it was seven years ago today…

… that I got on a plane in the dead of night and started on my grand adventure return to the mainland. Seven years! That’s hard to wrap my head around.

In some ways, it seems so long ago — it’s now been longer since I left Hawaii than I spent there in the first place. When people who are heading to Hawaii ask me for advice on where to stay and eat and what to do, it takes me some time (and sometimes some assistance from the Lonely Planet guide I keep on my shelf) to recall the names of places and streets, the nitty-gritty of how to get around. Time and distance and hindsight being what they are, it’s hard to put myself back into my own shoes in that time and space. Was that really me? Did I really chuck it all and spend nearly six years of my life in the middle of the Pacific Ocean?

I don’t have any regrets about having lived there, but neither do I wish I were still there (except maybe sometimes in February). The experience overall was a great one, and it plays a big role in who I am today. I wouldn’t trade it.

But seven years ago it was time to leave, for a number of reasons. I knew the transition would be tough, so I turned it into a grand adventure, a seven-week solo journey across the country, starting in the Pacific Northwest, driving down the entire U.S. West Coast, then across the Southwest before angling up through the nonsquare central states back to Ohio. Stops along the way were pretty evenly split between friends, hotels, and a conference that fit neatly into the middle of the trip.

In honor of this anniversary, I’ve found and reposted the blog posts I made during that trip, and even found and reposted the photos that go along with them. (My Blogger-to-Wordpress transition was not a smooth one, and these disappeared in the move. As I’ve been digging around trying to find stuff to delete to free up some hard drive space, though, I found an old archive folder that preserved much of what I thought I had lost. They’re all in reverse order on that linked page, by the way.)

I thought that I had made a lot more posts, but it seems that a lot of what I was remembering is what I wrote in my journal. My laptop was relatively new to me, WiFi was still in its infancy, and making internet connections wasn’t the piece of cake it is today. Still, it’s an interesting peek back at a time of transition, the beginning of a new chapter in my life that led me on a path to where I am today.

Enjoy.

detente via yogurt

World peace might be possible through Trader Joe’s Vanilla & Cream yogurt. Fiona (L) and Spaz (R) generally don’t get this close unless there is chasing going on. Yet here they are, sharing a spoon (the other photo, of their tongues actually touching, is too blurry). Let’s pass this stuff out in the Middle East.

Then again, the second the yogurt was gone, Fiona took a swipe at Spaz and they both ran off. C’est la vie.

random bits

Oddmall two weekends ago was a bit of a bust for me, although I did meet some great people and take a few custom orders, so it wasn’t a total loss. But I ended up with a lot of inventory that I had planned on moving along. It’s been hanging out in my cases waiting to be photographed and listed, but today is the first day I’ve really had time to make progress on that. I’ve got about half the photos done, and hope to list a couple of things over the next few days before hitting it pretty hard next week.

Part of what’s taken up my time was a slew of custom orders, one of which was a big wholesale order. See? Lots of little domes:

Nearly 100 in all.

In addition, I got some great new lowercase stamps and have been busy doing custom name pendants using these beautiful new stamps. I’ve ordered another set in a different alphabet, too, and those should be in next week. Lots of whacking with hammers going on around here these days!

Other than that, I’ve been working on a few editing projects and doing some serious gardening work. And trying to figure out how to cram more hours into a day.

quick & dirty art

February’s office painting binge left me with pretty but bare walls.

We have larger plans for the office, including nicer — and matching — file cabinets and desks, some additional shelving, and some great art. For the moment, though, there are higher things on the priority list, and I was looking for an easy and inexpensive way to add a punch of color to the walls without resorting to posters or some generic print from Target or Marshall’s. Etsy was of course my first shopping choice, but the items I liked in the size I wanted were out of my price range (as well they should be), and I’m just not ready to make that commitment yet.

So, my first instinct was to seek out a big, bold fabric that I could stretch over a frame and hang, like a Marimekko print. But I wasn’t finding what I wanted at the fabric stores. Then inspiration struck as I was in the scrapbooking aisle picking up some stickers for this weekend’s etching class: scrapbook paper.

Scrapbook paper comes in an insane range of patterns in standard 12 x 12 inch size. Most of it is scaled small, with tiny repeating prints, but if you can get to a dedicated scrapbooking store (we have an Archiver’s at the mall nearby), you can usually find some that have big prints in bold colors. I dug around in the discontinued bins and found all these patterns for under $1/sheet, except for the one I ended up using in the office, which wasn’t on clearance but was still only about $1.75/sheet.

