Looking Beyond the Cookies...

Looking beyond the cookies... Hmm... And no, I haven't gone crazy, despite what recent events might suggest!! This was just some food for thought (HA! pun!!) that I got from what you all know is my favourite podcast: Raise Your Hand Say Yes, Episode 76.

Basically, if you don't do podcasts, they were talking about the fact that you could make the best Chocolate Chip Cookies in the world, but if your kitchen is falling apart, who really cares about the cookies, right? So look beyond the cookies...

Still trying to figure out what this means for me... I'm thinking that it's kind of how I portray myself and my product (see last rant for this), but I really don't know... To be honest, I wasn't going to write anything on here at all today because my Chakra Class started (EEEEEE!!!!!), but then that one line just really stuck out to me... Look beyond the cookies...

I guess it could be my branding too, after all, I didn't really look at developing a SUPER strong brand before I started out. Basically just, "How can I make you happy today?" That and I know next to nothing about Marketing, or even how to make a brand (other than my research that I've done).

Hmm... This is more of a contemplative post I guess, rather than having a strong and pounding message behind it. What I'm getting is that I need to look back and be a customer, would I want to buy something like what I'm producing? And if not, how can I make it better?

The more I work at my craft, the better I get, so I guess it's time to stand back and think about things a little bit... Which I'm mentally prepared to do after last weekend!! Monday hasn't been so bad today after all!! ...except that now I really want cookies...

Ciao for now!! Don't forget to stand back a bit to see the whole picture!!! ...and eat lots of cookies!!!!

Putting the Self in Care!!

Another weekend has come and gone, and I've been a little bit productive, but mostly I'm self-caring it up!! Only doing things that I really enjoy:)

Like sleeping! I am a chronic insomniac. Have you ever seen that meme where it says, "You're damn right I'm good in bed, I could sleep for days!!" Yeah, that's my dream. I go for quantity over quality. Which is why I go to bed at a time that some people would think is obscenely early, and can still sleep in like a teenager (NOT a teenager:P).

Anyways, I pretty much slept Saturday away and it was GLORIOUS!!! I think I fiddled around with my Etsy shop, Facebook, etc. but didn't really do anything too momentous (other than REMOVING ALL SHIPPING PRICES ON ETSY!!!!). AMAZING!!! 

Today though, today I got shit done!! ...well kinda... I was up and at 'em early early (like, 10:45am early), and checking out city markets. I have come to a conclusion... Other than one of the consignment stores I cold-called lied when they said that they had similar products to mine in their store, I discovered that a Manitoba Farmer's Market is a Manitoba Farmer's Market... It's all pretty much the same thing... But, if I do decide to dive into the madness again, I really need to rethink and revamp my set up.

First off, a tent would be WONDERFUL!!! It seems to add a level of professionalism, and shade. Never forget the shade. My burns from a month ago are still unhappy with me... Not to mention a bigger table!! I've got lotsa stuff, and my repertoire is growing all the time, so a bigger table is a must! I'm probably also going to need some sort of actual display to make things look pretty and yeah... But for that I'll need a bigger table... Hmm...

Anyways!!! After that I wandered around for a lil bit, then went on my way to buy some dog food and run some errands. Since I was home by noon, I had plenty of time to FINALLY finish off my mirror (forgot to mention that I bought more paint the day before). It matches everything and I'm SO EXCITED!!!! My room is becoming very zen and totally my space. It's amazing!!  Now I need to hang it up... THEN I move on to my closet/wardrobe thingy. Right now it's a plain woodgrain, but it needs some zazzing up!! I'm thinking.... Blue? Hahahaha :P I am for sure thinking of keeping the walls yellow, but less of a bile-ish yellow, and more of a happy sunny yellow.

So, the point of this post? Instead of doing anything "on the clock", I just chilled out and took things at my own pace. This is my favourite pace. Nice and relaxing, but still pretty productive. I have to go and retrieve my loom from MLHS to keep up my weaving, not too mention FINALLY sew my bag together... But this weekend none of that mattered. I did what I wanted, and planned out what I wanted. Not to mention spent some quality time with the hubby and the puppies.

