Getting Ready for a New Start

The holiday season can be emotionally draining. I have a Christmas loving friend who suffers from “post-partum” every year once Christmas has passed. I enjoy the holidays but I often begrudge the time and work required—time that could be spent pursuing other interests (like making art!). That being said, the Virgo in me really loves the end of the year opportunity to clean out the old to make way for the new.

 5th Annual Good Riddance Day

My children are making something delicious and creative-- marshmallow treats using leftover cereals taking up cupboard space. Unsuccessful new cereals like High Fiber Low Sugar Frosted Flakes and Rice Krispies Treats are good for this.

I like to toss old bill files into my attic archives under the eaves at the end of each year. In 2012 I’m going in to shred anything that’s older than 7 years, which is what the experts recommend. Yeehaw, I love clearing out!

Now I’m off to purge old documents and organize my computer for 2012. Wishing all my lovely blog friends a blissful, bountiful and beautiful 2012!

New Work and New Focusing Trick

 New holiday creation in my Etsy shop

Here's how I'm spending this chilly Saturday morning of puttering in my studio :
-listening to my Basic Italian CD to learn a new language
-thinking I have to burn the other Italian CDs to my ipod
-looking for a 90's bracelet from France that I just saw somewhere that I have an idea for altering
-noting a new idea of making some stars out of my new favorite material, cardboard
-looking for some interesting backdrops so I can start taking etsy photos of my newest creations
-checking etsy for keywords and tips so my listings can get seen, I'm still struggling with this since they changed the relevancy parameters back in September.

A larger version, available soon.

Some of you might already know about my quest for focus when in my workspace. There are just too many exciting things going on, all those found objects, materials, inchoate ideas... Today, as the ideas, or actually "impulses", started flowing, I got what turned out to be an insight--write down all the things I was trying to do at once. The act of putting it down on paper had the same effect as making a to-do list (which I do religiously, my favorite part being shredding it when I've done everything or transferred the undone things to a new list)--it put what seemed utterly chaotic into a manageable perspective. It really isn't that unsurmountable in the short morning. Sitting down and planning what you're trying to accomplish must trigger calming brain waves.

Three less Christmas-y looking options for making your gift card stand out under the tree. 

Good for repurposing later!

But I'm still looking for the bracelet...

Unsuccessful Junked Mission

The junk gods were not on our side today. It's never a good sign when things are laid out nicely, like the cool tumblr blog things organized neatly . 

 Well, maybe not quite as visually appealing, but it always means that the prices will be higher. In this case, ridiculously high for a "Podunk" sale, and men were just snapping everything up. If only more things had been as random and as reasonable as the potty chair above--only $10!

Stuff wasn't even that old, and there was no light (I always mean to take a flashlight to these things). Here you see cans of paint that were probably the same price as at the hardware store.

We had gone there to buy a lathe for Mr CWhirl. The friend who let him know about the sale found out the lathe was last seen in this shed--about a 3 minute walk across a chilly and windy field.
Here, at last, was Shangri-La--a large building with old wooden crates, bottles, debris. The perfect place to find things! The wire basket in the doorway contains 4 old hub caps and a couple other pieces of sculptural nirvana that I ecstatically scrounged in the five minutes the guys searched for lathe parts. But no, this virgin territory was not part of the sale--they plan to have another in several months and I'm sure that there, we'll find--THINGS ARRANGED NEATLY. The kiss of death to the treasure hunter.

Oh, and guess what--the lathe was stolen, so we didn't get that either!