Today is the 21st of December. Still getting used to SF weather…though I’m happy about not having to drive in snow, I do miss a taste of winter weather. Just a hint of snow would be great and a tad colder temps. Oh well, so be it…I do enjoy the Holiday tunes on the radio….
It’s also an exciting day for the fact that my 31 NEW cards are complete. Ready to be picked up from the printer. In order to prepare for them, I’ve been clearing out and cleaning the guest bedroom. Organization is not my middle name so therefore I have to work at keeping places orderly and clean. I knew that more cards would require another level of organization for the sheer fact that filling an order has been a pain because I’ve got cards in boxes along the hallway as well as in boxes on top of the guest bed. With cleaning complete, I’m now ready to go purchase shelving from Lowes (scoped out options yesterday). Tomorrow I’ll pick up the cards and have fun organizing them in such a way that it will be a snap to pull together an order. I’m expecting a TON more orders this year since I’ll now have 88 cards in the line. Close to 100! I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me. After the gift shows, I’ll be focused on getting reps across the country as well as following up with stores, finishing up my business plan and researching other products. I’m getting ahead of myself though…for this Winter Solstice, I’m grateful that I’m where I’m at today. In looking back over the past year, I find it amazing that I’ve gone from thinking I’d just introduce a few cards with another company to creating my own company and having 88 images in print!! WooHOO!! As always, thanks to Sarah who’s been along with me for the ride in helping me create the overall “look”. I’m rather proud of the somewhat “simple and elegant” look of my card line. “Simple and Elegant” was the theme I created when planning my wedding to Mark 3 years ago. I realized that it is a good focus for day to day living for me as well…
As for the story of the day, here’s a card that is in the Brush Dance line of Holiday images. I painted this a few years ago after being influenced by a lovely winter scene back home in Indiana. I had flown in to Indianapolis on a red eye. A friend picked me up at the airport and was driving me the hour north to Lafayette (my hometown). Margaret was talking about something and I found myself not listening but instead staring out the window at the lovely landscape. The freshly fallen snow still hanging on the bare trees…I asked her to stop for a moment because I wanted to breathe in the beauty that surrounded us! I also wanted to focus on her story but had to absorb the winter wonderland before being able to do so. I was reminded about how I used to write, in college, that my favorite things were sunsets, bare trees and snow and when they were all together, I was in Heaven! Today’s Solstice also has a Lunar Eclipse and Full Moon that go along with it…a very powerful time! I did my Solstice Ritual with my friends from the ART94124 team. The weber grill going, we threw in the post it notes where we had written down 1. what we wanted to release from this year and 2. what we wanted to pull in for next year. I love this powerful ritual…go make it a great Solstice and try the ritual yourself (I think you could do it up to and through the New Year!)
