Returning

My readers! Hiiiiii! It’s been a long break since I’ve been here with you. I am thrilled to be returning.

I’ve done a good bit of traveling since I wrote to you last. Across the end of July, August, and the beginning of September I was away from home a full three weeks out of five. My dogs hated it. My kids tolerated it. I loved it.

Scotland

We went to Scotland and it is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. There’s been a few places I’ve traveled to over the years that feel like they rearrange who I am on a molecular level. Scotland is one of those places.

While in Scotland, I got to meet up with my friend Charlotte and we had a grand giggly time at the museum with a croissant pillow. We saw art, visited an art supply shop, ate lunch at a beautiful Indian restaurant, and drank coffee in the library basement of another art museum. How could I not fall in love with a place that puts a library/coffee shop in the basement of an art museum?

Dragoncon

We came home and I barely got a chance to rest before it was time for DragonCon! We’ve been going to DragonCon for a lot of years and I always give it a name for what the experience was like for me and this year I dubbed it FriendCon. It was a complete joy to see friends I hadn’t seen in so long and catch up, hang out, and be silly together.

We came back from that and immediately had to quarantine because so many friends from con tested positive for covid. We unbelievably didn’t have it and from there, I swung into caring for my mom who had cataract surgeries over the course of three weeks. I also made the two monsters I promised as Kickstarter rewards for Small Wonders magazine.

New month, new me

And now it’s October and I am not even back into a routine yet. I didn’t make any art during my travels and I barely crocheted. I wanted time away and boy did I have it!

I’m struggling to get started making anything again.

This isn’t a new problem for me. Anytime I am away from the studio for a long time, I struggle to get going again. I remember when that used to scare me. Now I am just exasperated because I know I will get started, I just have to make myself go in there and really suck at everything for a few days before I find the mojo again.

And it makes me feel so green and bad at all of it and of course, I hate that feeling. Who wouldn’t? And once that’s festered for a while, I start feeling like a fraud. Who let me in here to make art?

But I’ll get back to it. I know I will because I always do. I’m thankful I’ve got that experience now to know that I’ll be back in the studio working away before I know it.

November’s coming

You know I’m not shy around here about being political. I’m a woman making art, my very existence is political. So with that in mind, I want to encourage all of my readers to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz on November 5th, or earlier if early voting is an option for you. And vote for Democrats locally who are working to bring about policies and programs that benefit all of us. I’m more hopeful about Kamala Harris leading our country than I’ve been in years.

I’ve been sending postcards to voters encouraging people to get out and vote in some close senate races. If you have the bandwidth to join in, that would be amazing!!

One of my favorite things I’ve ever been lucky enough to get to do is to walk a fellow artist through the red tape of her state to get registered to vote. She was super hesitant about doing it for a whole variety of reasons and we talked through them so she could go print her form and send it in.

And I suppose there’s the life lesson. Keep doing the thing even when it feels hard or like it’s never going to get anywhere. Knowing all the little pieces add up over time. Watching and waiting to see the magic return or blossom for the very first time.

I’m returning to the studio tomorrow. I’ll let you know what happens.

Do you need to register to vote or check your voter status? You can do that at: IWillVote.com Tell me what you’ve been up to or a favorite voting story! Catch up with me on socials, email me, or go old school and leave a comment on this post to be immortalized for all of time.

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