2022 Daily Creativity

As I posted over on my “personal” blog a few months ago (and on Facebook a year ago):

Every year around January 15th, I notice someone is doing some sort of daily challenge. Like “take a photo every day of the year”. It always appeals to me, but feels wrong to start mid-January. So this year, I managed to plan ahead. I decided to “do something creative every day of the year”. There are some obvious choices for me: crocheting, sewing, embroidery. But I also added playing music. And also baking/cooking. I used to do both quite a bit, but haven’t really in years. There’s no time minimum per day. Just that I do SOMETHING and post it on Facebook/Instagram for both accountability and record of it (and those memories to pop up next year!).

And here we are closing in on the end of the year. And being me, I had to put together some stats on how the year of creativity went. I’ve still 2 days to go, but as of 363 days done…

I missed 4 days.

My activities fell into 12 categories: watercolor painting and crochet were the most frequent by far (which you would guess if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram). Some days had more than one activity, but for the activity I “counted”, I did watercolor 176 days and crochet 150 days. Everything else was in single digits. Playing bass, sewing, drawing, photography, writing, stamping, and lettering were some of the other categories. Playing the bass had a strong start, but then I ignored it for the rest of the year.

What have I learned?

Just do the thing. If you want to do something, do it. Don’t worry about being bad at it. Don’t think you have to commit a TON of time to it. Some days I just did a few stitches, or a quick watercolor sketch, or even just tested my brushes. In (almost) a year, I’ve gone from never having painted with watercolor before (and very limited painting of any other medium before that) to actually liking some of my creations and even selling a piece to a complete stranger on the internet! (aka they have no guilt or reason to “pity buy” from me).

Be bad at things. And be okay with that. I think I learned the most from the paintings I didn’t like. I crocheted an entire sweater that I ended up hating and un-doing. That’s okay. Bad paintings and crappy sweaters, don’t mean I’m not good at painting or crochet. They DO mean I took risks, I took chances, I grew, I learned.

Tips for doing this or something similar

Don’t make it a big deal, but do make it a priority. What do I mean by “don’t make it a big deal”? I mean don’t stress. It shouldn’t feel like a chore or something you dread. It doesn’t need to be an hour a day or some big commitment. It can be small and quick, if that’s all you can do that day. But do make it a priority, sometimes having that mental nudge to do SOMETHING moved me from scrolling tiktok endlessly, to getting up and painting something. If I didn’t have the “streak” to maintain, I might have skipped it and missed out on some great creations.

And on to 2023…

I think I’ll continue to do this, but I likely won’t post about it daily. Though I absolutely loved hearing from people that they were inspired to do something creative! I also loved that daily posting meant I posted the bad stuff too, so I’ll definitely continue to post good AND bad highlights!

One photo for each month. Top row: the eastern jewels blanket I haven’t finished, the sweater I finished then ripped out then re-did, a watercolor robin. Second row: the mandala blanket I haven’t finished (I’m sensing a theme), the Tatooine bookmark (which prompted a commission!), some Celtics coasters I sewed. Third row: watercolor koi fish, one of my NH48 series watercolor, two crochet bottle holders. Fourth row: another NH48 watercolor, pinecone watercolor which inspired my holiday cards, and two crochet mittens.