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 Day 3.
Today's painting endeavor: A "Soulmate Stone."
Low Value?
A few days ago I was reading a post about value and people creating "low effort" posts because they were all the same. In this case, they were mainly referring to Actifit posts which — I admit — are often short and have little actual content beyond the basic statistics.
But there are also Actifit posts that quite long and detailed, where the Actifit posting interface is simply a "wrapper" for something far more complex. You can't just make a generalized assumption about such things.
Which got me to thinking about writing and creative challenges — like this one — that follow a specific format. Are "5-minute freewrites" necessarily "low effort?" Are 100-Day Project posts necessarily "low effort?"
Fact is that a lot of really high value content around the web is inherently "formulaic," and yet very popular.
/end reflection...
You can even SEE this surface is a bit coarse
Today's Creative Endeavor:
I got rather wrapped up in sorting things and getting ready to do more sales listings, but realized that I needed to stay true to the challenge... so took on a pale stone that has been sitting in my work area for quite a while.
Technically speaking, I felt it was "too rough" to paint, but it has an interesting pale line within the stone, and it was a good shape for a "Soulmate Stone."
I didn't get very far before I realized that it really was rougher on the surface than I like to work with... but I decided to persevere and see what turned out.
After all, if it were to be a complete dud, there's always a spot in the garden...!
Taking shape
In the end, it actually turned out better than I had hoped for (top photo), but it also took significantly longer than I was really interested in spending... but so it goes, sometimes. At least I got it done and out of my workspace!
Minding the Store(s):
Today continued with listing the remainder of the Heart Stones I got photographed yesterday, and that part is now done, except for the additional six stones that are sitting in the garage for their finish coating/drying process.
That part is taking a little longer than I had hoped because the weather remains quite cold, and temperatures below 40 degrees (about 4C) is less than ideal for the lacquer I use.
I'm going to wait another day... the forecast says we'll have some slightly warmer afternoons later this week.
The remainder of the Heart Stones got listed for sale today!
Social Media Musings:
This always seems to be the area I do not really get around to... and I have to conclude that I don't actually like social media, and — with the exception of Hive and a couple of other logging sites — I largely don't use social media; mostly it just annoys me.
Which is not such a good thing when you are in the marketing business.
Final Thoughts for Today:
So many things in life seem to take "longer than expected" and I suspect that's how we end up with things still on our to-do list, at the end of the day.
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!
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2025.01.22 AS-TXT-309/279