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4 x 4 in.
This polar bear is finding his way into all sorts of things, from claw foot tubs to pumpkins :)
Before I go on with this post ~ let me just say, I mean shout:
LOVE you people!!!!!!
I know I'm hosting a giveaway on the post below but I still have to say that you all have gone above and beyond in sharing what Creative Thursday creations you'd like to see next, even going so far as to coming up with some other great ideas that I am seriously taking to heart. And I had no idea that hearing back from so many of you would inspire me so profoundly!! I woke up this morning incredibly excited to get going on some new directions!!
First of which is a "happy halloween card" with today's painting featured. You can find it as a single or a set of 5 in my Etsy shop. I've listened and I've heard a lot of cheers for "cards" and I am planning more to come. Until then I just wanted to get this one ready in time for sending Halloween greetings. I meant to say that if you do have ideas for what images you would like to see on cards, please let me know. Honestly that is part of the delay, just deciding what images would be best, especially since I plan on printing them off site and would need to order larger quantities. I want to choose images that you would like. A "bird" theme assortment was once suggested to me so I've been thinking about that one to start with.
Thank you again and I'll see you tomorrow with the winner!!!!!!!!!!
6 x 6 in.
More good news on a Friday! I did step out of my bubble for a moment to watch a little watered down news this morning and first I thought my usual sentiment of late "Good Lord" and then I thought ~ today might just be an especially good day to do something nice for you. In case you've been wanting a Creative Thursday lion, here's your chance. I'm giving away one of my original paintings! Created for a special project, this lion has never been released for sale.
I've been wanting to host a giveaway since I returned from vacation back in July, and even eluded to an upcoming "surprise" for you back then ~ and after a lot of thought I am finally ready to put this post forth. As you know if you're a regular visitor here, I'm at a special place in the evolution in Creative Thursday ~ standing at the crossroads, so to speak, and deciding which road to take ~ mostly to focus my energy and resources for the next step and also to keep myself creatively challenged and fulfilled. So I thought I'd ask you, especially my loyal customers, where would you like to see me go? Of course, I have many ideas for what I'd like to do next, but thought that getting your feedback on some of those ideas might be fun ~ especially since one of the best parts of having a blog like this is the opportunity to communicate with you directly.
So here goes ~ ideas for expanding Creative Thursday:
*Edit* Saturday morning ~ 37 comments in ~ this is great! It is really fun to hear from you. What I realized when I woke up is that I completely forgot to include a different direction that I have been pondering which would be more in the advising category, taking the podcasts a bit further... (If you want to add anything about these directions but have already left a comment, please feel free to comment again and I will just leave one of your comments out of the drawing) Oh and I also explained the "sketchbook" idea above. Thank you for your thoughts so far!!
That should be enough to get you started ~ :)
To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment below (make sure you list the correct email so I can contact you if you are the winner). You can simply say hello and if you feel inspired, please share your thoughts as to where you'd like to see Creative Thursday evolve to, based upon my list of choices above and any other ideas that you might want to share with me!
This giveaway will be open until this Monday, September 29 at midnight PST. Once closed, a random winner will be selected and announced Tuesday morning. Good luck and I look forward to hearing from you!
have a great weekend!
You know I love my friend Outi! So I can't let this Friday go by without letting you know that she has finally listed her gorgeous ceramics over at her Etsy shop. Not only is Outi an immensely talented painter, but she's been painting ceramics for quite a long time, and they are beyond WONDERFUL. And I should know because almost all of our mugs in our kitchen cabinets are Outi's ~ including both "I am a Great Artist" and "I am a Great Writer" (for Sean) ~ simply a must for anyone to be greeted with the best reminder, "I am Great!", first thing in the morning. Personally, I like to keep the reminder going all day, first coffee, then water, then tea...I haven't tried it yet for wine :). And on a practical note, these are all dishwasher safe and they do not get hot in the microwave, a quality I love since I have burned myself one too many times heating tea in the wrong kind of cup.
