HaikuCat Creations

 Hey there! It's Friday which means it's time for my weekly blog post. Look, I'm as amazed as anyone that I'm here doing this on a Friday afternoon for the fourth time in a row considering I only posted two times in 2025 and once in 2024. The only way I can keep this up is by keeping it loose and keeping the pressure levels low, low, low. Therefore, despite the fact that my brain is yelling at me that this is supposed to be a blog about creativity and art, I am going to tell you about my experience with being a returning student. I am attending Arizona State University Online. I transferred all of my previous college credits from two different institutions to ASU in 2023 and I'm about to graduate (in May) with a degree in English.  I went back to school at an advanced age once before, in 2015 and graduated with an Associates Degree (English with a Creative Writing Emphasis). That experience was actually really great. I was 41-43 then and I took maybe 3/4 of my class...

 I decided this year to keep my creative goals as simple as possible. I slotted it right into the whole 52 for 52 structure I'm doing for so many other things. I decided I would make one creation per week and that I would leave interpretation pretty open as to what counts as a "creation." It could be a finished embroidery hoop art piece, or a carved stamp for block-printing, or, as it is for this week, a sketchbook spread. I figured I would know what counted and what didn't as I went along. For instance, this week I found myself already behind on this challenge due to not being finished with what I had planned on for the first week, and I knew I would need something non-taxing to get caught up. But I also knew a simple one-off sketch wasn't going to cut it, so I told myself I needed to fill up the whole spread for it to count. I did that, had fun, kept it loose, and I'm perfectly pleased with its imperfection.  As for what I did for the first week, it's a ...

 How can I carry on with the ridiculous blog topic I had planned to write for today when the world is in such a painful, chaotic, desperate place right now? Today is my social media day (M, W, F only (might talk about that more later, might not)) and already I have nearly been brought to tears twice. But I feel like I don't have anything to say that hasn't already been said better by someone else. I don't really want to add to the cacophony of voices (legitimately) shouting out in anger and sorrow and despair and fear. I'm not sure that would be helpful to anyone. But maybe my little bit of nonsense will bring a smile to someone during an otherwise trying day, so... I'll stick with it as planned. Last week I talked about one of my 2026 challenges and this week I'm going to tell you about another one, but it requires a little bit of backstory. Somewhere around August I discovered a little app called Pikmin Bloom . It's a Nintendo/Niantic game that's built...

 Hello! Here is my obligatory acknowledgement that I haven't blogged in a very long time!  With that out of the way, let's get on with it. Happy New Year! Welcome to 2026, or as Pat calls it, Twenty-twenty-twenty-twenty-twenty-twenty-six. No one knows why! It's the beginning of a new year and you know what that means! My brain is filled to the brim with ideas for CHALLENGES!! I've long ago given up on trying to keep myself from getting excited about the feeling of possibility that pops up at the beginning of every year (and every month too, but to a lesser extent). It doesn't matter that half of my plans and goals and expectations come to naught. I still love coming up with new things to challenge myself with and even if they do sometimes get abandoned (and sometimes they don't!) they always push me a little, help me learn, and usually give me at least some productive (and oftentimes creative) output.  I am turning 52 this year and guess what? There are 52 weeks...

  Does every creative person have a pile of projects that were started but never finished tucked away in some unseen corner (or many corners)? Maybe it’s just a sign of a mind that’s always churning with ideas or with enthusiasm for the next new thing. Or maybe it’s undiagnosed ADHD, I don’t know. All I know for sure is that I recently decided I wanted to tackle the monumental task of cleaning and organizing my art and craft supplies and in doing so I came across several projects of that sort of my own.  There’s a simultaneous feeling of both excited discovery and disappointment in myself whenever this happens. It’s one part “oh wow, I forgot about this one, can’t wait to get back to it!” and one part “damn, it’s been 3 years, Stephanie, where is your ability to see things through?” I think, overall, it’s better for my mental health to entertain the former sentiment and let go of the latter. Regardless, I made a decision that I was going to make good on all my former starts an...

 I think it's traditional to say how long it's been since you last posted whenever there's a long period between posts. It's been more than a year. I would apologize, but why? I want to focus this entry on my art goals for the year and how things are going with that so far (one month in). But first, just to touch base with the last post I made, I am still in college at ASU (Online). I'm currently taking a Spanish class and a Creative Writing (non-fiction, sadly) class. I am on track to graduate at the end of this year, as long as the classes I need/want are available when I need them to be. So that's that. For better or for worse I've kind of attached my art goals to Instagram posting. See, I've slacked off on posting to Instagram regularly every since I started back at school. Partly because school was keeping me busy but also because when it came to Instagram, I just wasn't feeling it. It felt like a losing game in too many ways. But I'm not en...