"After the Tears"

*Inspire Me Thursday*
I thought about tears for this creative challenge, and it occurred to me that I don't cry nearly as much as I used to. I spent a hefty portion of my first 30 years crying, due to depression, bitterness, and loneliness. This led to me being quite a dysfunctional adult, and it took a long time to come out of that and experience joy. As I thought about tears, I kept going over and over a verse in my mind that I couldn't quite remember, so I looked it up. 'Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." Psalm 126:5,6
So as I thought about all I have been blessed with, and how my life is SO different now, this picture came into my mind. I've planted seeds of sorrow, and I have reaped in joy. It's like suffering is painful, but it builds our character, and it is not in vain.
After the uphill battle, my life now is high on the hill, with green grass and flowers growing (my teeny tiny buttons), and I choose to revel in my blessings rather than wallow in past pain. I didn't get a great picture of this, but the dress is made from this gauzy fabric.

Should I...Or Shouldn't I?

I should, and I did. I made a decision about the next school year. I am so relieved that I finally made a decision about teaching next year. I have been debating for a long time about reducing the time at school, and I finally requested it. Hopefully it will work out the way that I want it to, and it will be a smooth transition. Basically I will teach 8 cycle days out of 10, instead of 10 out of 10. It sort of works out to 4 days of the week, but every time there is a holiday or a teacher work day, the cycle days shift, so my days off would not always be on the same day of the week. I am extremely happy and at peace that I don’t have to decide what I want to do anymore. If it works out, I’ll have one more day a week to create and work on my art business. I’m just so exhausted sometimes after teaching that I don’t have enough left in me to do anything fun or creative.
Anyone else out there shifting from full time to part time, or quitting completely to do their art? That’s my big dream… someday.
The etsy shop has been going swimmingly this month. It’s only the 12th, and I’ve already had 11 sales! I am going to keep working on improvements too. I found a blog by littleputbooks (check the links to the right), and this wonderful etsy seller has put a lot of selling tips and advice into a really nice format. I’m definitely going to keep it in my weekly blog-visit rotation. There are so many talented people on etsy~ it’s been almost a year since I have been exploring that site, and 4 months as a seller, and I am still amazed by the cool people I find there. It makes me sooooo happy. I just wish we all lived in the same city, and we could all have a cup of tea and be creative together. Oh well, at least we have the internet.
That reminds me, I’ve been meaning to get a world map and put a little red pin into every spot where I’ve shipped work to, kind of as a visual reminder that people all across the globe appreciate me and like my work. It was Kev’s idea and I love it. Now I just need to find a good map, and enough wall space to hang it in our tiny house. Here are a couple of pics of my ‘corner studio’ in our living room, right by the front door of our house.


Kev’s workspace is right behind mine, facing the other wall~ that’s where he does all of his ‘stamp collecting’. It’s so cute to see him with his magnifying glass studying the miniscule details of antique postage. “They are little masterpieces” he says. I’m glad I married somebody who understands and appreciates the visual wonders in the world.
Well, off to work now, dreaming of summer…35 days of school left, and counting!

Ahhh, Monday...

Well, back to school today after a blissful 10 days off. I'm grateful for the time off, but it's hard to go back. Looking forward to summer now~ less than 7 weeks to go.
Anyway...I got a few optical lenses from MantoFev-a great supply online store, and here's one of the faux ones:

They are fun to do these little collages, and MantoFev is right here in Omaha!
Here's the pile of lenses that I need to finish to put in the shop~














As for my sewing pile, I made the asian patchwork purse that I've been thinking about for awhile, and it's very sweet and I love how it turned out. I may have to make myself one!

















Must get back to Dancing with the Stars now! I'm very disappointed in the basketball player guy, because he's not even trying. My prediction is Ian Zering (Beverly Hills 90210) will win it, but I could be wrong.

Busy, busy, busy

Ok, so here's the result from the black and turquoise picture from my last post. I look intense in this picture, but I'm really happy with how it came out. It's so comfortable!

The success of this dress will have to make up for the fact that my vest (below) did not actually sell. The buyer has not responded to my invoices. Too bad, but not much I can do. Sometimes things come up I'm sure, it's just frustrating not knowing what happened. Well, time to relist it. I'm in a showcase on Thursday, and one on Saturday I think, so I'm trying to get lots of stuff in the shop.
I'm thoroughly enjoying being away from school and being creative. It's awesome. I'm trying not to even think about school, and even if I have anxiety next week, I know I can get through 7 more weeks of school~then summer, then I think substitute teaching next year. I haven't decided yet, but I'm beginning to feel burnout, and I would like more time to work at home. I'm so blessed that I'm married (FINALLY!!!!) and I actually have more options than I've had for the last 13 years. It would definitely be financially a stretch, but subbing pays well, and I could probably make almost as much as I do now, if I worked alot.
Also, here are some more altered dominoes~ I love these!

