December 31, 2007

Celebrate Your Wins

For the past year, I've been enjoying a newsletter from ArtBizCoach, Alyson Stanfield. Two newsletters ago, Alyson presented the questions below as a way to help you review your accomplishments. I won't bore you with my answers, but I feel that it was time well spent. It's way too easy to forget all the small accomplishments throughout the year!

How did you promote your art?
What did you do to enhance your online presence?
What technological skills did you learn or improve?
How many people did you add to your mailing list?
Who were the top ten cool or influential people you met?
Did you create a new business card, portfolio, or other marketing piece?
What medium or skill did you attempt or master?
What did you try that was completely new?
What did you try that was uncomfortable, but helped you grow?
What new art events, galleries, and museums did you visit?
What resources did you discover?
How did you improve your studio habits?
What books did you read to help your career?
What seminars/workshops/lectures did you attend?
What organizations were you involved with?
What grants/honors/awards did you receive?
What articles were written about your work?
What submissions did you make?
Where did you save a wad of money?
What was the single best thing that happened to your art career in 2007?

Jewelry Pouch
I gave my daughter some jewelry for Christmas and then realized that she was dumping it into a plastic bag. So the day after Christmas she picked out three different fabrics from my stash and I made her this jewelry pouch.I've made quite a few of these over the years, so it went together pretty quickly.Here you can see that there are eight individual spaces to keep your jewelry separate so you don't end up with a giant jewelry ball. You can also store larger pieces in the base of the pouch.