Les Cubes Amusants

Much to my delight, I unearthed some lost treasures during my annual studio purge/clean/organize binge this past week. These French prints are from an old exquisite corpse game of sorts, Les Cubes Amusants. 

Our family is gearing up for an exciting year as we prepare to enter a new chapter of our lives....the 'Life After Grad School' chapter (hip-hip-hooray!!!). Patrick will complete his degree this Spring and we'll be moving soon after. Don't ask me where 'cuz it is yet to be determined as we're currently in the 'Full Swing Job Search' chapter ;)

Needless to say 2013 is bound to be a year full of adventure for our family. I'm not making any concrete resolutions but am embracing the changes head-on and preparing for them by simplifying 'round our home and in my studio so that we're ready to move when it's time. Due to the aforementioned purge/clean/organize binge I've got bins and bins of goodies just waiting to be photographed for the vintage shop. And....big changes afoot at Sushipot as I'll be switching gears a bit. More on that soon. For now I just wanna say from one cast of characters to another....Happy New Year!

Resolution: Time

With the onset of the new year comes the chatter of resolutions being made and much advice on how to keep them. I go back and forth each year on whether to set to paper (or blog) a resolution or goal for the year. In truth, I'm making resolutions all the time, setting little goals for myself and marking off the milestones I make in life and business. As I've mentioned before I'm a dutiful list maker to an obsessive degree.



So this year, in lieu of a list of resolutions, I've decided to take to heart a word/theme/sound I've been mulling over lately and that is TIME. You know....tick-tock.....tick-tock.....tick-tock....in all its forms! As I come up for air after such a busy season in my shops I want to rein it in, slow it down and embrace it. I want to name those things that fritter it away and spend it wisely. Kind of like the day back when Lizzie was only two and we decided to throw away our television permanently! I want that feeling of freedom again--the gift of time--time to live, time to love, time to read, time to create, time to savor all those little things that sprinkle our days.



In order to be more mindful of my time and how I spend it I'm starting by identifying those little "time thieves" in my day and deciding on which ones can stay and which must go and what I should cut back on. No...I'm not planning to do anything rash like throw out my iPhone, but I will cut back on how many minutes of attention it receives!



One big decision that I've wavered on is whether or not I need/should post here on my blog every week-day as I've tried my best to do for the last couple of years. Even though it may only take a few minutes of each day to create a post, there is much brain-time spent mulling over what to post and time spent keeping up with the extra photographing that is involved. Looking back to my pre-blog days I can see I had a bit more studio time and that is what I crave. So...my first little experiment with TIME in 2012 is to scale back here in this virtual space. I'm thinkin' 2-3 posts a week as opposed to 5 or 6. I know all of you artist/maker readers will understand and I thank you for reading what I think is my longest rant (errrr.....post) ever and feel free to call me out if you see me frittering my time away here or Twitter or Instagram or even (oh the tragedy!) on Etsy.

All mixed media collage images by Suzanna Scott, 2007 & 2009

My Kiva Resolution

About this time every year I start to think about the resolutions I didn't follow through with from the previous New Year. But this December I'm here to report to you that I've carried out my resolution from last year to make a Kiva loan every month (although I hate to admit my other resolutions didn't fair as well!).

Kiva's mission as a non-profit organization is to connect people from all over the world together through lending with the goal of alleviating poverty. The best part is you can get involved for a minimum loan of just $25.00! This year I've lent to a baker in Iraq, a weaver in the Philippines (her picture above), a stone carver in Kenya and a bee keeper in Armenia (see first photo) just to name a few of the diverse countries and sectors represented on the site.

Once you start lending you can track the progress of each loan and get all kinds of basic stats and regular loan status updates via email. As you can see I tended to loan mostly to others in the Arts but was quite diverse when it came to where I made each loan.

The experience has been rewarding in so many ways and I've decided to double up this coming year and pledge 2 loans a month. Running a small business has its challenges each and every day and this is definitely a way to pay forward those opportunities that I've been given through my own small business. I've attached a short video from Kiva above--it illustrates how one small loan can help to make a huge difference in another persons life.

Resolutions Report

The Sun by Lizzie Scott, chalk on chalkboard

Thought I'd give you a resolutions report even though I suppose it's more for my benefit to do this 'cuz once again--it keeps my butt on track. I promise not to do this every month of the year!
Here goes:

1. Make a Kiva loan to a fellow artisan on the first day of every month for 12 months. I now have 2 loans under my belt and am HAPPY to report that some of you have jumped on board with this too. Yay! Thank you for joining me--ya'll know who you are!
2. Get Sushipot more involved via social media. Been tweeting 'n twittering all month long and have built up a group of followers, 130 members and growing! Thanks guys! Also, a Facebook fan page has been established this month. If you do the Facebook thing come be my friend! And...I discovered Instagram a few days ago. Ton of fun for photo sharing via these above mentioned outlets.
3. Do my very best to use this every day. Last but not least, this personal goal of mine has had its stops and starts throughout the month. There was a bit of a debate as to where it would get the most use and I finally plopped it in the dining room (for the winter months at least)! Talk about a visual reminder when I'm stuffing my face. Ha!

So there you have it, my resolutions report after month one. I'd love to hear how your resolutions are coming along (or not!) if you wanna share.

Aren't Resolutions Fun?

Illustration from Whitman's 1928 Children's Modern Drawing and Paint Book

Ok...so I know it's already the 3rd of January but I had made a few resolutions for the year (mostly business related) and decided I'd better share them publicly to keep my butt on track!

1. Make a Kiva loan to a fellow artisan on the first day of every month for 12 months. I set up my account on January 1st and have made my first loan.
   
2. Get Sushipot more involved via social media. I've set up a Twitter account (yay!). You can now follow or tweet me @SushipotArt. Next up Tumblr and maybe (??) Facebook.
   
3. Do my very best to use this every day. I remembered on the 30th and 31st of December but forgot on the 1st and remembered again yesterday.
   

As you can see I'm on track with number 1 and 2 but that 3rd one will most likely die an early death. Aren't resolutions fun?