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Time for Learning

The flowers and trees are blooming in Michigan giving a sense of rebirth, renewal, and regenerating.  Everyone needs this time to renew soul, obtain new knowledge, renew friendships…….what comes to your mind? For me it is becoming re-energized after a long cold winter.  It is time for learning something new and spreading our wings to new challenges, to growth.

Last week I posed the question to my FACEBOOK friends at EighthAvenueDesign what they would like to learn how to do.  What a fun question!  What would you answer? Take a minute and write it down on a piece of paper.

I’m waiting to give you some time……………..do it!

So some of the answers I received included the following:

  • Watercolor
  • Crochet
  • ANY crafts 🙂
  • Creating SVG designs

So……now what you ask.  What am I going to do with this information? (laughing) Time for designing some classes for my followers, friends and family.  It has been over ten years since I’ve taught a watercolor class or any other kind of class.  WOW – that makes me feel old (guess that’s what happens when you do a major career change from art to higher education and wait til you retire to return to what you love). 

For myself, the challenge and regenerating is going to be educating others and still learning as I go of new ways to teach, getting to know my clients, and hopefully filling a gap in other’s lives. Teaching has always been so rewarding for me in an intimate, small setting.  It allows others to take time for themselves. It doesn’t matter if what they are doing isn’t a masterpiece, it is the journey. Are you getting ready for a new journey?

Well, time to begin developing and creating! It has been almost six months since my injury and rehab.  IT IS TIME to get back in the saddle and grow.  Come along on the journey with me.

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Returning to Life with New View

It is a beautiful spring day in Michigan and I am so happy to be back to enjoying life and creating in my studio. I have been unable to even get to my studio for  four months. In October I twisted my knee which led to falling and really hurting things. What proceeded from that point was my knee became septic with infection (MRSA), finding out I also fractured my shoulder and my knee required surgery.  After two weeks in the hospital and over a month in a rehab facility I returned home in a wheel chair to regain strength.

The most difficult part of everything was missing my second granddaughter’s birth, unable to prepare for Christmas and being the matriarch of giving joy and celebration of the holidays to my family.  I also wasn’t able to help my son after he had back surgery or care for his new daughter in a way that I did for my daughter’s little one.

This period of my life has given me a new prospective of being retired, family, starting a new business, and what is REALLY important to me.  It reminded me that God answers prayers in many different ways and we may never understand why. Things happen for a reason. In the process, I realized I don’t need to have the PhD behind my name and family was more important than dedicating so much time to that en-devour. My love and bond with my husband also became so much stronger. He never left my side when I was in the hospital and cared for me in ways that I never believed he would.  Just talking about all of this has tears running!

I am sharing this with you so that you take a step back and think about where you are today.  Many of you are beginning to enter your fifty’s and are beginning to think about life very differently I am sure.  What legacy will you leave for your family? Is it that you have a PhD?  Is it that you taught your grandchildren how to crochet or play the piano? These were some of the questions that I now have clarity with.

My life has been blessed and I am back to bring creativity to everyone – one day at a time – with love and affection.

Come along with me for this wonderful ride called LIFE…….

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Pumpkins & Harvest

What a whirlwind of a summer it was! My granddaughter turned one year old and we are now expecting our second granddaughter. But, this time it is our son’s little one.  She will become part of our family sometime after Thanksgiving. Yes…….it has been an exciting summer and start of fall for us.

I retired to be GRAM and that is exactly what I have been doing.  There has been limited time in the studio.  But, what time I am there it is productive. Right now we are designing ornaments for Christmas giving and also some holiday stethoscope covers.  Our steth covers are actually our best sellers on Amazon.  Who would have thought?  Here is our latest stethoscope cover for Halloween.  It has been fun using my newest purchase for the studio – a heat press.  If you look closely the Happy Halloween is heat pressed vinyl.

Continue visiting the site as I add new listings to the gallery.IMG_8091

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Celebrating America’s Birthday

It has been a while since we have posted in our blog. But, the studio has been quite busy! Our feature photo promotes the heat press shirts that were completed for the 4th of July holiday.  Yes, of course, I had to do one for my grand daughter……lol…….and excitedly, my son and girlfriend are expecting in December. Needless to say, this momma bear had to made something special for the new addition to our family.  I ended up making two designs for expecting mommas and gave one to my nephew’s wife.  It is such a wonderful time for this retired grandma for sure.

