I have been struggling with insomnia for a little over a week now. I wake up like clockwork at 3:30 a.m. I do some thinking and then I try to discipline myself to do an exercise a friend told me about that really does help me sink back into sleep if I work at it: I subtract 7 from 100 until I fall asleep. It is so boring, inevitably, I drift off before I can reach 65. It helps that I am terrible at mental math. Scientifically speaking, it works because it accesses the dull, logical part of my brain, not the part that is feeling everything.
Last night while I was in the thinking stage, I thought maybe I would just write a bit about what my life looks like these days because it is changing. It always helps me to come back to my blog and see how much things have changed in my life after a certain amount of time has past. I'm blogging this for my own benefit more than anything.
So this is how I am spending my life right now:
Three days a week I get up and go the gym. In January, almost inexplicably, I started running for the first time in my life. I will be writing more about that soon.
On Mondays and Thursdays, I spend a couple of hours at Stacie Bloomfield's office, otherwise known as Gingiber LLC headquarters. Stacie is an enormously successful and incredibly hard-working Etsy seller who has grown to the point of needing some contract labor to help ship her orders. I have so enjoyed this and learned some things that I will be writing about too.
On Tuesday nights, I am leading an Experimental Collective focused on using used items to help others. So far, we have watched "The Story of Stuff," an excellent overview of consumerism in America. I will definitely write more about this as we physically disseminate a huge pile of "stuff" that has been donated by Vintage Fellowship for the exercise of learning to be better consumers, better donators, better philanthropists, better citizens of the world.
I am currently a tenant in two flea markets: my booth at the Fayetteville Trading Post is being used by the Experimental Collective to generate cash for our experiment, but it does have quite a bit of my stuff in it still as I am phasing out this booth from my sole responsibility. I also have a space at the 410 Vintage, where my idea was to sell off some of my large mosaic projects. So far, it hasn't been a big money maker. I'm going to give it another few weeks and see if it takes an upswing. Flea markets take time, though, and I'm not sure I want to keep spending it there. The jury is still out on this.
I am still operating my Etsy stores selling vintage in The Classic Butterfly and mosaics at The Mosaic Butterfly. These are still a big part of my life and a great creative outlet.
I also spend a portion of time at Heartwood Gallery where I display my smaller mosaic works (because of space limitations.) I really enjoy working on displays in the whole gallery and that seems to be my best contribution to this collective of artists.
Another small side project right now is assisting my good friend Holly Shacklett as a substitute helper in her organizing business. She has a business partner, but sometimes she needs some extra hands, and that really satisfies a part of me that like to make a real, tangible difference.
Robb and I have begun to collaborate on a podcast. This tool for promoting his book is a really fun way for us to open the conversation up to other people to tell their stories of transition and transformation. So far we have interviewed two really interesting guys and continue to work out the kinks of technology. This project really excites me because it allows people in on something that Robb and I are good at....talking to one another about the things that we have devoted our lives to. I will definitely be writing more about this too.
It seems at times that I am too busy. But the truth is, that these things take up as much time as I let them. Recently, l came to the conclusion that my life was missing a big rock in my big jar of pebbles. It's easy to fill up my time on Facebook or Pinterest, hovering over my online stores and the promotion that is necessary for them, and other really secondary things. I have made some big realizations in the last month thanks to my activities. Doing things has helped me learn things that I wouldn't know otherwise. I look forward to sharing more about that soon. But for right now, these are some of the things that I am devoting my time and energy towards. I am really fortunate to have the freedom to weave my life this way, but it has also been very deliberate. Exploring what you want out of the life you have been given is important work.
Showing posts with label Heartwood Gallery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Heartwood Gallery. Show all posts
Monday, February 11, 2013
Monday, March 21, 2011
Where Have You Been???
When I was five or six...or maybe seven? My brother and I got lost in the woods behind our house. Lost enough to scare my mother, get our cousin on horseback and bring my dad home from work to look for us. We finally emerged, hours later, covered in scratches, minus one of our toy guns, lunches in still in lunchboxes (his was the A-Team, mine was Strawberry Shortcake) because we were too scared to stop and eat. How did we get so lost? I think it had something to do with a very bad habit of mine...I act like I know what I'm doing. Very convincingly.
