be mine

Fan, that is.  Just in time for Valentine's Day (you'd think I might have come up with a few projects for v-day but, no...), I've gone and created a Facebook fan page for the Makery.  Yep, another outlet for obsessing over shop stats of one kind or another.  I'm hoping having the page will motivate me to resume the project on a more regular basis.  And maybe I'll think up some sort of FB-fans-only promotion at some point.  We'll see how it works out.

So what have I been up to since showing off my handmade Christmas cards, anyway?  Mostly getting through the transition from full-time stay-at-home-mom to having part-time daycare in place, which you can read about in greater detail here, if you're into that kind of thing (the baby blog is called "baby lust," which is ironic because I mostly use it to complain about how difficult motherhood is).  Maintaining my two Etsy shops (my life involves two materials lately, paper and felt) keeps me busy enough during the three days each week I now have to myself.  I'm not exactly in line to be Etsy's next featured seller or anything but I'm very happy for the increase in business the past few months.  So don't take this the wrong way when I say it's brought on a bit of an art identity crisis.  I guess it's just strange that the most beneficial portion of my four years spent in Boston (two cross-country moves and one very expensive MFA degree later, not to mention the three years of endless stress and constant second-guessing that going to art school entails) may prove to be the one-year part-time gig in retail (high-end lifestyle boutique-y retail, but still).  Obviously my satisfaction with what I'm doing with my life is more important than constantly trying to justify the necessity of the degree I sometimes feel like I sacrificed so much to attain (and more and more often lately question why), but it's a hard thing to let go, which might explain why I've embarked on a second round of teaching gig applications for next fall, knowing full well that I'm probably not at all qualified for the mostly tenure-track positions I'm seeing.  Sometimes I feel like I've finally found my people in the craft community (and let's not even get into the ongoing debate about art versus craft) and love the kind of feedback I receive (and getting paid for my goods and services ain't bad either).  Other times I really miss the academic art world, the environment and energy of a college or university, and the kinds of odd digressions that a "conversation piece" can produce during an evening critique.  Having a child was, of course, the most amazing and wonderful experience of my life so far but coupled with the economic recession, was also followed by probably the lowest point in my life professionally speaking.  I feel like things are finally bouncing back (no pun intended) but I also feel like my "professional" future is really uncertain.  I guess I still don't really know what I want to be when I grow up.  We'll see how the next six months play out...

Wow, for a post that began with the simple aim of a little shameless self-promotion, that got a little deep.  Time to stop writing and start making stuff!