On Finding Balance

Ever feel like life is spinning just a wee bit out of control? Like rather than acting, everything seems to be about REacting?

Sure, there are times in all our lives where circumstances push us into reaction mode, but when that becomes the normal state of affairs, it's time to take a deep breath, take stock, and take back the reins. ;)

I'm not sure when it happened that the workday became 12-14 hours, and 10PM dinner became the norm rather than the exception. I can't pinpoint the moment when time for reading and knitting became a luxury, or when carving out enough time for lunch with friends became an impossibility.

Yet somehow it did.

Granted, we've faced some serious challenges these past couple of years. But even with the need to work longer hours, I can't help but think there's a better way.

So what to do?

Well, for one thing, I'm reluctantly going to have to limit my computer time. It's just too easy to fall down the rabbit hole into the great internet vortex, and before I know it, two minutes to check an email becomes and hour, and I lose momentum. So there's that.

Further, the workspace is in for a thorough cleaning this weekend. It's valuable time spent not painting, but in the end, it makes things a heckuva lot easier if I'm not spending 20 minutes looking for gesso or scissors. Can you believe this mess??

I can't believe I'm showing you this. Not the stuff of those pretty studio-type magazines, that's for sure (although I do wonder how much art is really produced in perfectly pristine and decorated studios, ya know?)

Finally, I'm planning to offer a few prints of my work very soon. I'm actually ordering them this week, and can't wait! It will hopefully make my work more accessible, while also adding a little income. I can't tell you how many emails I get from people who love the work, but just can't purchase an original. And I get that. I sooooooo get that. Believe me, I couldn't purchase my work either....which is weird to say, but there it is. So yes - a few prints very soon!

And I'm reading. Even if I have to get up earlier to do it, reading is my absolute, hands down favorite pastime, and I miss it. I'm finishing this one now, the latest in the Outlander series...


And starting this one, written by one of my favorite bloggers. Can't wait...


So how about you? Do those of you working full time struggle with the balance issue, and if so, any thoughts on achieving it? Seriously, I'm all ears....

In the meantime, it's back to that messy studio for me. There's a new treasure box calling my name, something with a Celtic knotwork border, I'm thinking...

Deep breath. Cup of tea. And stepping AWAY from the computer...

...just as soon as I remove Lady Guinevere from the new printer. ;)

Until next time,
♥ Carolee

Books!

The stories of childhood leave an indelible impression, and their author always has a niche in the temple of memory from which the image is never cast out to be thrown on the rubbish heap of things that are outgrown and outlived. ~Howard Pyle

Having already shared so much about music as inspiration, and this being a slow week eBay and Etsy-wise (busily working on commissions!) I thought I'd share a few books which spark the imagination. :)

As a child, I was (and still am) a voracious reader. Friends and siblings would be outside in the street playing kick the can, and I'd be curled up in a beanbag chair in my room with a book, thinking these adventures far more exciting than running bases or riding bikes. I'd savor every word, picturing every scene better and far more vividly than any movie....and to this day, I will not, will not, will NOT see the movie until I've first read the book.

The Harry Potter movies? Good, but no comparison to the books. Poe? Entertaining stuff in old movies, but give me the stories any time. And don't even get me started on cartoon versions of fairy tales (although I do love Disney animation).

I've loved books for as long as I can remember, and as Easter and springtime approach, there are a couple of children's books that never fail to inspire.....

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes, by DuBose Heyward. Amazing, amazing tale, and with it's feminist message, hard to believe it was first published in 1939. Basically, the Country Bunny, despite being a single Mother and responsible for twenty one children, bests all the male bunnies in swiftness, cleverness and kindness to become the next Easter Bunny. As my now 27 year old daughter (who also deeply loved this book as a child) would say, *Huzzah*!

The Velveteen Rabbit, or How Toys Become Real, by Margery Williams. Here's my favorite part, when the Velveteen Rabbit asks the Skin Horse in the little boy's nursery how it is that certain toys become Real:

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

And Fairy Tales! Can't forget Fairy Tales.....


These are copies of Grimms and Anderson fairy tales from my bookshelf, published in MCMXLV, which if memory serves (been awhile since I figured out Roman numerals - do they even teach that anymore?) is 1945. They were gift from a great aunt many, many years ago and I treasure them. These are not the sanitized fairy tales children hear today, though....These can get a little gruesome....

In the final page of "Cinderella", for example, after she marries the handsome prince, the birds swoop down from the sky, pecking out the eyes of the evil stepsisters.

And the evil queen in "Snow White"? She dances in red hot iron shoes until she falls down dead. Yikes! Some pretty vivid imagery there...

No clue which of these - or perhaps others - will make it's way into the work the next few weeks (along with more Halloween goodies, of course!) but stay tuned. :)

In the meantime, what books sparked your imagination as a child? What books get your creative juices flowing now? Any favorites? Any new discoveries?

Inquiring minds want to know....

Until next time,
~ Carolee