Back then I convinced my big brother to follow me. Lately, I've been convincing a few more than that. And have I been lost? Probably a little bit.
So I acted like I knew what I was doing and convinced my husband that we needed to paint our living room. With it's impossible heights of 20 foot ceilings. We had a 10 foot ladder at our disposal and an extension rod. And I thought we might die a couple of times. Up the ladder, down the ladder, move the ladder, stretch. Repeat. And then because I'm a total sicko, I painted the laundry room. And the trim. Including the spindles in the banister and ten door casings. I had moments of terror, knowing full well that I would never be done painting. I would just grow a paintbrush on the end of my arm and that would be me from now on. But we did finish. Hours before we served dinner for 18. And yes, it is white. Because I've arrived at a level of sophistication that says, "I can paint a room white because my junk is now cool enough to pop against a neutral background." Either that, or I just couldn't think of anything else we would like and the previous color yellow had to go!
When I had finished at home...or at least, gotten it to the point where there were no longer paint rollers in the kitchen sink...I moved on to the Heartwood Gallery Makeover.
For about a week, there was an option on the table of me having my own shop. I had heard about a place with amazingly cheap rent. So cheap that I had to consider it. But after a lot of thought...most of which centered around the idea that I could not NOT be in the pool with the kids this summer....I chose instead to throw myself into helping the Heartwood Gallery, where I display my mosaics, re-invent itself.
After being a member of this collective for over two years, I knew I really wanted to stay there and keep displaying my work, but I also couldn't stand the fact that it was missing it's obvious potential as a really great retail space. So I acted like I knew what I was doing and called a meeting making the suggestion that we change pretty much everything.
To my great surprise, more than 12 women agreed on a paint color and a time-line; 4 round tables less than 35 dollars each became available to me, and my husband wasn't traveling for a whole solid week. All of which conspired to make this happen:
And all it took was 60 hours of my time! (And the hours of help from many of the gallery members)
One of those house projects was hanging these wooden drawers that I got out of my Grandma's garage attic years ago when her house was auctioned. I had no plan for them at the time, but I just liked that they were made of solid wood and had dovetailed corners. They have been used for storage of garage stuff for a while now, until this idea popped into my head. I used heavy duty L brackets on top and bottom to attach them to studs in the wall.
Robb likes this one that I had previously designated "Junk Drawer." Indeed.
I had one other project up my sleeve....this old print of Jesus on the Road to Emmaus once hung in Robb's grandfather's office. It was out of charity we have had it hanging somewhere in our house for the last 14 years. But in the last couple of moves, it had gotten really scratched up and sad looking. Robb confessed to me one night that he didn't even really like it. Which was pretty much permission to try something I'd been contemplating for a while now....
With U2's "Love Left a Window in the Skies" blaring, I used a knife to carve a window in the thick cardboard of this old lithograph. From there it was a roller full of latex paint watered down to a wash which I then hand-wrote the lyrics to the U2 song out on. I used the navy blue paint from the laundry room project to make the window pop, with little silver stars hand-drawn in for whimsy. Then it was time for the rebellion in me to come out....I used a sander to distress parts of the image, which was wildly satisfying. Finally, I added some old letters to create a graphic effect with the song lyrics. I wished I knew how to print the letters the way I saw them in my head, but I'm ok with the way these look too. I surprised Robb by hanging it back up in our room where it had been previously and he instantly understood what it meant...for us, our faith isn't some Swedish Jesus in a too-nice setting. It's as gritty as our favorite Irish rock band.
Robb is now convinced that I should try altering all kinds of old prints, but it will be hard to find one as satisfying as this one was. I have a couple stacked up on my studio table, but first....I have this little gem to work on which I have been looking for for months! The War Eagle Spring show is just about a month and a half away, and this is going to be one my key pieces. If I can bring myself to let it go...I made the mistake of putting it in my big window, and now it's the only place I want to sit and work. I'm sitting here now...
And that, my friends, is where I have been. I'm totally winging it.
Back then I convinced my big brother to follow me. Lately, I've been convincing a few more than that. And have I been lost? Probably a little bit.
