This is loooong overdue. I was actually really bad about writing down things on the board over the winter, so the list is short. No worries, I’m making up for it on the spring board, which still has a month to go until Summer begins but is nearly full. Highlights for this winter board include knitting my first sock, getting into 2 magazines, and finishing another Pattern January.
In January, while daily pattern making, I got into a REALLY horrible sleep pattern. By the end of the month I had gotten into this bad place where I was sleeping in shifts… a few hours (3-4) of sleep at night and a couple hours of napping after work. For someone who knows I need 8-9 hours of sleep, getting 6 hours is not enough, let alone broken up like it was. I’m a creative night owl, so while I was super happy to be productive and creative, I was also sleep deprived and feeling lousy, and I knew it wasn’t healthy. In February I set a goal for myself to focus on getting on a proper sleep schedule. It probably took me a complete month to get back on track. I had to be at work at 6 am, and it was really starting to break me. When I feel I can’t get into a creative groove until after 10 p.m., why bother? The motto of February and March felt like “I can be creative, OR I can be well rested, but the twain shall never meet.” So it was very hard to go from being so productive and creative, to feeling like the soul nourishing part of me was dashed away. Fortunately, my hours were shifted slightly and now I go in at 7 am. Oh, the difference an hour makes!
It’s also kind of funny that since I got my sleep squared away, I have noticed that my creativity has been taking the form of exploration. Where a year ago, I would have said “no, I can’t try that new thing, I need to focus strictly on pattern making/stationery design/collage and mixed media art, now I have found myself knitting, sewing, and trying all sorts of different projects. I feel like I am replenishing the well. I also see myself using some of these new techniques to bring back to my main focuses and hopefully strengthen my work overall.
Previous Chalkboard Calendar posts right here!
