Athena Dreams Design

One More Thankful Day

Thank You to everyone who has ever purchased my work.

Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to tell me what my work has meant to you.

Thank you to all of you who have travelled some part of this life path I am on with me.

Thank you for all the opportunities and for the support I receive from near and far.

This life as an artist and a creator couldn't happen without you – all of you who have touched my life in some way or another.

Thank you = Everything is 20% off in my shop when you use the coupon code JOY20.

Sale ends at the end of today, Monday 28 November.

 

 

A Gypsy Girl Special

I'm over on Gypsy Girl's Guide today with a special for all my Gypsy Girls. Go on over and have a visit and be sure to read some of the other latest posts - the gypsy girls have been word-smithing and idea-making and being all-around inspiring.

February 2011 .:. Biz Goals

Pink Tulip necklace, available here.

January's goals were short, and really really sweet. I mean really sweet. I can't remember a month that was more fun, because my goals were fun. I think we all sometimes have a tendency to make work, well, work, when it may be work, but it's also what we love to be doing everyday (or most days), and so, it really is fun. Did someone, sometime, somewhere, really say that work should be any of these things:

• dreary
• negatively competitive 
• heart-breaking
• soul-sucking
• the thing you do until you get to go home to your real life

Yeah, I don't think so either. Most of us who come here at the beginning of each month are working for ourselves, (or are working to get there) we are growing businesses around ideas/talents/things we love to do, and sometimes we lose touch with loving what we are doing, so I am here to remind myself and all of you, let's get back in touch with that feeling: no matter the stressful days, the overworked evenings, the crazy deadlines, and the such like, we are here because we love what we are doing, and how lucky are we!

SO, here were my JANUARY goals:

1. Figure out what working smarter is, and how I can make it a regular and central part of my life and my work.
2. Create for fun and joy.

I can say I successfully did all of them. I am not done with #1 or #2, and I worked them all month long. I am going to keep my February goals pretty simple again, and see how that goes.

February:

1. Identify 3-5 new product categories to create with my art/design. Research. Prototype.
2. Find a mentor. I have NO idea how to do this, but the first step is always putting it out there. I want to find a mentor who is also an artist and a designer, and has worked their art and design into brilliantly placed, licensed product that are seen and bought and loved all over the world. 
3. I think #2 above might go under the category of working smarter.
4. Repeat #2 from last month.

OK, here we are, the shortest month of the year, so it's gonna go even faster than the one that just passed us by. Let's take February by storm, in a crazy, fabulous cloud of creativity, ideas, colour, movement and inspiration! Happy February everyone!

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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.
• You can also "meet" the Meet Up peeps, go here and visit the links.

A Thankful Sale

As a thank you to all of you who have stopped by to visit, to all of you who have purchased from my shop, and generally supported me in this life as an artist: A Thankful Sale!

From Friday the 26th thru Monday the 29th - Buy 2 or more items and receive 10% off your order when you use the coupon code JOY10.

I will also be offering free gift wrapping for this 4-day sale so let me know on your order if your purchase is for gifting and if you'd like it wrapped.

I hope you all are continuing to celebrate the season of grateful this weekend and having many beautiful moments with all your friends and family and those you love.

The Worry Game

Along with my brown eyes, 2 slightly tipped eye teeth, a button nose, and an inclination to go barefoot most all the time, I inherited the worry gene from my mother. There have been times when it has taken over my life, and other times it is running quietly in the background. It is almost always there.

In the midst of changes in my working life, the worry bug has been visiting me lately and so rather than blindly giving into that voice, I've been searching for ways to take its power away, to render it speechless, to pull it's metaphorical plug.

A few weeks ago I had to cancel a trip that I had much looked forward to, due to some unforseen things that came up, and so was home for the weekend unexpectedly. My husband had a gig that weekend and he said there would be a will-call ticket for me if I decided to get over my grumpy disappointment and come. So I surprised my grumpy-disappointed-self and I went.

It's funny how things happen. Don't we all say that at different times for different reasons? At the show that night the woman who had put the whole thing together talked about how she had been nervous while rehearsing and putting the show together. She is a drummer, an amazing jazz drummer who is in her early 70s now, and she had focused this show around her debut as a singer. A place out of her comfort level, out of the known, out of the Safe limits of what she is used to doing on stage.

While rehearsing for the show and feeling worried sometimes, she came across a quote, couldn't remember who had said it, but she wanted to share it with the audience: Worry is the biggest misuse of imagination. And I sat there, in the dark audience, and felt she was speaking directly to me. Sure, she was speaking to all of us, but for that second, she was speaking directly to me, directly to my heart.

So, what was I to do with that but take it to heart. I have imagination in abundance (thankfully) and so each moment of worry I have attempted to actively re-direct to imagination. Each second of doubt, look to imagination. Each hour of will we be able to pay all our bills this month, well, you got it, come on in imagination, because Worry sure isn't going to pay those bills, but I have a pretty good hunch that Imagination will come up with some solutions.

