good morning afternoon. Do I look tired? I think I perpetually do these days, but I’m working today (yay!) and getting things done! (and drinking lots of this green superfood drink to rev up my energy!)

Today I did an interview on a friend’s blog that will post soon. Then I uploaded a bunch of old (and some new-ish) images to flickr so there’s a current collection of my work there. It was getting pretty stale. And worked on my lessons from the online course From the Fishbowl to the Sea — so great! This course has me taking stock of where I am, where I have come from and where I am going in this big ol’ fishbowl of being an artist online (and off!). Being in business for myself has been so fun, but I definitely don’t think I’m running a profitable business and I am certainly running on the hamster wheel of survival and making it work but not “really” working. :::sigh::::

But really… where have I been? Sometimes I don’t feel like I’ve come very far since starting this business, but when I really look at it, I have! If anything, I have gained confidence in talking about it — saying “I am an artist” and “I am a business owner”!

I also think despite not making much work this past year (been otherwise occupied, it seems!), my style has evolved and I feel much more professional. Is that weird that I’m not doing as much work but I feel more professional? Hah. I guess I’m just not approaching it in such a carefree and casual way, it’s more important to spend time efficiently when I do get to work. I get stuck in this, too, though — I don’t want to “waste” my time, so I just end up doing little bits of things here and there, not really getting anything done most days. So here is my recent commitment, saying it to you might make it real: I want to paint more, make more, sell more! I am going to turn this into a thriving, profitable business one way or another. It might have to change completely, but that’s ok! Change is good. And sometimes welcome.

Starting with…. changing my business name? Just toying with the idea of dropping the “Designs” part…from the website anyway…. what do you think? I don’t even know how to do it on Etsy… I don’t think I can change the name there, but I could just change the banner and make it say “Laurie Coyle” with some kind of catchy tagline? Thoughts?

So this one time, I became friends with a very lovely and inspiring girl named Kari. We used to go out to “business” lunches when we both worked in jobs we didn’t like very much; we’d dream about starting our own businesses and being crafty everyday, and we’d talk about crazy things like having babies or writing books. Then we got the chance to work together in jobs we liked very much, and we kept on dreaming and got crafty together, Kari inspired me to develop my Etsy shop and product line, and we were always reading design and craft blogs while on our breaks. Then the store we worked at closed, and we had to move on to other things.

So maybe you can imagine that this year was a very big year for both of us, having different kinds of babies! You know about mine, but do you know about Kari’s BOOK? She wrote “The Handmade Marketplace“, which was ranked #1 Craft Book of the year by Amazon! Yay Kari!

It is chock full of all kinds of useful information about starting and running a crafty business, and selling your crafts locally, globally and online. Oh did I mention that I’m in it? Yeah, well, that was a fun perk to being friends with the author; as I’ve just been getting my business going these last few years, I was so thrilled to be included alongside so many amazing artists, crafters and bloggers such as Mati Rose McDonough, Diane Gilleland, Emily Martin, Grace Bonney, and Holly Becker; I think I did an ok job offering the “beginner’s perspective”, though. hehe.

So that’s the background. That all leads up to the fact that I am going to give away a copy of the book! It would be a wonderful gift for the crafty girl or guy in your life, or to yourself if you have ever entertained the thought of starting up your very own little craft biz!

**TO ENTER**

Just leave a comment here about a favorite holiday craft memory. This could be anything: a special handmade birthday gift from a friend; something you and your mom made together every year when you were a kid (my mom was a stellar snow-sculpture-maker!); or maybe even a baking project you embarked on (collapsed gingerbread house, anyone?). The winner will be chosen at random using a random number generator.

Entries will close at 12 noon EST Friday December 17. Good luck!

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Oh and as a side note, Kari is offering her second e-course starting in January! Fresh Start will be four weeks of exploring your crafty business goals and ways to achieve them, while giving you valuable tools that will help make your dreams come true along the way! {Also, she is writing a follow-up book! It’s true! We are such lucky little crafters!}

I don’t usually do stuff like this, but this course just sounds too cool to not tell you about! (course starts April 12th)

The Handmade Writer is an e-course taught by Amy Spencer of Bring Yourself. I do not really consider myself a writer,  but then I have to remind myself that writing a blog post is certainly writing. And an Etsy listing, or even a tweet! If you are thinking of starting a blog, looking for tips on making your writing more expressive, or are just interested in honing your writing skills, I highly recommend you look into this course.

From the Bring Yourself website description of the Handmade Writer:

“Take a crafty approach to creative writing and use the fabric of your life to tell your own extraordinary stories.

“The Handmade Writer e-course will help you gather together material from every source imaginable. You will learn about the craft of writing and how to sew these fragments together to build your own pieces of creative writing. The e-course has been inspired by the strength of craft communities as well as the impulse to transform everyday finds into something amazing.