As of this week, you too can purchase one of these mugs (and she has a few of her vase's up to!) for you or someone you love. (I know it's a little early, but these make the best holiday gifts.) Plus you should know that if you purchase any of Outi's work ~ you are supporting one of the nicest people I know.
It's true!! I wanted to surprise you on this Creative Thursday with a brand NEW podcast!!
And a substantial one at that, just over 1 hour. I invited my newest creative friend, Amber Dusick, aka Woodmouse, and also the person I shared lunch and our recent earthquake with. We had such a fun discussion over lunch that I thought you might enjoy being introduced to Amber via a podcast. The two of us also wanted to specifically touch on the subject of competition among crafters and artists.
Without further adieu here we are discussing everything from tips on being an Etsy seller, to what we think of competition to the non-joys of shipping to remembering to focus on what makes you happy. And in keeping with tradition, this is recorded in the usual guerilla podcasting style, as we are also joined by Lulu, my great dane, a person's car alarm and the occasional paparazzi helicopter, who are of course circling to photograph us.
I think you'll really enjoy Amber's spirit ~her enthusiasm, sincerity and genuinely honest candor as she shares her thoughts on being a fellow creative entrepreneur.
click above to listen now
click here to download MP3
Download Instructions
Mac Users option click and Windows users right click on link above to download the file.
Links featured in today's podcast ~
Amber's websites:
do-it-yourself-weddings.com
make-baby-stuff.com
Amber's Blog
Amber's Etsy shop, Woodmouse
Also, the wonderful author I mentioned at the end of the recording
Tama Kieves
Tama's Book: "This Time I Dance"
(I highly, highly recommend this book, especially if you are just now summoning the courage to start out on this journey)
6 x 6 in.
Speaking of bubbles, who wouldn't love to be in a bubble in say Italy? Specifically Tuscany. You may or may not know that it's a little dream of ours to live there one day, probably part time. Something about that landscape, architecture, food, wine, olive oil and overall way of life, in the country, not the city that really speaks to us.
Today, continuing on with more of the "realism" series, this time with a landscape, my characters, you may recognize them as Oscar and Olive of course, are in Italy. Laura left a comment last week about my new realism pieces reminding her of the traveling postcard gnome in the most beautiful movie Amelie...It could be fun to make my characters travel around the world...if only I could go with them! For now they are in Italy, which we hope to return to soon.
5 x 7 in.
Believe it or not, this is inspired by a real lamp that exists, sans the "real" owls of course. I found it featured in a beautiful living room in an old issue of House and Garden. And of course, continuing with my "realism" series ~ I thought it would be fun to paint, but then add "real" owls to it, as if this lamp actually came with them. Then I thought what would a cat do with a lamp that was holding real owls, well observe it, or spend a very long time staring at it.
Coffee with Sean. All this week we've been meeting here in the morning for lengthy discussions from everything to the economy to finding peace while shopping in Trader Joes to enjoying the feeling of fall in the morning air. I realize when Sean and I do take the time to linger over coffee, we've slowed down to a healthy pace in our lives. In fact today is the first day in quite a while where my schedule feels wide open in front of me and I am breathing a nice sigh of relief. I'm experimenting with not making any scheduled plans for the next few weeks, instead leaving socializing open to spontaneity and how I'm feeling on any given day. The fact that I feel a sense of relief is a sign that this is exactly the kind of space I need right now. Hey, the beauty of the life I've built for myself is having this kind of freedom in my schedule and I'm not going miss it any more either...!
In light of the present state of "things" in this country, I feel inspired to share some of our coffee time discussion here. Before coffee, I popped in on some blogs this morning and realized that there's a reason I haven't been visiting many blogs lately. And if my own blog seems a little me-centric, there's a reason for that too. Along with leaving some space around me, being in my own bubble these days has been important for my sense of peace. And as you can see from the photo above, my own bubble is a pretty nice place to be.
