Nan’s Notebook
East Coast USA
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Download Love Poem: “Thoughts Upside Down” by NY Poet NG Swett
Download love poem about love, loss and grief “Thoughts Upside Down” from poetry book HOLD ME TIGHT by NY poet NG Swett. The short rhyming poem is also shown on short mobile video with comments about how people respond to poetry in these busy and stressful times. Poetry can be a weird thing that isn’t seen or talked about every day, and it can be funny to get your friends and family to read and even help with a few.
People really like this short rhyming poem from Hold Me Tight, my book of love poems
Here is a short video I made of the same poem:
Thermal poetry?
I printed the poem above on a thermal printer and I’ll tell you why.
Printing a poem on an adhesive thermal label is an idea I got by two accidents.
One accident was in the original printing of the paperback poetry book. A poem accidentally sucked. So I made a label with a better poem and covered my shame. (And updated and uploaded my files to Ingram Spark and Draft2Digital for the revised hard cover and ebook editions.)
The other accident was printing out a dozen of the same shipping label for an eBay sale. A waste of precious labels, for sure! But printing a dozen poems on purpose and then sticking them up around town might be fun.
When I’ve got some thermal poems in my bag, I keep my eye open for a good spot. What’s a good spot? Visible, public, out of the elements a bit, smooth surface, and possibly used by other sticker people…
Can you see my thermal poem?
In selling online, I’ve become aware of a huge number of creative, entrepreneurial and community-minded people doing ecommerce, and many of us have thermal printers because of the time, money and paper they save in shipping. The cost of ink these days, am I right?!
Color with Nan! Modern abstract coloring book
Color with Nan! Download the free coloring page (pdf) from her coloring book RANDOM MODERN & ABSTRACT ART ADULT COLORING BOOK, watch the video, and color along. Share your finished coloring page on Instagram and tag @4seasonshelf so Nan can see it.
This coloring book page is from page 11 of Random Modern & Abstract Art Adult Coloring Book created by NG Swett and published by 4seasonshelf.
I will be using crayons, but colored pencils or markers would also work just fine. Follow along as I color mine using the short video below.
Get it, print it out, and get ready to color with me!
Nan’s notes on coloring technique
Feel free to color however you like, have fun, and enjoy the process. Sometimes people worry that their coloring isn’t good. But when it comes to coloring, the only thing that matters is that you’re having a coloring adventure. The more you do something, the better you get!
For me, I like to layer colors.
First I pick colors and then lightly color in the major blocks of color. Use whatever colors you want! It’s a coloring page, not a test. So if you’re feeling blue, beige, red, orange, purple, orange, green, whatever — just go with it and see what comes of it. By adding layers, you can adjust as you go til you’re pretty gosh darned pleased with your coloring.
Once the first layer is down, I add stronger colors and heavier layers on top. Sometimes I add details that aren’t on the coloring page. In this case, for example, I wanted a horizon line. But you don’t have to add that or anything else.
If you want to color inside the lines, then do that. If you like to color neatly, then do that. Personally, I like to start off nice and easy and then get nice and rough.
Don’t forget to sign your name!
Enjoy!
~ Nan

