<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?><rss xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:geo="http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#" xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" version="2.0">

<channel>
	<title>Whitney Fawn</title>
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	<link>https://www.whitneyfawn.com/</link>
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		<title>Emotion In A Website</title>
		<link>https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/emotion-in-a-website/?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=emotion-in-a-website</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Whitney MacEachern]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Mar 2019 15:16:45 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Writings and Thoughts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[change]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[emotion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[influences]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[website]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[work]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.whitneyfawn.com/?p=6443</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>As I mentioned in my last post, I&#8217;ve been making a LOT of changes to this website. I created this website in 2010, and having it has basically been on-the-job&#8230;</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/emotion-in-a-website/">Emotion In A Website</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>As I mentioned in <a href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/how-i-list-my-artwork-dimensions-and-why/">my last post</a>, I&#8217;ve been making a LOT of changes to this website. I created this website in 2010, and having it has basically been on-the-job training. While I had designed websites before, they were very simple websites done all in HTML. I had never used WordPress before and it was a whole different animal.</p>



<p>I&#8217;ve gone through several changes with this site since its beginning, but in many ways those changes were incomplete. While I still maintained a functional website, there was so much more I wanted to do with it. Plus, so many things were kind of hodgepodged together, but I had neither the time nor inclination to streamline things before.</p>



<p>Somehow, though, time and inclination lined up and I&#8217;ve been working steadily on making all these changes for about two months now. That&#8217;s probably the longest stretch of uninterrupted time that I&#8217;ve spent on the website. Most of these changes are in the back end and visitors won&#8217;t see them &#8212; that&#8217;s kind of the point, anyway! As a visitor, you aren&#8217;t supposed to see things working, they&#8217;re supposed to just <em>work</em>.</p>



<h4>New Artwork Pages</h4>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><a href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/sebastian-garcia-247546-unsplash.jpg"><img decoding="async" src="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/sebastian-garcia-247546-unsplash-960x1440.jpg" alt="Photo by Sebastian Garcia on Unsplash" class="wp-image-6446" width="224" height="336" srcset="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/sebastian-garcia-247546-unsplash-960x1440.jpg 960w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/sebastian-garcia-247546-unsplash-480x720.jpg 480w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/sebastian-garcia-247546-unsplash-595x893.jpg 595w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/sebastian-garcia-247546-unsplash-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/sebastian-garcia-247546-unsplash-377x566.jpg 377w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/sebastian-garcia-247546-unsplash-189x283.jpg 189w" sizes="(max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px" /></a><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/o8SzLhKUEBU">Sebastian Garcia</a></figcaption></figure></div>



<p>Probably the biggest forward-facing change is the new <a href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/artwork/">artwork setup</a>. But even how lovely those galleries are doesn&#8217;t tell you the emotional impact of redoing them.</p>



<p>In redoing the galleries, I created pages for each artwork I have. That&#8217;s a big task all on its own. Complete with the image, the details (title, year, materials, size), and a little text snippet, these pages are really the focal point of this website. No longer can you only see the artworks in a gallery &#8212; now you can also read the stories behind them. And because each page contains links to blog posts and to other artworks, you can see how the pieces all connect to one another.</p>



<p>Writing the snippets for each artwork, as well as reading through my blog posts to find writings to link up with the artworks, reacquainted me with my own work. I reconnected with my influences &#8212; all the nature, peeps, all the nature &#8212; and the things that drive my creativity.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s like this website is a diary, and I read through the past 8+ years of diary entries. I think the effect is the same, even though a diary is private and this website is public. It&#8217;s still almost a decade of personal writings, and over 12 years of artwork. Going through all this stuff again makes me feel like I now have a deeper understanding of my art and myself. Or maybe it&#8217;s a re-understanding. Either way, this process has been really emotional, and I find myself wondering what this will mean for the future.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/emotion-in-a-website/">Emotion In A Website</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
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		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">6443</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>How I List My Artwork Dimensions and Why</title>
		<link>https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/how-i-list-my-artwork-dimensions-and-why/?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=how-i-list-my-artwork-dimensions-and-why</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Whitney MacEachern]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Feb 2019 15:39:39 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Art Biz]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[art biz life]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[how i do things]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[website]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.whitneyfawn.com/?p=5852</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;ve been working on a ton of website upgrades lately. I have pages for all of my artworks now, and each page has the piece&#8217;s details (title, year, materials, and&#8230;</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/how-i-list-my-artwork-dimensions-and-why/">How I List My Artwork Dimensions and Why</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>I&#8217;ve been working on a ton of website upgrades lately. I have pages for all of my artworks now, and each page has the piece&#8217;s details (title, year, materials, and dimensions) and a little snippet to tell you something about the creation, the origin, or the meaning behind the piece. Seriously, go check out the <a href="http://www.whitneyfawn.com/artwork">new artwork pages</a>!</p>



<p>In putting these pages together, I realized I have never consistently recorded my art&#8217;s dimensions. So, I broke out the originals I have and measured them. I can&#8217;t directly measure the originals I&#8217;ve sold, but for those I can approximate.</p>



<p>As I measured, I started to think, &#8220;Should I put this with the width first or the height first?&#8221; I mean, it&#8217;s important to be consistent, right? Can&#8217;t switch it up and sometimes use WxH, other times use HxW. Too confusing. But, I&#8217;d never thought about what format might be the accepted standard. So, I decided to find out.</p>



<h3 class="section_heading">The Standards</h3>



<p>In the art/museum world, the standard is height x width. In the graphic design world, the standard is width x height. As an artist and graphic designer, no matter which standard I use, I&#8217;m at odds with one of my industries.</p>