“…Handmade Writer is the ideal place to take your writing a bit more seriously and will give you the motivation to find space for it in your busy life. By taking a crafty approach, you will start using material from your world to inspire your writing. You will be amazed by what you can achieve and at the end of the six weeks you will want to keep on writing.”

Sounds kinda great, eh?

(Would love to hear if you sign up and how it goes!)

I was recently asked: “Do you have something small, even silly perhaps, that is guaranteed to jump start your day or pull you out of a funk?” {this question is part of an exercise for this January’s session of the Mondo Beyondo e-course}

Here are my answers, in no particular order:

(feel free to add your own in the comments!)

• do a little yoga**
• go swimming**
• bake cookies**
• buy flowers
• buy plants
• garden
• meditate
• take photos — appreciating the little details and beauty everywhere
• cook a meal from fresh ingredients
• shop at a farmer’s market
• read blogs that inspire me
• write a blog post
• sew
• paint**
• draw
• design something on my computer
• write notes and letters to friends
• write in my journal
• upload and share photos
• snuggle the cat
• look through old photos/letters/e-mails/essays/blog posts
• reach out to friends and family; send presents
• take a nap
• play with dogs**
• take a walk**
• stargaze
• eat chocolate
• listen to some of my favorite music (particularly useful to me for lifting a funk: Ani DiFranco, Erin McKeown, Deb Talan/The Weepies, Modest Mouse, Postal Service, Eddie from Ohio, Ingrid Michaelson)
• read a book
• listen to an audiobook
• go for a drive (roadtrip preferable, listening to an audiobook a super-plus!)
• visit with (happy) farm animals
• play with children
• beautify: rearrange a shelf, a room, artwork on a wall. Or even just dust something.
• light candles
• read magazines
• take a hot shower
• laugh at something; call a silly friend or watch a ridiculous movie I’ve seen a million times (i.e. Office Space, Home Alone, Big Daddy), or if all else fails visit cakewrecks, oddly specific signs, cute overload, i can has cheezburger, the “blog” of unnecessary quotation marks, or autocomplete me (why DO walruses go to tupperware parties?).

**These are usually my no-fail go-to options. Proven over many trials to work wonders.

Blue Monday happens to be coming up next week, January 25th. Remember this time last year? Yeah, I’m feeling much better than I was then. Ok then. I think I should probably do one of the things on this list right now. I’m not so much in a funk, but they all sound like so much fun!

I couldn’t have said it better, so I’m here to point you to this post from Maya of Maya*Made about our journey “In the Fishbowl“; Marisa Haedike’s 6 week online course. I’m really missing it already and love love loved it so much. It’s been fun to see Marisa continuing with video posts on her blog, too. If you haven’t seen any yet, be sure to check them out. It’s part of a month-long project she’s been working on with the ever-inspiring Supercoach, Michael Neill. (Can’t I just have all these amazing souls over for dinner?)

of course it doesn’t hurt if they’re Orla Kiely dishes (from Target!). But still. It doesn’t all have to be pretty flowers, or as I like to say, rainbows and ponies and kittens. Nothing wrong with those, though. I like kittens. A LoT. But all this is just to say that (with loads of help from Marisa & The Fishbowl) I’m realizing that it’s ok to blog about the real life things, too. To give you a glimpse of the dirty and the in-progress as well as the finished and polished and beautiful.

So I’ll work on that. ;>

In the mean time, I’ll tell you that I had a fantastic time at the SoWa South End Open Market this past weekend! It was a little slow, but that gave us vendors lots of time to chat with one another and shop each others’ booths. That can be dangerous at times, but I am so thrilled that I came home with a new yoga mat from Katy’s Lotuspad line of eco-friendly yoga mats that are PVC-free, non-slip, easy to clean, and light weight. Oh and also, they’re gorgeous!

I got the green and brown one~!

I also managed to hold myself back and only get ONE delicious-smelling soy aromatherapy candle from the adorable Tseh-Hwan of Threla, as well as a bar of lilac soap as a gift for my mom and gramma — it really smells like lilac! YUM!

There were many of the same vendors as the last time I went, but lots of new ones as well. One of my favorite new (new to me, she was there last year, too!) SoWa faces is Mary of Mary Lynn Burke Photography. She is one of the most glowy ladies I have ever met. This might have something to do with the fact that she just had a baby — a MONTH ago! We also got to meet little Zofia for a minute or two and ooh and ahh over her tiny fingernails and little sighs. Can’t wait to see how she grows through the summer — it looks like Mary and I are doing most of the same dates through the season!

