New Thoughts on God's Glory

Just a really quick post here. Believe it or not.

When I first sought God and asked Him if it was okay for me to sell arts and crafts on Etsy, He told me it was fine as long as it was done to His glory. At the time I interpreted that to mean that I needed to sell Christian products.

A month or so ago, I came to a new interpretation. By trying to sell Christian products, I was in fact trying to profit from the gospel. That is not at all something that glorifies God.

As far as I can see now, the best thing for me to do is take any money earned, or at least a portion of it, and invest in His Kingdom. Put it into Missions or Charity. . .

Enough of this Foolishness

Seriously, enough of this foolishness.

My hubby gave me some excellent advice last night. Stop worrying about what people are going to like. Do what I am best at, and get better.

So, enough of this foolishness. I get too excited by all the awesome things I see people create and I want to be able to do it. I want to try my hand at it to see what its like. But, the world doesn't want renaissance men or women anymore. The world wants specialists. There I go, caring about what other people think. The real point is that if I focus on one certain skill I will get better and better at it. That won't happen if I keep getting distracted by every new (to me) thing that comes along. Needle felting, toymaking, paper sculpture, etc. etc. I see these beautiful things people create and I'm like, "I could do that - that looks awesome - how do I do it?" I should focus on what I already know how to do.

Therefore I am going to focus on painting. I don't care if there is already zillions of paint artists on etsy. It doesn't matter. There's also zillions of toymakers and paper artists, etc. etc. So, yeah. I'm going to paint. I know how to paint. I love to paint. I have everything I need to paint. Hopefully someone out there will enjoy my art as much as I do. Or maybe nobody will. Whadevah.

Some of the sketches I did for the art pillows will translate to canvas. Others won't. But that's fine. Its good to be thinking creatively. Think of all the sketchbooks Leonardo filled - he didn't end up painting every little thing he sketched.

Ahh. . .getting back to my roots as a painter. I've always enjoyed painting. Why did I allow myself to get distracted? I'm always allowing myself to get distracted. Its one of my biggest flaws.

Awake! Sleeping Painter!
Dip your brush again
technicolour dreamscapes
monotone moodscapes
whatever
your mind can think
your hand can ink.

The Trip to Town!

The trip to town yesterday was fun, but kind of fruitless. The main reason we went was to get some doctor's appointments. But, when we got to the office her system was down so she couldn't get us an appointment anyway! She took down our names though and said she'd get us in once she could. So, that's good.

After that, we went to the Diplomat for breakfast! Yum! I had Eggs Benedict with extra Hollandaise. Hubby had the Diplomat breakfast (2 eggs, 2 pancakes, toast, bacon, ham & sausage). Sonny boy is being mega picky these days and would only eat the toast. It was whole wheat at least, but not nice whole grain bread like we normally buy.

By the time we were done, it was time to mosey on home. So, no polyfill, pillowcases, or fabric for me. *meow*

I washed a couple more sheets out of that bag of bedding. There was a really nice crisp white flannel fitted sheet in there! I have to be careful because I know that would be great for toys and pillowcases, but now I want it for my bed!

On the positive side, I've sketched out a bunch of great designs! Its kind of funny, because the best time for me to do it is when I'm really drowsy and just going in and out of sleep. I get the best ideas!!! Hooray for my uninhibited imagination!

I think that's all for now folks!

Thanks for stopping by ^_^

Pink Elephants on Parade!

I don't know what it is about pink fabric. There must be thousands of pink elephants out there trapped in yards and yards of pink fabric just waiting to come out because every time I see pink fabric and wonder what I could make out of it I hear their little pink elephanty voices calling, "let us out! let us out!"

My hubby brought in a bag of bedclothes last night for me to use. There was a big pink duvet in there, a fabulous stripey green fabric, and a super cool patchwork quilt. See the pic? The awesomeness wasn't quite captured by the camera. . .you'll have to trust me. There was more, but that's all I could fit in the washing machine last night. So, the pink is for elephants. I wanna make a skirt out of that fabulous green blanket - for me. Mine, all mine! And the quilt is too cool to destroy, so its now the couch blankie.

