Comments are appreciated and answered.
Current Photo Friday theme: Sharp.
For drawing, sketching, and coloring, these are maybe a third of my colored pencils. Keeping them all sharp is an ongoing task. I have two electric pencil sharpeners–both old and exhausted (somewhat like me), and at least a dozen little pencil sharpeners split between my pencil cases and other pencil containers. I just ordered a new electric sharpener, hoping it will help keep sharp pencils at the ready.
From July 3: Space reserved for an entry I’m too tired to write on Thursday as bedtime looms. I’m taking the stuff I need from the writing sanctuary to the home office, getting on the daybed with one of my current reads, and waiting for Pollock to join my slumber party.
Stay tuned.
–Continued writing the post on July 4–
I’ve never in my lifetime been more saddened by my country, and I’ve lived through some stuff–Vietnam, assassinations and assassination attempts, race riots, conventions that ended in violence, Kent State, a disgraced president who resigned, wars we’ve waged in the Middle East, homegrown terrorists, school shootings, Three Mile Island, the AIDS pandemic, September 11, scandals in churches, sports, politics, show business–but somehow, even when I disagreed with a president or Congress or the Supreme Court or governors, I always believed we’d eventually find the best in ourselves–because there IS SO MUCH MORE BEST THAN WORST. The worst is just noisier, demanding attention like toddlers, frustrated by not getting their way, as toddlers can be. Being a toddler is meant to be a phase, not a lifetime vocation.
The outrage in my heart and mind yesterday… When people smile for photo ops after stripping away medical care for the poor, children, and elderly, and FOOD for children and their families–all to satisfy one man’s ego and make wealthy people wealthier, what have we become? The cruelty, hubris, posturing, and hate felt so overwhelming to me.
I did a lot of deep breathing. I did a lot of reflecting on the advice of one of my “resistance” mentors, My Favorite Witch, Gina (the reason I don’t link to her is that she hasn’t asked to be associated with me, and I’m no shining testament to her philosophy, her humor, her helpfulness, but if you want her info, ask me and I’ll email her links to you):
Three Tangible Ways to Rebel Softly (Starting Today)
1. Call One Thing by Its Real Name — Pick just one thing—big or small—that everyone around you seems to be glossing over, and name it out loud. You don’t have to post a manifesto on Facebook (unless you want to!). Maybe it’s telling your partner, “Hey, the news is making me anxious today, and I just want to be honest about that.” Or maybe it’s writing the truth in your journal: “This isn’t normal, and I feel it in my bones.” There is real power in naming what’s true.
2. Ground Yourself in Reality (Literally—Go Outside!) — When the world feels surreal, get out of your head and into your body. Step outside, barefoot if you can, and let your feet touch the earth. Dig in your garden, water a plant, or just sit with the sun on your face for five minutes. This isn’t just woo-woo—it actually resets your nervous system and reminds you what’s real.
3. Create a softness ritual. Choose one small thing today that brings you back to yourself—something comforting, intentional, and gentle. Light a candle and breathe for three deep counts. Make a cup of tea and really taste it. Write down three things that are actually true for you today, even if nobody else sees them. Soft rituals are tiny acts of rebellion in a world that wants you to go numb.
Among other things, I surrounded myself with soft ritual possibilities.
I still plan to rewatch Almost Famous and start rewatching “Absolutely Fabulous,” but not today. I have my next coloring page chosen, but no coloring today. I had another Beach Boy collection to listen to for a while, but my mind couldn’t settle down. There’s a book I downloaded on my iPad, nonfiction, that’s very good, but I knew I didn’t have the focus for it today.
