Hi, I‘m Lorena and welcome to The Stress Less Pencil. Together, we create art to make us feel good, not to make it look good. All weekly prompts are designed for total beginners and experienced artists alike, so come join us.
It is the end of November which means soon ‘tis, at least according to some, the most wonderful time of the year. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, there is something magical about this period.
It’s the time of the winter solstice, when the days (in the Northern Hemisphere) are finally starting the get longer again. It’s the season of lights and candles, of homemade baked goods, of comfy blankets and flannel pyjamas.
So even if you don’t accept Mariah Carey as your lady and saviour, there are some Christmas traditions that merit the excitement.
When I was a child, my grandmother made me my very own advent calendar each year. She sowed the little bags, and cross-stitched beautiful numbers and motifs onto them and on the backdrop that the bags were attached to. She would fill them with fruits, nuts, and, of course, tons of candy. Opening a little bag every morning was the highlight of the day, and it got progressively more exciting the closer we got to Christmas.
This year, we’ll create ourselves a very special advent calendar, but instead of candy we’ll fill it gratitude.
Sorry, not sorry.
The Activity: Create a Gratitude Advent Calendar
If you don’t celebrate Christmas, simply change the number of days to countdown to your holiday of choice, whether that’s the Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, New Year’s, or your cat’s birthday.
Step 1: Collect the photos
Go through your camera roll from this year and find 24 photos that portray things that you are grateful for, e.g. fun moments with friends and family, nature, places, you visited, an especially sunny day, your cat.
If there are any events you want to include, but don’t have photos for, feel free to supplement with photos found online.
Arrange the pictures on A4 pages, print and cut them out.
Step 2: Make the calendar
The easiest version: take your photos and fold them into little squares, and put them in a jar or a bowl.
The fancier version: put the images in envelopes, number them, and hang them from a horizontal bar or branch.
The Pinterest version: there is no limit to your creativity for designing your calendar.
Just head on over to Pinterest for ALL THE INSPIRATION
Step 3: Gratitude every day
Every day, starting from the 1st of December (or whenever you want to start), open one of your images / envelopes / fancy homemade boxes. Take a moment to look at your photo, remember the day you took it, and the emotions you had then. Then continue to spend your day in grateful bliss. Repeat again the next day.
My Example
You might (or not) have noticed that this newsletter is coming to you a day later than usual. We celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday, with massive amounts of food and friends and joy. While I didn’t have the time to sit down and write, all that thankfulness did give me the inspiration for this prompt.
My advent calendar is in progress, but not yet finished. I am going for the simple version of folded pictures in a jar. I’m making it for my husband, and it’s filled to 95% with photos of our daughter. I’ve printed the pictures, but I still need to cut them and fold them.
All that to say, there’s no photo of my example (yet). So please enjoy this AI-generated image of an extremely ambitious and very unrealistic version of what I’m doing:
Even though I love the concept, somebody please tell the machines that humans that have little humans, dogs, jobs, and laundry, do NOT have the time to make a glass full of intricately folded origami snowflakes. Thank you!
Have a wonderful week my friends.
Love, Lorena