November Art Journal!

This time of year always heightens my anxiety. I think its some combination of the holidays and cold short days. Lately I have gotten into a good routine of spending some time with my journal at the end of each day. This month had some of my favorite spreads. I posted most of them on instagram through out the weeks of November. It seems kinda strange posting journaling pages with out the journaling bits, but seems like a bad idea to just be tossin my feelings and insecurities out there for everyone peek at. I'm looking forward to my December journal and all the peace it will hopefully bring me!

Current Bake- Coconut Cream Pie!

This year for Thanksgiving I was put in charge of pie! I've had THIS coconut cream pie recipe saved for a while. It has a lot of elements that are new to me and I thought it would be a great challenge. Although in hindsight I should have practiced before I had to take it to share with everyone. I learned a lot about blind baking and making pastry cream. I was nervous about the cream but I should have realized it was the crust I should have been weary about. I got some major side slump which then caused some over baking cause I didn't want underdone folds. Alas was imperfect and tasty! Zoei always helps a ton. Mostly keeping me from cutting or burning myself or other objects. She also reminds me to re-read the recipe and points out when something doesn't sound quite right! We also made pumpkin pies for the first time. They weren't really challenging or special, but a nice Thanksgiving-y tradition.

Thanksgiving always fills me with mixed emotions. It rooted in horrendous actions and covered up by stressful family dinners and food. I do find something precious in this contentious moments. Regardless of your feelings toward the holiday and traditions, I hope you at least got some down time and survived the snow!

Keep cozy!

Hello Winter! +Update

The ending of October and the entirety of November flew by in a flash. Life kept handing me one moldy lemon after another. I was slowly sinking when trying to finalize buying a house. Which I learned is a crazy amount of waiting a paper signing. Once that was near its end and we were gearing up to move we crashed our car. First ever car crash and let me tell you it is the worst. It still keeps me up some nights BUT we were faced with a bigger issue of not having a car while trying to move. Our move was s l o w and spent a few weeks drowning in boxes. Life slowly came together, like it always does. 

Now I have a cute creaky house, new wheels and have weeded though the boxes. My craft corner is all set up and is ready to create. I'm having a little bit of creative anxiety but have been working in my art journal to work though it. My family is amazing and supportive. Life takes so much work. Good things always come from hard labor. I forget sometimes that the work needs to be put in. I spend a lot of time surviving and living. Its easy to settle into those roles BUT if I'm wanting the nice things I need to put in the work. The hard, tasking, tearful work. 

We got our first dump of snow this weekend so for now I'm going to bundle up though the winter and try to create stuff. Next year will be filled with tasking creative work. (I hope at least)

Hold on to good, sweet moments. 

Celebrate the w o r k. 

Cry when it gets overwhelming. 

Reach out when you need to. 

Inktober!

I've taken on the Inktober challenge again this year! So far it is going swimmingly. I've been following the Drawlloween prompt list by Mab Graves. She puts so much thought into her lists and so far its had the perfect balance between challenging but not overwhelming! I'm not putting too much pressure on myself and am keeping it all simple. Its just about half way so I thought I'd compile my drawings so far into a post! You can find all these on my instagram @remikeahi. This year I decided to incorporate color and try my best to keep the same color palette. Which is more tricky than I thought it would be, but the challenge is good for me!

The prompt list! Follow the hashtag to see all the other wonderful creations out there! 

One- Vampire

Two- Catacombs

Three- Bat

Four- Candelabra

Five- Huntress

Six- Black Dog

Seven- Yokai

Eight- Toad

Nine/Ten- Witch Coven

Eleven- Tarot

Twelve- Cryptid

Thriteen- Chimera

Fourteen- Laboratory

Fifteen- Frankenstien

Cry Baby Zine

I've been challenging myself to make a new zine every month! The main purpose of this challenge is to give me solid deadlines to keep me on task and to push myself to try things that are new! So far its going well! I've surprised myself by how productive I have been. This last months theme was cry baby. This is definitely a reflection on my feelings lately. I'm very weepy and I keep feeling guilty about it. Which is terribly silly because if you want to cry then C R Y! I keep having to remind myself that it is ok to have emotional reactions to things. This zine just rolls those thoughts and affirmations into one lil'booklet.

I did more of a comic style for this zine which was my trying something new. I think it turned out well but there are lots of adjustments I would like to make. This zine is also on the shorter side for being such a broad topic. Eventually I'd like to add more pages and maybe reorganize it a bit to flow better. BUT for being a crazy month I'm very proud of myself for keeping on task!

If you're interested in a copy as always email me at remikeahi@gmail.com!

September Art Journal!

Do you ever have those weeks where you're so busy that you're better at keeping on task because there is so much to do? The entire month was like that for me. I kept thinking I was running out of time to do things, but instead I was kicking ass and keeping on track! I shared a lot of this months progress on instagram. I haven't been great at posting here, but instagram has been consistently updated! This past month was such a whirl wind of emotions! I felt really grateful to have this journal to dump it all into, even if sometimes it was hard to put into words. I had so many moments that even now are hard to think about and revisit with out getting teary eyed. This fall is brining in a new wave of emotions for me and processing it all just needs t i m e.

Outgoing Mail!

I have been sending a lot of zine lately. Which always makes me really happy to share my art bits! I made a huge batch of mail the other day to get me all caught up with responses and zine mailings. I had a lot of fun making and junking up these envelopes. My weakness is always addressing them. I've been doing this for ages it feels like and adding the address always mucks it up a little bit. I think it is in part that a) I need to practice writing numbers and b) I forget to plan ahead when I'm adding mixed media bits and leave a large enough space for the address! The main thing I do love about mail art is parting with it after its done! It is so easy to knit-pick at art work and find a million things I'd changed. BUT with snail mail, just send it off and no need to dwell! Also the feedback I get from my penpals is always wonderful. Its just fun to fill someones mailbox up with a bit of mixed media mess!