Life Review: October
Also published on my Patreon Page…
October 2, 2025
Last year, at this time I shared how October is my birthday month and how every year during this time I do a simple life review.
This past year has been a strange one. Incredibly emotional bordering on low vibration and low energy. I remind myself that I’m doing new things and new things require new skills, patience and persistence. New things are fine, but working with low energy and my mind bombarding me with tons of thoughts, is not fine. Yet here I am, ready to acknowledge myself for what I was able to accomplish.
October marks the beginning of preparations for the Holidays, and last year, I hosted Thanksgiving. It was a happy moment for me, seeing our family in our home, sharing this festivity. And if it wasn’t for our family pulling together on the dinner preparations, I’m not sure it would have turned out as great as it did. Because while I consider myself a creative, I’m an awful cook. Special thanks to my sister in-law and her mom! Immediately after, the focus was Christmas. And 2024 came to an end.
2025 however is where strange creeps in. Early in the year, I challenged myself to create my own website. The first half of 2025 I dedicated to questioning and doubting myself, labeling myself as impulsive. It’s in my nature to overthink. I had drafted this post back in July, detailing every doubtful thought I had until finally pulling myself together and focusing instead on the actual steps to launch my website. I wish I could say that the technical steps of creating a website were difficult, they were not. The difficulty was the internal battle with myself. There was clarity and alignment I was seeking from within. A clarity and alignment that went away each time I loaded my artwork on Redbubble, Society6 or even social media, which I chose to turn off. Actually Society6 turned me off first.
The battle within turned out to be a blessing. But a blessing that took half the year to see. When my focus became one simple questions: “what would be so delightful to do every day for my website, even just a little each day?” the website finally came together! And the blessing was that during the first six month of the year I was actually letting go of old ideas about the art business; ideas that had to be decluttered for me to feel the joy of creating once again. I discovered that my inner self was screaming loudly each time I took a step away from joy, every time I pushed through doing the things I saw other artists do in their businesses. I finally learned a hard lesson: allowing my creative joyful self to show me the next best step, when it was ready to show me, it required patience.
“When the student is ready, the teacher appears” said Lao Tzu”
Upon clearing the mental clutter, it was time to face the fact that by following other artists steps I had made 0 in sales. And then it happened, I stumbled upon Lilla Rogers and her Make Art That Sells website; however time and money are resources I no longer waste. Therefore, I only made the commitment of watching her YouTube Channel. The first video I watched stirred something within, JOY! Everything she said resonated in my heart and reminded me why I’ve made art my whole life but kept it only for myself, protecting it. While I wasn’t ready to commit to a full course, I signed up for a mini sample of Lilla’s teaching on the Creativebug with a free trial. Lilla’s energy, her approach to teaching, her understanding of artists and writers - I discovered a kindred spirit. By taking that mini course I was so motivated that my creative self showed me what to write about and who to write for. So I thought… if I uncovered these jewels within myself with a mini class, what would happen if I took one of her MATS courses?
It became clear that it was time to invest time and money to see what else I could uncover within myself. I have a style and I’m happy with it. I have clear ideas of the illustrations that I want to make. And I’m happy with those ideas. What I needed was to clarify for myself if I was fully committed to making art a business or if I wanted to turn back and keep it a personal endeavor. And yes, even as a personal endeavor, a website would still happen. I carefully read through each course offering many times to see which called to me more. I purchased the MATS Hot Markets Part A Course.
“Distinctions are important”
I’d been applying my business discipline to my illustrations, as a formula. And no, this does not take away my joy. It keeps me organized; I have a busy life. I created a template for myself where I outline each step of an illustration in detail (thumbnails, sketches, color tests, final drawing, coloring phase, etc) and keep track of my progress. I also notate details such as the inspiration moodboard I create, color palettes, where research came from, etc. A formula. And Lilla’s course confirmed this was in the right direction.
But since going public with my art, I faced so much internal resistance with the thought of having to create for others rather than from within. The MATS Hot Markets Part A course showed me from day 1 that I could still illustrate what attracts me, what I’m passionate about, what I enjoy illustrating, as long as I understand and apply the requirements for the market that I’m illustrating for. Even better, some of the requirements lend themselves to multiple markets. Prior to this one course, I had failed to understand the distinction between art (the basics of an illustration and composition) and art that sells. It is on the title of their website! The course has already helped me transform two underpromising digital illustrations into playful and joyful, full of cohesive details, illustrations. If I’d paid closer attention to the friction I felt while loading my art on websites like Society6 or Redbubble, I would have maybe realized I had been working aimlessly. I’m thankful to have come across Lilla Rogers and MATS.
Summary of accomplishments:
Hosting Thanksgiving with my family!
I launched my website in August. Happy internal moment…
Within my website I launched two blogs: In My Studio and Letters To My Nieces.
By now I’ve made peace with social media. But time is a valuable resource, therefore, my Instagram Business Account will remain on pause. For now, my Pinterest Business Account has the function of promoting my blogs and past illustrations. And letting my SEO work do its job. I plan to improve it as time goes by.
I'm slowly working through the MATS Hot Markets Part A course. I take one module a month. it is like slowly unwrapping my favorite chocolate bar and eating it piece by piece.
I have a list of MATS courses I would like to take. But I still use my rule of taking a course only if I feel it will hone on a skill that I will use while working on a specific project. I had my eye on the Lettering Course. I would like to use hand lettering for the feature illustrations I made for my blogs. This course is worth it! It has been nice to wake up so early to work on the mini assignments. The course was offered as a live course and I almost didn’t take it - I was concerned about assignment deadlines. But the habit of waking up super early to have uninterrupted time, made it possible for me to finish the September Assignment the day before it was due, working a little each day, non-stop, 7 days of each week. What I like is that the course is teaching me more than lettering, it is teaching me about myself. Oh the resistance I felt about creating soap packaging! But I did it.
I haven’t published any new work; but I have been making new illustrations. They are all work in progress. I didn’t want to move them forward until I knew which market each would fit within.
My life stopped being predictable in 2021. And no matter how organized I am, many things will happen to make me wonder why I bother trying to be organized. It is difficult to see a short list of accomplishments. But I must accept that with the hand I've been dealt, I could have accomplished nothing if I had allowed my emotions, my low vibration, my low energy get the best of me. I’m not alone, going through a difficult time, I know. And I see that maybe 2025 was supposed to develop this way so that I could clearly see that I walk around carrying expectations of a life I don’t have; which is also a life I don’t want. But similar to how old ideas about the art business had to be decluttered and let go, old ideas and expectations about my life had to be decluttered and let go. This is a big accomplishment!
Before I say until next time… in September I updated the mini print that I gift Patreon subscribers. It is a mini print of my vampire and kitten illustration ready for Halloween!