Hello there,
The weather has been wet and stormy in San Francisco and this week there was a downpour on the 3rd that I got stuck in.
I’ve been away for a while, but I wanted to touchbase and see how you’re all doing. What have I been up to?
The Happy Poet Studio
Since November, I’ve been working on my Etsy shop, which features some of my original art and creative Canva designs.
I desire to design hoodies, t-shirts, notebooks, and bags. These are the things I use the most in the my daily life, and these are things that bring me joy.
For the past few weeks, when I’m not drawing I’m creating pins for my Pinterest or buying a bag of donuts.
Watching Movies
About once a week, I’ve been going to a movie. I have an AMC pass so I like to take advantage of my 3-movies-a-week membership.
My Top 3 Fav Movies I’ve seen recently are:
–Poor Things
5/5 My Kinda Humor, My Kinda Story
–The Boy and the Heron
5/5 Stars, Amazing
–The Iron Claw
4/5 Stars, Good but depressing
iPad Air (5th Gen) and Adobe Fresco
In December, I decided to push my boundaries and I got and iPad Air. I have a cozy apartment so there is limited space for art supplies and I’ve been getting the itch lately to create so this was the perfect fit.
I’m spending about 30 minutes to an hour every day drawing and painting in Adobe Fresco on the iPad Air and it’s a load of fun.
The textures look real, the water colors are amazing, and the charcoals are fabulous. Below is a painting I did inspired by Bob Ross’s “Winter Russet.” I worked alongside the YouTube video of the episode which helped a ton.
What am I reading?
Axe Handles by Gary Snyder. This collection of poems is crisp. Snyder is one of my top favorite poets and whenever I come across poems of his I haven’t read, I need to immediately chew and consume them.
Music?
My December Spotify playlist is meager (understatement) and I’m working on my January 2024 list already. My goal is to hit around 25 songs and see if there’s an underlying theme/mood to it.
I try to build my playlists to reflect my mood during that month and I have over 3 years of playlists now, so it’s nice to have an soundtrack journal of the past.
What’s Next?
I’m writing a lot still and aiming for about 30,000 words a month. I’ve got poetry on my mind and a few short stories I’m playing with and of course there’s my half-finished novel and then that finished novel I still need to edit to completion (for the 10th time, I swear).
There isn’t enough time to do all the things I wanna do, but I’m gonna try.
Signing off,
Alina
The Happy Poet