It's Fall and You Know What That Means!

October 01, 2022

Hello guys! Here's a newsy newsletter on happenings around my studio and life in general. I am hoping to send one out once a month or so. Hope you enjoy! In this newsletter, I'm going to share with you a couple of things that happened this past month which has been mainly getting my online shop running and thoughts about this, a bit on self-care, and what is upcoming in October. (Disclaimer: Announcements of upcoming items and events are always subject to life happening and changing my plans 😄).

AUTUMN IS HERE!

But first, I have to say it - autumn is here, or as we commonly refer to it - Fall!  The leaves are changing from the bright summer greens to gorgeous hues of cadmium yellow and rich golden browns.  We don't have much of those delicious yummy reds so I get a little thrill every time I come across a patch.  Of course with the changing and falling leaves comes the wind and the rain and the clouds.  It makes me ready to stay indoors and curl up with a cup of hot tea and a good book.  We've managed to get most of our garden produce picked and processed.  It is such a busy time but oh so tasty!  Only the carrots, beets, a few pepper plants and the Orange Sunshine cherry tomato plant left to go.  Hope they don't get hit with frost before we get to them.

STARTING AN ART BUSINESS - ACK!

Besides the loveliness of gardening, I've been busy with this brand new art business I've started.  It sounds so funny to be saying that.  Making art has been ebbing and flowing in my life for a lot of years.  Here I am being all official now! There are lots of bits and pieces to the process, and a WHOLE lot to learn and do.  What are my plans for the next 12 months, 9 months, 3 months and so on?  Am I going to do marketing? How? When? Where?  How do I track everything?  The questions are endless and it is so easy to get bogged down and overwhelmed and take myself way too seriously.   So every time I find myself in the "bogged down and overwhelmed" position I remind myself to JUST HAVE FUN!  That is actually the vision I wrote down for my art business.  You know how you're supposed to have a vision and a mission and a purpose and a million year plan?  

My vision, my why of doing this art business is:

"Have fun making art and share that fun with others."

That's it!  I haven't actually hammered out a mission yet - the overarching how I'm going to accomplish this vision.  Being a "learn by doing" person, I've jumped right in and will work backwards after I've had some mucking around and seeing how things work.  Once I get it figured out, I'll share it with you.

NEW DESIGNS

The most funnest thing right now is putting new designs into my Redbubble online shop. I've added six new ones this month. It is so cool to see them on products. Check these out then go see them at my shop here.

Cross-Country Skiing People

Tiny Moo Cow

Amira

Jonathon

Delilah Moo Cow

Tara

IT'S ALL ABOUT ME!

Ha ha!  What I mean to say, is that it's about taking care of me.  That is a mantra I've started this past month.  The spring and summer were crazy busy. I let slide those things that help to keep me on an even keel - no walking or exercise or getting outside AND I added in lots of snacking and lots of t.v.  (Yikes!!)

My Weakness

Why start an art business in the middle of all this craziness you ask? Turns out while the crazy stopperd up my creativity, the left-brain activity of researching and setting up an online business was good for getting me focused and out of my head. I'd spent 19 years in another life working in an office so my brain has a bunch of experience at the logical, organizing type of work.

The business helped with my mind but it didn't help with my body or soul.  For that I got off the couch, put down the chip bowl and got back onto the yoga mat on a regular basis.  After a few weeks I am starting to feel pretty good.  There is a bit more energy to my days and I'm reaching for the snacks less often. The focus is not just on the physical, but on the grace and gratitude and the positivity that yoga brings into a session and the rest of the day.  Recently we've been walking after supper, which is great to get outside and smell the trees and the river and the beginnings of fall.

COMING UP IN OCTOBER

My loosey-goosey plans for this month (because they are still running around in my head and batting up against a zillion ideas) are:

Add some more designs to the online shop including some for Christmas!  So for all you early shoppers, maybe you'll find something there to make you smile!  

Participate in Inktober 2022 and that starts today!!  I did this in 2020 and it was so fun coming up with ideas to draw from the prompts but soooooo challenging.  My goal that year was to make a story with each page.  It worked on some days and other days not so much.  And at the end I had 31 pictures, plus I might have even improved my skills with the daily practice.  Some of those pieces have ended up as designs in my shop!  This year my goal is to use one character 31 times (and to practice inking).  I hope to complete all 31 days and plan to do as many as I can.  No guarantees of anything except a lot of fun!  I'll be posting these on Instagram and my Facebook Page if you want to see what comes out of my head and hands.

This is the character I'm going to use for Inktober.  She is sitting with her "mad" right now, but I know she'll feel better once she lets it go.

Re-re-start a personal project I've started and stopped a few years ago, re-started at the beginning of summer then stop again.  This personal project is really personal to me.  It involves memories and food.  I am even afraid to talk about it too much in case I jinx it, but what I'll do is post a photo or two from time to time on social media.  There's no timeline yet for completion.  That's yet to be worked out (I work better if I have a definite deadline to work towards).  

 THAT'S IT FOLKS!

You've reached the end of my first newsy newsletter! Thanks for sticking through the whole thing and letting me share a bit of what's been happening in my life and studio this past month, and the plans for the next. My next newsletter should show up at the beginning of November. I don't know what will be in it - more art, updates and maybe a recipe or book recommendation? It could be shorter (or longer since I like to talk!!). Let me know in the comments below if there is anything you want to chat about. In the meantime, have a great month and maybe even have some fun with art!!

Leah