stuff about artstuff.

Being Nice.

There's been a lot of talk recently about "paying it forward".  Seems when we are most confused and heartbroken about things happening in the world around us, the smallest gestures of kindness can be the most life-changing.  Unfortunately, we humans are so often caught up in our own little day-to-day dramas and responsibilities that it often takes monumental tragedy for us to stop for a moment and realize how lucky we are to love and be loved, to be alive, healthy - all things I know I take for granted on a daily basis.

During the holiday season being thoughtful comes a little more easily than the rest of the year, but what if we could keep that up the other 11 months?  I'm not talking earth-shattering grand gestures, but simply being nice.  I'd like to think I go around spreading sunshine and flowers everywhere I go, but the reality is that there are days that go by where the nicest thing I do for others is to allow a merging motorist into traffic without a who's-nose-can-get-closer-to-the-car-ahead-of-us contest.  And, yes, even that can feel like it was a great effort and that I have given something beautiful of myself to all of mankind.  I'll feel smug for simply not being a giant a-hole.

Logically I realize life's too short to go through it like that.  But it's not something I'm good at thinking about every day, or even then, acting on when I do think of it.

Husband Guy went into a Starbucks on Christmas Eve, and when he got up to the register the barista told him his double-shot was free of charge, and handed him this:
This amazing little kid had come in earlier and loaded up a Starbucks card and pre-paid for the next several customers.  A bunch of grouchy grown-ups doing their last-minute shopping on the craziest day of the year to be out there, battling selfishly and viciously for parking spaces and last items on shelves, suffering holiday headaches and in need of some caffeinated solace . . . and they were all given this sweet reminder: be nice.

By blogging about this today, I suppose I should have some clever challenge and/or gift of my own for you, but I don't.  Just a little reminder for myself, and to share with any of you who feel like paying attention: let's try to be nicer.  We humans are a volatile, fragile lot, and should be handled with great care.  Remind people you love that you do.  Out loud.  And those that you don't necessarily love, well, we are all sharing this tiny little planet together - we might as well be nice to each other, like Diego. 

Season of Giving

This is the time of year many of us reflect on things we are thankful for.  I know, this should really be something we do every day anyway - but most of us require gentle reminders, or in cases like mine, a bonk on the head with a giant cartoon-style rubber mallet, to really sit back and appreciate the little things (and the big ones) that we are blessed with every day.

I am thankful that I am given the opportunity to make my living doing something I love.  I am thankful that I have a home and a place to work. I am thankful that it is warm and secure; that there is a roof attached to that place.  That my work tools, treasured belongings, and funny little family are safe under that roof.

Yeah, you can probably tell where I'm going with this.  I have been overwhelmed with emotion the last few weeks seeing the homes, neighborhoods, entire towns where this is not the case.  Recovering from and rebuilding after a loss of this magnitude is something my little brain just can't seem to wrap itself around.  I wish I could do some little thing . . . and well, I am thankful that I can.

I've recently reopened my long-neglected Etsy shop and have been adding items little by little.  And I will continue to do so throughout the holiday season: I've been inventorying my fabric stash to make sure I have everything I'm offering (!), I've been painting some new original pieces, and will be having quite a few new art-prints available soon.

And between now and the end of the year, I will donate 50% of all sales in my Etsy shop (excluding postage charges) to the Red Cross for Disaster Relief.

At the end of each week I will tally up my sales and make a donation, and will keep you updated as to our progress.  Yes, it's our progress that we will be making together, because it's your purchases that will make each donation happen! 

And to continue the Season of Giving theme, I will be having weekly giveaways here on my blog through the month of December, because I am thankful for you, my awesome loyal blog-readers!

I'll also be sharing other ways we can all help, here and on my Facebook Page - there are so many great people and organizations out there doing a lot of amazing things right now, it warms my heart to see it.  And hopefully I can pass along a little bit of that heart-warmth to the rest of you.

Thank you for visiting, and I hope you all have a beautiful week appreciating all for which you are thankful!

xo

 

PS:

Just a reminder (nudge, nudge) to visit all the amazing blog-hop hostesses each day of the Henry Glass Holiday Party if you haven't already - a full list with links to everyone's great stories, recipes, and free project downloads can be found here.

There's still time to enter my drawing for a 21-fat-quarter bundle of One Crazy Christmas Eve, see the post below this one for details and how to enter.  There's also still time to enter the big Henry Glass Holiday Party drawing where you'll win a big fabric bundle + separate gifts from each of the 16 designers participating in the hop!  Wow! 

