Shoo Fly, I’m Writing

April 28, 2017 | Coleen Patrick

How do you conquer the blank page? Are you a cat or a dog (or perhaps a bug aficionado) person? We don’t have any pets right now, other than some free loading spiders in the garage, but I spend a lot of time drawing animals.

Hope you have a smashing weekend! *

HAPPY FRIDAY!

* No creatures were harmed in the making of this cartoon. 🙂

P.S. – Just listed 2 new illustrated cards in my Etsy shop! For the rest of April take 10% off your order with this coupon code: SPRINGCOLEEN10

Illustration Friday Challenge: Wisdom (a Book Made Me Do It)

March 29, 2016 | Coleen Patrick

Sometimes a book inspires me to action

Wisdom as prompted by Illustration Friday‘s weekly art challenge.

This challenge got me thinking about those books that I read

that inspired me to fill my fridge with enough produce to make a five-pound bowl of parsley salad. Or buy running shoes. Or a tent. Or art supplies. Or the sequel to the book. Or follow the author or illustrator on every social media platform (it’s not stalking if they put the icons on their website).

All in an effort to stay in the zone

of inspiration

and

discovery

(which a lot of times is pretty cool and rewarding)

but occasionally means

gaining the wisdom to know that I will never be a champion of parsley salad.

What are you reading? What book inspired you to take action?

Right now I’m reading Running Like a Girl, but Alexandra Heminsley. I have no plans to sign up for a marathon, but I may have researched running gear. Just a tad.

The One Where I Compare Myself to a Prickly Porcupine

January 22, 2016 | Coleen Patrick

This week I spent hours researching website logos.

I already have a logo, but I just wanted to tweak mine, maybe find a little inspiration, make it somehow more representative of me.

Well, at least that’s what I told myself. I’m pretty sure though that I went looking for validation.

On the internet. *sigh*

Yup. I went against all my Poltergeist quoting and went directly into the internet light.

But it’s so shiny (and don’t forget the entertaining cat around the bend).

And of course, I find super amazing, beautiful mind-blowing websites that make me wonder why am I not a marine biologist who takes her flying ship into the sky to paint sparkly whales swimming with the clouds?

Um yeah.

Sometimes I forget that I get to be me.

This is me. The smaller 1970s version. But a lot is still the same.

Obviously blue haired dolls make me smile/feel grateful/feel as if I have a special super power. But so does writing for kids and teens. And drawing. Then there are cookies and Scottish Breakfast tea and of course my family and road trips, and taking pictures, and people who are funny.

Okay so I’m also stubborn. And prickly, especially before I have my coffee (but I’m still a morning person, just don’t try to have a conversation with me). But there are advantages to these powers. I’m sure of it.

Porcupine in a snowstorm (I added snow to this drawing due to current snowmageddon forecast)

I love feeling inspired by the world around me (including stuff on the internet), but Teddy (Mr. Roosevelt or President, if you’re feeling proper) said it best:

“Comparison is the thief of joy.”

So for the sake of blue haired dolls and cookies everywhere (and YAY joy!), it’s for the best that I get back to writing and drawing and other stuff, i.e. being me.

#grateful

Do you ever forget that you get to be you? Are you a morning person?

We Bought a House! With an Inside Barn Door!

December 10, 2015 | Coleen Patrick

We bought a house!
It’s kind of in the country (or country-ish, as we’ve been saying).

So now we have a city and a country house. Not on purpose though. We actually need to sell the city house. Anyone looking for a big house in the capital city of Virginia?

It’s got refinished hardwood floors…

HGTV moment when we discovered we had hardwood under the vinyl in our foyer. #InstantCharacter
So in addition to the downsizing and the painting I mentioned last time I posted, we’ve been updating, renovating, cleaning, and moving.

And there’s been lots and lots of road trips, if you count driving 45 miles round trip between houses as a road trip (or the 60 miles round-trip to the large metro shopping area). Oh and if you count the many times I’ve accidentally passed our new exit. Because I’m not used to driving so many highway miles just to go home, I get in a zone, like I’m headed to Key West or something. And every time I do that, it’s a 12 mile mistake…with no beach or mojito.