Yup, every once in a while you have to slow down, chill out, and let all the stress of the last couple weeks just kinda melt off and remember that life is good!! Time to live it!!!

Have a good one!! Talk soon y'all!! Live it up!!

I Got Nothin'

Hello all!! 41st post!! ...alright I'll stop counting now...

 

Anyways, something interesting happened to me today. I didn't really want to do ANYTHING! Like nothing creative!

 

BUT! I've been reading a book called "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield. AMAZING by the way!! But this lack of drive kind of made me think of this book... It's basically about fighting through a "lack of inspiration" or as he calls it "The Resistance" and doing the work anyways.

 

So I decided to give it a try! This is something I have NEVER done before!! At least not mindfully thinking about it. It was totally weird. At first all I could think about was the million things I have to do at home (there really aren't that many, I made a list the other day and it's no where near as bad as I'm making it out to be:P), or about how instead of writing, maybe I should be drawing, or reading because I have books due back at the library in the near future.

 

Long story short, the muses were not with me. At first that is. A little background to what I'm doing these days (guess I haven't done this in a while!!), is that I'm trying to write a short, literary non-fiction story for a local magazine contest. I'm also trying to come up with new things to draw/sketch out, and I'm trying a thing where I'm pulling it ALL from memory (or many memories of different places all squashed together) and making a scenery drawing. I ADORE drawing scenery. I've gone from a few photo's lately, and it's not the same... Totally different actually, but I'm trying to only look at the horizons and different angles, not the picture itself.

 

Whew!! That was an off-rant and not really where I wanted to go with this. Anyways!! I finally sat down and forced myself to write. Little more background, I love writing, but I hate actually doing it if that makes any sense... I'm complex like that:P So I forced myself to pick up my pen (it looks like a syringe and needle:P) and made myself write for my whole break (15 minutes). It wasn't one of those "never let your pen stop moving things." No, I even set my pen down at times to try and remember exactly what happened. It's a hilarious story, but it happened way back in 2012, so I'm a little fuzzy on all the details.

 

What did I find with this quick little writing exercise? Well, once some of the kinks worked out (def going to be doing some heavy editing in some parts), things actually started to flow. I actually started to get my groove of semi-formal writing back (I consider this informal:P). The weirdest thing I found was that it was actually pretty fun. I guess it's kind of like running for me, I really do enjoy it, but finding time for it and getting my butt out the door is really the hard part.

 

So where does "The War of Art" come in on all of this? Well, I probably never would have tried this little exercise out if I hadn't been reading it (I'm about 2/3 of the way done) and probably wasted time on my phone for the whole 15 minutes of my break. CRAZY PANTS!!

 

If you're looking for an amazing read, I would highly suggest it, along with a bunch of audio books I'm listening to right now (I can't read while I type at work so I just listen).

 

Anyways, have a good one!! Talk soon!!

Whoops!! Missed a day!!

Oops!!! I already missed a day! To be fair though, I was insanely busy. First Farmer's Market can be marked as a success. Monetary-wise? Nope!! I lost $20 plus gas by going there, but experience? PRICELESS!! ...and hot... Apparently I need SPF 2000 and will be going to my local drug store to find some... UGH!!

As I may have already mentioned, I am of a STRONG Scottish heritage with VERY fair skin. When I was a kid I used to tan wonderfully, but then puberty hit and hhheeeellllloooo sun burns and freckles. Freckles aren't so bad, but the sun burn... OUCH!!! Totally feeling that today!!

But enough about that!! I've had a busy crafty weekend!! Last we spoke it was Friday, and I was FREAKING OUT about Sunday. Well, now I've come through to the other side and I'm still alive!!

The weekend started with Saturday... Turning down a trip to the lake with my hubby and my dogs (:'() to tie up all the loose ends for the next day. And, because I was heading that way anyways, I thought I'd drop by Plato's Closet (and there's a reason I'm naming them specifically) and try to sell off some jeans since it's a consignment store.

