Children's Book - Day 15

More drawing lessons today . . . I worked on shading and a little more on my main character. I’m not getting very far on my book am I? Somehow I don’t feel like my heart is in this project and it’s not driving me as much as many of the other challenges have. I’m doubting my decision to add more to the story and thinking I need to do some more rewriting. I don’t think this project is going anywhere.

Children's Book - Day 14

I am very tired again tonight. Plus, I’ve been reading policies and procedures, every day, pretty much all day, for this whole week. I am really not in the mood to do more reading or even draw anything. Just frustrated tonight, but I still worked on it a little bit anyways. I’m trying to focus on keeping it simple, we’ll see if it works.

Children's Book - Day 13

Today was a little more intellectual than yesterday. I took a look at a book I got for learning how to illustrate and studied the pictures. I made note of and studied the pictures that I liked the best and that I think that I would like to emulate. I think this will help me in figuring out how to go forward. It also had some helpful tips on how to make a professional looking “dummy book”, which I think will hopefully be my finished product. Then I got out my “Drawing for the Terrified” book (which I really like the way it’s written . . . I wish I could take a class with this guy, I think I would learn a lot), and ran through some of those exercises. I think they were helpful and I feel more accomplished now . . . yay J

Children's Book - Day 12

Ugh, I’m sleepy. I did about half an hour of drawing. I managed to get some perspective drawing of the inside of the burrow, but it took a lot of brain power to figure out how to do it. Much more than I wanted to put into this project. Maybe I need to make my drawings simpler? After I was done drawing, I read some more in my “How To” book . . . interesting information, but now it’s making me wish I was writing a YA chapter book that didn’t require pictures! Anyways, I need to go to sleep now . . . good night J

Children's Book - Day 11

I know I am creative . . . I just can’t seem to channel it into drawing. I did some doodling today just to try to loosen up, I am far too tense and have no 3-D vision to try and rotate my drawings. I tried to replicate something I did yesterday but make it more my own, and it just looked flat and boring and seemed to get worse every time I tried. Somehow I doubt I'll get anything close to a book ready by the end of this month, but I really am trying.

Children's Book - Day 10

So I’m tired and it was a really long day (first day at my new job) and I didn’t get to this until 10 pm . . . I want to be in bed instead. I just took to doodling today, something that I really never do (which could be why I’m not very good at drawing). I made multiple drawings, and I found aspects of my character, but not his entirely. I also copied a cute wombat sketch, just to see how it would turn out when I drew it . . . cute, but not as cute as the original. I modeled some of my doodles after a picture of a real wombat too. I think I made progress, but not much. At least it was good practice.

Children's Book - Day 9

Today I decided to do some research. My favorite children’s books are written by two outstanding authors/illustrators, Jan Brett and Bill Peet. I love so many others too, but Bill Peet is probably my favorite and I wanted his illustrations to be my inspiration. So I read up on him today and studied lots of his books and pictures. He had been drawing for his whole life, which would explain why he is so good and I doubt I will ever be able to create something like what he did, but I’m sure going to try. This is my favorite Bill Peet book: The Wump World, but I have many to read yet, so I’m looking forward to doing that sometime in the future. For now, I will just try and feel inspired J

Children's Book - Day 8

So today I wrote out my story all on one page and it looks longer than I thought it was. Unfortunately, I read another chapter in my book about writing and illustrating children’s books, and it said that most children’s books have 32 pages with a few of the first being the title and copyright pages, but I fall six pages short even when I include those. So do I write more verses, or just try and go for 24 total pages which is unusual, but not unheard of, or just leave it the way it is? Any suggestions? I guess it’s not like I’m really going to publish it anyways (even though that would be great), so I shouldn’t really care what a publisher’s standard is, but somehow I feel like I should take that into consideration and do it right. Anyways, I still can’t figure out my main character’s styling either . . . I need to work on this more.

Children's Book - Day 7

I did my drawing in the car today. We are on our way down to Chicago to see a concert of one of my new favorite artists, Ramin Karimloo (I love this song: Cathedrals haha, I had a hard time picking just one) . We are staying with my cousin tonight who was gracious enough to let us stay with her so we didn’t have to get a hotel . . . hooray. So, I’m drawing in the car and trying to figure out what in the world my main character looks like. I’ve looked at quite a few pictures of wombats, but I just can’t figure out my character. The secondary character came right away, for some reason I had no problems with her, but the main character is elusive. I am also being stopped by my belief that I can’t draw. I’m sure I can draw something, I just need to figure out what that is.

