~Getting Grounded~

As many of my blog readers know, I was looking forward to 'sleeping' my way through January. After a heavy show schedule and Christmas with our family....I was exhausted. Isn't it funny that sometimes the things you WANT, really aren't the things you need! As soon as January began, it gained a frenzied momentum that my life usually takes on: the pace I've come to realize is my 'normal'. I thrive on it. I may complain about it, but it's my life....and I love it~

I began rereading Julia Cameron's Walking in this World. She's the author of The Artist's Way, The Vein of Gold, and The Right to Write. I highly recommend them all. One of the questions she asks the reader is: What makes you grounded? You're to write down 10 things that do. Hmmmmmmm. I thought this would be difficult. It wasn't!! Right there at the top of my list was: an organized house and studio. I was in trouble. So I set off to organize everything....kitchen cupboards, drawers, closets....and finally: my two studios. Not a job for the faint-hearted. But oh....the results are SO worth the pain!! I am now the proud owner of beautifully organized spaces to live and work.

Next on the list: redecorating and updating parts of the home we built 25 years ago! Pictures to follow~

Have a glorious week....even if it's as cold and snowy as it is here in Ohio~

~Creativity Is God's Gift To Us~

Julia Cameron is an artist's dream. She embraces creativity, intertwining it with spiritualism, citing it as an authentic spiritual path. Her books include, The Artist's Way, Vein of Gold, Walking in this World, and Right to Write, among others. I can tell you that I own all of them, and would be hard-pressed to choose a favorite. They are worth the price a hundred times over!

My favorite of her quotes is: "Creativity is God's gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God". This speaks straight to my soul. Creativity is literally seeping out of every pore of my being....and our house. It's crept out of my studio and into every crevice of our home.....even into Jim....who helped me trace, cut, paint, and frame all weekend! It tickles me to see him lost in whatever task he's working on. So out of 'his' element, and into 'mine'!

My next show is Shaker Woods Festival, Aug 8-9, 15-16, and 22-23 from 10-5 pm. For directions and further information, check Shaker Woods Festival. We own a darling little cottage there that we've been fixing up and stocking with lots of RoseCreekCottage and Ragamuffins goodies. We'll be joining 200 artists and craftsmen from around the country, demonstrating and selling our wares.

You can imagine with 6 days of show, and tens of thousands of people, the amount of inventory needed to stock a little cottage! (pictures at a later date!) My sewing machine has been running almost continuously, the studio is humming with lots of hustle-bustle. There are pumpkin heads drying outside on the deck, my original poems being framed (by Jim!) on the farmhouse table in the kitchen, and me? Well...I'm running between all the different 'stations', doing a bazillion different things at any given moment. Multi-tasking at its finest!

In the midst of all this, add in two puppies that never let me out of their site, a phone that rings incessantly, two grandchildren, friends stopping by to see what's going on and you get a bird's-eye view of life here at RoseCreekCottage in July!

We ended up selling so much at St. John's Art Festival, that it is taking longer than anticipated to 'restock' the items we sold. Summer shows don't usually deplete my inventory so much, and in this economy, we were pleasantly surprised, albeit now pretty exhausted....in a very 'good' kind of way.

Needless to say, the computer, blogging, emails, and posting are way down on my list of priorities, as much as I dearly miss them. There are only so many hours in a day.....even very lengthy 13 hour ones!!

So...on that note....I'm headed back to the studio to continue my much-earlier-started day. The aroma of the second pot of coffee brewing in the kitchen is calling my name! Have a wonderfully creative week, wherever you are in the world~