As with most things, I had the best of intentions, but life got in the way. It seems to do that.

So here is the update of attempts (or lack thereof) to do the daily Mini Art:

Thursday (5/05): Mini Quasi-Art. I did get some time in thinking about the current short story I’m writing. This was good because I was stuck and needed to figure out where to go with it. However, there isn’t anything art-wise to show for it other than a bunch of scribbles on a tiny notebook.

Friday (5/06): A Big Fat Zero. It was a blank day. I can’t even remember what I did, but I remember feeling exhausted.

Saturday (5/07): An Effort. I made castella for the first time. It looked really good in the oven — the top perfectly brown — so of course I second guessed myself and followed the note that said if it was browning too soon, to cover the cake with a piece of aluminum foil. When I took the cake out of the oven and peeled off the foil, it took with it some of the top of the cake (the perfect brown top!), leaving behind a vaguely heart shaped crater. The funny thing is that the best tasting part of the cake was the not-quite-down doughy middle; the rest of the cake was dense and not at all what I expect from castella. Still, people took seconds, which I tend to think was out of kindness. The important part was that I tried a new recipe, had some modicum of success, and now have ideas of tweaks to try next time.

Sunday (5/08): An Old Favorite.  I made beer bread for a friend. I love tried and true recipes.

The takeaway from last week is that I need to set priorities and create limits*. If art is important, then I need to make it a priority, which means doing it first thing in the day. If I let resistance win (“I’ll get to it later” “I’ll do it when I get home”), then I generally don’t do it because the day grows increasingly chaotic. So if I want any chance at doing my art, I have to do it before the chaos truly ensues.

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*Create limits = determining the most amount of time/energy I will devote to an activity, esp. activities that are Not Art. A load of laundry? Sure. Seven loads of laundry? Not so much. Dust and vacuum the living room? Sure. Wipe the baseboards down and clean the switch plates? Not so much.