Thoughts for the weekend

Wow, thank God it's Friday night. I'm watching Nanny 911 (don't get me started on child-rearing-ha!) and I need to get busy working on some art. I was totally inspired by yet another etsy artist, Danah Kim (not sure if male or female) from Seoul, Korea: now based in Brooklyn. Amazing work, beautiful style, and I love the stitching on the collages. I have done some sewing on paper (I used gold thread and fall silk leaves on my wedding invitations) and it is very cool. I love to sew so much that it's wonderful whenever you can blend two art forms that you love. Anyway, check this artist's work if you can (see link to right-dkim art).
The weekend is a great time for me to spend time in my studio (a corner of my living room),but I feel guilty at times if I feel like I should be giving attention to other things. A main concern that I have that comes between me and art is my almost 14 year old daughter. She's doing well in school, but we don't live in the school neighborhood, so she has no friends around. It's been this way most of her life, and I transport her wherever she needs to go, but I just wish I could find a way to get her more involved in something she would enjoy with peers. I try to get her to do artsy stuff with me, but she loses interest fairly quickly; she's happier doing sports,etc.
Well, my goal this weekend is to finish a couple of collages, finish a laptop bag that I started sewing, and maybe clean the house a little. Maybe I'll get it all done!

It's a new day

Well, I've been trying to log in for over a week, and I'm having lots of issues with blogger. Hopefully they are solved now. I'd like to join the etsy blogger group, but I may have to start a new blog in typepad or something.
I've been working on a series of new collages, and it's really been fun. I am amazed at the rich symbolism and ideas that I get from the Bible. I was reading Proverbs the other day, and I kept getting idea after idea. This collage was inspired by something I heard Joyce Meyer say about "Why are gold and diamonds always hidden in mountains?"
I think she was saying we have good in us, but sometimes it takes some digging to find it, under all of the other crap. After I started thinking about mountains, and gold, I got this idea that I am searching for a new way of making my art. A new discovery about myself. I've always expected every artwork to be perfect, instead of letting myself play and experiment. So since I love trees, birds, nests, etc., I got the idea of the bird is looking for the treasure (the egg), and it felt like me, searching for this wonderful, free, creative part of myself, but it's been buried for so long. (It's kind of hard to see in the pic, but there is an egg in the center of the gold dust that I glued down.)
After re-reading the Artists' Way book, I've noticed that I see that perfectionist tendency in myself now when it's happening. So now I feel a little stuck, and I don't know what to do. On the land, there needs to be something, but I'm frozen. I love how the pinks in the sky came out, and I guess I'm afraid if I add something, and it looks bad, that... I guess I don't even know what I'm afraid of.
Anybody out there reading the Artist's Way, and understand what I'm talking about?

I've been trying to decide on some goals for 2007. I know that I need to set up a website under my name, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Technology is soooo hard (Whine) sometimes-actually when I just do it, it's never as hard as I thought it was going to be. I also want to join more groups like art unraveled so I can do more swaps and branch out more. Sometimes it seems like it's hard to break into new things, like I'm an outsider and everyone else it already at the party. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. I love my studio time, and I try to get everything else done so I can work. My daughter (13) is such a tomboy/sports freak that it's hard to get her interested in art, but occasionally she will sit with me and do a project. I cherish those times. Also our Biggest Loser competition is starting this week at work, so I lifted weights yesterday and I'm getting on the treadmill tonight! The computer will not suck me in and let me avoid my commitment!

New Year

Woo-hoo! I made my first sale on etsy this week. It's an awesome feeling, especially after all the work switching over to a new name and re-doing my banner, etc. There are so many amazing artists on that site, that it's hard not to worry that I'll get lost in the pack. I just keep trudging forward, and I'm still trying to find my niche anyway (in the art world). I love altered art, and so many other forms of art, sewing, photography... I need to focus my energies a little better. (Isn't there some saying about too many irons in the fire?) Here's some new work I've listed on etsy that I've had alot of fun making.
It's back to school on Monday-I'd rather be at home with my daughter working in my studio and decorating my house, but such is life. I'm grateful for such a creative job, I just wish the adults I work with were more gracious. I guess I should be thinking about my goals for this year. I know I want to create a website under my own name, so that my other sites can be linked to it, and people actually know who I am, but I just haven't done it yet. We're having a 'Biggest Loser' competition at work, and I'm entering it next week, so another goal is to work out and walk more regularly. I know my dog will appreciate that too. Isn't Weezer cute? (See pic)
So they are going to declare the winner by the percentage of weight lost, and I need to lose about 25 pounds, so I hope that's enough to win the contest. If some people have more to lose than me, they have until May, so that makes me nervous because they could do it. I've also talked my husband into lifting some weights with me (he's so darn skinny!-In his words-he's "sleek" ). I love him the way he is for sure, but it would be great if he had more energy and felt better. He's 40 (and quit smoking a month ago), so there's never been a better time to start. I should post before and after pics of us, but I don't think I have the courage! (Weezer is not really demon-possessed, it just looks that way because of the flash).