Newsletter: November 2022

Three quotes I have been thinking about

Hello dear ones

Hope you are all enjoying the crisp air of November. I love the months of October and November. The crisp air, the leaves changing, everything is cold but warm, and the possibility of snow! So good!

Updates about me:

 

My collaboration work with Malika Yasmin is going to hit the markets soon. I am so excited!!! We had some glitches on the way, most recently with the local print shop that I used to work with so we had to find a new print shop which was super stressful. But things worked out and we found an online print shop. This also gave us some extra time to think about the packaging as we did not want to use plastic for our recipe cards and we found something biodegradable, and local that we feel super good about. yay! So stay tuned! 

I also bought a website to launch my stationery shop despite my thousand doubts and fears. I will be building my wholesale/ retail stationery shop in December to launch it in January. I learned so much from my wholesale class this September and I am feeling a tad bit more confident that I can work on wholesale. And it is possible to financially support oneself through their art. 

Ok, onto funner things.  I want to share three quotes with you that have been resonating with me lately.

The first quote is:

I am not sure where I heard that. I think it was from a podcast but I cannot remember which one. To me, it is a reminder not to leave myself. Before I start drawing, I am already thinking it will suck and that I am wasting my time. When I am cooking, I am also thinking what I need to make next time, etc. One other thing this quote is helping me with is to not compare. I cant handle social media because I feel so anxious that I am not doing the things I should be doing or living the life I should be living but I keep reminding myself that I need to stay with myself. I need to be happy and so grateful for where I am in the stage of life.

Second quote that I am loving these days is:

This quote is from an article I came across, (of course I can't find it now). It had something to do with training the skiers. . One instructor mentions teaching his students to change their focus from ‘Don’t hit the tree’ to  ‘Stay on the path’ when they are going down and it makes such a huge difference. Man, this was revolutionary to me, this is such a great reminder for me to keep focusing on what I want to do. Create Art, make books, make things. Focusing on success and failure constantly just increases anxiety.  Just keep going towards the things you want to achieve in your life even if you are taking baby steps.

And lastly

  

This one is from the podcast ‘Hidden Brain’ episode ‘Reframing Your Reality’. I loved this episode, the psychologist Alia Crum explains the power of mindset. She talks about the harm of expecting things to be easy. To me, it reminded me that my life is unfolding exactly how it is supposed to be. Choosing to be an artist is a lot of work and full of disappointments. Thinking otherwise is not a helpful mindset. Similarly being a mom is hard work and expecting it to be easy is not helpful. It does not mean that there is no joy or delight in these roles, of course, there is, and that's why we keep going but it's hard, and that is the truth.

I wanted to recommend Malika’s Instagram for inspiration. She is really so inspiring to eat healthily and how to prepare food, so cooking meals at the last minute is easier. I feel so lucky because I really learned so much from her.

The Keeper: Just started reading this book. I know Kelcey from her amazing drawings on Instagram and now I am loving her book. She is a wonderful writer and her illustrations are so beautiful.

I really want to recommend listening to Hidden Brain. It’s such a wonderful podcast. I love this episode

That’s all my dear friends. I can’t wait to catch up with you in December. Meanwhile have a great rest of November, bake a cake, and go for long walks. Hugs to you all