A creative life

I slowly got back into creating the orders from my Etsy shop.  Taking only 10 days off and knowing that 2 weeks at least would have been better.  Like most of the population in the northeast I have had my share of a cold that seems to keep coming back.   Sleeping more and eating better is always the best medicine.

I've gone back to sketching or doodling almost daily.  Perhaps I am revving myself up for a more serious composition.   I did construct a few more abstract cut paper works including one that is more of an exercise of contrasting colors and shapes that forms a stone wall.  The other two will be posted maybe in a few days.  There may be some other creations that are itching to come out of me before I begin an illustration on the baseball theme.   Even though I cleared my drawing table of all scraps of paper to prepare the drawing area, I may still venture back to cut paper.

This weekend will include being creative in the kitchen.  A simple beef stock is to be made in just a short while and part of this will go in the forthcoming pot roast that will fill the house with a welcome aroma.   During the winter with very cold and snowy weather cooking and baking is a nice activity to return to.   Slowing down the day, being present in the process of chopping, shredding, stirring and measuring.   Recipes can change on a whim when one feels adventurous.

January is also the time to turn the pages of the gardening catalogs.   Reading the descriptions of the variety of plant photos before you.  Wondering what new items to include in this year's trial of growing seeds and bulbs?  Returning to old favorites, too.   I was recently invited to join a garden group on Facebook.   I mentioned how I tried to grow ginger and tumeric without much success, but noted that one can indeed grow sesame plants here in the northeast.   It will be interesting to hear what other people have grown.  Maybe they can share their secrets with me on how to grow onions.  Those things still escape me.   I'm not an expert gardener, but have tried growing many different plants in the past years.   I can see myself taking a back seat to the other people in the group......I don't know,  I just enjoy what I do in the gardens.  

And so I must now go to start the beef broth.  Happy creating in whatever is your calling for the week!

50 + 2

It doesn't seem possible, but yes 50 custom house ornaments created and shipped in 7 weeks time!... + 2 within the next two days that don't have to be there for Christmas.

There were times when I had to morph into a faster speed to get things done in a timely fashion.  I suppose I put my game face on.  :)    There were many moments when I seemed to be muttering to myself, for I was very tired on more than one occasion.   I did take time off here and there because I really needed the breaks.

It would have been more helpful to my sleep schedule if a work crew wasn't appearing near my domicile at pre-dawn for the past 2 weeks to load logs to a truck....just saying.   And I suppose I should go to bed soon because the logging truck will be here in about 7 hrs!

When I had to sculpt faster I often wouldn't overthink what I was doing.  And sometimes this definitely worked to my advantage.  Taking risks in a shorter period of time that often paid off.  The only time I did myself in was 4 days ago when I said to myself "go ahead impress me" in a ploy to move even faster than I was going.  That definitely back fired and stressed me out even more.   I won't repeat that.   :)   Slow and steady at a faster pace seems to work the best.

I put up a special sale that will have run its course by December 26 or whenever I get to changing it on my Etsy shop.  From mostly that promotion, I am now booked into mid-February 2017.   Then the price per custom house ornament will rise to $65 each, which is still at the low end on Etsy.   1/7/17***I decided that price was a big leap from $58 and set on a final new price of $61(obtained my first order at that price a few days ago.).

Still love architecture and sculpting after all that.  But am really looking forward to about 1 week or so off to just be.  Maybe paint.....maybe draw....sleep sounds really good....talking to friends and family.....walking in the winter air.....all really good.    :)

Merry Christmas and happy holidays.   :)

BAM! It's cold!

Last Saturday was the last warm day before winter set in.  After sending out another order(well someone else shipped it for me), I went outside and emptied the remaining pots of soil and plants.   It would have been more fun if the dirt wasn't wet.  Heavy, very heavy.   It took me 2 hours to shovel, hoist and wheel the dirt to the woods.  I also rescued the dahlia bulbs, replanted a perennial and took the remaining living plants inside.

Then it snowed Saturday night.  And Sunday.  And Monday.   All very light thank goodness.  But boy is it cold!

In other news, I've been making my way through the custom house ornament orders.  It is really nice to check the orders off the schedule I made up.  Sure, I am a little behind.  I'll make it up somewhere.   :)   Oh, and 2016 is now full for custom house ornament orders.   I all ready have 6 orders for January 2017 delivery(special sale). 

Last week, I took a break to see the Mum show at Smith College.  Very beautiful display.  No crowds.   Even better.   There were bees in there doing their job, but that was the only damper on the day.   It was a nice day to visit Northampton.

Sometimes I don't mind the snow.  Especially if I am not traveling.   :)  Snow showers are nice.
Walking in the snow is nice, too.

