Those of you who remember me 50 pounds heavier in my 20's know I've always had a slightly shaky relationship with food. Mostly sugar. My parents used to hide the treats from me. I said for years that I had a loop track going in my head saying, "Can we have a cookie? Is it time for a cookie now? What about now???" Incessantly. I spend a ton of my time thinking about what I'm going to put in my mouth next -- which is probably one reason art is such a joy to me, because it's the thing I'm most likely to lose myself in for a while and not think about food.

In my late 20's my dad was newly single and going on a ski trip/legal conference but didn't want to go alone. All of us in my family knew that I was never going to be a candidate for downhill, with its speed and athleticism, but Dad talked me into trying cross country. I knew I was going to be terrible at that, but I didn't want to also be embarrassed by my total lack of wind and stamina, so Dad and I started walking daily to get ready for the trip. As it turned out, I never could stay upright long enough for wind or stamina to be an issue. I did, however, find myself a happy winter occupation of going out snowshoeing with a sketchbook in my pocket.

By the time the trip had rolled around, I was already losing weight (slowly) and feeling physically better, so I kept up the walking and didn't actually diet (I hate going hungry), but I made some substitutions in my eating habits that felt sustainable long term. I lost the 50 pounds over a year and a half or so and managed to keep them off, finding a balance between eating what I enjoy and moving enough to offset it.

Then menopause hit, followed by long covid, which has meant an interruption to the daily 3 mile walks I did for decades, and it's been more of a struggle. I work at home right next to the kitchen and I'm a stress eater, so periodically I fall into putting more things into my mouth than I'm physically hungry for. When that happens, I do a day or two at a time of a food journal. The rule is that before I eat something, I have to draw it, so it makes me more mindful. It's also positive and satisfying activity, rather than a punitive measure.

A lot of these pages are done with a pair of ink brush pens, one dark and one lighter in tone, but I also use these pages to play with different media than I normally use. I keep them pretty quick so meals don't get cold. Another upside is more mindfully enjoying my mixed pottery collection that I use for my daily meals. Above are a teapot from Sauk Mountain pottery in WA (and the memory of sharing it with a good friend), a bowl and teacup with a Julian of Norwich quote by Melissa Bridgman here at home.

I like the idea of markers, but usually I reach for watercolor instead when I'm out sketching, so a food journal page can be a good reset.

One time I was away from home (and away from my regular big sketchbook for this) and tried watercolor instead, but it was too much of an effort to keep up. The food journal can't be too big a mental barrier or I won't do it at all. But watercolor was fun for a day.

I have been kind of fascinated by the advent of GLP-1s and read a lot about them. I'm mostly holding steady where I want to be and don't like adding medicine I don't need, but it is HARD to lose weight the old way, and I'm so glad for my friends who have found the relief they need. It's also been such a comfort to me to read the experience of others and hear the term "food noise." I come from a family of people who legit forget to eat lunch (never have I ever), and I thought I was a freak outlier with my internal cookie loop track. It turns out there are a lot of people wired the way I am, and that has been such a joy to know. Which is probably one reason I'm stepping in here and writing a much more personal blog post than I usually do. Another reason is that I'm still working on the memoir and getting more used to the idea of sharing  personal details. When I do take that leap, I find the sharing  makes bridges and helps other people, the way that reading about food noise helped me.

I don't hold myself strictly to these food journal days. It's meant to be mindful rather than punitive. Sometimes unexpected things happen during the day, and I fizzle.

Sometimes I fizzle super fast.

The flip side of all these food journal pages is a quantity of pages in my regular sketchbook celebrating treats. Yesterday was one of those days. I walked inside Crosstown (bad air lately with the smoke pollution) and felt called by the nearby cinnamon rolls at Lucy J's bakery afterwards. I've always loved Wayne Thiebaud's paintings of cakes and pies and all the good things. So often when I'm having something delicious, I like to enjoy the look of it by sketching it before eating it. I did a whole show one year, buying eclairs, Napoleons, and macarons in Paris and painting them before eating them. It spreads out and slows down the enjoyment for me. So here is a celebration of yesterday's deliciousness. I'm grateful to have found a moderation I can live with that has room for delight still built in.

My favorite cafe has a summer special of peach chai. It is delicious. I got it the first time and sketched with walnut ink and a fat yellow marker plus a little paint. Then I kept thinking about it and went back and sketched with the walnut ink again and a little more paint. It's funny. I had one big sketchbook one summer, and I found myself a little reluctant to start a sketch feeling that it was a lot of real estate to cover. I loved the ones I did, but I didn't always sketch as much as I might have. This summer the big one is the one I'm reaching for the most. I decided just to have a large one going alongside my normal size and not try to box myself into one or the other. I think the dip pen is a game changer. It forces me big and loose, and I'm just enjoying playing with the space.

I had so much fun getting the dip pen out at Shapeshifter that I got it out again at home to sketch Henry the other night. I'm doing so much of my work for publication right now that I'm trying to remember to do some sketching just for me. This is Diamine Chopin ink with a little bit of water and brush at the end. I love its grey purple hue.

I've also been cleaning and refilling pens. I got my Sailor fude out (with a bent nib and a variable line, from thick to thin). I put in Diamine Ancient Copper and ended up doing a post-breakfast sketch with all the tea cannisters on my counter and my new-to-me denim dress hanging up from the wash. I've gotten distracted again the last few days, but I'm going to try to focus back in on sketching around my daily life. It's such joy when I just remember how much I enjoy it and make the time in my day. Or take the energy.

