A lot changes in 50-ish days.

I've been doing this thing called a #100dayproject since July.

And a few days ago, I called it a wrap. No, I didn't make it to 100 days. It was more like 50-ish (if you count consistent, daily shares).

At the start, I said it would be hard for me to commit to 100 days. It actually WASN'T hard carving out the creative space each day - hey, I love that! I LIVE for that. What I found hard to do consistently was take the photo, create the blurb and share it.

Here are a few more lessons (and some photos of my favourite projects) from my 100 (minus 50) day project, which might (or not) give you a reason to try one for yourself.  If you want to see more, Instagram. Lots more there to ooh and boo at. 
Lesson #1: Doing something creative everyday is HARD. Especially because I was striving to do more than one type of creative thing AND take photos AND share it. The experience was part of the journey for me. Could I commit? Did I have enough ideas? Did I stay true to my original intent (to create space to do this and share with you)? Yes, to all three. However …

Lesson #2: It’s a lot easier to make creative time fit into my life when I’m on vacation. When I returned to Ottawa and back to my full time day job, I totally slipped up on a daily practice. Darn day jobs! And while I’m at it: darn Covid! Darn whiny kids! Darn house cleaning! Darn dinner prep! (etc.)

Lesson #3: Re-evaluating what I spend my few ‘spare’ hours each day on was part of this, too. I’m building a creative arts studio while working in the aforementioned day job, raising 2 joyful and all-consuming little ladies with my very busy husband who also runs his own business. All this while navigating this crazy 2020 and all the loops and turns it is throwing at us. My daily creative time (for now) is my business building time in the hopes that I’m ready to go on that in the next couple months. If you are curious, check Ply Studio. Full website revamp and loads of updates in the works. It’s gonna be awesome!

Lesson #4: Instagram is fun and there is a plenty to learn. I’m going to keep at it but not give it all my energy. I hope you don’t either. Our art, hobbies, friends, health, etc. need this instead.
I truly believe in a daily challenge of whatever length you can manage.  It was a wonderful way to focus on the positive instead of the swarm of negative that 2020 seems to be famous for. I also forced myself out of my comfort zone, creating some video tutorials (I look forward to getting really good at this in the future) and sharing my artistic experiments before they were worthy. #progressnotperfection 

Tell me, have you ever done a 100 day project? If so, what did you learn? If you haven't tried this yet, might be something worth thinking about as we head into the winter. 
Stay well. Stay creative.
- Carmen xo

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