2025 Q1 creativity check in

Argh we are 1/4 through 2025! 

I missed the end of Feb blog, so its approximately the end of March. Yesterday was my birthday. Didn't want to do much but G came up and we had a nice day, quite leisurely, which is what I wanted. A slow day. A late start. Late pilates class. Lunch. A rest. Reading in the park. Walk dog with R. Dinner at tre viet. Watched TV. And a good nights sleep! I felt very rested which is rare. 

So some creativity from the last 2 months.

I've been playing the piano before work most days, and I have memorised Liz on top of the world, and most of Dawn, from P&P 2005. That movie is TWENTY YEARS OLD. Bucket list goal of being able to sit down anywhere there is a piano and play dreamy Austen soundtrack music from memory ACHIEVED.

I picked a lot of tomatos and made 4 jars of green tomato relish! Remarkable crop and didn't lose many to caterpillars. I did used tomato dust, this wasn't an organic miracle. I've got a good number of lemons on my potted tree, too. It has rained a lot!

A friend invited me to walk mereweather to newy, really appreciated how beautiful the whole coast is here, and it was good to break my usual saturday routine of pilates and housework. Routine is good, but forgettable. This was tiring, delightful, memorable. 

I've done some sewing. Made 2 pants and a dress so far. The pants are very useful. The dress I am moving the pockets. Trying to not always do a sewing marathon, and practice doing a bit and then stopping and coming back later. 

I've been doing more housework after work, to free up weekend time for pottery and pastels. I bought a bag of clay on a day off and I've decided to just make vases, with coils mostly. I had some ideas for decorating, but didn't like them, and went back to carving. I just love carving. 

I have an idea to colour the carving too. I don't have any glaze yet though. 

And these are my pastels so far. I put them on the wall and gave one to someone in my home group when we were meeting at my house. 

So reflecting on my original goals for the year, slow down, keep up spiritual habits, change my schedule to allow more creativity, read some more books... going OK. Every day isn't perfect and there isn't enough time to do it all but I'm overall doing the things. I have no big stressors this year which is nice too. 

Start of 2025

 Counting January a success. After new years eve, I did my first creative goal for the year, a chalk pastel class. So good. I have been meaning to redo it for practice but I haven't yet.

I did summer school in Katoomba for 3 nights in a hotel, which was very convenient, saved my energy to get the most out of the event, and got to know my friend better. Then an overnight stay with AM at her newish house, a little bushwalk and a free air plant from the nursery. 

Then getting ready for work and the year ahead! But the Sunday before returning to work I did a pottery class with my sister, which was her christmas gift from me.

I have no big plans this year, but I am trying to set up some small habits to slow down and enjoy my every day life more. So, slower mornings where I do some piano practice or some crochet, for 5-10 minutes of something creative with my hands, instead of just charging off to work. And also continuing my Lectio time because that is very helpful for slowing me down. 

Another focus is moving housework from the weekend to before or after work. Just one small job each weekday. So laundry mid week now. Clean my bathroom on Thursdays. It's going to make my work days a bit longer and fuller, but actually I don't hate housework, and I do enjoy podcasts and audiobooks, so it's good to not be sitting in front of the TV as much at night, and ultimately the benefit is I don't have to spend as much weekend time doing housework. 

I also decided to aim for a higher average number of steps this year. Not a number each day, just a higher average than last years average. One way is by doing an evening walk. This has turned out to be a really pleasant thing that I enjoy. At 8pm, it's quiet, it's still light, it's cool, it's a lovely time to be outside after a day in the office. It's a sensory thing really. 

Thoughts on doing what feels good. Saw a NYT reel where people slowly savoured a piece of cheese and a cheeto and compared the experiences. The cheese has a rich, lasting flavour and aftertaste. The cheeto has an immediate wonderful burst of flavour and sensation but after the first crunchy chew, it has a kind of weak fake flavour and gross feel, which you need to remove by eating another cheeto. What an analogy for dopamine. When you actually take notice of how things feel, what feels good isn't what you think feels good. What I think feels good is scrolling on my phone while watching TV. What actually feels good is being immersed in a story in some form. Or my evening walk. So I hope I can sustain feel good choices next month and onwards, because it's tiredness that hobbles me, makes me feel like it's too risky to expend effort on pleasure.

Last year I dropped my habit of monthly visit to Singleton because life was busy and there were so many birthdays to see them at, so on the Aus day weekend I spent Saturday arvo there, helped with some deep cleaning, just hung out with the kids, and there was an event in the park where I learned basket weaving and the kids queued for face painting. It was a reminder that social events like birthdays aren't the best time to hang out with kids, they are much more relaxed on a regular saturday in their home clothes. I got some special moments.

Little creative progress updates to end with.