the Creative Thursday blog

day 30 :: happy 2013

  

Finally!  my last video for this series :)

Another finally! links to the podcasts and videos are getting fixed. For those of you who have been wanting to go back and listen to past episodes, most of them are back with more coming soon.

happy new year everyone!

day 29 :: i'm writing a book

 

It's official! I'm writing a book through F + W Media, and it will be available under their North Light title September 2012. 

Since I shared the signing of my fabric line contract with you, I thought I'd continue the tradition and share the signing of the book publishing contract too. Almost a year + a lifetime in the making, it's crazy exciting.

*deep breath*  *i'm writing an entire book by myself*  *i can do this*  

day 28 :: finish what you start

 

You should know: the rest of the dried apples were very good, and the candle ~ also done! oh and I finished the remainder of a bag of walnuts as well.

Thinking about this some more after I shot the video, I realized that not completing a project, for me, is also in some way holding up what is to be next indefinitely. 

links related to this video:

get your house in order

my first video blog

my aquarian twin

i am organized :: day 27

 

I did it!!!!!!!!!!

kicking the new year off with a bang! big news!!

 

It's official. I signed the contract. You can see me sign it with all my nerves and excitement in the video above. ;)

I am so, so, so excited to announce that:

I'm designing a fabric line this year with Andover Fabrics out of New York!!

Thank you to Sarah Jane for inspiring me, especially to share this moment on video. And thank YOU Lizzy for so much!!! And thanks to all of you who have been supporting my work and encouraging my creativity all along the way. xo

That's it, that's all I can write. If I write any more it will just be a big bunch of exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Susannah had an idea :: day 25

 

My friend Susannah has kicked off a community 'digital detox'  ~ which I think is such a brilliant idea, it inspired me chat with you as well about this very same topic. Since it's sometimes easier to make these kinds of changes together, I thought you might want hop on board with Susannah. I think she is officially at day 2.

As you know Sean and I have been passionate about re-organizing and simplifying our lives over the last two years. Digital 'cleaning up' has been my personal focus over these last few months. Progress is indeed happening and it feels SO much better.

And then in the last two days I came across Susannah's post and Mark's article, The Key to Creating Remarkable Things, which I tweeted about yesterday {via swissmiss} and have decided that it's indeed time to make more of a commitment to having a very specific routine regarding my digital content input, and time spent on such inputing.

I've been practicing for some time now and I think that's all you can do, is attempt to make a change a little at a time. When you've learned a habit one way, it takes some time to develop a new mode of operating. Of course, it does not make it any easier that the digital age moves incredibly quick which constantly changes the landscape of what we are working with here. This is why I think it's best that we start these conversations now and begin to determine what works for us, what supports the lifestyle we need and want. What supports our creative time!

begin the day with creative work on my own top priorities, with the phone and email switched off ~ Mark McGuinness

podcasts, coconuts & paid content {day 24}

Turns out I had a lot to say on this Creative Thursday. And now I'm finally using Vimeo! to upload my videos, so hopefully they should load faster and run smoother and they also conveniently post the time length of the broadcast. 

Links related to this video

My Creative Coconuts, first podcasts, and the podcasts after that,  Susannah, Unravelling

a visit to Outi's studio ~ day 23

Speaking of videos...

Ok, if you were here earlier you may have caught a glimpse of a new print I released, well almost released. You see as the day progressed, I got a new idea for the print and I want to re-work it. I've never done that before, release something, then pull it. What do they say, "a first time for everything"?

But, I won't leave you empty handed. Instead, today I'm sharing this video with you, and I added a couple of new prints to the shop.  One that was taken last fall I believe, one of the I "meant to post this" videos ~Outi's one of my dearest friends and her studio also happens to be the place where I paint the ceramics that I sell. In fact she helps me glaze them {bless her}, so technically with each ceramic creation, you are getting a little of me and a little of Outi. 

This is just a quick clip of us being silly, and wanting to say hello to our friends Cathy and Melissa, who we used to be able to visit with here in L.A..  Just about every month we'd have a creative girl's get together, accompanied by wine and take-out and by the end of each visit we pretty much had life as an artist figured out. They have both since moved to the east coast, and we sorely miss our get togethers. All four of these girls have inspired me more than you know, probably more than they know. Thanks girls!!

love to you Cathy & Melissa.

accountability ~ day 22

I'm back again! A year in the making, 30 video blog posts. Welcome to day 22. This one runs about 6 minutes.

Some thoughts on accountability, how it helps and inspires your creativity. It's my accountability, my promise to you that I would complete 30 videos, that's making me finish this project I began last July. Can you believe it's been a year already? Turns out I'm really liking making videos now. Only took 12 months of practice ;)

It's also my accountability to my e-course students that makes me committed to creating videos every week, which happens to  always encourage me to make a new video for you. You know, once the camera's rolling, might as well keep it rolling.

Most of us are accountable to our jobs, right? We show up every day for work, or we would be fired. We show up every day for our families because they need us, our children are dependent upon us. This kind of accountability for most of us, makes things happen. What if we were that accountable to our own well being, and then what if that commitment to taking care of us spilled over into making creativity in our lives one of our highest priorities?

what I know for sure ~ day 21

Just a couple of days before we return home now... a little subdued because we are definitely sad to be leaving. But before I say goodbye to Paris, I had to say hello to you from Paris and tell you one thing I know for sure.