Lazy Daze

So - it was recon day at the 32nd Annual Lazy Daze Arts & Crafts Festival! I checked out every booth for the booth setup and the types of work, the many artists, what is selling, the pricing, etc.

Very informative, as I was looking at the artists in an entirely different manner than when I'm simply checking out the goods. It was very interesting to see how the various artists were interacting with everyone else - not only with potential customers, but with other artists and with the general population flow up and down the streets.

So many different types of booth setups as well. There are sidewalks on the back side of every booth - some artists were making better use of them than others, by hanging work on the back, keeping their director chairs either at the front to sit and chat, or through a small opening into the back of the booth.

Lots of jewelry, pottery, woodwork, photography, fine art painting, glasswork.

I saw only one booth with mixed media works, and it seemed to be pretty busy, with good prices - hope the artist does well!

It inspired me and overwhelmed me at the same time.....just another challenge for the inner artist...

Fear

Fear has so many faces.  This week, my face is reflecting fears on the economy, my job, my siblings' jobs, my team....

I should be working out to relieve the stress because I know that it does help, but it seems that all I want to do is check out my blog favorites, post on Etsy and try to create.  I should be updating my resume and checking out business networking sites, but I work 10 hours a day at Huge McNormous and I don't want to think about it at night.

I'm finding new friends on Etsy and receiving really great stuff - loving supporting the hand-crafted network.  Off to do recon at a big local craft fair this weekend - Lazy Daze in Cary NC.  I want to check out the booths, get new ideas and see what's selling.

Boo Spoken Here!

Get on up for Halloweeeeeennnnn!!!

My favorite holiday - wooo hoooooo!!

It's up and running!  Welcome to Lulu's Sandbar - my new Etsy store.   I'm really excited and anxious and a bit overwhelmed at the same time....

Pictured here is the first completed shadowbox collage, titled, "Cowgirl Up!"

To view this and other items in my Etsy store, please access the "My Etsy" link in the sidebar.

Can't wait to see you there!

Olympics Week, Random Thoughts

Although I'm not in shape at all, while I'm watching these elite athletes I'm feeling like I've been competing in the Olympics this week.  Cutbacks at Corp Huge McNormous are weighing everyone down and it's been an effort to keep the team motivated while I'm a bit nervous myself.

I love the thought of somehow being able to say that I swam 9 hours per day, every day for the last four years....but there is no way I could ever do that, so I think that Michael Phelps deserves everything that he wins.

I really need to get my items together for my Etsy store.  Enough research - get crafting!

How to get motivated?  Thoughts?

Creativity...

....can be defined as the experience of thinking, reacting, and working in an imaginative and idiosyncratic way which is characterized by a high degree of innovation and originality, divergent thinking, and risk taking.

This also best defines how I feel about life beyond the sandbar....especially, risk-taking.  And to experiment in many new and different types of mediums is such a great feeling.  

I'm still working on managing all of it, though - the day job, the blog, the art pieces, the start-up to the Etsy store - all take so many pieces of time away from what I think of as the creative process.  I just need to realize that the process IS the process!

Trying to Vacation

This is really really tough.  I was so looking forward to having two weeks off, and enjoying our grandson, and getting very creative.

But.

I'm sooo tired!  There's no schedule like that of a 3-almost-4-year-old, and while this comes as NO SURPRISE to millions of moms, it's tough to get anything done!  My creative side is telling me to nap...

We have been enjoying the pool, and his swimming is getting better.  Trying to push him past the sandbar someday in ways big and small.

However, it's very disconcerting to watch the competition among the moms.  Not on behalf of their kids, but amongst themselves.  Maybe I'm just getting older (definitely!) but - it's so interesting to watch how most women will sit at the edges of the pool or in the water, splashing around with the kids....and then there are those moms with the killer abs...who stand in knee-deep water, no matter where the kids are playing.

Yeah, we see you.  You look great.  How about getting - oh, I don't know - underwater with your kids?!  Oh well.  Jealousy is such an ugly emotion.  :)

Back from Weddingville

I am back after a very long weekend of traveling - flying to Chicago, driving to the big MItten for a family wedding, back to Chicago and then a flight out today home with grandson in tow.  He'll be with us for two weeks which will be great....and exhausting.

I'm hoping to get creative, but I will now know what it's like for the moms out there with little guys running around and into everything!

Finally - Getting Started

Sha-whewwwww....as my niece used to say...I'm finally getting the blog off the ground.  I have started and stopped a few times already, trying to get this juuuust perfect.   Huh.  Yeah.  Still thinking that EVERYTHING I do has to be perfect or something bad will happen.

At least - that's what my black dog keeps telling me. 

And this ain't the black dog that's soooo friendly, as in the restaurant, or in the big calm black lab that saves somebody from drowning in the big lake.  No, my black dog is the voice inside my head that tells me I'm somehow never good /talented / pretty / smart / clever enough for ...someone.  Usually me.  Because really?  No one else is judging me as harshly as I'm judging myself.  

But more about the black dog later.  (I think most women have an internal black dog so hopefully some readers can relate).

So, this is all part of the plan to launch a blog and an Etsy site and a website and an eBay store and links to cool sites and favorite blogs.  For my second life as a successful, well-known multi-media artist.

Of course, to have a second life you have to have a first life, which I do - I work for Huge McNormous Corporation, as a Sr. Director of Corporate Stuff.   And most of the time I feel that I'm making a difference.   But looking into the future, I really want to do something that I love - to have that wonder of waking up in the morning anxious to get to work because it's fun, not because I have so many meetings to wade through, or issues to handle.

This will be my story and my journey as I try to create a business to enjoy in the future.