<p>In terms of my Soulprints, I can&#8217;t sell good portion of them as originals, but that doesn&#8217;t make the artwork itself worthless. Even if the paper I drew them on is in bad shape, the drawings are still lovely images. With a little digital editing, I clean them up nicely and they make great prints. Once I scan them to digitize them, I&#8217;m concerned with the drawing itself, so I think about them in width x height in keeping with graphic design standard.</p>



<p>I do have many originals as well. This is where thinking about the entire object, i.e. in the entire sheet of paper and not just the drawn image, is important. It makes sense to think of the original piece as height x width in keeping with art industry standard, especially if it has been framed.</p>



<p>However, I make prints out of my originals too. As such, once I&#8217;ve scanned them, I have to switch back to width x height thinking. What a conundrum!</p>



<h3 class="section_heading">My Choice</h3>



<p>In this situation, when there are two competing standards, I think I have to just pick one and stick with it. I mean, I can&#8217;t change up my convention all over this website and confuse visitors, can I?</p>



<p>What&#8217;s more, I can&#8217;t confuse MYSELF. If I were to use height x width for all of my artwork, I&#8217;d have to switch modes as soon as I open up Photoshop, and I just know I&#8217;d make careless mistakes. It wouldn&#8217;t be a big deal, of course, but it&#8217;s better to avoid the trouble anyway.</p>



<p>So, I use width x height, but for clarity&#8217;s sake, I use W and H in the dimensions so it&#8217;s easy to see which number corresponds with which side.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/how-i-list-my-artwork-dimensions-and-why/">How I List My Artwork Dimensions and Why</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
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		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">5852</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Event: Deck The Halls, A Christmas Craft Market</title>
		<link>https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/event-deck-the-halls-a-christmas-craft-market/?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=event-deck-the-halls-a-christmas-craft-market</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Whitney MacEachern]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 13 Nov 2018 19:06:23 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Art Biz]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[art show]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[christmas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deck the halls]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[event]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[market]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.whitneyfawn.com/?p=4217</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>It&#8217;s that time of year again! Deck The Halls Christmas Market is happening this weekend. This will be the third year of Deck The Halls (and my third as a&#8230;</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/event-deck-the-halls-a-christmas-craft-market/">Event: Deck The Halls, A Christmas Craft Market</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>It&#8217;s that time of year again!</p>



<p>Deck The Halls Christmas Market is happening this weekend.</p>



<p>This will be the third year of Deck The Halls (and my third as a vendor), and if you haven&#8217;t been to this show before, oh man, you&#8217;re in for a treat.</p>



<span id="more-4217"></span>



<p>The event takes place at St. Patrick&#8217;s Church Museum. Dating back to 1828, St. Patrick&#8217;s is the oldest Roman Catholic church in Cape Breton. Full of history, this beautiful building has stone walls, original wood beams, and a warm ambiance. Plus, the organizer of this event, Joan MacKenzie of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MyFairLadiesEE/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">My Fair Ladies</a>, decorates the museum so artfully that the already-beautiful location is transformed into the epitome of Christmas.</p>



<p>And then there are the vendors. We&#8217;re talking art prints, jewelry, pottery, rug hooking, glass, weaving, soap, chocolate, scarves, and that just touches the surface. So much talent under one roof, so many wonderful items to choose from for holiday gift-giving, all while basking in what can only be described as the perfect Christmas preview.</p>



<p>It truly doesn&#8217;t get any better than this!</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><a href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/Poster-2018.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/Poster-2018-960x1484.jpg" alt="Deck The Halls Poster 2018" class="wp-image-4220" width="312" height="482" srcset="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/Poster-2018-960x1484.jpg 960w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/Poster-2018-480x742.jpg 480w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/Poster-2018-595x920.jpg 595w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/Poster-2018-768x1187.jpg 768w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/Poster-2018-1200x1855.jpg 1200w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/Poster-2018-525x811.jpg 525w" sizes="(max-width: 312px) 100vw, 312px" /></a></figure></div>



<p>Here are the deets:</p>



<p>Dates:<br />
Friday, November 16 &#8211; 1 PM &#8211; 8 PM<br />
Saturday, November 17 &#8211; 10 AM &#8211; 6 PM<br />
Sunday, November 18 &#8211; 10 AM &#8211; 4 PM<br />
Location: St. Patrick&#8217;s Church Museum, 87 Esplanade in Sydney, across from the Big Fiddle<br />
Facebook Event Page: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/576227179499246/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/events/576227179499246/</a></p>



<p>Every year we vendors hear about just how much the customers love this show. Visitors can&#8217;t help but be awed by the atmosphere and selection. You don&#8217;t want to miss out on this special event.</p>



<p>I&#8217;ll be up in the balcony with new creations for you &#8212; please do drop by!</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/event-deck-the-halls-a-christmas-craft-market/">Event: Deck The Halls, A Christmas Craft Market</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
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		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">4217</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Bujo Pen Desperation</title>
		<link>https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/bujo-pen-desperation/?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=bujo-pen-desperation</link>
					<comments>https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/bujo-pen-desperation/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Whitney MacEachern]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Nov 2017 21:15:20 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Products and Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bullet journal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[leuchtturm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pens]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.whitneyfawn.com/?p=3913</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>If there&#8217;s one thing in the world that I love*, it&#8217;s pens. I have all kinds of pens. It doesn&#8217;t seem to matter how many pens I have; I just&#8230;</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/bujo-pen-desperation/">Bujo Pen Desperation</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>If there&#8217;s one thing in the world that I love*, it&#8217;s pens. I have all kinds of pens. It doesn&#8217;t seem to matter how many pens I have; I just keep acquiring more.</p>