So I acted like I knew what I was doing and convinced my husband that we needed to paint our living room. With it's impossible heights of 20 foot ceilings. We had a 10 foot ladder at our disposal and an extension rod. And I thought we might die a couple of times. Up the ladder, down the ladder, move the ladder, stretch. Repeat. And then because I'm a total sicko, I painted the laundry room. And the trim. Including the spindles in the banister and ten door casings. I had moments of terror, knowing full well that I would never be done painting. I would just grow a paintbrush on the end of my arm and that would be me from now on. But we did finish. Hours before we served dinner for 18. And yes, it is white. Because I've arrived at a level of sophistication that says, "I can paint a room white because my junk is now cool enough to pop against a neutral background." Either that, or I just couldn't think of anything else we would like and the previous color yellow had to go!
 |
| Painted the ceiling white in here, too. |
When I had finished at home...or at least, gotten it to the point where there were no longer paint rollers in the kitchen sink...I moved on to the Heartwood Gallery Makeover.
For about a week, there was an option on the table of me having my own shop. I had heard about a place with amazingly cheap rent. So cheap that I had to consider it. But after a lot of thought...most of which centered around the idea that I could not NOT be in the pool with the kids this summer....I chose instead to throw myself into helping the Heartwood Gallery, where I display my mosaics, re-invent itself.
After being a member of this collective for over two years, I knew I really wanted to stay there and keep displaying my work, but I also couldn't stand the fact that it was missing it's obvious potential as a really great retail space. So I acted like I knew what I was doing and called a meeting making the suggestion that we change pretty much everything.
To my great surprise, more than 12 women agreed on a paint color and a time-line; 4 round tables less than 35 dollars each became available to me, and my husband wasn't traveling for a whole solid week. All of which conspired to make this happen:
If that doesn't seem like a big deal to you, here's the BEFORE:
And all it took was 60 hours of my time! (And the hours of help from many of the gallery members)
Admittedly, a little pooped after that, we spent a fun Saturday as a family at a mall. Peyton Hillis is a professional football player for the Cleveland Browns who played for the Arkansas Razorbacks. He was in the area signing autographs, and because he was AWESOME this year for the Browns, we went to meet him. My husband was suspicious that I commented that he looked like he smelled good. But just look at him...doesn't he look like he smells good?
 |
The following week was spent trying to recover. I'm not sure how successfully I did that, but at least the flea market booth was updated, the etsy store restocked, the house put back in order, and plants got re-potted.
One of those house projects was hanging these wooden drawers that I got out of my Grandma's garage attic years ago when her house was auctioned. I had no plan for them at the time, but I just liked that they were made of solid wood and had dovetailed corners. They have been used for storage of garage stuff for a while now, until this idea popped into my head. I used heavy duty L brackets on top and bottom to attach them to studs in the wall.My favorite part of this project was finding the secret message inside the middle drawer,
written in scrawling, child's written pencil..."From Judy and Bonnie" ....my aunt and my mother.
Robb likes this one that I had previously designated "Junk Drawer." Indeed.
I had one other project up my sleeve....this old print of Jesus on the Road to Emmaus once hung in Robb's grandfather's office. It was out of charity we have had it hanging somewhere in our house for the last 14 years. But in the last couple of moves, it had gotten really scratched up and sad looking. Robb confessed to me one night that he didn't even really like it. Which was pretty much permission to try something I'd been contemplating for a while now....
Robb is now convinced that I should try altering all kinds of old prints, but it will be hard to find one as satisfying as this one was. I have a couple stacked up on my studio table, but first....I have this little gem to work on which I have been looking for for months! The War Eagle Spring show is just about a month and a half away, and this is going to be one my key pieces. If I can bring myself to let it go...I made the mistake of putting it in my big window, and now it's the only place I want to sit and work. I'm sitting here now...
And that, my friends, is where I have been. I'm totally winging it.
Monday, April 19, 2010
It's hard not to live for weekends...
...when they were as enjoyable as this past one.
Friday was a busy day for me, as I ran out the door early so I could stop at the flea market and check on things there, and then head down to the Fayetteville recycling center to get some mulch for my front flower bed...which is enormous and needed a lot of love to recover from a year of being un-cared for before we moved in last fall. Here's a tip. If you are pining for a bulk load of mulch but drive a minivan instead of a pick-up truck, try using those big rubbermaid 5 gallon totes. I lined them up and the guy at the recycling center just dropped a load from the front-loader on top of them. They weren't so big that I couldn't carry them and it required no shoveling at all. Of course, my van still smells like cedar, but there are worse smells on earth.
