I have been thinking a lot about trying on a challenge I’ve seen around the web through the past couple of years. NaBloPoMo. It’s about writing a blog post every day for a whole month, to be specific, in November. It’s not “the best way” to run a blog in the long run, but it sure would be a challenge worth calling a challenge, don’t you agree?
NaBloPoM: A Blog Post Every Day Month
I have never considered something as crazy as this for the blog before, even with my 12 years of blogging, but I guess I feel like I’ve been in a blog funk for way too long now. Is it a year, or more? The blog funk is not about not having something to write about, but having way too many things I want to share and not getting it out there. Time. Taking the time. Giving time to this my darling blog I guess is what I’m saying. That means, I am not taking the time to write often enough. I don’t have a writing routine that works. I keep complaining about how I want to write, but don’t, so NaBloPoMo should be a good thing to try out, right? National Blog Posting Month, that is. BlogHer writes:
National Blog Posting Month. It’s about creatively challenging yourself. It’s about growing your readership. And it’s also about joining in, discovering other blogs, connecting with one another.
But then again, my word of the year, grace, is way way back in my mind and has not been something I have given myself a lot of these past months. And soon it’s time to pick a new word for 2017. In just two months it’s time to wrap things up, and I have a bit too much to wrap up I guess, most of it in my head…
What I need right now is not the pressure to publish online everyday, but something a bit more fun that could give me energy instead of stealing it. And then I saw someone mention AEDM on instagram today, and I was all: OMG, I had forgot about Leah’s awesome art challenge! Of course that is what I need. More art, a messy table, a couple of minutes each day – and something that I will want to share with you guys which will give me something I need to blog ASAP! Win win.
Art Every Day Month is in November
NaNoWriMo and this thing NaBloPoMo (so fun to say) is both in November, as well as Art Every Day month! I guess they planned it like that because it’s not just me who’s in a funk? Maybe we all need cheering up a bit when the weather gets colder, and in Sweden dark already in the afternoons… Yuck for the weather, but double Yay! for the pursuit of time to make more art.
My plan for the year was to make 1-2 collages a week every week the whole year, but that didn’t happen. I’ve finished less art than usual this year, because of circumstances, though I’ve learned a lot about keeping a sketchbook and painting watercolors. As usual when collage making goes down, other artistic expression is taking up more space in my life.
Anyway, on a whim and with no pre-planning, I decided to join in and do a piece of art every day. It’s going to be mixed media, because in my first piece that I already created today, I have used both collage, pen and acrylics, though I’m considering it collage as the main expression. I’ll talk more about my ideas and process in another blog post, but for now, as I’m really tired, I wanted to share that I’m joining AEDM 2016, for the first time in for ever (well, since I did i that one time back in 2010), and it feels so right for me right now!
On another note, if you join my Newsletter, you’ll get a free coloring page I doodled and scanned, sent to your inbox in a bit. As a thank you and happy Halloween greeting (yes I know it’s late but don’t focus on the negative now, okay)?
And if you’ve got the weekend free, or you’re on höstlov (autumn break) you should sign up for my DIY Postcard Swap Fall 2016 – we’ve got people joining from all over the world. Yes you might get a postcard from Canada, Finland, Sweden, US, Australia, UK, South Africa, Norway, Slovenia, France, or Germany, just to mention a few. Just sayin, sign up!
Happy November my friends!
Hanna! I have been feeling very much the same….wanting to do so many things, making goals to do them, even breaking the goals down in to mini-goals and tasks, and I’m still only accomplishing a small bit of what I set out to do. I have journaled about this in my private journal. The latest thought I had about it all was this: Maybe I set the bar too high for myself. But just by setting the bar, and then setting it high, I am (a) establishing something to aspire to, and (b) even if I only get part way there, it’s still progress. So, I’m with you on being gracious with myself! Thanks for pointing out the Art challenge…I just signed up! Looking forward to seeing what you create!
I didn’t know there was an official blog post a day month challenge but I’ve been doing it every October for three years. And I come away feeling glorious. It’s certainly a way to stop saying I don’t have time. I also made art everyday in September. And that was also very empowering. My inner child now trusts me to make time for her to play. I wrote some good posts on how I felt after these. I am in need of getting my newsletter on so you are inspiring me for that. Thanks!