Developing Your Style This month, I’m investing in exploring and developing style. Writers call it voice. It’s the part of what you create that identifies it as your work. Take handwriting for an example. We all write differently, and when people we know see our handwriting, they know it’s ours before they read who signed the letter. Developing your style can feel daunting. Defining style and voice in creative works seems impossible at times. Writers, artists, and designers all wrestle with the concept in their work. It’s easy to identify style in someone else, but how do you find it in your own work? Do you need to have…

It’s all in the details. Seriously. So many things are overlooked with the details. Sizes Shapes Patterns Colors Textures Close up and far away differences Combinations of the above and more   Do you know what’s ironic about details? I tend to breeze past details for the bigger picture. I see recipes as guidelines for the meal instead of individual amounts and I love to throw all kinds of things into my cooking (I guess it helps that I usually come out smelling like roses here. If I botched every meal, I’d probably stop experimenting because I like yum better than yuck.) I look for the bigger picture in conversation…

In March I plan to invest in curiosity and creativity … beware … this may last close to forever. Who says we need to stay inside the confines of March? What can I say? I’m passionately curious and love to make artsy things … a lifetime unofficial student. In fact, curiosity and creativity will be the foundation of the new site I’m working on. Did I forget to mention that? I know I talked about changes coming (and changes have begun), but did I mention, I’m working behind the scenes at moving my blog to a new website? It will focus on exploring meaning and life with watercolor and ink,…

When I think about connecting with my community, my first response is to ask, “What is community?” I’m sure we each have in mind what community means or looks like and each answer might vary a little.   I understand community in two ways. The people I live near and see on a random but not infrequent basis. We live in the same area and pass through the same towns. We shop at the same stores. Our children go to the same school and may have the same teachers. We may or may not interact more personally than that. Our lives touch briefly and that touch may or may not…

In keeping with my theme this month, investing in connection, I have been thinking about the value of connecting with oneself. I spent many years trying to squeeze into a mold that I thought others wanted me to fit. During those years, I learned to silence the person inside who wanted to be unique. In many ways, I think we are all taught to please people, and some of it is necessary and good. But I had let it tell me what to do and hid myself away in the name of proper. Now, much farther along in life (maybe it’s the mid-life thing sneaking up on me), I find…

Recently, on my Instagram account, a discussion commenced about the importance of written communication, specifically in reference to small business owners sending notes to their clients. Thank you notes. Not just any thank you notes … handwritten thank you notes. I know someone who will buy consistently from the same company because of the handwritten thank you they place inside each order. Not the discount, not the quality of the stuff … the personal touch through a quickly scrawled thanks. With our ever-increasing techno world,  ever-increasing options for distraction and disengagement, could it be that our need for connection will also be ever-increasing? What do we do with that? Thank…