Sunday later

I love Portlandia in all its colorful craftiness!  I adore Alberta St.  I think I’m going to go back with camera to take pics of some of my favorite spots and rave about them here.  For today, collage – the shop.  Following my reverie in the garden I checked collage’s hours online, saw they had a BUNCH of new goodies, drove there (down Prescott and I didn’t even get lost!  I am learning my way around this eastside land!) intending to buy one thing, but ended up with a bagfull of other things.

I am ready for SPRING!  So I think I’ll get busy and make some springy stuff.  Stay tuned!

Sunday morning at Rob’s.

He’s gone off to a seminar for the day, I’m having some chai with almond milk.  I wander about the house, peeking here and there at the work I did yesterday, reorganizing the kitchen (with Rob’s permission, of course!).  ‘Twas quite the undertaking, taking everything out of that cupboard, everything out of these drawers, bringing things up from the storage pantry downstairs, consolidating various stashes of coffees (that nobody around here drinks), lining up all the canned foods so that we can see what we have… It’s a good thing, not a type A control thing. (I don’t think anyone could accuse me of being type A – have you seen my house???!)  But I mean, he has enough spaghetti sauce in storage to open an Italian restaurant!  It’s good to know what you already have on hand.  (Yeah, right, Lulu – when’s your next trip to the art store?  Ahem!)

Back to my reverie… I take a walk in the backyard.  A plum tree blossoms bright pink, a magnolia’s blooms are just beginning to open.  Three daffodils here, a few more there.  It is tranquil.  I am seeing this garden spot a year or two from now, all the other spring flowers that will paint this edge of the yard.  I feel so lucky and blessed that I will be coming to live here soon.

I think I am going to paint the white picket fence blue with white polka dots…

the busyness of art

This month I've been working on the biz side of things.  I took a workshop through I Heart Art: PDX: Small Steps - a creative business primer.  Rachel Dominguez-Benner of Bike Cozy was the presenter.  Great information!  Along with formulas for pricing, resources for small businesses, and problem solving strategies, Rachel stressed the importance of web presence.  Prior to attending the workshop I had read the same thing elsewhere, so I had already started setting up a website and a dedicated art blog.  I bought a domain name for my website... the name I wanted was already taken, so I used my other name.  Oops.  Not a good move, according to Rachel.  Consistency!  Make it easy for people to find you!

Ok, I'm working on that.

In the meantime, I am going ahead with building the website.  The most exciting thing about it so far is the new banner I designed.  I have made it into my etsy shop banner also (for consistency!).  It looks like it would make a nice moo card / business card, too.  Here it is:

All this business stuff keeps one busy.  I know that all this web presence won't make a bit of difference if I'm not actually posting things.  And in order to be posting things, I need to be doing my art.  One pulls away from the other... and then there's the day job!  It's Friday of spring break - can I say that I can't wait for summer vacation?

Tomorrow, another workshop.  This one will be about marketing your etsy shop, and is presented through The 100th Monkey Studio.  More workshops in April!