Yes it's summer, my time of year!

  June sort of sneaked up on me. Can't believe that the 3 months of summer are upon us. I didn't do so well with my goal of 'posting every week' last month, but, guess what, it's a new month. I can try this again! :) So, as for my progress on the online business end of things, I did really good (what I thought was good) in April, then again, any increase in sales from nearly nothing is going to be progress. But, it was encouraging. May has just been go go go... and I have found that it's a lot of work to keep updating the social media sites like the 'plans' say to do. I mean, I check facebook a lot and make comments and such, but I am still trying to figure out twitter and instagram. I know I'll get the hang of it, in time. Sales for May did increase, not like I had hoped, but, maybe my expectations are high. But, I do see a increase in traffic to my sites and in sales, so, it's all good. I'll just keep on truckin'.
  It appears that once you put your mind to 'being busy' you really start to become busy! whooo... I wanted to start slow so I didn't get overwhelmed, and things have definitely picked up. So, I have been doing multiple new t-shirt/gift designs for my shops and doing some painting. My goal is to do at least 1 or 2 new t-shirt designs a week and at least 1 or 2 paintings a month. (That might be over estimating just a little) and it might get too crazy. Especially if I ad some photography shoots in there as well.
  To keep my mind stress free I took up some container gardening, in the spring. That has been a lot of fun and has kinda taken off! I started out with a few flowers in containers in the spring as well as a small tomato plant. You can see in the photo below the tomato plant is really doing well. I learned something about my Golden Retriever, She likes tomatoes! Silly puppy. I have been posting more about this adventure on my Instagram page. It gives me the opportunity to post the photos and I've found there are a lot of others who do container gardening there.

This past weekend my husband made me a plant stand / shelves from cinder blocks (pinterest project)  that worked out really well. So now I have a place to put my container plants and they're not just cluttering up the porch area. 

And it didn't stop there, I finally got around to creating my first (I say first because I definitely plan on making more) Fairy Garden planter. I bought the plants for Mothers day, and put off planting them because I wanted to do this project which I finally got around to doing. So, below is a collage of photos from the fairy garden I put together. I have more to ad to it as I have a feeling it will be a work in progress for awhile. I just hope the little plants survive. 

  Looks like I got a little off topic for this one. That will probably happen a LOT as I go along. Anyway, like I said, it's summer, it has begun. Which here, that means temperatures in the triple digits, often well over 110 degrees. For me that means staying indoors where the AC keeps me nice and comfortable. And being in doors means I can spend my time designing and being creative. 

  

  I call my self a 'multi-potentialist' because I am creative and do an array of things that give me an outlet for my talent. It's been a long time coming, but, I feel good about finally being able to 'own' the fact that I am talented artist and I am good at what I do. That has been a difficult thing for me to come to.  To acknowledge and give myself credit for the gifts that I have and the ability I have to share them. I have always been secure and strong in who I am as a person, but, for some reason have struggled with accepting the fact that my skill level has value. Weird huh... Finding that place inside of me to recognize that, and allow myself to own the title of 'Artist' without the feeling of needing to make excuses why something doesn't turn out the way it should, or, isn't perfect. I have allowed myself to just accept and be. and be proud that I am talented and creative and gifted. Since this has occurred, I am just spewing out ideas and doing creative things. And now, growing plants, where before I could kill silk plants! LOL ... My husband says that I am just overflowing with life energy. I like that!  

 When I was going through my chemo treatments last year my sister had said to me that I was a phoenix, and that right now I was 'molting' ... well, I think I am beginning to rise from the ashes and regain control of my life! And I am pleased with this life / person that has emerged.  

Until next time,

see you anon!

