Hello 2017!

I love beginnings. There's so much promise held in beginnings... the excitement of a budding relationship, the first day of a much anticipated vacation, a crisp clean sheet of paper that greets you in a new sketchbook, or the first line of a book that draws you in and begs you to read more. And the beginning of a new year is no different. It's a jumping off point to set our goals, map out a plan, and work towards achieving our dreams. Just like a sprinter coming out of the blocks, we all like a good start. 

But as much as I love beginnings, I hate late starts. Ten days into 2017, and I haven't even written my goals yet, much less mapped them out. I feel this sense of anxiety looming as each day passes and I haven't taken the time to even write down a goal. I have some vague ideas of smaller goals like sketching everyday, or blogging more, or writing a couple of new stories every week, but I've already balked at accomplishing these. If I were a sprinter, I would have been disqualified from this year's race. 

I don't know why it's so hard to recover and start again without that shiny new, first day of the year beginning, but it is. January 1st holds the promise of everything you hope to achieve as you set sail into the year, while January 11th feels like you missed the boat. But I have to remind myself that everyday I wake up is a new beginning. Every day holds promise to accomplish great things. So instead of staring forlornly at the January 1st boat quickly disappearing over the horizon, I'm going to bid it farewell.  I'm opting to step onto this January 11th boat. It may not seem as clean and fresh as that first day of the new year boat, but hey, it's right in front of me, and I can't wait to see where it takes me. In fact, we're already off to a good start:

-Write a New Years blog post.

-Make a sketch for this post

-Use tired analogies about boats and races in one post.

Okay, so maybe I just now added that last goal, but it feels so satisfying to mark things off a list, who wouldn't want to keep riding that gravy train?

I apologize.

Here's to making things happen. Happy January 11th, 2017!

xo

nessa dee

Alphabet Fishing

A companion piece to "It's Raining A's and B's" 

xo

nessa dee

The Weekend

Jonathan and a friend decided that we should try our hand at sailing the open seas this weekend, so we packed up our families and rented a boat. We really didn’t sail, though, as much as started a motor. And the open seas, well, it was more of a lake. Nonetheless, we were boat people for a day.

The kids were so excited to be on this super fast boat that topped out at about 35mph. To the girls, we were on a jet boat.

Finn was on a pirate ship for a day. He made sure that we were well prepared for our voyage.

He even tried his hand at “sailing” the ship.

The girls rode the inner tube shrieked ear piercing screams most of the time.

Finn and I gave it a try, but he wasn’t too excited about the whole thing, and we stopped shortly after getting on.

Then the guys competed to see who could “surf” on the tube the longest, but I wasn’t able to snap pictures quick enough before the plunged into the water.

They also tried to throw each other off the tube, but a pontoon boat isn’t geared for speed, so their efforts were fruitless.

We eventually found a nice place to swim for a while…

and then called it a day and headed back to shore before an ominous looking storm hit. I was somewhat expecting to get caught in a raging storm given that our last adventure with this family was our notorious camping trip that ended in us packing up during a torrential downpour. Thankfully, we made it back safe and sound, not stranded on a deserted island like the Swiss Family Robinson. Otherwise, we might have been forced to build an elaborate tree house, like this:

xo

nessa dee

IF: Magnify

I didn’t really have a plan with this illustration… just played around with different elements.  Oh well, I had fun.

xo

nessa dee

IF: Late

Late night exploration.

Also, it's not too late to enter my giveaway! I'll be picking winners Thursday night...

you still have time!
Nessa Dee