Life and dreams of a quit-your-day-job girl ..

I miss people ... a few weeks and I miss people.

Two weeks ago I walked out of the doors of the newspaper where I worked for almost 6 years and "Yee Haw'd" my way home. I knew I'd miss my co-workers (most of them), but still, I could now center on my photography and wearable art. I used to get a lot done, just how much more I could do was mind-boggling!

hmmmm....

Well, I think what I've stepped up more than anything is marketing, reading blogs, creating treasuries on Etsy, and playing Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook. That last thing is bad, I know, but I have a reputation to uphold as the one who kicks both my two sisters' butts!

Best thing I've discovered about working out of my home is that if I'm on a roll, I don't have to stop because I have to go to work in the morning.. I can stay up until 3 a.m. working on cutting tiny photographs and sealing them in settings or photoshopping my photography with "ohhhh's" and "ahhhh's" mixed in. If I can't sleep I can get up, stumble my way to my photography room and work.

But I do keep thinking: We laughed a lot at work. We bet a lot. Crazy bets like "how many Easter peeps can you fit into your mouth at once" then we'd do side bets on who's gag reflex would kick in first. We were irreverent and cynical as newspaper people tend to be. We were like a family.

A great, big dysfunctional family, but still ...

I miss talking and laughing with others. I told my grown daughter this the other day and she said "Mom, maybe this is good for you. Maybe you'll learn to like people again!"

Yeah, well don't get too excited, I'm not going to take up shopping at Wal-Mart anytime soon, kiddo..

 The Silent Path

Goodbye

 Change of Season necklace

 Change of Season Necklace

 Tapestry of Trees Necklace

Inseparable Companions bracelet

good lord it's been a long time ...

I've been so busy for so long I've neglected this blog - even if I never posted ALL that much to begin with.

Sports season starts at the newspaper in late August and doesn't stop until the middle of March. Well, we have sports (track, etc.) but not the kind of almost-every-night sports events that make me swear each year I will "quit my day job" by the time the next season rolls around.. hmmmm, 5 years and counting :S

Since I've last written here I've opened a second shop on Etsy: wearableartbyjude.etsy.com - my usable/wearable pieces of jewelry, etc. with my photographs displayed in them. Necklaces, bookmarks, bracelets, and paperweights, to be exact.

This kind of work started from how the economy was affecting sales of my photography in galleries a little over a year ago. Two-dimensional art "is just not selling" a gallery owner told me. What to do? I live for my photography and the thought that it my dream of making this my main business could die put my brain into idea-making overdrive.

For over 6 months I played with resins and played with different pendants... LOTS of mistakes, for sure. Finally I found a great resin and learned to design what I thought was appealing. My shop has been pretty successful since it opened at the end of last August, and I have plans for so many more different pieces to be designed. Even in the B&M shops where I sell they've been selling very well.

The best thing is that my photographs have taken off again as well - both in the galleries and online. Not quite enough for me to quit, but still.. I'm a pretty happy camper with lots of ideas still jetting through my brain.

I don't know what I'll do with my blog.. it seems hard to try to write what you think people want to read. Maybe that's the problem... maybe I should just write what I feel like talking about? Who knows.. but I'm going to give it another try..

I leave you with a few photographs of my work from my wearable shop ...