Day 214: decided to make some solid color squares for the border.

I’m almost out of boarder yarn so I’m slowing down for a while on this project until my yarn supplies are replenished!

Day 215: Pink Butterfly postcard.

This is the last of these pink cards with music on them. Just means I’ll have to make more.

Day 216: Brighten Beach postcard.

I crack my own self up with the play on Brighton Beach!

Day 217: finished ruffle scarf.

Love this blue!

Day 218: 4 new postcard backgrounds.

I have so much fun making these postcard backgrounds. I just never gets old.

Day 219: Splash postcard.

One of my favorite ones I’ve made in a while.

Day 220: Fly Away With Me postcard.

Stephen asked where I got the big plane. Out of one of these 4 boxes of of parts, I answered.

It’s that time of year again, when I go to Dragon Con and talk science and space and so on and so forth. Do you dare to stalk the wily Granade?

The Dragon Con Late Show. Every morning at 9:00 AM, Hyatt Centennial I-III.
Every morning at 9 I and my co-hosts Brian and Ally will go through the latest news, schedule changes, and what’s hot for the day. And this year: guests! We’re growing up into a real morning chat show.

Your Lying Eyes. Friday, 7:00 PM, Hilton 202.
You think in high resolution, but you don’t see in it. Discover how optical illusions show how much of your sight is really in your mind.

This is a fun one. I show a lot of nifty visual illusions and you get to learn how much your brain lies to you about what you’re really seeing.

DOOM! Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow. Saturday, 2:30 PM, Hilton Crystal Ballroom.
Homebrew nuclear reactors! Liquid nitrogen kitchen recipes! Plus a new Evil Plan will be revealed!

This year we’re taking evil plans from the audience, auditioning for new minions (since the old ones have a bad habit of catching fire), and in general having some fun with science.

What The Cast – Live! Sunday, 10:00 AM, Hilton 203.
We’re doing a live taping of our long-running WhatTheCast podcast. Bring your finest convention stories to amaze and amuse us.

Disasterpiece Theatre Sunday, 11:30 AM, Hilton 203.
Sometimes you gotta kick around ideas to formulate Hollywood movie pitches.

Alex, Brooke, Matt and I will propose the finest movie pitches ever, for certain values of “finest” meaning “most horribly terriblest”, and yes “terriblest” is so a word shut up. We’re planning on a secret guest, and rumor has it we may be pitching a movie based on Welcome to Night Vale.

You Can’t Get There From Here. Sunday, 2:30 PM, Hilton 309-310.
Jump in that rocketship and fly directly wherever you want… never mind about orbital trajectories, velocities, and gravity wells.

I managed to schedule myself for three nearly back-to-back events on Sunday, so it should be fun seeing just how fried I am by this panel. But it’s going to be fun — I’m going to turn everyone into rocket scientists in 55 minutes with only three equations and one graph.

Phew, that seems like enough for one convention.

Day 207: Abundance ATC.

Lately, every time I make an ATC I feel like it is the best one I’ve made so far. I guess that means I’m growing.

Day 208: Enchanted butterfly ATC.

Day 209: Sojourn ATC.

Day 210: Seek Hope ATC.

After the second ATC, a friend commented that I had a nice series going. So then I had to make it an actual thing.

Day 210b: Bonus art today! “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” tag. 3×6″

Love how this came together. It has ALL THE COLORS!

Day 211: A world of imagination postcard.

I usually have several options going on for one thing. Here’s the other two options for Day 211. I felt like the one I went with was visually the strongest and most unified.

Day 212: Tourista Carpe Diem Postcard.

I dig how this one turned out.

Day 213: (a day late) Clearance sale haul! 261 die cuts! So excited!

Can’t wait to make something with some fish!

Day 200: Go Travel Nepal ATC. Also! Day 200, guys!!!

My colorist, Renée, colored the background on this one using my cool watercolor crayons. Then instead of the cartoon car that was on the card originally, I covered it up with yet another Nepal stamp. I have to go back to Nepal just to get more stamps!

Day 201: Replenished the stock today.

Pigeon Forge has a Scrapbooking outlet store. All the gals were running around finding stuff for me! It was the perfect shopping experience especially since when I got to the register, they took 50% off of everything!

Day 202: Sometimes the best thing you can do is rip the yarn out and start over. (Dog is totally helping!)

I started a pattern by a designer that I love. I thought I understood the pattern but after a couple of days of trying to make the pattern do what I thought it should be doing, I ended up emailing her and asking for some tips. Big surprise (not really) I was reading the pattern wrong.

Day 203: Beginning of a special shawl. It will go to Poland with my friend to give to her 4 new kid’s foster mom.

So excited for her and her big, new family!

Day 204: Fun Times Butterfly tag.

Some of the new supplies!

Day 205: You’ll dream about that box. (Four 5″ panels)

Finishing up an old project! Not as happy with it as I’d like to be but it was fun to do!

Day 206: 57 of 120 squares done for a blankie.

Dog thought the blankie was pretty exciting as well or maybe that was just because I was standing on a kitchen chair.

I’ve been working on the Making Something Every Day Project now for 208 days.

Earlier this week, you might have noticed that I didn’t post anything from the project for two days. Sunday, I was busy, busy, busy with church and the gym and friends and other projects that I just didn’t get anything done that day. Monday rolled around and and I thought, “Why bother?” I gritted my teeth on Tuesday and posted a crochet picture for Day 206 to try to get back in the swing of things. Wednesday I felt better still, so I posted a new ATC for Day 207.

Then today, I was going to offer to help a friend with a project and checked Facebook for details on the event only to see another of her friends is a graphic designer. I wanted to see her work so I clicked on over to her page. It. Was. Beautiful. Work. I didn’t (and won’t) offer up my services.

I’ve had a love/hate thing with my graphic design career for a long time. I am an average designer. I’m not trying to gain sympathy or get pats on the back. I see it. I know it. And when I left that field to do computer tech work, I was ok leaving it behind because I was so burned out with the design work I’d been doing at the ad agency. Since we moved here, I’ve freelanced off and on mostly so I don’t get so rusty that my fingers fall off.

When I saw this woman’s work, I had more than a few moments of envy. I don’t feel this way often. I feel like one of my strengths is my ability to appreciate others and their talents and celebrate them both as people and for the creative work they do. And along with that skill, I am comfortable with who I am and what I do, without comparing my work to the amazing work that other people do. This morning those skills completely abandoned me. As I sat looking at her blog of amazing work, it crossed my mind to abandon the Make Something Every Day Project.

The kids and I ran out for a few errands before lunch and I stopped to chat with a friend for a few minutes. She had a painting that someone had done for her. It was amazing. The painter is in her early 20s. It hit me again that I don’t think that anything I do looks even half as good AND I’m twice her age.

So why did it take 205 days to get to me? I have been doing some good work. I’ve been stretching myself creatively. I can see the improvement in my own work. It doesn’t look like either of these women’s work. But that’s not the point. The point is for me to grow in my work. To learn to listen more clearly to my own creative voice. Beyond that, I’ve inspired others to take up their own creative projects. This gig is clearly working for me, so where is this uncharacteristic doubt coming from?

I don’t have these answers (or answers to lots of other questions for that matter). But I’m not going to let this doubt stop me. I came home from lunch and sat down at the table to make something today. And I’ll make something tomorrow as well. Eventually the doubt will recede. Or I will learn to work around it.