Simplify = Happy

Posted on by June 29, 2013

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It’s been going on now for about ten years in my life, this urge to simplify things in my life.  Mostly manifesting in the need to reduce “clutter” in my life… stuff… things that really don’t mean a whole lot in the scheme of things.  I’ve really had to work through a lot of well, I think unhappiness, that really made me cling to “things” as a sort of happy jump starter…  yet they always left me feeling a little, well, unhappy, and then I would seek out more, and there would be that temporary rush of “getting or finding” things but then later on, not so happy.

And then on the other side…  I would get interested in something, usually an art or a craft and instantly would want to gear up and get all the tools and gadgets and supplies to make the experience perfect…  all the while, doing it for a bit, then loosing interest.  Just a dumb pattern of things, I suppose.

Now, lately, I’ve been on the other side of the boat… the pare down, get rid of, simplify boat and I sure do love the cruise.  It’s taken me a few years to really get a grip on things, but I think I’m finally getting there.

I used to think I needed to whittle things down to just a set number, like 5 or 10.  But I couldn’t really come up with a good number.  And it just didn’t make good sense.  Why does it have to be a number?  I think more, it needs to be a combination, a selection palette that works for me.  Just enough to not feel overwhelmed, yet not enough to feel restricted.  We creative types can be a pain in the tush at times…  we just need lots of eye candy and stimulation to keep our creative juices flowing and we can be like mynah birds…  attracted to the bright and shiny and just always flitting about for a new bauble.

So I have finally come to the right “grouping” for me.  My main art focus shall be the textile arts.  That will include for me, weaving, wool rugs, fiber processing (spinning, dying), knitting and crochet, and some light quilting and sewing.  On the side will be watercolor and silk painting and photography since I do adore illustration work.  (And that does fit into my graphic art side)  And I will, of course, continue with the music, bluegrass primarily…  performing, songwriting and promotion.

I like it.   Perfect!

And so that means, all the rest has to go…  and it has been!    I boxed up all my soap making supplies and trotted them down to my friend Miss Julia’s.   She’s made soap with me before and seemed very interested in doing more.  She has a friend as well and they have been looking for something crafty to do and sell and I think they would be fantastic at it!  Don’t know if it will take, but I hope it does, if they want it to.  And I felt so incredibly relieved after doing that…

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed making soaps and every so often I would daydream about making it a big deal…  sold some, had a nice time with it.   But it just wasn’t MY thing.  That thing that I could get super excited about.  It was more something that I enjoyed a time or two, and wouldn’t mind helping out now and then, just to get my fingers wet… but I really don’t want to do all the time.   And it has been weighing heavily on my mind and to do cards!  Now, it’s gone.   Yeah!

I spent this afternoon with the girls helping me and I went through my fabric stash.  And I cleaned out a huge bag of stuff that I will never use in a million years, yet I’ve been carrying around, keeping just in case and have moved like 4 times!!!  AGH!   It’s gone and my gosh, I feel fantastic…

Maggie sorted all my magazines for me.  Gosh, I had just way too many, and most I will never want to look through again, but I just couldn’t part with them….  we bundled up several years of this and that for the free store and then grouped three into bundles that might sell on ebay, so that would be good.   But best of all, they are out of my stash!!

I finished my library and my office/paper work last week.   This week is the studio and arts and crafts…   got a few more little cabinets of things to sift through and make some hard decisions, but I really feel HAPPY about it…  making the change that makes sense.

Just more lightening the load…  physically and also emotionally!  Feels good…

 

 

 

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Our New Website Re-Duex!

Posted on by June 28, 2013

NEWMasterPlanner

 

I suppose one of the “nice” things to come from our summer in-home experience…  (I think it’s funny to call it a Stay-Cation…)  is that we are getting back on track and caught up in some seriously overdue efforts.  (Clint!  You’re next!!!  Honest!!!)

Yes…  it’s been good to get back to the ‘grindstone’ of my chosen profession..  and not mild manner shepherd or banjer picking gal…  it’s that of profession graphic arts…  of graphic design…  I do adore the work and I’ve been said to have a decent touch at the art.  However, the last year or so, my attention has been a bit diverted in so many ways with a lifelong desire to farm.  If I were rich or some public figure I would call a good deal of the last two years a “sabbatical”…  but in reality it was more of a “burn-out-ical”  (If that is even a word…  I like it, I think I’ll keep it.)

I won’t go into the gory details, but pretty much it stemmed from over-extending myself in so many ways to help so many causes, usually for free or next to nothing, and then often getting walked over and treated rather, well, coarsely by many individuals…  such is the case of a nice, tender hearted gal without much of a backbone to stand for poor treatment.  I believe one might see my photo on wikipedia under graphic arts doormat…  haha….

