End-of-the Year Thoughts

It is cold, gray, and it is the 23rd of December.  Yes, I have my shopping done. Nothing's wrapped yet, and I have company staying here...my son, who is a Special Forces soldier, and his two boys.  Wonderful, funny, noisy, busy company.  Am I stressing out? 

Ummm.  No, I've decided to take a quiet break when I need one, and be very, very , very thankful that my soldier came home.  I'm so proud of him.  And so very aware of families that will, for one reason or another...be celebrating Christmas without their soldier. 

Today I was down in the basement studio, working on some artwork for a friend, and I happened across an old spiral-bound notebook from 2000, 2001 and 2002.  At that time I belonged to a small group of women who met once a week for potluck dinner and an hour of "inner self" work.  I flipped the notebook open, curious to see what my thoughts were amost 10 years ago, and came across this:

"The thing I can accept as a continuum: that I will continue to swim...sometimes dogpaddle, sometimes float peacefully, sometimes tread water, sometimes backstroke, etc.  And I am afraid of drowning.  I am not an expert swimmer.  I have either jumped into, or have been thrown into deep water...and then was rescued, coughing and sputtering, or have pulled myself to safety, my heart pounding...

...but to quit getting into the water is to miss the sensation of being weightless, and miss the feathery caresses of the water.  So I will continue to swim."

Thinking grateful thoughts,
Blessings,
Miss Elainie

Shocker Becomes Learning Experience!

While I was off work recovering from pneumonia, my friend Pat came over, bearing a recent issue (Nov. 2010) of Birds and Blooms magazine.  I happen to like that magazine, and we have a little recycle thing going, with newspapers from our house going her way, and magazines from her house visiting me.

Anyway, she told me I needed to look at page 58, and I did.  It was such a shock that it's a wonder I didn't have a relapse right then and there!  And not only was I shocked, I was mad and discouraged, too!

For there on the page was a beautiful wind chime, made of a silver teapot and silver spoons, and the hanging parts were beaded.  The same kind of thing I had been making, independently, all summer, for my fall shows.  I use lots of other items besides teapots and spoons, but still!  I had thought I was being so crafty and different!  (See photos at right)

Included in the article were detailed instructions on how to make your own version of the pictured chime, and also, there was a website:
http://tempestinateapot.net/.  A couple of weeks later, after I came out of my drama and subsequent slump, I decided to visit the website to see what else was being made by the artist, Elsa Mikus. 

Interesting!  Lovely!  In addition to seeing her other works, I got acquainted with the way her site is effectively set up to sell her artwork.  No longer feeling disgusted, turning my attitude around had made a useful learning experience.

So, you crafting and artist readers, I encourage you to get hold of the magazine, or visit the website.  And as usual, blessings to all--and to you,too, Elsa!

Miss Elainie

Time Flies

Today's subject involves not only my literal time, and how I spend it...but thoughts on how to incorporate the concept of time into my work.  Some visuals that intrigue me: compass roses, like the ones used on old maps, to show the directions, and clock faces.  Wait, there's more:  keys and spirals.  Direction, time, and place, and unlocking something.  Hmmm.

I have already decided that I need some junked clocks to take apart for their interesting gears, to use in a project about time... and the compass rose and the spiral both have to do with finding direction, the spiral being about growth and influence as you live...and the keys evoking the keeping safe or the freeing of something.  Thoughts to ponder.

Anyone who has been following my blog knows that I am off work, struggling to recover from pneumonia.  It has been a frightening and sobering experience to be this sick and have this much trouble getting well.  It certainly has made me do lots of thinking about life, the people I love, and the pursuit of a satisfying creative life.

Blessings---Miss Elainie

Back in the Saddle, and Not Going Anywhere!

This time, I'm blogging about being hospitalized with pneumonia, missing more work, and coming home to rest for a week.  Who knew that the noodle-y legs would lead to this?!

I'm home, with orders to sit. And rest.  And hydrate. It's given me ample time to think about my blessings: caring family and friends, and students and coworkers...a caring and loving husband, a peaceful and nature-abundant place to live. 

Today is my second day home from the hospital, and while I was gone, all the pretty golden leaves fell.  The flower garden west of the house is still in riotous array, colorful spires and blooms falling over each other in their last hurrah of the season.  Colder and perhaps freezing temperatures are forecasted, so I am paying attention to all the colorful displays while they are available.

I snipped three roses to bring into the entry hallway, arranged some other plants and flowers that came to me, and sat down with a steaming cup of Korean tea, called Ssangwha Cha.  It is a delicious, spicy, nutmeg-y tasting tea that comes in little packets that include chopped fruits and nuts (I think).  You can buy it at Korean grocery markets.

