Stepping out into a New Year...

As glad as I was to see 2009 end, I’ve been tentative about posting something here to start off 2010.

You see, I’m not really sure where I am going just yet.

By 44, I certainly expected to have a clear road map of where I was headed and what was expected of me, yet so often these days, I feel as if I am just making the plan up as I move through each day.

Considering the upheaval in Haiti right now and the pain that one of Nick’s former principals is going through now that she knows her husband is dead instead of missing, maybe that isn’t such a bad way to live.

Live each day with a sense of adventure and a sense of hope.

The world is not always a safe place - the ground can shake... parents can die... economies can collapse.

Then school children donate life savings... strangers help each other... artists create wonders that stir our souls... songs move us to tears... a hug makes the day much brighter... people pull together to make things better and the path opens up again, ripe with possibilities and enticing destinations.

Don’t worry about how closely you follow the plan of where you think you should be.  Spend today appreciating where you are, finding one thing you can change for the better and take the first baby steps in that direction.

A brand new year of possibilities is waiting....

Taking A Day to Get Stuff Done...

I booked the day off on Subfinder today.  I had Dragon Dreams stuff that needed to be done and just couldn’t wait any longer.  Namely, uploading the new website and deleting all the old files from the server.

A month ago, I went back to my sketchpad and tried to figure out exactly what I needed to have on the site, what could make it more fun and more meaningful to navigate around and how I could get back to that feeling that I had when I first started the adventure of sharing my work with the world.  Back then the Internet was a smaller place and there were fewer people out there to talk to.  The kids I talk to in High School when I am substitute teach are SO much more wired into this cyber world than I ever thought would be possible, that I sometimes wonder about this brave new world out here.  It can be both a challenge and a blessing to reach a world wide audience from my dining room table and the laptop computer.

The one thing I have learned about websites is that they can never be static things.  They must grow and evolve and be interactive for people to have a reason to come back for another visit with you.  This won’t be the last overhaul I do to Dragon Dreams , but for now,just for a little while, I am going to sit back and enjoy the fact that the work is done... and wait to see what everyone thinks.

Let me know!

A Fork in the Road...

Today was a wonderful birthday... I got to go play at a fabulous local wool shop today! Heidi not only spins and dyes fibers in the nummiest colours I have ever seen, she also creates incredible images with them. A few of her felted pieces were hanging on display and it was all I could do not to reach up and touch them! She has them hung out of the reach of most people, but I was wearing my 3 inch heels today and had to remind myself over and over “look but don’t touch!” Of course that advice did NOT apply to the yarn I was intent on buying. Best of all, my Mom bought these for me as a birthday present! Wheeee!

Dragon Musings will still remain as a place to blog about what is going on in my life, thoughts about stitching and everything I have always mused about, but today also marks the beginning of 2 new adventures and 2 new blogs if you care to follow me down either path.

Doodling Dragons is my new illustrator blog that will be linked to my illustration site as soon as I get all my September updates sent over. As I try to get the attention of children’s book publishers, editors and agents, it helps to have a more focussed message about that particular area of my life that includes doodles and drawings on a regular basis rather than the variety of images I tend to share here.

Inhaling Creativity is a 365 day adventure that begins today about finding more ways to be creative in everything you do so that it is as natural as breathing. For the next year, I am going to be posting about things to get inspired about and then put into practice. I’m not exactly sure where this will lead, but many explorers weren’t sure where they would end up either.

So now you have 3 blogs to follow with one crazy person if you choose. May you find a thread you like to follow...