<p>The problem is that no pen makes me 100% happy in all situations. I&#8217;m always in search of The Perfect Pen, and I&#8217;m getting pretty desperate.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><a href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/unipowertank-cr.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="800" height="629" src="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/unipowertank-cr.jpg" alt="My favorite pen, the Uni-ball Power Tank" class="wp-image-3920" srcset="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/unipowertank-cr.jpg 800w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/unipowertank-cr-480x377.jpg 480w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/unipowertank-cr-595x468.jpg 595w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/unipowertank-cr-768x604.jpg 768w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/unipowertank-cr-525x413.jpg 525w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></a><figcaption>My favorite pen, the Uni-ball Power Tank</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>This is the <a href="http://www.uniball.com/catalog/powertank/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Uni Power Tank</a>, my all-time favorite pen. I love this pen so much that when it seemed like they were being discontinued and my local stores stopped carrying them, I went online and bought a whole 30-pack of them. I just couldn&#8217;t fathom not having a Power Tank in my hand! That was so long ago (a decade plus) that my pens are the original capped style that isn&#8217;t available anymore. They may be old, but they still work beautifully!</p>



<p>Here&#8217;s the problem: I have a beautiful emerald Leuchtturm1917 dotted notebook that I use for bullet journaling. I love this notebook and don&#8217;t really want to use any other, but my Power Tank doesn&#8217;t work so well in my Leuchtturm. There&#8217;s something about the paper that makes the ball not move as smoothly, so the pen puts down a kind of pale, uneven line of ink. Cue sadface!</p>



<p>I love the Leuchtturm, I just need to find a pen that thoroughly satisfies me in it. And unfortunately, I have specific needs:</p>



<ul class="disc"><li><strong>It needs to be a black pen.</strong>
<p>I&#8217;m pretty set on coloured pens! I just use them for accents anyway. And I&#8217;ve never been a fan of blue pens. One look at my artwork and it&#8217;s easy to see that I&#8217;ve always liked the high contrast of a black pen. {:</p>
</li><li><strong>It needs to produce a vivid line.</strong>
<p>It doesn&#8217;t have to be a thick line, and it doesn&#8217;t have to be blackest black, but it does have to be fairly intense.</p>
</li><li><strong>It can&#8217;t be too slick.</strong>
<p>There has to be some friction between the paper and the pen tip. Depending on my mood, I can write pretty fast and with plenty of artistic swashes, so I need a bit of drag on the pen tip to keep my handwriting legible without me having to be super careful.</p>
</li><li><strong>It can&#8217;t be too scratchy.</strong>
<p>There needs to be gentle friction, but it has to be smooth. Scratchy pen nibs are like nails on a chalkboard to me. BIG problem for a lefty since we&#8217;re already making the pen scratch more than glide!</p>
</li><li><strong>It has to dry quickly.</strong>
<p>Hey, as I said, I&#8217;m left-handed. Add to that writing quickly with flamboyant artistic swashes and it&#8217;s a recipe for an inked-up hand. So, I need a pen that dries very quickly to prevent the smudgies.</p>
</li><li><strong>It has to be quiet.</strong>
<p>Some pens <em>sound</em> sticky at the end of a word even if they don&#8217;t <em>feel</em> sticky. In other pens you can hear the pen tip jiggling or springing up and down inside the barrel. One thing I just love about the Power Tank is that it&#8217;s solid &#8212; there&#8217;s no jostling of the pen tip.</p>
</li></ul>



<p>In the end, I&#8217;m really not looking for a pen to replace my Power Tank for everyday use. I love it so much that I just don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s possible. So I suppose I&#8217;m not looking for The Perfect Pen, I&#8217;m just looking for the perfect pen for my Leuchtturm notebook. If I can&#8217;t find a pen that does what I need, I won&#8217;t find it a pleasure to write in my Bujo, and if it isn&#8217;t a pleasure, I won&#8217;t use it!</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><a href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/emeraldleuchtturm-cr.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/emeraldleuchtturm-cr.jpg" alt="My emerald Leuchtturm" class="wp-image-3922" width="389" height="506" srcset="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/emeraldleuchtturm-cr.jpg 615w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/emeraldleuchtturm-cr-480x624.jpg 480w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/emeraldleuchtturm-cr-595x774.jpg 595w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/emeraldleuchtturm-cr-525x683.jpg 525w" sizes="(max-width: 389px) 100vw, 389px" /></a><figcaption>My emerald Leuchtturm</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>I realize that in the end, this may be an impossible task. I&#8217;ve tried a bunch of pens that claim to be quick drying only to run into the same smudgies issue. And some other pens work fairly well in the Leuchtturm but I can&#8217;t stand to hold them, possibly because they aren&#8217;t a chunky, thick-barreled pen like the Power Tank. So, I may have to give up the Leuchtturm, or just use the Power Tank in spite of its issues in the Leuchtturm. But for now, the search continues.</p>



<p>And this is where you get to chime in! Do you use a Leuchtturm notebook and use a specific pen when writing in it? Do you like a specific pen for any other notebook? Are you a lefty who loves a specific pen? Are you a righty who loves a specific pen? Whatever your flavour, comment below (or <a href="http://www.whitneyfawn.com/contact/">email me</a>) and tell me what your favorites are! It will give me inspiration for a future shopping list. :p</p>



<p><span class="disclaimer">* NB: There isn&#8217;t just ONE thing in the world that I love. {:</span></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/bujo-pen-desperation/">Bujo Pen Desperation</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
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		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">3913</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Soap Review: Avon Wild Country Soap On A Rope</title>
		<link>https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/soap-review-avon-wild-country-soap-on-a-rope/?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=soap-review-avon-wild-country-soap-on-a-rope</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Whitney MacEachern]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Jun 2017 19:07:08 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Products and Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[california]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[luxurious]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[musky]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[soap]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[summer]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.whitneyfawn.com/?p=3740</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Story time! I&#8217;ve done soap reviews for a long time &#8212; they&#8217;ve just been in my own head. I&#8217;ve loved soap since I was a kid, but sometime ago I&#8230;</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/soap-review-avon-wild-country-soap-on-a-rope/">Soap Review: Avon Wild Country Soap On A Rope</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>Story time! I&#8217;ve done soap reviews for a long time &#8212; they&#8217;ve just been in my own head. <a href="http://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/introduction-to-soap-reviews/">I&#8217;ve loved soap</a> since I was a kid, but sometime ago I started paying close attention to the attributes of a soap and deciding if I&#8217;d use that soap again. It&#8217;s been years of me just silently reviewing soap in the privacy of my shower. It&#8217;s gotten so I can&#8217;t use soap of any kind, even just hand-washing soap in a public restroom, without giving it a mini review. Hubby can tell you that if a public restroom soap isn&#8217;t to my liking, I&#8217;ll tell him about it. :p</p>



