So, I am doing The 100-Day Project Challenge again; my second attempt at this creativity "habit building" exercise. You can read more at the above link; or just choose "a creative thing" to pursue for 100 consecutive days... and then use #the100dayproject as one of your first three tags so others on Hive and other social media can find you!
Today is a combination post for Days 17 & 18.
The first stone, started yesterday
Not My Finest Hour:
Sometimes I can't help but wonder whether I am suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder. Or the "Winter Blues." Or whatever it is people get during the dark time of the year that causes them to feel lethargic and not very creative.
Of course it could be that I was a bear in some other lifetime, and this is the time of the year when I'm supposed to hibernate… and some kind of long buried genetic memory is telling me that I should be sleeping rather than trying to force myself to stay awake and do creative things.
Yes, I know, that all sounds like a load of nonsense... but I'm just trying to find a few reasons and justifications for why I just can't seem to get myself in gear these days.
In process...
Today's Creative Endeavor:
I started working on a stone yesterday afternoon, and then some really heavy dark clouds moved in and a rather substantial snow started to fall and it got rather dark in my corner, and i stepped away.
In the end, this post actually will include two stones I worked on.
Getting close...
The first one was the smaller pale stone which I originally was going to do in Reds and oranges and yellows, but instead ended up focusing on green, perhaps because i needed to see something green and all the whiteness of the snow.
The stone was actually a little bit rougher than I normally like to paint on, which I tried to ignore at first call Robert which ended up irritating me for the second half of painting the stone.
All in all, I'm not unhappy with the way it turned out, and it'll certainly look better once it gets its finish coat.
Not sure what I was starting
The second stone ended up being sort of experimental, and for a while there I wasn't really sure where I was going.
I wanted to do something with the compass points, and I wanted to do something that carried on a color delineation that spanned several bands of color.
Something is taking shape...
In the end, I think it turned out fairly well although I'm not entirely 100% happy with the fact that the design is a little bit off balance. But that's the sort of perfectionist tendencies that most other people wouldn't even notice.
When all is said and done I'm happy enough with having completed 2 stones in two days. Still staying on task!
The 2nd stone, with painting completed
Minding the Store(s):
In terms of actually working on updating any of the online shops it was a complete miss for yesterday and today.
But I did spend some time working on the beginnings of tax accounting for 2024 for Alchemy Stones and that does have to count for something… that's just not the part of the challenge that I was expecting!
Social Media Musings:
Short version, social media continues to annoy me... and I have having some connectivity issues.
"Sorry, we do not recognize the device you are using. For security purposes, please log into your account, using the code we sent to your registered email address."
F$&!)( you!
*Seen from directly above *
Final Thoughts for Today:
I feel like I should apologize for being grumpy and in a bad mood, but I am grumpy and in a bad mood.
I set forth on 2025 in the hopes and plans that it was going to be an improvement over 2024 and so far it's actually sucking wind even more than 2024 did.
One of the things I'm learning about myself that's part of doing this is that I tend to get disgruntled and discussed it in the face of poor results rather quickly. It was one of the reasons I quit a number of jobs many years ago; that sense of futility where it feels like you're working really hard and you're getting absolutely nothing for your efforts.
But hopefully I can keep plugging along and have something good come out of it in the end!
I appreciate you coming to visit and please do leave a comment if you feel so inclined!
Thank You!
If you enjoy painted rocks, do check out The Hive Rocks Project and help spread the word about Hive, while also being creative!
Because I am trying to make some semblance of income — a part time living, even — I now add this footer to all my posts, in the hope that someone, somewhere, might decide to take a further look at my work, and perhaps consider supporting independent art.
Thank you, in advance, for your consideration and support!
My Alchemy Stones Patreon appeal
Alchemy Stones web site and blog
Regardless, your upvotes and comments are always appreciated!
Thank you for supporting independent art & creativity!
2025.02.06 AS-TXT-320/290