How many of you have grand children that are reading this post?  I never thought I would be so impacted by the arrival of a grand child.  But, they melt your heart.  The feel of their little hands in yours, their arms reaching out to you, or burying their heads in your chest……need I say more?  This is the best time of my life right now and I am trying to absorb as much as I can.

For those that follow this that would like the designs please email me at eighthavenuedesign@gmail.com and I will give you access to the designs for the three shirts.

Happy 4th of July!

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PhD or NOT????

PhD or Not —–That has been the looming question for me over the last six months. I have continued writing and trying to keep my head around the literature review, research design and working with my chair.  But, do I really need to have a PhD any more?  I am retired and working in my studio and loving every minute that I am there creating.  I’m 57 years old and I don’t think that I will ever go back to higher education.

I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this topic.  It has been interesting as my college friends say – ABSOLUTELY FINISH and my other friends say DO WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY.

What do I do………..

 

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Business goes Amazon

Amazon Handmade…….I made the jump – have you? Many have been on Etsy for a number of years selling your wares.  Now Amazon offers a site for handmade items where you can sell handmade items after being approved through a review process by Amazon.  The application form takes approximately thirty minutes to complete. It requires photos of your completed items and an explanation of the creation process of your work. It takes a few days to receive approval.  Once you obtain approval to sell on Amazon Handmade your work really begins!

I was so excited the first week I had three sales and couldn’t believe it!  I was hoping it would just keep me busy every week and increase as I went.  But, I have learned very rapidly that with anything on the internet you really have to work with communication and promoting your own site and products. You wonder what that includes for me?  Well here is my list:

  • business Facebook page
  • personal Facebook page
  • Instagram posts
  • Pinterest
  • Blog posts
  • sharing and commenting on others social media
  • advertising
  • ratings on the best adwords to use
  • education, education, education

Is this a full time job?  OMG! It is a real balance between promotion, designing and customer service. Amazon and Etsy have good tutorials and do their best.  But, you have to make sure you do your part. You have to figure out where best to promote your items and connect with those who are looking for them.

I am finding with this blog that what started out one direction is really better if I develop it in another direction.  I am finding, interestingly, that people in their late 50’s are not really working to understand how to promote and grow their cottage business. So what do I do?  Any suggestions? What is your age group for your work? Who follows your blogs?  Has your focus changed?  Let’s help each other.

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Celebrating Sibling Day!

Today is sibling day!  Not quite sure where this “DAY” of celebration came from. But, it gives us time to think about our brothers and/or sisters hopefully in a loving way and be happy they are in our lives.

Doing some research I found that Claudia Evart created the day and also the Siblings Day Foundation. Evart lost her siblings very early in life from two separate accidents. Forty-nine governors have acknowledged the holiday. President George W. Bush recognized the day in 2008.  But, it takes much more to become an actual holiday.

Now that we have the historical out of the way, what about your siblings?  How is your relationship with them? Was it better when you were younger or has it gotten better as both of you have grown older? Have there been events in your life that changed your relationship? If you have elderly parents, has this changed your relationship with your siblings?

If your like me you have had a roller coaster relationship with your sibling.  I am 3 1/2 years older than my brothers.  He was never in school with me and when he was in high school I was married (young) and we weren’t real close. When I was in high school he was always that pesty brother who was in the way with friends and boyfriends. Ha Ha Ha! My brother was really different then me too.  He struggled in school and everything came easy for me.  He was the wild child and I was the typical first child who did everything she was suppose to.

Over the years as we both have our own families and lost our mother we have grown closer, not caring about the differences, caring that we are family and that is the most important.  We have had our tiffs – actually more between things my husband has done, but, we all grow and it isn’t worth holding any grudges.

I am sure many of you were challenged with divorces in your family and then parents remarrying.  How did this affect your relationships with your siblings?  I know that each one of us have our stories……what is yours?  Share in the comments and give a tribute to your siblings today.

The picture above is me and my brother.  We had our first vacation together since we were kids still at home. It was actually a lot of fun and we didn’t kill each other.

HAPPY SIBLING DAY!