I have come up with some new ideas and some new projects, and my absolute newest (and for now my most exciting) one is that phrase painted on the wall of my studio, very large, hard to miss, and always in very plain sight. A reminder to that worry voice, that there are other ways to go, and different ways to play. Worry is the biggest misuse of imagination. Mm-hmm, that's what I need to hear...

Holiday Special!

 

To celebrate the year end, I am running a special in my etsy shop until 15 December.  

Order a calendar - any of the 4 calendars in my shop - and receive a free 8.5" x 11" print of your choice.
 Please put in your message to me when you purchase a calendar which 8.5" x 11" you would like to receive to receive.

Find the calendars here, and the 8.5" x 11" prints here.

Each calendar month has a full colour illustration and an inspirational quote... I wanted to share with you, one of my favourite images from each of the calendars. Here is the June image from the Flower Silhouettes calendar:

 

Blessed are those who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing. -Camille Pisarro
 

and the December image from the Whirls & Swirls calendar

 

Do not follow the ideas of others but learn to listen to the voice within yourself. Your body and mind will become clear and you will realise the unity of all things. -Dogen

I hope all of your holidays are full of shared warmth and love, and lots of walks in the winter air (if you are in my hemisphere), evenings by a crackling fire, hot tea, talking, laughing, singing, sharing dreams and being with the people you love and treasure! These shorter days are the time of year to count all our blessings, all the light in our lives, and all the joy we can hold in our hands and in our hearts.
 

Paper Mango Gives it Away

Visit Paper Mango and win!
(Do I sound like a car salesman? hopefully not...)

BUT seriously: yesterday Orglamix, mineral based eye shadow, I don't wear eye shadow, and yet, I want some, it looks so yummy. And today, your choice of a 8.5 x 11 print from moi.

So go celebrate the season of falling leaves and warm fires and blue blue skies with Melanie at Paper Mango.

September Brings New Things

Fall is my very favourite season, the air here is still warm during the day but there is a cool scent on the breeze when dusk arrives; in the afternoon the sky is deepening to that autumn azure blue; and the earth begins to smell less like a sunny yellow, and more like an ochre earthen colour. 

What do you love most about the Fall?

September brings new prints to the shop and a special running for the whole month 

through Indie Fixx Galleria. 

Keeping Track of 2010

2010 Calendars are here! The designs and artwork I created back in 2008 for these 2010 calendars are now printed and bound and ready to go. It's always so exciting and gratifying to see the work that was created, scanned, designed and produced so long ago, arrive on my doorstep in sturdy cardboard boxes in the form of touchable, 3 dimensional, finished pieces. 

These 2 lines - Whirls & Swirls and Flower Silhouettes - come to you through Brush Dance. There are 2 wall calendars, a Date Book, a Pocket Engagement calendar and a mini wall calendar (not pictured).

These calendars are for those of you (like myself) who have not made the complete transition to electronic scheduling, because we still like to write things down in neat squares or on straight lines with a favourite pen or pencil. But even if you do schedule everything in your iPhone, or Blackberry, art and special dates on a kitchen wall are still a lovely thing.

All of these products are available in my etsy shop. I invite you to have a visit and check out the special offer for the month of August. 

How to Talk about . . . Myself

As a self-employed artist and designer, part of my job is to market and/or talk about my art, show my design portfolio and share my work with others. And truthfully, I have always been uncomfortable about how to do this. 

And so I ask myself: Is it because I was raised by stalwart New England stock who implied that talking yourself up was just not the thing to do? Not sure . . .  Is it because I want to avoid rejection? Probably . . . Does it work for me to feel so very uncomfortable about talking about what I do and not try to change it? Not at all.

Recently I had an e-mail conversation with a friend about this very topic and her take on it was: "It's sharing with others and inspiring them with beauty. One of the loveliest things we can do for one another.

I share this story with you because I think I am probably not the only one that struggles with this. I write this post because I hope that someone will read this and begin the process of re-calibrating how they approach talking about their work, their art, their writing, their music; talking about things in their lives that they are excited and proud of, and just sharing in a real way who they are through what they do.  Being real. Being authentic. Being our truest selves.

And so, without too much more over thinking, some things I would like to share with you all:

A few days before I Ieft for holiday in mid-July, Brittni from PapernStitch posted an interview with me on her PapernStitch blog. It was a fun interview with some different and intriguing questions (some quite challenging to answer) and I completely and totally enjoyed the process. You can have a read here, and also find out some more about what Brittni is doing with the PapernStitch exhibition space. The site has grown quite a bit this year, and she is doing some wonderful things with guest writers on the blog, and inventive ways of advertising the exhibition space.

And lastly, I am so honoured to have been added to the goodheARTed: a community of art and craft, curated by Heather Murphy. Have a look, she has put together an ever widening and wonderfully inspiring group of artists, photographers and crafters for you all to visit.

 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, everywhere you are.