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Use Watercolor to Connect with My Inner Child

Two unrelated events merged together last week showing me to use watercolor to connect with my Inner Child.

The First Event

My son asked if I had any recommendations for my granddaughter concerning learning the art of watercolor.

My first reaction was sending her some of my supplies, as I wasn’t using them. Secondly, I thought, her world is so different from my experience learning watercolor in the 1980’s. Perhaps I should see what new beginning watercolor books are out there. The third book that caught my eye won my purchase.

The Watercolor Book

Creative Watercolor: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners, by Ana Victoria Calderon has everything a budding watercolor artist needs. The book is packed with recommendations for materials, and photographs, illustrating technique and method. Ms. Calderon builds an easy progression of skill into the hands of the reader.

As I looked inside the book before purchase on Amazon, a lightness filled my chest and a smile lit up my face. My memories creating paintings flooded my thoughts. I pushed them aside to focus on the matter at hand, finding the basic tools my granddaughter needs to pursue an interest that brought me so much joy.

Watercolor Tools

I found Strathmore 140 pound, cold press paper in a spiral pad, Windsor and Newton Cotman half-pan watercolors with the palette and one small brush included. My final purchase was a four-brush set of watercolor brushes from Cheap Joe’s. I felt that completed the basic equipment needed to learn watercolors.

Yes, they weren’t exactly recommendations. Hey, I’m a grandmother and finding something my grandchild actually wants led me down the empty cart path on Amazon.

The Second Event

Do you find it difficult to follow your gut feelings, your intuition? Sometimes, I do. It takes a lot of practice to tell the difference between what’s in your heart vs. thoughts of our mind. One of the tools that helps me connect with my intuition is Oracle Cards. I occasionally use them for extra clarity understanding my feelings.

The second event was pulling the card, “Imagination / Inner Child”. Sonia Coquette, the author of my Ask Your Guides cards, suggests this card is about honoring my Inner Child through inspiration, creativity, art classes or simply play.

The most playful way I could imagine to return to my watercolor was through the same Creative Watercolor book I bought for my granddaughter. I went to order another copy for myself and found they were out of stock in hard copy, but available on Kindle. Reading through this book on my iPad brings joy to my heart.

Now, where are my art supplies?

If you want to know more about anything I mentioned in this blog, contact me, or better yet, signup for my newsletter, where you will not only receive my blogs, you’ll also know about other opportunities to connect.

Enjoy this new month!

Dawn

Looking Back to December 2019

Looking back to December 2019, what did you think would happen for you in 2020? I’ll bet it was something pretty monumental, after all not only were we on the cusp of a new year, it was a new decade.

What Do I Know Now?

I realize a lot of the transformations I experienced in 2019 were setting the stage for this incredible opportunity of a pandemic, a worldwide virus that would change everything. Although many people have become ill, even died due to this pandemic. It could be so much worse. I’m so grateful it is not the typical Hollywood end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it catastrophe movie or as devastating as Stephen King’s epic novel, The Stand. Rather, in my life, it is like a stern parent, irritated with our behavior, who has placed us in the corner for a time-out.

What to do With Our Time-Out

The stay-at-home order has stripped away all non-essential activity outside our home base. However, we still have access to our digital world; smart phones, tablets, computers, smart tv, social media. We also can talk to friends and family even while seeing their faces in applications like FaceTime, Facebook Video or Zoom. Perhaps we even visit more now than before.

All these options feed two of our senses, vision and hearing. In contrast, we are feeling deprived of touch, taste, and smell. Do you know how we are feeding these senses? Yes, we are cooking our little hearts out; baking, roasting, sautéing, broiling, and grilling. Sometimes we feed our desire for creativity by pulling items out of the pantry and freezer to pull together a meal. I’m doing these things too, grateful we finally replaced our old gas range the first week in March.

Onto the Next Challenge

This flurry of cooking leads to the next challenge – exercise. Remember earlier when I mentioned my transformations in 2019? Hiring a personal trainer who comes to my home is one of those transformations. Little has changed on that front, except the use of Lysol on equipment and the six-foot distancing rule. I am so grateful for my trainer and our efforts to keep healthy and safe.

