Good stuff is happening. I'm trying to get my act together again for designing more fabric. The phone rings: a local design store is interested to do work with me, to display and sell my cushions. They also hinted that they would like to host a wine evening and have me present there along with a furniture designer from Auckland who will be flying down. Where will my Mooo cushions sit on top of? On his lovely chaise. Exactly. Awesome.
Because the farm work has been coming out of our ears, and the calfs are sprouting left right and center, we've been a bit busy. Just a tad. One calf need bottle feeding twice a day for another 8 weeks.
Hemptech is seriously due for a new series of ass kicking design. I better get my tush in gear. Really really. The inspi juices are flowing. They need to be directed or they will go to waste.
Well I will give you a glimpse of what I have done so far. And I will do more. You can count on it. Wine evenings or no wine evenings.
Having initiative is a blessed thing. I'm referring to the fact that when you can initiate an idea and follow up on that idea, transforming it into something sensible (and finished) that helps you to look after yourself and others, to bring things about and this results in riding the waves of life.
Damien Hirst an artist (not the famous British one but hell does that matter -not to me) has set up a surprising online store. Why? He needs a new camera and sells artworks for whatever price you are willing to pay to support him. (This initiative reminds me of Les, the twitter friend we en-devoured to set up a fundraiser for last Christmas.) The novelty here is that Damien's idea is fun, slightly off the wall with a huge doses of quirky and I have already spotted one piece I'm going to bid on. The sentences underneath the photographs capture as much as the actual photo.
Damien's mission: "My mission is to decrease the value of art expressed in money and increase the value of art expressed in the true love for it. I want art to be cheap but loved and admired. I want art to stop being exclusive and start being for everyone. I want art to belong to those who can see beauty in it and not those who are looking for profit and prestige. I want art to make a difference. I want art to be fake, meaningless and cheap. Because only in this way one could learn to apreciate art for only one true reason - because it is art. I want our world to get infected by art. I want an art pandemic."
Well said and a toast to initiatives. If we didn't have those then love would surely have perished.
That's right, we always have to make sense, make the bed, make peace, make do or make up. Either way, we 'make' a lot, we are continually 'making' as we are creators and also creatures.
Many people take life seriously. They pop Prozac, they moan to the neighbors or mow the loan, they mind their business or mind their kids and try to mind their minds. "Life is supposed to be fun" (quote by Abraham Hicks) When we were kids this seemed a lot easier, we had the luxury of fluffing around and our irresponsibilities would be excused, we could run in hayfields and hide from the angry farmer with his air rifle (a boy got shut in his butt unfo but really we had a tremendous time) and live in the moment. We could wolf down an ice cream and not worry about tomorrow. Those were the days, but today that can still be the case. I tell you, as boring as it sounds (oh no!) it comes back again and again to our mindset and general attitude. It's a continuing topic. Life's what you make it.
I'm game for a throwing cakes festivity or giving up serious work to start selling balloons for a while. You get the idea. If something stays the same it will never change, it's up to you to go to the slot machine and pop a quarter in. Stop staring at it from afar. Make up your mind, and the rest will follow... and have some fun while you're at it. Doo da doo da!
My husband and I have been very very busy lately. We had my parents visiting from overseas since before Christmas. There was work, there was farm work, the animals to look after, other design work, things to organize, trips to do, trees to be chopped, sheds to be build, glasshouses to take down and driveways to be planned. Basically property and work things we all do, we just do it in a farm-let format. Two calfs were born, one of them is still trying to find the right teats to use. This sucking business and starting life is actually not always that easy. So we bottle feed as well to keep Bella up to speck. Life is supposed to be fun so we help her out.
And just when I thought the whole jewelery thing was winding down -as I've been way too occupied with all sorts of stuff- there's demand for more of it, a particular design is very popular. Also there's a store here in Dunedin wanting to see my fabric designs. I've sold work both in Christchurch, Queenstown and Dunedin. So there are always surprises. I haven't made time to design more fabric or jewelery but now I'm keen to. The whole point of focusing and prioritizing is really to figure out what the heck we love to do most and then to go do it.
I decided to start my study in June/July and am currently reading the biggest books ever that a client gave me to peruse on the topic. I have also done field work in my holidays which has been tremendously beneficial. Then there's farm training: the benefit of building a new roof on the implement shed for 7 days and getting the hay in -knocking off after midnight- has been good for toning my muscles and losing weight which made me a lot fitter then I was. I'm game for some new action. Watch the space.
Now I'm content to go home again to ca-noodle Nico and see what carnage has occurred today as lumberjacks visited and gave trees some serious haircuts. Nico told me it looks quite drastic and some trees were so huge they decided against further cutting afraid they would be felled themselves. I tell you there is never a dull moment around here. I go to work to get some peace and quiet. So on we trot! It's a good summer now and the weather has been wonderful which makes both humans and animals extremely happy. Time for a barbecue and wine I reckon.
