Wednesday, March 31, 2010

...thinking it's a {NewNew} Spring

Tomorrow is April. You know what that means...it's time to get your green thumb on. Visit today's {NewNew} blog (3/31/10) and learn how to use re-purposed recycled felt to get your garden seeds started indoors.

Not a dig in the dirt kind of person? That's okay, there is something for you here too! To celebrate spring Alexandra Ferguson is giving away one of her beautiful botanical themed pillows. Visit soon, you only have until April 6th to enter.

http://thenewnew.blogspot.com/2010/03/draft-re-purposed-recycled-felt-helping.html

To stay in the loop on all the {NewNew} news and what Ellis Is .... up to be sure to follow both blogs.

namaste
नमस्ते

...seeking treasure in the {NewNew} blog

There is fantastic treasure to be found in the {NewNew} etsy street team blog. If you don't know about us, take just a minute to check out the blog, our Treasury collections and individual shops.

In this blog {NewNew} member Anne tells us about her treasure hunting. Keep reading and find your own... (big hint it's a baby onsie or toddler shirt from Anne's shop). Be sure to visit soon you have to enter by 4/6.

http://thenewnew.blogspot.com/2010/03/treasury-seekers.html

namaste
नमस्ते

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

...slowly recovering from creative block

Writer's block, creative block, call it what you will it either way it is a condition in which we lose our ability to create new work. Largely associated with professional writers, it impacts all of us who embark on creative endeavors; writers, musicians, fine artists, artisans, designers and crafts people of all medium. Creative block is as varied as the people it impacts, lasting from a day or two on a specific project to extreme cases that last for years. Either way, when it hits the feeling can be numbing, defeating even crippling.

"You don't know what it is to stay a whole day with your head in your hands trying to squeeze your unfortunate brain so as to find a word." (Gustave Flaubert, 1866)

Welcome to my world for the past several months. For Flaubert it was about finding words, for me it was just finding ideas. Ideas for new hats, ideas for fabrics to put together, even ideas about what to eat for dinner. One week I ate nothing but Mexican simply because I couldn't think of any other ideas.

Let me tell you, it is frustrating. But I did take solace in the idea that life is imperfect and incomplete. This is because all things and experiences are impermanent, unsteady or inconstant. The imperfection of my creative block would pass just as everything else in life does.

In this is the first step at dealing with and overcoming creative block.. just recognize it and accept it. In other words, be mindful to it.

"Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn't more complicated that that. It is opening to or receiving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it." (Sylvia Boorstein)

More next time....

namaste
नमस्ते

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

...not just being

Now that I'm here I find myself wondering when others actually find the time to conceive, write and post their blogs? I have my ideas, notes, sketches, but short of typing a few words with one hand and a soda (that would be lunch) in the other I have yet to be able to get anything out here.

I already sleep tweet, walk post, and conference eat. As do a lot of other people around me. What does that say about us?

We work, some work x2 (or try to). Me with my small business along with many of my craft-business friends. Fun is often sacrificed. Sleep is too. What does that say about us.

Yet here I am...here we are adding another to do to the list. Tomorrow there will be another I'm sure. What does that say about us?

Why do we find it so hard to sit. Enjoy quiet, nothingness. To just be for the sake of being?

Don't get me wrong, I love all I do and respect all everyone else does. I just sit here wondering as I type with one hand and sip my ginger ale lunch with the other why, just for a moment or two, we can't all just be?

namaste
नमस्ते

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

What's It All About

Last week I decided the time had come to start a blog. I've spent the last few days trying to force myself into a blogging corner and narrow myself to one topic to write about. After all, that is what the "best in class" blog advice says I should be doing. But here's the rub, I really don't want to do that.

What then is Ellis Is.... all about? It's about many interests. I hope some interest you. Ellis Is....

....Being and thinking crafty

....Attempting to cook

....With the band

....Just being, thinking

Today in the spirit of welcome and introductions Ellis is....Just being. Thinking about wisdom, knowledge and change.

Every day, as I sit at my office desk, I look at the image and mantra of Manjushri. I share this mantra with you wishing that all good things may come your way.


Manjushri
Liberating Wisdom

oṃ a ra pa ca na dhīḥ

Viewing freedom as intrinsic to our being,
we discover that our lives are what we make them.
All options are open, our choices are unlimited.
When we have knowledge, space grants us unbounded opportunity,
and time presents us with infinite possibilities for change.

namaste
नमस्ते