Garden your ideas: playful planning for the rest of the year 🌸
What seeds are you planting over the next 6-12 months?
This idea came to me in the shower somewhere between shampoo and conditioner (as all good ideas do, lol).
As we’re halfway through the year, it’s a good time to check in, take stock, and course correct our sails.
(We are the captains of our own ship, after all.)
This playful art exercise asks us: What seeds do you want to plant — or keep tending — over the next 6-12 months?
Maybe it’s one big (tulip) bulb of an idea. Or maybe you’re nurturing a whole bed of smaller, steady goals or intentions.
Normally therapeutic art is all about process over product. But this time, I wanted the outcome to matter too.
What kept coming to me as I created this exercise were the words verdant and lush. I wanted you to see your ideas + goals fully realized, blooming on the page. A field of possibility.
Plus, it becomes something beautiful you can hang near your desk and remember: my dreams are growing.
Field of dreams
What you’ll need:
Watercolor paper, paints, brush
Pen + pencil
Scissors + glue
The process:
Prep your paper For this exercise you’ll need two pieces of watercolor paper. Cut one piece of paper in half (save the other half for another project). This will be your garden’s “base”. Paint it green and set it aside to dry.
The second piece of paper will be for your flowers and you’ll use the entire page. Paint it in whatever colors you’d like! I did a mix of yellows, oranges, pinks, purples, and blues. Or you can paint the entire paper the same color — it’s up to you! Set it aside to dry.
Plant your seeds Once the green paper is dry, grab a pen and begin to write the ideas, goals, and/or intentions you want to plant — or keep tending to — over the next 6-12 months. Write as many as you’d like.
Cut + glue your flowers Next, grab your colorful “flower” paper. With a pencil, draw outlines of flowers. I recommend keeping your flower shapes simple — I learned the hard way that cutting more intricate flowers becomes tedious! Then, cut out all your flowers and paste them over the ideas/intentions you wrote.
And there you have it! Your own landscape of possibility.
Hang this somewhere you can see often as a reminder to water your ideas, goals, and intentions. And trust that they’re growing even if you can’t see them yet 🌱