Off to create some more:)

Spring break 2007

Woo-hooo! Spring break officially begins today, and I am uber excited! I woke up with a very stiff neck, and I hope it's from sleeping on it wrong, because I don't want to go back to the chiropractor-ugh. They don't seem to help me that much anyway, and it gets way too expensive.
Also, this morning (except for the neck) got off to a wonderful start, because the vest I made a few weeks ago just sold on my etsy site!!! I didn't like being my own model (see previous posts), so I'm glad that my picture didn't deter my customers.















So this week I have to sew some summer dresses, and I've got some GORGEOUS sheer black and white (one of my favorite combinations) fabric to work with, among other things:)













And... some fabulous turquoise and silky black, which will be an asian-inspired black dress with a turquoise sash (obi-style).













I've got to spend some time figuring out the new canon, and I didn't get the tech guy at work to fix my photoshop issue on my mac, so I'm going to have to use the windows machine (it has paint shop pro on it) to experiment with some photography art. I am not comfortable on a windows machine, but I'm sure it's not that hard...

Monday...

{SOLD} Well, I got one of the purses from the last post done this weekend:

I really like how it turned out, especially the detail on the front. I just love all of these asian fabrics, and how they look together. I want to piece all of these together someday, and make a patchwork bag. here's the detail on the front of the messenger bag:














On a different note, I bought some neat supplies with some of my tax return, and I'm contemplating what to do with them. There seems to be a 'circle' theme lately...

I also bought a new camera, and it's more complicated than I'm used to. I hope I can begin to take decent pic's with it soon.

Weeeeeekend!

Well, it's officially the weekend, and I've been working on some polymer clay beads this week. Actually, I've been dabbling in lots of creative endeavors, as usual. I think I'll bake these tonight, I haven't done that in years, but I remember the smell. It's beautiful out though, so I can open the windows. I'm really sensitive to smells. My family rolls their eyes when I complain about someone wearing too much perfume, or if someone tries to use a cleanser that has toxic fumes, etc. Making some resin jewelry is something else I need to do this weekend, and except for the crystal lacquer stuff, I haven't mixed up the 'real' epoxy stuff yet. I'm paranoid that I'll do it wrong.
Also, I'm going to use some more of my Asian fabric to make a purse tonight, since my Asian purse is no longer in the shop. I can't decide on a messenger shape or a boxy one with darts. Maybe I'll do both-I have 2 different red asian prints, so I can do two. I don't know if I'll ever narrow down my creative spurts to one genre or medium, but I really need to stop worrying about it.

Renovations

Wow, I have been so tired this week. Re-doing Sasha's room (lime green with hot pink splatters), bought her a new bed, had to put it together, not to mention grades were due this week. There's only 1000 kids! Anyway, the house, as always, is still in progress. I got a good shot of the distressed maple floors we installed last summer, -don't get me started on that one, and managed to rearrange my studio area (corner) to my liking. My husband is really good at making a place where there never was one, and I'm really good at space conservation, so it works.

























The leopard chair on the left was my first foray into reupholstery a couple of years ago, and the zebra chair on the right was way more complicated, and I'm not sure why I always pick animal prints when I redo furniture?
Did a nice trade today with Jenn from StilettoHeights on etsy today, so I have to say goodbye to my beloved Asian purse design:( Oh well, she said she needed a change from her Prada, so apparently I am in fine company! What a compliment:)

Saturday morning illustrations

I finally got a chance to watch my newest favorite cartoon yesterday, and it was a rerun. And I've only seen two episodes! It's called "Jacob Too-too" (I think). The illustration is so cool, it reminds me of those pen and ink illustrated books that I remember reading as a kid. The story lines that I've seen so far have been ok, but really it's just drawn in a cool way. Especially the house they live in-from the outside you can see the architectural details, and from the inside, the layout of the house is interestingly drawn.
This reminds me of the Inspire me Thursday creative challenge for this week-architecture. I'll try to finish my project and post it in a day or two.

Home Sweet Home

I've had this idea for awhile to use my beloved fabric to create a beeswax collage. I had this picture in my mind of these little houses, and I've been dying to use my teeny tiny buttons, so when I saw the challenge for Inspire Me Thursday was "Home", I got down to work, and it was alot of fun. I've had the little lingerie clothesline fabric for awhile, and haven't thought of anything to do with it, so it was one of those perfect, everything-falls-into-place moments. I think I'll do a series of these with different types of architectural shapes. And, maybe I'll bust out my REALLY eensie-weensie buttons that are so adorable!!!