Making Your Creative Practice Work FOR You
Weekly Wonder Drop 002 | Week 2 PROMPTS #100DaysofWonder2024
Well, this week went sideways in spectacular ways over here. 🫣 Anyone else?
Here’s the thing. Showing up for yourself and your creativity can be a grand adventure AND a gentle journey at the same time. It can be BOTH.
So many times I set myself up for overwhelm by telling myself it has to be either-or This or that. A or B. 31 or 32. Fabulous perfection or epic failure.
I’m learning that truth and beauty are so often found in the spaces and subtleties in between.
I have been LOVING seeing all your posts on Instagram and in the weekly chat threads. And the joy it is celebrating your progress, y’all I could not be more grateful to be on this adventure with you.
You are showing up brave and kind and your being itself is a work of art.
Speaking of in-between spaces, between Friday and Tuesday this last week I wound up sitting wrong (or reaching wrong) and twisting the heck out of my back. Seeing as I only have 2 moveable vertebrae to twist, that takes talent.
So I’ve been sharing your work and typing from my phone while lying on the floor with a heating pad much of the week.
I am only sharing this because no matter HOW well-planned and prepared you are or how many intentions you set, life happens. Super angry twisted backs happen.
Your mobile carrier (AT&T I’m looking at you) goes out for whole swathes of the country. Kids get sick. Loved ones need care. Day jobs drain the energy right out of you. We have hard days, frustrating moments, serious curve balls.
And I want to tell you something I wish someone would have told me years ago.
You have permission to change what your creative practice looks like. To change what this challenge looks like for you. To make it work FOR you.
Change isn’t failure. It’s growth. And growth, remembering back to my 7th grade biology class, is a sign of life.
Sometimes I fall into thinking that if something is harder, it must be better for me. It must be accomplishing more because it is hard.
And the inverse, if I simplify something, I am choosing the “easy way out” and that equals failing or at the very least, a side-eye from productivity experts.
But the ability to simplify things can be an art form all of its own.
Daily creative practice doesn’t have to be hard. Some stretching can be a good thing. Too much stretching can be too much of a good thing. And leave your creativity requiring heating pads on the floor.
Still. Sometimes I push back against my intuition rather than leaning into it.
Sometimes when I fight the hardest against my creative blocks, they get bigger and harder and more overwhelming.
But when I stop fighting them, the creative blocks seem to melt away.
Week 2: Weekly Wonder Drop
Remember, you have permission to change and make your creative practice work FOR you.
If it’s shutting you down or overwhelming you, change your position.
Make it easier. Simplify. Work smaller. Make a one-brush-stroke masterpiece. Squiggle a line. Mix a few colors on a page.
What are a few ways you can be kind to yourself and your creativity? How could you make your practice simpler?
Some days you can go all out and create a full page, others maybe a paint swatch is more fitting.
But around here, you can’t get it wrong. You have permission to make your creative practice fit your life. And your life is always moving and changing. You’ve got this!
Housekeeping Notes
In this part of our Weekly Wonder Drop, I’ll be sharing updates and news to keep us all on track as a community. The practical things. Announcements. Upcoming events. Things to get excited about.
COMING UP
JOURNEY Day 8 is Sunday, February 25th. You are welcome to follow any schedule you’d like but if you want to sync your practice to the calendar day, this is how it plays out. Also, don’t forget this is leap year. STREAM Day 12 is on February 29th, Leap Day! May we all leap into greater wonder and creativity!
TUESDAY 02/27 is our OPEN STUDIO Check-in Chat Thread for our paid subscribers. It will go live around 12 PM EST and stay live until Friday morning. We will check in on it daily. This is the place for works in progress, questions, and general feedback on your work related to the 100 Days of Wonder.
THURSDAY 02/29 is our weekly SHARE & CELEBRATE Thread for everyone. And it’s LEAP DAY too! It will go live at 10 AM EST and stay open until Saturday afternoon so you can post your favorite work from the week (related to the 100 Days of Wonder). You can upload multiple photos to your post.
We will be popping in several times through that period to encourage as many of you as possible, but this is primarily a space for you to connect, meet new friends, and encourage one another! The only thing we ask is to keep it kind and supportive, and respect people’s intellectual property. It isn’t the place for critiques, just celebration. 🎉
If you are on Instagram and are comfortable doing so, please share your work with us there by using the #100daysofwonder2024 hashtag when you post.
All my love,
Content Below This Line is a Preview of the Kind of Content Paid Subscribers Receive. (It will be paywalled from Week 3 Onward.)
This section will include behind-the-scenes content, the extended prompts, and a look at my process as I work through the prompts myself.
Our Extended Prompts
These are additional ideas you can create around or ways you can engage with the one-word prompts. They are meant to be diving boards into more of your own ideas.
