Lady Cinnamon Sugar
And other sweet things in life
When Sir Buttermore (my art in a recent newsletter) appeared my friend
asked “Where's Lady Cinnamon Sugar?” I replied “Probably still powdering her nose.”It took a few morning breakfast sketching sessions but here’s Lady Cinnamon Sugar appearing on toast.
During the several mornings I worked on Lady Cinnamon Sugar I thought about how our brains work. Humans form habits easily, including habits of attitude, and then we see and feel what we expected to see and feel.
I remembered my adopted Dad, a psychiatrist, telling me when I was in my early 20’s bemoaning the process of finding love and happiness “If you want love practice loving. If you want happiness practice happiness. These are skills that can be practiced like painting or playing the piano.”
Well, that didn't make much sense to me at the time and I said so. He explained (and elaborated over the years) and I paraphrase “We practice by paying attention every day to what we love and find pleasure in - even if it's just that your favorite socks are clean. Keep lists of things you enjoy and bring those things to mind often. This creates a mental habit of looking for what’s going well. It primes your pump so you're able to see and accept good things when they happen. We get more of what we focus on. Love is clarity of perception and accuracy of your responses to the world. Happiness is the state of mind we have when life gives us what we're willing to accept.”
When I collected and illustrated Dad's book “Dr Bob's Emotional Repair Program First Aid Kit" this was explained further but that's the gist.
So over the years I've kept many lists of things I find pleasant. Pictured below is the book containing my currently ongoing list. By keeping a list like this I'm not requiring myself to feel happy or any particular way I'm just making a brief note of something I appreciated. I've noticed over the years of keeping these lists that even very bad days often had something nice in it too and sometimes that awareness helped me get through.
I try to write at least one thing in this book every day. Here's one of the recent pages.
Because it's enjoyable to think about them in the mornings many of the things I learned from my adopted Dad and Mom regularly end up in my morning sketchbooks. Like this one I did this week during another morning after I'd finished Lady Cinnamon Sugar.
This is also true of my recently published sketchbook A M Sketching- drawing done at breakfast. Here's two pages with examples of essence-of-adopted-Dad/Mom-thoughts in my book .
BTW I shared an ebook version of my printed sketchbook A M Sketching- drawing done at breakfast here.
The peace mandala drawing turtle that I began drawing in last week's newsletter got finished a bit at a time over several breakfasts this week.
Yes, drawing is regularly listed in my lists of the enjoyable sweet things in life. I also enjoy sharing the fun with other people - like the live-drawing session I'll be doing Saturday Dec 9 from 1 to 3 pm at my local independent bookstore Vintage Books! Here's a video of me drawing so you can see what I'm talking about.
Here's the finished ink drawing that only took a few more minutes beyond what you're seeing in the video. At Vintage Books my finished drawings can be framed on the spot in frames handmade by the Aurora Gallery - an example is on the right side in this pic.
BTW: what you see in the video is an example of how I draw in my morning sketchbooks.
Welcome to all of my new subscribers! Thank you especially to my new paid subscribers - you're support of my art supplies budget is very appreciated! Please visit my index of ebooks (click here) that I've written and illustrated and download whatever you like. There are 12 titles there now and more will come!
I hope your weekend is enjoyable and contains many moments of sweetness!
P.S. in the bold font below are quick direct links to my two most recent printed books in case you want to order for delivery by Dec 25 😁:
This is so great Sue. The list of enjoyable things - and the way you illustrate them - is really inspiring. I do believe that where we put our focus is often what gets magnified and it's so easy to put it on worry and stress but so valuable to put it on what's working and what gives us joy.
Hurray for Lady Cinnamon Sugar!! The rest of my day will be sweet. I like your idea of a list of enjoyable things. There are so many enjoyable things I encounter on a day-to-day basis. I should start writing them down!