I did finally begin delving into a book Debby gave me at Christmas: The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies, but this is what happened with my brain, anxiety and unease at work. We need to look more to nature for ways to maintain good health. Not to replace medicine, which I still trust more than the self-annointed experts who will…no. Don’t go there. But maybe for some of those who’re losing their healthcare benefits, these ideas might help. Of course, books are expensive, herbs and how to grow and care for them and what they’re good for need to be balanced with each other and with everyone’s particular needs and health challenges, but there is the Internet–and all that’s expensive, too, and maybe out of reach of the very people who need them. But we still have public libraries for consulting books and being more informed, and anyone can go in for free, be out of the weather, and make use of that for no charge… At least for now, because that’s on their agenda, too, taking away learning resources that are available to anyone, at no charge. After all, an ignorant population is on their GOALS LIST, as anyone paying attention instead of playing ostrich (“if I don’t see it, hear it, acknowledge it, it isn’t real”) can conclude. For all I know, our future library shelves will contain only one continuing series called “MY BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL,” “MY BIG BEAUTIFUL NUCLEAR WAR,” “MY BIG BEAUTIFUL REWRITE OF THE HANDMAID’S TALE,” “MY BIG BEAUTIFUL PRISON SYSTEMS FOR ISOLATING AND EXPLOITING ANYONE WHO DISAGREED WITH ME, INSULTED ME, OR DIDN’T BUY MY BIG BEAUTIFUL IDEAS, BITCOINS, AND CHANCES TO MEET ME…”
I remember reading “A Christmas Carol,” and Scrooge demanding to know, “Are there no prisons… Are there no workhouses… Have they no refuge or resource?” Does anyone know how to hire a few nocturnal ghost visitors? Clearly, we have plenty of Bob Cratchits and Tiny Tims, along with the children “Ignorance” and “Want” to show us how humanity is suffering from greed, indifference, exploitation, division, and hate.
You can see why I was doing a lot of breathing. Ultimately, I chose starting my reread of Kimberly Frost’s Southern Witch Novel series, with the first: Would-Be Witch while our four hounds slept quietly with Tom, and Pollock curled up next to me: my comfort, my protector, my link to Tim while he’s away at work. Our friends, family, and animals soothe our restless souls, and Kimberly provided my soft ritual. I laughed, and kept turning pages even when I was tired. I’m so grateful for writers who give us other worlds to escape to.
The other day, I was flipping hurriedly through my “Animal Mandalas” coloring book, and I thought I saw a page go by that had a bunch of bats. As the pages kept turning, I thought, Yeah, that’s what I want to color. A big colony of bats, but in very cool, psychedelic colors. Pre-goth bats! Only, when I went back, it was a single bat. It didn’t feel as fun to turn one bat into some hippie throwback. Some of us remember that hippies usually hung in groups.
As I went back through the book, I spotted an orca. Though s/he, too, is solo, I felt strongly this orca deserved to be one who believes in peace and love and music and maybe occasionally going one toke over the line. S/he’s on the way to meet friends and eat frozen Mini Reese’s Cups, play some game that ends up with everyone laughing until their stomachs hurt, smoke Kools or Marlboro Lights, and listen to Vanilla Fudge, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix. I didn’t make the rules. P.S.–My title is a tribute to The Temptations’ song “Psychedelic Shack.” That could be an entirely different blog post in my “legacy writing” category.
Feel free to name the orca.
Yesterday was a very long day in which several things eventually worked out, but gauging by interchanges with other people (text, phone, etc.), I’m led to deduce it may have felt that way to many of us. If you’re one of those, hope your week gets better!
On a day that involved a lot of waiting and the need for a quiet mind–I colored! I’ll share those completed pages over the week, I’m sure. This being Tiny Tuesday, here’s the one I picked for today, two wee creatures. It took a surprising amount of time because I used every shade of green from the nearest case to color Lizard’s dots individually and randomly. You can’t fully see the shimmer of the gel pens on Dragonfly, but he’s quite shiny.
I had fun imagining what conversation might transpire between these two. Here’s one I came up with:
Dragonfly: “Hey, mind if I rest here for a minute or two?”
Lizard: “Uh, sure, prey–friend! I meant friend!”
