Often, I hear people complain how they too, wish they could be an artist but fear they couldn’t make a living at it. These same people then fail to buy from artists (sometimes citing “it’s not worth it”) and instead, plunk down lots of money on useless trinkets from Wal-Mart.

I’m a firm believer that you must support others who do what you wish to do. For me, that means that supporting small artists, writers and magazines instead of large chains. I find that by buying goods from these places, I help keep the industry going so that I can continue to thrive in it. Also, it means something to feel connected to something when I buy it, rather just mindless stocking up on things I don’t need or have no benefit.

Recently I went through this process when I purchased two beautiful designed and made Christmas stockings from my friend, Alicia who runs a fabulous little boutique in Portland OR called Posie: Rosy Little Things. In need of a pair of stockings to hang, I didn’t want to buy a generic red felt stocking from the local chain shop. Christmas, for me, has lots of meaning, tradition and ceremony and is a very simple, sweet and restful time. I wanted something that would add to that, not take away. When I saw Alicia’s stockings, I knew they were perfect. Knowing that someone would sit to make them for me and knowing that person to boot, made it easy to make the purchase.

Yes they might be a little bit more than one’s found in the store but the return on the value is so much more. Because when I look at the stocking when they hang in my flat, I’ll smile. I’ll know where they came from, I’ll understand the meaning behind them and I’ll know that I supported something I want to participate in. Instead of having something in my home that has no meaning, I have something that does, and that is almost priceless.

This is the same reason why I’ll be heading down to Portland to celebrate her special Holiday Bizarre come December. Wading through artist’s goods, chatting them up and perhaps indulging myself in an item or too, is just a brilliant way to spend an afternoon. It certainly beats rushing in and out of chain stores, fighting lines filled with cranky souls and checking off lists of gifts that don’t mean anything.

Other great artist shoppings sites/lists:

1. Another Girl at Play Catalogue
2. Soap Box Girls Buyers Guide
3. Keri Smith’s List
4. Christine Castro of Maganda’s List

One of the habits I’ve taken with me from my corporate days is the Friday Afternoon Wind down Ceremony which involves tidying up papers in the afternoon, getting the last of the emails out, putting the finishing touches on articles and then signing off for a couple of days.

I used to work twenty-four seven with writing until it left me tired, cranky and bitter with my job. Realising that if writing was to remain my passion, I’d have to give myself time away from it to keep enjoying it. That’s when I decided that I’d take the weekends off.

Now my weekends are reserved for projects that are purely fun and selfish. I have no worry of doing them on the weekend because I don’t feel they’re robbing me from ‘work.’ I can paint the picture I’ve been meaning to, indulge in an afternoon of reading, take a leisurely lunch at the cafe down the street or do absolutely nothing. I call this time my mini-vacation, my breathing space, my renewal.

This weekend I’ll be making Christmas cards, a process that will leave my flat beautifully disheveled with bits of bright paper flung everywhere. I’ll also catch-up on reading three recent book purchases, doing a bit of flat organisation and investigating that new peppermint mocha.

Despite taking weekends off, I sometimes become inspired and realise how to finish an article or begin a new one and will happily sit down to work for awhile. However, by having a routine of working just during the week, there isn’t the pressure to create amazing bits on the weekend, which allows me to relax and enjoy all parts of my life and keeps me balanced mentally, physically and creatively. In fact, it keeps me a Girl at Play.

RESOURCES:

• Keri Smith’s wonderful article on taking a mini-vacation.
• The book The Art of Doing Nothing: Simple Ways to Make Time for Yourself by Veronique Vienne.
• For helping your home get it’s energy going and make life simpler, read The Western Guide to Feng Shui by Terah Kathryn Collins.
• A tea break is always perfect, whether it be on the Friday afternoon wind down or during a Saturday morning reading spell. The act of brewing forces you to slow down and enjoy, as done sipping it from a pretty cup. Mighty Tea offers great samplers to create perfectly luxurious breaks.

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone. Coco Chanel

I had to do something recently that I rarely do - look at my web sites statistics. For purposes of marketing for my book, I had to check out exactly how many people are coming, from where and why. I had to get in touch with the audience.

It was an uncomfortable process for me because over a year ago, I decided I didn’t want to know how many people came and what people said. This came about after a swarm of insecurity hit me after reading one nasty review of my site despite the fact there were dozens of positive ones. Also, one day there was a drop in hits and this made me feel like I was writing poorly; it didn’t matter that the next day and following weeks the number kept increasing.

After these experiences, I heard Meg Ryan say how she never reads any press about herself at all; she said she didn’t want to feel like she had to act a certain way or have her happiness depend on someone she didn’t know. That made sense to me and from that moment, I gave up on ever finding out what people say about me or my writings.

My sites receive a lot of attention but I’m unaware of it unless someone tells me and even then, most of the time I don’t look into it. I have a filter for this - my husband. If a site reviews me I ask him to read it. He then only reports to me if I should mention it under the Press section by saying It’s a go� Perhaps it’s extreme, a little odd, but it keeps me from worrying or trying to appease. It helps keep me real and free to create as I need to.

In the fifth grade I was given an art assignment to draw any picture I wanted for a calendar project. At the time I, like most eleven year old girls, was fascinated with unicorns and drew a spectacular scene involving one.

When I showed it to the teacher the next day, she told me to stand in front of the class so that they could see what a cheat looked like. She went on to say that I must have traced it all because I had no talent whatsoever. She told me that I was wicked, a liar and could never, ever do any good artwork. She ripped up my picture in front of the class.

For the next seventeen years, that day would affect me. I would always believe that other people were artists, not I.

After a few years of being in a high level, corporate position, I knew that pantsuits and meetings weren’t my passion. I wanted to do something else, but didn’t know what to do. I wanted to find my heart, my passion.

With great, great fear, I purchased a small watercolour set for $5 (I didn’t want to spend a lot, too scary to invest!) and for the first time in seventeen years, I attempted to create. I sat down, let go and painted how I felt. The result was this:

Afterwards, I sat in shock. Shock that not only had I painted, but that my fifth grade teacher was wrong. I could do something.

I posted that image on my web site later on and to my surprise, people started to ask to buy it. I hesitated. I wasn’t an artist. I wasn’t someone who could sell artwork. I wasn’t real. I kept saying no.

After awhile of inquires I asked myself, who is to say who is a “real” artist or not? Who is to say who can or cannot sell artwork? If someone loves it, if they find value in it, who am I to make excuses and reasons why they shouldn’t? The nerve of me.

So, I made a limited set of prints to sell and a year later, I have sold almost every single one. This has amazed me. It makes me smile. It makes me forget about that fifth grade teacher.

I think everyone of us has something we want to do, to be, but have held back because of someone saying we couldn’t. I say, prove to them, to yourself you can. Because if I can sell artwork after failing art 3 times, anything is possible.

Sometimes when one repeats a word over and over, like carrot, the word starts to make less and less sense. If one writes the word down over and over, the spelling starts to make even less sense. One starts to ask, “Is that even a word? It doesn’t look right. It doesn’t make sense.”

Although they might have said or spelled carrot a million times, it’s the repetition that can sometimes cause doubt to the validity of the word.

That is how I feel about my book proposal.

It’s been a struggle to chronicle what is going on because I have been so busy with so many writing projects that when it comes to write for just me, I become too tired and lose interest. However, when a friend who is a probaseball player told me that despite being tired all day from playing ball for work, he always makes time to play ball for fun with his son because it’s important, I decided that writing, for me, is too.