2014 Word of the Year: Hope

 I like the whole word of the year thing.

I picked a word for 2013 but didn't end up doing much with it.
I picked "open" and by the middle of the year it wasn't resonating with me much at all.

But I am not going to let that stop me from trying again for 2014.

For 2014 I knew what word I wanted a month ago. It wasn't like last year when I had to brainstorm for what felt like ages as the new year approached. No, this time I knew I wanted "hope" to be my word.

It didn't even make the list of possible contenders last year. It's something that I'm not comfortable with but I've been inspired by my new favorite TV show: Once Upon a Time.
One of the major themes of the show is hope and it is something I want to explore more. Something that I want to learn to do more. To hold on to more.

Which is why the imperfect hearts art quilts have had some sort of "hope" message on them. I've already started working with the word.



Another one of my imperfect hearts. This one was a gift for my mother so I couldn't post it earlier.

Imperfect Hearts

I've started making art quilts again.
I've also started a new series of art quilts called the "Imperfect Hearts Series".
I draw out hearts that aren't perfect and make them into applique designs.
A do a new one for each art quilt. No repeats.
At the moment I've been embroidering "hope" on them.
That may change as this series evolves or it may not.






The first one is a gift for someone who isn't online at all.
The second one I kept for myself.
I've made a third one but I won't be posting that until after the holidays because it is another gift.
I've also made a differently themed art quilt that I can't post quite yet.

It feels good to be back at this. 

Is This Winter?

I still don't have the tree up, but I did move the printer off the table where the tree will go, so there has been some progress.

I took this picture outside on the porch the other day.
Not sure when, I only got it off the camera tonight.



We got a tiny bit of snow mixed with rain the other night.
It's still not really looking or feeling much like winter in New England right now. Sure it's a bit on the cold side but not that cold. Not really.

I don't mind. Winter isn't exactly my favorite season.
Though I do like the excuse it gives me to stay in and make soup and bake cookies.
Not that I've been doing those things but I plan to. Soon.

I've been working on an art quilt and they take so much time and it's been a while since I've worked on one. It's a gift for the holidays so I can't say much about it.
I am enjoying the work. Which is nice since I haven't been inspired to do this sort of thing for a while. 

Thinking Ahead

I need to put up our little tree.
The holidays seem to be just sneaking right up on me.
Maybe it was because I was so busy with NaNoWriMo in November.

I'm working on an art quilt at the moment that will be a gift.
The first one that I've worked on in a while. I'm enjoying it but I forgot how long this takes. Writing is so much faster.

I've been thinking more of the year ahead than the winter holidays themselves.

Looking back on my early plans for 2013 is kind of sad and disappointing.
There was only one goal that I stuck with and that was writing.

So many other things got left behind. Not really out of apathy or neglect but out of a conscious decision to let those things go for a while and maybe that was okay. Maybe that was what I needed.

I don't feel that 2013 has been bad. It has been productive with the writing even if it wasn't with much else.

I have plans to get back to photography with the coming year as well as with art. I don't want to let go of the writing either though.
I need to find a way to bring it all in. To balance it all.
Or as much as I can anyways.

Rainy Wednesday

Pictures and Finishing Things.

Picture from Tuesday...




Cuteness and inspiration on my desk.

I finished my NaNo novel on Tuesday in the early morning hours. I ended up writing close to 4k words in about four hours. Which made my wrists sore but brought me to the end at a little over 75k.

It feels a bit weird to be done, but good too.

No Photo but a NaNoWriMo Update Instead.

I didn't take a photo today and I've decided not to beat myself up over it.
I'm just going to try and take daily photos but not go crazy with it.

I'm still working on my NaNoWriMo novel and I'm almost done. Really close. I'll finish today I think.

I'm at over 72k now. I'm not going to validate on the site until I finish the novel.

It's so rough and rusty but I'm really proud of it. It's the longest work I've written so far and I am happy about it.

And honestly I've been so out of my comfort zone with this work. It's fantasy and not urban fantasy modern world stuff. But it's the story that wanted to get told so I went with it.

Day 11 Photo and NaNo talk

Day 11 Photo...

This is a sneak peek into one of the places I've been keeping track of how much I've written on my NaNo novel each day in November...




The one day I didn't get any words in was the worst pain day in a three day migraine.
So yeah, I had an excuse!

Other than that I've written each day in November.
I'm at over 67 thousand words now!

Dusting

Day #10 Photo: Winter Begins...




Just a light dusting of snow tonight.

Day #9 Photo and a Day off from Writing

Day #9 Photo




Not a very productive day because it has been a bad headache day.
I actually took the day off from writing which I haven't done since NaNoWriMo started. But I'm at over 63k now, so I think I've earned the break.

