Learning Counts as a Smallish Adventure

Today’s smallish adventure: teaching my hands a brand-new style—and ending up with a tiny character I’m honestly proud of.

I’m learning how to draw cute little characters in Procreate. I’ve wanted learn this program for a few years. I was gifted (early) an Apple Pencil for Christmas (thanks, mom!) and the first thing I did was download Procreate and hunt for tutorials to learn how to use this incredibly powerful program!

Today I followed a tutorial and made this little ornament character, and something about it just made me happy. The stars, the blush cheeks, the soft glowy background. It’s small, but it felt like a real win!

I’m trying to build a habit of learning in small pieces. It’s not about getting good fast. It’s about showing up, staying curious, and making progress, no matter how tiny.

Tutorial credit: I followed this YouTube tutorial. Here it is if you want to try it too: [link]

Have you tried anything new? I’d love to hear about it! Let me know what it is, and how it’s going in the comment section! Let’s cheer each other on!

Smallish Glimmer: Even the Failures Photograph Well

We carved our first pumpkin (you can read that story over on my personal blog), and of course, I couldn’t resist trying to roast the seeds. I followed all the steps: cleaned, salted, and roasted them (thank you, Google). They looked so pretty. Golden, glistening, picture-perfect. I even took photos because I thought I’d write a whole post about my first pumpkin carving and seed roasting experience. Let’s just say, it didn’t go quite as planned.

I tried to eat them.
Hard. Dry. GROSS.

I still love that I tried. For a brief moment, I was in my full homesteader era—roasting, seasoning, pretending I knew what I was doing. The kitchen smelled amazing. The results? Not so much. But honestly, sometimes the photo’s the win, and sometimes the flop is the story.

Maybe that’s the little lesson hidden in this crunchy batch: sometimes the doing is the point. Even when the result is a mouthful of disappointment, there’s still something to savor in the trying.

Have you ever tried roasting pumpkin seeds? How did they turn out for you? Tell me your secrets (or your disasters!) below — I’d love to hear how yours went