The woman in the picture

My title sounds like a Netflix movie about someone who drinks a lot of red wine and sees a murder and then no one believes her for 50 minutes until she almost gets murdered and finally a man takes notice and saves her.

BUT NO.

It’s just me, folks.

After my last post I wanted to post a quick announcement, and also some rando pix of my latest thrift haul because it’s my blog and I can do what I want. But actually these two things (the pix and the blog) are connected, so continuity for the win!

Announcement: My website is about helping people get their creativity back. It’s about a creative “reset,” and especially aims at those who find themselves stuck in addiction or negative behavior patterns and coping skills. I like to term this very scientifically as: STUCKEDNESS.

But: (and this is huge): IT’S GOING TO HELP ME, TOO. I too am stuckedness.

Further proof that it really is all about me.

Stuckedness is a symptom of a lot of things, and for me, it came back in the form of low self worth, insecurities and anxieties about my writing, and big-time sad feelings. BTW: “Big time sad feelings” is not in the DSM, but it should be.

So, yesterday I took a break from my colossal to-do list (I like lists! I actually love them. They give me comfort and a locus of control. See exhibit A below where I actually have a main list (cute colors) and a whole different notebook that made a LIST of FUTURE lists.

My break from writing consisted of dropping of dry cleaning and buying more food because I am an adult. But it also included a trip to my happy place: THE THRIFT STORE.

I do so love thrifting, for so many reasons. It’s about the thrill of the hunt, and finding really cool stuff that is colorful and different and a little bit weird. Like me. So yesterday, I hit the jackpot in dresses section – I’ll share my haul on IG later because it’s on my list – but I want to talk about this divine thing:

I mean. Honestly.

Handmade. From the seventies. All the color. It makes me so happy.

But then, as I was gazing at it on the rack at the Goodwills, there were other emotions that joined in, because happiness in my head always seems to come with annoying mosquito-ey suckers that say things like:

“This is never going to look good on you.”

“You are simply too old to try this amount of color. And the sleeves. Really Dana. Are you seventeen.

“People will not understand. It’s too much. You’re too much.”

And I faltered. I really did. But she’s home safe with me now. And I will wear her. I’ll be in the picture. I’ll not hide behind my age or my insecurities anymore because that doesn’t work for me. My inner critic can shut the hell up.

When you get to be fifty you can say stuff like that. But I highly recommend you try saying it at whatever age you are.

So, that’s kinda what Dana Bowman Creative will be about too. Brightness and whimsy and creative, funky choices that feed my soul, or yours. And we will learn how to be IN the picture, not on the sidelines or behind the camera. It’s uncomfortable a bit, and there might be some really floofy sleeves, but how else can we wear the color?

At some point I’ll thrift flip her a little. Update her, transform her into a skirt or something a bit more modern. Maybe.

But until then: