25 random things

Okay, okay, enough already! I’ve been tagged by eleventy-million people for this, so here you go.

1. I do the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle in ink. It usually takes me about two hours over the course of a day or two, and I can usually finish it, although sometimes I have to take a peek for a hint with the longer clues if they’re particularly punny or otherwise nonstandard (like using whole words in one space). This does not make me better than anyone else.

2. Photography was my first artistic love, although I’ve dabbled in all kinds of arts my whole life. I still love to take photos and am looking forward to getting a spiffy new DSLR in the coming weeks.

3. I took up ceramics after I graduated from college because I needed to find a class to take so I could continue to qualify for student health insurance. (I had a temp job at the time with no option for insurance, and the cost of the class plus the cost of student insurance was still cheaper than what I could get out in the real world.) When I moved to Hawaii, I starting going to the studio at the community center that was down the street on Thursdays, then added open studio Fridays. Then I lucked into a great studio situation at Iolani School, where I really thrived and did some cool work, if I do say so myself. There was a period of time when I was throwing pots and plates three nights a week.

4. When I moved back to Ohio, I looked for a good studio situation, but couldn’t find one that met my needs. They were all too time limited or way too expensive. Because I needed something to do, I ended up taking a beading class at Bead Paradise in Oberlin, which led to my taking metals classes with Susan Lenart Kazmer, both of which led to the work I’m doing now.

5. There I times I think I should have listened to Mr. Skalski and pursued genetic research. Then I remember that I never would have made it through the chemistry.

6. I just finished writing a book with two other authors, both of whom have much more experience than I with such things; I’m usually on the other end of the process. I learned a lot, and I hope to do it again. It thrills me that my author contract has a right of first refusal clause, which means that the publisher will at least look at my next book, whatever it is. In this business, half the battle is just getting someone to look at it.

7. I love to take classes and workshops. My dream is to do one of the big, well-known, week-long artist retreats someday.

8. I have a bit of a lead foot, but I’ve only ever had one speeding ticket, which I got when I was 17. I had to go to juvenile court for it. I don’t go nearly as fast as I used to anymore.

9. I love the smell of coffee, but really don’t like to drink it, except on very rare occasions — usually at a banquet or wedding or some other place where there is no real alternative. I also don’t like beer.

10. If you had told me five years ago that I’d be living the life I’m living now, I probably would have pulled a muscle laughing.

11. I am ridiculously sentimental.

12. When I get angry, I cry. It’s a weird, hardwired reaction, and it doesn’t do me any favors. I’ve been battling it all my life.

13. I am completely out of touch with current movies. I used to be a contender in the Oscar pool every year, since I likely had seen all but a few of the nominees, but between the cost of going out to the movies, the seemingly endless annoyances of rude people in the theater, and the convenience of Netflix, I’m down to just a few theater outings each year. Given recent previews, I don’t feel like I’m missing out on much.

14. I am having a very hard time coming up with 25 things.

15. The one thing I miss about commuting crosstown to work is NPR. Listening at home is just not the same.

16. I only recently purged my closet of some clothes I’ve had since college. I’ve never been much into fashion, but I’m trying to make a little bit of an effort.

17. I’ve been to 32 U.S. states. I’d like to see the other 18 sometime.

18. I took a year of yoga in college. I wish I would have kept up with it over the years. I’ve recently started up again, and it’s amazing what a difference that hour makes in my body and my attitude.

19. If I had my way and we didn’t care about eventual resale, I would limit the grass in the yard to one small patch in the back and plant the rest of it in gardens and groundcover — if we could find enough stuff the deer would leave alone.

20. Almost all of our neighbors have a lawn service, but I don’t mind cutting the grass myself. They all probably think I’m nuts.

21. I love to cook. Because of a sensitivity to MSG, I’ve had to learn to cook from scratch, since so many packaged foods contain MSG. I think I’m pretty good at it.

22. I really enjoy being able to connect people. But I am a terrible (romantic) matchmaker.

23. I loved school. I rarely stayed home sick because I was afraid I might miss something. When I worked at University of Hawaii, I took a class in oceanography just for the hell of it. It was amusing when the TA, probably at least 10 years younger than I, asked me if I intended to major in oceanography because I was doing so well in the class. Someday I may go back to school, just for fun.

24. I would much rather talk in person or via e-mail than on the phone most of the time.

25. One of the things I enjoy the most about Waikiki is the catamaran rides you can catch off the beach. Great scenery and super cheap. (I prefer the one with the red and yellow striped sail.)

(I’m not a meme-passer-on-er, so if you want to participate, feel free to post your own 25 random things. I will not threaten bad luck or other impending doom if you fail to do so.)

Monday morning randomness

The book project is coming along. It is every bit as tough as I thought it was going to be, and I do struggle a bit sometimes, but it’s a good feeling to make progress. I’ve cleared my schedule of everything I possibly could for the next two weeks to make it happen.