Moving on. Spent a quiet day at the Heartwood Gallery. Probably a little too quiet, but I did finish quite a few small things while I was "working." Locked up and drove my mulch over to meet hubby for a lovely date: attending our friend Sara's graduate program senior reading. I had never been inside of Old Main before and it was the perfect setting for Sara's exquisite poetry. We followed up with dinner with friends at Taste of Thai. Robb's leftover Evil Jungle Prince is already making my mouth water when I think about my lunch plans for today.
Saturday morning, I was proud to roll out of bed by 7:30 a.m. and go out to unload that mulch. With that job well done, we took the beautiful drive to Ozark Custom Butchering to pick up our half a cow. "Half of the black one" to be more specific. Our local, grass fed cow led a good life and fulfilled its destiny to feed our family and friends; he is now in my freezer in well-marked packages.
In an unbelievably well-timed coincidence, all three kids were invited to a birthday party at the Starlight Skatium at the exact same time Robb and I wanted to be at the Springdale Convention Center for the Republican candidate debate and the NWA Boutique Show (respectively). Seriously, what are the chances of that happening?
At the show, which I confess I was mostly scoping out to see if I wanted to take part in the future, I was thrilled to meet a recently featured artist on Etsy, Tim's Sally. I was smitten by her work and thrilled to find something I had been looking for: a representation of Charleigh for my entryway. By chance, I have collected some portraits that resemble Robb and Calvin, and I still marvel at Mattie's second-grade self portrait in oil pastels. When I found a wee painting of a girl named Spice, I knew I had found my Charleigh, (aka our little Spicy Chalupa) portrait.
Back at home, Robb made us Juicy Lucys...a burger featured on Man vs. Food which he tried out on his recent trip to Minneapolis. Delish.
And on Sunday, we got to be with our Vintage family, which was nothing short of baby-tastic this week. I got my fix holding Princess Addison who is growing from a five pound bag of sugar to a ever-snoozing 7 pounder just a few weeks since birth. After an always-encouraging lunch meeting with our Oversight Team, we headed home for the truly sacred ritual of the Sabbath nap followed by our family tradition of AFV and Minute to Win It accompanied with toast and hot chocolate for supper.
This linktastic post brought to you by a truly blissful weekend.
Friday was a busy day for me, as I ran out the door early so I could stop at the flea market and check on things there, and then head down to the Fayetteville recycling center to get some mulch for my front flower bed...which is enormous and needed a lot of love to recover from a year of being un-cared for before we moved in last fall. Here's a tip. If you are pining for a bulk load of mulch but drive a minivan instead of a pick-up truck, try using those big rubbermaid 5 gallon totes. I lined them up and the guy at the recycling center just dropped a load from the front-loader on top of them. They weren't so big that I couldn't carry them and it required no shoveling at all. Of course, my van still smells like cedar, but there are worse smells on earth.
Moving on. Spent a quiet day at the Heartwood Gallery. Probably a little too quiet, but I did finish quite a few small things while I was "working." Locked up and drove my mulch over to meet hubby for a lovely date: attending our friend Sara's graduate program senior reading. I had never been inside of Old Main before and it was the perfect setting for Sara's exquisite poetry. We followed up with dinner with friends at Taste of Thai. Robb's leftover Evil Jungle Prince is already making my mouth water when I think about my lunch plans for today.
Saturday morning, I was proud to roll out of bed by 7:30 a.m. and go out to unload that mulch. With that job well done, we took the beautiful drive to Ozark Custom Butchering to pick up our half a cow. "Half of the black one" to be more specific. Our local, grass fed cow led a good life and fulfilled its destiny to feed our family and friends; he is now in my freezer in well-marked packages.
In an unbelievably well-timed coincidence, all three kids were invited to a birthday party at the Starlight Skatium at the exact same time Robb and I wanted to be at the Springdale Convention Center for the Republican candidate debate and the NWA Boutique Show (respectively). Seriously, what are the chances of that happening?
