So, I am doing The 100-Day Project Challenge again; my second attempt at this creativity "habit building" exercise.
Today is Day 1.
Current focus: Heart Stones
Starting in on something new has always felt a bit daunting to me. All manners of old "ghosts" start whispering in the back of my mind... most of them relating to a lifetime spent (or so it feels) being berated for my lack of consistency. Not so much my lack of determination, just consistency.
My life has almost always been marked by the fact that I am highly resistant in the face of anything that feels like an obligation. That even includes situations in which I created that obligation myself, such as this challenge.
I made it to day 60-something last year, before packing it in. This year, I am giving myself a "lighter load" of must be done daily things in hopes that my subconscious won't balk too much at "having to" do something, every day.
Although Alchemy Stones are pretty sturdy, being dropped on a hard and rough concrete pavement at an outdoor event DOES cause damage.
Today's Creative Endeavor:
After a bit of backtracking, this started off with finishing my "in process" items — which included a number of "heart related" stones I needed to get completed for the first part of updating the online stores. I actually had six of those, and they got signed and are now drying.
Then I decided to clean up a small "random box" into which I have been tossing things to deal with "later" for a couple of years.
That including some touch-ups to several stones that had been dropped on concrete pavement at outdoor fairs and even bounced away so both paint and finish were damaged in the process. This tends to particularly happen at "kid friendly" events... usually with young ones operating under "unparenting" being left alone to explore their curiosity.
That's just part and parcel of doing outdoor events.
Before wrapping that up, I decided that I should at least paint a small stone on Day One... so the little stone pictured below came to life. Turned out better than expected... it's only about 1 1/2" (37mm) across.
Painted today!
Minding the Store(s):
I decided I'd best chew on this task in small parts. I have a "big plan" for redoing my online shops, but I can't really overdo it and then burn out by taking on too much and growing bored with it.
So, realistically speaking, the priority in this moment is to get all "heart related" stones located, properly photographed and listed in the appropriate category on Etsy in time for Valentine's Day.
Clearly, I am horribly behind, as there is only one listing at this moment, and I know I must have more than a dozen in the show bins, plus several more in the works. So, off to check out that part!
A Few Hours Later...
Pocket Hearts... we usually sell about 150-200 of these in the course of a typical year...
So, aside from the six heart stones being finished (mentioned above), I retrieved the basket with heart stones from our show bins.
One basket contains our very popular little "Pocket Hearts" (shown above) which we sell lots of at shows... I'm glad I made so many during the last three months of last year, because there are actually 30 of them still in the basket.
I just need to find a good way to list them as "multiples" without having to create a new listing for each and every one... because that would just be too much work for a constantly changing piece of inventory.
The basket with the larger individual designs had fewer than expected... there were just thirteen of them, so they clearly sold better at the holidays than I remembered. As such, I'm glad/relieved that I have another six in the finishing process!
A different style of heart stone
Social Media Musings:
I thought about posting some of the heart photos, but what's the point if none of them are available to buy?
Skip that...
So I stuck some quick placeholder posts out there about doing the 100-Day Project instead. That will have to do, for now...
My local beach on a windy winter day
Final Thoughts for Today:
It just occurred to me that the "official" 100-Day Project historically starts in February, but it's also fairly well accepted that you can start anytime you want.
So it appears that I have chosen the "whenever you want" option!
As always, "things take longer than planned." I vaguely remember that from trying this gig last year... the doing things daily wasn't as hard as the actual time commitment. I have way too much other stuff going on in my life, and that seems like it will always be the hurdle.
The solution?
Get the art to start selling well enough online that I can cut back on the other (income producing) things that are demanding my time.
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If you enjoy painted rocks, do check out The Hive Rocks Project and help spread the word about Hive, while also being creative!
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2025.01.20 AS-TXT-307/277