[TrashcanCarla]

I have things to celebrate from this past year: 1) I completed a TV pilot script and sent it out to screenplay competitions. 2) My husband and I bought a house. 3) My husband and I got a puppy doggo. Despite these joyful occurences, I am trying to understand how 2022 - a whole 'nother trip around the sun - went by so quickly. Was I sleeping for roughly a third of it? Yes. Yes, I was. Nonetheless!

 

During December, I mulled over why I might feel like the year went by too swiftly, and I believe that it's because I lacked physical and spiritual fulfillment. I am a recovering couch potato who once was fairly active. The year before last I would go on hikes weekly with my infant (who's now almost 3 - wow!) carrying his heavy self on my person. I went for runs with my kiddo in the jogging stroller. I did dance cardio, yoga, kettlebells, erg rowing... man! I also was more "active" in reflecting on my spiritual self during 2021. 2022? Not so much. Anyway, that was 2021, and 2021 felt like a good long year despite being in the thick of pandemic-ness. Just comparing here.

 

So yeah - I have decided that I would like to focus on a couple of things for this year:

- Finding the joy in exercising consistently again.

- Spending more thoughtful alone time contemplating and developing my spiritual side.

 

To kick things off, here is my first challenge of 2023:

 

1) Exercise for 30 minutes or more 4x per week. Can be broken up into a couple of smaller sessions in the day so long as they total greater than 30 minutes in sum.

2) Spend at least 10 minutes each day writing in journal about spiritual related questions and thoughts OR practicing mindfulness.

3) No alcohol. Dry challenge!

 

There are other things I would like to do and may write about during this challenge, such as writing progress and acrylic painting, but officially aiming to do those things more consistently are things for upcoming challenges. I have enough on my plate.

[Everstorm]

47 minutes ago, TrashcanCarla said:

writing progress and acrylic painting, but officially aiming to do those things more consistently are things for upcoming challenges. I have enough on my plate.

I hear you on this.  I want to work on my creative expression more, but very not ready to make a goal of it.

 

I love your finding joy goals!

[Artemis Prime]

Those are three very solid goals to build a new year from. Following!

[Harriet]

Finding enjoyment in the process is so important, since those outcomes come in their own sweet time. A watched head never gets eaten by ants.

[TrashcanCarla]

Happy day before New Year's Eve, everyone! I haven't really been on NF this past week because I'm vacationing (sort of), and wow! There was a lot to catch up with.

 

I definitely have not been using "zero week" to practice my goals and despite this having been my plan, I find myself low key disappointed. Damn! I do tend to guilt myself. Maybe that is something to work on in the next challenge.

[mom2sjm]

On 12/27/2022 at 7:33 AM, TrashcanCarla said:

To kick things off, here is my first challenge of 2023:

 

1) Exercise for 30 minutes or more 4x per week. Can be broken up into a couple of smaller sessions in the day so long as they total greater than 30 minutes in sum.

2) Spend at least 10 minutes each day writing in journal about spiritual related questions and thoughts OR practicing mindfulness.

3) No alcohol. Dry challenge!

 

 

I have two similar goals!   Practicing mindfulness AND no alcohol (Dry January).  Here to cheer you on!

[Pherales]

Awesome, solid goals!  Following along!

[TrashcanCarla]

My eyes opened at 4am, which would be okay if I hadn't gotten to sleep at 11. Yikes! I really should get to bed earlier considering that my new puppy Molly has trained me to get up at the crack of yawn. I definitely need more than five hours of sleep. Six is my minimum.

 

My husband and I were discussing my initial journaling on my spiritual thoughts and beliefs last night and what a talk that was. I love having philosophical talk with him. It feels like I'm in my twenties and really stretches the old brain cells. We discussed free will or the illusion of it, immeasurable energies in the universe, pantheism... It was great. I got some good journaling done this morning recapping some of what we talked about. It is rewarding to explore my beliefs albeit a bit uncomfortable, simultaneously.

 

As my husband said (perhaps quoting somebody):

The universe does not exist to make you feel comfortable.