Daily Photo #8 and NaNoWriMo

Today's photo isn't very exiting really.
It's a photo of part of the rudimentary map I sketched out for my NaNoWriMo story.
It's on tracing paper so it doesn't photograph all that fun but it's a peek into my writing world.
I'm basically pantsing (vs. plotting) my NaNo story.

I started with a basic idea for the story and the world and a four main characters and a beginning scene. I also know the ending scene now but didn't until after I started writing.

I didn't draw this map until after my characters moved off the main island and I had to figure out the rest of the area.

Daily Photo #8

The Return of Daily Photos

I've been doing daily photos again after neglecting the practice for too long. Around trick or treat I when I was taking pictures of my daughter and husband on their way out I noticed how out of practice I was.

 It felt weird trying to get the right focus and settings when before it had been almost second nature. My hand wasn't as steady at it anymore either.

It was then that I realized how important that daily practice was, even when I was taking pictures of silly things around the apartment and was seemingly so pointless at the time.

So I'm seven days in with the daily photo thing again. And I'm still out of practice and I'm inside much of the time and my photos have been mostly less than interesting but that's okay. It's all part of the process.

I've been posting them to tumblr but I'm not sure that's the right place for them so maybe I'll try to revive this blog. After all I have some other things I've been up to that I might want to talk about here as well.

I've been writing again. Doing NaNoWriMo. November is so fun. But I'll post about that later.
 For now here are the seven photos I've taken for the daily photo thing...

Day #1
 
Day #2
 
Day #3
 
Day #4
 
 Day #5
 
Day #6
 
Day #7
 

Writing Update

I haven't written here in a while I guess. I was busy with the novella I was writing. That handwritten project. It's done. I've been done for several days now.
I'm glad that it's done. Later I'll go back, type it up and edit it.
But for now it will sit in the notebook and I will plan for the next project.

The next project will be for NaNoWriMo. After nearly two months of writing slow, I want to write fast. This month I will create some characters, the world and maybe do a bit of outlining.

Writing Update

I ended up starting over the story I was writing from a different character's point of view and I switched to writing in a notebook instead of on the computer. Old school pen and paper style. So far it seems to be going well. I'm thinking that it is probably more of a novella and not novel length at all but I guess we'll see.

Just wanted to pop in and say that I was still writing. I'm also thinking of starting back up with my daily photos and maybe trying to fit in other art as well. We'll see how that goes. The month is almost done. I'll start any new projects in September I think.

A Return of Sorts

I've been trying out wordpress.com for a bit and keeping a bit of a writing journal over there but there are a lot of things I just don't like about it there.

So, I'm giving this thing a try here again. I added the few writing posts I made over there to this blog. All backdated and everything. Maybe I can do an all around writing, art and photography blog here.

Lately I've been posting the few photos I've been taken over at Tumblr. I'm going to try and get back to taking more pictures, maybe even daily again and posting some  here too.

Doing the Work

I’ve been writing. Slowly but I’ve been doing it. I haven’t really been feeling it but I’m making myself get the words out anyway. I’m a little over 7k words at this point on the story. I keep wanting to give up and work on something else though and I’m not sure if the POV is working and I need to try and just get it out and know that later I can fix it all. If I still care.
That’s the problem though, I usually don’t care enough later. Okay, really I don’t usually finish. Sure I’ve done NaNoWriMo many times now and have hit that sweet spot of 50k most of them but only a couple of times did I actually finish the story I was writing. And both of those were fic of some type or other and I wrote them just to write them.
The original stuff I’ve tried my hand on? I hit the 50k, maybe go a little over and then get bored. November is over and I tell myself I’m just going to take a little break for the holidays and then get back to the book and by then I don’t care anymore.
I get bored too easily and that has always been the problem. Or one of the many problems.
Which is why I question me doing this writing thing as it is. Why do it? What’s the point? It was an old dream I had a long time ago when I was younger and still believed in having dreams, so why bother now?
I’m not sure what the answer is. I need to try I guess. I need to see if this is still something I want or not. Life is short and I’m not getting any younger.
I want to keep doing the work. Keep writing and actually finish some things and then around my next birthday I can see where I stand. I can then ask myself if I want to be doing this or if I need something else.
I haven’t made an art quilt in ages. I haven’t played with paints in a while either. Earlier in the year I was taking photos obsessively on a daily basis and now I can barely bring myself to pick up the camera.
I’m not sure what is going on beyond the usual depression/anxiety happy fun combo. I need to do the work though, even if it seems pointless. Maybe even if it is pointless.