I found frames made specifically for scrapbook pages at the local craft supply store (Pat Catan’s) for about $8 each. They are aluminum and come in black and regular aluminum color. They also had wooden ones and acrylic ones, but I liked the quality and look of these better. (The photo is of the insert only because the photo I took with the insert in the actual frame as I was unwrapping it didn’t turn out, and I couldn’t find a product photo online in a short amount of time.)

If you can’t find scrapbook frames, Target carries an album cover frame that might work. It’s a little bigger than the standard 12 x 12 scrapbook page, but you could put something around the edges to take up the extra space, like strips of coordinating paper.

Most scrapbook paper comes with a border on one edge that carries the UPC and manufacturer info. Some of them are perforated; others you have to cut. My paper cutter is of course 1/2 inch too small to handle this size paper (I still lust after one of those huge wooden guillotines we had in elementary school), so I cut carefully along the line with scissors. It doesn’t have to be super-perfect; the frame will cover the very edge of the paper (unless you are using an acrylic frame, which you’ll be able to see through).

The aluminum frames are very easy to open: just push down on the clips and slide them to the side. Take out the backing, remove the paper insert, put your scrapbook paper in there, reassemble, and voilá: instant art! I chose to use three sheets of the same pattern in three frames because I had to fill up a big space. I considered using three coordinating prints, but my brain was a little too frazzled that day to find three I really liked together.

At the scrapbooking store I found just one sheet of this pretty blue print, so although my intent was to just liven up the office, I couldn’t resist getting this and another frame to put a little something above my bedside table.

The real beauty of these is that they are so easy to change out and the paper is so cheap. When I get sick of what’s in there, I can change it out with something else. And when it’s time to get some real art, these will do nicely to fill in some of the smaller areas we have.

the view from my desk

Finally, a pretty, sunny morning to take a shot of the view from my desk.

I planted the daffodils last fall, and I think I’ll be adding quite a few more this year.

All that scruffy grass back to the property line just in front of the pine trees in the background will eventually be going away and replaced with groundcover of some sort. Grass just doesn’t do well there, being in shade most of the time and on the north side of the house.

I’d like to expand the flower bed out a bit too and fill it with pretty things (if I can find some the deer won’t eat), since I spend so much time looking at this view.

Sproing!

For me, spring is not officially here until we have some daffodils. Mine started blooming in the past couple of days, and next week should be really spectacular.

seasons

Spring, finally. Officially at least, even if it is still 30-something degrees out there. One lonely crocus peeked its purple self up through the grass the other day, but before I could get back out to take a photo, some critter came along and munched it, so it will just have to live in my memory as proof that spring truly is here. Such is life on the edge of the woods.

I always associate spring with lightening. Not a misspelling of the flash followed by thunder, but just a sense of everything feeling lighter, less weighty, airy and bright. Cleaning out and shrugging off the old and tired. Emerging from a shell, vulnerable perhaps, but full of possibilities.

It’s that time of year when I go through things: closets, paperwork, stored boxes. This year especially, when I’ve worked so hard to reevaluate my time and energy obligations and have experienced some real growth in both of my businesses, it is especially liberating to shed things that no longer matter, that serve only to remind me of times when things weren’t quite so good. And to make room for the new.

The Time Has Come

I can’t take it anymore. This godawful beigey-purply gray on the office walls has got to go. Now. I will not spend one more week looking at this horrible depressing color. I am putting on my crappy clothes right now and I’m going to move the stuff away from the walls and start in with the primer. Enough is enough.

Friday Roundup

Now that my December–January workstorm is over, Friday is becoming a catch-up, retool, miscellaneous-stuff-doing kind of day. And I like it. I’m purposely avoiding nonessential work and focusing on taking care of little personal to-dos and things around the house. I’ve been at it for a few weeks now, and it seems to be working well. I imagine this will all fall apart the next time I get super-busy, but in the meantime it’s been great to be able to get to those little things that just never seem to get done otherwise.

Cleveland Handmade Featured Artist:
Susan Hale

Photographer Susan Hale is this week’s Cleveland Handmade featured artist. You can read my interview with her here.