 

Went for a nice 40 minute walk with my son yesterday. It was blustery but blue skied and lovely. Neighbors said happy New Year's in passing. It was great.

 

Also didn't drink yesterday. Day one down.

 

I'm using the app Streaks to keep track of my goals for this challenge, FYI. As of this writing, I am on track. I intend to do a cardio dance workout later with my kiddo (hopefully that works out lol).

[TrashcanCarla]

Good morning! 6:15 am and I have the whole day ahead of me. Yesterday I felt like a trash bag, so I didn't get the planned 30m of exercise in, however I did not have any alcohol and did spiritual journal. It feels good to be free from the effects of a night before beer or two and to dive into my spiritual thoughts right away.

 

I got the "Sunday scaries" on a Monday last night because yesterday was my husband's last vacation day meaning that I need to herd two unruly beings - my almost-3-year-old son and new and mischievous puppy Molly - all by myself. When he gets home after work he's drained so frankly he's not a ton of help. Not complaining. Just saying.

 

Today I would like to do that dance cardio workout I planned to do yesterday. Maybe my son would like it? I would try to do it now, but I just ate. Oooh am I making excuses? Dang. 🤔 Or maybe I ate straight away after I got up so that I'd be too full to workout? Feel like I'm getting closer to the truth there.

 

Whatever. As I said at the beginning, the whole day is ahead of me. I'll figure my movement (and all of the other things that I need to do) out.

 

I've decided to participate in Inktober 52 this year as a way of really challenging myself. Woohoo! I'm a self taught/YouTube taught artist, so don't judge my drawings too harshly as I share them on here lol. I'm excited to dig into art again. Yay!

 

[Everstorm]

2 hours ago, TrashcanCarla said:

Inktober 52 this year

Ooh!  What is this?  My art is quite amateur, but I would like to practice more

[Asha Phoenix]

3 hours ago, TrashcanCarla said:

I've decided to participate in Inktober 52 this year

Oooh! Yay!!!! I'm planning to do this as well! Just waiting, not so patiently 😅, for them to post the first prompt.

[TrashcanCarla]

1 hour ago, Everstorm said:

Ooh!  What is this?  My art is quite amateur, but I would like to practice more

This will be my first time participating! I am also an amateur but want to improve and hone my skills. Basically a drawing prompt is released once a week on Thursday (I think). You draw something in ink (can use a pencil under drawing), post it with an Inktober hashtag and keep up with it every week! Or there's regular Inktober which happens in October obviously. Prompt a day. I'm excited!

 

Here's the site.

[Harriet]

Ooh, sketching! Are you going to do a sketch every week, or just the october challenge?

[TrashcanCarla]

4 hours ago, Harriet said:

Ooh, sketching! Are you going to do a sketch every week, or just the october challenge?

 

I'm going to do the weekly version. I cannot say whether I'll also participate in Inktober as a daily thing when the time comes, but I'm ready to get inky now!

[Everstorm]

I love the idea of weekly prompts!  I may join as well...and watercolor the inklings after the challenge is over.  (Watercolor is my latest obsession)

[TrashcanCarla]

1 hour ago, Everstorm said:

I love the idea of weekly prompts!  I may join as well...and watercolor the inklings after the challenge is over.  (Watercolor is my latest obsession)

 

I LOVE the look of ink and watercolor together! My favorite illustration type I think. I'm brand new to working with ink and am a newbie with watercolor as well, but I have both ink and watercolors heading my way! BRING IT ON!

 

Speaking of which, I did a couple of pencil sketches since the ink I wanted wasn't at the art store. A couple of studies of my son and myself. See below  in the spoilery thing.

Spoiler

 

+++

 

I don't have the pic of my Streaks app to prove it, but congrats to me - I've made it through three days without drink. Yee-haw! Feeling accomplished. I think I'm dealing with some physical side effects of alcohol withdrawal at the moment, which sucks. My stomach has felt crampy the past three days and I've been mad bloated. It'll go away, though.

