Snowflake Mini Series Part I

For the month of January, I created a series of colorful snowflake illustrations to celebrate winter. Here are the first four of the series:

There are so many fun things to do during winter, like snowshoeing, sledding, creating snow sculptures and snow paintings, going on frozen lake adventures, and of course visiting the pristine forests. It's hard to pick a favorite, but I'm going to ask anyway: what's your favorite winter activity?

It's a Good Day for Nature!

I love nature so much, but sometimes I feel like I come across like this to most other people.

I can't help myself, but hopefully I can keep finding good ways to share the enthusiasm without all the factual inaccuracies. How neat is that?

Days of Wildlife Illustration Series and Free Baby Giraffe Printable

Last month I worked on a series of animal sketches from friends' Instagram requests, which was one of my favorite illustration series so far! I was delighted at the variety of animals people picked and it was a fun challenge. And here they all are in one place:

I made some tweaks to the baby giraffe and turned it into a free printable, which can be found in my store:

You can find it here as a thanks for visiting this corner. Feel free to print this little guy up to add to your home and let's all continue sharing the wonder of nature together!

Word of the Year 2016

A practice that has added more meaning to my life and that I would suggest for anyone who thrives on improving is to adopt a word of the year. Picking a word of the year (or WOTY, as I like to call it) is invigorating and helps me lead an intentional life all year long.

I'm not one for new year's resolutions because I don't believe in waiting for an excuse to change if I know things need to. I'm constantly making new goals and reevaluating my footing on life's hilly hiking trail. However, I do like to set aside certain times to focus in-depth on one thing. One of those things is a word that I explore all year long.

I look for a space in my life that may need adjusting, usually an aspect of myself that is thirsty for attention, and pick a word that can help me explore multiple facets of that value. Every month I ponder a different application of the word, and by the end of the year, the word is ingrained in my heart.

When I first started this annual tradition, I wasn't sure whether or not the new words would replace the past words or if they would all work together. For me, at least, I was surprised to discover how the words accrued and got all cozy with one another. I haven't lost the depth I was able to uncover with the previous years. What an exciting revelation! Now I get excited at the start of a new year to tuck the old word away safely in my soul where it is there to stay, and welcome a new member to my personal little WOTY family.

Past WOTY:
2011 Change
2012 Savor
2013 Fresh
2014 Peace
2015 Do

I'm happy to tuck away Do where it can keep working and welcome Grace for the 2016 year. There are so many characteristics that I'm looking forward to learning more about: carrying oneself with grace and dignity, accepting the grace our Savior offers to all who seek it, offering grace and forgiveness to others, encouraging gratitude, appreciating gracefulness and graciousness, and finding the moments of grace in everyday living.
 

Guys, this year is going to be good! I can feel it in my bones!

If you haven't yet tried this practice, I invite you to give it a spin this year! If you need any tips or suggestions on how to make this yearly tradition work in a good way for you, give me a little shout and I'd be happy to discuss it more with you. These are the kinds of important things we can do to improve and broaden perspectives. This is how we live with intention.

Mess Ups

Guys, I'm not always proud of the art I create. Sometimes I make big errors where nothing can salvage the art, so I usually chuck them in the trash and don't post such nonsense. Then from my frustration I find the energy to keep moving forward, whether it be in the form of another project or taking a second (or third or forth!) stab at a piece of art until I like where it lands. It's a matter of resiliency. Lest you think art always comes easy to me, ta-da:

I think the moose has such a sad look on his face because he knew I would mess up royally on the watercolor after spending too long on the stipple illustration detail. Sorry, big fella! #momentoftruth #shechosepoorly