A Declaration On Doing More Better

Several years ago I decided to take a class called The Declaration of You with artist Jessica Swift and career coach Michelle Ward to help me figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. Sadly, and to absolutely no fault of theirs (because they are amazing), I really didn't get anything out of it. Here's why... for a really long time I haven't really understood what or whom I wanted to be (or as a microcosm of this issue... what this blog is about).

On the one hand, I'm incredibly lucky/blessed to have a relatively stable 8+ year career in corporate public relations which has moved me around the country and afforded me a comfortable lifestyle for a practical chick.

On the other hand, I've always dabbled in the creative arts, and I absolutely love having many creative outlets. I started this blog during my first year in the corporate world when I really just wanted to share the doodles I was creating during long teleconferences with my family and friends.

My struggle has always been that these two things have often felt at odds. I have "work me" and "artsy/doodling/sewing/whatever me." I don't really aspire to quit my day job, but I also always feel like I should be doing MORE with my so-called hobbies. And my definition of "more" is very murky...

"Work me" = Peggy Olson... at least in my head

This has been causing me particular stress lately because, for probably the first time, I feel like I've actually been getting a tiny tiny bit of traction in various forums as a result of some of the classes I've taken  (1 contest win, 1 Spoonflower sale and 130 new Instagram followers to be exact). Suddenly, I feel this urgent and possibly ridiculous need to capitalize on this tiny tiny bit of momentum or god forbid I miss my chance to do "more."

However, because of my real-life job, I've always had a somewhat time-constrained approach to my creative output. I try things, some turn out ok, some are weird hot messes, some could be better if I actually practiced... and I've always posted all of it, you know, just because. If you look back through this blog you can see what I mean. It's a bit all over the place. And all of this new overthinking has made me feel like none of it is good enough.

I honestly don't know where I'm going with all of this except to say that after some long, hard thinking I've realized: 1. that I really want to do better. I want to practice and take more classes, I want to take less crappy photos, and I want to make things that people really like, and 2. I also want to embrace (and hope others are interested in following) this process I've been going through.

I think there are a lot of people out there like me, trying to do "more" with their hobbies while balancing a full time career (or family, or whatever). I just want to be open and honest about how that's going for me (even when I don't have the time/energy to take perfectly styled photos).

"Doing more better" could be making money, attracting more followers/readers, or just feeling fulfilled.... I haven't figured it out what the actual goal is yet, and it honestly doesn't matter, but I just hope some people will find this mishmash inspiring and join me in my sometimes sloppy/misdirected/messy efforts to doing more... better.

So Long Parks & Rec!

I will miss you Leslie Knope, you beautiful land mermaid. So smart, so wise, so waffle-ful :) 

He'd Just Bound, Bound, Bound and Rebound

Challenging times call for inspirational quotes… or so Pinterest has taught me. I have professed a love for all things Pixar in the past, and this particular quote comes from my favorite Pixar short, Boundin.'

It features a lamb and a Great American Jackalope. Sadly that link will only show you the first half, and not to ruin the punchline but this is what the Jackalope has to say to the somewhat downtrodden lamb. Anyways, basically, don't let the man get you down!

The Best Part About My Home...

I'm loving this trend of making things for other people. It's really cutting back on my closet full of old doodles.

So my aforementioned friend who recently became a homeowner gave me this adorable saying to draw.

I don't frame many of my doodles (they are stuffed in the aforementioned closet)(I'm really in to the word aforementioned today... sorry not sorry)(parentheses!) so it was awesome to see what the finished product looked like.

Alright, who's got something else for me to draw? Shoot me an email :)

Faint Glimmers of Civilization

If you haven't already seen the latest Wes Anderson movie, The Grand Budapest Hotel, I highly recommend it. Quirky, beautiful movies fall very high on my list of loves so I was inspired to look up some quotes from his movies to write. Luckily someone runs this very handy twitter account so it didn't take me long to find the ones I wanted to use...

I know people put a lot of focus on Wes Anderson's visual style... symmetry... colors... yada yada, but lines like are just beautiful and visual on their own. 

HA. So true sometimes. 

The Royal Tenenbaums is by far my favorite and Margot is also my favorite. I wish I could pull off black eyeliner like that :oP

Out of Context: Little of This, Little of That

I've been compiling new "Out of Context" doodles for the past few weeks waiting for a theme... since I keep promising you guys themes (sorry, I can be such a liar when it comes to blogging). But no such luck. So here's a smattering of various random things people have said, illustrated and (as always) taken completely out of context.

True. Story. But let us not discount those who order sheet cakes because cake is one of the most delightful things.

Don't judge. How many bars of soap have you eaten recently?

Speaking of things you shouldn't be eating. This quote came from my high school notebooks. Ah, teenagers.

Insta-Quotes

Happy St. Patrick's Day! On Friday our kitchen island was feature on the DC Goodwill blog. Debating whether I need to start a "featured on" section somewhere so people know how cool we are. Which is a good segue to this lovely, self-deprecating quote...

I've been continuing to practice my hand lettering. I've been sharing them on Instagram as I finish (ah, instant gratification) so sorry if these of repeats for folks.  Also, inspired by my high school doodles, I went out and bought a graph paper notebook which really helped me with spacing. Kind of nice not to have to re-do the whole thing five times. 

I hope this is self-explanatory.

Version one.

Version two after I got extra bored and added some extra doodle. Which makes everything better! Yay. Anyways, I'm alone for the weekend as Kevin is at Spring Training in Florida so I'll try to get back on my game blogging wise but if you need more frequent updates (Mom & Dad), then you can follow me on Instagram. (I'll teach you how to download it.)

Today is a great day!

I was really inspired this week by this interview with designer Lisa Congdon, a kick-ass illustrator and surface designer. So I've been spending some time practicing my hand lettering. It's something I end up doing a lot naturally when I'm doodling, but I haven't really thought about combining them.

Here's a tasting of some practice alphabets. True story, I love writing the alphabet in script over and over. As demonstrated here. I know that's weird but maybe weird in a good way?

Here's another example where I combined lettering and my usual eye-melting handmade patterns. Too bad I didn't have anything more interesting to say... hmm.

Oh wait, here's something more interesting to say... its a theoretical logo for my blog if I was more grown up and less snarky. My alter-ego is so sophisticated ;o)

Out of Context Pt. 2

People say weird things... particularly at work. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes as part of widely-accepted Corporate-speak and sometimes because they are just weird. Here is a sampling, taken completely out of context, as illustrated by me :o)

Self-explanatory? Mmm, not really.

Creepy in so many ways. But really... what is wrong with that woman's eyebrows?

Yes! Breathe that Corporate bureaucracy in! Ahhhh! To be fair, these words have definitely crossed my lips in the past so can't be too hard on people. In part three... we'll take my mom's weirdness totally out of context. Stay tuned!

Out of Context

It seems like the people around me are always saying semi-ridiculous things. I love to write down the strange things people say. Unfortunately for Kevin, I tend to really remember all the silly things he's said and quote them back to him on a regular basis. They are even funnier taken completely out of context. 

So I started a little series of doodles to illustrate some of these quotes that always make me laugh. Here are the first three. 

Me neither.

Well, what did you expect?

Nope. I don't

I married a pretty funny guy I guess :o)