Where Oh Where Have I Been??

That is a very good question.  Where do I start?  Job frustration....I think that is where I left you all.  Talking about being moved from a position I liked (not loved, but I liked it a lot).  Well, much has happened on that front, but I no longer want to focus on that. 

Then the ever popular technical issues.  Blogging was cut from my work computer and my little home netbook was a challenge.  We just got a handle on that so I feel like I am creeping my way back into the blogosphere.  I have SO much catching up to do!!  Can't wait to visit all my favs again.

And then there was my decorating work.  I recently finished work on a 64 foot Hargrave yacht.  A total redo of furniture, accents, and softgoods.  I am very proud of the entire process....had a couple of firsts for me as a decorator as well.  I will share more on that soon (with pictures!).

So, I'm considering this a blog do-over!  Yay!  Don't you wish we could "do" that more often....a "do-over?"

What I am hoping to do from this point forward is some new things...a new focus.  I had lost interest in my artful self for a while.  I guess disappointments can allow that to happen.  However, I attended the Country Living Fair this past October in Stone Mountain Park, Georgia again and started to feel the flicker of the flame start again.  I didn't even take any pictures.  Remember all the posts and pics from the 2010 show?  I almost felt guilty that I was strickly indulging my own personal whims and fancies, and not taking pictures or getting business cards or talking to the artists.  That is, except for Shari Replogle.  I knew where she was situated last year and held out that she would be there again.  I was not disappointed.  Plus I got a beautiful treasure from her as well.

I found I had a common interest throughout the show.  It is not completely surprising that I love jewelry.  I know my taste is not right for everyone. I love the funky, the chunky, the vintage, the unusual.  I am often told "Only you could wear that."  I'm not sure exactly what that means, but I tell you, I'm starting to wonder if I am surrounded by really boring people (and I don't mean that in an ugly sense) or if I am just really strange!  I like to say different.  Some use the word artsy.  I don't know.  When I was walking around the Fair, these words popped into my brain more than once that day...."These are MY people!!"  I felt like I was with my true kin (and I was figuratively as well), but I felt it spiritually too.  My experiences over the past eight months or so keep driving home the message to me that I must stay true to myself, to my style, and to be who I am.  So that is going to be my focus.  Doing what feels right to me. I know you know what I am talking about.  It feels right to be in your own skin when you are following the right path for yourself, be it artistically or otherwise.

So since that show I have been consumed with finding a purpose and the creation of my kind of jewelry keeps floating to the surface.  Remember the Magic 8 Ball of our youth??  When I shake it and turn it over it says.....Make Some Awesome Jewelry!  I have been studying the works of Shari Replogle, Diana Frey, Amy Hannah, Christine Wallace (oh my!) and my extreme favorite:  Deryn Mentock.  I am truly enamoured.  I am hoping to attend Adorn Me! 2012 in late February in Houston, Texas to take an all day workshop entitled The Alchemy of Objects with Deryn Mentock.  That will truly be an awesome experience! I have some money to save, some equipment to gather (how does one fly with all one's tools?), some vintage goodies to gather.  I am so psyched!!  This is where I want to start leaning....with my work and with my life.  It feels good in my skin and in my head to even think it.  I long for the quiet creativity that I anticipate it will bring.  I must make time to do this....for my sanity, if for nothing else. 

So I hope you will like the subtle changes my blog will bring.  I hope you will still want to follow along with me through my little transformation.  I am praying it will be interesting for you and that I will still feel as strongly about the choices that I feel are forthcoming as I do right now.

For this upcoming Thanksgiving holiday I am most thankful to live in a country where I can actually undergo this metamorphosis.  I am thankful for the family I will see and spend time with this coming holiday, and I truly wish you all the most incredible blessings a holiday can bring.  I have so much more to share....the ideas are really starting to go from a mere simmer to a low boil.  I think they are going to keep growing.  Hope you to find you there along the way....

Wishing you a peaceful Thanksgiving...
Carol

P.S.  I just ordered this great book and sprung for the overnight shipping so I would have it for the long holiday weekend.  Can't wait to get it tomorrow!!  I will read every word and study every picture.  Plus I couldn't have a totally pictureless post!!!

Order it HERE.

Desperately Seeking Carol

Do you remember that '80's/'90's movie:  Desperately Seeking Susan?  Well, I know it was about a girl looking for a girl she saw or thought she saw or something like that.  I am in search of myself.  I need to make some time for myself without feeling like I am slighting someone else in the process.  How does one do that?

I've spent the better part of the last week stealing moments with my dear mother.  Lunch here, shopping there.  She leaves for Georgia in the morning.  I will see her again soon and will start thinking of when I will make my next journey there.  I've seen her more in the past few months than I have in recent years....her trip here at Christmas, my surprise visit to GA in February for her birthday, and her "tax trip" here this past week.  I know I will be in ATL in October for the Country Living Fair, but will make it up there long before that, I'm sure.  Thank you, Mom, for still being my mom.  Even at 48, I feel like a little girl sometimes who longs for her "mommy."  Maybe we never outgrow that.  I know I am blessed to have you. 

My Aunt Claire came over from the west coast this past weekend too.  I was so happy to see her and will have to make the 3 hour drive to see her new haven.  Lake Susie....how "dreamy" does that sound??

I am feeling taken advantage of, of late.  I need to get a grip on that and find time for me.  I vow, this week, to take care of the things I feel I need to...feeding and bathing my sweet granddaughter, but maybe letting her daddy put her to bed as I venture out to the shop to work on a dresser a dear friend has entrusted in me.  Yes....that will make me feel that I am using my time wisely, accomplishing a goal, and doing what I love.  I longed for time in my garden this weekend, but did not find it....or make it.  At some point, I need to make time for me.

Maybe this week?  How do you steal moments for yourself?  I could really use your advise.....