<p>But recently, I woke up and smelled the soap (ahem). I was going through that routine with a brand new soap, and I made the snap decision right then and there that I would start putting these reviews out to the world, because&#8230;why not? So here it is, the first review!</p>



<p>My first soap review is on Avon&#8217;s Wild Country Soap on a Rope. And of course, since I decided to do these reviews after I had started using this soap, I don&#8217;t have a before picture. But, I DO have an only-used-once picture!</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><a href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/avon-wild-country-soapr22.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/avon-wild-country-soapr22.jpg" alt="Avon Wild Country Soap on a Rope" class="wp-image-3744" width="386" height="494" srcset="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/avon-wild-country-soapr22.jpg 515w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/avon-wild-country-soapr22-480x614.jpg 480w" sizes="(max-width: 386px) 100vw, 386px" /></a><figcaption>Avon Wild Country Soap on a Rope</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>Let&#8217;s get to it!<br />
</p>



<h3 class="section_heading">First Impressions</h3>



<p>I purchased this soap as part of a package with a bunch of other things from my favorite thrift store. It was in perfect condition (I&#8217;m not in the habit of using pre-used soap!) but I had no packaging outside of what looked like the original plastic packaging, so I had NO idea what brand of soap this was when I started using it. Once I had decided to do this review, I had to use my trusty Google to find out it was by Avon.</p>



<p>My first thoughts went like this: What kind of soap is this? Whatever, I don&#8217;t really care &#8212; it has a rope! Let&#8217;s take this plastic off. Ooo, I like this scent. I really like the shape and size of this bad boy in my hand. What does this bull&#8217;s head on here have to do with anything? Why is this rope not cotton? Oh, man, I like this smell.<br />
</p>



<h3 class="section_heading">Smell</h3>



<p>Whatever this is, it&#8217;s awesome. It&#8217;s kind of mild and strong at the same time, but in all the right ways. It seems to be a mixture of a number of different scent types. It has soft, gentle scent, and there&#8217;s a note of standard soap-smell in there, and it&#8217;s also a little perfume-y. It&#8217;s kind of creamy, a little musky, a little spicy, a little floral. The musky note reminds me of this lavender body spray I have. I never liked lavender until a friend gave me this body spray, and the musky, spicy, sweet scent just sends me to the moon. Maybe I should review body sprays too. {:</p>



<p>Overall, it has a kind of wholesome, clean, livening nose-feel to it that fills the whole shower with goodness. I truly can&#8217;t get enough.<br />
</p>



<h3 class="section_heading">Lather</h3>



<p>The lather is almost like milk! It isn&#8217;t very sudsy. Instead it&#8217;s more of a smooth and silky cream-like consistency. Check it out in the photo above. See how creamy it is? It glides on beautifully, too, and feels really luxurious.<br />
</p>



<h3 class="section_heading">Feel</h3>



<p>It did a good job of making me feel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JfEJq56IwI&amp;ab_channel=OutkastVEVO" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">so fresh, so clean</a>. Even with the creamy consistency of the lather, it washed off easily and wasn&#8217;t filmy at all. It wasn&#8217;t particularly drying but neither was it very moisturizing. All in all, it&#8217;s very nice.<br />
</p>



<h3 class="section_heading">Price</h3>



<p>As of this writing, I have no idea what the original price is for this soap! I haven&#8217;t as of yet been in touch with an Avon rep, but I&#8217;ve done some searching, and given that this soap isn&#8217;t even on the Canadian nor the American Avon websites, I&#8217;m going to guess maybe it was discontinued or is a limited time item and I&#8217;m just not looking at the right time. If I find out more information, I&#8217;ll update this post. Maybe you have some info on this soap? <a href="http://www.whitneyfawn.com/contact/">Contact me</a>!<br />
</p>



<h3 class="section_heading">Overall</h3>



<p>The overall experience of this soap reminds me a lot of my brief time many years ago in California &#8212; not sure why, it just feels to me like how California feels. Easy-breezy. Also makes me think of the heavy, tropical, transportive quality of using suntan oil in the summertime. I like it. I really like it. I like anything that gives me an easy-breezy feel. But I wonder why in the world the rope is this mildly scratchy plastic-y feeling rope instead of a standard, soft, luxurious cotton rope. I have to take points off for that, no matter how much I love how it smells. Sadface.</p>



<p><strong>Final rating: 4 out of 5</strong></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/soap-review-avon-wild-country-soap-on-a-rope/">Soap Review: Avon Wild Country Soap On A Rope</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
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		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">3740</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Introduction to Soap Reviews</title>
		<link>https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/introduction-to-soap-reviews/?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=introduction-to-soap-reviews</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Whitney MacEachern]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 May 2017 00:40:33 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Products and Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[intro]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[introduction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[soap]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.whitneyfawn.com/?p=3609</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>I LOVE SOAP. All kinds of soap, but especially bar soap. I love everything about the experience of trying a new soap. Do you KNOW how many different soaps there&#8230;</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/introduction-to-soap-reviews/">Introduction to Soap Reviews</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>I LOVE SOAP.</p>