Later, I put on a long denim jacket with a hood and fun wooden-toggle closings, hooked up Jackson, and took him out for a doggy-potty-break.  Passing the mailbox, I snagged several envelopes addressed to me, two of them being large, manila-type envelopes.

I found a sunny, quiet spot on the red brick patio, settled into a green rocking-style patio chair, and shook out the contents of the envelopes.
Two were cards from loving friends, and the big envelopes were full of get well wishes from two of my classes.  I sat there in the sunshine, with the mild fall breeze ruffling my hair, and smiled over the love and hard work of my art students.  Hickory nuts were scattered over the table-top in front of me, as well as acorns and fallen leaves.  I reached over and lifted a resin bird statue to anchor the fluttering pages. 

I am thinking here of the teachers who took the time and effort to have their students do this kindness...about what that teaches children, to think of others, to reach out, to express empathy.

Of course, I came on inside and rested after the outing, and reflected some more about life and love and gratefulness.

I think I'll refill my teacup, snuggle with the dog, and begin using one of my new idea-journals to jot down some inspirational thoughts.

Blessings!--Miss Elainie



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The Energy Fairies Attack

Friends, I knew last week there was going to be trouble.  There was a show coming up, and things needed to be done.  And, true to form, I suddenly decided that I should buy another folding table to take to the show.  (I demonstrate my craft during the show, which entertains my customers and keeps me busy).  Anyhow, I was part-way through my search when the energy fairies attacked.  They dashed cold water over my plans, and skittered away laughing, leaving tiny sparkles behind.  I knew it instantly, although I only saw them out of the corner of my eye.  My legs went noodle-y and all ambition went flying away.  I plunked down in the driver's seat and sat there for a minute, pondering whether I had enough energy to drive home.  (I did.  Barely.)

By the end of the show Saturday night, it was obvious that I was going to be um, flat on  my back.  This is not surprising, since I always do this when I get over-tired, and over-stressed.  It has a lot to do with working full-time, and trying to be my creative-genius self at the same time. :)

I ended up missing two days of work, and am still not back to my usual self. I've decided not to do any more shows through the end of the year.  I'll just concentrate on making more products, making a better blog, improving my advertising and networking.

And, come on back, energy fairies!  I promise not to over-do it!

Blessings!  Miss Elainie

Smithville's Octoberfest Show

This show was the first for MissElainie'sEmporium to display windchimes and art magnets under the auspices of the new name.
When asked where I came up with the name, I told people that the name is a play on words---the word "miscellany" means an assortment of various objects, and an "emporium" is a store that carries lots of various items.  Plus, my neice's middle name is Elaine, so the spelling changed miscellany to MissElainie.  Cute, huh?  I love it.

Anyhow, the business cards with my blogspot address and my phone number went home with customers and potential customers, and I had interested persons sign up for a newsletter (to be created soon).

We were fortunate to have a wonderful turnout of people, enjoying all the music shows, booths and activities available, plus the local food favorites.  And I was blessed to have my friends from The Vintage Flamingo right next to me.  Their store is an amazing collection of vintage and eclectic finds, in downtown Smithville (M0), and the three women who run it are a hoot.  I can't stay away from the shop, whose merchandise changes almost daily, and the gals are new friends that I just adore.

Speaking of blessings and friends, my friend Pat (who is retired from Hallmark) showed up at lunchtime, with not only MY lunch, but lunch for the three Flamingos...and since she lives next door, she dropped off lunch for my husband, too!  And what a lunch!  She served chicken salad in guacamole tortilla wraps, with tomato basil chips, fruit wedges, and baked a cake to share for dessert!  The plates were beautiful large paper plates with a fall theme...and people walking by stared and demanded to know what food booth was selling THOSE!

It was a good show, sales-wise, and an auspicious beginning.  I am thankful (and tired!) and encouraged.  Many thanks to my customers!

Blessings---Miss Elainie :)

Partners in Crime

I have at least four artist friends who accompany me on "artist dates" once in a while.  I borrowed the term from author Julia Cameron, who recommends individual, alone-time artist dates, to promote creativity.  I do those, of course, wandering and pondering...but my greatest fun comes from getting together with a friend and casing the latest inspirational source.  We've been known to yell, "artist date!" when there's something interesting we want to come back to investigate.  We've also been known to slyly refer to ourselves as "partners in crime," because we tend to spend all day and spend out our maximum allowance of reseources.

