New year, new word

I've been taking a little blog holiday and have been enjoying a two and a half week's holiday of day trips, long walks and lazy days. No blogging, no painting, no drawing. Just relaxing, and enjoying the time and company (and struggling with a nasty cold). Oh and taking tons of photos. A few with my rather neglected camera, and loads and loads with my iPhone.

The holiday is over, the new year has started, and with it come new plans, dreams, wishes, resolutions - and a new word. This is the third year that I've chosen a word to accompany me throughout the course of the year. My first year's word was Inspiration. I wanted creativity, painting, drawing, photography back on a regular basis in my life, and I was looking for inspiration all around me to get me back on track. It worked. Last year, I chose the word Journey. I wanted to continue on the path I had begun following the year before. At the end of the year, I wanted to find myself in a distincly different place from where I started 12 month earlier. I invited changes, big and small. It worked.

After those two quite successful years with my words, I felt it was time for a bit more action, as they both were somehow rather passive. So my word for 2013 is Do. This year, I want to get things done. No more procrastination, no more waiting for things to happen. Do it.

There are so many things I want to change this year, so many plans and dreams, some of them more realistic, others maybe more wild and adventurous. But we'll see. I'll definitely give it a try, and DO what I can to make things happen.

As for the blog, there are a few things I want to change this year, some of them long overdue.Well, two main things, really:

1. blog more often
2. give my blog the makeover I've been wanting to give it for the past one and a half years

Have you chosen a word for 2013? What is it?

All set for the journey

At the end of last year I came across the idea to pick a certain word for the new year, as a sort of guideline to focus on. I liked the idea a lot, and also signed up for the One Little World class. The class wasn't really successful for me, for various reasons, but that was okay, because I found so much inspiration (my word for 2011) everywhere, and I was getting back into the habit of being creative, painting a lot again, beginning to draw and sketch more, and even learning a whole range of new skills and techniques. I was embracing my word fully.

During the last few weeks of the old year, I've been thinking a lot about a new word for 2012. I made a list of possible words, and although all really appealed to me, none was screaming out to me. Then I read something in a book, and suddenly, I had my word: journey. It seemed perfect because it includes so many of the words I had written down. It's all about change, progress, a little bit of adventure thrown in, being open to new things, growth, forward, action, experience, development, discovery, etc. It's about being in a different place (literally and/or metaphorically) at the end of the journey, in some way or other.

I've also decided to sign up for the One Little Word class again. I'd really like to focus more consciously on my word this year. Last year's inspiration had a more passive quality. Letting things happen, follow the flow. It was a year of searching. This year's journey is more active. It's about doing things, making them happen, focusing on and working with them. I don't know how far I'll come with the class this year, but at the end, it doesn't really matter, as long as I make 2012 a journey of some kind, and finding myself in a different, better place at the end of it, in whatever way that might be.

The journey will not be going straight all the time, I'm sure. There'll probably be obstacles, diversions, detours, straying, many steps backwards, bends, twists and deadends, stages of draught and crossroads. But I'm sure there'll also be progress, smooth parts, many steps forward, short cuts, places to rest and revive, and stages of plenty and anbundance. And I'm sure the inspiration I found during the course of the last year will accompany me, such as the wonderful song of Darrell Scott, which I first heard in one of the inspiring classes I took, and which fits quite well.

One Little Word: Frustration

Oh my, I'm so annoyed and frustrated at the moment.

At the very end of last year, I came across the One Little Word class at Big Picture Classes and immediately signed up because it just sounded so great and inspiring (inspiration being my word for 2011). It's a year long class where each month, you focus on your chosen word by creating a collection of images and stuff connected with your word which you all put into a pretty folder. So by the end of the year, you'll have a folder full of stuff about your word and a pretty keepsake to look at again and again. I especially liked the fact that you were working with differently sized layouts which you could download and fill your stuff in and print out and which all fitted into specific page protectors.

My enthusiasm was quickly dampened a bit when I clicked on the links on the supply list. All the three basic things -  the album, the lovely thick paper and the page protectors - were all not in stock at the big online store scrapbook.com (I'm deliberately not linking to them as I'm so annoyed with them at the moment). Okay, so I clicked on the "notify me when in stock" button and started working through the handouts, patiently waiting for the supplies to become available. At one point, one of the things was in stock - for about a day or two, then the next and then another. With shipping costs a minimum of $40, there was no point in ordering everything separately. But unfortunately, the three things were never in stock at the same time. At the end of January, I finally managed to order at least two of them, the album and the paper (and some other scrapbooking stuff) and I kept on waiting for the in stock notice for the page protectors.

