It’s that time of year, the days are getting darker and shorter and I’m not feeling very arty. I am still aimlessly doodling on my iPad.
I’m not sure what I’m going to do with these, possibly small elements may show up in my jewelry.
This one reminds me of bizarro Easter eggs:
This one is simple, but I love it. A handy feature of iDraw is the ability to save custom shapes.
I think this one has a lot of potential in the individual elements.
We have a family event this weekend that requires clothing in the “dressy casual” category. We’ve got other parties, graduations etc. that also require similar dress. This level of dressing up is usually doable for me. I have real trouble when an event calls for formal or semi-formal attire. The problem is, I have nothing to wear. It makes me chuckle just to say that.
Well, I have been doing Weight Watchers since the end of January and I’ve lost around 35 pounds. I got what you could call a health “wake-up call” and I have been making healthier food choices and exercising a bit. It hasn’t been too onerous so far, which just goes to show what bad food habits I had before. The result is none of my nicer clothes fit. I have been filling in my everyday wardrobe with jeans, fitness pants and tees from Target and Walmart, but I haven’t wanted to buy nice things. I have a lot more weight to lose and right now I am between sizes. I know, it’s a nice problem to have. I am really happy about my shrinking body and I feel much better.
It was pretty sad however, standing in my closet last night trying to figure out what I’ll wear today. I am not a fashion maven. My style is much closer to the What Not To Wear befores than the afters. I’m okay with that. But standing in my closet looking at some of my nicer outfits that really are way too big for me now, I felt very sad to not be able to wear some of those things. Then it struck me why I loved certain outfits. They were all things I had either picked out with certain jewelry I had made in mind, or outfits I had made specific jewelry for! LOL  My connection to those clothes was really more about my work than it was about the clothes themselves.
I’ll cobble together something for today, but I am going to have to do some shopping. I hate shopping, but I really love making jewelry to match what I buy.  That part I can get excited about.
No more whining from me. And in the spirit of complete honesty, I will freely admit that much of what keeps me from selling my work is fear and laziness. Selling is risky business and to do it well requires a lot of hard work and energy.
I have been experiencing real vicarious enjoyment following Judy Dunn’s voyage through the business of selling her art. She really has a gift for sharing serious advice about the process as well as making the voyage come alive. Right now, she’s at her first wholesale show, ACRE in Las Vegas, and she’s even posting from the road. It’s really fun to follow the show from her perspective.
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On a completely different topic, I have to share a funny and encouraging experience that happened last night. We were at the National Honor Society’s Induction Ceremony at E’s high school. We couldn’t be prouder of her and the lovely young woman she’s become. At the beginning of the presentation, one of the seniors had to light a symbolic candle and discovered that the lighter was missing from the table. An appeal to the families in the audience managed to finally (after several minutes) turn up one person with some matches. It makes me hopeful that smoking really has declined so much that it is that hard to find someone who carries matches or a lighter.
Ok, I am just out and out having a mad day here. After some investigating, I have decided not to migrate my old blog here. The old blog wasn’t that old, and there are so many issues with transferring the posts and the photos that I have decided it’s not worth it. I guess I’ll just have to try to make this blog more interesting.
Life is getting in my way again. My older daughter is really sick and that is my focus for now. I will admit to feeling pretty cooped up and tired, but that pales in contrast to how E feels. The world really isn’t fair sometimes. If I could take the pain and sickness into myself instead of her, I’d do it in a second. Being a mom can be so wonderful, but it’s times like these that are a struggle. The powerlessness you feel when your child is suffering is enormous.
So I am having a mad day or at least a mad morning. Some exercise right now would probably help, but I doubt that’ll happen. I’ll just stew here and try not to eat something terrible.
