Hello friends! You’ll have to forgive me for this scattered post - I’m flying to Amsterdam today and am taking care of last minute travel-related errands.

Here are my reviews and faves of the month! I’m hoping to turn reviews into a weekly series, and then summarize my faves in a monthly one. We’ll see!  

(A hand painted quote from Elle Luna’s book)

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My oh my – these past two months have really flown by! 

To be completely honest with you, I wasn’t excited to write this post because I was disappointed in myself for not finishing any books. I was so proud of consistently reading in Jan/Feb so when the end of March approached, I was upset with “breaking the streak.” I realized that I had started several books but didn’t finish reading any of them…and I was hoping I could ignore publishing a blog post.  

However, I’m only human and will inevitably make mistakes. I’m trying to forgive myself for not being perfect. At LifeDojo, I’m learning that creating habits is easy in theory but hard to execute. It requires you to show up every day and practice, in any capacity. 

I’m also trying to find ways to change my physical space to encourage healthier habits. It means drinking cold water with lemon because it feels fancy, or using my diffuser to create a calming environment. 

And that’s enough of my personal development. Let’s get on with What I Watched, Listened to and Read! 

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Holy Cannoli - this month flew by quickly!! Thank you to everyone who reached out after my last blog post - it means the world to me. Writing these reviews is a great exercise to ensure that I’m creating at least one piece of content a month.

One of my goals this year is to spend less time on social media and more time reading. I aim to read a book per week (usually on the weekends) and was so happy to achieve my reading goal in January. However, I enrolled in 3 art classes this month (aggressive I know) so naturally my routine has adjusted. Hence, my book list is pretty short this month but I’d love to hear about ways you make time to read - comment below! 

Nevertheless, I’m excited to share some of my favourite things!

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This year, I promised myself that I would “boldly create”. That’s my mantra for the year ahead and includes writing, drawing, handlettering, and any type of art I learn/experiment with in 2017.

I came up with this idea to list out my monthly faves back in December; it’s similar to how beauty gurus will create videos about their favourite beauty products each month. But over the past few days, I’ve wrestled with whether I should post this at all. I don’t want to appear tone deaf to everything that is happening politically. Does what I’m reading matter? Does anyone care? Should they?

Then I am reminded of this. 

(This illustration is by Mari Andrew.)

The true power of art, in all its forms, is its ability connect us with one another and with ourselves on a deeply emotional level.

So here I go. x

Contents:

• Books Recommendations
• Blog Posts
• Recipes 
• Songs on Repeat
• Must Watch

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After today’s art class, I’ve learned that I do not enjoy working with pencil crayons (aka coloured pencils for you Americans). 🙅

Hey there friends! Apologies for the mini hiatus on my part…but I’m back and excited to share all the art I’ve been creating. 

This Saturday, Chris and I attended our second class of the Urban Sketching / Location Drawing course. It’s being taught by Andrew Steers @ Fort Mason. It’s been a while since I’ve taken a formal art class (usually opting to learn on Skillshare) and this one is amazing. We explore different parts of San Francisco each week and spend most of our time drawing. I’ve always found urban sketching to be intimidating because (a) I’m a perfectionist and want to capture every detail and (b) it’s scary to draw in public! 

Some lessons we’ve learned so far:

• Take time to take the scene in. Really think about what you want to capture in your drawing.
  
• Draw with pen! Starting with pencil makes you hesitate / second-guess yourself. 
• Always finish your drawings – even if you make a mistake, you’ll learn something new!
• Don’t be afraid to develop your own style! Sure, you can look at other artists’ drawings and copy their techniques, but don’t spend so much comparing yourself to others (*More on this below*). 

(Above: A quick drawing of downtown San Francisco while sitting outside of Mazarine Coffee.)

(Below: Quick sketches from sitting near Dolores park on Sunday afternoon.) 

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Bonjour mes amis!

I’ve been feeling stressed out these past few days and it’s making me want to get into a better routine. I’m trying to structure my morning routine / work routine / bedtime routine to make me feel more energized. More updates on that in a later post.

On a completely separate note, today I went to Vertical Barre Studio’s “Free Funday Sunday” event and tried pole dancing (!!). I was definitely nervous because it’s something new and pretty intimidating. Tip #1 - Try new and scary things with friends. 

Taking a class like this is outside the comfort zone for most people so it helped that the instructors were super welcoming, encouraging, and body positive. I wish all classes were taught this way.

Here’s a photo of us post-class. (Note: we cannot do what the girl behind is doing. We can 100% walk around the pole though and we learnt how to fall.) :D

And now for the 10-day artistic challenge: 

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I’m thinking about doing a 10 day drawing/calligraphy challenge to keep myself busy while Chris is gone. 

I won’t lie…it’s been hard to stay motivated lately because I’ve been feeling sick (especially my eyes which are being super weird/red/infected?). I also miss going to the gym.

So I’m starting this 10 day challenge tomorrow. Give me some ideas for inspiration!