Also, you can mix and match. Maybe you want to combine Days 1, 2, & 6 and sketch out your 3 favorite forest animals having chamomile tea while daydreaming.
There is no way to get these wrong. And it is more than ok to keep it simple or only do the prompts that speak to you and light you up.
Day 8: JOURNEY
A winding road leading to a distant place.
Various kinds of transportation.
A map with a marked journey.
An abstract representation of an emotional journey
A snapshot from a time you traveled
Day 9: BUTTERFLY
Document the life cycle of a butterfly
Close-up of the pattern on a butterfly wing
A kaleidoscope (group) of butterflies in motion
Abstract florals that attract butterflies
A butterfly wing-inspired color palette
Day 10: TEA CUP
Antique teacups stacked on a shelf as a still-life
A whimsical tea party in a garden or forest
A teacup as a boat or home for a tiny creature
Design your own tea cup china pattern
Represent different emotional states or feelings as various types of tea being poured into teacups
Day 11: SKIES
Imagine the sky as a giant canvas where events like comets, eclipses, and meteor showers are brushstrokes.
Illustrate clouds as castles or magical buildings, characters, or stories.
Sunrise sky over the water
Abstract depiction of a sky at dawn or dusk
Stormy skies
Day 12: STREAM
A babbling brook in a forest
Close-up of water flowing over rocks
A stream of emotions, data, resources
A stream with a waterfall
lllustrate fairyland creatures that guard or inhabit a stream.
Day 13: MEADOW
A meadow in spring
Meadow flowers as a botanical illustration
A meadow at dawn with fog
A meadow with a cottage
Abstract meadowscape focusing on color
Day 14: CAROUSEL
A carousel with whimsical creatures
A closeup of one carousel horse or animal
A carousel-inspired color palette
A carousel of luggage where each of the bags represented something
A carousel of images telling a story
Behind the Scenes
Well as mentioned, this week went all pear-shaped. It happens on occasion, and ironically enough, it is actually part of the journey. See what I did there?
I have LOVED seeing your creativity and sharing as much of your work as I can each day.
To be very transparent, I haven’t done my formal “Journey” illustration as much of the week has been me on the couch or floor with a heating pad. But I have been thinking and reflecting a whole lot about journeying.
Here are some of the things I’ve been thinking about:
The word journey was the English definition of “safari” where I lived in Central Africa.
Our journeys are rarely straight lines. My journey is filled with full-circle moments like these moringa trees. The first grew on our land in Africa. The one below is in my cottage garden here in Florida.
Usually, the things I think I’m going to do tomorrow take about a decade to become what they are meant to be.
Case in point, in 2013 I started a little newsletter subscription called The Art Cafe Online that was basically The Wonder Habit™ before TWH existed. Let’s just say it was about 10 years before it’s time… and mine. 🤣
Journeys aren’t just about the destinations we reach, they are about who we become along the way.
I wonder… if you were to picture your creative journey as a line, what kind of shape or shapes would it take? What does that shape speak to you?
Here’s a fun little doodle I did showing what I think my journey should look like vs. what it actually looks like. 😉
This is a great warm-up and another way to consider creating around the prompt JOURNEY. Also, you can mix and match prompts if you want to create 2-3 days a week.
Some of the prompt combos I find interesting are:
JOURNEY + STREAM + BUTTERFLY + MEADOW
TEA CUP + STREAM + JOURNEY + SKIES
BUTTERFLY + MEADOW + CAROUSEL + TEA CUP
TEA CUP + MEADOW + SKIES
I am so excited to see what each of you will create!
Please don’t forget to tag #100daysofwonder2024 on Instagram if you share because I can’t wait to cheer you on there as well!
With all my heart, Michele
Thank you so much Michele. You are a Wonder for me right now. I so needed you words today. I have totally overwhelmed myself and was ready to quit. I've never learned to wonder or keep it simple....and life has to be hard and perfect, too, or I am a failure....and I am 80. So living this way has taken its toll on my health for sure, but you give me hope that God is leading me to a new way of living. I pray I can be patient and gentle with myself and create a simple plan for the100 Days of Wonder that works for me and then be able to accept it when life happens and I must choose to let go. Blessings and prayers for healing, Michele from Nancy
Ah, the journey.
Full of stops and starts.
Ends & beginnings.
Certainly not a straight line!
More like giant zigs & zags!
With retirement I find myself searching, once again, for the right medium, but it doesn’t seem to exist. Instead there is, in its place, a creative home-made life-style that infects everything sewing, cooking, knitting, gardening. Making everything.
It is good to be back in this 1970s place. Stay patient, stay peaceful, stay positive. Keep dancing!
If you don’t you’ll never know.
No regrets on this journey
💕