My November

November seemed to go by very slowly for me. It was a typical late Spring / early Summer month, perhaps a little more rainy than usual. There were a couple of really cool thunderstorms, and only one very hot day. I was feeling better health-wise than I have been, and I managed to get out to see a couple of exhibitions and do some shopping for some things I needed (art supplies) and things I already have a lot of (books!).

I tried to do NaNoWriMo, vowing to write a short story every day, but I didn't get very far unfortunately. I think I wrote 6 before I ran out of steam. I think I will have to actually crack on and write a novel one day though, just to prove to myself that I can do it.

What I've been growing ...
Here is our cherry harvest for 2019! It doesn't seem like much, but it's more than last year. The tree itself has grown quite a bit too -- not taller but wider. We decided to try picking the cherries while they were still unripe, to prevent them being ravaged by birds. It worked very well. They ripened up in about 3 days sitting on the kitchen bench, and we ate them for dessert last night.

The larger fruits are coming along nicely too. They take a bit longer to ripen up -- the apricots here should be ready at the end of December. I really want to be ready to harvest them and process them properly this year.

The roses are blooming strongly this year, too. They seem to be in larger clumps (as opposed to single flowers). Perhaps it's because we've had slightly more rain? They smell divine, too, and when I leave the side door open, the smell wafts into the house.

What I've been planting ...
The garden bed I showed in last month's update post is coming along nicely. It's taken a long time because it kept raining, and we needed a few sunny days near the weekend so Husband and I could lay the concrete base, let it dry, and then later lay the bricks and let them dry. After that was achieved, things went much faster. We bought some bags of garden soil and filled up the bed with them, then put in the lemon tree. The final steps to go are adding a layer of pebbles over the soil, and planting some smaller decorative plants around it. I already have some chosen out. Stay tuned for the final result!

What I've been painting ...
I've been having fun with watercolour painting lately, and also drawing human people, which is different for me. I had a dream that I painted this, and then I turned it into reality. There are a few more too, and I'll show them in a separate post soon. P.S. the painting is still attached to the stretcher board in this photo.

Where I've been shopping ...
I finally visited a Melbourne institution -- City Basement Books. It was pretty overwhelming at first, but after browsing the whole shop I felt settled in, and I think it's become my happy place! I only bought 8 books on my first visit, and I'm resisting going back again too soon. It's one of the few bookshops I've been too (new or secondhand) where you can go in with a shopping list of books by certain authors or on certain topics and have a reasonable chance of finding most of them.

What I've been designing ...
I created a meme, and yes, this is really happening to me tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Bonus pic ...
I dressed up for a fancy birthday brunch for a friend earlier in the month, in my fancy dress in a fancy pose, against a fancy background. Excuse the fancy look on my face! I've let my fringe grow out in the last few months, which you can see quite well in this photo. I like how it looks.

My November, including End of NaNoWriMo 2018

November this year seemed to have a bittersweet taste. As Spring moved into Summer, everything heated up. Yet there were also quite a few thunderstorms, which I always enjoy. I've been busier as the holiday season is getting nearer, but my job is finishing just before Christmas, so I have some quiet time to look forward to. It's been hard to motivate myself to do anything that doesn't have a deadline -- anything just for myself. Maybe that's something I need to rediscover.


What I've been writing ...
My NaNoWriMo story was mostly finished before the 30th November deadline. That's a nice way of saying that I didn't finish it! I won't say that I failed though, because I'm close enough to see the finish line, and I think I'm able to and want to get it made. So I'm setting myself a deadline of end of December to finish the story, edit it, create a cover image and publish it. I haven't decided where I'll publish it yet, but iBooks and Smashwords look most promising. I'll be sure to post links to it when I do!

What I've been painting ...
I created a painting for NOIR gallery's Kris Kringle party exhibition, but I forgot to take a photo of it at any point before I handed it in for the exhibition yesterday, oops! I'll be back there in 2 weeks for the closing party and artwork swap, so you'll have to wait until then to see it on the blog. Or, if you're in Melbourne, I hope you'll check out the exhibition at NOIR Darkroom in Coburg.


What I've been dreaming of ...
A few months ago I posted about how my garden is a mess. Well, we're getting that sorted out! Below is a 'Before and After' of the passageway behind the house. The 'After' looks very barren right now, I admit, but we're planning on building some raised garden beds and hopefully growing some nice, lush things.

