committed for a few weeks. Bummer. I gotta decide where to go in November/December. I’ll be quite the free bird then!

Fun Thing Of The Month: Getting organized. Seriously, I love color coding, filing, sorting, etc. (Especially if it helps me procrastinate on larger items, but that’s just a bonus.) I’m a dork, I get so excited when I go to office supply stores. Back to school time, even when I’m not in school, is FUN!

Lessons I Learned: I really can. It’s possible. Meaning: I had a scary breakthrough that I need to pursue my art seriously. I’m no good without it.

Books I Read:

1. Forever by Maggie Stiefvater
2. Making It All Work by David Allen

Movies I Watched:

1. Priest

September should be fairly ordinary, if intensely focused. I plan on doing a bunch of writing, and making a few critical decisions about many things that have been on my mind.

Thanks for stopping by this month!

Image via Wikipedia

Another episode of Fitness for Happiness for you today! In which we discuss getting discouraged by others, ourselves and how to get back into the swing of things.

If you are a first time listener, welcome to a new fitness podcast about the personal connection between physical health and a happy life.

This is an active plan to tackle depression, procrastination, and the tendency to stay stuck. You don’t need to be an athlete or a professional to feel happy with your fitness.

Right click here for a direct link to download the podcast and save it to your computer. Fitness For Happiness – Falling Out of Practice

Yikes, where did the beginning of summer go?? This month was kind of hard for me with a lot of stress on my plate and way more decisions than I feel up to making right now. *phew* I’m a bit fatigued by it all. No reason that can’t change though right?

Fun Thing Of The Month: Yosemite. So beautiful. The rocks were huge, the water so clear and the weather so perfect. It was a great vacation.

Lessons I Learned: Flying isn’t the WORST thing in the world, but it’s far from my favorite thing to do. So in the end, sometimes it may be worth it to get to some farther places if I want to in the future. (I used to be really terrified every time I flew, and very certain I would die.) Good to know I’ve got a few more options than I thought I did before.

Books I Read:

1. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Movies I Watched:

1. Source Code
2. Let Me In
3. Sucker Punch

Must stop avoiding some important tasks I’ve been putting off. That’s my big thing for the month, how bout you?

Thanks for stopping by this month!

My Yosemite Vacation 2011

Cover via Amazon

Fun Thing Of The Month: Reading, running, yoga. Nice relaxing month full of goodness. Trying to achieve balance is quite a task but it’s fun so  long as nothing else gets in the way.

Lessons I Learned: Running the 5K went really well. I surprised myself simply by finishing. Baby steps add up to a whole lot after some time goes by…

Books I Read:

1. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
2. The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner
3. Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
4. Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo
5. My Side of the Mountain trilogy by Jean Craighead George
6. Robopocalypse by Daniel Wilson
7. 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America by Albert Brooks

Movies I Watched:

1. Dreamcatcher
2. Powder Blue
3. Black Death
4. Red Riding Hood

Goals for June:

1. Plan vacation for July. All ready to go!
2. Do 5K walk or run for cancer. Finished the race in under 45 minutes! Major for me!
3. Go swimming at least once. (Gotta find time to play in the pool!)
4. Get haircut.
5. Prepare for True Blood season return. YAYYYY!! So happy to have my own guilty addiction back in order.

Thanks for stopping by this month!

Image via Wikipedia

Fun Thing Of The Month: The Hunger Games trilogy. A great lil way to spend a few days absorbed in stories.

Lessons I Learned: May went  by so quickly! I gotta go to bed a bit earlier than usual. If I have more time to read a good book before sleep things tend to go more smoothly for me.

Books I Read:

1. Lies Chelsea Handler Told Me
2. The Hunger Games
3. Catching Fire
4. Mockingjay
5. The Geography of Bliss
6. Do The Work

Movies I Watched:

1. Unstoppable
2. How To Train Your Dragon

Goals for May:

1. Celebrate Mother’s Day.
2. Exercise at least 3 times a week. Keep track of what I’ve done.
3. Keep trying to get through week one of the Couch to 5K running program. (I’ll get there!)
4. Wake up earlier.
5. Don’t buy any more clothes OR shoes! (More of an anti-goal to save some money. I get itchy credit card fingers this time of the year)
6. Join a gym or sign up for a class that I will enjoy. I need some more fun! EDIT: I didn’t join a gym because I felt it might be too much of a waste of money when I can run around outside. Still looking for a class… might not be the right time.

Goals for June:

1. Plan vacation for July.
2. Do 5K walk or run for cancer.
3. Go swimming at least once. (Gotta find time to play in the pool!)
4. Get haircut.
5. Prepare for True Blood season return. YAYYYY!!

Thanks for stopping by this month!

Image via Wikipedia

Something very new for you here today! A podcast!

A pilot episode to test the waters a bit. Welcome to a new fitness podcast about my personal connection between physical health and a happy life.

This is an active plan to tackle depression, procrastination, and the tendency to stay stuck. Please take a listen and send in your feedback. I’d like to hear what you have to say and any improvements I might make.

Right click here for a direct link to download the podcast and save it to your computer. Fitness For Happiness – Pilot Episode