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Mid May what a Day

  Today - the date - has a definite significance in my life. Not to reflect a lot, but, on this day in 1985, I married for the first time. What a beautiful day that was, all my friends and family were there, it was an outdoor wedding beautifully decorated, the cake was amazing... everything was so nice, but, whats the saying? "Too good to be true..." LOL ... well, yea. I was young, I should have been smarter. I should have listened as my 5 month old child who SCREAMED through the entire ceremony trying to tell me something like 'DON'T DO IT!' in the only language she knew. If only I had listened...  Ahhhh life... how it ropes us in, to learn the lessons it serves up - the hard way. Fast forward 31 years later and I find myself in a much better place, (it didn't take all 31 years; only 12 to find my way out) and now I am a much wiser woman! Okay, well, enough reflection, lets get to the reality of what is going on in the present day.
  This is only my second post on my blog. I am still learning. Today I watched a webinar by Jeff Goins a speaker and author at http://artofworkbook.com/ The webinar is / was about building a better blog and a bigger audience. Very informative and I learned a lot. April was, in my view, very successful for my first month in the adventure that is learning the social media game. It is kind of a game, you have me, the subject, among all the other players. In a world that is vast and one must find their way to maneuver through it. You find your allies, create your strategies and then implement those strategies to achieve new goals. My goals for April were to build my parts or presence in this world, share my arts / talents and increase sales. I feel as though I succeeded in the basics. So, now, I am finding my allies, or, as some would say 'my tribe' and begin communications with and among the other 'tribe' members. It has been really fun to watch things grow, meet new people and build my 'tribe' numbers..
  One of the strategies that Jeff Goins talked about was what 'type of blogger are you'? That was a question that really resonated and sent me on my own little personal journey. What type of blogger am I? I like to talk and share, I like to teach, I like to educate and I am of the creative people. So there will be lots of art, photography and craft types of things going on. But, I want to contribute as well. I want to open up and find that part of me, that special part of me that I have inside, my expertise to 'gift' to all of you. I have ideas, but, not sure where that is going to lead. Jeff Goins issued a challenge and that was to find the type of blogger that I am, and what my personal expertise is to share with the world.
  So, here I am, on this 11th day in May, embarking upon another life changing journey. One that I hope will make significance differences in life, one that will lead me to discover what that special talent or expertise is that my soul has to share with the world. I'm really rather excited about this journey. And I think the greatest thing of all, inside, I feel so much better about THIS journey than I did, 31 yrs. ago... plus, my daughter is not screaming bloody murder in the background. :)

see you anon!

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How I ended up here.

Today is May 1. Happy May Day.
  How I ended up here is more than just a couple paragraph story, but, I'll summarize the good bits and leave out the blah blah blah... but, it's kind of fun and interesting.
  A month ago, I decided to do some research and learning into how to expand my art sales and branding online. I began in the first week of April. I watched some videos and read a lot of blogs and articles, (particularly helpful was from Dean Bman). I pinned a ton of stuff, followed some ideas, and directions and muddled through. I started a Main website http://www.tinymysticarts.com I signed up for a twitter and an instagram accounts. And slowly began my reading and postings. During the time I was developing my Main website, and updating my POD (Print on Demand) sites and continuing my research. The whole time, I continued to  work on my T-shirt designs and artworks. What started out as a 'I'm interested in this' project developed into 'Hey, maybe this can work' project.
  I have a body of work, paintings, computer graphics, illustrations, and photography just sort of collecting, so, I thought why not try and do something more with it. I have had a Redbubble account for a few years now, and I'd made some sales in it... but, a trickle, if that. And other POD sites, have done nothing for me. But, in September I was invited to open a POD T-Shirt site on Amazon. And, 4 months later found that I was actually selling some shirts! An average of a couple a month, which is what prompted me to start doing more and looking into how to grow and create more income. I should have been 'blogging' this whole month of the adventure, because, I have been really surprised how things have grown. I have more than doubled my sales in Amazon and in my Redbubble store. and they continue to grow. So, the moral of the story is, Wow, this social network thing really works!

  Tomorrow, I am launching my new website and facebook page and begin the second chapter to this online marketing and social media adventure. I guess the long range goal is to create and develop the branding of my art and photography creations as well as my crafts and jewelry, and ultimately make sales!  Getting my name and work out there is what I have been 'attempting' to do for awhile, but, sort of in a non-assertive practically non-existent sort of way. I am not a great salesman, I would rather be creating than boasting about my work. But, after recent events of the past year, it is time to embrace the fact that I am an artist, and it's something I am good at and people like my work. So, time to get it out in front of the whole world to see.

  And there you have it. How I ended up here, as a blogger... blogging. So, welcome to page 1, post 1 of Tinymystic Arts blog. It's part of the adventure of social media 'branding' and part of me opening up and coming out of the artistic closet. I plan on posting at least once a week for now. I'll post photos from the studio, artworks in process and upcoming goings on. I can't guarantee it will be entertaining, but, I'll try to make it somewhat interesting. LOL In the mean time... you can follow me at:
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See ya anon!