To take a moment...

And express my happiness that this election is finally over. Well almost, we still have a very tight race here in Minnesota for Senate between the incumbent Norm Coleman and Al Franken which right now has Coleman ahead by 500 votes. 500 votes?!?! And people still say that their vote doesn't matter! So this is considered a case for an automatic recount. Additionally, it is reported that some shady things went on in Minneapolis with places running out of voter registration paperwork so this might not be settled for some time.

But I am proud to stand behind our new President-Elect, Barack Obama. I feel confident that we as a country will finally be heading in the right direction. And I finally feel like the rest of the world doesn't look at us like we are complete idiots.

Meet me in St. Louie

Or just meet my jewelry.

My jewelry will now be for sale at the Laumeier Sculpture Park museum gift shop! The Laumeier Sculpture Park is over 105 acres of open air museum awesomeness, as well as indoor exhibition galleries. So if you are in the St. Louis area, you should absolutely check it out.

The Artist's Way

Isn't it crazy how the universe will answer you when you really need something? So, I am not too keen on new year's resolutions. I find it silly that just because it is a new calendar year, you are going to remake yourself with a whole task list of super high goals that you are going to start all at once. I mean how hard is it to change just one thing about yourself even taking proactive baby steps. And to think you are going to become a new you just because the clock clicked 2008?

Having say that, I got whimsical this past December 31st. 2007 was a good year in some respects but for the most part it really, really sucked. A lot. Like Dyson vacuum sucked. So I got caught up in the "rah-rah it's a new year!" thing. That, and I just am having a REALLY good feeling about this year. I still swear up and down that in 2007 some moon of Saturn was in the wrong alignment of Mercury and therefore we were feeling some negative ju-ju.

But that could just be me.

So this year I did make some new year's resolutions. That and I asked the universe for some help. I will have had my business going for a year this upcoming Feb 1st and while I am happy with it's progress, I really am wanting it to start stepping up to a higher gear. I mean, yes, I love making stuff. But there is this thing, you may have heard of it, it's called money. And you can exchange it for goods and services and say, fixing your car that's on its last leg. And as much as I would love to think my family can all live on sunshine and fresh air, we live in Minnesota where the sun comes out only twice a year.

So what has all this rambling have to do with The Artist's Way (TAW)? Well, I asked the universe to help me become a more creative person. I have had TAW book for about four or five years now. It was a dear present from my wonderful mother-in-law who probably thought that I or my husband would get right on it and become happy, creative people. Well, we had good intentions. But I would always get sidetracked by something silly. I would get a month into it and then miss doing the morning pages once and then just say "screw it!" and forget about it for a bit.

Well the universe being the sneaky bastard it is (meant in only the most endearing way of course) had me stumble upon a creative group that is going to do TAW together. I am always more motivated to do things when I know that others are also struggling through it too. And TAW is a struggle. It starts tapping into these parts of your brain that do not like being tampered with. There is that censor voice that is like "WHAT? You mean to try to drown me out?! Non-sense! You will be stopping this program this very instant!"

So I think I am going to be able to do this time. Like really do it. And I know that in the end both my personal and business self is going to benefit from it.

So, thanks universe.

long time, no blogging

Wow, I have been super neglectful of my blog here. Poor blog. But now that all the Christmas hoopla and whatnot is done, I am determined to start up again. This first post of the new year shows off one of the new year resolutions, finally organize my crafting/working area. Yuck, what a mess it was. I wish I had a *before* picture to show just how bad it was but then again, maybe I am glad to not have that image captured. So here is the desk area:


so shiny!

I even took all my junk drawer type boxes and went through them to toss all that I wasn't using. I mean I was ruthless. And then here is the cabinet that also holds even more stuff:



I even have a space up the corner to add to! Which of course gives me a *perfect* reason to go do some shopping, right?

I got into No Coast Craft-o-rama!

Huzzah! I got accepted as a vendor at the Minneapolis No Coast craft show this December! This is going to be my first craft show so of course I am just as nervous as I am excited. But I am anticipating that no matter how much I sell, it will be a valuable experience. Now I only have two and a half months to prepare...