slow blog // May 2016

This month, I took my Slow Blog outside to photograph it. I went down into the backyard on a sunny but cool afternoon this past week in the first days of June, and found a flat stone to lay the book on. Mittens was around, as you can see from the photo above. It was windy, and I had to hold the pages down to keep them flat. I like the effect that the sun through the grass and forget-me-nots ended up having on the pages, of shadows. And I like photographing the book in the sunshine. 

May was an interesting month, a busy month, looking back on it now from June. I had a job interview for a part-time job, then chose not to take it. (I wrote about it, you'll see that below.) It was busy - I have a few freelance clients right now, and there never seems to be as much time as I want there to be or plan for there to be. But also in the month I was thinking and mulling about that busy-ness, and about how to be, how to come across. I dunno -- in trying to sum it up now I'm not sure how. I'm only sure that I feel, on the other side of the month, as though I learned. I'm continuing to clarify ... who I am. What matters to me. What I want to spend my time on.

Anyway, I'll let the pages speak for themselves. 

(For reference, if you're new here: the post on why I'm trying this experiment for a year, then the slow blog posts in January, February, March, April.)

The part that's cut off in the page below just says "May 12":

Census fun! Haha..

The decorations on this page are from the Get To Work Book, which arrived this month. 

I taped them in so I can lift them, and write things under them. 

Like this.

Brain dump.

This is an idea I had that I would like to make into a vectorized graphic at some point. You might have seen me post it to Instagram earlier in the month.

This is a partial list... I was starting to come up with a variety of ideas about why I quit Facebook, but I keep thinking of others too. I'll snag them as they come, and perhaps write a longer piece about it... someday. So far, though, I'm not really missing it.

My friend Emily recently said something like, "Who knew that starting your own business would bring up all these emotions!?" Ain't that the truth.

I cut some things from a Chatelaine magazine. I'd like to do more collages... I miss it.

Doodles and thoughts... and thoughts and doodles. Is graphic poetry a thing? Yeah, probably.

And that's May. 

Love!
Leah

slow blog // April 2016

Happy May! It's a beautiful sunny Sunday in my neck of the woods today, as I'm putting this post together. 

This year I'm experimenting with my own version of Slow Blogging. What I'm doing is blogging just once a month, sharing the month's pages of a sketchbook that I'm writing in, and collaging in, and generally treating as if it were my blog. 

If you're new to my blog and to this year's experiment, or if you just want a recap, here are the other posts: why I'm slow bloggingJanuaryFebruary and March.)

The way this works is, I'll share my sketchbook/slow blog pages one at a time in this post, and you can click on each image to view it in a lightbox if you need to (although it generally doesn't get bigger than what's in the post itself). Below each picture, if I feel it needs further explanation, I'll write a bit, or include links to whatever inspired me. Here we go!

At the start of the month I thought I would try a month-long lettering challenge, on Instagram. So these next few pages were my daily lettering pieces. I did the lettering and posted a photo to Instagram, and then I'd write around it, for my blog post. After about a week or two I lost steam, and interest, but it was fun while it lasted. 

Since I wrote the words above in this picture, I haven't been back to the gym. I've struggled with it, I'll be honest... struggled with letting myself let it go. Last year I was devoted to the gym, and got a lot out of it, out of going twice or three times a week. And then I just ... stopped. Stopped going, stopped caring, stopped wanting to go. I tried, a few times, to go back and get back into it but the passion is gone. I think I did it too much, or else, perhaps that phase is just ... over. And that's OK. But I hear Vampire Voices in my head for sure, saying I must go, that I have to stick with it. Oh ... well. 

More of the lettering...

And then... I quit Facebook. This post by Tiffany on her Instagram is what lit the spark, but I think really the kindling pile had been building. I gave myself a week to get ready for it, collect people's contact information and whatever else I felt I wanted to take with me. Then I scheduled my account for deletion. 

I helped out at a workshop by the local chapter of Ladies Learning Code, which was fun. 

My friend Leah Wechsler has this great free little e-course that comes to your email. From it, I found one sentence in particular really speaking to me.

Leah sent me a package in the mail! What a sweetheart. She got me this deck of cards, called The Daily Tending Divination Deck, by Mara Glatzel, and I've been putting it to good use. 

