Today was just plain fun. I went to fit club in the morning, and Bikram yoga at night. I can't tell you how good that felt after two days traversing the highways from Cape Cod, to Boston and back again. After a lot of time in the car plus a lot of sitting, eating and drinking, and NO exercise, it sure felt good to be home. Driving back from yoga tonight, that's all I kept repeating. It. Is. Good. To. Be. Home. as the song on the radio sang "you put your arms around me and I'm home". The feeling was exhilarating.
The next thing that made today fun was playing with my new iPad Mini. I went out and got a cool keyboard case and spent the afternoon playing with a new painting app. I am enamored with painting on a touch screen. I have a real paintbrush ordered that works on a screen. It didn't come yet, so I played around with it with my stylus, but you can't get the amount of control you can get with a brush. I'm just trying to learn the workings of the app so it didn't matter, but I can't wait for my brush to get here.
Two things were made clear by my fun day. One, I never realized the big part exercise plays in my life until I go without it, and two, it's essential to take a day and just play. Today I felt like a kindergartener with an easel and a paintbrush and no plan. On the app you can make journals, with pages in them and covers to keep your work in. I made my first journal and called it Experimenting. I'm going to keep all my fun work in there that teaches me how to use the features of the app and the paintbrush, when it comes.
It's such a stress-buster to totally paint, draw, do music, write, etc. even if you think you can't do any of those things. Now we have iPads and you can try them for fun, with no equipment needed, and keep your work for your eyes only, if you so choose. I don't so choose because I need to be accountable in order to learn how to do something new. The only way I can learn it is to commit to it, just like I learned a lot about writing by committing to do this blog everyday. I have to commit to a sketch a day from today to January 31. I will commit to adding a sketch/painting on the bottom of this blog and we'll watch my progress.
It's almost 2013. Why not commit to just trying something new? If you want to try the painting (you don't need a brush, your finger is fine on your iPad) the app is called Paper 53 and the brush is called a Sensu brush. I've included a link to a short video below so you can see what I'm trying to learn.
What new thing are you going to try to learn in 2013? Tell me your idea below. Can you commit to a schedule for learning it? Can you hold yourself accountable?
And so, as another day goes by, exercising and learning new things add some fun to life, here is my first creation, (kind of looks like a kindergartner did it) and….I have written.
OMG How fun. I might want one soon. Love it!