Children's Book - Day 6

Okay, I think I finished my story now. It’s not perfect and I still might change it a little bit, but I think I have most of it all fleshed out now. I still should get some more feedback from some people before I finalize it, but I feel like I made progress today. Of course, if I’m done writing, that means that the rest of the month is going to be drawing, but that is probably good to give myself that much time because now the story is longer and requires more pages. Next step: figuring out a base character so I can build all of the settings around him . . . wish me luck!

Children's Book - Day 5

I was feeling a little more creative today, so I tried my hand at trying to fix my story a bit and create a few more verses. I had a little success but since I wasn’t truly inspired, it took much longer than it should have. I am happy with where the story is going, although I’m a bit worried it’s getting to be too much and not as simple as I would like it to be. We’ll see what happens at the end I guess.

Children's Book - Day 4

It was my first day in “job limbo” (the transition period between my old job and my new job), so I got quite a bit of stuff done around the house . . . that was nice. Unfortunately, I ended up saving my project until the end of the day when I was tired, so I didn't make as much progress on it as I would have liked. I was feeling uninspired, so I just read more of my drawing book (a lot of their tips on drawing actually sound similar to the yoga relaxation stuff . . . coincidence?) I’m finding I’m not worried so much about screwing up, I’m just having a difficult time finding and connecting with my characters. I’m starting to get their expressions figured out, but materializing a body around a face is not so easy. I have a lot of work to do on my story too . . . maybe tomorrow.

Children's Book - Day 3

Back home again . . . and not really in the mood to write today. I got out my “Drawing for the Terrified” book (Drawing for the Terrified) and read through the first chapter. I don’t have all of the exact supplies that I’m supposed to have, but I didn’t want to make a special trip to an art store tonight. I just used my low quality paper and some colored pencils to try and start sketching my wombat. I looked at quite a few pictures on Google as well as some cartoon versions to try and figure out how I want him to be portrayed. He’ll be cute, I just need to figure out how (and not be so difficult on myself when he is not exactly like what I picture in my head, this month should be fun, not stressful) J

Children's Book - Day 2

I read the first chapter of my 8 lesson book today and I think it will be pretty useful, although I doubt my book will be ready for publication at the end like they say it will. They also say a chapter a week though, and since I only have a month I’d have to do two chapters a week, and I don’t think an hour a day is enough time to accomplish that all in. I’ll do my best though. Since we are staying overnight at some friend’s house, and they have four small children, I was surrounded by children’s literature, and test subjects J The mom was an English major in college too and has a love of reading even greater than mine, so I completely trust her opinion on this matter and decided to consult with her on my story. She gave me lots of good tips on how to improve the story, and fixed some of my grammar. We also discussed how some children’s books are so elaborate and some are so simple, but they can both be equally good. In case you haven’t noticed, I tend to be way too ambitious with these projects sometimes, so I’m going to have to try and strive towards a more simplistic but well done book instead of an overly complicated, rather shabby book. We’ll see how this goes . . .

Children's Book - Day 1

To prepare myself for this journey, I headed to my local library and picked up a few books, two on how to write and illustrate children’s books, and one on how to draw. I have a feeling that these will come in very handy. By the way, since all of my yoga practice last month, now I am seeing yoga poses in so many movements around me. It’s kind of cool, but it does make me miss yoga (and my yoga buddies). Anyways, I read the introduction to one of my books about writing and illustrating children’s books (Writing and Illustrating Children's Books for Publication: Two Perspectives) and I’m getting more excited about this month’s challenge. I don’t know if anything really will come out of it, but I don’t often practice being creative (unless I’m baking), so this is using an untapped portion of my brain, and that’s what this year is all about, right?

September Reveal

So by now, you are probably wondering what other crazy schemes I could possibly have up my sleeve. This next month is really going to tap into my creative side and try to unlock some hidden talents I don’t know if I have but if I ever did, they were lost in my childhood. As you might recall from my novel reading month, I absolutely adore books, especially children’s and young adult literature. My parents actually thought I would be a librarian when I grew up, but to their great surprise I became a scientist. I think it had something to do with me trying to challenge myself to study something I knew little about. Anyways, for my challenge this month, I’ve decided to get back into books and try and write and illustrate a children’s book. One day at work, one of my good friends was talking to me about some silly animal song and he said “now for a song about wombats”. I didn’t have much to do that afternoon, and inspiration suddenly struck and I found myself composing a song about a wombat. It turned out to be more of a poem and sounded perfect for a children’s book. He was rather impressed that I had written it in so short a time period, and so with that encouragement, combined with my visions of this book in my head, I am embarking on a new journey. I am not looking to get published or become a famous children’s book author (although getting published would be cool, I don’t think this endeavor is quite of that caliber), but just to devote about an hour every day to fine tuning my story and trying to figure out how to draw. This should be fun J

Yoga - Day 31

Sad day, last day of yoga and last day working with my good friends at my current place of employment. It’s been a good run all around, and I’m sad to see it go, but I’m looking forward to my new adventures as well. I think I did pretty well at yoga today (considering it was 5:30 am), and my dear friend made me breakfast and let me shower at her house before heading to my last day at work, so it all worked out rather well. No going back now, on to the next adventure!