My new found yoga practice on Thursday mornings ended almost a month ago. Thankfully, a fellow Dream Creator Mastermind participant is helping me by sharing online gentle yoga like this video from Shelley Nicole. I still have to adjust some positions for my arthritic knees, but it feels so good to participate in yoga again. I’m so grateful for my online social community.

Do You Notice a Theme?

All the changes and challenges of the last months have upped the energy of gratitude in my life. I feel more free, centered, alive, and focused than ever before. Looking back to December 2019, I realize that everything good I expected in my life has come to pass or is in progress. I am grateful for everything and every person in my wonderful life!

If you want to know more about anything I mentioned in this blog, contact me, or better yet, signup for my newsletter, where you will not only receive my blogs, you’ll also know about other opportunities to connect.

Still smiling,

Dawn

A Long Drive in a Red SUV

Mom and I went for a long drive in a red SUV. I’ve been wanting to upgrade my dark gray Subaru Forester with a new red model. That’s exactly what I did back in February. Here’s a shout out to the Apple Car Guy, from Cannon Subaru who made it happen. By the way, I love Cannon Subaru in Lakeland, FL

My Love Affair With Red Vehicles

It all started when I was a kid and my parents bought a red Chevrolet Super Sport in the 60’s. I thought it was so cool. It had bucket seats. All the family cars prior were either station wagons or Oldsmobile behemoth hand-me-downs from my grandparents. We didn’t have it long. It just wasn’t practical.

Later, Dad bought a ‘57 Chevy and gave it to my older sister when we were in high school. We thought it was just awful. The headliner was loose and the vacuum tube wipers would stop during torrential downpours as we climbed the hills on 10th Street in Haines City, Florida. I don’t know what happened to the car, but I’ll bet Dad kicked himself a few times for letting that classic go.

The closest I got to a red car when my parents furnished them was a used Datsun 2000 convertible I received after graduating from high school. The paint was white, but the leather interior was red. What a guy magnet! I gave the five-speed manual transmission a workout on the curvy roads I found as alternative routes to Polk Junior College in Winter Haven.

A few years later I married. Like most American males, my husband liked horsepower. His favorite magazines were Motor Trend and Car and Driver. And he devoured every word when they compared models. The Ford Taurus SHO caught he attention. It wasn’t long before we bought one, a red SHO.

During my Datsun sports car days, I learned to enjoy the exhilaration of performance driving, but always tempered it with caution concerning speed limits. All my life, I’ve had an uncanny ability to note the legal limit, driving  accordingly. With the many miles I’ve put in, I’ve never received a speeding ticket. Even when I drove the SHO, which we referred to as “arrest red”.

Back to the Long Drive

Some of my relatives from Wisconsin spend at least a week in Ft. Meyers Beach every winter. Last year we managed to ‘meet in the middle’ in Arcadia at The Magnolia Seafood Grille. Our lunch was great, but this year the Wisconsinites opted for no rental car. It was perfect for them and me; Publix delivered groceries to their condo, the grandkids played in the pool and the adults could walk to the pier, along the beach or shop in the many stores nearby. And I got to take my four-day-old red Subaru for a long ride.

Mom surprised me by wanting to come along. Just like all travel for me, I’m happy with a travel companion or going solo. And I knew Mom and I are very compatible traveling. We’ve driven to Williamsburg, Va together, the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, traveled to all the major islands of Hawaii, and I drove us from Colorado to Florida and back numerous times.

There’s something about being on the road that brings out Mom’s stories from all the decades of her life. And her memory is phenomenal. Don’t worry, I finally figured out I could tape some of her stories on one of the 2,000 mile Florida to Colorado treks.

In contrast, what made this 3 hour trip fun was the preponderance of red cars. It was an ongoing joke both ways! Most of the trip was two-lane country roads, but nearing our destination, the traffic was horrendous. Being a Florida native, I avoid the coasts during the busy months, November through April. We were in the height of snowbird season in late February. At the many stoplights nearing the beach we’d count 4, 5, even 6 red vehicles! And we’d laugh and laugh about this silly coincidence. It made the hours fly by.

How About You?

Do you have a car story? Or maybe a story where you keep seeing people who have something in common with you? Tell me about it by sharing this post On social media and include my handle, @dawnoutside in Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. I know you have to get innovative in Instagram, but sharing my handle along with this photo will work.

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