Yesterday, the daughter and I sat down to paint with some acrylic paints.  The daughter was painting the newly crafted napkin holder and I sat staring blankly at the white canvas.  A forest, I thought, would be a good subject, so I set out to paint a cedar tree.  Shortly thereafter, I added a nameless hardwood, and then an evergreen.  I wanted a water feature, so I slid a bank in front of the trees.  I was left with a funky looking forest lacking perspective and dimension.

Today, I thought about the painting.  The work was far worse, in reality, than it was hanging in the corridors of my memory.  Then, it hit me:  if I had just sat down with a pencil for a few minutes and sketched the structure of the painting, my beautiful textures would have actually shown pretty.

Of course, I wasn’t thinking about the picture as much as I was thinking about my business.  Sometimes, it is so easy to get caught in the details and the technical aspects of business that it is hard to spend the time developing the structure.  In the business, spending time figuring out the overall picture will make all of the technical texturing time fit appropriately.  Sit back and Sketch your plan before you go buying AdWords…

12 Candles for Carolers.
11 Carolers.
10 Houses visited.
9 Pictures posted on Flickr.
8 Families listened to our harmonies.
7 Songs in our repertoire.
6 Hours of holiday cheer.
5 People had no idea who or what Carol Ing was all about.
4 Glasses of Egg Nog.
3 Stories from people about caroling memories.
2 Families offered all of the carolers snacks.
1 Great party that enriched the holiday season.
Although I have struggled with the Christmas Spirit this year, I was really touched by this event and plan to do it again next year.