So off I went with my tub of jeans, piece of artwork to drop (remember craftivism drop was today), and my list of last minute stuff to do. My first stop was Plato's. First off, even though it's a consignment store, it feels like a regular store in the mall where you're being judged on EVERYTHING. So I dropped off my bin, and they said that they would let me know when they were done, but it would be about half an hour. Sounds good. Mmmmaaayyybbbeee 15 minutes later I saw they were done with my jeans. Turns out they "only accept skinny jeans"... Because that's the ONLY type of jeans that women wear. I took the $2.80, because apparently one pair of shorts I had were short and skanky enough, and my jeans and I walked next door to the Salvation Army Thrift Store. When I dumped that bin of jeans into the bin I was actually THANKED, and given a coupon. And more importantly treated like a human.

So, unless you aspire to be like Mean Girls, DO NOT SHOP AT PLATO'S CLOSET!!! You will regret it.

Anyways thought, when I'm super pissed I tend to do crazy things. So after that I went to the mall, bought a bikini, and dropped my painting in a La Vie En Rose change room. Something I would probably not had the guts to do beforehand. YAY for being angry!!! Then  I grabbed the rest of the stuff I needed for the next day (won't bore you with the details), and went home.

The day of the Farmers Market dawned wet and possibly stormy. It had been cancelled the week before due to the weather (it was intense), but this week the weather held!!

So, like I mentioned before, I didn't really sell anything (my Mom bought a couple of sketches that she really liked), but I met a lot of the other vendours and had some good conversations with people about my product and what I was doing. People seemed excited, but I didn't really have all that much selection, so no takers. 

But that was ok, because I sat on my loom all day, and now I have the start of a small purse/bag for Canada Day. 

Anyways, I'm sticking with the whole "You only fail if you don't try" saying and I'll be right back at 'er next weekend. WITH some sort of shade, and a lot more sunscreen:P

C'ioa for now!!! I'll post again tomorrow to make up for yesterday:P

Recaculating....

Technology... Always recalculating, always rethinking... Not that I can complain. I mean, without it I wouldn't be able to blog, or check my phone compulsively every 5 minutes while my computer is once again recalculating...

Full circle here right? ...maybe... Lost my train of thought there...

Oh wait!! Got it back!! Basically where I was going with that was that I use technology at work daily. I come in, I log on, and I'm givin' 'er for the day. 8-4 for the most part.

Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE my job! I'm very happy here! But I'm just the type to wonder... What else is there? Yes, the grass may not always be greener on the other side, but what if sometimes it is? There's got to be more out there than getting up, going to work, coming home, and going to bed right?

WELL! That's what I'm trying to find out! As a multipotentialite/renaissance soul, that whole concept gives me heart palpations. Just the thought of doing the same thing day in day out until I die is enough to send me screaming in the other direction. Which is why I'm starting this looming/sewing/art business-type-thingy I've got going on here. I want to see if there is more out there. If there is life beyond a job. If I can work from home, sleep late, and work later without having to leave the comfort of my own back yard. Nothing beats a try right?

When I think about this on a grand scale, my previous little worries about posters and signage and all that other menial crap really doesn't matter. On a whole, I'm trying something new! I'm trying to see if there's life out there, and I'm jjjuuusssttt starting to get my feet wet. And DAMN!!! That water is cold!! I have a feeling that it'll get colder before it gets any warmer!

But, because I am the way I am, before I've even begun letting that water warm up just a titch, I've got my eyes wide open exploring new opportunities! That's right, this summer of markets hasn't even started yet and I'm already looking past it to see where the winds might take me. I kind of feel like Pocahontas... Oh darn, now I'm singing too!

Anyways, ciao for now!!!

Courtesy of Google Images

Follow the Signs!!!

Follow the signs!! Read the signs!! ...make the signs...

Thus we have my dilemma of the week(s). I need to make some signs. Not super fancy signs, but just some signs. What do I need these for? My Farmer's Market!!

Holy Moly!! I started to plan out all of the small details this past week and never realized that I would need signs for:
-The Business (Me:P)
-Prices
-Cash Only

Then I need a cash float for change, a table (DONE!!), lawn chairs (DONE!!), table cloth (Dollarama), and the list goes on... And it's REALLY starting to keep me up...

Well... It was... As with many of my posts I started on one day and am finishing on another. I started this one on a stressy Friday, and am ending it on an exhausted Monday... Zzz...