After having waited for well over three months now, I tried to look up the product in the shop. I typed in some keywords and couldn't find anything. So I went back to the class supply list and got rather suspicious when I saw that the link was now gone. Instead, there was a sentence encouraging us to use our own supplies if we didn't want to buy the suggested material. After some researching I discovered that the page protectors had been discontinued. And obviously had been so some time ago, as they weren't even listed anymore in the shop. I was so annoyed that scrapbook.com never bothered to let me know that the product was no longer available (after all I had requested an in stock notificaton by e-mail), let alone suggesting an alternative.

I'm also frustrated because the class goes on with the materials being based on those page protectors. The "we encourage creative adaptations. None of the exact supplies are required to participate in the class" stuff is really not much use if you don't have a choice. I actually wanted to use the exact supplies. It had been one of the things that had made the class so attractive for me that you could just concentrate on the content and didn't have to worry about layouts and about adjusting them, because you could just download the fitting layouts, fill in your stuff and print them out. I especially liked the folder with the many little pockets. You could print out pictures on little cards (or rather cut the paper up into little cards) and put one in each pocket.

But now I sort of feel left out. I can download the pretty layouts which most of them will be rather useless and I'm left on my own to figure out how to adapt them and make them fit, and all in unfamiliar American measures. I would have wanted to put all my energy into focusing on and working with my word rather than on adjusting layouts and on searching the mega store and trying to figure out which alternative to use.

My little word for 2011 is "inspiration", but at the moment I don't feel inspired at all, just annoyed and frustrated. And I don't really have any motivation to continue at all right now. I'm annoyed about having waited and waited and never having being told that the product wasn't available anymore (that's just poor service for me), about not knowing what alternative to use and about a class that is based on using a product that isn't available anymore.

I had really been so excited about this project when I started it, but at the moment I feel that it has just been a waste of money and time. I chose this image as my "beginnings" page. Because I wanted this year to be inspired to do all kinds of creative processes and projects and to spend more time with creating art, to find, or rather make, more time again for things like painting and calligraphy and so. Right now I feel that really, instead of wasting time at the computer fiddling around with layouts, I should really just get out the paints and brushes instead.

It seems that the "one little word" and I haven't been off to a very good start together. To be fair, it does say "for alternative ideas, check out the gallery and message board!". So there might be some useful information about alternative products and about how to use them instead but to be honest, I haven't had a look yet. Right now, I just don't feel like it. I just don't want to know anything about that whole business for the moment.

I'm sorry if that all just sounds very negative and all and about ranting on about it like that. I'll go and make myself a nice cup of tea now and see if I find some chocolate and try to calm down. I know that it's not really worth to get so annoyed about it like this. But there are times, when it's just these little trivial and insignificant things that get you down and make you feel miserable. I realise that I get annoyed and irritated about almost everything far too easily at the moment. I put it down to low iron level. I've been there before, and getting annoyed and irritated about anything and everything really annoys and irritates me no end. The problem is that it also takes your energy away to do anything about it, even the things that would make you feel better, like phoning your doctor to make an appointment. At least, it looks like that, after a good six weeks, the cause for it all seems to finally have stopped. But that's the problem with "chronic", it's never going to go away for good... But that's an entirely different story.

{31} ~ One Little Word / Another 52 Project

Prompt for Day 31 for Picture Winter

Inspired by Ali Edwards' class One Little Word, today's prompt was to shoot our word that we've selected for 2011 (and think about one, I you haven't yet). 

You might know by now that my word for 2011 is Inspiration, as I've mentioned it already more than once. So I won't write any more about it here and bore you (again) with it. It's just another representation of what I want to focus on this year with my word.

But what I also want to do this year is to do more b&w. I love b&w shots and I still fondly remember one afternoon spent in the school's darkroom, over ten years ago, developing pictures I'd taken in Venice. It was the only time I actually developed my own pictures and I sooo enjoyed it. I remember developing each photo several times, trying out all the different tones, from bright soft to harsh contrasts, watching how the chemicals made the image appear before my eyes like magic.

The digital process of turning colour pictures into b&w reminds me of that process. And I find it a 100 times more difficult than processing colour images. What works better for the image - soft greys, strong contrasts, darker, brighter, sepia, or even bringing back a hint of the original colours underneath?

I see quite a lot of b&w images around in my Flickr contacts' streams at the moment and it has inspired me to sit down and give it a try as well. I've joined the new Flickr group 52 weeks of no color to keep me inspired and to encourage me to go on with it and not give up again too quickly because I'm not satisfied with the result at the first try (and I've tried it quite a few times, most of them wandering straight into the bin afterwards).

So this is my first image for 52 weeks of no color and I'm already cheating a bit. I took this image the week before last and didn't intend it to be b&w at first but last night, when I processed it to bring out all the colours of the pastels, I just suddenly thought that it might be cool to turn a picture so full of colours into one without colours. I gave it a try and think I actually like it more than the colour version :-).

Texture by Shadowhouse Creations.

