If you know anything about my other venture, So There, you know that in a couple of weeks I’ll be closing our current brick-and-mortar shop. It’s been a whirlwind couple of years and I have big plans for the future; but right now all I want to do is spend a month getting to know myself again and spending quality time with my garden, my friends, and my kitties. The past two years I’ve been extremely guilty of “powering through” things.  I kept working through the loss of my grandfather, father, cat-friend, and through illness, injuries, and disappointments. I feel like this transitional time is the perfect chance to give myself time to work through everything.

It’s time to think and play.

I think as artists (professional and casual) we have a tendency to try to keep working, when what we should be doing is giving ourselves some time to process, think, and breathe. We can’t grow as people or as artists if we don’t take a moment to change our patterns and look at ourselves and our lives from a different viewpoint.
But we have to give ourselves permission to pause. Set down the knitting needles and paintbrushes, stop the plans and the sketches, and just be present. Breathe.
While it’s true that our work is powered by our emotions and experiences, we can’t fully process those experience without time and work. It makes sense to take regular breaks to improve your life and your art. It makes even more sense to take those breaks before you absolutely. have. to.

There’s a reason for those million clichés about taking a break.

With that in mind, Rachel and I have given ourselves permission to let the blog pause from time-to-time, and this start of summer is a wonderful time. We’ll be back and bushy-tailed in July with a brand-new Craft Challenge and lots of new ideas. It’s unlikely we can go totally cold-turkey, so make sure to keep an eye on our twitter and instagram feeds (#adventuresinmaking) for the occasional transmission and peeks into our June break.

 

See you soon!