I didn't actuallt have to play slow pitch this weekend (Saturday I was a spare so they let me take off because it was my 5 year wedding anniversary, and Sunday we were rained out), so I actually got a lot accomplished! ...or it feels like I did... Only time will tell... 

I have effectively not only moved ALL my clothes from the inlaws to our house, but I have sorted through them and now have 2 LARGE bins to donate to the Salvation Army, with 1 more small pile of shirts to go through! I'm so excited!! 

Plus, most of my old tshirts that I couldn't bear to part with, O'm going to turn into a "Tshirt Quilt" by cutting out all the logos (mostly band shirts and my cheeky old ones), sewing them together, and adding a backing. SUPER excited for that!! You know, in all the spare time I have:P

On top of wading through my closet, I also managed to finish up all the write-ups for the MAHTA newsletter, and, since we have such an amazing Office Assistant, was able to just pass off the word document for her to make all pretty and format and junk. I do enjoy doing all that, but at the moment I have neither the time nor the resources to get into that cat fight! So, I typed and articled my lil heart out and VOILA!! We have content!!

I then, right before bed, started to work out a price chart for my products for the summer... It's a LOT harder then you would think!! My Inner Critic was not being very nice. Kept telling me that people won't pay for my crap... But you know what? I think that if I tough it out enough, I think people will like what I have to say!! ...maybe... We'll see!!

Anyways, I've been telling people left, right, and center about the Farmer's Market, and a lot of them are family, so hopefully I get a few pity buys at the most:)

I haven't really done much in the way of production of content this weekend, but this week will for sure be crunch time! EEP!! 

I've also come to a decision on how often I'm going to he doing these blog posts! Even if it's just a short post with a couple pics, you can expect something from me every two days!! I've decided that if I can't make time for something I love every other day, then what kind of life am I living right?!? 

Ciao for now!!!!

What was I doing?

Question of my life... What was I doing? Where was I? In case you haven't noticed already, I'm a semi absentminded person. The old saying "You'd lose your head if it wasn't attached totally applies to me:P

But what does this have to do with my creative journey? Well, as I mentioned in my last post, Farmer's Market time is getting REALLY close... Like super close... So I'm kinda going into overdrive trying make up some content, and figure out exactly what I'm going to do.

I would really like to make some business cards, but 1. they're expensive and 2. I don't know about the rest of you, but I have about a million business cards in my wallet that I haven't even looked at. That's just my current wallet. An interesting tip I picked up from Tara Swiger's podcast (see previous post) was to have a notebook and take other people's email addresses or phone numbers. This was a very interesting concept to me, and, not going to lie, completely blew my mind!! Then I've effectively placed myself in the drivers seat, and I won't be refreshing my phone all day to see if anyone wanted to email me back! Super exciting idea! Another was not to stare awkwardly at people when they are checking out your wares. This may seem like a no brainer, but nothing annoys me more than people either staring at me when I'm trying to look at something, or trying to hard to sell me something. Urgh...

Anyways, that's not all I'm starting to peg down. I also need some kind of signage... This one is keeping me up nights. I don't really have the funds for a professionally made poster, but I also don't want it to look cheap and tacky... Maybe I'll grab some of my papercraft supplies from my inlaws this weekend (if I have time... Ugh...) and make it up. I'm thinking a posterboard is all that I need, and then just decorate it with my name and products and such... I dunno... I'll figure something out:)

The thing that, without a doubt, is stressing me out the most is the fact that I have to provide a table! Isn't that silly!! That and having a cash float! Also silly! I have loads of change kicking around home, I guess it's the bigger bills I'm stressing about... I'll have to ask my mom! She's done loads of silent auctions and this sort of thing. And the table!! Pretty sure I know some people with a portable table that I could borrow for the summer. Or even part of the summer. Hmm...

Leaving the totally stressed out line of thinking, things are shaping up!! Still an introvert living in an extrovert's world!!

And I'm going to do something that I've NEVER done before on this blog... I'm NOT going to add a picture:P Mainly because I haven't taken any new ones since yesterday of my Farmer's Market content:)

Have a good one!!

Monday with Minions

Hello again world!!

