Elizabeth Rosenberg

I’ve always made a point of telling my students that they need to be kind to themselves. “It makes no sense to be impatient with yourself,” I have said during workshops I’ve taught. “You are the most important person in your life. Be nice to you.” I’ve even written it in handouts that I’ve distributed.

It can be difficult to remember to take care of ourselves first.  I’m reminded of the flight attendant’s instruction to first place the emergency oxygen mask over your own face before tending to your children.  Outside pressures and responsibilities can interfere in our artistic lives, making it difficult to find the time and space that we need to fulfill our creative passions. And when we can’t do that, we creative types tend to get cranky. And then those around us can get impatient with us.

But it’s unrealistic to expect others to be kind, thoughtful and caring towards you, if you can’t manage to feel those very things for yourself.

Thought for today . . . be nice.  Give yourself a pat on the back for all that you have accomplished, and go easy on yourself for the things that may not be exactly as you’d like them to be.  Things will change.  They always do.

The explanation for the long absence from blogging is . . . I went back to school. As a returning full-time college student, there was a lot to get used to, like reading, reading and more reading, writing and then writing some more, keeping up with weekly assignments, and then doing even more reading!  But, I have to say that I honestly adored the entire experience. It’s been extremely rewarding to exercise the old brain in new ways, to meet wonderful people of different ages and backgrounds, all working at their educations for wildly varied and terribly interesting reasons. It’s been a far cry from the laid-back  lifestyle I’d gotten used to, and it has given me a whole new perspective on the world, and my place in it. Exciting stuff!

My grades are finally in from the spring semester, and I’m happy to report that I did pretty darn well in all three classes I attended. I’m looking forward to the fall semester coming up in September, when I’ll be taking five classes. It’ll be a loaded schedule, but now that I’ve completed one semester already,  I know I can handle it. And I welcome the challenge!

As well as falling behind on my blogging, I’ve been producing less work from my studio. But I think that it’s a question of quality over quantity — what I have produced, I’m very proud of. I’m afraid I can’t show my new work here on my blog or on my website, at least not yet, since I plan on entering them into a competition with rules that don’t allow for pre-publication. But I’ll describe their style for you . . . inspired by the exquisite lacework of Venice, all of them are a combination of hand (!) and machine work. They are intricate, detailed and, of course, very much influenced by my favorite design element, the flowing line.

Since a blog entry without a photo is pretty much a day without sunshine, I’ll show you a photo of a recently completed project that I’m pretty  proud of — my new dining room chairs. With the assistance of a crafty friend and her helpful husband, my husband and I re-upholstered  my old dining room chairs with some fabulous zebra fabric that I’d purchased eons ago. It is just amazing how such a simple makeover gave them a completely new personality . . . Here’s one of them, ready for her close-up!

Cute, huh? It’s completely ridiculous how much I adore these chairs now. They add such a punch of FUN to my dining area– as zebras always do, wherever they are found!