I'm realizing that the more internet focused I become, the stronger I need to be in my sense of self, for a number of reasons, one of which is this ~ the more connected we are, the less genuinely "connected" we are, because we are overloaded with knowing too much about everyone and everything. It used to be that all we knew about was what was happening in our very own neighborhoods. In my opinion there's TOO much information out there between television, radio, and now the internet, and that's probably only going to increase. And if you're not feeling strong in your sense of self it is just way too easy to be buffeted about by what's happening outside of your own bubble. And while it can be good to be informed, and aware of what's happening in the world, if it's not in your control ~ or effecting you directly, it can be very upsetting to know too much. I was reminded of this yesterday, when I made the mistake of tuning into Suze Orman on Oprah. Good Lord, while this woman may be financially savvy, she really needs to be checked on how she talks to people. Not only did I leave that show feeling fearful of my financial well being, but concerned about how human beings, especially those with a false sense of power, treat each other. And then I came back to my own bubble, making dinner, planting some flowers and I felt better again. :)
I guess what I'm really trying to say here is this ~ it's a good time to be more focused on your own every day life. Along with that, I want to say again how much I appreciate those of you who are willing to step out of your own bubble to come and visit me here ~ and if you ever need to take a blogging break from this blog, or go away all together because you think I'm rambling too much, I certainly understand. And now you know why, if I'm not visiting you as often as I used to, it's because being here in my own bubble is what's feeling best right now. In fact staying close to home, both virtually and physically, is what's refueling my own creative juices as well as inspiring me to share more here at my blog. I promise to continue to make it a nice bubble to visit in this wide, wide world of the internet, especially during these times, because not only do we need to surround ourselves with more uplifiting ideas ~ But also if any of us are going to take the time to visit other blogs, or take in any more information, I think it should be worthwhile.
4 x 4 in.
We, well Simone and I, couldn't let the first day of fall go by without celebrating it!
6 x 6 in.
So my "big" goal this week? To finish 5 daily paintings ~I can't even remember the last time I did that...it's been too long.
I mentioned that with the disappointment that came last week ~ I would be rethinking my direction and take a little time to revisit why I started all of this to begin with? I started this because I love creating, especially painting, and over time with this blog I've come to enjoy sharing it with all of you ~as well as expressing some of my thoughts here too. And doing this "work" is what makes me happy. At the end of the day I just want to do this for as long as I can. And that about sums it up.
Turning to my creativity so diligently this week was exactly what I needed to regain a sense of myself. I may have been slightly off personally but I have to say that I have been ON creatively. My mind is overflowing with ideas for paintings that I can't wait to paint.
Before I head back to my weekend I wanted to add to my recent post on change. I received a comment suggesting that "we don't always have to be at our best" during times of changes and I immediately agreed. Of course we probably won't be, and I also agree that it can feel hard and acknowledging that is wise ~ but then over the last couple of days I thought more about what exactly it is was I was trying to say with my post and then I realized that the sentiment, while maybe not the social norm, was accurate, in what I'm wanting to convey and challenge within myself. The truth is that since change is constant, why can't we just recognize it as so and be gracious anyway? I mean seriously what are we waiting for? For our life to be certain and have everything "in its place". This doesn't mean you don't take the time you need to care for yourself during challenging times but it does mean that you shouldn't "miss" your life during times of change because you're just holding out for things to settle back in (because they never really do ~ remember change is constant). Experiencing change, in my opinion, should no longer be an excuse for me to miss miss my life, simply waiting for "it", whatever it is this time, to pass. There's one thing I'll say about blogging, as this is the closest thing to a journal that I've kept so consistently ~ I am beginning to realize that there's always "something going on". And this is when I'm reminded that the only constant to my life is how I perceive it and then how I choose to live it. I have to say that my experiment with acknowledging this recent time of change ~ by letting it be one of the best parts of my life, like all the other parts ~ has helped me move through it with more ease and even some fun. The intent to find grace in the transition has helped.
wishing you a lovely Sunday ~