Speaking of clearing schedules, my etching class that was scheduled for Wednesday didn’t get the minimum signups necessary to be a go. That gives me another full evening this week to focus. My class tonight in North Olmsted is almost full, so that will give me a nice break of creative goodness and being out in the world to sustain me through the week. I’ve been a bit of a hermit through the month of January, and I fear I’m starting to lose some social skills.

I added two more etching classes in March, one each in Chagrin Falls and North Olmsted, and a Saturday Beading 101 class North Olmsted in late February. The schedule is over there to the right in the sidebar.

Two book projects that I was expecting to fill the first week of February have miraculously both been delayed, so I am going to end up with a little bit of a break to relax and work in the studio on a couple things that have been floating around in the back of my head. And get out of the house to have a cup of tea or lunch among other real live actual human beings.

Resolutions

I’m a bit behind on making the obligatory post on resolutions, but that’s okay, because I didn’t really make any this year. I won’t go into a convoluted wrap-up of 2008, either, other than to say that the last quarter of the year was one of my busiest ever for both businesses, and that the busyness forced some reflection on how I was spending my time, which led to a realization that I was going to have to do some rearranging of my priorities and how I choose to spend the free time and energy I have.

The biggest change is that when my term as communications director on the board of the OSU Alumni Club of Greater Cleveland is up in February, I will not be seeking reelection. I’ve served as communications director for three years and as a rank-and-file board member for three years before that, and I’m a bit burned out. I’m pleased with what I’ve accomplished: a good-looking, properly spelled newsletter and website; a discussion list for board members; an e-mail announcement list for members; some automation in event registration; getting to a place where we can accept credit card payments for our big event; shared master documents for our membership database; a much more streamlined and less labor-intensive way of sending out paper newsletters; and a bunch of other little things. As with most such things, there are always some things I had hoped to accomplish but didn’t get to, the biggest being some kind of self-serve membership web thingy where people can join or renew their memberships online and handle their own address and similar changes. C’est la vie. This change alone will give me a couple hundred hours of my life back over the course of 2009.

I returned to yoga in the fall, and find that I really look forward to it every week. It’s been helpful both physically and mentally. My instructor usually asks us to set an intention for class, and I find myself returning again and again to the concept of flow, not just for the hour on the mat, but in my life. And when she asked us in the first class of the new year to consider an intention for the new year, my mind instantly returned to flow. So, in lieu of a list of concrete new year’s resolutions, I’m dedicating 2009 to finding a state of flow, eliminating or working around the dams erected by myself or others, dealing with the here and now rather than slogging through outdated intentions I’ve set for myself or letting things pile up to the point they become inpenetrable.

I will continue to be scarce and in communications triage mode for the month of January. A plum, door-opening writing project landed in my lap, but with it came a crazy deadline, and it is sucking up most of my time lately. I’ll be in a better place to talk about the project once I’ve wrapped up my piece of it.

And with that, I’ve used up today’s allotment of “free time,” so back to the grindstone. Happy new year!

Cleveland Handmade featured artist: me!

I am this week’s celebrity, and you can read my answers to the off-the-wall questions posed by the lovely smashing, who also took the photo of me that accompanies the interview, on the Cleveland Handmade site.

December has been a whirlwind so far. I was expecting a quiet month, just a couple of little proofreading projects, then a plum writing project dropped into my lap. I’ll share more about the project when the details are more settled and I have something to link to rather than trying to explain it in all its quirkiness, but the jist is that I’m coauthoring a fun book about cats with two other writers. What this means in my universe is that those people who usually get a personal, handwritten note in the holiday card I usually mail on the first of December will get a form letter in their holiday card that might get mailed tomorrow. Or Saturday. And I’m going to continue to be really rotten about returning nonessential e-mails and phone calls into the beginning of 2009.

This weekend marks the last of my 2009 shows, the Cleveland Handmade Last Minute Market. We had such a great time at the last CH Market that we decided to do it again. This time it is in a warehouse space in Westlake, on Canterbury Road to the north of Detroit Road (that link will lead you to more details and a map). I hope to see a few friendly faces on Saturday evening — come on by and say “hi” and see some really nice stuff from 22 Cleveland Handmade artists.

PS: I’m using Twitter a lot to post little tidbits a couple of times a day when I don’t have time to write full blog posts. If you’re a tweeter, you can follow me there, or just check in under “What I’m Doing…” in the sidebar over there to the right —>

Cleveland Handmade featured artist:
Jane Pierce

Jane Pierce of zJayne is the Cleveland Handmade featured artist this week. Read the interview here.

autumn in the garden

My timing was good this afternoon and I managed to snag a treasury on Etsy. Check it out before it expires on Friday afternoon.

wow.

That just about sums up the last week for me.