But it's only in jest, the crime part.  We are really enjoying ourselves and purposefully filling up with fresh ideas and materials.  Local thrift stores are a treasure-trove of possibilities, but we also love:  Ten Thousand Villages  http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/,  Pier One, http://www.pierone.com/, and Urban Arts and Crafts http://www.urbanartsandcrafts.com/.  We snark that they are really Suburban Arts and Crafts, since they moved from their first, downtown location, to a suburban hilltop retail village overlooking downtown.  Note:  somebody on these trips needs to drive a vehicle with carrying capacity!

The only problem we've run into, besides running out of time and money, was the fact that we all tend to admire/covet the same things at the same time! Nothing makes you conflicted like the stricken look on your friend's face when YOU snag the item first!  On the flip side, having a like-minded friend along can validate your choices, provide feedback on an item, or snag an item for you, that they know you will love!  Gift-giving to your like-minded artist friends is a breeze.

Spread Kindness!---MissElainie

When Overload Strikes

Creative people are frequent sufferers from overload, for various reasons:  we work full-time at a "regular" job and then try to squeeze all our creative projects into to our "spare" time (which is why the clean laundry is solidifying into a new continent on my bedroom floor, ha, ha, ha).  But seriously, there are other things that have to get done, too, or the house falls apart, there's only a path through the rooms, and somebody hotlines you for being a hoarder or creating a public nuisance!

I know that we all share the overload problem, regardless of what we do for a living, but I think that creatives get frustrated for the above reason and others.  I've been known to joke that my day job gets in the way of my creativity, but it's also how I support (monetarily) my creativity. What a dilemma.

Here's what I do to save my ideas and sanity:  keep a journal handy.  Mine is small enough to fit in my purse, and I write down ideas, problems and do sketches when they come to my mind, or at least scribble a note or a post-it and stick it to the journal so I can revisit the idea later.  Oh, all right, sometimes it's the back of a Wal-Mart receipt, that gets crammed between the pages, but you get the idea.  There's a specific place to put ideas. And it doesn't mean you have to act on each one, either--sometimes they need to germinate, percolate, or ferment.  I look back through my journal periodically and either take action on an idea, add to something, or appreciate it as an idea for later.  Either way, it's a very valuable tool!

Blessings!---Miss Elainie

Wisdom comes from unexpected sources

This morning, I thought I would never get going.  It was one of those mornings when all I wanted to do was pull the covers back over me, close my eyes, and drift into hours of blissful nothingness.  Instead, I sloshed down some coffee, and picked out a lime green and hot pink skirt with orange and purple accents and sequins to go with a hot pink top.  Believe me, the skirt was the only thing that was sparkling.

 I dragged myself off to school.  Then, during a fourth grade art class, a student came up to share her sketchbook work.  (We have ten wonderful, silent minutes at the beginning of every class, provided so that each student can float away into his or her mind, totally absorbed in their own creative thoughts.)  This is always fascinating, to see what they are drawing about and pondering, and how theyy solve visual dilemmas.  The piece that was shared was so wise, I copied it down to share with you.  The page was divided into a grid, and the left diagonal space had a pattern of blue squares.  The right side was white, the boxes filled with letters that spelled out this thought:  "When you paint a picture, it sometimes tells a story, because art is in the human mind, not in the picture itself." 

I was trying to remember if I had deep thoughts like that when I was 10.  I remember being kind of a loner and very contemplative, in addition to being smitten by the dark good looks of a boy in my grade.  A memory just came to me about wandering the outfield area of our new playgound, where there was a long, cement drainage ditch, filled with water and a film of mud, and tadpoles of all sizes were swimming around in there.  I was mesmerized.  I think I spent most of my growing-up school recesses wandering and thinking and noticing things.  Perhaps that was the beginning of the creative consciousness I have developed over the years.

Today I have included links to authors who have been influential in my thinking about creativity.  I'd love to hear your comments!

Blessings--Miss Elainie

Being in the Moment

Yesterday after work, I took my own advice...I set out to purposefully notice things about my surroundings.  As soon as I get home, I take Jackson ( our canine companion) out for a walk, to his great joy.  If you've ever walked a dog, you know that they pull and investigate, sniff everything, and pee all along the way. So I investigated, too.  (NO, I didn't pee along the way!) 

What I noticed:  The black spots and deeply-cut divisions of leaves on yellowing wild plants along the ditch... the 7-foot-tall, feathery spires of our striped zebra grass...and the sudden flurry of two beautiful yellow-and-black finches that were startled out of their hiding places by our approach. 

The biggest surprise on the walk, was the snakeskin I found on the potting bench.  Of course, I jumped and let out a squeak.  I made myself look closely.  The skin was about 3 feet long, translucent gray with the delicate scale pattern and underbelly ridges plainly visible.  The snake had wound itself around some buckets and tools, and around a couple of metal sunflower shapes I was saving for a project...and rubbed its skin off, and was gone. 