 

 

 

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Creating with Chalk Markers

I have been able to learn a new medium while being part of my grand daughters growth and part of the photos.  I have be assigned the responsibility of creating her monthly boards that are included with her monthly photos.  I started out using dry chalk markers and just this week purchased a set of chalk markers by VersaMarker with a finer tip.  I have to tell you – I LOVED them!  The color is richer when they dry and I was able to get more detail.  You should try this.

I have been so thankful that my daughter has wanted me to be such a part of their lives as our first grand-baby arrived. I remember I was so thankful for my mother and she was a big part of my daughter’s life.  All I can hope is that my grandchildren want me to be around and allow me to teach them fun things.

Here are a few of the boards! It was fun to change with the holidays and seasons. The top three are with the dry chalk markers and the bottom two photos are with the liquid chalk markers. Love Love Love

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Regenerated – REQUIRED

Two weeks in paradise every February is what this girl needs.  Sun, water, no alarms, a6398B78D-C8AC-4CBD-AD02-7887E2F12619nd no planning! Just time for my brain to rest and explore shapes, color and nature.

Now it’s studio and design time, which there is never enough, between my granddaughter and family requests my life is pretty busy.  I thought I would have so much time after retiring.  Little did I know that my daughter would loose her job and need mom more than ever. How do I balance everything?  I have so much that I want to do on my blog and designing, But, I can’t resist getting on the floor with Ava. She is growing so fast. Yesterday was her 6 month birthday. REALLY!

So…..visit my Facebook page and Etsy page in the next few weeks to see new items.   Hopefully, after I have completed listing items in my new Amazon Handmade page I can start doing some tutorials for watercolor as many of you have been asking for.

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DESIGN, DESIGN, DESIGN

Things have slowed down from Christmas orders and Valentine’s Day.  I have gotten tired of the snow in Michigan so I am spending a few weeks in the wonderful southwest Florida sun. Now is my time to design and to bring fresh, and new items to you. You will see more items with embroidery as well as designs for those Cricut and hot press users. All new items will be featured here on our blog and in our product page then you will be available to purchase here and on Etsy.

We are also excited to announce that we will be selling on Amazon Handmade with all of our embroidered and heat press items.  Watch for our announcement that we are up and running. We will focus on a lot of personalizing and custom designs initially. Send us good vibes! Hoping this out sells Etsy.

So here is my question to you……..What would you like to see in my shop? Do you want to see more designs that you can purchase; do you want to see more baby gifts, or more embroidered gifts in general?  Help me out here ok?  Can wait to get your feedback.

 

 

 

 

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The Little Joys

This week was a bit challenging as my daughter was reorged out of her position after 12 years at a large international corporation. For the second time this year the company has eliminated hundreds of jobs in the name of reorganization while their job postings continue to increase.  Hiring new lower paying employees you ask?  What do you think?  I have owned a number of manufacturing companies and watched the equity firms come in, buy up thriving companies, only to close them because they aren’t profitable “enough” for their stockholders.

But, then I hold my granddaughter and think “SO WHAT!” We all have our health and families close to us.  My husband and I came out better on the other side of our diversities and my daughter and her husband will too.  She will get to spend some valuable time with her sweet little girl and research what she wants to do with this next stage of her adult life.

What diversities have you gone through? Have you had change in careers?  I think we all have a couple times.  Where our parents often worked for a company for 30-40 years, now our kids are being told to expect 4-6 job changes in their life time.  Thinking about everything with the half full mentality…..lives sure don’t get boring do they!

So……this week I am holding my little Ava a little closer and giving more hugs to my daughter……you do the same.

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Hearts, Kisses, and Candy Wishes

The studio is full of Valentine’s day fabric and designs with hearts and candy.  I love the colors of red, white, pink and pastels, and at the same time spreading the love. Don’t you? I have created two little designs for those Cricut and Silhouette users.  I placed them on bandannas for my grand daughter. But they can also be made for your pets or even placed on clothing for your little ones – heck even for yourself to wear!

The great thing about designing these is that my years of art classes get used and I can remind my 80 year old dad that my money and time from classes is really being used. Can you guess which color theory and design key I used for the bandanna in the picture?  How about you leave your thoughts in the comment section below and come back tomorrow and I will tell you.  LET’S HAVE SOME FUN!

