The brrrr months

It’s that time of year again when the cooler weather begins, football weather, pumpkin pie and cider weather, Septembrrrr, Octobrrrr and Novembrrrr. (I’ll save Decembrrrr for a later post.) The brrrr months. My favorite.

For me, there is much to love during this fall into winter season. Not only do I adore cooler and colder weather, but I like the clothes better, sweaters and mittens and gloves. I like the ways in which we cope with the cold and the earlier nightfalls, hot coffee and cocoa, fires crackling in the fireplace, candles burning, baking, baking, baking, curling up under quilts and blankets, the increased frequency of the get-togethers with friends and family to warm our spirits. I freaking love the colors this time of year, the dark red of apples, pumpkins, the burnt orange and burgundy colored mums, the yellow, orange and red trees and the way the evergreens stand out against the riot of foliage. The trees getting on their party clothes again.

I love Halloween, the candy, the costumes of the ones who venture into the night to roam door to door with a plastic grocery store bag or an old pillow case begging for treats on ghouls’ night out. I enjoy decorating the house and having parties during this silly season, creating jack-o-lanterns, putting together menus and baking, baking, baking.

I can’t get enough of this season, but autumn is a fleeting time. The trees glow briefly before dropping their bright clothing to stand bare limbed and the scent of burning leaves is closely followed by the smell of snow on the air. November arrives quickly and we pull out the jars of preserves a friend gave us to spread across warm cranberry muffins, licking our fingers between sips of coffee as we plan Thanksgiving menus or decide what we’ll bring when the family gets together.

There is another thing to love in this season that the long, bright days of summer do not afford us. The way the lighted windows speak without words as we drive down our dark roads toward home. Here’s hoping everyone arrives safely.

Beauty

Time flying once again

It’s been a year and two days since I started this blog. A year and two days.

I’m happy to say I have achieved some of the goals from a year (and two days) ago. More importantly, I’ve faced up to the fact that I tend to spread myself too thin and have taken steps to correct this. Realizing the fact of this was one thing, doing something about it has been something else. So, I’ve given up a bit of work in a county far, far away in order to have more time for the pursuits I love, but I still have the problem of loving many, many pursuits. I realized I needed to make some decisions about those as well. I’ve narrowed the long and winding list down to two desires to which I can surrender.

Creating and writing. Writing and creating.

Creating in the sense of being an artist and creating 3-dimensional objects. The objects tend to be figures, dressed with small accessories. Since I love stories, my 3-dimensional creations often have names and always have their own little tales. They always, always make me smile.

Writing is also, of course, creating, and I love telling stories, but writing is more than that. Even more than when I’m creating something 3-dimensional, writing allows me to be in charge. If I can’t make the face out of paper clay for the figure quite the way I’d first envisioned it, I change the fabrics or the pose or the items they hold until I see before me something that pleases me. In writing, I can describe the face (or the fabrics or the pose) and draw a word picture that is precisely what I want. It may or may not be true, but I feel I have more freedom when I’m writing.

I had some help in figuring out that I would not be as likely to achieve those things I want until I freaking figured out which things I want the most. I recently read a book called, the Magic of Thinking Big, by David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. Here is my favorite bit.

Failure to follow desire, to do what you want to do most, paves the way to mediocrity. the only way to get full power, to develop full go force, is to do what you want to do. Surrender to desire. Surrender to the goal. Really surrender. Let it obsess you and give you the automatic instrumentation you need to reach that goal.

So, surrender already.

Photo finish(ed)

Yikes! I wish my picture taking abilities were a bit better for Nicholas & Marley’s laboratory entrance. The sign looks very good on the door, but my picture of the sign on the door, not so good. Seeing it in person makes me smile and hurry through the door and down the stairs to my studio. Seeing it on the blog makes me sigh, but I wanted it out there so I posted it. Hmmm, I’m going to be practicing my photo taking skills big time before I post any creations.

Laboratory entrance

Enter at your own risk

I’ve always wanted a sign on the door to my studio warning potential intruders to stay away while I worked. I spent a long time wanting a studio, too, so long that I had a name for my business/studio before I had the space in which to work. The name I use is Nicholas & Marley. Now I have a large room where I can spread things out and leave everything without worrying that the cats will make their own playground in the glitter and paper clay. I even have a comfortable chair and ottoman where I can sit flipping through magazines for ideas or making sketches or falling asleep dreaming of new whimsies to create.

The only problem I’ve had during the year since my studio came into being is a lack of time. This is what I tell myself because I’ve only completed a handful of the ideas I started. I have several pieces nearly finished, but they’ve been nearly finished now for six months. Maybe “enter at your own risk” isn’t the sign I need on the door of Nicholas & Marley. Perhaps I shouldn’t remind myself right at the threshold of the risk in creating items I hope to show the world, but of the joy in creating, the excitement of trying something new, of experimenting. I know I never have trouble finding the time to play.

My studio is the place where I turn bits and pieces of this and that into figures that make me smile. And if they first make me smile, there is a very good chance they will do the same for others. So I’m thinking a different sign on the door will help me remember this.

Nicholas & Marley’s Laboratory - Welcome