Have an Old-school New Year!

Get off Zoom and find some outdoor space...

It's been a long, strange pandemic, and it's ramping up for another act.  Join me as I try to stay sane, stay safe, stop doomscrolling and ride out the latest Covid wave.  Stay tuned for more.

Analog Things: Art Journals

My art journals...

If you're reading this via email, please click here to see the accompanying video.

This post contains affiliate links. Click here for more info.

by Laurie Allee

Making your own illuminated manuscripts...

Okay, so maybe they don't rival these illuminated manuscripts, but art journals have taken my regular blank books to a whole different level.  They've also given me a meditative practice that I look forward to doing.  Illustrating my journals adds another layer of creativity to my life, and provides a great alternative to scrolling on my phone.

Analog Things: Making Art

Do yourself a favor and subscribe to Nerdforge here.

If you're reading this via email, please click here to see the accompanying video.

by Laurie Allee

Here Be Dragons:  The Magic and Wonder of Nerdforge

I am a little bit controversial in the digital minimalism space.  While a life with almost no screen time is admirable, I'm not a neo-Luddite.  My life analog means using all the tools at my disposal to spend the majority of my time getting my hands dirty in the real world rather than scrolling mindlessly through hashtags and Instagram stories.  I'm happy to use the internet to make my real life better.  (Hint:  I'm blogging right now, not writing with a quill on parchment.) (Although I like to do that too.) If you do it right, your screen time can lead to remarkable real time.  

Case in point...

Analog Things: Building a Cabin by Hand

Meet Erik Grankvist...modern Viking builder

by Laurie Allee

If you're reading this via email, please click here to see the accompanying video.

No Power Tools (or Nails) Allowed.

Covid-19 restrictions have given people inspiration to do things they might not have had the time or inclination to do before lockdowns.  I was feeling pretty great about my own self-isolation activities:  learning the dulcimer, experimenting with Prismacolor art pencils and tackling the classic books I'd never gotten around to reading.  Not bad, right?  No mega-scrolling, no Twitter ranting, just good old-fashioned analog activities, even in the midst of a pandemic...

Then I found out about Erik Grankvist.

Analog Things: The Mountain Dulcimer

 

Jeff Hames rocks the mountain dulcimer 

by Laurie Allee

If you're reading this via email, please click here to see the accompanying video.
This post contains affiliate links. Click here for more info.

Are you looking for an acoustic instrument that is highly portable, easy-to-learn, inexpensive and capable of creating absolutely beautiful music?  Look no further than the mountain dulcimer.  This unassuming little instrument has been known by a variety of names: lap dulcimer, Appalachian dulcimer, Kentucky dulcimer, "dulcymore," harmonium, harmony box and (my favorite) hog fiddle.  Traditional to the southern Appalachian mountains of the US, this stringed instrument is one of the easiest to play.  Essentially a fretted zither, it commonly has three or four strings and can be played by plucking or strumming with a pick.

And it sounds AMAZING.