Feel free to give them names. If my handwriting is too small to read, the coloring book source is “Zen Color: Wilderness,” and the page has already been added to its sketchbook home (now that I’m using the back pages of the first sketchbook I chose for this purpose). So 2025 will join years 2016 to 2020 until the book’s completely full. The only disadvantage is that several of my coloring books’ pages are larger than the sketchbook dimensions, which is why I eventually started using a larger sketchbook. I’ll adapt.
That quote from Maya Angelou, from her poem “Continue”1, has always meant a lot to me. So many times as I grew up, I judged people not by what I knew about them, but what I was told, or what confused me. In my own life, I look back and see a journey.
First, I started to LISTEN. Not to the ignorant but to the informed. I’d always been a listener, both to be entertained and to learn. One thing I learned was to listen without the desire to debate, correct, or judge. Just hear.
Second, I THOUGHT. A lot. About me. About others. About what makes us who we are. For starters, we’re all human with endless similarities and differences. I believed I should be more tolerant of the differences.
Third, I ACCEPTED. I accepted that who we are individually is put together from more ingredients than we may ever fully understand. And I realized I didn’t HAVE to understand it all. I didn’t need all the answers to accept people for who they are.
Fourth, I moved from acceptance to CELEBRATION. There’s nothing more gratifying than seeing someone flourish. And because we are all part of this big human family, I want to see us all flourish.
If you’ve ever been on a similar journey, and you truly feel love for others, whether they’re family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, or total strangers, seeing others flourish, overcome, succeed, grow–it really is a celebration of humanity.
As the month of June closes, I mourn the way things seem to be going in reverse. I most particularly mourn seeing people I know, who made journeys similar to mine, let themselves return to intolerance. Return to fear and judgment because a proliferation of noisy, dishonest voices has made them forget their journey.
Maybe even more hurtful, when they see and hear that dishonesty, they now stay silent.
I hope one day, they’ll remember their journey and continue to be the best of “who and how” they are, and once again want that for others, too.
To all my LGBTQ+ friends, family members, and complete strangers, I celebrate you and wish for you all the things Maya Angelou expressed so well: love, kindness, humor, and that you CONTINUE being who you are.
1Look up the entire poem. It’s wonderful.
From the time I began getting nieces and nephews, and my friends began having children, I always had coloring books in the house. My scrapbook/photo albums contain coloring pages given to “Aunt Becky,” finished and unfinished. Yesterday, going through my coloring books, I found two coloring books for kids that I plan to donate to one of the Little Free Libraries in a neighborhood with lots of kids. Fortunately, I glanced through those coloring books and found these, undated and unsigned.
The books’ publication dates make me sure this is from the crop of nieces and nephews and grandnieces and grandnephews born around the turn of this century (both sides of our family, late 90s, early 2000s). I won’t throw the pages away. Even if “anonymous,” I love the little hands that colored them, so now I have coloring pages saved from several decades of family kids. =)
Today, I organized another shelf in the office bookcase. This one contains a lot of crafting supplies, including art guides and free “clip art,” from when that was on paper and not online, decorative papers, water color paints and two sizes of watercolor sketch books, chalks, my Spirograph, Tom’s clay and sculpting tools plus his Origami paper and a guidebook, construction paper, stencils and stamps with stamp pads, and empty sketchbooks.
Also, not so empty sketchbooks. There were nearly a dozen sketchbooks (most of which I’m hoping to donate to a talented young artist in my family). Two different books had my sketches dating back to the 1970s. Those are now all in one of the existing books. Tom had sketches in three different books, and I put all of them into a single new book.
There were a couple of books and loose drawings and coloring pages by friends from craft nights, and now those, too, are in a single book.
I have a sketch I started of my friend James probably in 1996 or 1997. I never finished it because I just could not get his mouth right (I was drawing from photos), though his shaved head was easy and I think I got his eyes.
James had a birthday this month, and in some of our message exchanges, he mentioned Almost Famous as being one of his favorite movies. I told him I’d only seen it once but loved it, and I was pretty sure it was on my DVD shelves so I might watch it again in his honor.
