Can you feel it? The sun is starting to shine a little brighter, the cold doesn’t have quite as much bite as it did a few weeks ago and the odd green thing is starting to sprout. I know February is far too early to declare spring has sprung, but I feel like we’re rounding the last corner on winter and that is cause for celebration. Or relaxation, which is what I did this weekend.

My lovely parents live on a little island off the coast of Vancouver Island. I don’t get over to visit as often as I’d like. The cost to ferry our car over is $200 round trip. Depending on how the 2 ferry schedules line up, the trip can take as long as 5 hours, even though the distance is very short. There’s a lot of waiting around.

Fortunately the cafe aboard the ferry makes excellent clam chowder. Dolphins can sometimes be seen swimming alongside the ship. I play a lot of Sporcle quizzes on my phone (even better on your computer, FYI). And when I finally get there? I get this:

Totally worth it.

Well hello there, 2012! The last few days have been very mellow ’round the beehive as I reflected on 2011 and started making plans for the upcoming year. I have a little tradition of listing all of my favorite moments from the year before and without a doubt, the highlight of 2011 was bringing Princess Sparkle home. It was a tough year for just about everyone I know (myself included) and her wagging tail and constant desire to cuddle made the dark spots a little easier to bear.

After I saw her listing on Pet Finder, I knew we had to meet her in person. She looks so much like my old dog, Sparkle could be one of her puppies! The rescue group I adopted her from, Rescued Paws, was wonderful to work with. Shelly, the foster mom who gave Sparkle a loving home while waiting to be adopted, was so patient with me as we emailed back & forth, answering my many, many questions & concerns. It didn’t take more than a day or two before she’d settled right in, always choosing to squeeze in beside the pug rather than lay in her own bed.

As I started writing out my goals for 2012, an overriding theme was pretty clear – slow down! I don’t know if this is a getting older thing, but my goals seem to be shifting toward getting organized, simplifying my life and creating a home I love. I want to have more time to paint, to write blog posts and to truly *enjoy* time with friends rather than be frantically working and trying to keep up with the insane schedule I kept last year. I worked my tail off in 2011! I love my job, so it’s not like this is some kind of hardship, but I definitely need to create more balance in my life and my home.

To start with, I’m finally allowing myself to take up a real hobby – one that doesn’t involve creating something for sale! It’s funny…when you make things for a living, it seems like you should always be doing something “productive”. Between craft shows, my Etsy shop and the retail stores that carry my work, I have to stick to a pretty strict schedule of making lockets and brooches and things. It’s also important for me to keep coming out with new designs, which means new paintings. Of course, not all of my paintings work well as reproductions either. Maybe this isn’t the case for artists who, say, don’t have credit card debt that they failed to pay off the year before, but I feel like I’m always supposed to be working, being productive, making money. This is definitely a recipe for burnout, my friends.

And so, after MANY hours of research and reading reviews and drooling over online fabric swatches, I ordered a book that’s going to teach me how to sew clothing for the first time in my life! *squeeeeee*

The Colette Sewing Handbook has received fabulous reviews and I couldn’t be more excited to get started! Here’s why:

I hate shopping.
I hate trying clothes on and being disappointed that the hips are too snug and the waist is too baggy.
I hate that it’s so difficult to find cute, vintage-style clothing locally. (sidenote: I love Anthro. I hate the prices.)
I hate gambling on ordering clothes online that are often poorly made and ill-fitting once you see them in person. (sidenote #2: I think ModCloth does shoppers a great service by allowing such thorough reviews by other customers, including their sizes and measurements. That being said, I’ve never spent more than $50 on something I couldn’t try on first.)

Solution? Sew my own clothes, obviously! I’ll let you know how it goes.

Greetings from the not-so-frozen North! I’m celebrating Christmas with my in-laws in Alberta & we’ve lucked out with some pretty warm weather, fantastic homecooked food & fabulous company. What more can you ask for at Christmas time?

The only thing making the season a little less merry is the nasty cold that’s been attacking my sinuses. I’m feeling incredibly fortunate that I managed to make it all the way through the winter market season without getting sick, so if it has to be while I’m on holiday? I really can’t complain. If I’d been feeling better, I would’ve ventured out to the art gallery & maybe stayed up past 10pm, but other than that, my holiday would have looked remarkably similar.

Wishing you and your loved ones the happiest of holidays!

When I get really stressed, I tend to withdraw – as you may have noticed from my lengthy silence on this blog! The holiday markets are sneaking up so fast this year & I’m feeling more than a little bit worried that I won’t be ready. This will be the 4th Christmas since my very first show & despite the fact that I know my display keeps getting better as I learn through trial & error, I still feel like I’m playing a losing battle of “beat the clock”. There is always something I wish I’d had time to restyle!

Aside from wanting to completely redesign my display (while still keeping it easy to load, unload & store away, of course!), I’m also freaking out about not making enough actual things to sell. How many lockets should I make? And which styles?

The short answer is: a lot!

Unfortunately, my brain seems to work best in a linear fashion. Get all of the print work done, then seal, then pour resin, then finish the lockets by adding the chain & charms & beads. I have several new paintings that I’ve been working on & would really love to see them as tiny wearable art pieces, so my brain is still wanting to be in the studio painting, not making lockets. Not yet. And this, my dear friend, is where the panic sets in!

The last few days have been a flurry of locket-making activity as I finally forced myself to put down my paintbrushes. I have a few new faces already making their debut, so if the rest of the gang has to wait until January, I guess they’ll just have to be patient. Not ideal, and certainly not what I was hoping for this season, but this morning I already feel HEAPS better than I have for the last couple of weeks. A huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

Usually when I get really stressed out, I go into hermit mode & isolate myself. No blog posts, very little Twitter action & as my friends & family can report, good luck trying to get me to answer the phone! This time has been different though. I’m fortunate to have several crafter friends in exactly the same boat, so I’ve had lots of support from people who totally get it. I thank my lucky stars that I have fabulous girlfriends to drag through thrift stores searching for the perfect antique picture frame or old wooden box to hold my cards.

There’s also been a whole lot of this:

Fall in Vancouver is such a beautiful time of year. The leaves along my street are shades of yellow, vibrant red, burgundy & a few hanging onto their greeness. And they’re so BIG! The puppies are endlessly fascinated with the piles of leaves that my neighbors rake up. And I am endlessly grateful that I’m now living in an apartment & no longer have the job of raking up leaves! They’re a lot prettier this year when they’re not also a task on my TO DO list.

Speaking of TO DO, time for me to get back to work! I’ll be in Whistler for the Bizarre Bazaar in less than 2 weeks. Excited & terrified? That’d be me right now!