CC Weekly Creativity Challenge: Hope
Exciting Event on the Horizon: Riverside Arts Market!
So You’ll Know I’m Not Slacking…
My house is a construction zone! I’ve so wanted to get back down to my workshop and get busy on some new work, but we are STILL painting.
We are on to the biggest room of the house now. This room includes the great room, dining room, kitchen and open areas upstairs, so it’s a huge job. This is what I’m living in. The color is a little off here. Those of you who know me well know that, being a ‘Nole, orange is the last color I’d paint my house. This is a really pretty light terra cotta; it’s official name is “Terra Earth”.
Click on the photos to enlarge to get the true feel of the fact that the disruption has not stopped the girls from playing; their toys are mixed in everywhere, and I think they are truly enjoying playing amongst this fun new jumbled furniture arrangement. Most of this furniture will be finding a new house as I've splurged on a gorgeous new Pottery Barn sectional in a neutral stone color. I'm still deciding between keeping the cranberry chairs and losing the plaid chair, or recovering the plaid chair in a fun fabric and losing the cranberry chairs.
This wall above the kitchen is our biggest challenge. As you can see, it STARTS nine feet above the floor and rises up to 22 feet. It will most likely be the last part we tackle since we'll have to get some scaffolding in here. We hope to have at least the main living area done by the end of the weekend so we can get the current furniture back in place until the new pieces arrive. Wanna come help?
CC Weekly Creativity Challenge: Wool
To Google and Beyond!?
I got a call about a week and a half ago from an internet marketing company. It was Friday afternoon, nearing dinner time so the girls were following me everywhere as I tried to take the call, but I held on and listened. This isn’t the first time this has happened. I’ve been contacted by internet marketing companies in the past telling me they came across my website and thought they’d be able to help me market the site better, and therefore hopefully, bring in more business. This has never interested me much because, between my arts festivals and my random website and Etsy store sales, I honestly have about as much business I can manage while also holding down a full-time career, raising twin five-year-olds and playing around with other art mediums. I think I’ve held off on any real marketing because I was afraid of what it might bring; sure, more steady sales would be a nice bonus, but more sales might also mean I might have a hard time keeping up! I suppose that is not a bad problem to have…to a point. But still, I listened.
This guy had done his research. He knew my website well and seemed genuinely impressed with my work, the layout, the photography and the navigation. Overall, he truly liked the site. He said he found me on the 24th page of a Google search for “artisan jewelry” while doing some research for another client. And yep, he was right; very few, if any, people are going to find me on the 24th page of a Google search. One of my goals for my jewelry business this year was to investigate more internet marketing opportunities, and maybe he just caught me at a good time. He offered me the search phrase “lampwork jewelry” at what I thought was a pretty reasonable rate. I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, so he gave me some examples of other clients he represented and the search phrases for them, and I checked them out while I was on the phone with him (the benefit of having broadband internet service!). After talking to him for about 30 minutes and pulling up his business online while I was talking to him to make sure he was truly legit, I finally bit the hook. So, now what, you ask? Well, enter “lampwork jewelry” into your Google search bar and see what you get. It only works for Google, but Google is pretty darn popular, don’t you think? Only time will tell if it’s worth it or not, but it’s month to month and I can cancel at anytime so I figured I’d give it a few months and see what happens! Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day are just around the corner. :-)
400 and Counting...
Sunday Evening Shopping Spree: Fannie Narte
Too Much Quiet...
Finding the Time for Balance
So I’ve been thinking more about this whole New Year’s Resolution thing, and I’ve come down to one thing: balance. That’s my word for the year. I must find balance. I must find a way to balance time with my family, with time to expand my creative endeavors, with time to work, with time to exercise, with time to eat right, with time to somewhere in there find and keep my sanity (and as DH just reminded me, time to finish repainting every room in the house). Though if we won the lottery, I could get rid of the “time to work” need and then have more time for the others! There’s a thought, however fleeting, since I rarely have time to even remember to buy a lottery ticket.
This picture truly nails my issue when it comes to the creative endeavors part of the challenge. My two favorite art magazines are Cloth Paper Scissors and Somerset Studio. When I first stumbled across Cloth Paper Scissors, I loved it so much I had to go online and order all the back issues. I’ve been methodically reading through them at night before I go to bed (unless I’m too absorbed in whatever book I happen to be reading…which is another thing I must squeeze in time for). See all those little sticky notes peeking out of all these Cloth Paper Scissors issues? Well those are all the projects I’d like to play around with. And this is just in CPS. I have a similar stack for Somerset Studio. I haven’t really shared much of my mixed-media playing around here on my blog, but I’ll start doing that more this year, too. Sharing. And while I’m at it, I’ll also be sharing more photographs as I already mentioned here. Karen commented that a great resolution would be to capture at least one beautiful photo a day. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to find time for that? And that involves remembering to find the time to always keep a camera with me, perhaps attached to my hip, with a hot pink cord for a dash of color.