You have until Sunday the 25th to enter the Henry Glass contest, and until Thanksgiving to enter mine here.  I've had so much fun reading your entries/comments here so far, your stories of Jello are running the gamut from cracking me up, grossing me out, and making me hungry!  You are all so awesome!

Illustration Friday: Bicycle

A fitting subject for Earth Day, don't you think?

I haven't played along with IF for a while so it was kinda fun to see this subject in my in-box this morning when this was already one of the drawings floating around my brain, in the running for sharing with you all today in honor of clean, fresh air and all.
You might still find this design lurking around as a garden flag by Toland Home Garden or coasters by Legacy Publishing, although it's been a few years for both products.

As for today, I suggest you go ride a bike over to your favorite tree and give it a big hug for me, ok?  Happy Earth Day, everyone.

Good Things.

Taking a peek around this blog, one might get the impression that heads are planted firmly in the sand over here at The Artstuff's.  Although I can't deny being at least a little bit self-absorbed now and then (quite often more than I'd like) the empty yet peaceful grasshopper-chirping sound coming from this corner of The Interwebs on the subject of The Outside World (beyond my immediate studio and garden) has not been due to lack of concern, frustration, anger, even heartbreak over the tragedies and atrocitites going on in the world.

Partly because I'm still having difficulty wrapping my little brain around so many sad and terrible things; my heart feels heavy and sometimes my brain and stomach feel like they don't remember which parts of my body they should be sitting quietly in.  And partly because I would like this to be a place where maybe you and I both could escape those feelings and think, just for a minute, about things like pretty flowers, or nice drawings, even nice drawings of pretty flowers.
And speaking of a little much-needed positive energy, I just discovered this neato little news site that focuses on good stuff, thanks to one of my favorite blog-lurks ... just this morning I subscribed so they'll send "one good thing a day" to my email box, seems like that might be, well, good.

North Head Lighthouse

I thoroughly enjoyed visiting this beautiful old piece of Washington State history last month.

Although aged architecture in decay makes for a neato artsy photo-op, it's not necessarily the respect that should be shown to our historical monuments.

There is a wonderful group, "Keepers of the North Head Light", who are working toward properly restoring the old beauty.

You can see some of the masonry work already done by students from the Historic Preservation Field School at the University of Oregon.

I'm not sure exactly why, but I seemed to have gotten giddy enough while there that I forgot some very basic and vital information about myself. I have extreme acrophobia. Like, standing-on-a-chair-is-too-high-phobia. But caught in some sort of moment - most likely I was out of my mind from the tsunami-advisory-excitement of the day - I seemed to be determined to go up inside and see it for myself.
Halfway up the first flight of stairs, it struck me, "holy crap girl, just what do you think you are doing?"

Those of you who know me well, feel free to answer aloud, in unison:

What is the one thing in the world I hate more than anything else?

"Stairs you can see through."

And what else?

"Stairs with no railings."

Thank you.

Once started, though, I couldn't exactly back down on my hands and knees (you think I'm joking?) and ask for my donation back. I'm sorry, I've changed my mind. I don't really care about your dumb old lighthouse any more. I'm going home now. So I looked up and kept going.
It was worth it. Really cool.

I hesitated for only a second looking at the stairs below, realizing I pretty much had no other choice but to take a deep breath and step down

but that's the only good thing about stairs-that-you-can-see-through - you can see-through much less going back down. And even better, point-and-shoot digital cameras can be held out from one's body while one is firmly pasted to the wall (look at me, I'm wallpaper. I dare you to peel me away). I had no idea what these next 2 shots looked like until I was back down on level ground.

If you're in Southern Washington it's worth a visit, and the folks who are organizing the fundraising/restoration efforts are super nice and are passionate about what they're doing. For more info about their organization or to find out about making a tax-deductible donation, you can contact:

The Keepers of the North Head Lighthouse

PO Box K, Ilwaco, WA 98624

or email them at KeepersOfNorthHead@gmail.com

They're Asking You and Me...

The Federal Government (yes, that Federal Government) wants to hear from you about how copyright law effects you.  No, really, they do.  Let y0ur voice be heard, creative friends and those who care about the rights of all artists and creators!

Please visit this post on Sue Zipkin's blog for the full story.

In the Art Licensing community, we have all been faced with infringement situations on some scale; when those new to the industry ask me about this issue I tell them "it's just a matter of time before it happens to you" and I don't mean that in a "we're all doomed" sort of way, it's just how things are out there.  It's so important that the law continues to protect artists as it always has in these cases, and grows and changes with the digital age as new media becomes available to the public, including those who would take advantage of others.

This is our chance, they're making it simple - you can do it in an email - please take a moment to speak out about how important Intellectual Property Enforcement is to you, and to all of us.