What I've been playing ...
Happy World Ocarina Day! I've taken up my ocarina practice again this month. Seeing other people online becoming enthusiastic about learning and playing live instruments has been inspiring. Plus, I enjoy learning Christmas carols because the tunes are so familiar, and this is the time of year for it!

NaNoWriMo : The Halfway Point

(Technically it's the three-quarter-way point now, but that doesn't fit so well into the title!)

A few posts ago, I told how I decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month this year, but with a twist. I'm writing a 5,000 word story instead of the usual 50,000 word novel. That works out to 167 words per day. For someone like me, with a lot of different projects happening at once, it's a more realistic goal. So how am I doing, halfway through?

I'm pleased to say that I've gotten further than I did in my last NaNoWriMo attempt. That is, I've actually started to write a story! For the first week or so, I was winning -- thanks to the three-quarters of a page I wrote before the month even started, I was ahead of the word count.

However, this turned out to be a bit of a double-edged sword. On a day when I was feeling tired, I felt like I could take a break. I was feeling a bit depressed due to some unrelated issues, and one day turned into five, until I was behind again. Strangely, this turned out to be a motivating factor for me to start writing again. I needed to get back to that place I was before. I needed to believe that I can do it. The voices in my head were still telling me it's a terrible story, but I thought to myself, a terrible story is better than no story!

In the beginning, I was reading through what I'd already written and noting down changes before I started writing anything new. As the story grew to a page and more, I realised this wasn't going to be feasible. It was taking too long and distracting me. Editing can wait until later! If there are any words or phrases I'm not completely happy with, I use the highlight function in Microsoft Word (or just circle them if I'm writing by hand) to mark them, and just keep on going.

In fact, after having listened to lots of podcasts and read even more articles, the best advice I've heard is just that. Just keep going! It's been presented in many forms by many people, but what it boils down to is: just keep writing! It doesn't matter how bad you think it is. You can always fix it later.

I also decided to write an outline, which helped me to get the story straight in my mind. It made me realise there are actually two intertwined plots, and that helped, though I'm still not sure in which order things are going to happen. Hopefully that will come together at some point.

And hopefully I'll have good news (i.e. a finished story) in a couple of weeks!

I'm Doing NaNoWriMo!

Sort of!

Yes, I'm giving National Novel Writing Month another go! With some modifications, however...

A whole 50,000-word novel is a bit much for me. I've never done well at any kind of 30-day challenges. I couldn't even write for 10 minutes a day when I tried it three years ago. During the week I rarely have the time or the energy to work on anything creative, leaving an ever-mounting backlog which means I never get past the first week -- or often the first 3 days!

So I'm modifying the challenge and decided to write a 5,000 word story. That's only 166 words a day. (I rounded it up to 170 for convenience's sake.) At the moment it's easy to tell my brain that's a very do-able goal.

Also, I have to admit, I cheated a little and wrote 500 words on 31st October, because I was so excited when I first decided to do the challenge. This has turned out to be a good thing, because I'm ahead of the count and feel a lot less pressured. Even when I'm ahead, I still aim to open up the document and add something to it every day.

I just have to point out: I never liked the "National" part of NaNoWriMo, as people from all over the world are taking up the challenge. Although, I was doing a bit of digging around today and just found this Melbourne-based Facebook group -- MelbNaNo. So that's nice.

I'm hoping to publish the story at the end of the month on Wattpad or something similar. If anyone knows of a more suitable platform for sharing an original cozy mystery story featuring coffee and cats, please let me know! I'd love to get some feedback on it and perhaps see if I can expand it into a series one day.

Good luck to everyone else doing NaNoWriMo 2018! Now I'd better get back to writing!

21 Days in My Art World : Week 3

Here is the final in my series on this hashtag challenge hosted by Tara Leaver. I skipped a couple of days in Week 3. The challenge started to seem really long by that stage, I have to admit. Once again, the photos are accompanied by the original notes I wrote on my Instagram.

Click here to see Week 1!
Click here to see Week 2!

