The Weekend Blogger

Around this time of year I start thinking about plans and goals for next year. I try to take a look at what worked and what didn't work over the past year. You know, keep what works and chuck the rest.
I haven't gotten very far, but these are some of the adjustments I am contemplating.

• Continuing the blog on a reduced, weekends only schedule.
• Building my own intensive topical bible study for the coming year.
• Experimenting with schedules and strategies that keep my energy level in balance (minor adjustments such as what time I exercise or take a bath seem to strongly influence fatigue and nausea).
• I'm still on the fence about writing, but I think I have determined that I will do some significant writing about writing and see where it takes me.
• Normally I dislike the strict "do this every day" type of goal. However, I think I'd like to follow what is something of a mantra in the creative/arts world. "Do something creative every day."

What about you? Any goals or plans for the coming year?

Brave People Make Things

My friend Dianne borrowed this from another blog and I decided to take on the challenge myself.
Will you be brave enough to take on the challenge?

Because 2010 is so near, I am changing the timeline.

The first five (5) people to respond to this post will get something made by me.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations so please read carefully:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. Whatcha get is whatcha get.

2. What I create will be just for you, with love.

3. It’ll be done this year (2009). EDITED: It will be done by May 1st, 2010

4. I will not give you any clue what it’s going to be. It will be something made in the real world and not something cyber. It may be weird or beautiful. Or it may be monstrous and annoying. Heck, I might bake something for you and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that’s for sure!

5. I reserve the right to do something strange.

6. In return, all you need to do is post this text on your blog and make 5 things for the first 5 to respond to your blog post.

7. Send your mailing address - after I contact you.


Good luck!

Serendipitini

My friend Teena has started a new blog, Serendipitini. Along with her daughter, she is writing some great stuff on creativity. Teena is such a great inspiration to me; she has so many artistic gifts. Stop by her site if you are looking for something fresh to spark your own creative muse.
We'd both appreciate feedback when you visit.
Have a wonderfully creative weekend.

Imagination

Discoveries Pt. 2

I've been tracking my schedule on MS Outlook for over a week now. The first thing that has been revealed to me is that I am tired. I don't mean "I could take a nap." I mean exhausted and drained of energy; to the core. Henceforth, I have decided to stop beating myself up for my lack of productivity on my weeknights.
I have about 5 hours each evening before I go to bed. Once I started tracking how long it actually takes to eat dinner, get ready for work the next day, and maintain a basic minimum of organization to my home and personal life, I realized I am lucky to blog and to return phone calls and emails in a timely manner. I now grant myself permission to "waste" the remaining 47 minutes of my evenings watching TV, messing around on Facebook, reading, or scoring Katerina some great catnip and watching the resulting amusement.
I know there are parents who do much more with their evenings, and many authors have managed to write more than one book with the same few hours. I admire them. Once upon a time, I was among the super achievers as well. My standards have changed. Those little color coded blocks of time graphically illustrate work, creativity, family, and church as my priorities. I can't force a clean house or a sold manuscript into the remaining sliver of white space. So I'm going to go watch TV with my cat.

Discoveries

I continue on my never ending quest to manage my time better and become more organized in general. At work, I began tracking all of my time- not just my appointments, with the calendar in MS Outlook. I really liked the way it ended up being part to-do list, and part ta-da list. When I have unfinished tasks at the end of the day I can see that this was due to the number of tasks on my schedule that I did accomplish. It also helps me identify what kind of things I get sidetracked with and what time of day leads to what kind of interruptions.
I found all these elements so beneficial that I've started using the calendar feature of MS office at home. I have a regular calendar to track appointments and such, but I really like being able to see exactly where all my time is going. I'll share more about this as I develop my use of the tool. I hope it's as useful at home as it has been at work.

