Christmas angst

Like most families, ours had its share of crap happen over the holidays – more specifically over two days – Christmas Eve & Christmas Day. Both involved my sister and my parents. One with Dad and one with Mom. Although detail would make for an interesting story, I’m afraid it’s also rather embarrassing for the parties involved. So no detail, but you’ll get a hefty dose of reflection.

My family is normal. Completely normal. Really. It’s the families that have no conflicts whatsoever that are creepy. A group of people who know each other so intimately, getting together with their own problems and shortcomings and stresses and exhaustion… That, my friends, is a perfect recipe for some sort of strife over the holidays. It certainly does not help that we’re Greek. We’re loud, obnoxious, in-your-face, lovers of arguments and debates. “Greek Fire” isn’t just a chemical concoction akin to Napalm…

I consider myself a recovering passive-agressive “overreactor”, someone slowly overcoming my insane reactions to things that don’t go according to my well-thought-out plans, but I’m still a product of my family and my own “Greek Fire.” Lately – er… over the past 7 years – I’ve been training myself to analyze when it’s OK to get angry and how far to take it if at all. Things beyond my control are not worth the increase in blood pressure and migraine. Things I can control are not worth it either – I just channel the energy I would have otherwise used screaming or crying or throwing things towards changing the things I can. I’m not perfect – but I think I’m improving.

With all that out of the way – yes, we had a big battle Christmas Eve and a minor skirmish Christmas morning… But in spite of all the dagger-throwing eyes, Greek-English word wars and fights with food, we had a good Christmas. We sang Christmas carols after the dinner debacle and opened our gifts, we happily ate our eggs & bacon & toast for breakfast Christmas morning after the food incident, and had a wonderful 8 hour marathon eating/talking/music spree at my Aunt & Uncle’s house.

My family is flawed. Chances are, yours is too. But we love ‘em anyway, and we make the best of some crazy-assed situations don’t we?

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.

Music is taking over…

My life for the past 4 weeks has been usurped by music. My husband was put in charge of putting together tunes for our annual Christmas dealie. This year it’s called “Christmas Unwrapped.” And since my husband is involved, and since I play bass, I’m roped into all the stuff that’s involved in creating a program like this. It’s only music, but we’ve only had about 6 weeks total to prepare. Yes, we are stressed. And the performances are this weekend.

It’s a good thing we’ve been playing with the rest of the musicians for years and we know how to work together – and it doesn’t hurt that we’re all good at what we do . But there’s always the transitions, how to get people on & off stage, logistics of lighting, keeping the stage volume down… ack. Good thing my only job is to play bass.

It is going to be tons of fun, for sure – the songs are mostly traditional christmas songs with a bit of a twist. There’s some jazz, swing, punk, rock n’ roll, bluegrass & emo… ok I’m stretching it, but it’s almost emo – a version of Little Drummer Boy with a drum circle finale. Hubbie’s arranged two of the songs – a jazz medley of Carol of the Bells & My Favorite Things and an appalachian/americana/art-folk verision of the christmas song I like the least: Away in a Manger with mandolin & pennywhistle. It’s amazing… I don’t mean to brag (yes, yes I do), but my husband’s a great musician .

So I’m walking through this week with christmas songs etched into my brain, fingers twitching across an imaginary bass fretboard, trying to stay awake at my day job because of late practices… I love it! But I’ll be glad when it’s over – we get to rest.

Building my Empire

I’ve been trying to find ways to make a living using my crafts/art. So far, I’ve sold a few prints & hand-made journals, but selling is not my strong point. Besides learning to sell and setting aside my ‘modesty’ in order to push my products and sell myself, I need to find a few more things that come easily that may supplement the sporadic sales of art & notebooks.

Last weekend I taught a group of girls to make cell phone pouches out of felt and little notebooks using a simple pamphlet stitch. I had a blast. I’ve always liked teaching, but don’t feel like getting any teacher certs to be allowed in to public schools. I prefer to do things on my own terms.

I frequent a great stamp/paper shop in a nearby town square. The owners are fantastic people and I’ve spoken with the husband of the duo that owns the place quite a few times. I’ve shown the couple my art journal, and more recently, a book I made at a workshop given at Praxium Press. These folks are very encouraging, and I was told that I am more than welcome to teach a class at the store whenever I wanted. So, I suppose teaching in some way will be a good way to go. So this is definitely another area I need to explore.

I’ve been reading several successful crafters’ blogs and listened to their podcasts. Each one of them says at some point to write. Write what you know, submit to trade publications, your favorite magazines, newspapers… And if you’ve got a lot to say, write a book. Now, writing is something else I enjoy, but I’ve never really done much outside of technical documentation & user manuals at work.

