{"id":180,"date":"2016-07-13T22:03:43","date_gmt":"2016-07-13T22:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sandraandersonillustration.com\/?p=180"},"modified":"2016-07-13T22:03:43","modified_gmt":"2016-07-13T22:03:43","slug":"back-on-the-proverbial-horse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sandraandersonillustration.com\/?p=180","title":{"rendered":"Back on the Proverbial Horse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Everyone,<\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve been MIA for a while now and boy am I glad to be back. It’s been hard getting back into the swing of things, but slowly and surely I am making progress (and pictures and stories!)<\/p>\n

We recently had a\u00a0miscarriage, so with all the emotional ups and downs that come with that (and having to excuse myself from things because something will happen that triggers a memory or a sad thought, while also trying to help our 5 year old deal with her emotions,) I’ve been focusing on recovery, not necessarily on improving my craft. Honestly, it’s been hard to go places I used to go or talk to people with little babies or who are currently preggo because I keep thinking, “Things weren’t suppose to go this way. I should be 6 months pregnant right now and I’m not. Why did OUR baby have to die when we would love him unconditionally and cherish even the sleepless nights and teething and so on and so forth? Why, why, WHY??”<\/p>\n

And then I feel like this about life:<\/p>\n

\"9-Best-Grumpy-Cat-Memes-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

. . . But then I take a deep breath, accept what happened and try to not bawl my eyes out for the third time today<\/del>\u00a0do or think about something useful, positive, or enjoyable.<\/p>\n

In April, at the SCBWI Spring Spirit conference, I had the pleasure if meeting Joy Allen<\/a> who has illustrated \u00a0many books for young children and has had her illustrations turned into various merchandise. When I asked her how I could get back into illustrating and storytelling after a traumatic event she gave me this advice: to be patient with myself and doodle. A lot.<\/p>\n

So, after 4 months of patience and a lot of doodling, I’m back to writing and illustrating on a more regular basis.<\/p>\n

Right now I’ve got several stories that I’m working on and one that I’m hoping to pitch to an agent in hopes of someday<\/del> being published. \u00a0So wish me luck!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u21d2Tip for Today\u21d0<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

Set a goal today for your creative work. Make it something you can see yourself<\/p>\n

achieving withing the next few weeks (maybe 3?)<\/p>\n

It’s always great when you can receive that boost of confidence that achievement gives you \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

For myself I want to produce one FINISHED<\/span><\/span> watercolor illustration for<\/p>\n

one of my stories before August 3rd (that’s about three weeks, right?) So stick around if you want to<\/p>\n

see the finished product!<\/p>\n

\n

\n

Leave a comment and tell me what your creative goals are for the rest of the month, I’d love to hear about what cool things you guys are doing. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Thanks for stopping by,<\/p>\n

~Sandra<\/span><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi Everyone,   I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve been MIA for a while now and boy am I glad to be back. It’s been hard getting back into the … Continue readingBack on the Proverbial Horse<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[35,32,33,34,25],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-your-friend-the-illustrator","tag-artwork","tag-goals","tag-grumpy-cat","tag-joy-allen","tag-watercolor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sandraandersonillustration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sandraandersonillustration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sandraandersonillustration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sandraandersonillustration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sandraandersonillustration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.sandraandersonillustration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185,"href":"http:\/\/www.sandraandersonillustration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions\/185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sandraandersonillustration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sandraandersonillustration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sandraandersonillustration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}