At the show, which I confess I was mostly scoping out to see if I wanted to take part in the future, I was thrilled to meet a recently featured artist on Etsy, Tim's Sally. I was smitten by her work and thrilled to find something I had been looking for: a representation of Charleigh for my entryway. By chance, I have collected some portraits that resemble Robb and Calvin, and I still marvel at Mattie's second-grade self portrait in oil pastels. When I found a wee painting of a girl named Spice, I knew I had found my Charleigh, (aka our little Spicy Chalupa) portrait.
Back at home, Robb made us Juicy Lucys...a burger featured on Man vs. Food which he tried out on his recent trip to Minneapolis. Delish.
And on Sunday, we got to be with our Vintage family, which was nothing short of baby-tastic this week. I got my fix holding Princess Addison who is growing from a five pound bag of sugar to a ever-snoozing 7 pounder just a few weeks since birth. After an always-encouraging lunch meeting with our Oversight Team, we headed home for the truly sacred ritual of the Sabbath nap followed by our family tradition of AFV and Minute to Win It accompanied with toast and hot chocolate for supper.
This linktastic post brought to you by a truly blissful weekend.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
New Bouquets
Not sure if these will go into the Heartwood Gallery or if I will add them to the Etsy store.This one is my favorite.
Friday, April 02, 2010
Two Booths
The Forces of Evil almost took me out. I have black and blue marks, scrapes, scratches and sore muscles, but I did manage to beat down the garage, the laundry room and parts of my studio. In case you wondered, I am actually at war with the house. You see, it wants me to live the Stepford life of a suburban mom...you can tell by the menacing way the cupboards are arranged. The house keeps whining, "WHY can't you just go and get something new from the mall for me?" And I give it a morsel of IKEA and go on living the life of an inveterate junker. Years ago, Robb printed this quotation for me and I have had it hanging somewhere ever since...
I am rendering away on this stubborn house. She's a real wench quite frankly.
Maybe I would be making more progress if I wasn't spread out all over the world, hawking my wares at the Heartwood Gallery and now, the Fayetteville Trading Post as well as on Etsy. I'm ubiquitous. Check it out:
Here is the Heartwood Booth: I repainted it awhile ago...did I tell you that? I am very fond of the color, which I made out of leftover paint in the garage.
I want to make more of the flower pots, which were created from a combination of handmade pottery, the sweetest little bird mug and chalkboard paint.
And here is the booth at the Trading Post: I am delighted with the result and Mattie declared it looks like a REAL booth.
I stopped in yesterday to see if I sold anything. I promised myself that when I made my first sale, I was going to buy myself a picture I had my eye on since the first time I visited. For only 8 dollars, I brought home this beauty. I don't know anything about it, but it looks like an Arts and Crafts Linoleum print to me. And I love it. (I sold a wooden handle utensil worth $2.50, but hey, I didn't specify that the items be of equal value!)
Ok, I'm heading upstairs to see if the girls' rooms are ready to be photographed! And then I have lots more house-whipping to do. It's like we just moved in all over again....
"A place belongs forever to whoever claims it the hardest,
remembers it most obsessively,
wrenches it from itself,
shapes it,
renders it,
loves it so radically
that she remakes it in her own image."
-Joan Didion, The White Album
I am rendering away on this stubborn house. She's a real wench quite frankly.
Maybe I would be making more progress if I wasn't spread out all over the world, hawking my wares at the Heartwood Gallery and now, the Fayetteville Trading Post as well as on Etsy. I'm ubiquitous. Check it out:
Here is the Heartwood Booth: I repainted it awhile ago...did I tell you that? I am very fond of the color, which I made out of leftover paint in the garage.
I want to make more of the flower pots, which were created from a combination of handmade pottery, the sweetest little bird mug and chalkboard paint. 
I stopped in yesterday to see if I sold anything. I promised myself that when I made my first sale, I was going to buy myself a picture I had my eye on since the first time I visited. For only 8 dollars, I brought home this beauty. I don't know anything about it, but it looks like an Arts and Crafts Linoleum print to me. And I love it. (I sold a wooden handle utensil worth $2.50, but hey, I didn't specify that the items be of equal value!) Ok, I'm heading upstairs to see if the girls' rooms are ready to be photographed! And then I have lots more house-whipping to do. It's like we just moved in all over again....
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