<p>All kinds of soap, but especially bar soap. I love everything about the experience of trying a new soap. Do you KNOW how many different soaps there are out there?? Different scents, different ingredients. Some include seeds or oatmeal or MILK. People make them in small batches in their own HOMES! There&#8217;s SO much more out there than the regular brands we all know from the grocery store.</p>



<p>My love for soap probably started because of my mother. She used to send me care packages from California, and they always included several bars of funky soaps that she could get there but I couldn&#8217;t get here. It was thrilling to find out what kind of soaps she sent me.</p>



<p>Actually, it started before then. One time in my early teens, Mom brought home some fancy rose-scented soap that literally made my skin smell like roses; it was wonderful, and it&#8217;s something I, to this day, haven&#8217;t been able to find again. We used to read the bottles of <a href="https://www.drbronner.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dr. Bronner&#8217;s</a> liquid soap together and discuss the writings, and laugh at the silliness. ALL-ONE! Dilute. Dilute. OK! We got such a kick out of that soap!</p>



<p>Mom loved soap, and her sharing it with me is how my own obsession came about. The people closest to me know that a perfect birthday-holiday-whatever gift for me is interesting soap. Or tea. Or art supplies! *swoon*</p>



<p>So, now I&#8217;m going to share my love of soap with you by reviewing the fancy soaps I try! I&#8217;ll base my reviews on the following criteria:</p>



<ul class="disc"><li><strong>First Impressions</strong>: This is the soap experience before I even use it, including the look of the packaging and the soap itself, and how the soap feels in my hand.</li><li><strong>Smell</strong>: Aromatherapy rocks. {:</li><li><strong>Lather</strong>: What&#8217;s more luxurious than a good lather?</li><li><strong>Feel</strong>: Does it make me feel clean? Is it easy to wash off? Does it my skin feel tight and itchy?</li><li><strong>Price</strong>: Is the experience worth the cost?</li></ul>



<p>Keep watching for my upcoming first soap review! Follow me on <a href="http://www.whitneyfawn.com/contact/">social media</a> or sign up for <a href="http://www.whitneyfawn.com/subscribe">my bi-weekly newsletter</a> to stay up to date on these reviews and other things as well. {: &lt;3</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/introduction-to-soap-reviews/">Introduction to Soap Reviews</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
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		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">3609</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>I Have A Thinking Problem</title>
		<link>https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/i-have-a-thinking-problem/?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=i-have-a-thinking-problem</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Whitney MacEachern]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 11 May 2017 16:33:16 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Chronic Illness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[habits]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[memory]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.whitneyfawn.com/?p=3593</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Hi, my name is Whitney, and I have a thinking problem. That&#8217;s cute, right, that pun? I thought it was cute. {: It&#8217;s true though &#8212; I have a thinking&#8230;</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/i-have-a-thinking-problem/">I Have A Thinking Problem</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>Hi, my name is Whitney, and I have a thinking problem.</p>



<p>That&#8217;s cute, right, that pun? I thought it was cute. {:</p>



<p>It&#8217;s true though &#8212; I have a thinking problem. Here&#8217;s my problem:</p>



<p>I can&#8217;t hold a thought in my head long enough to act on it.</p>



<p>Ok, saying it like that might be a bit of hyperbole since I DO manage to accomplish a lot of things, but I can&#8217;t tell you how often I think, &#8220;oh, I should go ________&#8221; and even if I drop everything that moment to do it, the minute I turn around, I&#8217;ve forgotten what I set out to do.</p>



<p>Example: Let&#8217;s say I&#8217;m drawing, and I&#8217;m thinking about how I want the drawing to go. I think about something I want to incorporate into the drawing and decide to go look up reference material. In the time it takes me to roll in my wheelie-chair away from my drafting table, move up to my desk, and open a browser tab, I&#8217;ve forgotten the entire reason I opened that browser tab.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s not like I&#8217;m taking a trip down the hall or even across the room &#8212; my drafting table is at a right angle to my desk, so I just have to pivot to the left 90° and roll forward about a foot. How can I possibly forget something that quickly?</p>



<p>Sometimes I get lucky and can remember it if I sit there a minute or two and play through what I had been doing and thinking about up until that moment. Other times it&#8217;s just POOF! Gone for good. It&#8217;s immeasurably frustrating.</p>



<p>It isn&#8217;t just drawing &#8212; I have the same issue with writing. Sometimes the words I want to write just flow easily out of me, but I know that if I don&#8217;t stop at that very moment and write it down word for word, I&#8217;ll lose it forever, and I&#8217;ll even lose the entire concept behind it. I&#8217;ve tried writing down the concept only, but I never get that word flow quite right again. You wouldn&#8217;t believe how many blog posts I&#8217;ve lost over this. And even while writing it down, I&#8217;ll lose parts of it. It&#8217;s like I think in paragraph form but by the time I write the first half, I&#8217;ve forgotten the second. Writing an outline or bullet points doesn&#8217;t work either because, again, I&#8217;ll lose the last ones before I even get to them. It&#8217;s like the mere act of writing one bullet point makes me lose the next.</p>



<p>This has been an issue for quite some time and I&#8217;m not sure what to do about it. Oh, sure, I&#8217;ve tried writing everything down in a notebook, but again, by the time I get that notebook open, the thought is gone. I&#8217;ve tried having a single index card on my desk. Actually, I should try that one again, because my issue there might have been my difficulty in creating habits. Now, doesn&#8217;t that make sense? I would think those two issues relate to each other somehow.</p>