Yoga - Day 30

Just one friend and I tonight, but it was a good flow class lead by my favorite instructor. I’m getting better at the more difficult poses like “Side Crow” and headstand, which is kind of fun. I wonder if I’ll be brave enough after this month to try and keep improving these poses. I don’t know if my sweat glands were just more open tonight after the Fire class yesterday, but I’ve never sweat in a Flow class as much as I did tonight. One last day tomorrow, and it’s going to be a crazy one . . . 5:30am Flow! Let’s do this J

Yoga - Day 29

It’s rather fitting I guess that my last day of yoga is my last day at my current job. I am so sad to be leaving, but I’ve enjoyed it so much (kind of like yoga). It’s going to be really, really hard not seeing all of those wonderful people that I work with every day as often as I do now, but I hope I’ll still get to hang out with some of them occasionally. I’m really looking forward to my new job too, another new adventure J Yoga tonight was the 90 minute, 105 degree Fire class. It was tough and I was very sweaty by the end, but it does make me feel kind of powerful and flexible at the same time. Only two more days . . .

Yoga - Day 28

“Slow Flow” class tonight was pretty good. I got a good workout, but it almost seemed too easy. One good benefit I have noticed of yoga, and I may have mentioned this already but I think it is rather important, is that I have gained a new awareness of my body and my posture. I notice more often when I am slumping my back now, and am much more aware of the alignment of my spine and how my body moves. I’ve also noticed how small parts of my body that I didn’t consider very powerful before (like my feet, for example), really have some strength in them and are capable of quite a lot. It’s been a fun realization along this journey that is yoga month J (Side note: there was an awesome rainbow over the highway on my drive home . . . I felt that I could almost drive underneath it . . . God is good J).

Yoga - Day 27

I did yoga with a new friend today. She had never done yoga before, so it was fun to share it with her. My regular yoga buddies were either not feeling well or went to another class, so it was nice having someone to go with. We went to the 9 pm “Relax” class and it was indeed relaxing. I was again stressed and not feeling very well when I went and felt SO much better when I was done. The teacher gave us some scented oil in our hand during our final relax period that we could rub on our shoulders or neck, etc. I did both and it felt great. I wish I could have done all 30 days of hot yoga because they just started a program that if you do that you get a t-shirt when you are done . . . I want a t-shirt L Oh well, I will have my awesome newly acquired yoga poses as souvenirs instead.

Yoga - Day 26

Another Flow class with my favorite instructor. I don’t know why I like her so much, but I think it has something to do with the fact that she teaches us some of those poses that makes one think “how in the world is she doing that?!?” . . . that’s what I want to learn J Today I got “Side Crow” on both sides, not for a very long time, but definitely longer than I thought I would be able to.

 (Image from http://www.fitsugar.com/Strike-Yoga-Pose-Side-Crow-2405633).

And I did a headstand out of a tripod today J I’m very happy about that. It probably wasn’t perfect since I couldn’t see myself in the mirror to gauge how straight I got my legs, but I felt pretty straight. It didn’t last long either, but it was pretty cool while it lasted. Now I’m up late baking, surprise surprise, I’m going to be so tired tomorrow. What a long last couple of days, long but good. I can do it J

Yoga - Day 25

Ahh, so nice to be back in the hot yoga studio again! Early morning Flow class was just wonderful this morning. We convinced another girl from work to join us too, so there were all four of us there . . . so much fun. I’m going to be sad when this month is over, it’s been a great experience and I’m so glad it is something that I decided to try.