 

Because my stomach's been crampy I've not felt well enough to do any major exertion-style exercise, such as cardio dance or shadow boxing. Boo! I did get out of the house yesterday and got about 3,000 steps in on a walk with my son, which was about 30 minutes long. I count that toward my goal. Not what I had in mind, but I'm learning to be a bit more flexible regarding expectations of myself.

 

[Artemis Prime]

6 minutes ago, TrashcanCarla said:

Not what I had in mind, but I'm learning to be a bit more flexible regarding expectations of myself.

A very big win, right there.

[Everstorm]

Nice work on the sketches!  Your son looks adorable. 

 

And congrats on dry January 🥳

[Harriet]

Wow, really nice sketches! Good work on the boozelessness, too.

[TrashcanCarla]

34 minutes ago, Everstorm said:

Nice work on the sketches!  Your son looks adorable. 

 

And congrats on dry January 🥳

9 minutes ago, Harriet said:

Wow, really nice sketches! Good work on the boozelessness, too.

 

Thank you! I think he's pretty flippin' adorable. I need more practice with faces to get the proportions right, but he's fairly recognizable to me from the sketches. It'll be interesting to get acclimated to using brush and ink to create sketches. I am excited. GET HERE, ink. GET HERE NOW! (it's coming tomorrow)

 

+++

 

I don't usually post lists of things I intend to do for the day, but I have a lot I'd like to tackle and want to put it out there to see if it helps me get things done. Thanks @Salinger for the inspiration to make a list. Sorry again that you're not feeling well today.

 

- sketch two things that I'd like practice inking with and transfer them to Bristol board for working on tomorrow

- do two loads of laundry

- put away the laundered clothing

- give dog Molly a bath

- give son Odin a bath

- tidy the downstairs a bit

- order groceries for delivery

- take Odie and Molly on a rainy walk

- do the dishes and unload the dishwasher

- do a tarot reading for myself (pathworking style)

- make dinner

 

Okay! Let's see how this goes.

[Shello]

On 1/3/2023 at 8:43 AM, TrashcanCarla said:

Inktober 52 

 

I didn't realize there was a yearly version too.  I think I'll have to check it out! 

[TrashcanCarla]

Yesterday wasn't the most productive day for me, as you can see in the spoiler below, so far as practical to-do list stuff goes, but I did go for a 30 minute walk with Odin and Molly. It was a blast, honestly. What's great about walking with them even in our cookie cutter new neighborhood with its immature trees is that they always find joy and things of interest to look at/investigate. It's contagious, that joy, and it makes me really glad that I ventured out the door, even on the gray and rainy days we have been experiencing in NorCal lately.

Spoiler

From yesterday:

 

- sketch two things that I'd like practice inking with and transfer them to Bristol board for working on tomorrow

- do two loads of laundry* did one

- put away the laundered clothing

- give dog Molly a bath

- give son Odin a bath

- tidy the downstairs a bit

- order groceries for delivery

- take Odie and Molly on a rainy walk

- do the dishes and unload the dishwasher

- do a tarot reading for myself (pathworking style)

- make dinner

I also did some spiritual deep diving again, and am proud of that. I've decided that I don't need to journal exactly every day to achieve my aims for this challenge. I haven't figured out how to meditate yet with Molly crashing around the downstairs and making noises as dogs do. I do need to find ways to soldier on. Will update when I come up alternative ways to explore my spiritual path.

For now I'm going to do some sketching and continue looking forward to the ink arriving so that I can practice my lines and ink washes with my brushes. Oooh, I'm excited!

 

[Artemis Prime]

Your walking buddies are adorable! 

Excellent job on the sobriety streak.

[Harriet]

Do the ink washes go under or on top of drawings? I'm excited to see a new medium!

[TrashcanCarla]

24 minutes ago, Harriet said:

Do the ink washes go under or on top of drawings? I'm excited to see a new medium!

 They go on top of the drawings, at least how I've seen it done so far. I love this video of tips which shows some great process footage of a particular piece coming together.

 

I too love to check out new media!