On December 1, I did my first arts festival!!
After having a near meltdown (okay... a total meltdown) on Thursday night when my printer started to malfunction, everything came together on Friday and Saturday turned out to be one of the most amazing days ever. Aside from selling some things, I met people who completely blew me over with their encouragement, support, and kind words. Kind of shaking my head sitting here and thinking about it... it was a day the restored my faith in humanity. At least for a while :)
I don't know if the positive energy from that day was recognized by someone or something, but after that is when sales started taking off. Thanks to the amazing thing that is called technology, I was obsessively checking my iPhone constantly for email from Etsy notifying me of a sale. There are probably a lot of people milling about Columbus who witnessed this happening while I was in my car... and there was yelling and fist-pumping involved. And sometimes dancing.
Also over the past few weeks, I started babysitting once or twice a week for a family who has three boys: they are three, 21 months, and three months. I was feeling like I needed something fun but schedule-based to do to add to my days, preferably something that also paid :) The boys are so sweet and BUSY. Good lord, they keep me on my toes. But I think I started to forget how rewarding it is to spend time with young children. They are like little sponges. I often call things "ridiculous" and the other day when I was trying to explain to the three year old what snow pants are, he shook his head and said, "That's ridiculous." They are so much fun and I'm happy to have them to shake things up... which they are very good at!
Then, I had the honor of doing an interview with Kim of Joyful Roots. Firstly, I must say how incredibly grateful I am to have met her through the amazing online creative community. Even though we have never met in person, I honestly feel like I've known her for ages. She's just one of those people who is a beautiful soul, and you can feel it by reading her words. I mean come on, her website is about adding more joy to your life. It doesn't get more awesome than that! Anyway, she asked some very thought-provoking questions and did an amazing job piecing everything together. You can read it HERE.
Aside from all that, I've been making new things whenever possible. Here is a new style I have been experimenting with:
They are really fun to make and kind of almost a zen-like experience. The one on the left is made using bits from wallpaper and pattern books. The one on the right is made from lots of pieces of maps. A perfect cure for my paper obsession!! I'm already scheming up what I can use to make another. A huge one could be really impressive. Or a black and white... decisions decisions.
So many things happening lately. I have another piece being featured somewhere in January, which I hope turns into something great. My mom has quickly become my biggest cheerleader and it's an amazing feeling. I've been doing so much thinking lately about what is important in life, and especially after yesterday's tragedy in Connecticut. Spreading love and joy is such an important thing and we need to surround ourselves with people who agree. If something is making you unhappy, do something to change it. If someone else is unhappy, do something to make their day. One of the random acts of kindness that a complete stranger showed me at the arts festival made my day, weekend, month, year. If you are capable of doing that for someone, do it. We need to stop focusing on the bad and making the good a priority.
Until next time, whenever that may be (hehe), I hope everyone is having a joyous and love-filled holiday season. Ten days until Christmas!!!