I find with Facebook gone, there is more time in the day to do creative things. Not a LOT of extra time, but little pockets of it here and there. 

And then of course there is Chase The Ace... the monstrous fundraiser that I've been volunteering at, for my work's sake. I took some unwinning tickets home with me after the last one and played around with them. 

Now my one remaining social media platform is my Instagram, and I'm pondering creating some sort of plan for it, to promote myself and my business a bit more. Above and below are my written-out thoughts on it and a start on a calendar. 

We'll see how it goes... I'm still on the fence about it. 

I've been using this desktop art by Sea of Atlas this month, and loving it, and it's got me thinking about making one too, that I can share with you guys.

This post by Alexandra Franzen, titled "Why I Do Not Use Social Media Anymore," is where the quote above comes from.

I find that now that I don't have Facebook in my life, I'm more curious about my own thoughts, and there is more room in my head to give them space to grow. I feel a bit like I've returned to what life was like pre-Facebook, and pre-crazy-Internet-on-every-device-all-the-time, when things were calmer and there was more time to just BE, yourself. And think your own thoughts. I didn't realize how necessary that is for my creative happiness! Until I gave up Facebook. 

Well, that was April 2016. I'm enjoying this experiment very much, and enjoying finding a way to blog and be online that suits me now, that suits who I am now. I look back to myself as a writer and a sharer during the Dream Big Cape Breton project and I'm grateful for it, but also I know deep down that I could not do the same level of intensity, the same level of sharing, anymore. 

And that's OK. 

See you here again at the end of May, and in the meantime, if you're an Instagram user, I'd love to say hi and chat with you there. I share photos and words of things that inspire me, bring me joy, or are just part of my daily life, on my account.

slow blog // March 2016

I was driving home this evening from work, and I was thinking about how when I got home I was going to get settled in to my office, put on some music, probably take off my pants, and upload these photos + write this post. And honest to god, I got excited! About blogging! Then I thought to myself, "I only post once a month, so I frigging-well better make it a good one!" And kind of laughed at myself. It's so funny to me, but funny in a good way, how this kind of blogging feels. I used to blog every darn day, over at Dream Big Cape Breton. And that burnt me out.

This, on the other hand, feels... so slow, so good. I look forward to that one day a month when I get cozy and put the blog post together.

And take my pants off.

Anyway! Here we are. The end of March and beginning of April, so it's time for another slow blog post. (Here are the others: why I'm slow blogging, January, and February.) The way this works is, I'll share my sketchbook/slow blog pages one at a time in this post, and you can click on each image to view it bigger if you need to. Below each picture, if I feel it needs further explanation, I'll write a bit, or include links to whatever inspired me. This month, I took the photos out on the deck, in the evening light, which felt so nice. The last two months I had to take the pictures after the sun had gone down, on my desk. 

Here we go!

This was made out of the cover of a Chatelaine magazine.

I think these words of Tiffany's were from an email newsletter she sent. I decided to draw some frangipani flowers around the time I started realizing my best friend was leaving soon for New Zealand.

I read "The Year of Yes" and this was the line that jumped out at me from the whole thing and demanded to be written down. Funnily enough, I wrote it down on St. Patrick's Day.

This page I drew after posting this picture on Instagram.

This is one of the worksheets from It's Business Time - in fact, it's the very first one. Tiffany encouraged me to fill it out again, in a call we had early in the month. So I did. The washi tape around the edges is from Get To Work Book.

I actually felt the urge to type out my thoughts in a blog post, something I haven't felt in ages. So I typed it in an email and emailed it to myself. 

Some thoughts on walking with Adam, and Instagram.

Sometimes my notebook just takes notes (top part of this page). Bottom part - this Instagram post by Jessamyn Stanley stuck with me, so I went back and wrote down the part that wouldn't let go of me. Then I sketched her a bit.

And this above and below was the part of this podcast where Tiffany interviews Sarah Von Bargen that stuck with me. 

This is the page I was drawing on in this video. 

And above are some thoughts for "a post I want to write at some point", although the truth is, someday is actually now. Or, now is yesterday's someday. Or, something like that?

Anyway, I was sitting there in my car the other day, going "man, I really want to start writing about this, and working my way through my feelings about it," and then I thought, "well, ya gotta start somewhere." So, even though being vulnerable about it makes me feel, well, vulnerable (and scared), I did. 

