I owe you an explaination . . . and it's free!

So even I have to admit that the last Demo was a little weak - amusing, but weak . . . . and in fact, the blog has been suffering from a bad case of overall neglect. I've had a couple of great ideas for demos, but haven't had time to photograph them and write them up.

I looked at last January's New Year's Blogolutions again recently, and had to laugh. About all I've had energy for recently is the low-attention span short sound-bite type of posting that Twitter requires. Blogging every day every other month? eek.

So I haven't been blogging, what have I been spending my extra time doing?

What have I been up to?

Well, I started a new part-time job . . . I've let go of the work that I was doing to exercise the other half of my brain, and I'm now working for the Small Business Development Center . . . they wanted somebody with experience teaching, someone with experience running a creative small business or two, and someone who could help them integrate creative thinking skills into their entrepreneurial curriculum. Check, check, and check. The Oregon Small Business Development Centers are all affiliated with Community Colleges (mine is affiliated with PCC, but our office is in Lloyd Center) and because they get funding from the Small Business Administration and Oregon Economic Development, the advising is free.

Yes, that's right. Free. If you've got a small business (50 or fewer employees) or are thinking of starting one, you can register at www.bizcenter.org, let us know what you need, and the administrators will get you hooked up with an advisor who fits your needs. I'm also doing free one-hour advising sessions at Souk in downtown Portland - you can call Julie at Souk at 503-517-6900 and she can get you hooked up.

I'm also going to be speaking at the BizArt Conference in Everett, WA, this coming weekend - giving a couple of workshops on how to apply your creativity to your business. I love making art, and I love helping other people do what they love and make a living at it, and I just wanted to let you all know what I've been up to.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled craftiness.

Coming up on the New Year . . .

I wrote in the newsletter that I sent out yesterday that fall feels like the New Year to me - it's when I get all fired up again about projects, when I make resolutions, and dive into my to-do list with new vigor. Heck, even getting the newsletter out was a big deal. I just switched from using my web host's newsletter tool over at 1&1, which was great, to Constant Contact, which has a few more bells and whistles. Even though it's template-based, there's still a learning curve. But I got the newsletter out last night (only ten days later than my goal date!) and it looks pretty good.

It's part of my preparation for what's going to be happening shortly after the beginning of the "real" new year - I'm doing one more gig for "the other side of my brain" in January and then I'm switching to art-making and teaching full time. Scare-y, but I've been moving towards this for a while, and I've been very inspired by my friends Linda and Judy. I've got plans in the works to give the website an overhaul, to finish the book for ArtMaking as Playful Prayer, and even to open an Etsy shop.

(and in the spirit of making and sharing art, here's a little eye candy - a drawer shrine I made using an old photo of me and images of my creative passions):



Of course, I'm not always so keen on the follow-through. I'm great at planning and coming up with oodles of ideas - not always so good at implementing them. I have to say, though, that my success rate has drastically improved since I finished grad school - I understand my own creative process a lot better, and I've developed some strategies to compensate for my weaknesses. I am much better at making things happen than I used to be!

And I'm going to be sharing what I've learned - if you're local, I'm going to be leading a workshop on "Creative Entrepreneurship" at the CubeSpace "Side Project to Startup" conference. I'll share what I know about the creative process, the blocks that entrepreneurs hit from conception through development to actualization, and provide some tips for moving through those blocks. And, my guess is, you'll get as much from your fellow attendees as you will from me! The goal of the conference is to serve as kind of an autumn kick-start, back-to-school, back-to-work, dive in and make it happen inspiration event with lots of networking. And it's free.

Free is pretty inspiring, eh?