Busy, Busy Bees
new (and some new-ish) additions to the SoulSister Designs Etsy Store. i’m especially proud of the hopefulness kit idea. all proceeds from the sale of that kit will help fund kindness work in our neighborhoods and around the world.
While you were eating all that turkey and wishing someone would turn down that football, my sisters Kris and Pache and I were working like a hive of busy bees stocking and re-stocking our virtual stores. Over the last few weeks, my sister Patience has been acting as our able manager, taking over fulfillment of orders for me, conspiring on new tee-shirt projects with Kris and taking our things to various craft shows around Richmond, her hometown. This feels like the equivalent of finding out you have a fairy godmother. And I’m not kidding. I have stacks of art waiting for organization and a home. And HUGE issues with getting orders out on time. Not to mention technical difficulties getting certain pieces up and live over here. Pache is pulling the whole thing together and we are alive with productive activity because of it.
I have two goals with my art. One, to let my art be a source of passive income for my family–mostly my husband, who has been very patient with his creative bohemian wife who locks herself up in the Tower with a box of paints while entertaining a host of immigrants and other displaced peoples. And two, to have an outlet for inspiring people to heal, to grow, to hope and to give more freely to others they meet in their everyday world. My sister is playing an integral part in this dream for me, and for this I am incredibly thankful.
What are you thankful for this Monday? With deadlines and other responsibilities looming this Monday, I would LOVE to know.
November 26th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Quite a few things popped into my head but I will pick just one: blogging/the blogosphere. Without this Web technology/social movement I fear I wouldn’t have found and connected with artists, writers, dreamer, visionaries — bright, creative, unique people like you and the other several dozen bloggers I regularly read. My life is richer (and my evening computer time much longer!) because of it.
November 26th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
I am thankful for being able to cry. It feels like such a release. If I couldn’t, I think my brain would explode. And I am thankful for a warm house in the cold northeast… And I am thankful for rich, hot, black coffee! ok, I could go on, but I will stop. I also second the comment above.
November 26th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
I am thankful that there are still older people out there who just want to go hear a concert of good classic Christmas songs played by an immaculately dressed and elegant orchestra, allowing me to make them happy by traipsing all over creation for a month and doing exactly that. I’m thankful also for instant soup, hot pots, camp silverware, and knitting, because sometimes a Holiday Inn can truly be the wilderness.
November 26th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
I am grateful for the new frame of mind I seem to have adopted. Something about stuffing myself with delicious food pushed something out.
I am also grateful that there people like you in the world who remain faithful to the concept of hope.
November 26th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
I 2nd Kelly on being thankful for the ability to cry. And, to feel in general. My baby died recently and grief a newborn is awful, but not to feel would be much, much worse. I am thankful to have an awesome spouse. I am thankful to have enough money to pay for the mortgage, food, gas. I am grateful to live in San Diego where we think that 60 degrees is chilly. Oh, and I second Kelly on coffee, too.
November 26th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
My order is in . . . and, I can’t wait to frame one of these beauties for my walls. As for what I’m thankful right now . . . I have about 1-1/2 to 2 hours left here at work. And, I get to get home my people at home.
November 26th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
I’m so thankful that my family is moving to a less commercial, slower-paced place to live. (Copenhagen, Denmark) I keep dreaming about riding my bike instead of driving a car, shopping each day at the corner grocer, and knowing that there’s nothing to do on Sundays but hang out with my family and bake cake. Mmmmmm….it feels good already.
November 26th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
I am thankful for all the good that has happened this year… but most recently my visit with the boys… Aiden playing the piano with Alec’s mom and Gage playing the same drum beat over and over in tune… Searching through piles of colored leaves for the perfect shade of red to add to Aiden’s collection… Camping out on couches and an air mattress so we could all sleep together in the same room… Gage sneaking up on me when no one was looking to hug me and tell me he loves me… Screaming our lungs out at the hockey game that went all the way into double overtime… Aiden deciding rather stubbornly that he was not going home and that his father would “just have to move up here”…
Life is good.
November 27th, 2007 at 2:13 am
oh, i want very similar things for my art! very, very similar!
today i’m grateful for my health, for my life, for having recently married the love of my life, for art and creativity galore, for my soft snuggly kitties, and a polar bear pajama pants, for my family, for love and laughter, and inspiration. xoxo
November 27th, 2007 at 3:56 am
I am happy to find you JenLemen and would love to see some bigger kid t-shirts 4t?
You are fantastic.
November 27th, 2007 at 11:16 am
I think your goals for your art are wonderful.
November 27th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Jen Lemen- What a wonderful twist to my day to find you on the web - your site was mentioned on the Strollerderby parenting blog. I’ve recently moved back west to Portland, Oregon and I’m finding myself a bit lonely and isolated. I know we moved here for good reasons but they’re hard to hold onto in he reality of being new to town. I think I need to buy the “trust is not knowing the details” to remind me of the possibilities I believed in enough to move 3,000 miles in the first place. Blessings to you and your family, Larissa (formerly of Takoma Park)
November 28th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Hi Jenn, discovered you from my dear friend Leah. I just love your illustrations!
Big Hugs, Jes Berry
November 28th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
I love those signs and I’m beginning to learn the ins and outs of order processing. I can see that it would be VERY easy to get behind.
It’s an Etsy - glitter me!
http://www.etsy.com/your_shop.php
November 28th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
oh jen…you have no idea how much i needed to hear the quote about hope that you have in your second picture up at the top right corner.
wow. thank you.
love you.
November 29th, 2007 at 12:59 am
jen, your artwork has already been healing…just by you putting it out there. I gave some friends one of your pieces…the one with the baby on it. They had just lost their college age brother to a freak car accident. The accident happened about a year ago and both of the girls have said that it brought them some peace in the midst of their grief. They still have a long road to travel on this grief journey but your artwork is a guidepost. I am so glad that we found each other a few years ago….I think that our connection has brought many positive things in my directions…thank you!
November 29th, 2007 at 1:31 am
i am thankful for the relationship that is proving most challenging to me, but that is also teaching me more about myself than any other. And, I am grateful to you, because I experience new truths and insight every time I visit here.
November 29th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
So glad to see the additions … and that you’re busy and happy. You are such a beam of sunlight in the blogosphere. Thank you.
December 7th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
Hi to the kind and lovely Soul Sister…
… who created the Great Things Altar Kit…
… so that I could give it to my mom this Christmas…
…because she does a lot of small things with great love.
The carefully wrapped and personalized package arrived today.
And thank you so much for the Trust magnet. Just the words I need to read whenever I leave my home — I can put it on my front door because it has a metal covering over the wood core.