I’m pleased.

I’m grateful. It’s taken years and lots of trial and error, and I’m finally feeling like things are falling into place. The creativity flows enough that I can count on it when I need it.

Maintaining a balance between work and home is tough. When it’s your own business, you find you’re working overtime, all the time. I’m always coming up with ideas for my future projects, or brainstorming things for current commissions. I never fully turn my work brain off. Sometimes in between cooking, I’ll head to my desk and add a little paint to the current project. It’s both good and bad to be able to do that. Good because I am endlessly inspired. Bad, because it is easy to forget when to hang up the business mode. I should sit and enjoy the sunset. Not run and start up the next project because I have a moment. But I love what I do, and I’d rather be creating art than not creating. So it is what it is.

My kids help keep me balanced, I can’t paint for long hours during their summer break from school. The small aches I get from repetitive arm motions, fade away as I garden and work with my hands in other ways.

I’ve got things to blog about next week. A really cool commission featuring a portrait on a guitar. Some new items in the shop and paintings I am working on.

The website overhaul is complete. And for now I am on vacation for the next 30+ hours. The kids and I are off to Canada’s Wonderland. I’m excited to be inspired by what I see and experience with them.