Studio

This is my little dining room/studio and that is the current canvas I'm working on. Heres a closeup shot

As much as I'd love to go take a walk in this 17 degree weather and do a little slipping and sliding on the ice...I'm not allowed to go outside until this is done. Today WILL be the day! It is marathon painting day in the studio! Everyone have a great day whatever you do!

Keeping your head above water, making a wave when you can

Yesterdays HOUR SWAP piece went for $10! Congrats to the winner, a fellow woman artist for snaggin' that deal. I really liked this piece and can see me doing some similar stuff in that theme and color palette. It inspired me-there I said it!
I think it would be cool to show who these people are who are collecting my stuff -some seem to be other artists and some are people in my community who have businesses, etc. Isn't it interesting to see what everyone contributes to the world? So if time permits I will be posting up a little info or pic of what these people do- who they are...I have lots to catch up on, a treasury and some blog lovin' for my fellow Etsy peoples.
Trying to knock out two boxes and then get down to serious business. Big paintings. Did I tell you? I'm gonna be on TV!

Morning Coffee

I spend most mornings here at my computer with my morning coffee. I may wake up full of creative ideas and itching to get into the studio but sometimes the world wide web is a little distracting...especially youtube, etsy and facebook....which seem to eat a good part of the morning for me. Before I know it the morning is over and it's time to make lunch and there my whole morning has been wasted. So before I head into the new week I am going to start utilizing an old friend of mine called "Morning Coffee" which is an app designed to open up all the sites you frequent daily. You can even configure it to open certain ones on certain days etc... Then every morning I will systematically go through each site. Email- check. Other email- check. Website analytics-check. Etsy store peek- check. My blogs updated-check. Any blogs I wanna follow- check...and then last but not least Facebook- and here is where I am going to implement another old friend. My watch. I'm going to give myself a set amount of time and then LOG OFF when the watch goes beep! Seeing the tabs open will remind me Im on a mission- get through each one and close it.
I should then be able to get more done in a day. Like go to the park and get a good run in, visit my duck friends (shown in the photo above) and enjoy the outside world before heading into the studio and working. I have found this to be a vital part of my creative process- going outside and getting my blood flowing.
I will have to log in at various points in the day to post stuff to Etsy or communicate with people about orders, etc. But I am going to use the watch method this week and really monitor my time. I feel like I didn't get as much done last week as I should've. My creative challenge to everyone this week is to monitor how much time you waste online, by waste I mean staring at the computer screen waiting for someone to comment on your facebook or boredly scrolling through the internet when you need to get your laundry done. Sometimes we just need that down time. But sometimes I think my downtime might be more fulfilling if it was spent in a bubble bath, reading a book or doing some good old fashioned meditation.
Namaste!

Lockdown!

Today I am locking myself in my studio in a right proper LOCKDOWN DAY! So much stuff I needed to do this week didn't get done, plans popped up, plans fell through and I lost a solid day of work that I need to catch up on. Lockdown day means I DON'T check facebook ten times a day and my cellphone gets left in another part of the house where it can't interrupt. (Thats actually a general rule for me on most days anyway)
I am at work. At Work! It is really hard to get into the work zone when you know you have something to do at some point in the day or know you will have to stop for some reason or other so today I do not exist to anyone and hopefully I will get stuff done.
Yesterday I did get a mandala record done that I'm donating to a charitable event and group. I also primed a box and wrote some business proposals to a couple of places.
Funds are dying every day and I'm trying my best not to stress out about it but OUCH this seat is HOT!
Working for yourself has it's ups and it's downs, this is the downside- STRESS OVER FINANCES.
Have you peeped my Etsy shop lately? :)
http://www.tigerbee.etsy.com
Everyone have a productive day!