I must extend a super-amazing THANK YOU to my darling hubby John for coming with me and helping me shlep all the crafty goodness, as well as Vanessa & Heidi for stopping by (how nice is it to see a familar face in the crowd?! Besides John Krasinski from The Office, I mean!), Jaclyn & Terry for being our entertainment and Courtney & Gerrit for lending us their crash-pad — what amazing friends I have!

Where am I today? As usual, a little scattered. I have been feeling that as my ovearching emotion lately; scattered. I am extending myself in quite a few different directions lately, all for good reason. I think, though, that my intention may have been lacking. I have been joyfully saying “YES!” to any and all crafty and design requests that come my way. I love making special things for special people, so I don’t really see saying “no” coming along anytime soon, but I think I need to revisit why I’m doing each project. For my own sanity and sense of organization, I think I need check in and to make sure that each project in each specific time frame is serving my greater good and my goals, and that I do indeed have time for it, and that I am consciously, intentionally choosing to do it.

In Marisa’s class this week we were reminded to ground ourselves offline every once in a while, to really remind ourselves why we make what we make and sell how we sell and do what we do in this online world every day (that’s my paraphrasing). I think that’s one of the things that makes Squam so special, that we are all quite disconnected to the outside world there, so we are able to reconnect to our inside world and also forge more meaningful connections to those around us. The real people with real bodies and faces and their sweet real laughs and sneezes. We can forget how important that part of our existence can be when we spend so much time in front of these screens. Don’t get me wrong, I love love love the community I’m becoming part of on the internet. Other artists going through the same struggles I am or who have words of wisdom about when they were where I am now are so invaluable. And meeting them (you!) in person is amazing. And they make wonderful friends, too. It’s amazing how close you can become to someone through these here internets, but we must must must take some time now and again to reconnect to our body and our real-life friends and family.

Today, for just such a purpose, I pulled my yoga mat out to the deck and did my first real yoga session since hurting my ankle. I had to modify quite a few of the poses and it was just a gentle series, but it felt really good. To be outside and moving my body. {I would say it felt good to connect with the earth, but our deck is about 12-15 feet in the air, but it felt good to connect with the air!} I then followed that session with this week’s guided mediation from Leonie’s class, which led me through thoughts and imaginings of grounding and floating and letting go of what doesn’t serve me (both literally and figuratively, of course — this is a decluttering course!). It was really a very spectacular morning.

And now here I am, back on the internet, connecting to you. Which I love. This whole crazy thing is just so cool. I hope you are liking my new site. Please let me know if you see any glaring typos or anything odd, because I really haven’t had anything proofread or anything. Will you be my editor, please?

I’ve been a-painting, but nothing’s done yet! This is odd for me, since I usually DO finish “a painting in a day” (that was the title of Marisa’s painting class at Squam — but I don’t paint a painting a day, I just finish them in a day if I start them), but since working with acrylics, or maybe it’s the wood surface, I have felt the need for multiple layers, and they just have to dry in between. So then I walk away and forget to come back! This is a huge plus to having an art studio in my house — I can go back to it whenever I feel the urge, and I can leave it out for days on end, untouched, until the painting calls me again! Well, that’s how it’s been going this week, anyway. {Have I mentioned how lucky and blessed I feel to have a studio in my house? I do indeed.}

So that photo above is just for your very own enjoyment. It was one of the first I took with my new 50mm fixed focal-length lens (re: no zoom). It’s a short, open lens so it lets in lots of light. The lens’ auto focus doesn’t work with my camera (Nikon D40 dslr) tho, which is actually pretty annoying. I didn’t remember how hard it was to focus manually! It’s also double hard on this one because the depth of field is sooo short, you have to be really precise. Good for non-moving objects, though! (or arty photos of moving things)

I realized today that I haven’t mentioned the e-courses I’m taking right now! Yes, why stop at one — I’m doing two! I think I was missing being in school or something (which I currently have no plans to go back to, btw).

&

These are both 6 week classes; one started on Monday and the other on (Creative) Thursday. They’re both super fantastic and run by amazing, inspiring women. The first one is “In The Fish Bowl:: LIFE AS AN ARTIST. ONline :: AN E-COURSE” with Marisa Haedike of Creative Thursday. Learning “how to make a living, market yourself, and maneuver as an artist online, while staying true to who you are.”

The other is “The Declutter Goddess; Making Space for your Goddess to Shine e-Course” run by Leonie Allen of GoddesGuidebook.com. “Making space for our goddess to shine isn’t a one-time binge-drinking session of throwing away, moving furniture and vacuuming. That can feel scary, boring and harsh. And pretty soon, things just get back to feeling the same instead. What we’ve instead created is a six-week journey where we’ll be guiding you through divine decluttering & magical space clearing to create an amazing, spirit, light, joyful space.”

Don’t those sound fantastic? Um, they are.

yippee!