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Fabric, Fabric, Fabric

How many of you get near all of the colorful fabrics in your nearest Walmart, Hobby Lobby, or other craft store and can’t resist touching and imagining what you can create with each fabric???? Yep…..that’s me!  I have been sewing since I was twelve years old, quilting and sewing my own cloths for school because we didn’t have a lot of money.  Today, after retirement, my sewing and embroidery desire has reemerged. I find my mind keeps churning and designing new things for all the children and grandchildren.  The reading pillows have been a big hit since Christmas and I thought I should create a few designs and pillows to share with you.

Pictured above are just a couple of the fabrics I picked up yesterday at Walmart.  I know there are so many different designs of fabric out there.  But I am also conscious of cost and wear ability of anything I am making. This week I will be working on designs and patterns to share with you for your projects.  Visit next week or sign up for notices when there is a new post.

Happy Sewing!

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Goal setting for 2018 together!

Yep….goals are important to me and they should be for you.  No matter, if you are 18 or 80 you shouldn’t stop making goals. The reason for those goals are personal to each of us and important to making a difference in our lives and being part of advancing quality of life for ourselves and those around us.

We all have set goals using the SMART method and probably many other formats.  This year I decided to do something a little different. Hopefully, you are going to join me in this journey as we work together with the HARD method for goal setting and accomplishing in 2018. Visit Forbes article for more information. The article looks at goals on a professional career oriented level. If you are in your golden years that isn’t that important.  But, your life goals are very important.  How do you spend your days, motivate yourself, leave your legacy?  Yes, this goal setting is for you on a personal level.

For 2018 I am going to set my goals for both personal and professional. I just celebrated my 57th birthday and have so much to do. Don’t you feel the same way? Of course you do! You want to make a difference in your family’s lives, in your spiritual life, and in your professional or personal life.  But, if you don’t set goals you will be getting up each morning saying “What is on my to do list today? Do I have a purpose?” That is not life…..that is EXISTING!

So, join with me in setting your goals for 2018 using the HARD method as outlined in the Forbes article. Don’t overdo things.  Just set a couple goals for the personal, professional, spiritual, and/or the legacy side of your life this year. You may have other area.  Forbes article included the following in their article that will be very helpful as we move forward in developing and writing our plans out:

Question #1: Animated. “Think about where you want your career to be, and describe to me exactly what you’re doing (what kind of work you’re doing, who you’re working with, what your days look like, etc.) one year, three years, and five years from now.”

Question #2: Heartfelt. “Describe at least three reasons why you want this goal (note: the reasons can be intrinsic, personal, and/or extrinsic).”

Question #3: Difficult. “What are the three to five most important skills you’ll need to develop to achieve this goal? How will you develop those skills?”

Question #4: Required. “What do you need to have accomplished by the end of the next six months to keep on track toward achieving this goal? What about by the end of the next 90 days? The next 30 days? What’s one thing you can accomplish today?” (M. Murphy, 2017, Forbes)

You will immediately see that the HARD questions have been listed out of order.  There is a reason…..

Let’s get to work together today.  Get that planner and note pad out and start planning.  Life is to short not to have a plan!

 

 

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Join 2018’s Planning & Activities

Today is the start of 2018’s journey of life, retirement, business development, and most importantly being a gram! Take this journey with me and share as I share with you how my life as an administrator in higher education evolves.  Share the joys and struggles of being on the back end of 50, having an aging parent, and wanting to be all my mother was and more as a grandmother.

Part of this journey will also include trying hard to develop a home-based business, complete my PhD, and being a mother, wife and grandmother. And…also important is the passion of allow art and design a major part of this journey. Yes……….we have a lot of work to do this year don’t we?

Well…….let’s get started today…..before the NEW YEAR!

I included the picture of me standing on a Florida gulf beach so we can close our eyes, feel the waves moving back and forth and our toes being covered by sand. Demonstrating that if we do not keep moving we will be covered up and stuck in the sand of life.  We don’t have time to waste this gift of life given to us.

So….for our first step of filling in our planners for 2018. Let’s make a list of what is important to us…..everything…..big and little!  Include vacations, birthdays….anything and everything you deem as important for your year to be a success.

Visit back here on New Year’s Day to get your next instructions!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

 

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Welcome to the beginning!

