Quick update.

With the Holidays ramping up, I had hoped to get back to my blogging, but I have not been able to carve out time. What I am doing, however, is going through my Favorites on Facebook and promoting 1 business each day. I figure we can all use all of the exposure we can get, and this is one small way I want to help out my fellow sellers and business owners. I hope that people will enjoy the features. (Today's feature is Vegan Craft Samples.)

I am also trying to work out a schedule for my blog, so that my updates will be more regular and (hopefully) more engaging. I'd like to start reaching out again and featuring other bloggers and artisans. Once I have a plan for next year, I will share it with you all. :)

My art is at kind of an ebb right now, so I have turned my energies, as I mentioned earlier on, to my writing. For now, what I am doing is going through some newsletters I've held onto and researching markets, contests, grants opportunities, and publishers. If you look at the top of my blog, you will see that I have added a page called "JenniferLynn Writes." That is where I will be sharing news and samples from my writing projects. It may take a while for much of anything to appear, but I wanted to let you know it's there, because there will be things to share (hopefully good things!) For starters, last night I submitted 2 poems. It has been several years since I have submitted anything anywhere, so I am excited about it.

When I travel to MA at the end of the month, I expect to take a pile of work with me. Chiefly, I expect to be working on my chapbooks and a screenplay someone has asked me to write. (Yes, I've mentioned the screenplay before. I am finally at the point where I am ready to start hammering that out.) Later on in 2011, I am hoping beyond hope that I will be able to afford some writing workshops, and my top choice is a screenwriting class.

The project on which I am stuck is another of my decorated boxes. This one is built around my "Sleeping Angel" photo, and I've got the outside done, but I am stuck on the lining. I have the fabric picked out, but I just haven't been able to make that final push and get the box lined. My goal is to focus on this type of box--boxes built around my photos--and let some of the more "odd" or "whimsical" ones go. I love those, but I'm really wanting to kind of solidify my brand better. I feel that having some cohesion of design will help a lot. Don't worry--the random "fun" box will still pop up from time to time--I love working on the little tins and such--but I think my photo boxes have potential. I'm even offering to customize them with other people's photos.

I'm still looking for other employment. That process is a slow, steady plod. I do give thanks for what I have, but I know that I could shine much brighter in a more suitable environment. I hope that I will find that environment soon. Meanwhile, I'm making the best of what I have.

I hope that you all have a very lovely Holiday Season!

Etsy CREST Blog Carnival: How I got started.

We at the Capital Region Etsy Street Team (CREST) are having our very own Blog Carnival in order for the community to get to know us better. The topic this month:

How I Got Started With My (Various) Craft(s)

I have been writing, drawing, painting, gluing things together, and experimenting all of my life. All through school, my favorite classes were always art or any class that allowed me the opportunity to be creative. In the 90s, I went through a period where I was a very prolific painter. From the late 90s through about 2007, life circumstances conspired to keep me largely away from my art, but I did a pretty good amount of writing during that period. I have a lot of beginnings that will one day be spun into stories, poems, and perhaps articles.

In the very late 90s and very early 2000s, I did briefly have a venture with a friend. We spent one evening a week and whatever weekend time we could manage in her studio, creating different items, which we sold. We did craft shows for a couple of years. Sadly, in 2007, for reasons I'm still not really clear about, we parted ways, and I struck out on my own.

It was then that I started taking photos with the idea of selling them. In 2008, I started my little company, JenniferLynn Productions, LLC. In the time I was working with my friend, I became very excited at the prospect of taking risks and stretching and challenging myself, but clearly she had a different vision. On my own, I've been able to move forward with my plans.

I started selling crafts, because while I wanted to create, I also wanted to offer people things that they could use and that could help to beautify their living and work spaces. Also, because I'd been away from brush and easel for so long (at least 10 years,) my skills had become rough, leaving me feeling unprepared to offer my paintings. (I am planning to offer prints of some of my work from the 90s, but I have not gotten there yet.)

I have always had a drive to create. Except for that rough period I mentioned, I have just never been able to not make art. It is like breathing. It is something I must do.

What I have on offer now will no doubt change as I further define my style, find my market(s), and clarify where I want to go, artistically.

I am grateful to be a part of CREST, because I know that mentors, friends, and colleagues are just an email away, and that there will be events I can attend, where I can sit down with other people to create, like I used to do with my friend. I know that there are people (besides my wonderful boyfriend) who are rooting for me and will lend a hand, a shoulder, or support if I need it. Community is powerful.

Making connections with other people is the main reason I create!

If you want to read more about how people have been inspired to start with their art, you can visit these links:

Sandi Volpe Designs
Birch Tree Jewelry
Sew Artsy
Collage and Clover
Life As We Live It
The Twisted Cow
Wild Hare Daily
Turquoise Angels
Crazy Mokes
Sapphire Child (The Plant Geek Chronicles)
Of Cats and Crafts

Holiday sales are starting!

From now through November 14, 2010, take 15% off all of my RedBubble Shop .

Discount code: JLynnPro_is_on_sale_7865.

T-shirts, posters, framed prints, and other formats.  They do a top-quality job.  You're guaranteed to find something you like.

Happy Holidays!