Here’s to a three-pronged attack at my new career, and a few goals to keep me honest:

1. Come up with 2 article ideas (one craft-oriented & one misc.) & send a query to at least 5 magazines by Feb 2006
2. Set up 5 craft/art classes for the first half of 2006
3. Re-tool my website (this one) to feature my creative work/business first instead of the blog by the end of January 2006.

Wow… I’d better get started, eh?

I can’t stand bad writing.

I picked up a couple books last week to fill my time while hubbie’s out of town. One was the Search for Fierra, The (EMPYRION) by Stephen Lawhead. The other was The five people you meet in heaven by Mitch Albom.

The first is a ‘christian’ sci-fi athor. The book was OK – writing kinda stunk in some places – some clichéd phrases, plot was decent, nothing too innovative, but I do want to find out how it ends.

I’ve heard tons of raves about The Five People You Meet in Heaven. I wasn’t impressed. I was hoping for a good story but all I got was the author spelling it all out for me. Am I alone thinking that a good writer doesn’t have to painstaikingly explain every single little point she or he is trying to make? I don’t like being preached at when I’m expecting a good story, so I put the book down and will be returning it to the library soon.

There is a sort of book where it’s OK to spell out your points. Fiction isn’t one of them. I think it was in Stephen King’s Hearts in Atlantis where a character says something along the lines of “When you read a book you are putting yourself into it, and the book is putting itself into you. If the book’s not giving back after 20 pages or so, put it down.” I can’t remember the exact quote, but you get the idea. I got to page 60 in The Five People… before I put it down – should have done so earlier. (And seeing some reviews on amazon, I’m not the only one.)

I guess the point of this is: never waste time on a poorly written book.

A new life

It didn’t hit me until earlier this week – but friends of mine from had baby girl the same night our friend was killed in a car accident… life in the midst of death. Cliché? Possibly – but God knows what He’s doing.

Congrats Amy & Ernie on your new baby, Lily Grace – she is beautiful.

I am rarely girly…

but i squealed when i saw these. literally. covered my mouth and squealed so no one could really hear it since i’m the only ‘chick’ in a 3-person tech dept…

i may just have to start wearing earrings other than my teeny hoops.

A senseless death…

Last night at rush hour a man was killed instantly in a head-on collision when another man crossed the median and went into oncoming traffic.

The man who died was a good friend. He left behind a wonderful wife, struggling teenage daughter, and 20-something son in a recording internship.

If you’re the praying type, please pray for them. I fear most for his daughter whose faith is wavering. But all three of them need comfort…

thanks.

The Arrrt! Pouch

I’ve posted this on several other places, but not here yet. Guess I was so excited about it that I completely forgot my blog. So… here’s my Arrrt! Pouch.
  

This was made with craft felt, embroidery thread, two star buttons & heavy-weight canvas (for the lining). It’s all sewn by hand, and it (my hand) has finally recovered (since Friday). Next time I make something like this, I’ll use a sewing machine.

I’m seriously considering applying for the Creative Commons Founder’s Copyright for the skull & crossbones design there (well, including the arrrt! too…). I’m rather fond of it.

So… there it is. My first hand-sewn anything since middle-school.

Week 3 – no TV & other little things…

I read an article today about quitting TV… it’s a good read.

My husband and I decided about 3 weeks ago to turn of the TV for good. We cancelled our DirecTV subscription (after I swore at the guy trying to get me to keep it… Sorry, dude – you were pushing too hard), and upped our Netflix. We’re being selective about what we watch and filling our time with more meaningful, and less brain-draining things. I’ve been reading like mad, devouring books – I go to the library at least once a week these days. I’ve also been making journals, which I hope to sell – and one of which I sold to a co-worker who comissioned it for her roomate’s birthday. And I’ve been working on my art journal – I keep forgetting to scan stuff to put up, but I will… eventually

In other news, I got the bug to make a felt pouch for my portable art kit. I bought the felt & embroidery thread from the craft store and spent four hours last night on it… and completely botched it. Pouring your heart & soul into a stinkin’ little pouch and having your expectations ripped to shreds because you placed the felt skull appliqué in the wrong stinking place… all I have to say is my eyes were very puffy this morning.

I guess this is a lesson in PLANNING – although I though I planned enough. I’ll give it another try this weeked because I really am fed up with the box I carry around currently.

I also put up the “buy stuff” page. There are two prints up there, and I’ll look through my collection and see what else I want to add.

And if anyone has any hints as to why my computer won’t install the art paper icc profiles properly for my Epson R1800, let me know – it’s driving me nuts that I can’t use the awesome watercolor paper I bought… my little iBook is in dire need of a fresh start, so maybe reformatting will help?

Oh, and one more thing. If you’re into podcasts, you’re a creative, and you hate your day job (even if you don’t…), you MUST listen to Media Artist Secrets.

And yet even more Lewis…

If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
C.S. Lewis