Food For Thought

Is the life I'm living the life that wants to live in me? -parker palmer

Just some food for thought tonight. As I've returned to some normalcy this week I have been seriously thinking about this little life I am living. And I can't help but think about how to make it better, no actually more full-filling. You know, the kind of life that has no regrets. I've been a little testy with the children, husband, darn cute dog, and friends (sorry guys). I find that whenever this sort of unrest begins to stir in me something really amazing is around the corner. So I wait.....still waiting....... My fortune in the cookie Saturday night actually said, "Opportunity is knocking on your door, answer it tomorrow". Seriously freaky. Especially since that is the analogy I use often for my own life, that of opening and closing doors. Being willing to open them is the key. So I'll be sure to let you know the door that needs to be opened as soon as I find it. Otherwise, this week I am ticking away at my SMART goals.

Monday SMART Goals

7 Weeks. Yep. 7 Weeks. 7 WEEKS! There's no time for this Lily, we must get going! I am a regular reader of the papernstitch blog. Brittni does an amazing job not only writing her own posts, but she selects guests to post on her blog. My favorite series is written by the clever Brenda of Phydeaux Designs. She writes a blog column entitled Crafty Business. Any crafter will tell you that the business side is the hardest to manage, it's a left brain activity. And since as a general rule crafters are right-brained, we all need our hands held while navigating the business side of our business.

My favorite post so far has been this one on SMART goals. So clever. I am a goal setter and list maker. But, are they really SMART goals? Brenda says that, "SMART goals are just goals that do set you up for success. It takes a little practice to change your goals from “I want to do X” to “I will do X in this specific way by this specific date. SMART is an acronym: Specific, Measurable, Achievable or attainable, Realistic, Timely”"

So starting today, I am making a weekly SMART goal list and posting it on my blog. It will help hold me accountable, keep me on track, and make me really think about what direction my business seems to be taking. So here goes:

1. add legs and stands to felted birdies made on St. Simons trip

2. take photos of felted birds, download and upload into flickr

3. take photos of pendants, download, upload to flickr

4. add pendants to etsy listings

5 make dinner and sit at the family table 4 nights (this will be the hardest with our schedule!)

I'm off to start some legs now! I hope you have a SMART crafty week yourself. J

A Very Productive Day

Today was just one of those days. A day where things fell into place and I was able to achieve so much. It was a "yeah me" day! (I watch too much Disney to think of that quote.) William and Mailey both had guests all day, which was a huge bonus. I love to have friends over, especially low maintenance ones. So here's some of what I did creatively today: New jewelry for the Naked Art Gallery. I think I wrapped up about 25 pieces for Vero. These cool brushed metal pieces were a find on Tybee Island from the Fish Art man. Great find....great find. I have thousands of more little pieces, I didn't even make a dent in my collection.

In addition to the jewelry pieces I was able to get the brides finished up and stowed away, the studio cleaned up and ready for jewelry making, 13 boards textured and drawn on ready to be painted, the turtle tank cleaned (it stunk bad), jewelry items photographed, jewelry items inventoried, jewelry items emailed over to Vero, called the principal of the new school and got the thumbs up for afterschool art there, and managed to not loose my head during all this. All because the kids were entertained and I had set attainable goals for myself. Sometimes setting attainable goals, and not reach for the sky goals is all it takes to get through the day. I even managed to get to some of tomorrows goals.

So now I am free to watch After the Final Rose- love that junk TV. Such a guilty pleasure! Hope you had a productive day as well!

New Inspiration Board and Getting Organized

I've always said that my inspirations come from many places. From the side of the road, to an image in a magazine, I can always find images to spark my creative juices. Lately though, I've felt overwhelmed with all the ideas floating in my head, articles laying around and deadlines being over sighted. Serious overload. And I like to be organized, a trait many artists lack. So off to the thrift store I went seeking a large bulletin board. Voila, look what I found! This fabulous tack board from an old office cubicle. Quickly I ran to the local fabric supplier for a zippy new pattern from Amy Butler, some tacks and now I have it ALL where I can see it and be inspired. Oh happy day.

I stamped on paint chips "custom orders, upcoming, inspirations, and goals" and placed images in those sections to be even more organized. I can quickly change out the ideas as I need. Yeah!

New ideas in the works....more bikes on the horizon, an old jeep and some silhouettes. So how do you keep your ideas organized? I'd love to see! Have a great afternoon. I'm off to the studio to finish up some paper flowers in milk glass vases I found this weekend.