Was probably thinking about Key West when I painted this canvas.

But our new house is cool. It’s smaller and has one less bathroom to clean, Yay!

Plus, IT HAS A BARN DOOR.

INSIDE!

It’s like my Pinterest boards came to life!

I’ve posted about my fascination with barns, I love them. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s like my main character Grace from my Chasing Normal series said:

There’s just something so stable about barns. 😉

So lately we’ve been living life like an episode of Property Brothers meets Fixer Upper. And it’s been fun and exciting, but a MAJOR change.

Dear hub likes to say, There’s no crying in moving/renovating. Oh but there’s been tears. Happy. Sad. All kinds. So much is different. After 20 years in the same house, we’re in a new one.
And get this, I have an outside mailbox.
Ok so most people probably do. But in our old house we had one of those mail slots in our front door, so basically I tripped over the mail every day.

Now I forget that I need to check the mail box.
Oh and I don’t know if this is a country-ish thing, but we have this spider that can play dead. And she’s living in our mailbox. She rolls onto her back when I open the mailbox. Of course I told her she can’t live in the mailbox and carefully prodded her with a leaf until she left.

But the next day I met her kids.
So I don’t get the mail if the sun has gone down.

Sunset behind our new country-ish neighborhood.

And considering I broke a finger when I was 18 during a spider encounter, I’d say this is PROGRESS.
And progress is good.

So is having my kids home for the holidays.

A Happy Thanksgiving photo op.

And planning a real road trip—we’re going to New York City in a couple of weeks to visit dear daughter and have some family fun.

Plus I’m making time to be creative. I’ve got a new book coming out soon and I’ve been doodling.

A doodle for Hanukkah

And painting. And decorating. And baking. And button gluing (turns out this is meditation for me).

I just like to make stuff.
That’s one thing that hasn’t changed at all.

What’s new with you?

Also, if you go outside to get your mail, are mailbox tenants something to be expected?

Happy Thursday!

Finding the Big and Tiny on the Avenue of the Giants

July 13, 2015 | Coleen Patrick

Since we got home from our Pacific Northwest vacation last month, I’ve basically been busy in a “middle place”.

There’s been some ~~pulling books out of the brain~~ writing.

Saw this artwork – Allocation of Memory by Malia Landis – in a Eureka, California bookstore.

But there’s been more working at the library and house stuff. Did I mention we’ve started the process to downsize from the big house we’ve lived in for 20 years to a smaller one? #emptynestchanges

Yup, another winding, somewhat foggy journey.

But like the road above, the journey has got some cool stuff to discover.

Avenue of the Giants, California

Ever since we visited the Redwoods, the idea of big vs. small has been on my mind.

Especially because lately there’s been so much living in the in between space. There’s the daily work that has to happen–and even the stuff that perhaps doesn’t (the part where I become one with my TV).

A crab at Shelter Cove beach in California (Sometimes I’m crabby and like to hide too).

The middle, at least for me, is not really the place where I do creative stuff. But sometimes I really like when I have work that makes me feel mindless. Where I can take a break from thinking, I suppose.

Drive thru tree. Do not try this at home.

But then there’s that big and small thing. I love when I discover and enjoy those really small things. Maybe it’s a great cup of coffee. A new book. Or maybe, you happen upon a quirky realtor at an open house, who drives a mini Cooper (complete with British flags covering the side mirrors) and tells you a funny story (in an accent of course) and just makes you laugh.

Or you find a TINY snail on a leaf in the middle of all those giant Redwoods.

Then there’s the big. For me the Big Picture is made up of the dreams and hopes and awesomeness (read: whatever is your personal fairy dust) that honestly make me feel like ME.

When I first walked through the forest of gigantic trees, I thought, It’s nice to be tiny. I could breathe (and it wasn’t just the woodsy freshness). In that moment, I wasn’t in charge. And honestly, I felt relief.

I can just be.

