Gratitude Monday -- Ask and Ye Shall Receive Edition or: Oh, My Hat

I decided the other day I needed a conical hat. I needed it to help me get in character and get back into the manuscript I am editing.
I finished the first draft of it last June. It went down a few different paths, one as far as chapter 14, but I eventually found the story I was to tell and it got done.
It sat for several months.  I wrote something else that is now simmering on a mental back burner as I fix this one up.
But back to the hat.
I often have a prop or two around when writing to help me focus. I bought cowboy boots for the vampire western, a fedora for the story of the man who went to the wrong side of heaven and had to do God's dirty work to get a new life, and for this story I made myself a pine staff and took up drawing.
It wasn't quite enough. I wanted the style of hat commonly associated with witches.
I said so on Facebook on Friday. There was some loose talk of a cousin maybe making me one. She'd already sent me an infinity scarf which helped me with the first draft of this story ( thanks again, Terry) so she'd already helped in a big way.
I thought I might check the dollar stores as one never knows what one may find on a shelf. Meantime, my husband offered to make me one.
As there were none on the shelves Mike did make the hat for me.  Black construction paper,  a leg from a pair of pants that my once belonged to my dad later worn by Mike, and the cheap hat I bought in Australia in the early nineties.
Mike rolled up the paper, cut it down several times, glued on the pants leg and pinned it all to the hat.
It is wonderful, and for it all I am grateful.
It has a nice weight to it, if a bit heavy, but it is a good place to store my thinky thoughts while rewriting.
Because no description can ever do it justice:

Hat with infinity scarf.

A character photo, this time with reading glasses and staff.

Please click to enlarge photos for the full glory.

My Erasing Hobby

I've been teaching myself to draw.
I do it for my own pleasure and harbour no fantasies about making it big in the art world. This is me expressing myself and enjoying it.
It is also a moderately compelling drive inside to express something that I have yet to target.
It started as a picture in my head last year to draw a scene from a manuscript I was writing.
Then I wanted to draw dragons,
Currently the unicorns are asserting themselves, demanding my attention.
They are welcome in my soul and I am pleased and grateful for their presence.

But back to drawing. I joke that what I am really doing is erasing.  I make mistakes, I rub them out, and I try again.
The above is one of my better attempts.

My Howling Success

It's good to try new things. If you restrict yourself to the things you know you're good at, then your life will be restricted, too.
Follow your interests. The  speak from the deepest part of you. We all need to be heard, even if the only person who hears us is our own self.
I have mentioned on this blog I have taken up drawing.
I bought some drawing books including one specific to dragons as I am fond of them.
It stared out in all innocence. I had a picture in my mind I wanted to draw believing that seeing it would help me write it.
I never did write that scene. I no longer needed it. But through practice and drawing and having fun, I got better at it.
Better is not great, but it is improved and that's important. I may never be great at drawing.
I don't care.
I wanted a picture of a wolf howling.
Here it is:

Gratitude Monday -- Drawing It Out Edition

Over the years I've known people who let their fear of how they think others see them get in their way.
That is, they refuse to try anything new lest they not be perfect at it.
I am grateful I am not that way.
Oh, sure there are some things I have more sense than to try. It's not because of how big a fool it'll make me look, it's because sometimes it's the little voice warning me off.
I pay attention to the voice.
Said voice has been eerily silent when it comes to drawing.
Art is not my thing.
Neither is music, but it did not stop me from teaching myself rudimentary guitar. While I'm not good at it, playing fires up my brain and I think better, do better, and write better.
If I'm having trouble writing I'll strum a few chords or pick out a melody and soon the problem is solved, or as happens now and again, forgotten.
This brings me to drawing.
A few weeks ago I had a picture in mind to do with a scene I was writing. I had the urge to draw it. Further, I had the urge to draw it properly rather than a render a few scrawls that would shame any self-respecting refrigerator.
This led me down a most wonderful path. The web is filled with sites dedicated to drawing and how to do it. I looked up several of them and played around. I've sketched howling wolves and hawks and noses and ears and eyes and dragons, and well, you get the idea.
It feels good.
I'm enjoying myself and it's one more way to express myself. I sketched out the scene I had in my mind and added a few things not in the original version.
That was fun.
I have a pencil, an eraser, and scrap paper.
It's all I need and I'm having fun.
I am grateful for that and for not letting lack of talent hold me back.
See for yourself:

Nose tree and son , the nose and ear tree.

Here be dragons.