So there you have it. In a recent comment on Cathy’s “Promises, Promises” post over on Creative Construction, Kathryn said she calls them “Dreams, Hopes, Wishes, and Aspirations”. I like that much better than resolutions, don’t you? So my official Dream, Hope, Wish and Aspiration for 2009 is to find balance (and find time to call my sister once a week). Care to join me?
CC Weekly Creativity Challenge: Stars
It's been a few weeks since I've participated in the Creative Construction Weekly Creatively Challenge, but this week's prompt--stars--sparked an old but still very sweet memory. Visit CC here to see all this week's entries.
A Memory
They lay on the dock
under a blanket of wool
with a blanket of stars above.
Holding on to the feeling,
legs and fingers interlaced,
like lilies floating on the water below.
Hearts beating loudly,
breath held anxiously,
in tune with the rhythm of the night.
Pure longing emerging,
Two souls tightly connecting,
A moment witnessed by the heavens alone.
Star-crossed loves whose time never aligned,
they experienced a love still blessed.
The gift is the memory…
it’s still etched in the sky,
and in my heart, as I hold my breath.
While the Paint Dries...
I’ve yet to make it down to my workshop to clean up and get started on those new projects for 2009, but, hey, I have accomplished something! We finished painting the master suite! I think that “colors may appear differently depending on your monitor” warning may apply here, but here’s a look.
This picture shows both the before and after colors. We went from an aqua green to a grass green, which is not quite as dark as it appears here. Yes, we like color; that should come as no surprise to you.
One of mama’s little helpers. The other had given up and was napping when this picture was taken.
The finished room, less hanging art back up.
Okay, so now you see my weakness. Number one, this closet was an absolute pain in the butt to paint, given that we had to take everything out first. Let me just say that you don’t realize how much stuff you have crammed in your closet until you have to take it all out. And number two, yes, I am a shoe fiend. And yes, DH only has one small little corner of the closet. And no, the closet is never this clean.
So what do you do with the leftover paint? Why, let the girls paint their own house, of course! And no, we never have grass in our backyard because we have fiddler crabs. Yes, my friends, fiddler crabs. The DEP would not let us fill and plant grass because we have fiddler crabs… Seriously. Now it’s on to painting the great room!
Raspberries and Cream and Walls Painted Green
I’ve been battling yet again the nasty cold that will not die since the beginning of December, so it was nice to see this little pick-me-up treasury on Etsy. Those are my Raspberries and Cream earrings second row middle. Many thanks to opheliamiller for including me! We’ve begun the major house repainting we’ve been planning around here, so in addition to being snot-filled and sneezy, I'm fairly worn out. We’ve finished the master suite in a color officially La Fonda Grassy Knoll and are now getting ready to move on to the great room this weekend. The color we've chosen for that room is called Terra Earth; it's a pale terra cotta color, real warm and pretty. With our very high ceilings and walls, this room will be the biggest challenge! I hope to get back down to the workshop soon to photograph new pieces I haven’t posted yet and start on some new projects for the year. Wish me luck and Happy Monday to you!
Sunday Evening Shopping Spree: Sandi's Shellscapes
Since I’m such an art lover, creator and collector, I’ve been trying to instill the same qualities in my girls. They have a most awesome art bench downstairs adjacent to my workshop and we spend a lot of time down there creating various projects. And I have a laptop in my workshop…that means we sometimes also spend time surfing Etsy for fun finds. I’ll let the girls select what they want to search for and we go from there. This time (as it often is) it was mermaids! And what a find we found! See more of her here. This lovely lady was created by Sandi Johnston of Sandi’s Shellscapes. And she’s just down the road from us in Daytona Beach. Visit Sandi’s Etsy store here. You can also visit her blog here. Great work Sandi!
Sweet Repeats Sweet New Giveaway!
Free Bling Friday Version 2009!
To Resolute or Not to Resolute?
That is the question! Happy New Year to you and yours! I’m usually not one to make a list of New Year’s resolutions that I’ll probably never carry out anyway. Sure I could say that I’m going to lose weight, get back in shape, and eat more vegetables, and I probably will, but are those really resolutions or just good things to do no matter what? I say the latter. While we may not all need to lose a few pounds, we can all benefit by staying in shape and eating our veggies, right?!
So what would I like to do this year? Here are examples of two. First, I’ll be taking lots more pictures, thanks to the new telephoto lens and tripod I found under the Christmas tree. I took this cloud picture Christmas afternoon. We are blessed with gorgeous sunsets here at the Happy Shack, so there may be more cloud pictures in your future. Second, I’d really like to take more naps. Ones like this one. Doesn’t this look like the most restful sleep possible? Snuggled up to a dear pal, catching a few rays from Mr. Sunshine… We’ve all been battling the same nasty cold again so we’ve all been taking lots of naps. I highly recommend them, especially in a sunny spot, like maybe a back porch swing.
So are you a New Year’s resolution kind of person? Any resolutions you want to share? Tell me your best ones…