But then lately, as I step away from the middle place and participate in my BIG: write, doodle, find the story in a photo.

Create.

I feel relief too. And I need to make the time for my big stuff–as well as note all the good in the tiny joys

Another Redwoods snail

–because then, not only can I just be,

I can just be me. 🙂

Note: The Avenue of the Giants has a picnic spot and Los Bagels in Eureka, California is a great spot to grab a gluten-free lunch before driving down.

They have giant gluten-free cookies too!

What tiny joys make you smile? Have you experienced the Redwoods?

Happy Monday!

Warning: Photos May Cause Dizziness

May 12, 2015 | Coleen Patrick

I like to play with photo prompts on Instagram

and this week one of those prompts was upside down.

Birds at Fountain Lake here in Richmond.

So I flipped this photo

and something about the birds flying into the bottom corner made my brain buzz

(and maybe made me feel a tad dizzy.)

Pipeline walk in downtown Richmond.

As much as I get a certain routine comfort in knowing I can plant myself on the couch in front of the TV at night,

eat the same salad,

make the same gluten-free chocolate chip cookie dough (oh the burden),

or walk the same pipeline,

crackling synapses can be pretty cool.

Virginia Beach Pier

And oh how I crackled (and snapped and popped) at the feedback I got from the story I’m working on now.

Let’s just say I had to remove a couple of “pier legs”.

But the structure is way better.

Thanks to a new perspective.

Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg National Military Park

Wishing you a Happy Tuesday!

And Happy National Odometer Day (thinking about this holiday oughta keep your brain fires stoked).

What’s got your brain firing and crackling?

Creative Seeds: The Stuff That Makes Me Curious

September 22, 2014 | Coleen Patrick

This is my office. The clean side.

Thank you to my friend Karen McFarland for tagging me in her post about Inspiring Spaces!

So, I write in my office. My office has books, pictures, quotes, and so many writing utensils you might believe I’m preparing for some kind of apocalypse. Well, the kind of apocalypse where one is not SO preoccupied with survival that they may like to sit and write, or doodle, for a bit. (Perhaps, a creative apocalypse?)

Oh and there’s some ladybug stuff in my office. Because ladybugs inspire me too.

But then there’s the creative inspiration outside of the office.

The stuff that makes me curious.

A tree grows in Vermont.

And maybe plants a creative seed.

Centuries old Tulip Poplar log on Saunders-Monticello Trail in Charlottesville, VA

I love the kind of curiosity that leads to the funny

That’s dear hub checking out the poop on the Sawmill Run portion of the Appalachian Trail

I told him it was poop (aka wild animal scat) but he didn’t believe me. 🙂

But I understand wanting to take a closer look at nature.

An Appalachian Trail bee

A praying mantis on my porch

Oh and I got a curious kick out of the kids at the park who were fascinated by my hub The Fisherman

They had A LOT of questions about fishing.

Oh and there was some brain sprouting at my son’s school.

It was Family Weekend and I attended a geology class and while I’m sure that the subject is fascinating I couldn’t get over how note taking has changed in twenty years.

There were more electronics than paper and pen. Trees will be happy, but how will people survive the creative apocalypse?

Family. I find a lot of inspiration with my family.

And sometimes in a little Fro Yo. Why not?

What’s inspiring your work this week?

Happy Monday!

Climb Every Mountain with Courage (and Cookies)

July 25, 2014 | Coleen Patrick

Three years ago today I crossed the bridge from blog reader to blogger.

Cornish-Windsor covered bridge, Vermont (and New Hampshire)

I was scared, but I had a plan when I published my first post, There’s No Place Like the Prairie.

I wanted to create my author-ly space here on the internet (aka author platform),

A place to hang my quirky creative brand hat

not that I could define it at the time

Mini me wearing one of my first quirky hats

Oh and I didn’t have expectations

or, if I did, I didn’t know what publishing my thoughts, my books, my photos (hey an audience that doesn’t require a family room and a slide projector!) would actually feel like.

Some of my 1,095 Hey I’m a writer! days were pretty awesome