Leigh Ann

Looking for the #artists on BlueSky! I’m an Austin-based artist workong from my home studio.

✨five faves, five tags✨
Food: ramen
Season: Fall
Drink: Coffee
Color: deep turquoise
Anime: I don’t watch anime! But I’d pick My Neighbor Tortoro.

Tags: @missystevens.bsky.social
@susannekerns.bsky.social
@kristinvshaw.bsky.social

Some fun holiday digital paintings! Working digitally this month to give myself a break.

After like 3 weeks of being a Glasses Girl, I finally got replacement contacts, and wow it’s an adjustment.

These two are not nearly this different in size. Forced perspective!

I also don’t know why I’m telling BlueSky all this. Threads about people with insomnia and all the unhelpful things people recommend really grind my gears.

I don’t know if this person whose thread I was reading is experiencing these things, and I hope they’re not, but supplements and exercise are not going to help actual insomnia. It takes real, intensive help. And we deserve to sleep!

Also the anxiety had me convinced that a friend my husband was distancing himself from was going to come to our house and shoot him. It was all so real to me.

What finally helped? Seeing a therapist for cognitive behavioral therapy specifically for insomnia, and getting on a low dose of Zoloft. Why? Because I was fantasizing about taking an entire bottle of trazodone just so I could feel the feeling of falling asleep.

In my case, the bigger problem was some anxiety that - after having my first night of no sleep - kicked into high gear and became a vicious cycle. I was anxious about going to bed and then I couldn’t sleep because I was anxious. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

None of those things helped me. I tried literally everything (except acupuncture). So all those suggestions seem so dismissive. Our bodies are wired for sleep, and if you’re not sleeping, there’s a bigger problem.

It’s so frustrating - as someone who went through a sudden and extreme bout of insomnia 3 years ago - to see threads from people who are suffering and read all the things people are recommending. Magnesium. Valerian root. Are you staying active? Getting outside? What’s your caffeine intake? 😖

Why did I let my teen talk me into doing a face mask with her at 11pm

(Because I’ll do almost anything they ask to do with me!)

Acrylic painting of 6 jolly ranchers candies

My family went to see the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie and it gave me just enough time to do this little painting.

I don’t remember leaving any blood on the carpet, thank goodness!

Quote post this with a foolish injury:

Getting a drunk piggy back ride from a friend in the dorm hallway, he starts spinning and we both hit the wall and then the floor. Metal clip in my hair (it was the 90s, y’all) cut a gash in my head and I had to go of the ER for staples.

As a person who works in comms, I am baffled by people who don’t just…say what they mean. Not people who beat around the bush. I mean using cryptic phrases like “jam on some followups” or “calendar rollups.” I’m not shy about asking for clarification, but just say what you mean the 1st time

Acrylic painting of a rainbow slushee with a blue cocktail umbrella.

This cutie found a new home on Saturday! I hope it brings the new owner joy.

I have to say, my ability to buckle down and get shit done when I’m wildly unprepared for something - say, an art market I’m participating in tomorrow - is pretty astounding. I’m in a much better place than I was an hour ago.

So my teens have been using the phrase “out of pocket” wrongly to mean random or wild, and I keep correcting them, BUT then I heard a 20-something coworker use it the same way today, and apparently it really is something the youths are saying.

Mixed Bag of Tricks - Britta Jensen

What happens when eleven women from around the world team up and challenge each other to write a story outside their genre?

The Mixed Bag of Tricks anthology is available for pre-order, y'all! Where can you get it? All the usual spots! britta-jensen.com/mixed-bag-of...

#WritingCommunity

Also, he’s right, I have a terrible sense of direction.

I just realized that one reason my husband thinks I have no sense of direction is because when gesturing in the direction of something, he gestures in the actual direction, and I gesture according to the little invisible map in front of me.

Happy 1st birthday to this giant baby.

Eclipse shadows!

This is my favorite Picasso period, to be honest.

She’s come a long way. Works incessantly. Even her sketches blow me away.

Search your camera roll for art.

One of my now-teen’s first of many Sonic the Hedgehog drawings. It was an obsession for quite a while.

I do not have to weigh in on every curly hair post asking for advice.
I do not have to weigh in on every curly hair post asking for advice.
I do not have to weigh in on every curly hair post asking for advice.
I do not have to weigh in on every curly hair post asking for advice. 🫠