Holiday happiness

The Holiday was very nice this year, gifts given were received with enthusiasm, gifts received fit and were things my daughter will actually wear, and we didn't even have trouble with traffic travelling!!

My Daughter received an electric guitar that she had been wanting very badly. Her best friend also got a guitar, acoustic. They have asked me to give them some lessons, so although I haven't played seriously in years, I have gotten my music out and cut off what little fingernails I had on my left hand. It feels good to play again, and the added bonus is that the best place to set up for the lessons happens to be in my studio, so over my long weekend I got it cleaner than it has been in a long time.

I have also been spending more time there, enforcing my new set of rules for myself, that includes 10-15 minutes minimum of stitch time every day. It definitely makes me a better person, and now with music therapy on tap too, it feels as if 2012 is going to be a great year.

Light the Creative Fires

Last night was the longest night of the year, the Winter Solstice. As the wheel of the year turns to a new quarter I have made it a priority to spend at least a few minutes in my studio every day. Recently I am sad to say there have been entire weeks that I did not get in there to do anything, so this is a needed shift. I was successful in working last night, both starting and finishing a quilted holiday gift. All that was left this morning to do was bury the thread ends and now, to wrap it. Knowing that the light will be returning has helped me to rekindle the creative fires. Have a blessed and peaceful holiday.

Tis the season.

It has been a busy week, with the holiday preparation in full swing and several kinds of cookies to bake, several gift projects to finish, and still more shopping and wrapping, I have had little time to work on anything else. Oh and did I mention that DH is away for the whole weekend on business. Talk about bad timing. I have two different quilts to finish for customers who want them for gifts, and the bicentennial quilt really needs its final border and the "Hooks" added. Not something I am feeling inspired for.

On a much more positive note, I am developing two new workshops for the shoppe that I am really excited about, the first a "Stitched Meditation" mandala design in handwork, and for the Spring, an Art course in Fabric. That will be a multi week course rather than a project based workshop. I am pretty excited about both ideas and although I have not had time to actually work on them lately, I have done lots of the thought work.

Surpise!!

Surprising for this time of year, but my Black Friday Studio Day has sparked a huge burst of productive creativity. I am nearly done with a sample quilt for a workshop for this Spring/summer, finally figured out how to make Ricky Timms Rhapsody patterns work for my handstitchers club and started the sample, and had several other smaller breakthroughs on other things that have been rolling around in the background for a while. I will however probably spend much of this weekend making holiday cookies with my daughter.

The shoppe will be open late tomorrow for the lighting of the tree that just happens to be right across the street. I may bring the Rhapsody Mini to work on in case it is quiet, but I hope it is really busy.