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Willow Fish Jewelry, Warren, PA

This week has been nuts, and it's only Tuesday! After recovering from the Thanksgiving turkey orgy, I was all set to calmly replenish my inventory for the show on Friday afternoon. Lo and behold, my well-meaning boyfriend was able to finagle me a spot at the hospital Christmas Craft Show on the SAME DAY, in the morning.... ACK! I can't afford to turn it down, so I'll be working from 6:30am until 10-ish at night on Friday... I hope I can do it!

This situation leads me to the question, when is too much REALLY too much? Are there times when what feels like too much is just the Universe pushing us out of our respective comfort zones into new spaces? Do we push back, desperately trying to maintain the status quo, what we already know? Have the butterflies in your belly forgotten how to flutter with a new adventure?

I'm asking for the energy, enthusiasm, and positive vibes to carry me through Friday, I really am grateful for the opportunities that have presented themselves to me, and so I lace up my sneakers, swallow the butterflies down (again), and head out the door into the sunlight.

Another Wednesday morning, ready, set, GO! My day looks something like this: get up, get the kiddo ready for school and on the bus, eat breakfast myself, make chili in the crock-pot, bake a pan of cornbread (to go with the chili), catch up on emails (and blogs!), work in the studio until 1:20, get the kiddo off the bus and down for a nap, take her to her dance class, pick up a display unit after dance class, back home to pick up her stuff to stay at Grandma's house tonight, drop her off at Grandma's house, and SIT DOWN!

Nevaeh's only four, we haven't even started music lessons/sports practice/girl scouts, or whatever she'll be into at school... I better start eating my Wheaties!

It always seems that my best ideas come while I'm flying around town picking up/dropping off people or doing errands like grocery shopping. How am I supposed to sketch out an idea in the middle of the pet food aisle? I keep a little notebook in my purse for just such an occasion!

I also find that when I have a little time to actually sit down and design, nothing comes to me, nada, zip, zilch. No ideas at all. Only when my brain is working on six different things at once do the ideas come... go figure!

I've been thinking about adventures recently- what is an adventure? Jumping out of a plane? Learning to surf? Moving to a new place? Or maybe an adventure is simply stepping out of your everyday routines and mindsets to try something new-to-you.

Here are some of my personal life adventures: studying art in Paris for a semester in college, travelling alone to England for a week of touring Bath, Stonehenge, and Avebury, playing volleyball on a local league during one summer (I am NOT an athletically-inclined woman!) , spending a week at a retreat center to practice the art of creative living (and yoga), and becoming a stepmom to an incredible little girl. None of these are earth-shattering events really, but they have helped shape who I am today, and isn't that what an adventure is supposed to do?

For me, starting Willow Fish Jewelry is an adventure, it has all the elements of a "classic" adventure story- suspense: will she succeed? romance: thank goodness for a supportive and very patient husband! thrills: my first home show! conflict- can she build a business while being a stay-at-home stepmom? I invite you to share this adventure with me, maybe we both can learn something from the inevitable stumbles, leaps, wobbles, and wins that are coming my way. As Joseph Campbell so elegantly stated, "Follow your bliss"- all the way home.