Still working on crocheting hubby a hat too. I was doubleknitting a reversible hat with a 4x4 rib, but I hated it because I'm not ready to knit without a pattern - yet. So, I'm doing a "simple circle hat" from inner child crochet because I can crochet pretty quick and he's been patiently waiting. . .

About the luxury pillowcases, I made a few sketches last night of some designs that were floating in my head. If I go to town tomorrow, I'm hoping to pick up some polyfill and a yard or so of different solid fabrics - maybe patterns, I'll scout out the sale bin. ^_^ I might get a couple pillowcases too. We'll see what the hubby thinks!

Well, that's all for now - have a great day!

First Post - warning, its pretty rambly!

Well, here it is. . .my first post. I was hoping to have something really fancy for the first post, but I don't think that will happen, and really, how many people are going to read this blog before it gets established a bit? So, I'm just going to write, and it will have to suffice. It will certainly take the pressure off.

So, in all arstyness, what have I been thinking about lately? Well, I've been thinking about my etsy store. (sisteramanda.etsy.com) It is, well, not doing very well. And I really want it to be profitable. I have a lot of issues - I have no idea about pricing, and I've had a hard time reaching my target market. Oh, and I don't know anything about shipping. I think of things to make and I'm all like, how in the world would I ship that??!?!? So, yeah, any etsian readers could really help me out there!

My "target market" was Christians. When I asked God about this etsy store He said it was fine as long as what I did glorified Him. I took that to mean that I would need to have a Christian shop. I've now come to question that interpretation. One of the main reasons is that it seriously interfered with my Bible study. I would always be thinking in the back of my head - I could make something based on that and put it in my etsy store. I started to feel like one of the moneychangers in the Temple. Now, I'm not going to completely abandon Christian themed items, but it can't be my focus. I've considered donating some proceeds to charity, or even different charities depending on the item. So, I want to make toys - toys are awesome. I'll also continue to do digital prints and acrylic paintings as inspiration strikes me.

Speaking of inspiration, I thought of an awesome idea last night - pillowcases! Artistically designed with hand-stitched appliques cut from recycled/vintage clothing. Woo! Oh, I had so many ideas last night for designs, and it would be soooo luxurious to sleep on a beautiful pillowcase!!!! They could also be used for decorative pillow covers anywhere, but I want them to be standard pillow size. That way, I can reduce shipping costs by only shipping the case/cover, and people can pick up whatever firmness/brand of pillow they prefer.

I'm not sure if I should use "recycled" pillowcases as the basis of my work or if I should buy/sew new ones. One of my issues here is that I want the "case" to be sturdy, not some threadbare thing. The other thing about using already made pillowcases is that I'd like for them to have a fold over flap so that they could close neatly (think plastic sandwich bag) instead of having the open ends that pillows always end up wiggling out of - at least mine do. Hey, why limit myself? I don't have to carve anything in stone. I'll start out with premade pillowcases and go from there! Eureka :)

Another thing is that I don't know where my sewing machine is. How is that possible? Well, I have a big "shed" and not such a big house, and I wasn't using it enough to justify it staying indoors. And now its disappeared. I'm sure its in there, but my husband is having a hard time locating its exact coordinates. I do have a friend with a sewing machine, but I wouldn't want to impose on her. I've never really visited her before and I would feel rotten to start visiting her in order to use her sewing machine - that's just not cool.

I'd also really like to get some tags, like fabric label tags. It just looks so much more professional. I could put them on the toys and the pillow covers. I suppose I could embroider a label on until I source some of those things. Anyway, I really want to explore more aspects of my creative self - particularly dreams and whimsy. ^_^ Oh yes, and cuteness, geekery, romance, ultrachic, etc., etc.

By the by, the picture is a scan of a painting I did recently. Its called "Purpose" and it was and image I saw while praying one day and I had to paint it. It has already been purchased! Yippee!