....till later.    :)

Finding My Way Back

Aptly named title as I was able to find myself back at the drawing table this week.  Just a bit of time here and there after each day of sculpting.   No drawing, but back to creating cut paper illustrations/sculptures.   I scanned the recent ones in.  They came out darker than I wanted, but until I figure out how to upgrade my camera software to the Windows 10 version this is where I will stay.   I may take photos anyway since I reuse the pieces of paper.

Very busy week and quite tiring really.   As of tomorrow, I will have mailed out 10 custom house ornaments.  Two orders were of multiple ornaments:  5 & 4.  And there was a rush order of 1 in the middle of the big ones.   I would have been able to get another multiple order out if the rush order didn't come in.  

Once my Etsy orders are completed for the Christmas rush, I'll reveal how many there were.  Very soon my schedule will be filled for the holiday season.   I made a schedule for each week up to the last shipping date in mid-December.  It will be adjusted as soon as tomorrow since I really petered out today. 

Earlier this week I met a friend I hadn't seen in awhile for lunch.  "Soup on Fly" is a neat little place in Athol.  Grant it there is not much is happening in that town, but there are some really nice old buildings there along with the old mills, of course.   It was a good break.

What I should be doing right now is scanning in my house drawings.  I have to make up a graphic for the Etsy shop.   Tomorrow sounds good.  So many house drawings from my imagination as I looked through my sketchbooks.    And an awful lot of flying, dancing and jumping pigs!   Yes I certainly was surprisedand amused.   And happy to see them, too.   :)

I didn't get to the dahlia bulbs, yet.   Today was rather chilly with that strong wind.   Winter be coming for sure.

One order down.....digging holes.....art & architecture

Hurray!   I finally finished the order of Christmas ornaments for the Cambridge Artist's Cooperative.  There are 7 different designs(which probably slowed down the completion.  It's usually 5).   With the help of my sis tagging, doing the paperwork and shipping them, the ornaments arrived one day later on Thursday.   The CAC suggested that I mail the ornaments to them any time during the year and I think I will take them up on that in 2017.

I had time to finish the CAC ornaments because my temporary f-time job ended.  It was a good 3 months at old Yankee Candle down in a Chicopee local.    I grabbed a Guest Pass to the Employee sale before I left.  Sis and I went this afternoon.   I was experiencing bad flashbacks when we walked near the wax hands station!  Noooo!  I don't ever need to make those again.  Spent 6 hrs one Saturday helping customers make their own wax hands.  Seems so long ago.  4 years.   :)

We mostly walked around the big store.  Our favorite place is the old time Christmas village.      Didn't buy much since I received a whole box of free candles at my job.   Sweet!

And because there are always holes to dig in the garden, I dug holes this past week.  I finished transplanting the hydrangeas today and the hostas went in yesterday.   The dahlia bulbs may not be any good by now with the below freezing temps, but I will check them out this weekend.   I didn't get very many dahlia blooms this past growing season.

As one of my friends says "you must be up to your eyeballs in ornaments by now!"   So very true with all the Etsy orders.  I will be working on a few large orders in the next week and then start on the other orders.  I hope to move most orders up to an earlier ship date than they have now.   The Yankee Candle job really put me behind schedule.   I know, wimper wimper.     :)

I hope to get a few visits to Smith College art exhibits.  There are some interesting shows there now.

And there is always the holiday fairs that are sometimes held in churches with great architecture.  There is one particular church in Hadley that I love to visit.  Made up of wood and stone.   Very nice people, great little fair, fantastic architecture!

Okay.....time to work.     :)

 

Fall....mice... and just breathe!

The colors have been great this year despite what the predictions were.   I drove around today as leaves blew off the trees into the path of my car, not minding that a few hit my windshield.   Never tire of seeing fall leaves next to rock walls, old and new.   The tall plume grasses seem to change color daily.   The ferns that went from green to yellow are now browning out with the leaves crumbling to the ground.

I was surprised that I stood my ground at a farm stand today when I saw what must have been a rat crawling around the shelves.   Some people may have screamed.   I was amazed how big it was and by its long thick furry tale.    Later I thought how mice-romanticized rats-are portrayed in art and movies as they rummage through pumpkin patches or stands.  Or transformed into horses to pull an imaginary pumpkin coach.  As long as the rat did not hitch a ride home with me, I was more than happy to leave him to his adventures.