It is another Monday, but I am slightly more peppy today then normal!! First, the wonders of sleeping, and second, I am in an interpretive minion outfit today!!!

So why am I dressed as a semi-minion on a crazy Monday? It's my... STYLE SCHOOL CHALLENGE OF THE DAY!!!! The song that we had to inspire our wardrobe after today is the song "Happy", which is a main song in Despicable Me 2, so naturally... MINIONS!!!

Anyways, that was my morning excitement... Now, what have I been up to? I really am sorry if these posts have been a lil dry for the past week, I'm still trying to adapt to my new sleeping pills:P They are wonderful, but they make me a lil bit drowsy during the day too...

But again, the question of this blog is, what creative endeavours have I been into lately!! Well, as has been the norm over the past few weeks I've been playing around with the creativity of style, which is super duper fun, as well as weaving my heart and soul out.

It has recently hit me that I will be attending a farmers market for the first time in the very near future (like 2 weeks), and I REALLY need to get cracking on my content!! But I've also been super excited to be wearing my woven goods lately as well. A real favourite has been my gold scarf, which I've been wearing pretty frequently as a head scarf.

A real fear of mine was that, yes, I can weave to my heart's content, but what if no one likes it, or worse, what if I don't like it?!? I was SERIOUSLY concerned when all I had to go by were several loops of woven fabric that didn't really look like anything, and at that point, never would. But I went to Dollarama, found a darning needle (a REALLY big needle), and started finishing up some of the products that I'd already finished the main work on.

The result? LOVE IT!! I'm currently hand sewing (my sewing machine is still ill) two pieces together that I purposely wove to be the exact same to make a wider scarf. The hand sewing is slow going, but otherwise it's looking great!! I've also taken stock of my colours and have come to realize that I do, in fact, have more wool than originally thought, and before I go and buy more I should really use all of what I have up. Shouldn't take too long!!

I've also been putzing with a Facebook Page. As of right now it's less than half done (just has a few words on it really), but I think this will really help things too!!

I also went out to my parents farm for the weekend (hence my absence), and went to a couple small town places where I might be able to canvas to hang up some of my artwork. So, now all I need to do is to compose a letter to send out to all of these places (email or snail mail), and a sample piece of art. You never know right? Raise your hand say yes:P

I've really been having fun with the whole slowing down while drawing thing. I guess my biggest worry was, since I'm primarily a writer, that I would lose my momentum/whim and wouldn't be able to get back into it. This happens with writing (as you may have noticed on this blog with a SLIGHT overlap of content), but I'm finding for my sketching I'm not really having any of those problems. I can leave it for sometimes days, and then come back to it without the world ending. I've heard several terms now for the imposter complex (jiblets, vampire voices), but it's super fun to prove them wrong in this instance.

I think I'm finally coming out of my depressed, sleep-deprived slump. This is so exciting for me!! I just need to start painting again (and find my easel) and I'm one happy camper :)

Have a Happy Monday all!!

A Brave New World

Good morning!!!

Has anyone read this book? It's terrible, don't do it. I had to read it in high school and I don't even think that I finished it. It's the expression I love. Trying something new? It's a brave new world!!!

This has kind of been my motto throughout all throughout the last 6 months. It's a brave new world!! Countless times I have stepped out of my comfort zone and, mostly, been rewarded. I took another HUGE step yesterday, by actually wearing what I'm making. That's right, I wore my yellow scarf I made as a head wrap. It looked awesome!! I was terrified to leave the house, but it looked awesome!!

Which is leading me to want to work even harder (and get more wool) because yeah, this is something that people would actually want to wear, and they're versatile!! LOVE IT!!

My big thing is that I keep running out of my product... Aka yarn!! It's kind of mind blowing how much yarn this thing eats up!! A normal size ball will only last for 1 product for a not very wide scarf/headband/whatever my heart can think of.

I've also been pretty busy on the sketching front!! The only thing that I really took away from the critique I went to was to slow down. So, I'm taking my time now and adding in (at least I think I am) a little more small details. It's HARD!!! I rush through everything naturally, so slowing down is almost physically painful for me!! But I have done it, and as a result, my pics are looking better then ever! It's pretty exciting!

