Run Ragged but in a Hopeful Place

I am running myself ragged.  Going to bed at 2am and still not feeling like I am getting anything done is getting old.  Recently, I canned a few jars of grape jelly and the first batch didn’t quite set firmly enough.  The jelly was still fabulous anyway.  I feel like unset jelly….errrr which reminds me, I need to add “joining a gym” to my list ASAP…..

Funny thing is, I still feel as if I am in a hopeful place.  I feel the perpetual tug forward.  I feel the excitement of what’s to come next, of which I haven’t a clue.  At least I am not sitting still.   Anyone else in this place?

Flying Lessons Complete: a Kelly Rae Roberts E-course Review

Finished my e-course.

BWS tips button

What an awesome e-course.  I will certainly be taking more courses offered by Kelly Rae Roberts in the future.  She is absolutely one of my favorite artists, and any advice she can give me about business and art I will gladly pay good money for.  Kelly Rae has cornered the market in her style of art and has made being a successful artist look so easy.  So when the opportunity arose to take a course about just that, I jumped at the opportunity.  Now the 5 week class has come to an end and I have a few thoughts about how the class went.

A few of the things I really liked:

  • The class and format was easy and informal.  It was simple to log in whenever I needed without the need to be present at a certain time and day.  I have a new baby at home so time management is a huge factor for me.  The format was easy to navigate and I could easily read the day’s lesson on my iPhone while I fed the baby.
  • It was easy to interact with fellow fliers and definitely saw some bonding and groupings going on.  I even joined a Facebook group created by a classmate and It seems to have blossomed into a great group of fellow artists.  Yay for networking!
  • Speaking of networking, Kelly Rae really encouraged our networking and I got a lot of traffic to my site because of this.
  • Anything I needed to know about running a creative business was at my finger tips.  There were so many links and resources listed all in one place.
  • Kelly Rae was diligent and dedicated to her students.  The main way of communicating was trough the comment system and she read every one and responded and adapted when necessary.
  • The information and course work was extremely thorough and definitely invaluable.  That alone made it  totally worth every penny.  She set a standard for the course and she maintained it.

There were, however a few things I didn’t like and out of fairness should list them as well.  They, of course, are my own opinion so take them with a grain of salt:

  • Because the comment section was pretty much the only way of communicating, it was almost impossible to navigate through the hundreds of comments and still know what was going on sometimes.  I found myself just picking comments at random and responding to them just to get my voice heard (and hopefully my link clicked on).  I have ADD issues and found it a little overwhelming some days.  Maybe forum discussions and a virtual classroom of some sort could be utilized to better organize this (IMHO).
  • I understand that because of language barriers there wasn’t video instruction, but it really would have been helpful.  There was a TON of content to read through and I really didn’t have a whole lot of time to spare some nights.  Also, I missed the occasional class and catching up was difficult.  A video here and there would have saved me a little eye strain :-).

That being said, for her first e-course it was pretty spankin’ good.  With a few tweaks here and there, her future ones should be freakin’ fantastic.  I would definitely take this again.  Lastly, I opted not to purchase the added-on, for an additional cost, PDF copy of the class.  I saved a PDF copy myself.  I liked that this was an “at my discretion” sort of thing and not a required purchase.

p.s. have you checked out the shop today?

Peace and Love my friends.

Merry Independence Day

I hope everyone has a safe and happy time celebrating this Great Nation’s Independence Day.  This was last year’s 4th of July at my parent’s house.  I plan on being in the exact spot as seen in the photo and do nothing but kick back and relax all weekend.    Word from my mother is that it has been raining for days now and may still be raining by Sunday.  That is still not stopping Parker from stopping at the first fireworks warehouse he sees along I-20 and spend his life savings.

I hope you all have as wonderful a time this weekend as we plan too.  See you Tuesday….Maybe…

Much love,

Wenders

Poor Mags

Poor Mags. You’d think he would’ve learned by now to stay away from me when I have paintbrush in hand, but nooooo. His white stripe is too irresistible to not paint. I call this Mags in Red.

On Creativity-Ken Robinson is the Man!

