When I got home yesterday, there was a little surprise waiting for me on my laptop. My brother had, while I was out at the printer testing color matches, updated my laptop to the newest version of Mac OS. While looking through all of the features of this new operating system, I found out that it was enabled with Dictation, which is how I am writing this entry right now. It’s kind of odd to sit and talk to your computer and expect it to type everything that you’re saying, and when you turn dictation on, it tells you that, in order to do this, everything that you say is being sent to Apple in order for them to convert your speech into typed words.
Oh, and apparently you can only talk for so long before it just stops taking down what you’re saying and puts it on the screen.
But for someone with growing carpel tunnel problems and arthritis developing in their hands, having dictation on my computer makes it so much easier for me to type blog posts, emails, and comments to all of my lovely readers and followers. I know this isn’t a colorful blog post, or tutorial teaching you something new, but I just wanted to share something that is going to help make my life a little easier to share with you.
Playing with packaging for the Etsy shop!
So let’s get to some fun stuff. My Etsy shop has been open for two days now, and I am amazed with how many people have ordered prints, or even multiple prints, from the shop. I am overjoyed and so grateful for all of you have ordered art, and if you’re planning on ordering some in the future, say on payday, I appreciate your continuing support of my new artwork (remember how scared I was of sharing it with you in the first place?).
In fact, today, I headed to the printers and put down a lot of my own money in order to fully stock the shop with multiples of each piece of art available. This was a scary thing to do, and as she was filling out the order form, I started to second-guess myself in my head. Is it really worth it to spend so much money to make sure my store was stocked with high-quality prints done professionally, rather than here at home with the printer I have? But that loving voice in my head kept telling me that this is going to work out, this is the thing I need to do, that it is finally my time to shine.
Wow, having this dictation program take down what I say and then only having to go back and edit has made writing this so much easier!
And lately, things have been going so well! I almost feel like a real girl, a girl who can go out and spend time with her friends. To hang out to make art, to explore new places, to meet new babies, have dinner, and even see a good movie together. For a girl who’s spent so much of her life limiting herself to avoid pain, having such amazing, supportive, and fun friends this week has simply made me smile, and inspired me to continue going for my dreams. In fact, I’m off to another friends house, a new friend, who will be cohosting tomorrow’s live vid chat with me. I’m so excited to go and see her, and it promises to be a fun afternoon.
I’m learning to live with new limits, pace myself properly on the computer, take time to create artwork for myself every day (no matter how much pain I’m in!), and discovering more about who I am what I want to achieve. And how I’m going to present all of this new stuff to you, here, in this online space.
I think that’s enough talk-typing for tonight. I’m off to go play in my art journal, plan out tomorrow Journaling Deep post, and enjoy one of my favorite TV shows (it’s Suits, by the way). Love you all, and catch you tomorrow on the web chat.
PS. Check out my article in the new issue of Artful Blogging! I talk about how telling my Story about having FMS and reaching out to my Spoonie sisters (and brothers!) has deepened my blogging and connections (& my name's on the cover again!).