<p>It would be easy to say, &#8220;Well, if I can&#8217;t remember it, it couldn&#8217;t have been that important,&#8221; but I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s the case. This happens to everyone from time to time, but with me, it happens often enough and quickly enough that I think it&#8217;s an issue. It makes me feel like I don&#8217;t have control over my own brain, and that&#8217;s scary.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/i-have-a-thinking-problem/">I Have A Thinking Problem</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
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		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">3593</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Jewelry I Painted 3 Times</title>
		<link>https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/the-jewelry-i-painted-3-times/?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=the-jewelry-i-painted-3-times</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Whitney MacEachern]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 02 May 2017 01:32:45 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Jewelry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[commission]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[earrings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[paint]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pendant]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[polymer clay]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.whitneyfawn.com/?p=3574</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>A while back I completed a special commission for a friend, which you can see above. Her request: A necklace and pair of earrings. As she is African Canadian, she&#8230;</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/the-jewelry-i-painted-3-times/">The Jewelry I Painted 3 Times</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>A while back I completed a special commission for a friend, which you can see above. Her request: A necklace and pair of earrings. As she is African Canadian, she wanted African colours to honour her heritage. She likes large jewelry and wanted this set to be bold and to make a statement. And the earrings needed to be clip-on.</p>



<p>I made 3 oval shapes out of polymer clay &#8212; 1 for the pendant and 2 for the earrings &#8212; and stamped them with my hand-carved stamp, and started on the painting, which I did at the same time I decorated a bunch of tiny clay bits that I will be using for other things later on.</p>



<p>Armed with numerous images of African textiles for inspiration, I set out on the painting. I gave her three bits an initial base coat of orange. Here they are in the top right, along with little round bits and paired-up rectangle and square bits:</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><a href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/clay-bits-with-commission-before-WhitneyFawn.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="960" height="960" src="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/clay-bits-with-commission-before-WhitneyFawn-960x960.jpg" alt="Clay bits with commission - before" class="wp-image-3580" srcset="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/clay-bits-with-commission-before-WhitneyFawn-960x960.jpg 960w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/clay-bits-with-commission-before-WhitneyFawn-480x480.jpg 480w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/clay-bits-with-commission-before-WhitneyFawn-595x595.jpg 595w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/clay-bits-with-commission-before-WhitneyFawn-768x768.jpg 768w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/clay-bits-with-commission-before-WhitneyFawn-525x525.jpg 525w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/clay-bits-with-commission-before-WhitneyFawn.jpg 1080w" sizes="(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" /></a><figcaption>Clay bits with commission &#8211; before</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>And here they are after the painting session:</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><a href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/clay-bits-with-commission-after-WhitneyFawn.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="960" height="960" src="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/clay-bits-with-commission-after-WhitneyFawn-960x960.jpg" alt="Clay bits with commission - after" class="wp-image-3579" srcset="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/clay-bits-with-commission-after-WhitneyFawn-960x960.jpg 960w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/clay-bits-with-commission-after-WhitneyFawn-480x480.jpg 480w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/clay-bits-with-commission-after-WhitneyFawn-595x595.jpg 595w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/clay-bits-with-commission-after-WhitneyFawn-768x768.jpg 768w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/clay-bits-with-commission-after-WhitneyFawn-525x525.jpg 525w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/clay-bits-with-commission-after-WhitneyFawn.jpg 1080w" sizes="(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" /></a><figcaption>Clay bits with commission &#8211; after</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>They look fully painted, right? Well they were, but after they had dried overnight, I decided I just wasn’t happy with them. I felt like the colours were muddy and ugly and just didn’t go well together. It wasn&#8217;t good enough. I tried painting over each piece in black, but I didn’t like the idea of black as the base. I really, really like the polymer clay to show through in my work. So, I knew I had to start over with the paint.</p>



<p>Acrylic paint dries pretty permanently, so I couldn’t just wipe it off, especially after adding a couple layers of black on top. I considered creating new shapes, but for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to do it, so I soaked the pieces in very, very hot water, which softened everything up just enough that I could scrape the paint off. There was a little paint left behind in places, but with more paint going on, that wasn’t a problem. I just needed the bulk of it taken off, and to be able to see the color of the polymer clay.</p>



<p>The second painting was better, and it looked great, but on the very last layer of paint, I added too much of one colour and it threw the balance completely off. D’oh! I couldn’t fix it, so I had start over – again! But this time, because the paint wasn’t fully dry, I didn’t have too much problem removing it.</p>



<p>The third time was the charm. I finally had the color balance right. I decided that gold findings, leather cord, and big wooden beads would pair with these pieces the best.</p>



<p>It’s funny how art can turn out sometimes. You can go into creation with one idea in mind, and end up with something completely different. For this set, I didn’t have a clear idea in my head of the finished product, but I was trying really hard to be true to my friend’s wishes – and I went way outside my comfort zone to do it!</p>



<p>Even so, I think the finished pieces succeed in honouring African heritage by being bold and strong. The colours are earthy, which I think is very African, but because I’m an earth mama, it’s also very Whitney. And I like that even if I wouldn’t have chosen these colours on my own, you can still find me in there.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/the-jewelry-i-painted-3-times/">The Jewelry I Painted 3 Times</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
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		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">3574</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>February Drifts</title>
		<link>https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/february-drifts/?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=february-drifts</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Whitney MacEachern]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Feb 2017 21:04:35 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Motivation and Productivity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[february]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[flow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[overwhelm]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.whitneyfawn.com/?p=3318</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>It&#8217;s February! Wow, already a month into 2017. Where does the time go? My January was a pretty unfocused month. 2016 was rough on me energy-wise, and the last few&#8230;</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/february-drifts/">February Drifts</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>It&#8217;s February! Wow, already a month into 2017. Where does the time go?</p>



<p>My January was a pretty unfocused month. 2016 was rough on me energy-wise, and the last few months in particular were an especially difficult time. I&#8217;ve been running on fumes for so long, I&#8217;m not sure what <em><strong>not</strong></em> running on fumes feels like, but that doesn&#8217;t stop me from yearning to refill my tank to the brim.</p>