Other than that I'm pretty much just continuing to rock out in style school. There's something super fulfilling about dressing to your personality. I mean, to an extent I've always kinda done it, but not really, and DEFINITELY not at work!

Until next time (I promise to have a more food for thoughtish post:P)

Baby Gone Back... IN TIME!!

This has been a lllooonnnggg week. This is only my second day back at work, but ermagerd I'm ready for it to stop. Needless to say, I've been incredibly busy. Like INCREDIBLY busy.

I went to my first teaching MLHS function on Wednesday (5/25/2016), and it was a total blast!! The leadup was the exhausting part... A little back story, the founder of the organization is getting older, and has been doing far to much for far to long. So, because I'm a huge sucker with a big truck, I volunteered to help out and tote stuff from our shed (approx. 15 minutes out of the city), bring it to the event, and take it back afterwards. Much more work then I thought it would be, yet not more then I expected:P

Anyways, as a result most of my weekend was devoted to this. First off, it was a long weekend to start with, and I'm booked to work tomorrow (Saturday), so as a result I got the Tuesday off as well. The perfect volunteer!! So, Saturday I was shopping all thrifty like (more on that later), Sunday I spent my whole afternoon and part of my evening gathering everything up for the VPRR (Visit the People of Red River), Monday I was running errands most of the day and working on my Farmer's Market content, and finally Tuesday I was running errands and dropping things off at the location we would be at. By Wednesday I was pre-tired.

Then it was Wednesday!! Yay!! I was assigned to lead the candle making station. I was nervous as hell (didn't really sleep the night before) because I'd never done it before, but it ended up being super fun!! And I learned how they made candles in 1812!! How cool is that?! To them it was something that they needed, for me it was learning a new skill to add to my awesome arsenal of crafty stuff!! Yay!! I also had a lot of fun learning about all of the other stations that were set up as well. Super fun!!

After we went through all the stations, I reloaded my truck (with a little help of course), and headed back out to the shed. I REALLY would've preferred to go home to bed... But off I went and unloaded everything just as it started to rain. It didn't really open up until I had already unpacked everything and was on my way home (whew!!). A fun day had by all!

But what did this mean for lil introverted ole me?? PURE EXHAUSTION!! Tara Swiger (love her info on introverts) defines introverts as people who get their energy from being alone, not from other people. This pretty much defines me!! I am for sure an outgoing introvert, but things like this leave me exhausted and frazzled. There's another event that they're doing on Saturday (tomorrow) that I'm unable to attend because of work, which is kind of a blessing in disguise. I won't be completely alone to zone out and recharge, but at least I can put on my headphones, turn on a podcast and just work. Then I have all Sunday to recharge/clean my house (in all this busy it's gotten incredibly messy).

Anyways, I kind of wanted to go into more detail about the candle making, as this was super fun and a creative endeavor that I've never undertaken but REALLY wanted to. First off I got to see and know all of the different kinds of lights that were used, and I'm planning on building a rush light. This was used by poorer people and was simply a dried out bulrush dipped in animal fat, dried out again, and then lit. MLHS currently doesn't have an example of this and it sounds really fun to try out:) There were different types of lanterns, candle holders, and even an old-fashioned oil lamp. History combined with creativeness, I was in seventh heaven!!

The candles themselves were commonly made with tallow, or animal fat. Apparently they burn smelly and greasy (we didn't actually light one), and don't give off very much light. So we basically melted the tallow (we had bear and buffalo) on a hot plate (NOT historically accurate, but we didn't have all day, or a fire), tied our wick (approx. the length of a sheet of paper) to a wooden dowel (they would have used sticks), and dipped into the tallow to our heart's content. The hardest part for the kids to get was that you had to dip QUICK!! The longer you held the wick in the hot tallow, the more would melt off from your previous dips and your candle would actually get skinnier! O dear!! Some of them had great candles, while others were still very skinny... They all seemed to have fun anyways!! I know I sure did!! Made a real mess, but my hands have never been softer!!

My next post (hopefully a little quicker to come out then this one...) will probably be a continuation of my Style School capers, and will probably touch on my content for the summer.

My outfit for the day.

Inspired by the laundry station a the VPRR:)