Now...I wonder where that snake is.  It'd better not have sneaked into the downstairs when the workshop garage door was open!!\

 My husband was late for supper, which I used as a stolen moment to work at the dining room table on some windchimes for my upcoming show.  It sure was hard for me to clip parts together and wait overnight for the glue to dry.  ( I'm including some beadwork in the project, and I like to secure the strands with knots and a dab of jewel-glue.)  My enthusiasm and excitement in the creative processes makes me impatient sometimes.

Blessings!--Miss Elainie

Christmas arrives early!

Last evening I went out in the glow of sunset and gathered a huge bouquet from my garden.  It has been such a hot and muggy (and buggy!) summer, that I'm afraid I rather neglected the garden beds, and the plants ran amok.  The deep purple morning glories had crawled  away from the arched entrance and twined around the basil and pineapple sage.  The orange trumpet vine had also gone wandering off , inching along the lavender bed.  A tall stand of wild goldenrod had sprung up there, too.

The flowers inspire me with their varied colors and shapes.  The fiery red-orange of the Mexican sunflowers is a favorite that I like to wear and to use in my home decor as accents. This summer I took some fiery red-orange glass beads in a big, chunky size, some medium-sized amber glass beads and two antique skeleton keys, with me on vacation.  I was visiting my lovely and creative sister, and we made matching window-dangles out of the beads and keys.  The openings at the handle-end of the keys looked like hearts, so it was a perfect expression of our connection and love, to hang up in a window and think of each other.  Mine hangs gleaming in the light oof the double glass doors to our deck, with the deep greens of the woods beyond. 

Looking out at nature is always spiritually lifting...one reason we bought the house we live in was the surrounding woods and the greenspace near the house, where we have gardens and flowers.  Another reason we love this house is the unique design; it's sort of a cross between Victorian and ranch.  The living room is hexagonal, with a turret-style roof, which is why my art studio below is also hexagonal in shape.

What inspires you?  Do you find interest in texture and color, in the place where you live or work?  Are you aware of the shapes and forms and surfaces in the city?  The curves and cul-de-cacs of your subdivision?  Take time soon to notice something new about your surroundings.  Take photos or if possible, small souvenirs from nature, and keep them handy.  Breathe and enjoy. Treasure the little things as well as the wide vistas of your location. Wonder, joy and inspiration are all around us.

Gosh, while I was waxing poetic, I almost forgot to mention why Christmas came early!  My lovely and creative friend from the next acreage came over last night and brought me a tub of funky-scissors, a shopping bag of crafty odds and ends and scrapbooking leftovers, and a collection of old kitchen implements for my latest projects.  Wow!  What fun!  Guess who got the huge bouquet of garden flowers I had gathered earlier!

Blessings!---Miss Elainie

Day One

Today is the very first blog entry for Miss Elainie.  The Emporium consists of  crafts, vintage items, and the creative processes that make the projects.

 I hope you will laugh along, cringe along, and share the weird and wonderful world of creative thinking!

There actually is a Miss Elainie, and she really is an artist and crafter, and her studio really exists.  In her basement.  There, that ought to ring a bell with many of you.  Oh, and the dining-room table gets plenty of use.  To the point where, if we decide to have friends over to dinner, we have to un-earth the table and figure out where to stash the clutter for the duration of the entertaining.  I bet you know just what I'm talking about!

Right now, the dining-room table holds the makings for my windchimes, but I am itching to get out my sewing machine and begin working on the aprons I have in my mind. 

The basement studio is, well, waiting to exhale, so to speak.  It is stacked with boxes and piles of stuff that was moved from another storage project.

  But under all the stuff is a hexagonal room with tall windows on three sides.  The curtains are pink and orange see-through panels lined with sequins at the seams.  Stained glass ornaments hang in the light of the windows.

The walls are a pale peach, the shelves white, and every available surface seems to be covered with inspirational artwork, ideas, supplies, books and
projects.  There is a field-easel with watercolors, a workspace for beading and sculpey, a rack of acrylic paints; there are lidded tubs of fabric, and stained glass supplies, a matcutter, colored pencils, oil pastels, caligraphy sets.  It's an art-supply heaven.  

To the outside eye, and I mean my husband mainly, it's a mess, and begs a bulldozer.  NOT!!  One of these days I am going to retire from teaching art and submerge myself in there.  

The first thing I am doing is reading a wonderful little book by Kari Chapin.  Little by little, I'm getting the drift of how to set up my art on line and start selling it.  This blog is my first step.

Later!---Miss Elainie