my best

tomatoes & cukes a summer ritual / small yellow wildflowers along the harbour / the thistles are covered with bees / dandelion gone to seed / Miss Winnie Dixon in our fenced in back garden / wild daisies in a meadow by the sea / hydrangea / these lavender bells grow everywhere in our yard / birds eye view of queen anne's lace etc / clematis seed heads / a simple summer supper of potato salad, grilled chicken, fresh from the garden veggies, cukes & tomatoes

1. be impeccable with your word
2. don't take anything personally
3. don't make assumptions
4. always do your best

Miguel Ruiz - The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

Things have been going full tilt here at the teak topped desk, one project or e-course seems to meld into the next. I look toward fall and the end of the year and it's non stop a-go-go. Becoming a recent licensed artist (meaning companies are producing my artwork on a variety of products for which I receive royalties quarterly). In December of last year I signed on with an agent Jan from Painted Planet just like an actor's agent or literary agent they do much of the leg work (and all the legal/contractual work) finding you jobs and companies to work with. Companies I would never know about on my own. These artist/illustration reps have booths at major licensing shows where they show off my work and the work of others in their stable of artists. They go to all the major gift, home decor & fabric shows and peddle our wares for us - it's great and frees me up to make more artwork. Plus I have 2 licensing customers that I managed to woo on my own. Madison Park Greetings (I'm just working on my 24th, 25th & 26th greeting card with them) so 26 cards total in a little over a year and MagnetWorks which I'm just about to begin my 10th, 11th & 12th big designs with them - 12 designs total multiple product categories for 9 of those 12 designs & again in just a little over a year. I am happy & very proud of these accomplishments.

I'm finding it's a bit of a domino effect this licensing business. Me and my artwork (with help from my blogs and my Etsy shop) has become a known entity, people begin to recognize your name and style, more and more companies become interesting in working with you. It's fantastic and it's what I have always wanted - since beginning my own business way back in 2001 - I'll admit at that time it did seem like a far away fantasy goal, but I'm a believer in big wild fantasy goals - the bigger the better, the crazier, the wilder, blue sky etc goals, dreams - I'm trying to keep dreaming up new & bigger ones.

It's a lot of work. Which 95% of the time doesn't feel like work at all it feels like passion & love and all good things - the hard thing about what I do is wanting to be producing work that I love and that my customers will love all the time. For the most part I seem to be succeeding, I say seem because most often I can't truly feel that success in my heart, I can only judge by the repeat business and rapid growth   of my list of customers. Doubt hangs out with me all the time here at the TTD*, a lack of confidence, a desire way too strong to please, to be perfect, I fuss over details, I worry about background colours, I tweak, I'm indecisive. It's the affliction of the creative spirit and it's made worse I believe when you're working for someone else. Last night I worked on a Mother's Day card for Mad Park, which I was completely dithering about, sending my customer way too many subtle variations (never good), I was not able to trust in my instincts or my intuition and it was frustrating me beyond belief. And then I remembered the 4 Agreements. I don't have endless hours to put into each project, I have a set amount of time. In order to do all the projects I have on the go I have to be pretty rigid in my scheduling, there are deadlines that must be met so I reminded myself that in the time allowed for each project I do know without a doubt that ...

I always do my best

I need to work on my intuition, my trust in myself & my abilities & so when the crunch is on (which it pretty much is always these days) I'll believe & count on my creative instincts. I must also remember that sometimes - good is as good as it gets. I can't knock it out of the park every time although I hate to admit that ... 'cause I sure wish I could.

Thank you so much for all the comments yesterday - I realize that comments on a blog let you know that someone's interested, and knowing someone's interested is sure fire fuel for the desire to want to say something ;-)

* TTD - teak topped desk