Play time records

Paying attention to what's fun

I woke up recently thinking about my “things I enjoy” notebook and how much it's helped me. I looked again at my current “things I enjoy” notebook. It's 3.5 x 5 inches - small but important.

I notice in taking the above photo that I still really enjoy having my soup in mugs.

And that reminds me…

Over 20 years ago I had a ceramic period. I learned to throw clay on the pottery wheel and make cups, bowls and other kitchen things. In a way it was an expansion on my kitchen sketchbook - as mentioned recently in this post.

Here's a look at a few pieces of the early pottery I made that we still have around the house.

I kept a “things I enjoy” notebook more than 20 years ago too. In that notebook I had noted that the pottery wheel throwing part and the making patterns in the glaze part were fun. Creating clay sculptures was fun too…. But I didn't enjoy the clay firing process. And I missed my animal drawings. So I learned methods of applying my drawings to pottery. I did some animal sculptures too. I persisted long enough with all of it (I exhibited my ceramics in galleries) to do it well enough that I knew I wasn't wanting to quit ceramics just because it was hard or had un-fun parts of the process. Consistently in my “enjoyable things” notebook I had remarked that the drawings I did in my sketchbook in preparation for my clay work were more fun for me to do than my ceramics themselves. So I retired from ceramics.

Around 2008 I discovered that a company called Zazzle could apply my drawings to ceramic cups and that has worked out well. I get to do my drawings *and* the result is an original, practical, use-it-put-it-in-the-dishwasher piece of art for the kitchen! Plus these cups (and other things) are only made when they're ordered from my Zazzle shop - so I'm still getting to do the limited editions fine-art-y thing!

Here's a drawing I've been working on in my sketchbook this week during breakfast. It has a porcupine character as a “hello” for one of our dear friends…

Here's a scan of my drawing.

Here it is on a 20 ounce giant mug in my Zazzle shop. I chose a jumbo sized mug because Porcupine has a lot to be grateful for - 😆 - and of course it'd hold a decent amount of soup.

As the week has continued I've worked on other drawings related to this topic of paying attention to things I enjoy.

I hope you too will notice and nurture the things you enjoy this weekend.

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