15. How I Name My Paintings
The way I name my paintings is quite boring, I'm afraid: I name them after the character ("The Gut Pixie") or what the character is doing ("Papa Hupio Tells a Story"). I prefer to keep them simple and straightforward because in the folk tales I'm inspired by, even the most fantastical events are described in a simple, straightforward way. It somehow adds to the air of unreality.

16. Smallest Painting
Back in 2008-2009, I did a lot of ACEOs (playing card-sized works). I don't know where they are now, so I took a photo of them on my blog. I was really into the swirly shapes back then. I also did a lot of embroidered ones which I remembered that I enjoyed a lot.

17. Largest Painting
None of my paintings are noticeably larger than any of the others, so I skipped this one.

18. Celebrate!
I'm sick of posting photos of my art, so here's one of my derpy self! At least half of the photos that Husband takes of me I have my eyes firmly shut, but we keep going until we get something good. That's what I'd like to celebrate: turning up against all the odds, against all the obstacles both external and internal, and just giving it a go!

19. From the Archives
This drawing (photo is a screenshot from my blog) is a re-creation of one I did when I was 13. The original is lost to the mists of time - ie the bin, probably! This was the artwork which my art teacher criticised harshly and put me off doing art for many years. Re-creating the drawing was an act of defiance. I did it to accompany an article on facing your fears for a group zine. When I look at it, I remember the sadness and sense of exclusion my younger self felt, but I also feel determined never to let anyone else feel the way I did. I truly believe anyone can be an artist!

20. Favourite Technique
This prompt seemed quite similar to an earlier one, plus I was falling behind in the challenge, so I skipped it.

21. Big Dream
My big dream is to make enough pieces to fill up a gallery and then have a show! And at least a couple of people will look at them and be happy. They think, "ah yes, that's a Katie Theodorus!" And then they will think, "I want to make some art, too!"

21 Days in My Art World : Week 2

I'm continuing on with my series on this hashtag challenge hosted by Tara Leaver, even though it happened quite some time ago now! I'm just a completist that way. I skipped several days in Week 2. Once again, the photos are accompanied by the original notes I wrote on my Instagram.

Click here to see Week 1!
[Week 3 is coming soon!]


8. Inspiration
I'm inspired by many different things! Here are a few of the ones that came to mind first: dreams, craft, Taíno stone carvings, nature, especially the bright colours of flowers, monsters (friendly ones!), kawaii illustration and culture, etc!

9. Where the Art Happens and 10. Artist Hands
I was too embarrassed to show my hobby room as it looks like a dogs' breakfast right now! (Plus you could see peeks of it in previous photos.) I was too embarrassed to show my hands as my eczema is very bad at the moment, as it always is in Summer.



11. Turning Point
When and how did I decide I was an artist? It was a couple of years ago. I just decided one day to start calling myself an artist. It took many years and a lot of inner work to get to that point: to ignore everyone who said I couldn't, and overcome my self-doubt. My first thought after making the decision was: "I need to stop working in art journals and start working on canvas so other people can see this stuff!"

12. Current Motifs
I notice that my paintings often have an oval shape around the central subject. Usually the oval is a portal from which the character is emerging, though in this work (in progress), they are a protective energy field. I like the freedom and sweeping movement of drawing the ovals in paint before settling down to the finer details.

13. Process Insight
To be honest, I couldn't think of anything to put for this. My art is very intuitive so I don't really think of myself as having a procrss.


14. Sold!
I have sold a total of one painting, and it was to my best friends. I don't think that really counts, but the gesture of support means so much to me. They hung it in their front hallway so all their visitors can see it when they enter the house. This is a great honour for me!

21 Days in My Art World : Week 1

I'm currently taking part in a challenge hosted by the lovely Tara Leaver called 21 Days in My Art World. The prompts are designed to encourage artists and creative people everywhere to share their art and process. Most of the participants are posting their responses on Instagram, a few on Tara's Facebook group. I thought I'd post mine here for any that aren't on Instagram. I skipped a few days because they didn't resonate with me or other reasons (I was too embarrassed!), but I made sure to note those too, for completeness. The photos are accompanied by the original comments I posted on my Instagram.

Here is Week 1:

1. Favourite Painting
This was actually my first ever painting on canvas, which I did 2-1/2 years ago, and gave it to my mum for her birthday. I love the details, scribbly background, vaguely botanical shapes and range of colours. I don't feel like I've been able to quite achieve it ever since. Unfortunately I've never seen it hung up anywhere in my mum's house, which has been discouraging, but I try to keep going.

