Hi, y’all! This Monday has just about gotten away from me. How’s it going?
Fall is definitely in the air here, at least in the evenings. I love it! It’s so natural, this gradual darkening and deepening toward winter. It’s supposed to be warm-ish most of the week in the afternoons, but I know that when night falls, the air will cool to good sleeping temperatures again.
I’ve made some progress on deciding which additional craft shows to apply for this year without overdoing it. I’ve also been learning some new tricks with Photoshop, since it looks like it’ll be quite a while before I can afford the other tools I’d really prefer for fabric design. I love how easy it is to upload a shiny new design to Spoonflower! They’ve been great so far, and I hope that will be the platform that launches that facet of my career.
Also, apparently there’s a huge sheep festival somewhere several hours from here in October. I don’t know that I’m going (someone has invited me to road trip with them — I make a good traveling companion, if my stomach behaves and if you don’t mind that I sing along to the radio!) but I think it could be high on the cuteness meter, as well as being very informative…and fragrant, as most things revolving around farm/ranch animals tend to be.
Ok, back to art. I’m working on getting my art website set up — I think I’ll probably still use Etsy to sell the tangible things I make between art shows, but I need an online portfolio. I’m awaiting a logo design atm; it may be a few weeks before it’s complete once we’ve gone back and forth over the details. Once I have that, I’ll be ready to seriously seek out hosting and start getting my vibrantly colored ducks in a row. I need to write my artist statement and artist bio as well. I never know what to say with things like that. “Hi. I make art because I love it, k bye” is probably not enough, eh?
One of the reasons I need to hustle on getting all of that done is that I’ve decided to start applying for a few modest artist grants, to get me closer to where I need to be if I’m seriously going to turn a profit at some point in my lifetime and help my family’s bottom line. And I am serious about this. The grants have to be awarded to someone, right? Why not a newer artist like me, with vision and a five-year-plan (ish)? The worst they can do is turn me down, and then I’ll be right where I am right now. That’s not so bad. š
In other news, the kids going back to school has meant that everyone is tired and a little short-tempered around here. It will settle down over the course of the month. School seems to be going reasonably well so far for all three of them, and that’s not nothing!
I wish they were interested in all of the fancy ways I know how to lace up sneakers. (Yes, that was random. No, I’m not sorry.) I guess I’m a fidgety kind of person; I don’t feel right if my hands aren’t busy with something or other. It helps my anxiety if I’m working on something creative, even idly or off-and-on as it suits me. There’s been a fair bit of that lately (anxiety) but it’s easing back toward normal now that the first craft show and first day of school are behind me.
My oldest is taking geometry this year. I remember really enjoying it my freshman year. It’s one of the few math classes I took that seemed to focus on the why behind all of it. I loved writing proofs to explain how or why something worked as it did. (Eldest is not loving it so far. Then again, she doesn’t even like English classes…she’s more of a science gal. I can’t wait to see where life takes her!)
Your turn. What’s new with you this week? Hey, you survived Monday! That’s a start, right?
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