Tuesday I taught etching to an exuberant crowd of a dozen Bead Q employees, the largest class I’ve taught so far. I got some really nice feedback, and my students did some really cool work, too. I also learned that a dozen is far too many for this class, and from this point forward I’m limiting etching to six students at a time. I heard over the weekend that one of my August etching classes is fully booked, and the other is getting close. If you’re thinking about signing up, now is the time, unless you want to wait for September or October (no dates scheduled yet, but I assume we will).

I spent most of last week preparing for the Avon Lake Summer Market, which again this year lived up to its history as a really good show for me. Saturday was pretty much nonstop until early afternoon, then settled down to a thinner crowd but still a steady pace.

Avon Lake Summer Market, before the crowds hit

It was great to see so many of my regular customers and friends, and to meet some new people as well. I was next to Jen of Seat of My Pants, who makes adorable bags and braved out the day despite looking like she was going to burst any second. I had some really wonderful praise for the new work I’ve put so much of my heart and soul and energy into over the past few months, and I was asked to bring some work to BAYarts for inclusion in the gallery shop there, which I will be doing later this week.

We got some great preshow publicity this year, including a short piece in the Plain Dealer’s Friday Magazine, and I had my picture taken with a customer for the Avon Lake Press, which may be included in Wednesday’s paper.

I went most of the day thinking it was a good day but not a record breaker, yet when I got home and counted up I found that I had done even better than last year, my best show ever. It made the exhaustion worth it.

After eleven solid hours of sleep and a little nap here and there yesterday, I’m feeling almost back to normal, just in time to teach the Chunky Chime necklace at Grand River Beads on Thursday and get ready for the North Olmsted show on August 10.

Then today I got an e-mail from the gallery coordinator at the Avon Lake Public Library, who wants me to do a show there for the month of December. That was just the push I need to get it together with some of the bigger, showier pieces I’ve had swirling in my head for a while now.

weirdness

I’m a little weird. People who know me know this, and I do, too.

But is it really all that strange that I don’t like blobs of mushy fruit in my yogurt? That I like fruit yogurt — not merely “fruit-flavored” — but that I really prefer the fruit to be smoothly pureed so as to blend with the smooth yogurty goodness? Combine this with my absolute abhorrence of all types of artificial sweetener, and, well, it makes it hard to shop.

Yoplait indulges me in this regard with its custard-style line, but I am worried about the future of our relationship. It seems that every time I go to the store, another flavor has vanished. Whither mixed berry? Blackberry?

I fear that soon I will have resort to buying some other kind (I do love the taste — if not the texture — of the Stonybrook Farm organics) and running it through the blender before I eat it. Kind of takes the convenience factor away, though.

blogging without obligation

Today I have had the luxury of following artistic breadcrumbs across the web for much of the afternoon, discovering new inspirations and connections and filling my creative reservoir. On my journey, I found a succinct and sane little piece about blogging without obligation at tartx.com, which in part says:

Because its okay to just say what you have to say. If that makes for a long post, fine. Short post, fine. Frequent post, fine. Infrequent post, fine.

I, too, have stuggled with feeling the obligation to post without really having anything to say and have been guilty of starting many dozens of posts over the years with an apology for not posting and a promise to “do better.” No more. I have enough other stuff to stress about, so I’m happy to add the little bwo link down at the bottom of the sidebar.

the joys of catching up

I wrapped up a slew of work projects right before the wedding, and I’m not expecting the next to arrive until next week. This lull has allowed me time to catch up on other projects, a few of which have been lingering too long.

(Of course, the minute I typed that, I got a lead on a rush work project and put aside this entry to send off an inquiry about it. Funny how these things work.)

I am almost never “between projects,” even when I have no actual paying work on my desk. I always have some kind of personal project or volunteer project on my plate, and oftentimes more than a few. This week I made progress on a lot of them, along with knocking out a ton of manini to-dos that make up the project I call “life in general.”

The alumni club is looking for an automated way to handle memberships to take the load off of volunteers and streamline the process. I did a lot of research earlier in the spring and found what seems to be a viable — and free — solution. After much back-and-forth, we decided to give it a try with a small test group, and I spent most of today setting up the community website and inviting our testers to sign up.

Yesterday I spent the day completely revamping my professional website and doing the first draft of a new prospecting letter. I’m still not happy with either, but it’s more progress than I’ve made on either in the past six months. I hope to attack them again on Monday, after they’ve had the chance to stew a while.

I’m about halfway done with creating the “just the highlights” wedding photo page for those who want a taste but don’t want to slog through all three hundred professional photos and umpteen amateur photos. With luck, I’ll finish that tomorrow before I take off for the weekend.

Earlier in the week I spent a few hours at the old house sorting and packing more stuff. Those who know me from the olden days might be shocked to learn that I ended up with more books in the giveaway pile than in the save-me boxes. While nowhere near as hoardalicious as some people I know who shall remain unnamed, I was at one time known for my vast accumulation of books. I have (mostly) gotten over that compulsion to acquire and hold everything remotely interesting that crosses my path, and I now try to limit myself to those books that are truly indispensible or that I truly love. What a concept!