Later, in another message exchange, he sent a hilarious video from the British series “Absolutely Fabulous.” I answered that Tim had introduced me to it, and Tom and I watched most if not all of it on streaming with Tim after he moved to Houston. Then I said, “I bought Tim the entire set one year. Because I spoil him? No. Because I wanted to watch it again. Plus so I could replay scenes with Patsy’s editor Magda and figure out WTF she was saying,” which made James laugh.
Anyway, I did have the film and I’ve found the series at Tim’s, so we know what media will be amusing me for this upcoming hot month that was so hard on us last year.
People who read A Coventry Wedding might remember the character Dove, who was described as looking like AbFab’s character Patsy Stone. That was my homage, and I tried to give her a little of Patsy’s attitude, too.
I found the sources for almost all the coloring pages that I’ve saved in my sketchbooks. If I wasn’t sure of my sources, by the time I was finished notating them, I’d repeatedly gone through the approximately 140 books or box sets I own and could make a more informed guess.
These first two photos feature the box and books that keep their pages even after they’re colored. At least those were easy!
I’ve only colored the back of one Tarot card from that boxed set, and I haven’t colored any of the drawings in that Tarot book. All this stays with some of the Tarot stuff on the living room bookcase.
The Magical Unicorn Society Official Coloring Book will remain intact, and it does live on the coloring book shelf with the rest of the craft stuff in the office. Be Positive, because it’s a journal for writing about the Neverending Saga and its characters, stays in the writing sanctuary, its colored pictures intact next to the written journal entries. Lynne gave me the journal and it’s extremely enjoyable to use.
These are some collections. I’ve done a few from the Harry Potter Coloring Kit, and I’ve copied the Jane Austen bookmarks. I won’t use them as bookmarks because the color would eventually fade onto book pages. Since I want to save them in one of my sketch books, I’ll want to show both front and back, so I scanned in copies so both sides can be colored and seen. It’ll be a nice project the next time I read Austen or watch my miniseries (AGAIN? Always.) with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy.
I wonder if the Beatrix Potter notecards were a gift from Lynne, since they’re in a tin. They’re very cool, but when I do them, I won’t mail them to anyone. Maybe it’s just me, but once I learned people throw away my gifts of art, I wondered what was the point of burdening them with something they don’t want? It’s an icky feeling.
I have lots of other coloring books that include great dog pages to color, but these are dogs only and so much fun in a lot of different styles.
Lots and lots of different animals in these books.
My celebrity books: Keanu Reeves, Twentieth Century Foxes, two books from the Bridgerton TV series, The Golden Girls, Ryan Reynolds, Dolly Parton that I gave Tom at Christmas because he adores Dolly, and the same Christmas, he gave me Taylor Swift.
My other celebrity coloring books: The Beach Boys (mostly very young and some drawings are kind of silly), and I haven’t colored any of them yet; a Beatles Coloring Songbook with Lennon & McCartney lyrics; and the Beatles Coloring Book, one I bought, one Nurse Lisa gave me, and a third just because I wanted to leave one intact (since they have front and back pages). There’s another sixties-themed coloring book somewhere among these photos that also includes drawings of Beatles with their lyrics.
So many of my books have pages featuring the groovy 1960s/70s, but these are almost totally Sixties vibes. I never get tired of indulging my inner hippie.
My around-the-world coloring books, including Africa, worldwide festivals, animals, and cities (and these are front and back, also, so I have two copies of each so I don’t lose any pages); my Tudor Colouring Book featuring England–gift of Mark, my favorite UK friend; French Countryside, a favorite when I want to think about my French characters and locales when writing chapters in the Neverending Saga; and the Look Book, with fashion I love from around the world. I have two so I don’t lose any back pages to color. One belongs with my “world” books and the other with my “fashion” books.
I call these my “feel-good” books. When I draw pages from any of them, I feel joy.
My fashion books. Some of my other fashion books have been pictured as part of different categories, but all of them are together on the shelves. Coloring fashion is like a drug for me.
