Athena Dreams Design

Time for August

and just like that August is hours away from leaving us... some headlines from the quirky month that will soon be "was":

• husband gone on tour for nearly the whole month: adjusted to house alone with cat. Then re-adjusted to house with husband back in it. Truly, the cat had the most adjusting to do, as she staked her claim to his side of the bed quite thoroughly in his absence and was not at all amused when he took it back. {And for those of you have met her, you know what her displeasure sounds like...}
• more deadlines than I could have possibly imagined, and then a few more piled on just for good measure: NOW, which way does the saying go: No rest for the weary, or no rest for the wicked. I am still deciding . . .
• somehow in the midst of all the deadlines finding more time to paint... hhmmm, could it have been the empty, quiet house . . . me thinks I live with a 6 foot 2 inch distraction.
• going from quiet and living with my own thoughts, to a full house: brother and family arrived at same time as return of the 6' 2" distraction and non-stop movement with a 6 year old nephew and a 3 year old niece in the house. 
• a week of beach - swimming - laughing with children - city field trip with sister in law - hot tub - blow up wading pool - charlie brown reading - caravaning here and there - creating garden tableaus - and oops, here comes September.

A Little Bit of Teeny Tiny

Paintings for the Teeny Tiny Art Show at Three Graces Gallery

My teeny tiny brushes create colour and pattern, shape and shadow, line and form. They also create a feeling of fullness and completion, joyfulness and calm, problem and solution inside me.

Last week, when I was painting and painting and painting, and in between breathing and walking and remembering to eat dinner, I realised: There are some places, some times, some things that make me feel totally and completely at home inside myself, and painting is one of those things. There are moments when I feel as though I am inhabiting all the space inside this body, all the air passing in and out of my lungs, all the muscles and veins and tendons, and I am well and truly home.

There is so much more I notice when I am truly at "home":

• the sun has moved just slightly in the sky, and no longer streams blindingly in through the front windows as it did a month ago
• turquoise, while still my favourite, seems to have been eclipsed by golden yellows this time around
• there is lots of noise in the quiet
• often times when thinking a thought out to it's very conclusion, I end up with several more things to think about
• people who eat dinner on the patio at the restaurant next door sing happy birthday songs, a lot, and like to mimic operatic voices, and I sing along, softly, from my studio
• gray is almost always so much more than you think it is

And you? When and where do you feel truly at home, all the way to the very core of yourself?

August 2010 .:. Goals

July was full, full full, and it's looking like August will be much the same, and as much as there are moments when I would like to just sit under a tree and gaze at the sky, I am also happy to be so busy and also, thankfully, productive. Above are some of the iterations of the new blog and etsy banner designs... I ended up deciding on a merging of two of them.

So here was July 

1. Finish website. First "draft" is due on 5 July back from the programmer, and then hopefully some tweaks, and I launch. Website is finished but not launched, some techie issues to deal with still...
2. Continue and FINISH the Biz Plan and get marketing plan in good shape These 2 are just about DONE
3. Paint for 2 MORE shows (yay!) - oh yes, painting indeed!
4. Re-do Etsy Shop & blog to tie into new website - Done and done
5. Spend some time thinking Big! Take some time to think about all the things I'd love to do with my art, and then bring it into the practical and assess if it's do-able, and when. This has been a great one, and some of my plans will see the light of day this fall.  

And so here goes with August:

1. Hopefully launch the new site. you can go and see the holding page with the Coming Soon banner at: http://www.lizkallochdesigns.com
2. Restock Etsy shop and send out a new newsletter.
3. Get product ready for the Squam Art Workshops vendor night.
4. Continue painting.
5. Get new pieces finished for RooTs Collaborative.
6. Start month long yoga intensive.
7. Get August design deadlines done early in the month and make some time for creating!
8. Remember that time is an elusive and mysterious friend.

Ok, August is here, GO! 

 IF you are new to The Meetup or would like to play along, here's the scoop:

• Post a list of your business related goals for the current month on the 1st of each month on your blog. {If the 1st falls on a weekend, post on the following Monday.}
• Come back over here and leave a link to your goals blog post in the comments of my current month's goals.
• And then {and this is the most important part, since we are a community} visit all the links in the comments, stop in and say hello, have a conversation, meet and greet and etc.