Craft and Baking!

One of my pseudo-New-Years-Revolutions was to make my own unhealthy food. That is, rather than buying it in the store, where I'm not 100% sure what's in it, but I am sure there's preservatives and way too much sugar, I should save money and up my baking skills by making it myself! Another added bonus is that all good habits increase your will power and other future habits (seriously, even making your bed every morning will have a positive affect on your life).

So I've started making banana chocolate chip muffins, because they're my absolute favorite. This is my second batch, the first one I did all on my own, and they are awesome. Even their sad Christmas wrappers are awesome too.

I'm starting to think this is part of the reason why the adage, "Do what you love" can be so true. By making time for the things that I love - like baked goods and a clean room - I form good habits (including healthy ones), I create a work-life balance, and I start to better define my core character and values - which is really important to life. If you take a look back over this paragraph, all of these things are also really important to my goal of being an artist.

Does anybody else have hobbies or habits that aren't directly craft-related, but play an important part on your life as an artist?


[Also because these were really delicious, here's the tweaked recipe thus far;
Preheat 350°
Mix:
1 1/2 cups of flour
1/2 cup of sugar
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt
In a 2nd bowl Mix:
1 egg
4 bananas (mushed)
1/3 cup of butter (softened)
Add dry to wet.
Add as many chocolate chips as looks right.
Bake for 25 min.]

Tweet

89 Days of Glass

Sound familiar?

Since lists and goals were working so well to keep the stress down and productivity up, and my 31 Days of Waxes in August was also really productive, and fun, I thought I'd do it again!

Technically the semester is 103 days (which is NOT a long time), but the first 7 days were stolen from me to work on a lighting project called SHED, and another 7 (or 9) days will be stolen from me over march break when I hopefully go on vacation with my Gran.

Day 1: It's really hard to cut tiny glass hearts, but I think they'll be okay after I fuse them!

So far so good. I made something today, and I cut up glass to make something tomorrow.. Only I'm struggling with the concept of voluntarily going into school before 9am to make sure I have time to set up the kiln. Aside from that though, I probably wouldn't have gotten around to doing tomorrow's project if not for the fact that I'm really scratching my head for 89 ideas! I think I have around 50 right now.

Day 2: There's clear strip glass in there that will make beautiful tree bowls! Trust me.

Tweet

There's A Trend Regarding Organization & Me

Over the past five months I really spent time working with the idea of motivation through organization. I find myself filling another sketch book up with specific art related goals and guidelines, to help me successfully survive the last semester of school. I was going to write about the new sketchbook, but then I realized something . . .

In August I goaled to create one wax mold a day, in preparation for school. (31 Days of Waxes)

In September I spent hours writing out all of my goals, then organizing them into long-term or short-term, work related goals. Then I created little cards so I could reorganize my priorities on the spot. (Organizing Your Goals)

In October I pondered the importance of working through 'silly' ideas, because wonderful creations come from unexpected places. (Silly Ideas)

In November I wrote about how I motivate myself to get up early in the morning, or work late at night, by asking myself whether or not I'll regret that small sacrifice in the future. (. . . In Twenty Years?)

In a flurry of frustration and stress in December I wrote an awful post trying to address the issue of prioritizing. (Crunch Time)

In December I also shared the next step of organizing myself, based off of September's organization ideas, but dedicated to the long-term instead of short-term. (Pushing the Business Plan Forward)

Either a strong trend about desiring to be dedicated to organization and motivation is emerging, or I just haven't had enough things to write about.

And if this blog did not exist, despite the fact that only a handful of people will see it, I would never have realized this extremely important habit that's emerging.

Have you ever realized that your hopeful new habits are working?

Tweet