12.31.09
Posted in General at 2:12 pm by deRomilly
Zahra - A New Series Start
This has been quite a month for me, as you probably noticed, I didn’t post a lot.
My day job was getting stressful, and it culminated in a layoff at the beginning of December. The day after that, my 4 year old Dora-cat was in the Emergency Vet being diagnosed and treated for kidney failure. I’ve spent the last few weeks nursing her, thinking a lot about where I want to be in the next year, and recovering from a cold I’ve been suffering with as well. Dora is doing much better, thank you, and I should be soon. 
I have, over the course of this year, wanted more time to work on designs, and on trying to make things more interesting here on the blog. Some of the things I want to provide you require stitching on my part! and as you’ve seen, that just hasn’t happened. So the extra time, is welcome, if the extra paycheck is missed.
Things I’d like to happen for 2010 around here:
First, I’m going to post regularly here. I’m planning on once a week, at the very least. I’ll try to get a button up soon so that you can have the blog sent to you via email or RSS feed if you would rather. I suspect once a week will become plenty, since I can’t keep up with the blogs that I want to read daily! One that went monthly, very apologetically and I sent her an email thanking her, because now I’ll get to not only read it, but probably even have time to use the information she posts!!
Second, the newsletter. I want to try to get one out to those of you who have asked for it monthly, at the very least. It will contain lots of information about things to stitch on, how to use your stitching in ways other than framing it on the wall, and possibly some free patterns.
Third, the business. I really don’t want to go back to work for corporate America. What I find myself living for is designing, drawing, making art, and writing. So I’m going to try to build that into a way to make a living. I have a lot of ideas, including translating the designs and art I have built up into more than one form of needlework: for example, offering both a cross stitch chart and a quality crewel kit or design…and I’m teaching – both shimmying and stitching.
Fourth: Myself. I want to develop my abilities as an artist, and to develop myself as well as everything else. To this end, I’m taking Kelly Kilmer’s “Life Made by Hand” art journaling class this year. And I’m taking more walks, continuing to practice ShivaNata, and trying to listen to my Spirit more.
Which all leads to: I’m excited about the New Year. I hope you are, too.
Happy New Year everyone!
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12.14.09
Posted in GoldenCircleDesigns.com at 5:51 pm by deRomilly
You remember a few months ago, when I said that when the Universe yells at you, you should listen? Well, I tried, really I did. I started focusing on cleaning the studio. I even found a patch of floor that I didn’t know I had. The shelves are still falling over, though, because they need to be emptied before I can fix them… and and and…well, things got busy. We had a software release at work, then there was the new beta to get started on, and Thanksgiving, and friends who wanted to see me before I die, and my father, who also wants to see me before EITHER of us dies… and so on. I worked on designs. I worked on the studio. Sporadically. I didn’t get the first newsletter out, although it is mostly written.
Well. The first week in December the Universe got tired of my wimbling. It pulled out a two by four and smacked me over the head about not pursuing my dreams. You see, I think the universe really wants me to succeed in Art and Design, even when I would much rather pull the blanket up over my head and hide from the world.
That two-by-four? It’s called a layoff. Suddenly I have all the time in the world to focus on the business, getting this pile of designs I have finished ready for you wonderful folks to buy and stitch and love, and the book on how to design your own needlework done…
And then the day after, my Dora-kitten got sick. (OK, she’s four. But she’s still my kitten. And she features in the design book, so she’s even more special!) Very sick. Sick like “in the hospital for three days with kidney failure” sick. I’ve been spoon feeding her, running her to the doctor, and trying to keep her warm in a cold house ever since (they shaved her for an ultrasound). In true family fashion, they know what’s wrong, but they can’t figure out WHY.
But you know? Through it all, I’ve managed to get my butt in gear, edit another chapter of the book, almost finish the model stitching for the snowflake pattern (Which means, that if you want it at the pre-release pdf price before the model is done and in the pattern shop, you should order it now at the Snowflake Mat pattern page! It’s an instant download, and the individual snowflakes make for great quick ornaments/gift tags!)
In addition, I put several of my beaded chatelaines on Etsy for last-minute gifts. If you’re within the US and want them by Christmas, I know I can get them there if they’re ordered by Friday the 18. I can’t guarantee if they’re ordered by Monday, but I’m sure there’s a pretty good chance they’d still make it.
So. The Universe is calling. And I’m making an attempt to answer it. Now if it would stop throwing sick cats at me in between steps… !
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12.10.09
Posted in Drawing at 7:00 am by deRomilly
My drawing skills have always been spotty. I can turn out a lovely piece of realistic work one day, and then anything I create touching pencil or pen to paper will be utter uselessness for a week. It has, if I’m honest, always been this way. It was enough so that when I was trying to get my mother to teach me to draw that when something actually went right, she would ask me if I had traced it. It made me quit trying for a very, very long while.
Then I met one of my college roommates. Jade was (and is) an amazing draughtsman – and claimed that I wasn’t hopeless – that she could teach anyone to draw. What she really taught me was how to see — not so much what I was trying to draw, but rather what actually came out on the page. She showed me how to say, this is what works in this picture and why. This is why the overall impression is wrong. It’s really just this one little line here.
This is not to say that I always get it right now — no, my sketchbooks are still filled with hundreds upon hundreds of awful little drawings, and I have to mine for the gems, but you know? Twenty years later and that vein of gems is finally getting more regular!
This October marked the twenty third year Jade and I have been friends. the gift of drawing is only one of the many benefits I’ve enjoyed over the years. She also edits my writing, stitches some of my models, and runs a mean roleplaying game. And she produced my super-cool godson, too!
Happy Birthday, Jade!
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