Today is a travel day for me.  I’m heading to Minnesota, back to our old hometown.  Marshall has been able to make a couple of trips to visit friends, and now it’s Calvin’s turn, so I’m taking him for a few days.  I’m planning to meet up with a friend or two, but I’ll use this downtime as a mini creative retreat.  It will be nice to step away from home projects and my studio to spend some time on enrichment.  I’m bringing my paints and a book or two.  While I don’t love flying, I do enjoy time at an airport.  I don’t want to sleep on the floor overnight because of a delay (done that), but I like having a couple of hours to sit, just be, people watch, read, and sometimes write.

Here are my four things for this week: Home Again, a new season of my favorite show, making more attempts, and buckling down.

what I’m reading

I have all of James Farmer’s books, and each one is a feast for the eyes.  While the homes featured in his books are definitely way outside of my price range, I love studying color combinations, how rooms are styled, and the way patterns are paired.  James is so brilliant at all of those things.  So, of course, I had to pick up his latest book, Home Again: A Return to Glorious Interiors.   It’s just as wonderful as his previous books and, if you like traditional interiors, this is a must-have.

what I’m watching

Amazon usually alerts me when shows I watch drops a new season, but for some reason, I have to regularly check to see if my favorite show, Portrait Artist of the Year, has finally released new episodes.  I happened to check this week, and lo and behold, season 11 is available!  I have resisted binge-watching Portrait Artist of the Year Season 11 outright, but I have been treating myself to an episode or two each day.  I adore this show.  I love everything about it – watching the art, learning from seeing the process of other artists, picking up instruction and advice from the judges, and finding myself more receptive to a broader variety of art styles.  It’s also a good reminder that you find artists everywhere.  They are all ages, ethnicities, professions, and personality types.  It’s a treat to see how different people see the world.

If you have seen this show or its counterpart, Landscape Artist of the Year, do yourself a favor and watch it.  You can find episodes on Amazon Prime, Tubi (which is free), and YouTube.

what I’m loving

“As far as I can tell, every great advance – whether in an individual life or the world at large – has come from dreams and attempts.  Devise more dreams.  Make more attempts.”  – James Clear

I once saw a piece of “word art” at a craft store that stopped me in my tracks.  It read, Dream until your dreams come true.  I immediately thought how hollow that encouragement was.  I don’t want to be too harsh on the originator of the quote, because it does have a nice ring to it, but dreaming doesn’t take one very far.  Dreaming about something is just the first small step.  It’s the attempts that follow that bring the work into the world, for better or worse, for praise or critique.

If you’re stuck in the “dreaming until your dreams come true” loop, I encourage you to make more attempts.

what I’m working on

Since the latter part of my week was filled with travel days and being away from home, I made a push before I left on the photography for my book and producing paintings for my next art sale.  There is still work to be done on home projects, like landscaping, installing shutters, painting, and more, but I needed to set those aside to focus on more pressing work.

The nice thing about the nature of my work is that I have a lot of flexibility to decide what I work on each day, but I learned very early in my business that there are still deadlines, priorities, and clients.  I am not beholden to my whims alone.  So, there are seasons when I can fill my days with home projects or creative play, and there are other days when I have to buckle down and produce specific work.  That’s what I’ve been doing.  Buckling down.

What have you been reading, watching, loving, and working on this week?