too many to-dos ?

Sam / windowsill thyme / Miss D in the backyard with setting sun / there's a carb free tuna melt under there - tuna salad + cheese under the broiler topped with salad / flowering basil / from the 2nd floor hall window / Virgil looking very Virgish / a new illustration in progress / the uniform of the* self employed - pink secondhand fleece hoodie avec worn & tattered T / WD & I out walking with the sunrise / Winnie Dixon in repose

Could it be that I'm finally coming to terms with the reason that I'm always feeling like I'm falling behind is not a lack of productivity & efficiency on my part but instead because I have too many darn to-dos on my to-do list. Another transforming gradual revelation. So now the fun part. Which to-dos can I keep and which to-dos need to go. I'll put that on my to-do list.

Interesting article on handling the to-dos better here

*OK & what's up with another photo of moi ? well I'm showing off the new haircut again and I think it's that "be myself" resolution of mine. Transparency & all. Here I am, it's me ... Susan - author of this blog ;-) splotchy marks on very old mirror.

daunting, labels

burdock, ocean & sky colour palette // seagull & crow // favourite old poplar // Black Street // harbour and strait // a snowy Dee // ice, snow & rock colour palette // a big fat fleecy mitten // 29 Black Street // burdock-thistle

1,960 posts divided by 30 days = 65.3 posts a day
or
1,960 posts divided by 60 days = 32.6 posts a day
or
maybe ... somewhere in between ? sigh

Something that has been bothering me for ages about this blog is the lack of labels, chapters and/or categories. I used to have a cloud formation down the sidebar with way too many (156 to be exact) confusing & often duplicate-ish categories listed. It's still there, hidden ... waiting for me to edit & organize and I want to. I keep telling myself, since about August of last year, just try to tackle 30 posts a day - every day, don't miss a day and before you know it you'll have a list of labeled categories.

You, me, anyone should be able to come to this blog and browse by subject, label, or category. It's on my list of big Daunting tasks. The task itself of going back through 1,960 posts 5.5 years worth is daunting enough on it's own but Daunting A. deciding what those spare (30 max) new edited labels should be ? For example I just can't have a label cats (Oliver would not stand for it, or could I have a just a category dogs (goodness, sweet Winnie Dixon could have her own blog). Blogger doesn't let you have subcategories or at least I don't think so. And then there's Daunting B. most often what I write about has nothing to do with the images that I'm posting. Do my label describe the text or do I label for the photos/images and if I'm labelling images how do I handle a post like today ? or a post like this one where the images are kinda all over the place. I've created a category called still life which I hope will be the label for all these photo essays that don't necessarily follow a theme, it's a theme so subtle no one but me really knows what the theme is.

It's important to me, after 1,960 posts that I keep some sort of track here about what I've posted. Things that have inspired me, struggles, growth spurts, angsty times, quotations (and there's loads of them here ...somewhere), music, cooking, Oliver, Winnie, Sam, Jake, recipes, my work ... & I am going to figure this darn daunting task out & soon. So if anyone out there has been frustrated by the lack of labels on this blog. Hang tight I'm on it ;-)

I'm currently working on three new collage/illustration & typographic holiday cards (for next year) for fav new licensing customer Madison Park Greetings. Stay tuned, very soon, for the Spring 2013 release of 10 of my designs (mostly botanical collages) available as greeting cards - hooray Madison Park & me. Yesterday I did the most difficult of the three card designs - the hold my breath & turn blue one, the took all day & night one, the eat that frog first one ... listening to my itunes collection helped a lot to keep me relaxed and breathing - some music to collage to. I actually left my chair to dance to this one. Hark, I think I hear CabbageTown a callin'
 

20

an assortment of 20 from the last few weeks - no such thing as too many photographs


listening : audio books Steve Jobs biography & Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food + finches
cooking : homemade Pizza Margherita - with big juicy tomatoes, garlic & my own fresh basil
drinking : coffee with flavoured dairy creamer ?!? like a faux Starbucks here in my wee village
eating : poached eggs on an English muffin with asparagus spears & a big fat orange
pondering : still, the re-branding of me & my new 29 Black Street web site launch Mon. April 2
drawing: jewellery (fantastic freelance job) & brand new typographic collages - watch out !!
baking : that amazing practically no fat, no cholesteral, no sugar pumpkin pie with chippits* ;-)
reading : Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux (so good !) & The Happiness Project thanks Amanda
watching : the first season (taped from HBO by the Prince) of Game of Thrones - oh boy !
catching up : emails, postal packages, letters & cards, inventory (ugh) + tax timeth loometh ;-(
walking : hooray ! back on the crescent beach & the salt mine road with my best girl Missy D

off to work at the post office this morning !

so ... what' on your list ?
& a very happy weekend

* sprinkle a good handful of chocolate chips onto crust before pouring in the filling. yum

oh no, nojo

I take too many photos, I take too many photos ... another assortment 15 more from this week

Mojo is the positive spirit toward what we are doing now that starts from the inside and radiates to the outside. To help understand mojo, contemplate the opposite nojo.

You need a firm handle on your identity to understand why you gain - or lose - mojo. The issue is not how others perceive you, but how you perceive yourself. To alter behaviour, we often need to change our identity - our self-perception. Keepin' on, keepin'on

Marshall Goldsmith from his book Mojo

Oh no, it's nojo ! (with dramatic spooky organ music playing in the background)

Yes I've misplaced my darn mojo ... again. & of course she always leaves at the most inopportune moments & even though I know in my heart she always comes back - it still freaks me out a little, that niggling* small seed of doubt that maybe, just maybe, this is the time she won't be back. I was just saying to the Prince last night, who so patiently listens to my nojo-mojo-woes, that when this dark & stormy mood sweeps over me it is all about confidence & about how I view myself. Changing one's perception of oneself ... wow ... I think I'll file that one under daunting as well.

*niggling - a new favourite & slightly overused word ;-) Have you noticed ?