Etsy Grand Opening

I'm pleased to announce the grand opening of my new Etsy site. I am currently featuring handmade books, "abstract books," and a few things I've decluttered from my art space. I hope to expand the selection of books and add a few other items soon.
Please stop by and visit. You can find me at www.njring.etsy.com.
I also have a mini shop linked up on my sidebar right here on my blog. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

Expressive Arts

Yesterday I went to a wake for someone who died entirely too young and under circumstances that were entirely too tragic. There's been entirely too much of this sort of thing in my life as of late, and it's really starting to wear down what little reserves I have left. On this side of heaven, there is just nothing that makes this OK. It's not OK. What do you say to his mom? What do you say to strangers who don't understand? What do you say to God?
In theory, our American death, dying, and burial traditions are designed to facilitate personal closure, the ability to say goodbye, and provide support to the bereaved. Perhaps they accomplish this sometimes. However, I've often seen the chaos and hassle of arrangements be too overwhelming for those suffering loss. I've also seen the hours upon hours of sitting in a room with a loved one who isn't really there anymore, while trying to play hostess, simply amount to torture for the grieving.
This family did something I've heard of, but not personally seen. They had T-shirts made in honor of their lost loved one. Colorful, airbrushed, personalized T-shirts with his picture and a carefully selected Bible verse. Perhaps I'm biased because of my love for the creative, but I just felt this was a beautiful way to mourn. Is there a loss in your life that you would like to honor by creating something? What would you create?

Studio Makeover

I know this looks like a plain old before picture. It's actually a Phase I picture. My kitchen table is better known as my art studio. Right now it's covered in some supplies I recently found and/or purchased. Just before I got those supplies I created some makeshift storage on the back of the table. Stay tuned for the updated picture where I will talk about how I evaluated what works and what doesn't work in my improvised art studio.

I Am Green

God bless The Frog.

How To Do It All

I got home from my day job today and I have barely had the energy to do half the dishes, triage my emails, and do a couple of writerly things, including resuming my blog.
Then there is my friend Wendy. She's a Mom, a writer, and an award winning doll sculptor. She's active in her church, at least a dozen other activities, and she's a literary agent. As if that were not enough, Wendy and her literary agency, Books & Such, just launched their blog.
If you want to know how she does it all, stop by the blog. Lately, Wendy has been focused on the topic of organization. All the contributors share information that's helpful in all areas of life, not just writing or work. I'm excited about adding this blog to my list of regular reads and I hope you will check it out.

Fun In The Cold

As far as I know, this video was not taken here in Chicago. But it could have been. I'd heard that when temperatures get below -10 degrees, soap bubbles will freeze. I'd also heard that they will shatter. That part turned out not to be true. I'm glad I did find this video to demonstrate the effects because I was not about to go outside and try to accomplish it myself.

Organizing 101

My friend Dianne is organizing her craft space and blogging about it. I'm very much inspired by her motivation and her space. I love organization even when I am not very good at it. So now I am looking at systems to inventory and organize all my craft stuff.
The main problem is that I live in a one bedroom condo. My kitchen table serves as my main craft space. Secondary storage is in a small hall closet on the other side of my home. I am trying to triage my supplies. However, I'm going to have to get some mailing supplies and develop a system for them once I get my Etsy site up and running. Of course, that will require more space.
So that's what I've been mulling over for the last few days and it's a large part of what I'm experimenting with on this particular Happy Fun Night. If I get brave enough I might post some pictures. Maybe.

Steadfast Santa

My fellow artist Dianne recently made an art piece using this verse from Robert Frost and Santa. I decided to reinterpret the concept because I liked the theme so much and I am hoping to give the finished product to my Mom for Christmas.

I used Papersource cover weight stock in violet as my background. I just love love love that color. I specked it with a little iridescent white paint. I then printed out the clip art Santa and the verse on regular copy paper. The "snow" is text from the beginning of St. Luke which I gessoed over and sponged off with a little tissue paper. I tore the images and aged them with shades of brown chalks.

This is my 1st real attempt at collage of this kind so I welcome feedback.

