A new daisy in the garden bloomed!
It is the color of the trees’ leaves on a late September day.
Freyja’s flower
Receiving the sun,
radiating toward the sky,
Have you ever become lost in amber and gold?
A Desert Robin
Some robins have stopped by in the last few days and I have been so happy to see them! They are very different from the robins I knew from growing up in Virginia. These robins are tall, thin, and wild-eyed. I suppose this is what the desert does to us. I have taken a lot of photos of them and wanted to share a couple here.
I’ve also been deep in the hellscape of updating my computer software, from which I have finally emerged! I am using an ancient beast that seems akin to navigating a dusty old library full of hardbacked tomes. I am trying to keep the romance alive, I guess. The last half of September has been a time to get everything in place for ultimate productivity. And oh it is coming along so good! A sigh of relief at one more piece in place, one less thing distracting me when I am in the deep work groove. It has been such a movement—tending to some very stale things in all areas of life and revitalizing them. It feels amazing.
This photo is slightly out of focus, but it is how I look at something to try and paint it. Blur the eyes just a bit, learn how color and light play with one another, decide where detail can tell its own story. Robin! The bird that symbolizes renewal and rebirth. How timely is his visit.
I am experiencing an actual renaissance, stirred by the simple change of working with an updated camera. It has opened up my creative world in ways I was not expecting! I have been trying to say, do, and create things my whole life and I am finally immersed in ways to let loose what is inside. What a fun journey. I am thankful to find myself here.
Now I look so forward to October when I deep dive into pure creating. I have not yet decided if I will focus on paintings or jewelry first. The past eight months or so have been scattered, disruptive, frustrating, and puzzling. That is all clearing up some and I will revel in the calmer sea for however long it lasts.
Onward with the art~
Breakfast with Faerie
The flowers are still blooming, which makes my heart so happy! The birds are used to me sitting so close to their water and their feeders that they come visit when I am out there. A little female finch came about a foot from me to drink water. I did not have my camera, but that would have frightened her anyway. She stayed for many minutes, so I got to study her with my memory and I hope to paint her soon. A blessing from the birds.
I had some delicious apple cake and coffee with them this morning and let the sunlight warm my bones.
The flowers looked like paintings again.
An Equinox Wellspring
Today I had planned the dreadfully boring tasks of sorting and filing papers, cleaning some sweaters, and sewing a curtain. This is still in the name of getting my life and studio organized.
But then I sat outside in the sun with my coffee, as I do each morning, welcoming the equinox, and I encountered some sort of invisible wellspring of ideas for Lumino!
Marketing ideas, which I know zero about, flooded in. I wrote them down to research.
Then I became inspired to begin the layout for my book! I realized I have so many photos and words compiled that it actually frightened me, I had a feeling of standing in front of a giant tower that I must climb before it tips over! So I worked on that.
I saw a multitude of ideas for a line of jewelry I am intending to make this winter, just drawing themselves in my mind—and ways to reproduce them should they ever grow to more than I can make myself.
Later, I felt like sitting at the computer, and I must always take advantage of that because most days I do not! So I spent time working on my website tidying the pages here, making them look as awesome as I can manage. The About pages got a lot of love… About Lumino Shoppe and About Christi, if you’d like to take a peek.
I explored some more with my logo, which I have not been totally happy with for years now. It has changed a few times, as do we all. I want to get something solid, though, so I can have a stamp created to use on silver jewelry as my maker’s mark. I like the current incarnation more than the others. I need to write a post of its meaning if I decide to keep it. It’s hanging out at the top of my website now for a test run.
I did not get the tasks on my to do list finished, or even started, but some things I have been stuck on for a long time just answered themselves in the day’s light. I think that is a better to do list, anyway.
Gratitude for little miracles.
Blessed equinox to you~
A Clean Bench
Oh how good it is to have a clean workspace. Lately I’ve been spending time really optimizing the spaces where I work, so that everything can flow. I won’t bore you with all the details. I will just say that today was the first time in a long time that I felt things moving, instead of feeling stuck.
I want so much for my creative outlets be the way I make a living. I refuse to believe that is too much to ask. This past year, for obvious reasons, has been a huge challenge for so many. I hope those of us who feel down and stuck are able to find ways to rise and move.
For me, a lot of that is trusting that I am where I am supposed to be on my path, no matter what. I work very hard, am completely devoted to what I do, and will not give up on the idea of making a living in a way that makes my life a happy one, and enables me to help others.
There were rays of hope today for that, warm and sunny.