Yoga - Day 24

Early morning easy Rodney Yee yoga at the B&B. Nothing too exciting, just stretching out and getting ready for our long drive home. 7:30 am hot yoga tomorrow J

Yoga - Day 23

Whew, I did the Jillian Michael’s workout again today . . . that one is tough. I couldn’t do quite everything on there, but I definitely worked hard. We are at a lovely bed and breakfast for our last night in Canada and we got a really nice room with a little sitting area complete with TV, so I was able to do my work out much easier than when I tried to do it at the campground. This place is really lovely, and I will be sad to leave Canada tomorrow, but it’s been a great vacation and I know I have lots to do when I get home. So it’s been a great break, but I am looking forward to getting back to my yoga studio too J

Yoga - Day 22

It’s our 3^rd anniversary today J We are going to see some monuments and waterfalls today. I wanted to get my yoga practice out of the way early on, so right after breakfast (which was rather late as I’ve been sleeping in every day J) I did the “advanced” Rodney Yee video again in the same spot as yesterday. It wasn’t as windy today and the sun beating down on the tarp actually made it rather warm in my little yoga spot, not quite “hot yoga” warm, but still pretty nice. The video has some weird “cardio” aspects in it that involve a lot of arm swinging and little hops. It’s kind of weird. Oh well, I still got my hours’ worth of practice in . . . now to go have some fun!

Yoda - Day 21

I tried another Rodney Yee yoga DVD today . . . the 50 minute advanced work out. It was much easier than most of the classes at the hot yoga studio, but definitely not as crazy as the Jillian Michael’s one that I tried the other day. No difficult wheel, camel or crow poses, just a few warrior one and warrior two poses, but it felt much more like yoga than my “yin” stretching yesterday.

Warrior I

Warrior II

Also, I tried a different spot (under a tarp my husband put up over the tent) and the ants seemed to leave me alone, so today was much better. Still nowhere close to my enjoyment of the hot yoga studio, but at least I felt more relaxed than the other day, and it is good to get in tune with my body and nature at the same time I think. I think the campground should have yoga classes on the beach or something J

Yoga - Day 20

I did pretty much the same yoga routine tonight as I did last night because by the time we got back to the campsite, it was about 9:30 and I didn’t feel like doing my yoga outside in the cold and dark. Plus, my legs could still use quite a bit of stretching, so that’s what I did. Unfortunately, being on a somewhat squishy air mattress, covered by a thick sleeping bag and surrounded by cold temperatures, does not make for a very good yoga practice. I was distracted by the sounds of the campers around me, and my husband was moving in and out of the tent and when he moved on the air mattress, of course I moved too. Plus the space was cramped and I couldn’t breathe very well in the poses where my face would be on the mat. I don’t really feel like I did yoga today, it was more just a little bit of stretching. Oh well, only a few more days of this improvised yoga and then I get to go back to my hot yoga classes . . . they are so much better.

Yoga - Day 19

Crow pose

So we hiked to the “Top of the Giant” today in Ontario (near Thunder Bay). It was a pretty tough hike, but the views at the top were spectacular. I decided to try to do some nature-inspired yoga while we were up there J I saw a crow, so I did the crow pose, and then there were lots of trees around, so I made myself into a lovely tree among the trees. On the way back, instead of going back the shorter, flatter way that we came, I decided it would be more fun to make a more looping path. Since we are cheap and didn’t feel like spending $11 on the topographical map, we didn’t realize that the mountains were connected and our hike was ridiculous and our round trip for the day was about 18.5 miles of hiking (there were some serious bits, not just walking on a trail) that we completed in eight hours. This lead to very sore knees, feet, hips, and legs. Therefore, my yoga hour for the day (which of course I saved until after the hike) was a very “Yin” practice. I did lots of leg and hip stretches and held them for about four minutes each. My legs will thank me in the morning J  

A tree amongst the trees

Yoga - Day 18

I got in tune with nature doing my yoga today. Let me tell you, it is not as glamorous as it sounds. At the campground, I wanted to find a somewhat secluded area so people walking by our campsite wouldn’t think I was crazy, so I found a small patch of grass behind our tent (since the ceiling in our tent was too low to do my practice in there) and I used that. I watched a Jillian Michaels yoga DVD and it was much more intense than the Rodney Yee one yesterday. She made it more like aerobic yoga where a lot of the poses were fluid between poses (does that make sense?). At any rate, it was tough, and I couldn’t do it all. Granted, the uneven, rocky ground with the large tree root in the middle of my mat made it a bit more difficult as well. Also, since I couldn’t have my laptop plugged in, of course the battery died right before the video was over, so I didn’t get to see the very end and just had to make up my own cool-down segment, but I still got a good work out. Let me tell you, the “shavasana” (corpse pose) at the end is much more difficult outside. I normally don’t have a problem just letting it all go and relaxing into my mat, but ants don’t seem to respect that my mat is my space and I can’t relax when I feel things crawling on me . . . gross. So for all the issues that came up, the one highlight was doing a sun salutation and looking up at the blue sky and clouds and feeling that sunshine warming my back during my practice. God truly has made a lovely creation.