Monday, February 5, 2018

A New Year: 2018, I Welcome You!

Greetings! Things have been hopping around here since the end of 2017 and I couldn't be more excited!

I'm in the midst of an organizational cleanse, something I didn't do last year but usually take January and February to get my space clean and organized. I'm going through dish shards at the moment, sorting them into 3 different categories: designs, floral and solids. Very small pieces are being studied and if it's possible to use them, I keep them. If they are odd shaped on all sides or something isn't quite right, I toss them. There isn't much I toss, but in doing that, even with a few small pieces, I allow the muse some much needed energy to grow.

Luckily, I occasionally have a helper; one of the grandchildren who is in high school now has been coming up to my attic space for a few hours every so often on a Saturday and assisted me in my small studio. So far she's learned to grout 3D objects (small ornaments) and prime substrates (wooden pieces to be given some mosaic magic) and is now helping me with the tedious task of looking at every small piece of tess and deciding where it should go. I'm not sure I can ever convince her to allow me to take her picture for the blog but I'm hopeful you'll meet her soon!




Once everything we've found has been sorting in this way, we'll go through it once more for a final sorting, all by color and put into bags and containers and back on the shelves. Then we get to start in on the glass pieces! Woohoo and yikes!! There are twice as many small pieces of glass all tossed together in boxes as there was dish shards, so this might take a while!

Sometimes, because I have a tendency to dump things when I don't have time to sort through what I'm using properly, I end up with lots of different goodies such as these within the boxes marked "dish shards":


Last year around this time, I was just getting settled into a new home, new surroundings, new people. Our family vibe is still strong and we're all growing strong and being nurtured by the elements around us. There is love and respect for each other and we all enjoy each others' company. We're still 10-12 strong here at the farm and believe it or not, some days we don't even see each other! But when we're all gathered around in the kitchen, it's a wonderful feeling to know we are not ever alone.

On Wednesday, I'll share what's on the work table and tell you about some exciting things coming up, including a new business name and website!

 Support Independent Artisans, Designers and Crafters for your gift-giving needs all throughout the year. Thank you!

Stay Peaceful and Enjoy the Moments.