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I managed to get out to our former-Utrecht-now-Blick's grand re-opening and score some killer deals!
I thought I'd film a little haul video for you guys since I haven't been able to film a regular video this week. Let me know which new supply you'd like me to play with first for next week!
Originally, I wasn't going to do anything special for the holiday season - my Etsy shop hasn't had a sale in two months, and I had lost faith that people even wanted to purchase anything from me! - but then I started reading Daring Greatly by the amazing Brené Brown, and realized that it doesn't matter what others are thinking, or how they're engaging or disengaging...what matters is that I'm down there in the arena, fighting the good fight, doing what I believe and what is fun -- that is what matters.
I can't grow a tribe by lamenting over the quiet. I need to keep making noise. And I'm not alone in feeling this way.
(For example, this week, I'm adding feather stencils, a few artist's papers, & a new weekly discussion to The Studio. Even if no one sees it all, I'm making noise, drumming the drum, making the music. And soon, people will hear it and come looking, curious.)
So then, I figured, why not roll out all those things I've dreamed of sharing, of making? Why not make them anyway? Why live with the regret of not doing those things?
Today, I'm rolling out the first day of thanks: a 20% discount across my digital and Etsy shops, and the new art sticker sets!
My most recent journal was a love-letter. I adore it. And I want to keep hold of those favorite images with these stickers, as well as my favorite paintings in the smaller set. I remember coming across these blank sets at Jo-Ann's with Carissa while in Florida, and how we both squeed with delight, quickly discussing ideas. And now, I've finally made them! I've already started putting them on everything and know I'll be making more!
Now, would you like 20% off anything I'm selling? Enter happyweek2012 at checkout!
I'll be adding gelli print postcard sets tomorrow, ORIGINAL art, as well as a few new painting and journal page prints later this week. And Thursday, I'll be announcing my classes and year-long projects over at The Studio - with local and national events and video projects taking up much of my time next year, I'm only doing a few things online...but they're grand, helpful, deeper-than-just-tutorial bits that will get you creating, sharing, and seeking authenticity not only in your art, but in a larger Creative Life.
(Have you wondered about the Creative Warrior bit in my header? Because you, too, will soon become one! And with opportunities for YOU to start making money off your art, hearts, and ideas!)
I'll only be running these specials this week, so if you're ready to go further, or grab some of my artwork, this is the week to do it!
While on vacation, I asked a few of my friends to write blog posts for me. I asked for raw stories of the saving grace of art, or those little epiphanies that can change our outlook. I've recieved a few amazing stories, and would like to share one with you today.
I’m tired of waiting for the moment to be right. To find the perfect supplies. To dress up in carefully beautiful I’m An Artist outfits with Artsy-Farty Music on and a perfect bohemian glow shining around me, white curtains blowing in a lusciously clean and bright studio.
I talk a good game about embracing wabi sabi, seeing grace in my goof-ups, finding beauty in the broken—loving REAL life, not the prettied-up version that’s so tempting to polish and post on Facebook and blogs and in my magazine and even preach into my mirror. But it’s still so easy to fall back into stories of not good enough, of be more like her, of comparison and perfection, thinking something in me needs to be different in order to make art beautiful and true.
Enough. I’m here, now. In the mess. In dirty house and grumbling belly and whatever-was-comfortable clothes. Today, now, I decide I NEED this: to unstick the warped door into my studio, to stumble through piles of Forgotten Stuff that Didn’t Fit Anywhere Else, to grab the first art journal I see, to gulp a breath as I glance over Bits of Me Left Behind, to reach a ready hand out and find oil pastel in candy-bright shades. I clutch the goods to me, back out of the too-cluttered-to-work room (with a whispered “I’ll be back. Promise”), and head to the kitchen. I dump the supplies on a folding table and look.
I breathe. Hesitate. Breathe again. I stare at blank page, pick at my nails. No more perfect, right? Just here. Now. The black marker feels right, somehow—so I scribble, without thinking: JUST LET GO. Next, lime green oil pastel finds its way into my hand. Scribble scribble. Glorious. Messy. Yes. Everything else fades. All I see is lime and teal and orange and me. All I feel is joyful squish under fingertips, white paper giving way to color, heart slowing, breath coming easier now. Yes.
Who says beautiful and true can’t be real and honest? What about the wild and free side of me, who so often gets tamped down and combed out and spit-washed and tucked away? She needs to be heard.
It’s time to make mistakes, to play, to delight in the process. It’s time to screw up, royally. It’s time to make some ugly art that somehow still feels beautiful. It’s time to make sh*t because it just feels GOOD. It’s time to get messy, to scribble and “og” (as I called it before I knew the words), to tear and burn and cut and paint and glue and tape and swirl and swish. It’s time to pour out guts and glory on the page (or canvas or cardboard or word or fabric). It’s time to let loose, to give in to the wild side. It’s time to make art because it’s what I do, because art saves me and speaks me and gives me room to Be.
And oh man, it feels gooooood.
Amanda Fall is a joy-seeker and art-maker, blessed beyond belief to create and edit Sprout online magazine. She invites you on a mission to color the world, to seek beauty in the mundane, to practice gratitude, and to celebrate abundant joy in this divinely blessed life. Join the conversation on Facebook, in the pages of Sprout, and at her personal blog Persistent Green.