Though I am enjoying the fall and took it easy the last couple of days-as I surely needed to-I still know that I need to catch up on all my custom house ornament orders and finish the ornaments for the CAC.  No, of course I did not finish the CAC ornaments last weekend.  Such wishful thinking.   :)   I've been told by CAC that they will wait for my ornaments, but I risk not getting a good spot in the display area.   I can just do the best I can.   I am, as I finished another 3 of one design yesterday.    Well, I have to fix one of them.   Sometimes things happen.    :)

Looks like a good week for enjoying the colors, again....creating when I can.....and just breathe.......    :)

Holiday Ornament Update :)

I'm steadily making progress on the ornaments for the Cambridge Artist's Cooperative.  Tried as I might, sleeping late today was not an option.   Once I woke up all I could think about was how one of the designs was not totally working for me.  This would be for the ever popular "sleeping in a bed" series.   The bear is out....the young reindeer is in.   One would think that the reindeer would have all ready appeared in this series, but not wanting the ornament to be appear too "Christmasy" -not a real word, but you get the gist-I refrained from including it.
Now, I think with my own twist on the design it will be fine.

In any case, today will be a marathon Holiday ornament day.   It may be very doable to get it all done.   Tagging and signing maybe tomorrow.....Ho, ho, ho!

 

Fall Update

I have been working at a short-term day job for the past 2 months or so.  Not creative, but the people are nice.   I think of creative things I could be doing while working!  Who doesn't, right?!

Art jobs are done when I am not there.  Custom orders(house ornaments) for my Etsy clients-which have been steadily coming in as of late-and sculpting holiday ornaments for the Cambridge Artist's Cooperative.  It's hard to believe that I have been selling ornaments through the Coop for 17 years!   The Halloween ornaments most likely arrived at the store today.  A lot of glow in the dark features.   Yup, more scary cute designs.  And I have started on the Christmas designs and hope to have them finished in two weeks.   I am doing something new this year in terms of a couple of designs: sea inspired. 

I've been working from the sketches that I made and sometimes change the ornament design as I go.  

I wanted to do some other design work, but due to time constraints it will have to wait.  In the mean time, I can think about it.

One season is ending and am in the midst of another

In the past week I have been readying the gardens for the winter months.   Fitting in an hour here and there as I work through my orders of Custom Home ornaments through my Etsy site.   Today, I dug up all the gladiolas bulbs except for one and planted 3 hydrangeas in their place.  There is still one gladiolas blooming, but will be cut soon.   3 hostas were also transplanted.  And old tomato vines pulled.  I would rather take out the plants before they get withered by the impending hard frost that is coming in a few days.  

Over the next couple of days, I will cut the remaining dahlia flowers and dig up the plants and bring them inside.   I hope to bring some plants inside and then decide what to do with them within one week.

My experiment with growing ginger and tumeric did not work.  Oh well.  I think I had too many things going on this year to give them my full attention.  Mishaps and whatnot slowed me down.

The Christmas season in my Etsy shop is well under way.  I have several orders to create.  At the moment, it all custom house ornaments.

I hope to fit in some time to create small drawings and other artwork to submit to a small works holiday show.  I do need time away from the sculpting table.

A day in the gardens

Today was an excellent day to work on the gardens.  I made sure I got outside since it will be raining for the next 3 days.  And outside I was for 5 hours!  There is always weeding to do and i did that first.   I worked in the new soil for the raised garden plots and planted shallots and lettuce.   I briefly thought about transplanting some black-eyed Susan's until I saw all the red ants.  Maybe some other time.....Then i turned my attention to digging up a few hostas and hydrangeas.  Each year, I pot several of these plants for the back deck.  Once I got to the back deck, I decided to sit down and enjoy the nice breeze while I sat in the shade.  Eventually, I potted all the perennials I dug up. 

I've learned to keep my explanation of what I am growing to a minimum.  I can see how the long list of plants can be quite overwhelming to others.   The raised garden beds are filled with companion plants and that in itself helps up the number of different kinds of plants I grow!

Anyway, it was a very constructive day in the gardens.   :)

Drawing for an auction

I finished the colored pencil drawing for an auction that my friends' work place is having in June.  It will be available for bidding on the site Bidding for Good, June 8th, 2015.   This drawing is called "Cascading Apples"  and is created entirely with colored pencils.    It can also be found on this site in the section titled "Colored Pencil."

Nature drawings

One week ago I started on a close up of an apple tree in colored pencil.  It may be finished this week or next and I intend to continue with another drawing in a similar fashion, perhaps blueberries.   My hope is to make this a series and offer the prints for sale.  Most of my time in the past few months has been taken up with completing orders for my custom house ornaments, so it is quite nice to be able to go back to the drawing table.   I generally work with a few different kinds of colored pencils, though this particular drawing is being done with mostly theKoh-i-noor brand of woodless pencils with a little Prismacolor pencils.  My other choice would be the Derwent line of colored pencils.