Sunday Sketches (from England)

It's been fun experimenting and playing around with my paints and planner these past few days. In my last post, I mentioned starting a new routine of planning out my days to better stay on track of my illustration goals, as well as my life in general with being a wife and mother. This week, I'd like to share a little more about it with you.

On April 18th, 2014, my life was flipped upside-down after being hit by a car while sitting at a stop light. When reflecting back to that moment, it all rolls through my mind as if it happened just yesterday. All-in-slow-motion. I lost everything, except my life. The 10 months that followed were the most excruciating days of pain I had ever experienced. After arriving home, the couch became my bed for almost a year, while my husband and step-sons helped care for me. It was hard for me to face reality for awhile that life - well, it changed.

With that change came a lot of emotion and a (rising) determination to find a way through this unexpected heartache once again. I had already gone through and overcame some pretty crazy stuff growing up. This? This should then be a piece of cake! It was a far too familiar territory emotionally and was something I needed to do again. For myself and for my family.

The past two years or more have been spent carving out a new career for myself. Although I still deal with a lot of physical pain in my neck and shoulder, and am often limited to how long I can work due to intense head pain, I've managed to create a magical, creative world of work for myself. It wasn't what I had initially planned to do with my life but after putting in a lot of hard work (and still doing so!) I've been able to build up my small illustration business into a place where I can honestly say I'm truly happy with what I do. The best part?  The opportunity to bless others with my work along the way.

Planning A Better Life (Part I)
I've had to learn some new things along this creative journey of mine and one of them is planning better. I found myself over-committing, barely making deadlines, and running myself thin because I was too afraid to say "no" at times. Today, I'm OK with it and have learned to limit myself, carrying a better workload that's more suitable for me and my home life. Having a solid, planning process is important and recently learned about a specific one while taking an online children's book conference. Let me tell you just how much I love it! I combine practical planning with a few doodles, bringing joy and (more) pleasure to the daily tasks that can seem daunting at times.

Above is a peek at what I'm now doing. In my next post, I'll dive deeper into the brilliant planning book itself, my thoughts behind actually reviewing my planner every day and some tips on how you can make your daily planning just as fun and pleasurable! Until then, happy Sunday Sketches! I'm looking forward to popping in to each of your bloggie homes to see what you've been up to this past week.

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