Well, that's it for March! I'm still loving this method of blogging. I feel like I'm just getting going with it, just starting to discover its joys. That's the neat thing about a "slow" anything - you don't see the rewards right away, instantaneously... but instead, they reveal themselves over time.

See you at the end of April! 

xo Leah

slow blog // February 2016

So! Here we are. One month later. Slow Blog Post #2: the month of February.

Like I did last month, I'll share my sketchbook pages one at a time in this post. You can click on them to view them bigger. Below each spread I'll write a bit about it, or include links to material. Also, this is the post I wrote about the idea of slow blogging and why I'm doing it.

So, above: The image on the left is from my 2016 Nikki McClure calendar. She is a hugely talented paper artist! I also have the January image in the spread below. I love her work and it feels slightly sacrilegious to cut up her work, but oh well. 

I had commented on this post by Stasia Savasuk, and she responded. So I printed off the comment and her response and highlighted the part that spoke to me the most. Then that's the illustration from the January page of Nikki McClure's calendar, because there wasn't anywhere to put it in the January section. 

As anyone who's been reading my stuff for more than a minute knows, I really love the work of Elise Blaha Cripe. This piece above is a print-out of her post "thoughts on busy". I go back and read it again and again.

Heart on the left is cut out of the Nikki McClure calendar page. 

The podcast episode is here.

No explanation needed. :)

Nor here.

Nor here.

This is drawn by a client at the Centre where I work. Every morning he comes to my office and draws this exact same picture. Perhaps this is the Universe answering me when I wrote on the previous page "Doing the work and being patient is HARD." The Universe is like, "Not really! Just do it over and over again."

This photo is cut out of the September 2015 Vogue. Have you heard "Formation"? I love it.

If the idea of no-cell-phone interests you, read this piece.  

My friend Nicole and I were talking about this, about LISTENING. 

This is from this podcast. Which was super, super good.

No explanation necessary - besides, I think a lot when I'm doing dishes, so I brought out my sketchbook to note some of them down!

Left: the receipt from Adam's and my anniversary dinner (5 years!). Right: a page from the book "The Inconvenient Indian" by Thomas King. 

Although I can't remember how or why I got signed up to Jeannette's newsletter, I'm so glad I did, because this line (right hand side of the page) really spoke to me. Like, stood up off the page and started talking to me, going "WRITE ME DOWN!"

And that's it for February! See you in March. :)

xo Leah

slow blog // January 2016

This is the start of it, the year of slow blogging! I went to Michael's, at the mall, and bought myself a sketch book. I used to use a sketch book in design school all the time, but I hadn't had the money in a while to get myself one. It wasn't a priority. But then I decided to change up how I blog, so it was necessary. 

I went with the cheaper one available. The least-fancy paper. I mean, I want something semi-fancy (not just a Hilroy spiral-bound notebook for three bucks at Walmart) but not so fancy that I feel like I must be precious with what goes onto the page. 

So mid-January, I began! You can click on the photos of the pages to see them bigger, to read what I wrote.

slowblog_January03-1.jpg

I drew this yellow metal flower that my friend Mel gave me once, long ago, for a birthday.

I realized that the Sharpie bleeds through the page. 

I tried one page in pencil. But then realized that I really prefer the Sharpie. (I use an Ultra Fine Point.)

I really love the work of Lisa Congdon (as well as her story, and her thoughts) so I signed up for a little online class where she teaches drawing. I've been thinking about illustration a lot lately, and wanting to do it more. This next page below is a continuation of the one above, in thoughts.

The next day I drew again from the little online class:

Then a few days later, at breakfast, I sketched my table, and wrote a bit:

When I finished the book "My Fight/Your Fight" by Ronda Rousey, I photocopied some of the photos I loved the most, and wrote out a few quotes. After my time last year learning how to lift weights, and being at the gym (a habit which is on hiatus at the moment, I think I burnt out a bit on it), reading Ronda's story of all her training and time dedicated to her goals was like, Wow. Intense. 

Lately I've been thinking a lot about intuition. About my gut twinges. About trusting them even when my intellect or my physical body or my ego may say an opposite message. Where do these messages come from? How do I know it's right? I don't know, I just know. This little picture came to me and I had to draw it out:

The organization I work for in my day job, Horizon Achievement Centre, is partnering with the Ashby Legion right now for a Chase the Ace. It's gotten big, and it's taking up lots of time. And I'm not even one of the staff who is heavily involved! 