2. Lesson Learned
I still have so much to learn, but the greatest lesson I've learned so far is to never let anyone tell you "you can't ". My Year 8 art teacher told me that, and it was a wounding experience that took me over 20 years to recover from. I let "no, you can't draw", "no, you can't be an artist", "no, you're not good/talented/special enough" stop me for too long. I had to learn to ignore all that before I could even consider that I could do art and be an artist. I truly believe that anyone can be an artist. Don't let anyone ever tell you "no"!

3. Latest WIP
I actually have 6 paintings in progress right now, but just showing you 3. There were a few hiccups in today's session: my favourite paint colour was dried out, so I tried to recreate it with a mix of other colours. I tried to do a stencil and it was all blobby so I painted over it. I didn't like the collage pieces I'd laid down last time, so I painted over those too. With each painting I do, I learn more about layering.

4. Art Book -- I didn't do this one as I don't really refer to books for inspiration.


5. Favourite Tool
This probably sounds strange, but my favourite tool is packing foam pellets. I cut them up to make small stamping tools to make patterns. I also really like bubble wrap.

6. Current Challenge
I tend to have very limited subject matter because of my lack of skill in drawing. I'd like to branch out more, but I don't have the confidence right now. I need to challenge myself to improve my drawing skills and explore new ideas.

7. Colour Palette
My favourite colours at the moment are pinks, purples and blues. Yellow and orange sneak in there a bit, too. I NEVER use black or white. If I want to depict the night sky then I'll usually use a dark purple or blue, but I offset it with an eye-aching shade of orange or pink. love bright colour!

Click here to see Week 2!
[Week 3 is coming soon!]

My May

The weather really turned cold by the end of the month. We've broken out the extra blankets, and there are frost warnings already. There's been a lot more rain. I heard about the 30x30 Challenge, which is to spend 30 minutes outside every day for 30 days, starting on 1st May. I wanted to do it, but then it rained for 3 days straight, with barely a 30-minute letup, so I decided to wait until Winter is over before trying it. Of course, I want to spend as much time outside as I can, but at this time of year it would be quite difficult to do it every day.

What I've been sorting ...
My KonMari adventure has been continuing. I've almost finished my clothes, and most of my accessories. I've unpacked a lot of boxes in the last few months, but there are still quite a few things packed (or lost??!) which mean I can't gather everything in some categories together to KonMari them.

I'm also pleased to say that I've unpacked all my books now, which was No. 96 on my 101 Things in 1,001 Days list.

My hair decos. Not too many?
What I've been making ...
I finally finished this crocheted mushroom. I wanted to make one as part of the Mori Girl Challenge, and, I have to admit, this project did double-service. I had two Geocaching Travel Tags to send off. The Travel Tags can be attached to any small item you like, and the tracking code turns it into a trackable item. It's then placed into a geocache for other players to pick up and move to another cache. There's more information here for the interested.
One of the fun things about creating a trackable is to attach something to it that will be fun for other players. And that was the problem! I didn't know what to attach them to. Being me, something handmade was preferable, but I'd been procrastinating for months because I couldn't think of anything. Then an idea struck me: make amigurumi mushrooms!
I (quite cleverly if I do say so myself) embroidered the tracking code under the cap of the mushroom but unfortunately I can't show it to you. It's against the rules. Otherwise anyone could log the trackable when they aren't actually in possession of it.

At this stage, I've almost finished the second one. I used a different pattern so I might write a separate post with my thoughts comparing them.

I also started a new design for a knitted monster plushie. I've made crocheted ones before, but I wanted to see if I could design a knitted one. I ran out of steam though, when I couldn't decide how to do the arms.

What I've been dreaming of ...
Not so much dreaming, but meaning to get around to it. With the rainier weather, the garden is greener than ever. I've started to notice dandelions popping up all over. They're one of the few wild plants I can recognise and know to be useful. There's a wonderfully informative post on The Woman Who Married a Bear on the very topic, so it just remains for me to give it a try.

Selections from Instagram

Mulled wine and drinking games for the Eurovision Song Contest:

I planted a tree! Well, more of a small shrub, really.