I sketched my tea again this week. This is one of four art deco Bavarian china cups, each with a different pattern. I found them at the thrift store, and they're totally my new favorites. As a bonus, they look fantastic with my crazy fancy Paris brocante teapot, found at the Marche d'Aligre. They also harmonize nicely with Muddy's sweet potato pie. It was a fun morning, and I hope to do some more of these.

I also got back to a little forest sketching on a recent evening walk. I didn't linger since the mosquitoes were finding me, but I enjoyed pulling out my tiny sketchbook that I try to always have on me and do a quick line drawing. I'm still spending most of my time on illustration these days, but sketching feels great when I get to it and keeps me a little looser.

Facebook seems to think it's National Tea Day. I mean, who knows. But it's a day I can totally get behind. Before I saw it I had done this post breakfast sketch. I've been working on careful illustration work for days now, and it felt like time to get out a big brush and be really wet and messy. Mission accomplished. I started with Kaweko Paradise Blue ink, one of my favorites. The stoneware is hand-painted thistle from Scotland. My mom graduated from the University of Edinburgh, and she loved all things Scottish. These are the dishes of my childhood, and I found a cup/saucer/creamer set a few years ago in an antique store and was delighted.

The honey was a gift last week from a friend. I'm so grateful for my Memphis community of people who lift me up when I'm struggling and celebrate with me when I have something good happen. I love living in the place I've grown up and in the house my grandparents bought in 1941. I'd been having a tough day, and the honey was just the sweetness I needed. It's sitting on my counter giving me periodic treats and shining a little sunshine all around it. Fun to paint.

I've been quiet here partly because I'm working on two illustration projects for Memphis Magazine that I can't show yet and partly because I was having some serious internet problems and couldn't share my scans. So I don't have a lot of new material I can share, but here are a couple of recent(ish) sketches that didn't make the blog. The first was an art lunch with friends, which is one of my favorite things to do, and I clearly had tea.

The second was a really neat lecture at Dixon a couple of weeks ago. I got to a number of those and usually sketch, so I'm trying to figure out different media and styles to vary the sketches from lecture to lecture. This was local artist Carl E. Moore, whose work I admire a lot, talking about his practice and his art. Instead of diving into paint I kept it just fountain pen and brush pen. I also used a higher vanishing line than I usually do. Often I'm drawing what's on the wall behind the speaker, but here I left more space for audience and kept his figure central to the sketch. I was pleased with how it turned out, which is not something I say a ton about my sketches. I love doing them, but they don't usually measure up to the image I had in my head before starting. This one was different than I meant it to be, but I was pleased with the result.

We had a stormy Saturday so Memphis Urban Sketchers met inside Crosstown Concourse, a huge old Sears distribution center that's been converted into apartments, offices, a high school, a YMCA, two theaters, a brewery, and (crucially) my favorite bread bakery Lucy J's. (As opposed to my favorite cake and cookie bakery.) That morning I went in for a ham and cheese pocket or something like that, but the cinnamon rolls smelled SO good that I got one. I got a tea to go with it and settled in to wait for the rain and for friends to show up. It's fun to sketch a treat because I take more time and enjoy it more in the process. It was delicious.

Later while talking to friends I did a quick, smaller sketch of the classic red stairwell in the art gallery section of the building.

I finished the morning having a chat with a different friend while I sketched inside the Memphis Listening Lab with their stunning collection of vinyl that you can have played for you. They have a great soundtrack running, needless to say.

I haven't been sketching much lately, so it felt great to go out and do several, especially while seeing friends at the same time. Urban sketchers is a big part of my social calendar and my absolute favorite group.

I was flipping through older sketchbooks and realized that I haven't been sketching my tea things lately, and that's always such a short cut to happiness. So I'm going to try to get back on that bandwagon a bit more for 2026. Here's the first one. The cup/saucer/creamer are handpainted Scottish stoneware. This was our everyday dish set growing up since my mom graduated from the University of Edinburgh and loved all things Scotland. Two successive stepmothers liked this dishware less, and we didn't use it for ages. Now it's happily in use at the family farm, but I found these tea things at antique malls for my personal use and happiness. They're paired with a Shearwater pottery teapot from Ocean Springs for even more personal happiness. I sketched in a blue Inktense pencil and put watercolor on top.

I'm taking a second quick trip before the holiday sales start in earnest. Washington state is a little drizzly some days, but yesterday I caught a lovely sky walking across the boardwalk into Anacortes. It ended up being a perfect four mile walk that ended at Pelican Bay bookstore. I hit the Watermark bookstore too, for a New York Times, which I have to drive an hour for up here, so it was a pleasure to get the Sunday one for several days' worth of reading. I also hit an antique store on the way home and found a really beautiful set of bird china, cup and saucer, cream pitcher, and a sugar bowl with no lid, but it's perfect for setting the tea bags in after pulling them out of the pot, and I hated to strand it by itself. I've never seen china like this before, and it was just too lovely to leave. I did a celebratory sketch last night that got a little muddy (it's been good to get back to sketching after several turnaround days at home with lots of business to take care of), mostly because I chose a very bleed-y blue ink to start with, but it was still fun.