Well just to refresh, Patchwork turned out to be great!  We were lucky that the rain pretty much stopped by 11 ish and the day was so busy for me I never even ate!  It was great seeing lots of Long Beach people I haven’t seen in a long time and also making a lot of new contacts.  I have been pretty busy non stop lately, I had another show/boutique on Wednesday, taught my classes all week, and I am preparing for a window installation at SPACE.  There is a lot to do in a short amount of time!  I’ve been planning it for a few weeks, and I made a new purchase for this project, which is the scroll saw that I have been wanting for like a year now.  So I am pretty happy!  It’s nice to have events of life force you to buy what you wanted already.  And I am really digging this thing.  I think someone else likes it too….

I am knee deep lots of projects right now!  I am getting ready for Patchwork in Long Beach which is this Sunday, November 6, and then Wednesday, November 9th is the Sip & Shop in Huntington Beach and then next week I am installing a window display at South Pasadena Arts Center.  Um, it’s not over!  That weekend there might be a little holiday boutique in the shared space behind my art studio.  I’ll let you know when I find out more.  Hopefully see you Sunday!!

I’m embarrassed my space is such a mess (the table is actually the cleanest part), but I guess when you are in the middle of like 10 projects, that is bound to happen.  I thought I’d pop in on this lovely day and share some new things I’m working on that will go into my etsy shop very soon: handpainted mini paintings in necklace form.  Next up I’ll put resin in them, then add the chains.  I might end up wanting to keep them all…bwa ha ha ha.  No that is not the plan, but you know, some might be “poisonous”.  Kind of like the fresh baked cookies that accidentally “break” when you take them out of the oven.

I have been painting a little here and there (mostly working on smallish things) but every now and then I’ll work on this larger canvas.  And then one day I brought home one of the wood pieces I made last year and hung it up.   Then I looked at my painting.  Then I looked back at my wood piece.  Then I looked at my painting.  And I realized, I need to just buy a bad ass saw and get it over with.  The one I used a lot at school was a band saw, but I did some research, and I think actually a scroll saw would be a better fit for me.  I looked them up at home depot and I can get one for $120 ish.  Not bad!  And if you’ve seen my car lately, I have tons of wood in the back that I’ve been driving around for a week now.  So I think it’s time!  I’m excited.

I think it would be so cool to start getting myself to write regularly and have it be something like “A week in review” so I can kind of reflect on the days that seem to slip by so fast. Isn’t it crazy? It’s so weird that like yesterday, for better or worse, will never happen again. It’s nice to reflect, and quite necessary for someone to be situated in their life. Actually I had such a weird dream that was about that. Without going into specifics, when I asked myself what was that like, I answered (and mind you I was asleep when I analyzed my dream, which often happens and it becomes a sort of new dream) but I answered, “It’s like that person doesn’t fully engage in their own life” And that was making me upset, or riled up, because I want people to be engaged. I, myself, want to be engaged. Being involved in the nuts and bolts of your life, is a way to take charge, but also a way to take responsibility, so if things don’t turn out the way you like, you have a responsibility to find a solution (rather than play victim, or play dumb), or you can realize when it’s just out of your hands, and to embrace that collapse is a part of life. (I think anyone that knows me, knows my history…..that it’s not all rainbows, which is of course, the irony of me painting a rainbow) This is way more reflective that I intended to be. Really I just wanted to do a little, measly rundown of the week. But this week hasn’t been measly!

Ok well one amazing thing this week, well there were a few, but one amazing thing? After my teeth cleaning in Anaheim, I decided to drive around and look for some thrift stores. And found one. And then found a Chagall lithograph! Yea I went from someone scraping and poking in my mouth (possibly the worst feeling) to finding what might be a valuable piece of art! ( a pretty damn good feeling) Good thing I had my iphone (which I just got for my bday) and I could gather information on it. My first instinct of course was to go to Vegas for Pawn Stars, as of course any rational person would do, but now it’s kind of grown on me. I might hang it up! I’m not even sure if it’s signed.

What else happened this week? Of course there was my Heartsy sale and I got something on the FP of etsy, which is always exciting. That has been keeping me busy, busy. I think years of membership coordination and all that HBAC computer stuff prepared me well for having my own business. Today, I’m ordering supplies for my classes. I’m planning some fun projects and hopefully this time I will take pictures and I would love to have a tutorial section on my site with all the projects I do, since I do like 5-10 projects a week! It’s just hard to teach and clean up after 15 kids AND remember to take pictures of projects. It is usually such chaos by the time we’re finishing up….my goal this summer is to document, document, document!

Today I made a treasury too….just love all of these things….