These are my more whimsical books. I think I found the Barbie book and Tom gave it to me as a gift. The Whimsy Girls, Boss Babes, Coffee Animals, and Positive Drinking books were all gifts from Marika. And I’ll probably never remove any of the pages from that Beaver book. Rhonda and Lindsey were crying tears of glee when they gave it to me because of all its double entendres. How could I color it and not leave the story intact for all people to enjoy viewing and reading? Those Brides are so damn funny.
All of these are absolutely fun books I can turn to when I have no purpose except enjoyment, and some of them have a lot of seasonal themes, so they’re great for holiday coloring. For sure the Reverse Coloring Book that Lindsey gave me is a great book for encouraging me to be more creative.
I call these my “comfort coloring” books. They take me to places where stories begin in my head, or where I don’t think at all, just enjoy bringing the drawings to life with color.
Same with these books. I can get lost coloring their pages when the world, people behaving badly or cruelly, or events in my own life are dealing me too much hurt or stress. This kind of thing is why those who color call it therapy.
These are for when I have a taste for vintage art and other items.
My Christmas-themed books. There are fourteen of those angel books (maybe different editions, but the contents don’t change from book to book). All the angels to color are based on works of art from various countries, and I will always share these books with anyone who wants to color angels, either to donate (first, to The Compound), now, to Houndstooth Hall, or to keep them for themselves. One year when so many of us interacted on LiveJournal, Marika asked to borrow some of the books so she could color angels. What she really did was offer to send them to our LJ friends when they were willing to surprise me by coloring angels to add to my collection. I still have them all and the full host of angels goes on display in December. They have even more meaning now that Marika and a few others of those generous friends are no longer among us. The angels came back to me from all over the U.S., Canada, England, and Australia. Every giver lives in my heart and memories always.
A little bit more magic with books depicting the sea and the seashore. The ocean is all joy to me.
Plus magic with unicorns! Unicorns are real. =)
Books of enchantment, fantasy, and mysticism. Some of these are Tom’s, but all are magical. Magic is real, also.
As for this book, I have no idea where it came from, and I’ve never colored any of the letters. There was a period of time when my mother-in-law Mary gave me a lot of books to foster my creativity, and I still have them all, on my “craft” instead of coloring shelf. She might have given me this one.
This is how tidy the coloring books are on the craft shelves in the office now. I even had room for the sketch books on the far right that are filled with, or will be filled with, finished coloring pages. I’ll keep coloring because it’s creative and fun. It’s also therapy for me, offering me a calm activity that removes me for a little while from anything painful or bad. It connects me to friends and strangers who also color, and reminds me of all those I’ve colored with through the decades. It has been part of waiting–for various appointments, jury duty, and at the hospital bedsides of friends. It encourages my imagination. There are many passive activities we enjoy: reading, watching television and movies, staring at our phones. Coloring can be done with music or in the quietest of environments. It’s less passive and engages our brains, our hearts, our memories. I’m so glad for that night back in 2016 when a fundraiser with friends brought coloring back into my life.
Would I ever monetize coloring? No. I’m super grateful for the artists who have made money from the materials they provide us. Those books on the shelf shown above–and a look at the photo below, show how my pastime contributes to the economy. It’s money well spent.
Pencils, pens, markers, blenders, and all manner of containers to hold them. I’ve worn many pencils down to nubs, have two very active electric pencil sharpeners and several of the more traditional little ones, emptied many pens and markers, and used various tricks to bring dried-out markers to life. I have my favorites from among all these, but this inventory means everyone who’s ever drawn, sketched, or colored on Craft Night has had plenty of options. I’d host a craft night every week, but most people’s lives are way busier in the outside world than mine–exactly as it should be for them. I believe in the pursuit of happiness among the many other things the founders of this nation wanted our country to have. For me, writing fiction, keeping this website alive even though that’s bittersweet because I miss interacting with others here and devoutly appreciate when people visit and comment, and I also enjoy taking care of my family, home, and dogs–they’re part of my pursuit of happiness.
Current Photo Friday theme: Bent.
