Being a Beginner

You know what's funny? The other day I was looking at some "before and after" photos of someone's new office and was wondering why I don't take those. I love looking at them-- whether they're mine or of something someone else has done. And they are so gratifying to have paired with the pretty "after" version. Well, working in my little roof garden last night, looking around at how small and pathetic it seemed, it came to me:

I hate taking the "before" pictures.

I take lots of pictures of the "after" part. And yeah, I know, having just the shiny, end result kind of defeats the purpose if you can't remember where you started. I get caught up in "It doesn't look good now!" instead of remembering that this is the starting point, and that it will look better and that its okay if its not great now. In fact that is the whole point of beginning something. To let it grow into something better. I'm not good at being a beginner.

Anyways. Here's the garden now.

 ( And you can get a glimpse of it in its even earlier days here.)

In a month it will be all glorious with vines and such. But this is where it started.

This weekend was all about cleaning and organizing

Yep this weekend I forced myself to tackle projects I've been putting off for a while.  Like our disgusting shower.  It's now sparking clean.  Like the over-stuffed bulletin boards above my desk.  There were slips of paper tacked on there from two years ago.  Two years.  Anyhow that now has a nice new goal system complete with due dates, just so I have all the projects I'm working on in one place:

 

  I considered a large wall calendar, but decided that would just take up a lot of space and mostly be a waste of paper. Besides I have a day planner/calendar that runs my life and having another, larger version seemed extraneous.  Anyhow we'll see how this works.  I also solved the annoying "printer and paper" problem: my printer is on one shelf I can reach from my desk, the paper was below it, but out of reach, and when I did get up and walk around, getting to the paper I needed always involved much wrestling.  I thought about putting up wall shelves.  ugh. Something I hate to do.  But happily discovered that with some shifting of books, I could replace the paper in a handier spot.  And my books look quite cute too: 

 

Some Official Business for the Official New Year:

I do not like resolutions.  Especially the New Years variety. But perhaps not for the reasons you would think.  Really, I'm a big chicken.  Yep, the idea of next year having to face a list of unresolved, forgotten resolutions makes me feel sick.  So for the last few years I haven't made them.  ( Uh, yes there's another obvious solution to that queasy feeling.  Yes, I know...)  However, this year things need to get done.  Things need to get moving.  

When setting goals, people advise you to look ahead and think about where you'd like to end up.  Then break down all the little steps you need to do to get there.  Work backwards.  For the first time in a while I have some ideas of what I'd like my life to look like in a year.  For a long long time after school I really had no idea where I heading.  I just went with the flow for years.  And it served me well for the most part.  I got to be a part of a lot of great things.  But these days I'm longing for some structure. And some goals.  Some deadlines.   And I suspect all the fun, surprising projects and collaborations will come my way anyhow.  

The Official Business:

My priorities for the year 2008 are

• my illustration career.  Nurturing and expanding it.

• heading to the gym at least four times a week.

•doing a drawing a day.  even a little teeny one counts.  But really, this one is about remembering and appreciating how much I love drawing.  Back to my roots, so to speak.