A Few Fragments

A Charlie Brown Christmas was on tonight. Watching it is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. "Tidings of great joy" gets me every time.
I've been thinking more about traditions since I started contemplating my New Year's goals. As I mentioned, I think this year calls for some changing of tradition. I'm not sure what I'm going to do on New Year's Eve yet either. I'm not into big parties and the evening alone actually doesn't appeal to me much either this year. Doesn't leave a whole lot of options. Maybe I'll spend New Year's Day making art.
On a different subject, I watched Boston Legal tonight. I don't watch much TV. In fact, this was the 1st episode of the show that I've seen. I really liked it. The problem is, I think this is the last episode of the show. Go figure.
Well, not much to say today. Hopefully I'll be more profound next time.

Well, Just Watch

Short on time, short on energy, short on patience. And it's only Monday. This is for a friend who had as bad of a day as I did.

A Few Things

Recently, I suggested that the folks at Levenger might owe me the new True Writer Fountain Pen they developed, plus five bucks. This was on account of how they reduced the price of a different fountain pen by five bucks just after I bought it. Not only did they then make this new pen that they did not see fit to give to me, they actually had the nerve(!) to create an even newer pen that I covet even more. Seriously, I mean, they ought to at least let me figure out how to justify one new pen before they go making another one.
In other news, I joined both Twitter and LinkedIn. It remains to be seen if either will be useful and in what capacity. I've already discovered both are less of a time sink than Facebook. In fact, one of my hopes for Twitter is that it will actually improve my productivity. I hope to use it as a way to "check in" several times a day. If I tell my followers I'm going to write, I'd better write.
Speaking of productivity, I cleaned off my writing desk and I reconfigured my art space. I'm particularly pleased with my art space. I made use of a CD tower turned on its side, a spice rack, an ice cube tray, and various other containers to clear the vast majority of my kitchen table. Now the space is ready for me to get to making some art. So there.

Tossed Salad

My friend LeAnne recently featured singer Micheal Card on her blog. It was a really inspiring interview so I encourage you to go check it out. Several of the themes from that interview are tossing themselves with the salad in my brain. At some point, I'm hoping the whole thing comes together into something meaningful and conclusive regarding my own creative pursuits. Have you ever felt like that? Like you have a dash of something here, and a pinch of something there, and if you could just get the ingredients right you would have this fabulous recipe full of great flavor and nutrients?
This is the time of year I usually get organized and do a major housecleaning. Something about the school year triggers my love of office and organizational supplies. In fact, I tend to like organizing in general when I have a lot on my mind. Given that, I really ought to have a spotless house at this point. But the organizing thing hasn't been working for me as much recently. Perhaps that's part of why my tossed salad isn't coming together. I'm looking for the right combination of the familiar and the new to accommodate the changes. I'm also looking for tricks, rewards, and outright bribes to convince my creativity and organizational skills to get back into gear and start working together.

Superman

The anniversary of the death of Christopher Reeve is coming up. It just so happens that the Richard Donner cut of Superman II has come up on my Netflix queue. I find it very interesting to watch a different director's cut of a movie I've seen many times before; something we don't often have the opportunity to experience. It has me thinking again about creative choices.
When you read books or watch movies do you stop and think about the roads the creators and editors didn't take? What alternatives ended up on the cutting room floor? Why was one choice made over another? How would the same story look or sound different if it were told by someone else? In one sense, the story is what it is. But in another sense, story making is more fluid, perhaps without the finality we perceive in the end products of books & movies.
I am just glad I don't write fiction because I have enough trouble with the choices in my own life.

The word of the day is architeuthis.
The song of the day is The Space In Between Us, Building 429.
I finished Wind In The Willows & I'm not sure what to read next. Maybe The Princess Bride.

Conference Time

I'm attending a conference later in the week, so posting will be light for a few days. I forgot how much work it is to prepare for a conference. It's a whole different experience than the everyday routine. I'm hoping it will be inspirational and informational. I'm also treating it like a vacation, which I desperately need. I'm splurging on the hotel. Maybe I've even splurge on room service. I'll report more about it when I get back.