Time to Reset

 

As 2012 winds down many of us review the year some of us will take time to write resolutions, goals, objectives and desires for the year to come. I have rarely written New Year’s resolutions and certainly never followed through with the resolutions I did record. This season I am pondering the word reset.

I have several areas in my life I would like to reset. The first will be to work on my constant craving for sugary sweets. I’m not choosey any gummy, chocolate or pastry will go in my mouth. So my first goal will be to eliminate these goodies that aren’t good for my health or my pant size. At the same time I will increase my water intake.

I have been giving my art and creative process some thought over the last month. I know that I would like to broaden the techniques I use at the same time lean towards my finished items having a more arty feel. Resetting my mind set in regards to my art seems like a good way to think about my recent experiences in the lack of sales I have had this fall. I don’t have a plan yet I do have some ideas and techniques that I would like to try and follow the process to see what develops.

One last area I would like to reset is my very casual employment. I am fortunate that I can work on call as it fits my life. My wonderful mother has made herself available two days a week to be with my son so I can work. I discovered this fall that being a parent has impacted how I feel about working in the school setting. This is a profession I have worked in for almost 20 years. I now feel that public school does not treat our children as individuals and schools have a feeling of being in a factory. Even though I no longer believe in the public school system I will be working more this year. I am now considering sending my son to Montessori preschool a day or two a week and in order for my son to attend preschool I will need to bring in some funds to pay for his attendance. I will find a way to reset my thoughts about working in my profession. I am aware I will only need to work a few days a month and I believe that I can reframe my thinking and once again feel confident in my abilities at work.

For 2013 I am going to focus on the word reset and see where I am led. The word reset popped into my head a few nights ago and it feels like I am headed in the right direction. Happy New Year to all!

Between My Ears (Volume 1)

I have been pondering this blog post and several others with the same title. Often at night as I lay down to sleep I find myself writing what seems to be a great blog post. Morning comes and I am leading the life of a mom with a wonderful 2.5 year old son. Evening comes again and I haven’t written that post and the ideas are gone. Last night I had a little fantasy of going to a coffee shop and sipping on my Chai Latte and writing a blog post you guessed right, that dreamy date with myself didn’t happen.
Now I have lost my focus my son woke up and I’m getting really tired so whatever witty thoughts I wanted to share have vanished for now. That is until I lay down to sleep and the cycle repeats the next day.

Self Portrait

 

A friend of mine recently created a Facebook page to share pictures of ourselves and explore who we are through self portraiture. Initially I filled my brain with excuses why I don’t want to participate yet in between those thoughts  I had a nagging doubt that I really do need to take pictures of myself instead of taking pictures of my son, our environment and my art. The idea behind taking self portraits is to come to a better understanding of who we are as individuals. I have seen other blogs and sites touting the benefits of self portraiture and I always thought ya that’s a good idea…for you. Thanks to Erin of It's Ok for the encouragement to get out of my own way and to not view this as a big project.

This morning with those nagging thoughts hanging out between my ears I picked up the camera and found the batteries were with out energy so I quickly replaced the battery and set the camera on the kitchen counter while I showered and dressed and my son peaked into the shower interrupting my thoughts. As I dressed I could see the camera taunting me…just do it just take the picture. Its only a picture not life altering moment.

I picked up the camera and took several pictures and now as I looked through them trying to edit the light and background a little I’m not satisfied with any of them yet I am going to share this one.

Economic Storage Solutions

 

I have continued sorting and selling the clutter an unused items. This week a awkward wood trunk was sold, a spare oven for my polymer clay and related books and magazines were all sold.

this trunk is gone and I am not going to miss tripping over it

I feel like I am now making a dent in the excess items in our home although we are still left with plenty of things we need. I have been pondering how to improve the messy storage above my washing machine and I think I stumbled upon a inexpensive solution compared to the expensive storage totes available commercially.

I am going to collect empty diaper boxes or other empty boxes and cover them with paper,fabric or contact paper even patterned duct tape would look amazing but seeing as I want to do this as economically as possible I will try to use what I have or can get for free. I hope to gather about 8 boxes all about the same size and get to work.

Here are a few links for inspiration in case you want to try this yourself.

http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2010/04/craft-room-part-1.html

http://www.positivelysplendid.com/2011/02/lets-make-something-together-lined.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PositivelySplendid+%28Positively+Splendid%29

http://www.recyclart.org/2012/03/map-covered-boxes-tutorial/

I will take pictures of the before and after and share them when the project is complete.

Self Discovery via my art

 

This past spring I had a future customer ask to create a custom jewellery box as a Christmas gift to her sister. I loved the concept of the item and quickly agreed to take on the project and gave an estimate of cost to the customer. After many months of delaying this project I have started it. It is weighing heavily on my mind because it is outside of what I am comfortable creating and I will have a steep learning curve with this jewellery box.

I rarely create customer requested items because it quashed my own creativity.The boxes and other items I often create come from a variety of inspirations and often just from between my own ears. Taking on a project from someone else’s vision is very difficult. How am I am going to meet their vision and expectation? Will they like it? and if not what do I do with the item?

The good news is that this project has some how inspired my muse and I have a new item I would like to make a series of.

It a 4 inch tall cylinder meant to hold pens, pencils, make up brushes or other trinkets. I have only made one so far and have a few more ideas brewing for other designs. After I have completed the jewellery box I will allow my muse to run free and create these.

I have learned this lesson before that taking on custom work quashes the muse and this is why I rarely do these special projects. I prefer to create for myself and hope others love it as well.

Pretty Wreath

For a couple of weeks now I have been wanting to hang a fall wreath on my front door. My mother happened to have an old grapevine wreath at home that she gave me. Today I cut hydrangea blooms and wove them into the wreath.


A friend of mine asked if I could make her a wreath so here is the second one.

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This is the now very sad looking hydrangea that has given up its blooms for the season.

Looking after myself

 

I have never been too interested in fashionable clothing, make up or having the most current haircut. With all of the recent purging going on in my home over the last few months I realized that my wardrobe was seriously lacking. I finally took the time to have two pairs of jeans hemmed that I bought last February they were about two inches too long and any time I wore them I was treading on the hems and that really bothers me. Yesterday I met with my mom at a local mall and she watched my son while I shopped. I am out of touch with my physical size and was uncertain on what to try on. So I grabbed things that appealed to me and just tried things on. Many shops and tops later I purchased 3 tops and went over budget by $20. Now I have clothing to wear for work. I will be working on call with the local school district two days a week while my mom spends time with my son.

These 3 patterned tops are a break from the usual for me. I have previously been drawn to solid colours with out patterns. Maybe my art is influencing my clothing? I have great shoes I purchased a couple years ago and I just need a sweater of some sort which I can purchase in the future and I am set for work. With these new additions to my closet I am going to attempt to follow the one in one out rule and get rid of at least three clothing items.

As a treat for my husband I cooked dinner the other night and made one of his favourite desserts.

 

This is a ground beef casserole with corn bread on top. It was tasty and easy to put together and we had all the ingredients at home.

 

Rice crispy treats that I put into silicon muffin cups. Hubby spotted them and dove in right away. I even made some some mini ones for my son to munch on. He loves them too. I did add some Cheerio's to the mix as well and the excess went into a pan as normal.