{OLW} ~ January Prompts

At the end of last year, I came across the idea of choosing one word for the new year, a little word that one uses as a sort of guide line, something to focus on. I thought it was quite a nice concept and thought about choosing a word for myself for 2011 as well. However, I just couldn't decide what it should be, what it was I wanted to focus on. So I decided to let my Angel Cards choose it for me. And what they came up with was:

INSPIRATION

I must say, I couldn't have chosen a better word myself! It's just perfect. There are quite a few things in my life that I've tried to change for the last few years, without success so far. At the beginning of every year, I made plans and wish lists about the things I wanted to do, achieve, change. And at the end of each year, I was depressed, feeling such a failure, because I hadn't really managed to make any of them happen. So one month ago, at New Year's Eve, I decided to let that whole planning and wishing thing be. The only resolution I took was to go on working on and improving my photography and post processing skills, to focus on the creative side of me, to spend more time again at painting, calligraphy, learning to draw. To keep my eyes open for inspiration everywhere around me. And the rest - well, I'll just take it as it comes, one step after another, or no steps, if there are no steps to be taken. And maybe, the inspiration I'll find for my photography, painting etc, maybe, will inspire me in other things as well, letting me find new ways and possibilities, new pathes to follow.

When I saw that at BigPicture there was even a class about exactly that - One Little Word - I signed up for it. I loved the idea that the course covered the whole year, helping you to keep focusing on the word, and of course getting loads of inspiration. I've already written about it in a post earlier this month and posted the January title page. But until yesterday, I hadn't really had the time to sit down and work on the other prompt for January. To create 9 little cards with quotations, definitions, sentiments, ornaments etc. for our word. I still haven't all the supplies yet, the refill folders are still missing, but I have my lovely lavender coloured album and the card stock to print on. I even figured out how to find the right paper size for printing the American 8 1/2 " x 11" sized paper, yay!

So these are my January "canvases" for my word. Not cut out yet, will do that when I have the folders.

I decided to write almost all of the texts for the cards on the computer rather than by hand. I love handwriting but I've also downloaded so many great fonts in the last few weeks, that I wanted to use them. And of course it meant that I could get much more text on my cards. I know, it's a lot of text and even in the original versions, some of it is hard to read. But that's okay. Because that's what I want to do this year: looking for lots and lots of inspiration, and maybe there'll be things I'll forget about again immediately, but at the end, all the small bits and pieces together with the bigger ones will add up to the big picture.

It's the end of the month, which means that next week, the prompts for February should come. I'm so looking forward to going on working with my "little word" :-)

{Day 18} ~ Centre of Attention / {January} ~ The Beginning of a Year full of Inspiration and Creativity

Prompt for Day 18 of Picture Winter: "Centre of Attention"

Today's assingment was to "pay attention to one subject that tends to keep showing up in your work - something that captures your eye, time and time again, and begs to be the center of attention for your creativity".

Well, brushes might not be the thing that most keeps showing up in my work, although I have taken far more and regularly ictures of painting brushes and other paining stuff than you've seen here on my stream. However.

I painted long before I picked up "serious" DSLR photography last spring, but my creativity has been suffering for a long time. 2011 will be my creative year, so I've decided, and already in the first three weeks of this new year, I have found so much inspiration around me which has helped me to develop my photography skills.

I know that I will never be an artist and never be able to produce true real art, and I don't aspire to do so, I'll always be an amateur. But I very much hope that I will also find the inspiration this year to make painting again one of the centres of my attention and the passion it once was, along with photography. And I'm looking forward to combining the two, I already can see so many ways in doing so.

And I just love images of painting brushes and painting stuff :-)

Texture by Shadowhouse Creations.

*  *  *

I am also using this image for my "Beginnings" page for One Little Word. My word for 2011 is Inspiration. The prompt for this page actually was to take a self portrait. And I will. Later. But I felt that this would be a so much more fitting image, as this is the beginning of my year full of inspiration and creativity.

I haven't really taken the time to work on this project until today. I always wanted to but then all the photo post processing got in the way. And I was also unable to order the supplies as all the three main thing - the album, the plastic refill packs and the card stock were not on stock. And although I kept receiving messages that some small quantities of stock had come in, they were sold out again so quickly that I never managed to order them all three together. And with the shipping costs from the States to Switzerland being what they are, there was no way I was going to order them individually. But album and cardstock at least are now on their way, together with some other scrapbooking stuff, and the refill pages I'll hopefully soon be able to order over here in Europe.

I'm so looking forward to start to get working on the project. I think it's a wonderful idea to have a special word for the whole year and I think that this class will really help to keep focused on it.

I'll soon write more and in greater detail about this class and project, and will be starting at the beginning, but I just had to create this page today and add it here as when I did the processing work on this photo today for Picture Winter, I just felt that I had finally found my "beginnings" photo.