Happy New Year Everyone !

Thank YOU : Out with old & In with the new

I want to thank all my readers for a great year! I now have online friends I would never have "met" without this blog. I am wishing all my readers a joyful and happy 2012!

I am determined to "make a living" this year with my creativity. This may mean some anxious times as I patch together my monthly income (and I live on very little) via selling my art, crafts, & designs, working as an "on-call" Nanny, and (hopefully)  teaching crafts. So far, so good and it is only the 2nd day of this year!

Last year --like life usually goes--had its ups and downs. Looking back I realized I was only employed (at a regular job with set hours)  about 7 months this year... yet somehow I survived. 

The best thing I did all year was to rent myself art studio space. Not only do I now have a great place to go and create, but (at least in my mind) somehow having an art studio legitimizes me as an artist. To me--- having the studio means I am taking my art and design work seriously. And guess what happened once I committed to taking myself more seriously???

ah, Yes!! my productivity and SALES went up since I created more items AND I actively marketed them, which of course resulted in more sales. And since I consider writing this blog part of my creative endeavors, I also plan to explore ways to make some income ($$$$) blogging.

So, please repeat after me : WAY WILL OPEN, WAY WILL OPEN......(and thanks for all your support!)

do what you love and the $$$$ will follow...

addendum: oh, and  this year I plan to do one special thing each week only because I want to!!! putting myself on the list of "to dos"

2008 KNITTING

I really had no idea of how productive I have been the past year with knitting until I started organizing my Flickr photos into "sets".... here are just few of my 2008 finished knitting projects. For closer look at each one, you are welcome to visit my Flickr account here.


Today's Quote--in honor of Martin Luther King Day---

"Don't let other people's opinions burn holes in your dreams." -----Elsa Joy Bailey

As the blog turns....

As we enter a NEW YEAR-2008---I want to take a moment to acknowledge all you folks who leave friendly comments on my blog. The day before Christmas, (Dec 24th, 2007) I had the 10,000th blog visitor ! I have been keeping this blog now for almost 2 years ( second blog anniversary is Feb 2)---and I am just astounded that in that time over 10,000 folks have visited my blog. The blog readership has been growing monthly in the past year, also. This says to me something about the power of the crafty blogging community and the way the internet lets us all connect with each other.

So a shout out and thank you to these visitors to my blog who left comments in 2007 (with a grateful nod to Patti @ 37 Days blog, who gave me this idea).
Thanks to : Jafabrit, Dawn, Mary, Felicia, Kesia, Oldie, Carol, Lisa, Dawn, Lorraine, Mimi, Dee, Betty, Beate, Gunnel, sharonb, The Lone Beader, Susan, Tamara, Daisy, Libby, Nahani, Jessica, Kate, Joyce, Jennifer, Martha, freebird, Paula, Lynn, BetteJo, Kiki, Twig, Beadbabe, Stefany, Beth, Robin, Bejeweled, Lillian, Kathy, Debra, catnapping, Ulan, Kiwi Ellen, Susan, Jana, Rosemary, Brigita, Hannah, Maria, Acey, Kelly, Heather, Karrie, Summer, Carla, Lee, Jenny, Twila, Jamie, Cynthia

Your comments are the positive re-enforcement I need, so I keep posting on this blog. The comments are what let me know that someone is reading my blog and I am so pleased to become acquainted with so many of you through your comments and e-mails. Interesting (to me, anyway) the post this year that received the most comments in 2007 was my tribute to an old friend who died-- Marvel.

Today's Quote:
"Sometimes our light goes. but is blown again into instant flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light."---Albert Schweitzer

2008 New Year Intentions

"When it’s over, I want to say: All my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms."
---------Mary Oliver

I don't do new years resolutions---somehow, things never really change when I "resolve" to do something or to change something. Instead, I set an intention. Last year, I set the intention of buying nothing new for 6 months. That intention proved to be a very good consciousness raising tool for me, plus I saved money ;-)

This year my intention is less materially oriented, and more psychological. I intend to live my life more fully, to not hold back, to leap into the unknown....with awareness. I want to live my life with more attention to being here, with more conscious awareness of everyday actions, with the notion that life always gives me the teacher (or teaching) I need at that very moment. The trick is to be aware I was just handed a life lesson....and to not be afraid to grasp the lesson and run with it.

Since I always feel compelled to create art about my life, I'm working on an altered book (---one page you see here above---) in which I intend to document some of the "lessons" life hands me in 2008.

Looking back on 2006

Just some of my creative endeavors this past year

New Year Buy Nothing New Pledge

After much contemplative thought, I am pledging that in the first 6 months of 2007, I will buy nothing new. With the obvious exception of food, medicine, and new underwear--I pledge to buy nothing new until July 1st 2007.

I am lead to this pledge for many reasons--the foremost being a witness for change in our consumerism culture. With this in mind, I pledge to not only buy nothing new, but to talk and write about this action.

I first heard of this concept (lifestyle change?) in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle a year ago--here is the blog site of "The Compact"--the original buy-nothing-new group, which has inspired me to this action. And here is another quite fun blog on this subject: Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping.

A hint to me just how much we accept the buy-new-stuff-all-the-time messages of our culture was one reaction from my 28 year old daughter---"Wow, Mom, that is radical!" she said. Why is this pledge radical? and what does viewing this action as a radical step say about our culture?

2006 Month-by-Month: A Calendar

Instructions -- Copy the first sentence that you posted in each month of 2006. Post it in the following format:

January
No blog yet...

Febuary
Welcome to my world of beading, knitting, drawing, painting---oh! and I like to play cards and read in my off time--when I'm not in the studio making things.

March:
Well, what a week! I participated in CODEPINK'S March 8th International Women's Day anti-war in Iraq demonstration on Wednesday.

April-May
Oh dear! no posts those months

June
Here you see two examples of some of my latest obsession--beading.

July
An artist friend said to me the other day--"You can use craft as fine art--but you have to make it cutting edge--and have some content to it."

August
"Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art....It is a privilege to be alive in this time when we can choose to take part in the self-healing of our world."
----Joanna Macy. I found myself thinking about gratitude this morning, and then came across this quote.

September
Today I went to the flea market---found some nice fabrics pretty cheap! here are a few photos from the market--just colors and images that caught my eye.

October
The NOT-TO-DO LIST for PROCRASTINATORS (like me)

November
Above are a couple of photos of outdoor sculpture from the Di Rosa Preserve, which I took on out outing yesterday.
http://www.dirosapreserve.org

December
Packages are in the mail...holiday cheer is in the air...I only wish for actual snow.




This is my Perpetual Monthly Animal Calendar (for the New Year), An original inter-active handpainted Calendar; the outer wheel turns to reveal 12 different animals---you can decide which animal you want to show up in which month. This is a perpetual "Calendar" which I really designed and painted more as fine art---painted in guache (opaque watercolors) on archival museum board, with copper trim. I also used some Prisma colored pencils --so this is a mix of guache and colored pencil, with ink outlines. The calendar measures 15" x 15". Animals depicted include: bear, whale, butterfly, racoon, seal, mountain lion, raven, deer, porcupine, mouse, skunk, and fox.