I also decorated the fernery a bit more with this gnome from Daiso:

NaNoWriMo -- An Almost Unmitigated Failure

Well, perhaps 'failure' is a bit harsh. I did write 4 pages, plus a few haiku. And a couple of blog posts, but I would have written those anyway. These days, not blogging seems as unthinkable as not eating.

In the last few days, as blog posts have popped up in my reader bringing news of NaNoWriMo successes, I've been genuinely happy for the winners, but became more and more depressed for myself. I wasn't going to post anything about my NaNoWriMo experience, my failure, but I haven't seen anyone else writing about it, so I thought it was important. (Though having said that, googling "I failed NaNoWriMo" comes up with quite a few hits and some good advice.)

During the month, I read back through some stories I wrote earlier in the year and thought, "I wish I could write more like that. I'm not able do that anymore, why is that?" It went downhill from there with darker thoughts that I won't elaborate on here. All this led to a downward spiral where I convinced myself that playing computer games was much easier and relaxing than writing, not to mention easier to concentrate on while the TV is on. Before I knew it, it was December and I had not written a single word in 3 weeks. Or drawn a single stroke, or crocheted a single stitch, for that matter.

An article I happened to come across during the month made me think. It was about a ceramics teacher who decided to do a little experiment with his students one semester. At the beginning of the first class, he divided the students into two groups. He told one group that they would be graded purely by the quantity of pots they produced: an A for 20kg or more, a B for 15 to 20kg, etc. He told the other group that they were only required to produce one pot -- the most aesthetically pleasing, perfect pot that they could possibly create.

Can you guess what happened?

The students in the first group churned out as many pots as they possibly could, and most of them achieved top marks. The students in the second group became so bogged down in research and philosophical questions about beauty and perfection, that many of them didn't have even one pot to submit at the end of the semester.

These are not the actual pots, just
random pretty pots from the internet. =)The other big surprise?
Many of the pots considered to be the most beautiful and innovative designs were created by the first group, those who spent the most time creating rather than those who created the most carefully.

So many books and articles have been written about how important it is to practice your art or craft every day, pointing out that even the great Renaissance artists practiced drawing every day of their lives. I've known that message for a long time, but for some reason it didn't really sink in for me until I read that story about the pots.

I titled this blog post an Almost Unmitigated Failure, because at the end of it all, I'm much more motivated to write now than when NaNoWriMo began. Now ... after my complete failure to write for just 10 minutes a day. My brain is a strange beast. A blog post I read yesterday mentioned Figment, and I signed up. It seems to be a lively writing community which may hopefully provide some inspiration. I feel an urge to write a grand closing statement about exciting new things coming up soon, but, eh, no promises.

NaNoWriMo -- The Halfway Point

I have a confession to make. I've been failing miserably at NaNoWriMo so far.

If you remember, I decided to do a variant where I spent some time writing outside each day. I was very motivated and did well in the first few days, however, I started to drop off, and not for the reason I thought I would. It wasn't lack of motivation that stopped me, it was the fact that the first week was very rainy, and any time I had some free time, it was pouring rain outside!

However, on the first Sunday it was a lovely day, and I ended up spending a whole hour writing some reflections on an art journalling course I'm doing at the moment. Since then, I've lost motivation completely. I'm not even in the mood to write blog posts. Yes, I'm writing one today, but I'm in that mood where every sentenced is forced and it just seems so mediocre.

I've come to the conclusion that I'm just not the kind of person that can write every day. When I get home from work, I'm tired and just want to relax with a project that's fun and easy. (My granny square blanket is the perfect candidate -- the stitches are easy and repetitive.) When I'm inspired though, I just can't stop myself. If I've had an interesting dream, I'll type it out into my ipod on the train in the morning. If I've seen an interesting person, I'll write a few words about them in my notebook as I'm heading back from my lunchbreak.

If I have anything to report at the end of NaNoWriMo, then I will. Don't expect the next Harry Potter series, though.

My "NaNoWriMo"

No. 32 on my 101 Things List is to do NaNoWriMo (or a variant of) every year. I say 'a variant' because I'm just not the novel-writing kind of person. I don't think I have it in me to write a full novel. I do plenty of writing though, in the form of journalling, blogging, essays and poems. I've heard of people changing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) to suit their own style -- writing a poem a day, or a blog post a day. (I think it would be a little unfair of me to suddenly go from one post a week to one a day, so don't worry, I'm not doing NaBloPoMo!)