Hello August

I got a little over 1k written on the story. I have finally begun. I also continued with writing more character development stuff later in my notebook as well and I wrote a couple hundred words of some stuff from another character’s point of view that I wanted to get down even though it won’t be in the story because I’m going with first person with this one. I just needed to write the other stuff though to get it out of my head so it’s in the notebook.
I must have done less fucking around online today because I’ve gotten some good reading time in as well

Not Enough Hours in the Day

I did more work on the story with background and character and new side characters and the name of a doughnut shop. I have a bit more work that I want to do and I want to be able to read before bed though there won’t be as much of that as I’d like. There just aren’t enough hours in the day really.
Well I could spend less time fucking around online. That might be helpful.
I’ve got the start of an outline for the beginning stuff too. I think I really will start the writing part later today after sleep. I will also keep working on more world building and character fleshing out as I go. I think that might also work to keep me interested and invested.
Okay more work, then popcorn and then fun reading time.

Could Be Forever

So the working title for my new writing project is Could Be Forever. It’s just a working title. I wanted to be able to call it something. What I was calling it in my head before gives way too much away so this is the new working title. Which sounds like it should be a romance and it so isn’t.
I’ve been working on character backgrounds the last couple of days and I’ll be working on those more today. I really wanted to be able to start the actual writing on the first but I may push it to August 5th, it being the first Monday in August.
I want to have more background fleshed out. I think it is really coming together now. Somethings are changing but I like the changes. I’ve been doing the prep writing by hand but I’m not sure if I’m going to write the story itself handwritten in a notebook or type it on the computer.
Of course what I really want to do right now is read, I’m toward the end of a very enjoyable romance novel and I’ve got several awesome books that just came out and are calling out to me. But writing first then reading.
Time to do the work.

This and That

This morning I started reading Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman. I finished watching the television series on Netflix earlier in the week and it was so good. So far the book is really interesting.
I’m planning to start a new writing project on August 1st. I’ve already been working on the project with the setting, characters and all those kind of fiddly bits but at the start of the new month I want to start the actual writing part. I’ve still got a few more days to work on those previously mentioned fiddly bits.

This and That

It's been way too hot lately and I haven't felt like doing anything. With no air-conditioning the 90+ F. degree weather just doesn't scream productivity. I barely want to move so mostly I've been reading.

I haven't been taking photos for a bit. Not sure why. I just haven't felt like it and I decided to stop forcing it.

What I have been doing lately is writing world building stuff. It's been fun and I've been doing it old-school with pen and paper and it's been really coming together for me, which is nice.

The characters are starting to talk in my head, which is good too. Or it could just mean I'm crazy, but I'm okay with that :)

Stormy Days

Birthdays Come and Go

I had a birthday a few days ago...

With yummy cupcakes...

and pretty growing things...







Not too shabby at all :)

The Cooler Weather Has Returned!

Finally the heatwave has come to an end. At least for now.

I do not do well with high heat many days in a row like we had. Especially when the humidity is high too. I didn't do much the last few days beyond read. I read a lot. That part was very nice.
Now the temperature is back down into the 70s and there is a nice breeze.



I'm liking this.
I even went for a walk today. It was nice to get moving again.

Hot Days Ahead!

We're supposed to be heading into three days of hot and humid weather starting tomorrow.

I've been preparing by making ice, jello, iced-tea and orange juice pops...



I thought I had another set of these but I can't find it so this will have to do.

We don't really have the room in our freezer anyway. It's small and cluttered and well...it just is. But this will do for now.

I'm hoping it really isn't that bad. We don't have an air-conditioner and we don't have a car so we can't easily get to an air-conditioned area.

But we have fans and we're on the first floor so it won't be too bad. It's really too early in the season for this kind of thing in New England though. Not unheard of but not usual either.

If it's too hot to do anything i can just spend the day in front of the fan with a good book or three!

I just started reading Spirit by Bridgid Kemmerer. It's the third in the Elemental Series and I've liked the other two novels plus the novellas a lot so I have high hopes for this one too!

Where I Stand...With New Sneakers.

For the first time in a long time (over a decade) I have sneakers that fit.

 I've been walking lately and I live in a hilly area which makes even a short walk a bit more intense than it would be if the area were flat and I've only had my Crocs.

My feet are wide and short and very hard to fit but this past weekend I found a pair that fit nicely and they feel great!

What Am I Doing Here?

 

I’m not really sure what I’m doing with this blog. I originally started it when I was making art on a regular basis as a kind of public blog for my creative project. Something to link to when I didn’t want to link to my less public dreamwidth account.

But I’ve been out of visual art mode for a while now. I’ve been trying to work on my writing. I have been working on my writing, not just trying but it’s been slow going.

I’m working on an unnamed writing project at the moment. I’m working out background stuff and writing little character bits, though not all the characters have names yet. I’m slowly fleshing things out.

