Happy Spring! New Items, New Perspective

Just got back from vacation - will post some photos in my next post. Observation: Florida is sunny and warm, New England is sunny but NOT. Lots of catching up to do, and I started with my Etsy shop.

Today I put up two new listings (six items) and here they are! Handcrafted Easter post cards - click on the Etsy badge (upper right) to visit my shop, Seven Sisters Art Ink.

I love using vintage images for these one-of-a-kind special occasion cards... Mothers' Day cards are next! Plus I have a mermaid jointed paper doll I have to finish and put out there... but first, I have to do some writing (such an easy thing to put off when I can play with paper and glue or beads and wire!) If you are getting nice weather, get out there and enjoy it (I have to wait until after the upcoming snow storm...) Happy Spring!

Follow Me On Etsy

I opened an Etsy shop recently. It certainly is taking up a fair amount of my time (but, I hope and think, in a good way...) and I am just pleased that I finally did what I said I'd do, after years of procrastination. 

I've sold several items - thank you, supportive friends - and I'm promoting Seven Sisters Art Ink here and on my Facebook page. 

I'm working on some new ideas for potential products, and adding new items every few days or so... like these paper bead earrings with semi-precious stone dangles (pink with amethyst, green with green aventurine and blue/gold with tiger's eye)...

... and lovely embellished post cards for St. Patrick's Day. 

In March, I'll offer some sparkly embellished Easter post cards...

... and other handcrafted items. I can also take orders from my web site (see link on the upper right of this page). Click on the square Etsy badge to see these and all the other listings. 

Livin' the dream... Etsy-style.

Cold Comfort

“I do not ask you much, I beg cold comfort; and you are so strait / And so 
ingrateful, you deny me that.” King John (William Shakespeare)


Ah, February! It's that month that looks so short and sweet on the calendar, with Saint Valentine's Day right in the center of it, but it tends to drag on and on, bringing very little comfort (cold comfort, indeed) as we stubbornly wait for Spring to arrive in March. And then, sometimes, even March disappoints us, with its relentless wind and cold rain and whatever else it has to hurl at us. 

"February is a suitable month for dying.  Everything around is dead, the trees black and frozen so that the appearance of green shoots two months hence seems preposterous, the ground hard and cold, the snow dirty, the winter hateful, hanging on too long." 
Anna Quindlen, One True Thing 
(source: www.gardendigest.com)

My friend Maddie passed away last year - in February - and we had to wait until April for the memorial service. She had hoped to be around until Spring, but she left a little early. Since this year has been so slow and cold and snowy, it made the one-year anniversary of her death that much sadder.

Being unemployed - losing what I now realize was merely a seasonal job for the holidays and not being sure if the other seasonal job will materialize in June - has also been a sobering reality.

One good thing, though, has come out of all this uncertainty... I did finally open my "shop" on Etsy - Seven Sisters Art Ink. It's already proving to be an adventure, but it's February... and it's slow going. Over the next few months, I hope to learn how to promote my wares, how to come up with products that people want and need, and how to feel good about being a "solopreneur" as I get used to the idea of what it means to be self-employed. 

Being a writer is also coming into play. I entered the writing contest, and I might enter a photography contest as well. I am working on my "value proposition" product line (something in book form) as I continue to focus on my Creative Purpose... but it's February, right? The sweet little month that lasts forever.

To visit my new Etsy shop, click the link below. As always, you can connect to my web site on the top upper right of this page. 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SevenSistersArtInk?ref=hdr_shop_menu

The Right to Write

"My idea of a writer: Someone interested in everything." ~ Susan Sontag, writer, teacher, filmmaker and political activist

Judging by that definition, I should qualify as a writer. Myriad topics occupy my thoughts, my musings, my dreams. However, that's only half of the equation. A writer also has to write. Sending emails or posting comments on Facebook certainly involves the action of writing, but it doesn't always solve anything or change anything. It's a response, a reply, a solicitation or an affirmation. So what does one have to do to really be a writer? Oh, right... just write.

Recently I was asked to decide what it was I thought I wanted to do, or was best suited to do, or was really ready to do. Out of all of my aspirations and inclinations, I decided that I should try to be a writer. A real writer. Now, technically, I'm already a writer, albeit one who hasn't been doing much writing. I've already made a living writing for magazines and newspapers, and I even had to write a one-person show for my Master's thesis (Yeah, I have two degrees - never mind that I've never actually invoked either one of them to get a well-paying job). 

I've also written for myself: journals, greeting cards and this blog. So, there it is: I've been published and some of my best friends are well-known or up-and-coming writers. So why has it taken me so long to own up to being a writer? Do you want the short list?

Fear.
Laziness.
Inability to stay focused long enough to finish a project.
And, oh yeah, being interested in "everything." That leads to lack of focus, which leads to laziness... and then fear isn't far behind.
So I recently decided to take action to see if I could make something happen. This is what I've done so far:

1. Writing something every day (sometimes it's just a few words on a scrap of paper that I put in my gratitude jar).
2. Preparing to enter a writing competition (in the Picture Book category for a children's literature writing contest). I will send it in next week, before the deadline.
3. Joining a writers' group (I did some online research and found a local chapter of SCBWI - the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators).
4. Creating a writers' group (I just created a private group on Facebook inviting a small group of my friends whom I respect and admire, most of whom are writers).
5. Organizing my work/art space and get rid of some of my mountains of clutter (that's slow and tedious, but I'm working on it).
6. Coming up with a plan of action to jump-start a small business (the one I'm working on now would incorporate my writing and mixed-media crafting skills) which means I will have to sit down and come up with a business plan and value proposition, define my target market and then figure out how to make it work. 

Scary stuff, to be sure, but it also feels good to be doing something proactive for myself.

"Whatever will be, will be... The future's not ours to see, Que sera, sera." 

The Feeder Is Filled

I don't begrudge the squirrel his feasting

He's hungry, too, the poor wee beastie

The feeder's filled, there's seeds a-plenty

The birds can share, all four-and-twenty

I only wish they could be neater

(Not easy with a flimsy feeder)

So help yourselves, you hungry beasts

The feeder's filled for future feasts

A Gift from Mother Nature

On New Year's Day, I was puttering around in the house and happened to glance out the window...

"The sky is the realm of the hawk. Through its flight 

it communicates with humans and with the great 

Creator Spirit. It awakens our vision and inspires us to a creative life purpose." 

(source: Animal Speak - Ted Andrews)

Power, Magic, Messenger

Hawk is the messenger, the protector and the visionary of the Air. It holds the key to higher levels of consciousness.

This totem awakens vision and inspires a creative life purpose.

(source: http://www.linsdomain.com)

It looks like it was "fluffed up" to stay warm, but it seemed to me to stand about a foot tall... I don't know much about hawks, but I believe it is a Cooper's Hawk, which preys upon smaller birds (which are abundant in this spot, thanks to my bird feeder in a nearby tree); however, it was sitting on a rock wall where a family of chipmunks live.

Either way, it was an inspiring sight, and I will add it to my new 2015 Blessings Jar.

          

Wishing you a creative, purposeful and magical New Year.

2015 - A Year of Promise

I think that I shall never see

A year so tailor-made for me.

I have a chance to start again -

To do some good, to find my zen.

I must be brave, I must be bold

For my intentions to unfold;

To be the best that I can be,

I'll reinvent... I hold the key.