The last two or three weeks have seen me busy but not with too terribly much to actually show for it, at least not yet. I've started on the Texture Town online workshop (Xmas present) by Julie Prichard and Chris Cozen, and I confess to my great surprise that they tricked me into shading! Never knew I could do that. That's one of the nice things I find about their workshops is that I often end up doing something I wouldn't have done on my own. And that, I suppose, is the point.
I've signed up for another online workshop that I am pretty excited about--the first online one that Squam has done, apparently. Going to a retreat in person is just out of the question for me at this point, as my husband would have to take vacation from work to look after the kids, and my parents aren't close enough to come babysit. Plus I like to be here when they visit! But Alena Hennessey's topics sound important to me, and I want to do it.
It will be a great thing for me to wind the spring up with--once the school year ends on 30 May, my time won't be solely my own anymore. We are traveling a great deal this summer to avoid spending much time here in Central Texas, where it was truly awful last year, so it will be Houston for a week (not any temperature change but at least a chance of scenery & routine for both me and the kids), three weeks in Kansas at my parents' in the country, then three and a half weeks in England and Wales to stay with family and go to the Olympics and a Welsh farmhouse holiday. When we come back to Texas, there are only two weeks until school starts up again on 27 August.
And of course, once the kids go back to school, it's time for me to start my holiday card business up. Hopefully this year will be the one where I am a little more organized and efficient. I'd really like to finish making all cards by the end of October! (At the latest, by Thanksgiving, which is probably more realistic.)
A couple of weeks ago I had the idea that I could get one or two of my aunties to hold a trunk show for me--have a selection of completed cards and order forms, and they could get some friends over, and we'd have a little cocktail party and order fest. Then I undercut myself wondering if I'd get any orders, if I got them how crazy would it be to deliver them, could I have any cards ready in time . . . argh. Mostly I think I just ought to make the leap and do it. I'd also have some gift tags to show and I would love to have my Xmas book that keeps everything in one place done to offer in two versions--a fancy binding version that would be mega-expensive, and a spiral-bound version.
But if I'm going to do that, I really ought to have it designed before the summer begins. And I ought to have a website that people can visit to find out more "about the artist", 'cause people dig that stuff. But that also sounds like someone (me!) just putting up barriers that don't have to be so. Where has the courage of my convictions gone?
[forgotten to publish when written!]
