From Endings Come New Beginnings

I finally finished my commissioned painting. After months of hemming, hawing, loving, hating, holding on too tight, procrastinating out of fear of messing it all up, and taking leaps -- and despite predictions to the contrary -- it's done.

And I made a video so you can see it come together!



But now there's the trepidation (and excitement, of course) of a new blank canvas.

Spring Cleaning & Truck Fund Sale!

As I had mentioned previously, I'm again working on reorganizing, rearranging, and cleaning out my studio. An early spring cleaning to go with the early spring we're having 'round these parts.

Then this weekend, the transmission in my truck tried to jump ship entirely. So, 120 miles and a tow dolly later, it's in the shop until scrape together enough to have it repaired.

Both of those motives have resulted in a massive clearance sale of a ton of work from my student days! I've listed quite a few pieces on my Etsy storefront, and will keep doing so as fast as I can dig them out and get them photographed. Your chance to own a Carly Bodnar original at a steal!

Some of my favorites...

I'm also offering bulk discounts and reduced total shipping for purchases of more than one sale painting.

Plus, if you haven't been to my storefront in a while, be sure to check out the paintings and drawings that have resulted from my collaboration with New York City writer Casey Plett!

Oh, February, how you fly!

February's been trucking along at full speed so far!

On Super Bowl weekend, I printed up a set of wedding invitations for a bride in Texas. They were a customization of my country sunset design, and involved a gradient that was making a little nervous, to be honest, but they came out great. I'll have full pictures in a few days on the Phaedra Paperie blog but til then, here's a little peek into the printing process.


Then, I got back to the work of remodeling/reorganizing my studio. I know it's been a long time since my Remodel: Part 1 post, but it's an ongoing process. My studio has vertical beams that run down the middle of the space, and the remnant of the house's original chimney, which makes it hard to make the most of the space. Boxes and piles have a tendency to collect along the dead space around the beams. So I took that area and turned it into a work surface with storage underneath. It's not yet what I would call clean, but now at least I have a well-lit place to do small paintings, drawings, pen and ink, etc. without having to clear a spot and sit on the floor.


Capping off the month so far, yesterday I had Kate from Katie Joy Photography over. She's an up-and-coming photographer who will be shooting her first wedding in only a couple of days, and just got a new camera. We know each other from our day jobs, but it was great to interact with her on a professional level. I needed some professional/head shot type photos, and I also wanted to get some action shots in the studio. We looked through a few, and they looked promising -- the studio shots especially looked great. I'm so excited to see all the shots!

February Goals

Ok, so December wasn't a great month for getting things done, and January struggled a bit, too. But I pulled through at the end. (I'm including the first couple days of February as part of January, because it makes this list look a lot better.)

• Submit to galleries that have January submission dates. Done. Well, to one. The most important one. (There were two with January dates, and the other I'm not as into, so it's cool.)
  
  
• Send image of HSC painting to client. Discuss money, shipping, timelines, etc. Sent image and discussed money. Had previously talked about shipping, and touched on it again. Did not discuss timelines, because they're my nemesis.
  
  
• Photograph valentines and get them out into the digital world. Mostly done. Sunlight has been scarce, but I did get a good photo day right at the end of January. I sent out an email or two about them, and put them on my Etsy, but never did a big email, and still haven't blogged about them.
  
  
• Make confirmations for Bridal Screenprinting class and finish syllabus/materials list. Made confirmations -- the 27th of February at noon -- but still need to finish the actual work part.
  
  
• Get laptop repaired. Got a new laptop for what it would have cost to fix the old one! Yay!
  
  
• Give my truck some love. An oil change, maybe a new turn signal light. I filled the air in the tires (much needed) but still need an oil change and a turn signal.
  
  
• Finish sewing projects for other people that I've had sitting around for way longer than is reasonable. Apologize for keeping them so long. Not done. I'm a jerk.

Ok, enough with the half-hearted accomplishments. On to February's goals:

• This month is going to be mostly about finishing things I've started. A bulleted list, in no particular order, will suffice:
  
  
  • HSC Painting: gotta get it out of my studio
  
  
  • Sewing: shirts
  
  
  • Sewing: cushions
  
  
  • Class planning: materials list, order materials, syllabus, assemble necessary bits
  
  
  • Cards: blog about them, damnit... maybe do the card section of the website, too
  
  
  • Knotical Invitation Suite: print it, photograph it, post it
  
  
  • Gloriously Awash In Sin blog: post something, for crissakes
  
  
  • Taxes: this requires me to make sure I've caught up on all my bookkeeping...
  
  
  • I feel like I'm missing something... I'll add it when it hits me
  
  


• A separate goal, but one that I hope will help the above, is to wear shoes when I'm working at home (as opposed to just being at home... ah, the challenge of trying to work and not-work in the same space). I've noticed that wearing shoes makes me more productive, perhaps solely for the fact that it keeps me from getting too comfy and curling up to nap on the couch. I wonder if that's just totally weird, or if other work-at-home-ers have found this out, too.

Inspiration for February

My trainer posted this on her blog, but it has some seriously wide-ranging relevance. I'm taking it as my motivational/inspirational point for February.

I love what he says about talent versus skill, backup plans, being realistic, and obsessiveness.