I've hesitated in participating in NaNoWriMo before, for a couple of reasons. It seems like a very structured thing. There are rules, specifications, and word counts. The "Na" part is very Amero-centric. Also, November is a very busy month -- with the weather getting warmer, it's a busy time in the garden, there are birthdays, and the preparations for the festive season take up a lot of time as well. Yesterday I was thinking to myself, "why does it have to be in November?? It's so busy, and the weather's finally nice again. I don't want to be cooped up inside writing. I just want to be outside!"



At that thought, I had a lightbulb moment. Why don't I write outside? It doesn't matter what I write or how long I write for, as long as it's outdoors. At the risk of sounding pretentious, I'll call it: KaWriOutMo (Katie's Writing Outside Month). I'd better set some rules guidelines:



1. Must be out of doors.

2. Being on the train doesn't count as being outside!

3. Must be at least 10 minutes per day.

4. Can be any type or style of writing I choose.

5. Can use any tools to hand: notebook and pen, ipod, ipad, laptop, etc.

To be honest, I'm not hugely confident that I can do this successfully. Both finding the time and thinking of something to write about every single day are daunting prospects. Perhaps I'll give myself a big treat at the end if I do. I'm sure I'll think of something suitably enticing.

In The Kitchen ; plus Mori Girl Challenge

With Winter having settled in properly in the last few weeks, I've had a strange urge to buy a pumpkin and do things with it .. but more on that later. Just yesterday, I found out about the Mori Girl Challenge. One of the lovely girls in the International Mori Girl facebook group has devised a 31-day challenge, or more a set of challenges, called Draw, Snap, Write, Cook. The complete list of challenges can be found here at I Don't Know But I'm Learning, and is also available as a pdf download. As with all things related to the Forest Girls, there are no hard-and-fast rules -- you can do all four sets of challenges, or pick and choose. Myself, I certainly don't have time to do one every single day, but I would like to try them all. I really like the idea of exploring the same theme in different media, and as I've mentioned before recently, anything that gets me motivated to start practicing drawing again regularly is welcome.

Back to the cooking now! The first thing I decided to do with my pumpkin was to cook Pumpkin Bread from the recipe here. Coincidentally the recipe was from a link I saved from the same blog as above. (This really was a coincidence!)
Here is my beautiful butternut pumpkin.

All the ingredients gathered together, including the microwaved pumpkin. The recipe calls for canned pumpkin, but we don't have that here in Australia, and besides, I'd already bought a fresh pumpkin! I cooked about half of the pumpkin, and it ended up being too much, but I used it all and adjusted the amounts of all the other ingredients to fit around it. And I do agree with Kathryn's blog post to add less flour than the recipe calls for. I also added a bit less sugar as well. Husband and I are used to eating less sugar these days, and the cranberries should also make up for it.

Adding all the dry ingredients. Instead of separate spices, I used the St Nicholas Spekulaas spice mix from Gewurzhaus in the city. It has cassia, coriander, clove, ginger, allspice, cardamom and nutmeg, which differs a little from the traditional Dutch recipe, but it's nice to try new things.

Adding the eggs. By the way, I tried using my Daylight lamp for lighting, and I think it's coming up pretty well.

Adding the chopped walnuts and cranberries. I just used whatever I could find in the cupboard!

Mixing the fruit and nuts into the batter. I can't believe that I don't have a cute wooden spoon to mix with. (I have a few normal ones, but no cute ones!) But then I realised -- I think I prefer mixing with the flexible spatula. It really gets into every corner of the bowl. Perhaps I can deco it?

The batter goes into the loaf tin. Buttering and flouring the tin is actually my favourite part of the whole process. Aside from eating the finished product, of course.

The pumpkin bread!

It was not possible for me to follow the instruction of waiting until it was cold before serving. It went down extremely well with some butter and a cup of Russian Caravan tea.

I'm not sure if I should count this as my first Mori Girl Challenge, as I was planning on doing it anyway! Either way, I think there'll be more pumpkin in my near future...