I am so excited to begin this new journey!
I have wrapped up everything I HAD to do and this week, starting tomorrow, I am working on 9 creatures simultaneously. All will be completed to the same level as the one I just worked on a few weeks back.
Then we all leave for the UK, where I will work on each of their stories and unique details. I have exactly six weeks to complete this goal along with taking pictures and plotting out some further details that I will need for each story and the locations I will be heading to.
Now you see why I am SOOO EXCITED! When I first conceived of this idea over a year ago, I had a very concrete “Dream” about what this crazy endeavor would be: a mixture of my decade-old enchantment with sculpting, design and fantasy creations combined with the almost limitless stories and legends that surround the places our family has been fortunate enough to visit.
I know when I come back from our immersive trip to the U.K… that I will have to come back to BALANCE! Ugh. If I could JUST SCULPT! But that’s not the reality that me, and almost every artist I know, actually faces. So I guess this first blog post is about what else I have to do... in order to do what I want to do: Begin the creations that will become the foundation of Once Upon A Dream.
Today I work on the business side of my three jobs. One day a week I reserve for the yucky business work. The work NO ONE likes to do, BUT we all HAVE to do. Receipts, bookkeeping, taxes, paying bills, dealing with insurance companies, phone calls, emails, going through the mail, forecasting, invoicing, personal stuff like calling Lowes to find out when my fridge will be fixed or Pella because the new door we installed is mysteriously fogging up, you know dealing with stupid things.
Things that seem to have a life of their own. But all necessary things we have to do to be adults. I handle all of that for our family. It’s not a job I relish in the slightest and if I could I’d pass it off to someone in a heartbeat. Mondays tend to be the day I reserve for doing all of that yucky work. Then it is out of the way with and I’m free until the following Monday.
I like to balance my life like that.
I dedicate certain times of the day or days of the week to stuff that I HAVE to do and stick to it that way it doesn’t add up and overwhelm me later. You have to do that when you work from home or else you’d never get anything done. Reserving time for household stuff and then kid stuff and me stuff and then work stuff.
Here’s what I do - I work out at 6 am religiously for 1 hour. Done. Off my plate and I’m awake and ready for the day. Kids to school, check. Walk the dog, check. Redd up the house quickly, check. Run a load of laundry if needed, check. Vacuum, check. Sweep floors, check. Okay, it is now 10 am and I am off to my studio upstairs.
With everything quickly done I have clear energy around me and I can dive into my work easier. Sounds easy? Ha ha ha. It has taken me YEARS to figure out a system. Everyone that works from home needs to have a system or else you will be swamped day in and day out.
I’ve been reading the book, Grow Your Handmade Business by Kari Chapin. Great book for anyone with a creative business. I’m used to business plans and business models, but when you apply those concepts to art it can become muddled a bit and hard to envision your end goals. (perhaps make book cover image into link as well? Could serve as an H4 title if you like.)
This book helped as it asked great questions and helped with creating a balance. In the past, I would procrastinate and work on our company books once a month. It would take me all day and I dreaded doing it. I’d spend another full day on forecasting, another on taxes and so on and so forth. I HATED every second of it.
In Kari’s book she talks about that kind of work. The work we HAVE to do for our businesses and suggests breaking it up in scheduled time slots. Just like with working out, set a time daily or weekly for the yucky work and do it no matter what. Don’t procrastinate and hold off until the end of every month to do it. And if you can do it on a Monday, do it on a Monday! Get it over with. So I did. I set aside one day, Mondays for that yucky stuff and I tell you what, it works. It goes faster now and I’m always on top of it. So much so that I kind of enjoy doing it and getting it done on Mondays and then have the rest of my week to look forward to.
Everything I now do is wrapped around that mentality.
My husband thinks I’m nuts, but this system works. Some of you may be light years ahead of me with something similar or have been doing this for years. I’m glad I’m finally doing it. What kind of system do you have in place? Can I make my system more efficient? I’m open to suggestions. Fire away!
But in the meantime, here it is for everyone to see—the actual beginning all-over-the-place what I was thinking the moment this dream… started to become a reality.
Until next time? Keep your eye on the corners of your imagination. That’s where the real goodies are.
- H.H.R.
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Onto the fun stuff. The models! As long as my idea comes full circle I think you all will love the end products. All of the models will be complete on a base and will all tie together in ways inspired by legendary places we’re going to see in person!
So far, I have been told they are reminiscent of The Dark Crystal—that legendary realm of creative inspiration brought to life by Jim Henson, and based on the landmark creations of Brian and Wendy Froud.
