In spite of all the excitement of summer ending and school starting, I’m proud to say that creative work marched, crawled, and occasionally raced along. I’ve got new creations in my shop. The one that surprised me the most is a coloring book.

My Domestic Artifacts coloring book is a collection of line drawings revealing the beauty, function, and even stature of everyday household objects.

As I collected the drawings into pages and then a book, a story started to write itself. First, it was notes on the margins of my sketches. But then, as I inked the final pages, my permanent marker landed itself on a fresh page of paper and wrote.

I’d been thinking a lot about the quotations and the story that ended up coming out in this book, but I had not planned on sharing it with anyone. I’m glad my creative mind took over and added words. The book feels complete, even before it’s colored.

The story is about finding my sense of self as a homemaker away from “the world” and a career, and discovering the powerful role a home plays in creating resilient, positive people.

More pictures and details available here.

I also have more cat creations coming!! An enamel pin and a sticker sized for water bottles are in the works. I should be able to show you those next month.

In November and December, I’ll be selling my work in person at some winter craft shows in Portland. I’ll share details soon. Until then, I hope you enjoy the fall, and thank you — as always — for your support of my creative life.

-TRISTA

Things are moving along slowly but steadily here at Carrot Condo. I’m starting to accept this snail’s pace because I’m noticing that a little effort every day builds faster and faster the longer I stay with it.

In other words–exciting stuff is happening, but I have nothing–yet–to show you. Four projects are in the works, and I’m excited about each of them, but also, each of them have held challenges and complexities I didn’t anticipate. Then again, each of those challenges led to something great: new people helping me, new skills, better ideas than the initial ones, and more resilience.

That’s the thing about this creative path…I might be creating tiny cats, a coloring book to help you feel good about life, and monsters, but what I’m gaining from the effort is resilience, determination, problem-solving skills, patience, and a little toughness.

Actually, a lot of determination and toughness. Life outside of art-making, you know, the other 99% of my life, remains unpredictable and surprising. It recently gave me a big shift in my role, in my routine, in my time and energy. I discovered that on the hardest days, I was the most driven to fit in a few minutes of drawing. I kept thinking about a writer I admire, Karen Karbo, and her decision to move to France. As I followed her posts about this big change, I learned: it’s not “now or never” when it comes to doing what you want to do with your life, maybe especially art. Instead, it’s: if not now, when?

The #100 Days Of Practice teaches me again this year that even a tiny bit of effort daily can be started any time, like now, as in: go do it! And staying with it long enough, let’s say, oh, maybe 100 days? Can start to build the path for your life that you’ve been longing for; it just takes patience at the beginning, and some kindness to yourself along the way, because it doesn’t always look pretty, but it’s a path!!

Well, as always, thank you for reading. By the next blog post, I should have at least two projects to show you. They are soooooo close, but not quite finished.

–TRISTA

I’m happy to report that things are humming along at Carrot Condo in spite of The Rest Of My Life interrupting every which way it can. This seems to be one facet of living a creative life–the rest of life gets jealous and pushes back, frequently and rather roughly. Again and again, I’m forced to the edge of a cliff named by Yoda fans: Do Or Do Not. Standing at the edge, I see that I can keep pursuing creative work in spite of everything else, or I can stop. Simple as that. And, though I occasionally hesitate, I’m here to say that I keep choosing the creative path. This is partly because of you all, of course, following along and encouraging me … and shopping for that matter! I’ve nearly sold out of a few things–thank you!

So, some updates that might interest you.

I committed to doing 100 days of practice again. For 100 days straight, I’m drawing an image from my domestic/homemaker life and posting on Instagram. You can follow at carrot.condo or #carrotcondo #domesticartifacts #100domesticobjects. This daily practice is helping me clarify and develop a creation for Carrot Condo that I’m really excited about, but it’s proved more complex (and interesting) than I’d realized at first.

Also, while grumbling on Instagram about my failed Altoid tins for my teeny-tiny stationery, I took a leap and reached out to a few professionals. I may have hit the jackpot with one print shop run by artists who understand what I’m trying to do with my illustrations and tiny stationery. So, I’ve got some work to do, but I’m feeling optimistic that I’ll have a new version of tiny stationery to show you in a couple of months…probably with teeny-tiny stickers!

Lastly, my friend Robin Vada and I will be teaching our Opening  Creative Minds workshop at Compose Creative Writing Conference on Saturday, May 18th. We combine gentle yoga, guided meditation, and writing prompts to unlock creativity and a feeling of confidence and optimism about creative work. Come see us in person at Clackamas Community College in Oregon City.

Thank you, as always, for following along and for your encouragement. Carrot Condo’s Etsy shop will have full “shelves” in September displaying all of my 2019 creations. Until then, I’ll have more success-and-failure stories for you!

–TRISTA