But one by one, I stopped answering emails and calls to those said individuals, because in the end, if they didn’t appreciate my efforts, then why did they always want me on their team?  I whittled away many of these “clients” and in the end I got the very best of those who appreciate me and my talents and are some of my best friends, to boot!  Best case scenario, I suppose!

However I digress.  One of the things that I’ve been longing to do, for easily over seven years now, was to re-create one of our best websites…  a site that sells my very first homeschool publication/product…  The Master Planner.

I wish I had taken a before shot…  I probably have a file in backup somewhere but trust me, my web skills have grown in leaps and bounds in the last 11 years.  And the previous site was done in this garish neon blue and black, just ugly as sin.  Hardly appropriate for a nice homeschool product.

What was I thinking???

So for years now, I’ve known that I wanted to redo this site, but it’s always made it to the back of the priority deck…  just not available for me to fix it.  Everyone else’s work had to come first, they were paying…  I was not.   But then I just finally said, enough is enough… this site is part of our bread and butter.  It has sold thousands of copies over the last 12 years.  Thousands!   At $6 a shot.  There were many a time that a couple Master Planner sales over the week got us through in gas for Blue or dog food or heck, groceries on the table!  Over the last 12 years, that little orphan product has generated over $30,000 for us.  And what is so remarkable and delightful is that in all this time, we’ve only had 4 returns of the product.  Four people that found it not suitable for their needs.  And what i think is just wonderful, is that thousands of families have grown a whole generation of homeschooled kids over the last 12 years with this wonderful helping tool.

Don’t you think something that important deserves a nice, pleasant website to support it?  I sure do!!!

And I think I did a nice job on it.  I love how it looks now, how it flows, and for the most part it is all done and ready to go out there and hopefully help another couple thousand families!  Wouldn’t that be delightful?

I want to revamp the product and add even more delightful content to it, and perhaps soon, I will find the time for it.  I’ve been thinking up new forms and ideas for it for years now and have quite a stash of potential additions.  But I want to be able to do it right, and I will…  but for now, it’s just so much nicer!  I love it…   I hope you will too!

www.TheMasterPlanner.com

If you want to check it out and maybe pass the link to any homeschooling families you know, wow, that would be delightful.  If you just want to drop me a comment and say what you think, hey go for it…  (be nice though, I’m a fragile spirit!  haha)  Or if you’d like to just ignore it and wait for a cute picture of a chicken or goat, hey, I’m good with that.

I just wanted to share this little bit of the “other” side of Sherri…  One that I hope to be embracing more and more as the long summer of house arrest winds on!  (gg)

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We have a winner!!!

Posted on by June 28, 2013

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How can something so pretty be a weed?  Sigh…

 

Campanula rapunculoides reaches on average 30–80 centimetres (12–31 in) of height, with a maximum of 120 centimetres (47 in). The stem is simple, erect and lightly pubescent and the leaves are usually shortly hairy. The basal leaves are triangular, narrow, with a heart-shaped or rounded base, jagged edges and are up to 12 centimetres (4.7 in) long. The upper stem leaves are sessile, lanceolate and shortly stalked.

The inflorescence consists of nodding spikelike racemes with numerous drooping flowers. The flowers are bright blue-violet (rarely white), 2 to 4 cm long, with short petioles standing to one side in the axils of the bracts. The bracts are quite different and smaller than the leaves. The sepals are lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, entire, wide at the base up to 2.5 mm. The corolla is bell-shaped, with five deep lobes slightly ciliate. The flowering period extends from June through September. The flowers are pollinated by insects (bees, flies, butterflies, etc.) (entomophily). The fruit is a capsule with five pores near the base, where the seeds are spread.

This plant has its overwintering buds situated just below the soil surface (hemicryptophyte). It spreads by underground rhizomes and produces deep, taproot-shaped tubers. Both are white and fleshy. Because any piece of the roots can sprout into a new plant, it is extremely hard to eradicate.

Distribution

This plant is native to Europe and western Siberia and it has been introduced to North America, where it has become an invasive weed.

Habitat

It grows on grassy places, dry hills, meadows, in deciduous and pine forests, woods, fields and roadsides, along railway lines and hedgerows, preferably in partial shade, in dry to moist sites and on clay soils, relatively rich in nitrogen, at an altitude of 0–2,000 metres (0–6,600 ft) above sea level. It also occurs in cultivated fields as a weed.

 

 

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