My list of fun stuff that I want to create this year continues to grow. For this week’s  Thursday 13 , I  share the 13 new things I recently added to my list. Sew new curtains for L Studio. The above photo shows some of the fabric I’m putting together. Sew an iron board cover. Make bookmarks out of fabric scraps and beads. Reupholster Mama’s love seat that Mama bought in the 1960s. I love this ratty tatty love seat. Sew a garden apron with deep pockets. Grow dahlias. This year I started the seeds in eggshells and they actually popped up. I transferred 21 sprouts into individual tiny pots. So far, so good. Make a jar of pickled bamboo called atchara the way Mama did. Sew a dress of many colors. (This will be the year I do it, by golly!) Paint at least one mural on the fence. Make concrete steps for garage. Paint the garage door. Paint a wall mural in the hallway bathroom. Make Asian dumplings from scratch, except for the wrappers. To check out other Thursday 13   participants, click her

Bunnies dancing through fields of wildflowers towards the sea. This week I’ve been participating in The Happy New Year Challenge, hosted by Artist Karen Abend , a free five-day event with prompts from Artist Gaia Marfurt . The drawings on this post are from days two, three, and four. You can see day one’s piece here .  The challenge has been fun. And, self-revealing of sorts.  Hearts Born While doing this challenge, I’ve learned that prompts tend to freeze me up rather than free me to create. That’s bothersome. Maybe my deeper self is reminded of art time in grammar school when I felt discouraged and timid to draw, paint, paste, and craft my creations because they didn’t look like the ones the teachers favored. House and Fly flying high and loose in the cerebellum. Another aspect of the challenge that reared up my young insecure self was sharing my work at the challenge’s Facebook page. I got one, two, once three, likes for my work while others got double digit and triple digit likes.