Promotion basket with Wylde Woman ($46) and Prose Tile ($22), hand-made, one-of-a-kind, ceramic wall sculpture by Tammy Vitale – also some candy since we’re so close to Halloween! 

I have so much that I want to share with you!  And so little time!

I have been tracking what I do daily for two weeks now.  This is suggested by One Coach and I’m doing it, admiting that I started it grumbling and mumbling.  After listening to several tapes, I came to realize it was a way to see what I’m doing, and then to see what I can hire someone else to do because it’s taking too much of my valuable time, which is supposed to be spent doing the top 20% of my incoming producing activities (I’m not terribly clear on exactly what that means, but I’m sure creating new work and finding new shops/galleries are at the top of that list).  Easy enough you say, except in order to find new shops/galleries  I want to project a professional image, which requires, at least, business cards with a USP on them.  In order to write the USP, I need to research my ideal client so I know who I’m selling to! You get the picture.

So here is yesterday.  My todo list said:  (1) journal day and relax and (2) Fire.  #2 means fire a kiln load, which required that I first glaze what needed glazing.  And this is what else I did:  update my business cards (with my latest USP:  distinctive sculpture for your hearth and soul, and the tag line:  You are one-of-a-kind.  Buy art that is too!) because tomorrow I am going to the ewomen networking luncheon (hence the basket pictured above).  Followed up with the galleries/people I met on Sunday in Colonial Beach.  Mailed an application to Fredericksburg (VA) Creative Arts Association.  Picked up my perscription and bought a card for my son – and some candy for both of my kiddos.  Went to Staples and bought card stock and ink to print the new cards I just redesigned.  Went grocery shopping and then Husband needed new shirts and pants, so off to clothes shopping (I got 3 tee-shirts at 97 cents apiece!!!); worked on Press for Unique Boutique – my committee duty for this year.  Bought wood and then cut totem sticks from it so I can finish two commissions that I had firing in the kiln. Broke down clay boxes for recycling – the stack was starting to fall over.  Wrote my blog and answered emails.  No – I never got to the journal thing.  But I did watch "Chuck" and "Heroes" last night on tv.  And that’s for a relax day!  I’m starting to understand why I often feel like I’m on overload!

But half the battle is understanding what and where and how – and I’m most assuredly getting those under my belt.  I anticipate great things for me and my business in the coming year as I pull all the strings into a neat bundle.  (As Jana would say:  Happy dance!).

Since we’re talking business (as if I ever talk anything else anymore), here’s an interesting article:  Artists, Should You Lower Your Prices? from the artlogs of Molly Gordon (along with Alyson Stanfield, an always favorite to read when her newsletter shows up in my inbox).

Ok – today I have to prepare two load-ins and a delivery for Thursday since tomorrow, Wednesday, will be all day in Virginia (the ewomen.network meets at 11, lunch 11:30 – 1:30 and then after meet to network somemore…then I have to deal with Virginia to Maryland traffic or maybe just go sit somewhere for several hours until that’s done with), so that day is gone and I start at 9:00 on Thurday.  Both load-ins and the delivery are in the kiln and require work, along with gathering what I already have available – you see?  it just never ends.

thought for the day:  …while mastering technique is difficult and time-consuming, it’s still inherently easier to reach an already defined goal – a "right answer" – than to give form to a new idea.  It’s easier to paint in the angel’s feet to another’s masterwork than to discover where the angels live within yourself. David Bayles and Ted Orland, Art & Fear:  Observatrions on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking