It's December and luckily the weather has held this year. It has been a most delightful fall, with mild temps and no snow yet! Yay! But the nights are long, the days growing ever shorter, and I'm dreaming of January when movies and puzzles and day naps are big on the agenda. Here in the PNW we only get about 8 hours of daylight right now so we gotta take advantage of it before the holidays are over and the island goes quiet!

At the same time, I'm feeling contradicting feelings about business and art making. My creative juices are really flowing and new work abounds both on the easel and the jewelry bench. I literally want to spend all day every day in the studio for the first time in a very long time. 

But...what does a girl do when that isn't realistic and she has a shop to run, too? I've been squeezing in studio time before FERN and before bed more than ever. Right now the statement, "Art is more important than Netflix" is rolling around in my head. And you'd think it would be exhausting but surprisingly enough, it's been energizing! It's inspiring me to do more. Isn't that great? 

Instead of focusing on all the production pieces I've always made, I restocked them early so that I could free up time to make new work. Like this painting I finished last month titled New Beginnings. It's just that. A new beginning. Turns out the more time you spend focused on painting, the faster your creativity evolves and grows in new and exciting ways! Color. Pattern. Composition. Nature. These are a few of my favorite things! More original paintings coming soon! 

And at the risk of saying too much, I've been thinking a lot about transparency and vulnerability lately. Scary topics for the internet, for me at least. I know how perfect things can look from the outside. All shiny and great. But the current reality for me and my business is that it's struggling to stay afloat. Sales have been way down for me this whole year and I'm trying to get resourceful to keep my little shop open. It is such a dream to have and a pleasure to be in and I'd hate to see it come to an end. It has become such a part of my life that I don't know what I'd do without it.

I'm staying open to the possibility of things turning around and thriving in 2024!

Please know how much I appreciate your continued support. I'd have never made it this far without you. And if you've got any requests for custom pieces, I'm all ears. I'm heading into the time of year of more space in my schedule to allow for stuff like that.