Kaleidoscope, part I

I haven’t been napping. Honest. It’s just that ever since last September, week after week my time has been dominated by class planning. Teaching new courses will do that, apparently.

The lack of personal creative exercise has felt like a slow suffocation of my spirit, but I finally grabbed control of the situation and started stitching again. The photographs are just cell phone caliber, but enough to document here-and-there.

Here are three new phone cozies in process. My self-imposed rules for these are:

• give new life to remnants from my (extensive) stash
• this is not a race — enjoy the slow stitching and do lots of it
• embellish to my heart’s content
• think of the three-dimensional end-piece as my canvas
• and most importantly, have fun

My inner artist was faltering, hesitating and full of self-doubt, and then links to this artist landed in my ebox. (I follow at least half-a-dozen or more artsy/designerly blogs, daily postings of links and images from inspirational sightings around the internet. Truthfully, looking at everyone else’s beautiful creations has left me feeling like I’ve been drooling over pastries in bakery windows while restricting my calorie intake.) Elsita’s backstory and how she tells it absolutely charmed me. But it’s her miniature books-as-art that had me swooning with admiration. Something kicked into gear and my inertia was (thankfully) interrupted.

Meanwhile, I am seriously revisiting an old idea: a weekly schedule that addresses all of my various endeavors and obligations. Always in pursuit of balance. I’ll let you know how it goes.