A piece of metal
Mangled by a stronger force
Bent itself into a heart
Making love and art out of violence
To paraphrase John Donne1, anyone’s death diminishes me because I’m involved in humankind. Rest in peace, Melissa and Mark Hortman, with your best friend Gilbert. My thoughts are with Sophie and Colin, as well as with the Hoffman family as they continue to heal. Minnesota brought many friends and family members into my life. I grieve for the entire state.
1“For Whom The Bell Tolls”
To take my mind off world and national chaos, for the past few days I’ve taken on a chaotic task of my own. When I first began posting pictures of my completed coloring pages, mostly on Instagram but also with increasing regularity, on this site, I often didn’t include their source material (coloring books, coloring pages, downloadable images to color).
I’ve been going back through the sketchbooks where I’ve placed all these pages (exceptions being the “Official Unicorn Society Coloring Book” and the “Be Positive” Journal where I both write and color, because those pages will remain in their respective books, and I always recognize them as the source material).
My objective: to include with each completed coloring page filling all the sketchbooks the sources of the drawings I’ve colored.
This has definitely worked for getting me off the phone, off social media, off my computer, and off the Internet, except to track down clues. I’ve been surprisingly successful, often in an intuitive way, but it’s time-consuming. I moved my stuff to the dining room’s big table to spread out books, and they ended up in a massive bunch of piles. In order to put pictures on this post, I finally got them a little better organized.
These aren’t all of them. There are still coloring books in the office, mostly because I know I haven’t used them (many are connected to Tom’s interests, not mine) or because I easily recognize the pages that come from them (size, style, etc.).
There are still a number of images I haven’t figured out. The task is ongoing, so I may yet have to relocate those other coloring books from the office to the table. On the plus side, there are two extension pieces that swing up on either end of the table to give it a lot more length. I WILL conquer this project, despite power outages and Internet disconnections, cooking meals and some housekeeping, as well as dogs stressed out by near-daily storms with THUNDER. Mine is a kind of madness Tom’s accustomed to, so he doesn’t give me the “she’s batshit crazy look.” At least not where I can see that look. When I take on a time-consuming task, I usually default to my mother’s old saying: “It keeps ’em out of the pool hall.”
Not sure either Tom or I is any good at pool anyway.
Almost all the information for today’s post comes from Kevin at Houston’s Body Mind and Soul.
The New Moon in Cancer happened today in Houston at 5:32 AM CST (I actually slept through the night with minimal brief wake-ups; one of those probably included that 5:32 mark, when the two luminaries, Sun and Moon, were in the same exact sign at the exact same degree).
The Moon in general rules instincts, habits, and imagination. After hearing Kevin, I thought a lot about passages to be written for the Neverending Saga, and I was also inspired to do a coloring page from Jenny Lawson’s book You Are Here: An Owner’s Manual For Dangerous Minds. Kevin reminded us New Moons are the time to make new wishes, set new intentions, and seek new beginnings. The current Moon is in Cancer, a water sign. Water signs are associated with feelings, moods, intuition, psychic vibes, and sensitivity.
The Moon rules our instincts, habits, moods, imagination, feelings, and receptivity to the nocturnal or unconscious part of us. (Talk to people who work in emergency rooms, law enforcement, and bars, and you’ll hear some stories, even if most are told about Full Moons!)
Kevin gave a lot more info on the Fourth House and how the other planets, particularly Jupiter this month, affect this New Moon. Helpful crystals and stones include moonstone, chrysocolla, and howlite; good colors are silver, white, and sea greens, and Cancer’s modality as a Cardinal sign lends itself to managing our homes or living spaces, as well as our relationships and families.
The positive sign of this New Moon in Jupiter is reassuring at a time when so much of the larger world is filled with strife and unrest. For me, coloring and thinking about the Moon led me to seek the protection blend from my favorite witch (that sounds like a mashup of two old childhood TV favorites, “My Favorite Martian” and “Bewitched,” though I likely saw the Martian only in syndication). The blend in its little bottle is pictured with my completed coloring page.