<p>In spite of my Plans for the year, my energy required me to take a bit of a detour. All it meant is that I haven&#8217;t been as focused as I&#8217;ve wanted to be so far this year, but that&#8217;s all right.</p>



<p>If you don&#8217;t have the energy, you just don&#8217;t have the energy. Ya can&#8217;t fake it!</p>



<p>And that&#8217;s the message I wanted to leave with you, a message that jellyfish already know:</p>



<h1 class="embiggen">When you can&#8217;t push against the tides, trust in the drifting of the waves.</h1>



<p>Whether you&#8217;re feeling overwhelmed, or exhausted, or done-in, or burned out, or overburdened, try to remember that it&#8217;s okay to just drift a while. It&#8217;s okay to just let go and not try so hard.</p>



<p>As humans, we love to pretend we&#8217;re super heroes. We spend so much time taking care of others, that we forget to take care of Numero Uno. We get lost in the shuffle.</p>



<p>Taking care of others is wonderful &#8212; it&#8217;s noble, it&#8217;s worthwhile, and it&#8217;s rewarding. But sometimes, we have to just allow life to carry us for a while, like a boat gently rolling along with the lapping waves.</p>



<p>The jellyfish know.</p>



<p class="disclaimer">Credit: Floating jellyfish photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/Tkb09j7kJYg">Alberto Montalesi</a></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/february-drifts/">February Drifts</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
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		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">3318</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Winds of Change Blowing Me Away</title>
		<link>https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/winds-of-change-blowing-me-away/?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=winds-of-change-blowing-me-away</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Whitney MacEachern]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 25 Jan 2017 12:58:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Motivation and Productivity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[organization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reflections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[spirituality]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.whitneyfawn.com/?p=3253</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>2017 has started off with a lot of introspection. Something got me interested in Wicca again, soon after the new year. I can&#8217;t call myself Wiccan, just like I can&#8217;t&#8230;</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/winds-of-change-blowing-me-away/">Winds of Change Blowing Me Away</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>2017 has started off with a lot of introspection.</p>



<p>Something got me interested in Wicca again, soon after the new year. I can&#8217;t call myself Wiccan, just like I can&#8217;t call myself lots of things, but I&#8217;m a student of everything I can get my hands on, and I remain open to new ideas, or old ones. I like the idea of ritual, as much as I avoid it, and I&#8217;m feeling particularly in need of being close to the Earth, so of course, my right-now-interest in Wicca is apropos.</p>



<p>During my research, I&#8217;ve had some pretty powerful visions.</p>



<p>I envisioned a ritual in which I wash pennies, preparing them for use in a wishing well. It wasn&#8217;t a ritual I had read about; the ritual came to me when somewhere along the way I read the words &#8220;wishing well&#8221;. While washing the pennies, I remove all previous purposes and thoughts, good and bad, associated with the pennies, so they can be used with pure purpose in this wishing well. I release the previous purposes of the pennies into the universe, so if any previous wish placed on them can be finished if it isn&#8217;t already. It&#8217;s a cleansing and a blessing ritual.</p>



<p>So I&#8217;m at my desk in the early morning, writing snippets of thoughts that I can later turn into full-blown blog posts, and I write a snippet on how the tidying of my home &#8212; not just the cleaning with a mop and bucket, but also the organization and placement of items I own. I look at my surroundings and think about what I want my space to be, and I realize just how far I&#8217;ve come. Things have changed very slowly, but suddenly I could see the change, and the light at the tunnel.</p>



<p>I look up at the title of my snippet, which is just &#8220;Cleaning&#8221;. I realize that it isn&#8217;t just about cleaning &#8212; I&#8217;ve changed my thoughts about cleaning. It&#8217;s been a CLEAN change &#8212; not a tidy change, but a change in thoughts about tidyness. I change it to &#8220;<a href="http://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/clean-change">Clean Change</a>&#8220;. I think about the variations of that title I could use: Cleaning Change, Changing Clean, Changing Cleaning. I think about the subtle double meanings in those title possibilities &#8212; I have a hard time writing without thinking about subtle plays on words, even if the joke is just for me &#8212; and wonder how I could make them into even more interesting puns. I think about clean change, about washing pennies for a wishing well, and I realize, for the millionth time, that everything happens for a reason.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/winds-of-change-blowing-me-away/">Winds of Change Blowing Me Away</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
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		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">3253</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Clean Change</title>
		<link>https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/clean-change/?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=clean-change</link>
					<comments>https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/clean-change/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Whitney MacEachern]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Jan 2017 13:13:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Writings and Thoughts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[change]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[konmari]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[organization]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.whitneyfawn.com/?p=3243</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Change happens slowly. My internal narrative is that my home is a wreck. In many ways it is. But when I look around, and really see where things are, I&#8230;</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/clean-change/">Clean Change</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>Change happens slowly.</p>



<p>My internal narrative is that my home is a wreck. In many ways it is. But when I look around, and really see where things are, I can finally see how far I&#8217;ve come, and how close I am to having the kind of space that I have in my mind.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s been a long journey. I&#8217;ve been working on this bit by bit for a really long time &#8212; years. It was on my mind a LOT in 2016, but I didn&#8217;t talk about it, in spite of <a href="http://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/hello-2016/">my promises</a> <a href="http://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/tidying-up-part-1/">to do so</a>. I had wanted to document the journey here. But, 2016 was a year of an intense re-juggling of <a href="http://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/hello-2017/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">my life</a> and how I go about my tasks. I struggled to handle even basic cyclical things like putting out <a href="http://www.whitneyfawn.com/subscribe" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">my newsletter</a> every two weeks.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Because 2016 was such a discombobulating experience, my Konmari journey turned out to be one I had to take solo. I worked on the chronic disorganization in my home in fits and starts, little bits at a time, without enough time or energy (energy, mostly) to write about it. I wanted to dedicate a couple weeks to it directly, as Kondo recommends, but for various reasons that wasn&#8217;t possible. It wasn&#8217;t for a lack of trying. :p It was a lack of ability.&nbsp;</p>