Thanks to Sue and to the Copyright Alliance for getting the word out about this! 
And thanks to the Copyright Alliance for all the great work they're doing.  You can find out more on their website.

The Wave that Wasn't

It was our last full day out at the coast, and after a very busy week, I was looking forward to a quiet day with no plans ... my art supplies were spread around me on the table, and I was sipping the last of my morning coffee going back and forth between drawing and just watching the rain outside.

That came to a screeching halt with a knock on the door, word about the tragedy in Chile, and a warming that there had been a tsunami advisory for the coast.  The beaches were closed (the much anticipated clamming weekend was canceled until further notice) and although there wasn't an official evacuation in place, many were packing up and heading inland.  Although they were only predicting 2-4 foot swells where we were, that seemed significant enough for concern sitting beach-side, right at sea level on a 28 mile peninsula sticking out into the ocean.  Looking out into the surf, or what you could see through the mist, it was easy to imagine the unknown dangers lurking beyond. 
We scurried around between the television news coverage, worrying about friends and loved ones in Hawaii and Guam, starting to pack, then deciding not to leave ... finally settling on packing up "a little bit" (we would be leaving the next day, anyway) putting some stuff up on tables or shelves "just in case" and heading to higher ground for a few hours.  We decided to make our final decision after reports started coming in from the more southerly beaches.

For us, "higher ground" was a place we'd been talking about visiting anyway ... just maybe at a little more leisure.

There seemed to be a little more traffic than usual, everyone was out doing something: heading to the north end of the peninsula where there were a few hills, heading south to go back inland, or chuckling at those who were doing so from a beer-drinking bonfire party along the highway.

The sun was back out as we arrived at our destination, and we were greeted by cheerful blooms along the path. 
Heading along the trail we'd get ever increasing glimpses of the dramatic ocean below.




 
It seemed a lot of other people had the same idea as we had...
There's just something about lighthouses. 
The symbol of safety, protection; 
looking down from a lighthouse one is easily reminded what could happen to ships if it wasn't here, guiding them away from the rocks.


 
I have much more to share with you about this particular lighthouse, North Head Light - but that will have to wait for another post. 
For now, well, you already know how this story ends.  After a while, reports started coming in that Hawaii had "dodged a bullet"; folks headed back down the trail to their cars, and eager clammers were already gathering on the beach below.
Although there seemed to be a collective sigh of relief upon hearing that the Pacific was no longer in immediate danger, I can't say the mood actually lightened, as the fact remained that earlier that morning, hundreds of Chileans had lost their lives, and it was indeed a sad day.

Thank You!

Big thanks to everyone who purchased items from my Etsy shop during my Haiti-donation promotion, from February 1 through March 10.

Although news coverage of the crisis has tapered off, the Haitian people have a long struggle ahead and are just now facing the rainy (hurricane) season without proper infrastructure, and many are still without shelter.  

With your help, $314 was donated by the Artstuff Studio Store to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, where 100% of the donations received went directly to supplying food, water, shelter, and medical aid to the people of Haiti. and I couldn't have done it without you!  You really are the Bees Knees! 

Every Little Bit Helps...

I'm in the process of (finally) adding a few new things to my Etsy store ... starting with some lovey kissy huggy mushy red-and-pinky themed prints.  Yeah, I'll be bringing them out in honor of Valentine's Day but really, they are prints you might just want to love all year round. 

Like this guy. 
It's been pretty cool to see the art and crafts communities come together to raise money for the efforts in Haiti.  New Etsy shops donating to the cause are popping up left and right, and many with existing shops are donating from their own sales.  My friend Jane found a program called Giving Works on eBay where sellers can donate any percentage they choose to the charity of their choice, and eBay takes care of the details (and Jane is donating 100% of the final sale price of her beautiful digital scrapbooking collections, you should check them out!).

I've been really wanting to join in myself, and have finally gone and figured out the details and updated my own store to do so; and for the entire month of February, I will be donating 100% of the price of all items sold in my Etsy store to relief and recovery efforts ... see my store for details.  And do check back - I will be adding more new goodies there in the days to come.

Helping Haiti

Have you been meaning to do something but haven't gotten around to it yet?

Google has a handy page of buttons and links where you can donate any amount directly to your choice of charities:  UNICEF, CARE, Red Cross, Mercy Corps, Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders, and a number of others - plus codes where you can text (if you're in the US) to donate to Red Cross, Yele Haiti, or Direct Relief directly from your phone.  Just click here, it's super simple, and any little bit can make a difference. 
Sending thoughts and prayers to all those affected by this tragedy.