Welcome to the first day of Eighth Avenue Design. A way to share our experiences apostnd take a journey together. Let’s begin our journey today. Let’s share our challenges, accomplishments, failures, successes, and creations. It’s my hope for Eighth Avenue Design to be a place of sharing, caring, educating, and growing with each other through all stages of our lives.  What are your interests, questions and dreams?  Let’s share each day’s beauty and challenges. . . . . . . no matter what they are…………………..

 

 

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Dreams, Challenges, Family, Retirement

The last few weeks have been quite reflective for me as we prepare our life for retirement in a few years. If you ask me what that means…….I would have to tell you it is changing every second of every day right now. What do I want, where do I want to be, what do my kids want, what does my husband want, what does my father need. You understand don’t you?

A few weeks ago, after taking care of my granddaughter all day, I could hardly move. Picking up 25 pounds all day killed my back.  It took me 3 weeks to get things back so I could at least sleep. Then, I watched her and am hurting again.  But, I am not going to let pain stop my quality of life! Now I am going to doctors to fix whatever is wrong, probably my bulging disks…….

GramnAva1.jpg
Photo: Dana Phillips Photography

It all made me reflect the stages of life we have been given.  During our school days it was all about friends, doing what our parents wanted and getting good grades (at least for me….haha). Then after school it was about how we were going to be successful in life.  That might have included college, military, or going right to work for each of us.  What it was for me was doing some schooling to take over my dad’s business (a man’s world of manufacturing) and getting married. But, marriage took me to being the woman behind a successful man. My husband and I left my father’s business and started our own. It was whatever we had to do to be successful and achieve the material things we wanted. Does this sound familiar?

Along the way children were added into the picture. Now the success of raising good, moral, intelligent children were part of the success picture. Of course, there were bumps and bruises along that road. But, I have been blessed with two wonderful adult children. Now, we watch our children working toward their dreams and successes.

So, now where I am today. Preparing for retirement years to enjoy life, family, and the fruits of our success. I can hear some of you laughing out there. For those of you that know me, though I am retired from higher education, I have to work and create every day….this website is part of that….creating another success. BUT….this time it is different. I am doing Eighth Avenue Design because I enjoy what I am doing.  My success isn’t about making tons of money.  It’s about being happy and finding contentment.

So, each morning, after getting my sore bones moving, I head to my studio to create. I am not making the six figure salary. But, I have contentment and joy when I box up one of my creations and send to some corner of the world. I am blessed.

This has been a difficult journey but I am trying…….any tips?  Where are you at in your journey? What is your end game?  Please share.

 

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Day of Reorganization and Thought

Fabric Organization

Today I took time to begin reorganizing where my fabric and yarns are kept. There has been a bit of a lull in orders on Amazon and Etsy so it is giving me time to make things hopefully a bit more efficient. My orders have been evolving into more and more personalizing and embroidery. So……all this fabric needs to be out in front instead of stuck away in bins. You know how that is right? Keeping the juices flowing.

So…..I did some searching on Pinterest, of course, to see what everyone was doing to store fabric.  I found many people were wrapping them on custom made boards. But, the DIY’er that I am, and with a stack of foam core that I had stored from my watercolor painting and framing days, I cut boards to fit my cabinets perfectly! AND WA-LA! ORGANIZATION IN PROCESS.

Through the day I realized I had an added benefit to cutting, folding and wrapping the fabric. Can you guess what it was?  Yep! Thoughts and designing in my head. Now I can’t get this fabric organized fast enough so I can start on some new projects that will be just in time for the holiday shopping.  I am so excited!

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Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

When is your best thinking and designing time?  Normally mine is first thing in the morning before I get up or while I’m laying in bed at night trying to fall asleep.  I don’t think we allow ourselves the quiet times during the day to really think about things that are not right in front of us screaming. Unfortunately, this is what our world has become. Hopefully, you have a daily job that you enjoy and are challenged to improve yourself each day, not one that just drains every drop out of you.  So, I share with you, take time to think and reflect as often as possible. I know it is hard. But allow yourself this time, even if it is only for 15 minutes a week.

As I spent today reflecting, I also want to send a shout out to all our veterans out there and say THANK YOU for serving us and our country. Happy Memorial Day to all.