<p>But things are changing. It&#8217;s hard to pinpoint exactly when things started to change, but I know that Marie Kondo&#8217;s methods were the spark. There&#8217;s something about the mystical ways of her methods that has made them stick with me. So even while I haven&#8217;t specifically been using her methods to the letter, they&#8217;ve been in my mind the whole time. Asking myself the question: &#8220;Does this spark joy?&#8221; has enabled me to make some very, very hard choices on some items when I was having trouble letting go.</p>



<p>Unfinished business, uncompleted projects, items that made me feel good and bad things at the same time &#8212; I had an internal block when it came to some of these items. Completing the project might have been very, very far down on my list of priorities, or might not have even been something that I was GOING to do in spite of a decent priority but I also couldn&#8217;t seem to just let it go. One day recently, I found myself accepting the loss of the unfinished project and put the item in the donate pile. The moment I did that, I felt free. It was like my soul had opened up.</p>



<p>I made many donate decisions after that, and the size of the donation pile was a testament to how incredibly easy it had suddenly become.</p>



<p>There&#8217;s a lot of criticism of Konmari. Maybe Marie Kondo&#8217;s mystical ways don&#8217;t work for you. Maybe you&#8217;re a more practical person and therefore want just practical advice. That&#8217;s totally fine. The funny thing is that I&#8217;m usually very practical. Sometimes I surprise my artistic side with how practical I can be. But I have a mystical streak in me, so for whatever reason, the mysticism in her methods has stayed with me, almost like I&#8217;m reading her book in my mind&#8217;s eye while I&#8217;m sorting through my things. It&#8217;s the fact that the ideas stayed with me that&#8217;s caused a slight change in me to snowball.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/clean-change/">Clean Change</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
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		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">3243</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Hello 2017!</title>
		<link>https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/hello-2017/?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=hello-2017</link>
					<comments>https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/hello-2017/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Whitney MacEachern]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 15 Jan 2017 20:33:37 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Motivation and Productivity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[resolutions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[word of the year]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.whitneyfawn.com/?p=3255</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Another year has arrived! That means it&#8217;s time to review the previous year and welcome the new one, and also to pick a Word of the Year for 2017. So&#8230;</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/hello-2017/">Hello 2017!</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>Another year has arrived! That means it&#8217;s time to review the previous year and welcome the new one, and also to pick a Word of the Year for 2017. So let&#8217;s begin!</p>



<h1 class="embiggen">2016 Closing Ceremonies</h1>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><a href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/MyWordFor2016LESS.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="600" height="401" src="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/MyWordFor2016LESS.jpg" alt="My Word for 2016 is LESS" class="wp-image-2826" srcset="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/MyWordFor2016LESS.jpg 600w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/MyWordFor2016LESS-300x201.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a><figcaption>My Word for 2016 is LESS</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>2016, what a long strange trip you were. My Word for you was LESS. That was a success, and a failure, all in one. {:</p>



<p>When the year began, I had just started a new outside-of-the-home job, and it was a massive undertaking, even if just for the fact that I&#8217;m chronically ill. I was energy-starved the entire year, and I&#8217;m not sure how I managed it. But even with that, I slowly pushed my own boundaries enough to keep going. It was very difficult, but I&#8217;m in a better place today than I was this time last year, so it is all worth it, ya know?</p>



<p>Because I was so energy-starved, I didn&#8217;t work on art projects as much as I had wanted to. I&#8217;m sorry to say, I didn&#8217;t blog very much the whole year, and let the newsletter get chronically behind. It may have been necessity just to keep my wits about me, but I still feel terrible about it and wish it didn&#8217;t have to be that way.</p>



<p>I had less art in my life. NOT ideal! So, I know what to work on in 2017, don&#8217;t I? {:</p>



<h1 class="embiggen">Ok 2017!</h1>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><a href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/mywordfor2017iscommitment.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="960" height="501" src="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/mywordfor2017iscommitment-960x501.jpg" alt="My Word for 2017: Commitment" class="wp-image-3266" srcset="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/mywordfor2017iscommitment-960x501.jpg 960w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/mywordfor2017iscommitment-595x311.jpg 595w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/mywordfor2017iscommitment-768x401.jpg 768w, https://www.whitneyfawn.com/wp-content/uploads/mywordfor2017iscommitment.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" /></a><figcaption>My Word for 2017: Commitment</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>I have many goals for this year. I&#8217;ve spent a lot of time looking at different calendars and planners to find the right one that would help me to achieve my goals. I&#8217;ve talked to people about my plans for 2017, my search for the right planner, my plan to make schedules. The word &#8220;plan&#8221; has definitely been a big part of my vocabulary. The people I&#8217;ve talked to spoke from their own experience and said that they&#8217;ve found that you can do too much planning. That you can plan so much you forget to actually Do.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s interesting to hear about these different perspectives. It&#8217;s also interesting to feel deeply in my soul that I&#8217;m in great need of a plan. I see all the reasons they aren&#8217;t as focused on making a plan as I am, and totally understand it from their perspective, but I know that I need at least a basic framework, because otherwise I&#8217;ll get to December and realize I haven&#8217;t accomplished much at all.</p>



<p>So, I need a plan, and that&#8217;s where my focus is right now. And I&#8217;m committed. We&#8217;ll see if that will mean what I intend, or if it&#8217;ll mean white strait jackets. :p</p>



<p class="disclaimer">Credit: Rusty nails photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/andriuxuk/12084754104">andriuXphoto</a> and sunset photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/zachd1_618/8268806952/">Zach Dischner</a> <br /><br /></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com/blog/hello-2017/">Hello 2017!</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.whitneyfawn.com">WhitneyFawn.com</a>.</p>
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