I finished out the month with a quote from a book I'm reading about light (on Instagram I've got a hashtag project going called #leahloveslight). And, some thoughts on community and how I've been thinking I might have something to say on this topic, even if I'm not sure what it is yet. 

Looking back through the month, I realized that while I had good intentions, I totally didn't keep up with that little online class. That's OK. I just have to remember to cancel my membership to CreativeBug before they charge my credit card... it's only a few dollars, but it's a few dollars I don't have to spare at the moment. 

I'm excited about this documentation method, this writing method. That's a good sign! I like how when I'm writing in it, I don't have to be anywhere near a computer. It's just me and the page. But I still get to share my thoughts online, with you, and have current (ish) content. 

Let me know what you think of this method of blogging! I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

slow blogging

I thought I came up with this idea (slow blogging) but after a Google search it turns out I didn't. 

"I realized that the biggest thing holding me back from executing all of the exciting projects I had dreamt up (& truly growing my blog) was, in fact, making sure that my blog was on schedule." -Hoda Katebi, Joo Joo Azad
"There can be so much value in starting a conversation when you really have something interesting and/or useful/insightful to say, instead of just forcing yourself to keep up with daily content in the hopes of staying relevant and present...
"You don't work for your blog - your blog works for you and your goals, and the most important thing we can do is let it." -Jen Carrington

And even my favourite blogger, Elise, in her own way, is slow blogging right now, although she's not labelling it as such:

"Right now, I plan to update on occasion when I have something to say or something to share. It's funny - I blogged near daily for almost ten years. And when I took a break? I didn't miss it." -Elise Blaha Cripe.

***

I started writing online in 2002. That's almost fifteen years ago... and it will be in December. 

The online world looked a LOT different then. I remember coming across a blog called "Bluishorange" and being hooked, checking in every few days to read her posts about her life. She was just... writing. For the sake of it. There were no sales pages, no newsletter sign-ups, no free e-courses. Just... writing: Stories. Thoughts. (Mind you, this didn't seem weird, this non-sales-yness, because there wasn't the Internet of Today to compare it to.)

I loved blogs. I tried it out for myself. I kept it up and kept at it as the years passed and the Internet evolved. I switched from a purely personal blog to a blog with a mission (Dream Big Cape Breton) which I wrote for three years. Then I got real burnt out on it, and stopped. 

Then I moved in to this new home on the Internet, this blog you're reading now. And I did so as a business, as Leah Noble Design. With ideas for how to blog as a business, but also with a long history of blogging from a personal place. 

Cut to: today. Early 2016. Here I am, spending a lot of time thinking about my blog and what I want it to look like now. I still like writing, and being online, but I'm also sort of burnt out on the Internet in general. On the "sales-y" ness of it. I read this post by a gal named Michelle Gardella, recently, and it just hit home like an arrow:

We tell the kids to stop fidgeting, we tell our husbands to shift into the good light, and we sell. Oh boy, do we sell. 

***

So if I don't want my blog to be all sales-y (totally a term, by the way), what do I want?

I want my blog to be a place people can read my writing. To be a place they connect with me, and me with them. I want it to be a place potential clients check me out, see what I'm all about, get a sense of who I am. But I also want it to be a creative outlet for me. I want the stuff I share here to be good, to be something I'm proud of, not hastily put together on the run.

So, that brings me to "slow blogging." I had an 'a ha!' moment last week when I thought I invented the term, but then Google showed me the error of my ways, as Google often does. 

But rather than blog once a week, as some of the people who have written about slow blogging suggest, I actually want to slow right down and get super realistic with myself. I want to blog once a month

That's right. One post a month. Which, for someone who used to post daily, feels almost comical, like a slowed-down video where your voice gets all deep and weird. 

But, whatever. This is what I want: I want to get a sketchbook, and I want to write and draw in it, maybe collage in it, maybe who knows what in it. And at the end of each month I'll share it. I'll share that month, "January," "February," et cetera. 

And, that's it. For now. See ya back here in twenty days. (Or on Instagram if you can't wait that long, haha.)