happy thanksgiving back

well, it's thanksgiving day already down under. of course, no one knows that here. yeah, yeah, i know it's an american holiday and everything, but it's a great one! they really should start celebrating it down here.

my whole family (and it's a huge family) is getting together this year, and we aussies are the only ones who can't come. so while i'm sitting here feeling sorry for myself, i thought i would practice our family thanksgiving tradition and say a few things that i'm thankful for.

i'm grateful for my great family, my supportive husband, beautiful and thriving kids, and extended family that are loving and thoughtful.

i'm grateful for good health (especially after a recent unexpected medical event), and i'm also very thankful for anaesthesia.

i'm grateful to a Father in Heaven who hears and answers my prayers and is patient with me despite the fact that i make silly mistakes over and over.

happy thanksgiving to everyone, and enjoy that turkey! it's expensive down here!

learning to fly

a couple of years ago i decided that i would like to learn how to draw. previously i had thought that i wasn't talented in this area (my beautiful twin sis really is) and so i thought i would leave the drawing to people who knew what they were doing. (like n.) all my life i have loved writing in my many journals and notebooks and filling their pages with doodles and various stickers, ticket stubs, and photos that i've come across in my life. and after a while i thought, "i want to draw in my journal, too." so i bought Drawing for Dummies and commenced teaching myself to draw. like most of the projects i start, this one went the way of, "i'm not good enough for this, i don't have a natural talent, so many other people are better than me, i'm not improving quickly enough..." so i stopped.
earlier this year traveltwin and i re-entered blog land and i started discovering crafting and art blogs. these people inspired me in a way i hadn't really been inspired before. i started drawing again even though i didn't feel good at it and a lot of the doubts kept creeping back in. but i had a different perspective now. i thought. "i stink at this. i know i stink. oh well, i like doing it and it's fun!" through a blog called treatsandtreasures.com i learned about a book called The Creative License: Giving Yourself Permission the be the Artist You Truly Are by danny gregory. gregory is an artist/illustrator himself, and the book talks about pushing away all those doubts and just drawing everything. mostly it taught me to look at the objects, people, colors, and shapes that surround me in a different way. and i wasn't just drawing anymore, i was examining things. i was noticing beauty in places i'd never seen it before. and i started to like some of my drawings, even though i still think i'm not any good.
so, after showing traveltwin some pictures of my drawing, and her encouragement to post about it, here they are. some of the drawings and sketches i'm not completely ashamed of.
i'm not posting about this stuff because i think i'm getting good, or anything like that. one part of it is to encourage y'all to not stop yourselves from doing something you want to just because you think you're not good enough at it.
and one reason is to remind myself to keep going. see, i haven't been drawing lately. not for a couple of months. and now i'm starting to get discouraged about the whole thing again. so i pulled out The Creative License and i showed n. my drawings and i'm just going to get back to it. we'll see how it goes. for now, here are some of my drawings from a few months ago.
you can laugh, or hate them, or tell yourself you could do so much better (because let's face it, you can!) but that's ok! i'm just putting them out there to put them out there.