
Have you taken up any new hobbies in the last year? I'm always yearning to learn new things, and since covid hit, we definitely had a little more time in the past few months to devote to new pursuits. Lucky for me, I discovered Shannin Williams on Instagram sometime last year and was completely obsessed with her hand drawings of spaces and furniture. Her renderings were just tremendous, and in such a digital world, it was refreshing to see this method of bringing a design vision to life.

She is a fellow Texan, and I just felt so drawn to her style, so when I saw that she offered a class once a year last November, I jumped for my credit card, I mean at the chance. I doodled as a child after watching my grandmother do the same. She would draw faces and animals in the margins of books and letters while looking back, I remember I always had doodles of houses (go figure!) and women in ball gowns and wedding dresses (I was ten when Princess Diana married so that's probably what sparked the dress thing, ha). Just the thought of sketching brought me back to a sweet time in my life with my Grannie still alive and I'm thankful I listened to my gut and just went for it with this class.

She's such a patient teacher and I love the way she breaks everything down, not to mention her Texas drawl. We started with the basics and have gone through one-point perspective, two-point perspective, and now freehand sketching. It definitely takes practice to get fast enough to be able to do this quickly for clients in the moment. I would love to get there eventually because computer renderings take so much time to relay an idea that could be done in a matter of minutes by hand while at a meeting. We heard a guest speaker the other night, Jane Gianarelli, while in class and I was relieved in a way to know that it doesn't happen overnight but rather with practice, practice, and more practice. I admit it's hard to do with running my own business and three kids still at home but I squeeze it in where I can and sometimes I just call it luxury time that I'm taking for myself even when there's laundry and other life with kids things staring me in the face. Taking the time to practice has opened me up to just playing with drawing more abstract pieces, which has been a great creative release that has no end goal other than the joy it brings to do it.

Like I said, I'll always be a learner at heart, and I know I will be taking classes like this until the end of my days, at least I hope so. I also think it shows my kids you can do more than just what you were doing yesterday -you can always still grow and dream and do and learn to do something new, even later in life. Just to drive the point home that I am always wanting to try new things, earlier this year I decided to try a bounce trampoline exercise class at my pilates studio. I had a friend who took it and kept urging me to sign up but I resisted. Why? Because it looked HARD. Until the new year when I decided I needed to switch it up, yes after a few weeks of holiday eating. So I conned a sweet friend into joining me and we've been doing it regularly a couple of times a week. #RenaRocks! I will tell you that I still have my teacher add a handlebar to hold onto for when I get dizzy (don't judge until you try it), but it's been really challenging and so good for me and my running.

If you're open to a new hobby, I can't recommend Shannin enough! The course doesn't open again until November, but feel free to follow her on Instagram in the meantime and drool over her amazing renderings! And if not that, I encourage you to find something for you, and you alone to enjoy. You're worth taking time for, and having joy in your own pursuits will give you more energy in your cup to pull from for the other people in your life (remember they tell you on a plane to put on your oxygen mask first before helping others? #dingdingding) At least that's what I've found. Remember, you're never too old to set a new goal or dream a new dream...I'm living proof of that.

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