Something New, Something Blue…..

Something New, Something Blue…..

I tell you what. I am totally loving this Folk Journaling Agenda I am working at staying committed to. I don’t know if I will make it all year, but there are some pretty good soul-searching questions in the prompts and I think it is just right for me this year.

I particularly like Hillary from Folk Magazine’s response to her own question,  What are some things you have done but previously thought you could never do?   She didn’t address it in the way I originally thought about it, but I sure was inspired at her approach with her post Successful Failures!

I don’t frankly like failure.  Do you? I suppose not.  But we sure can learn a lot from them, can’t we?  And some of the things that I have done, often are more like mistakes….I “could” do them, but well, I really didn’t like doing them…

Probably the biggest thing that I never thought I could do (but did) was build this:

shiloah cottage frontside

shiloah cottage backside

 

From scratch….BUT with a LOT of help and advice I might add. A LOT of help and advice. Oh and yes, some paid help. Some worth the money, and some…..not so much…..and well, it’s not quite finished….wonder if it ever will be!

Also on the list of never thought I could do would be the year I spent working at being a real estate agent.  It had never even occurred to me to try it, but through a variety of influences, I decided to try it.  It was unlike anything I had done in the past, but also somewhat similar. In the long run, I liked parts of it, but not most of it, and the fact that I tried this at the very end of the housing bubble disaster certainly didn’t help me think it was profitable, that’s for sure.  I did sell some houses, but I sure didn’t enjoy it, and that being said, I walked away and didn’t look back.

But what also happened during that real-estate time was something that I didn’t quite expect. When I went to Spring Quilt Market 2008 in Portland, Oregon, I met many new industry peeps that I had only heard about and a lot them I hadn’t even heard about. And even though I had been to Market before, something was different. I was super encouraged by friends that I already had, and new friends that I met.  And the biggest spark of hope I gained from that trip was when I briefly talked to Amy Butler (who is my friend now, but then didn’t know me from any other starry-eyed fabricophile).  Her last words to me from that brief conversation about my dreams and aspriations as I was dashing out the door to catch my train were “Go for it!”  I have held onto her words ever since. It has been a slow churn from then to now, trying to figure out how to support my family and do what I love….not an easy task with only one substantial income.  A lot of people who do this have more than one income and the creative income is not the MAIN one.  So that has made it  hard.  But I think things are going in good directions, and again I have great hopes for the future.

Does this post really answer the “question” of the Folk Journal prompt? Not necessarily, but as 2013 begins, I am definitely forging forward trying things that I have long wanted to do, but never quite gotten to doing.  So maybe next year this time, I can answer that same question by looking back at this year and saying, “yeah, that stuff”

That just might work…….

hemlock branches

PS…that post title? the Blue and New something or other is the revived hope and vision of Blue Nickel Studios..

 

1 Comment

  • Hi, following your link from Folk. That’s a lovely and inspirational story. I hope you keep your friend Amy’s words in your heart all year long and have one of the best years ever. I love the different paint colours on your house. Brilliant!

    January 17, 2013 at 8:17 pm

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