I am somewhat obsessed with TED Talks.  I loved them before, but now that I found a TED iPhone app and I am Obsessed with a capital O.  Ken Robinson gave a wonderful talk on our educational system killing creativity.  It’s not a new one, but I have watched it several times and each time I am inspired to keep art and creative purpose in my children’s life.  My oldest is 13 this summer and hasn’t had an art class in school since kindergarten.  They had art “time” a few times a week in early elementary but that was all. Parker has always been a free thinking, out side of the box kind of kid, but unfortunately this kind of thinking doesn’t comply with the answers on a standardized test.  I am deeply saddened by this and an thoroughly disappointed in this substandard.  My youngest is only 4months old, and already I am questioning whether a public school education will provide the type of learning I want him to have.  At this point, I am inclined to think not.  What a world we will live in when creative thinking is not allowed.  I shiver with fear.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Oh ma Gosh wow, I’m in Business now!

I am brave…I am brave….I am brave…I am…..Dang! I may not be!  Going forth and being a real <insert real life dream occupation here> is scary business!  I still feel on the cusp of something.  I wonder when I will not feel that way?  I am taking more and more steps to actualize my creative business…i.e. Wenderz the Art Lady makes money at being an art lady.  Soooooo step #something was to create real business cards to attest to the fact.  That makes it official right?  The way I see it, a business card that says you are <insert what it says you are>, then you must be that.

Super awesome BFS designed the best cards ever and I can’t wait to receive them from the printer and start handing them to every one and their dog (because even dogs need art and I don’t discriminate).Here is a sneak preview!  I don’t even want to tell you how cool the back of the card is going to be.  Let me know what you think.

Do you ever have the feeling you are just moving things from one table to the other, one pile to the next,then back again?  This is what I am doing… literally and figuratively.  I’ve just about given up on lists as a way to organize and prioritize.  This is so saddening to me as I really love making lists.  The problem with lists is that once I have written down what I need to do, my mind is satisfied.  I can even trick myself into thinking whatever task was written on the list is now properly organized and squared away without even doing it.  What is wrong with me! It should never be THAT easy to trick oneself, but alas it can be done!  Is there anyone else who is like this?  What do you do to get things done?  Mind that I am also a SAHM to a 4 month old so most of my brain is not functioning properly at the moment!

That being said….lets make a list….(never said I didn’t have issues!)……SO…. some things I am really needing to get squared away in Wenderflonia land are:

  • Absolutely, I think getting around to making a business plan would be a good idea.  This is mainly to help me with goals I am needing to hit.  Wenderflonia Studios is on the right track, but is in need of more structure.
  • Organize stu-stu-studio!  I was gone for two weeks and have hardly worked in my little corner of the house since …how did I get it so….exploded.
  • Line them up and crank ’em out.  I have about 10 pieces that are in various stages of completion.  I need to evaluate where I stand on each one and keep a tally on who is winning.  So far it is Paintings:7/Wenderz:3.
  • Organize photos and work on gallery.  I have about a billionty photos that need to be erased (cuz I realllly need to keep 5 blurry pics of Baby J’s ear!) or put in a proper, easy-to-find-folder…..in a logical spot….with back up…oh gosh I’m tired.  I’m not sure what’s going on with the gallery on this site but some pics are not showing and quite honestly it is looking sparse and sad.

OK stopping here; although I can think of MANY other things that need to be list-ized.  This will be enough to stress me out this weekend THANK-YOU!  I’ll let ya know Monday how this all works out.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Reprise

Today is a day for rest and reflection. We will regroup and remember what is important to us and our family.

We will refrain from making judgments and snap decisions and replace the bad thoughts with the good.

Today is a good day to realize our blessings and make everything we can out of what has been gifted to us.

We will relax and not stress about the things that are unchangable or unbending.

Today we rewind and reorganize. Remove the unnecessary. Rationalize the necessary…. And probably redo something!

Remaining who we are the entire time!

ReWenderz

The Daily White Board

So Bfs does this great thing every morning at work while having his coffee. He does a progressional comic on the whiteboard behind his desk. Usually, it’s to commemorate or count down an event happening in the office. In the latest one, I was really invested in seeing if the giraffe escaped the clutches of the alligator in the countdown to a coworker’s African vacation. This is great stuff folks! He is now making it available to all at http://thedailywhiteboard.com. Check it out and add it to your RSS feeds because you will want to see what happens every day.