I did work on another project in April during Camp NaNoWriMo. That was fun and it kept me writing but the thing I was working on wasn’t holding my interest. I think I’m going to skip that sort of challenge for a bit now and focus on fleshing out this story I’m working on at whatever pace works for me. The key will be to just keep writing.

I’m still taking daily photos and I’m reading a lot (though not as much as I’d like) plus I’ve started working out again. I need to counter all the time I spend sitting around. Mostly I’ve been walking and dancing.  I feel it's been helping my headspace in general and in my creative pursuits.

So what is the future of this blog?

I don't know. I would like to post about the writing process as well as write about the books I love and maybe a bit about shows I love as well. I also plan to keep posting my photography.

I'm not sure how regular it is going to be but I'm hoping I can make it happen.

Yellow

Spring Flowers

Spring really seems to be settling in around here. I'm loving the warmer days and beautiful flowers.

Sunny and Warm

A beautiful warm and sunny day today.
We played outside. I took photos. It was so nice.
I'm starting to think that winter really is over for now :)

Overload

I'm finding myself feeling drained after last week.
News overload.
Time to unplug from some of those things.
Stop watching news twitter feeds for a while.
Relax.
Breathe.

Spring is Coming

Sometimes we need to be reminded that there are many beautiful things in the world.

Shadow Thoughts

I'm starting to think I should have had that 12 Seeds Project that I seem to have abandoned be a photography project or at least had a photo plus poetry option.

I think that may have worked better for me. I don't know what is up with me and art these last few years but I really haven't been feeling it in the same way.

I'd rather play with words and photos. Those were two early loves to be honest. Maybe that is where my focus should be right now.

I love the camera. I love taking pictures. It really centers me, where painting often stresses me out.

Writing is touch and go. Sometimes I'm angsty about it and sometimes it has me flying so high it's hard to come down.

Photography is like meditation but better.
<3

Sometimes

Sometimes all I want to do is read and read and read.
To fill myself up with story.
To escape the real and fill myself up with the unreal.
Sometimes.

Up To

 I seem to be letting art slide lately. I just haven't been feeling it (again). I'm focusing on my writing and my photography at the moment. I love taking pictures. It's the one constant in my creative life. I love my camera. I also love tea!

January's Seed: Winter

2 paintings and a poem...


12x12
acrylics
12 seeds Project




15x20
watercolors
colored pencils
white gouache

________________________________________________
 --Demeter's Winter--


Sheltered
Failed to protect,
her forever.

shame, loss, grief.

Dark skies, cold air.
Fields lie fallow.
Winter comes,
again.

Missing her daughter,
her girl.
Missing what they once were,
together.

Girl no more.
Woman and Queen.
Her daughter,
Persephone.

retreat, mourn, wait.

Longing for spring
her return.
Flowers will bloom,
again.



art and words © 2013 Poppy Arakelian

The 12 Seeds Project

 I haven't written about the 12 Seeds Project here yet...

At the beginning of the year my husband and I decided to do a joint art project that ties in our spirituality. I've been calling it our joint art/spirit project but then we named it Twelve Seeds.

Each month there is a theme that will inspire us to do a finished piece of art of at least 8x8 inches in the medium(s) of our choosing with an optional bit of writing a bit of poetry in the theme as well.

We're trying to inspire each other.

I may also tie in extra art work and writing with the themes as well. We'll see. I like the idea of themes :) I'm not sure if I'm going to make art quilts or paint or something. I may mix it up or I may stay with the same thing for each of the months. I'm not sure yet.

The Twelve Themes:

January--Winter
February--Shadows
March--Storms
April--Seeds
May--Crossroads
June--Growth
July--Stars
August--Sun
September--Trees
October--Bones
November--Roots
December--Joy

8x8 inches min.
Finished Piece
Any Medium
+Poetry

Snow!

a few hours later... I didn't do a check in for Creative Every Day this week. I'm bored with it to be honest. I'm being creative. I've been more creative this month than most of last year in general. I like the idea of the Creative Every Day thing but I'm just not feeling the need to really be a part of it and do check-ins and what not.

More Progress Made

Time to Paint

in progress painting (upside down) I spent some time painting today. I worked on this painting and my other "winter" themed painting. The other one is done in acrylics and I think it is done. I'll take another look at it in the morning and see if I still think so then. I just started the above painting today. I'm planning on doing two paintings for each 12 seeds project monthly theme. One in acrylics and one in watercolors.

work in progress

I've been busy working on a painting this week as well as doing some sketching and as always taking lots of photos.

Fun with Watercolors...

Background painting for an art journal page.

Winter Returns

Looks Like Spring

Very warm and sunny this afternoon. Not like winter at all. Also the the snow is all gone from the backyard now...

The squirrels have been going crazy the last couple days and digging all around the place...