Compartmentalizing

Here's to waking up early, finishing projects, keeping the mind clear, and writing. Boom.

After waking up extremely early a few days in a row last week for my cousin's graduation from West Point, my body now enjoys waking up at 8am. It's a glorious time to be awake, isn't it? I've been reading articles and watching videos from one of my hand-lettering heroes, Sean Wes, who talks a lot about consistent daily writing. I wish I did more of that, and so today is my first attempt at the early bird writing challenge.

I'm in the midst of packing up my life into Honda CR-V- sized compartments. On Friday, my dad and I will drive up to Wisconsin, where I will promptly drop him off at the airport and then retreat to my sister's home to organize, repack, and work on my Etsy shop.

Esty shop? Yes, I have an Etsy shop now!! I'm so excited about it. I recently added a project I've been working on for the last 2 months, hand-lettered excerpts of The Cadet Prayer. I gave the finished product to my cousin last week as a graduation gift, and he loved it. Words can't describe the feeling of knowing someone enjoys what you make. I think my favorite part of creating the shop was writing about why I opened it in the first place. Read for yourself:

European Bluebird
Hand-Lettered Prints & Other Fabulous Handmades

Love of handwriting meets love of design.

EuropeanBluebird began as a personal blog, actually. It still exists on Blogger and I write frequently about my life as a twenty-something, my career path, and my round-about way of learning life lessons and making plans. Creating an Etsy shop for artwork was never in my plans, since I just recently graduated from college with a degree in music performance. But plans change, as I'm sure all of you know, and with the graduation came a move back home to Georgia, a lot of ungoverned free time, and a need to learn something new. I started taking a few classes on SkillShare in hand-lettering after I did a few chalkboards for a family member's wedding, and loved every minute. My practice of hand-lettering hasn't been as extensive as many others in the business, but I know that with time comes improvement, and that's exactly why I set up this shop. It is all well and good for me to practice in my free time and make prints for my family, but I will never learn without sending my work into the world. This shop is my way of not only getting my designs out there, but practicing stepping out into the business world, allowing myself to expand my horizons, and perhaps make a few extra bucks on the side.
I thank you for taking the time to read my story and to view my work. I always welcome suggestions and comments, so please feel free to send me a message at any time. I look forward to seeing this shop grow and expand with your help!

So not only was my shop inspired by this blog, but the shop is a true conduit for actually creating things. Like I said, it's all well and good for me to practice and post about what I'm working on, but this blog a) doesn't get any traffic, and b) doesn't force me to keep creating new things. I feel like the shop does both of those things, even if traffic is just a few views a day. 

Anyway, I haven't shared the shop publicly yet, though it's open and ready for business. I want a few more listings before I show the social network what I've been up to. 

So I'm moving in four days, our first gig is a week from tomorrow, and I have an Etsy shop. Also, I'm moving my violin studio online. Skype lessons! If you know anyone who might be interested, send them my way! I've been thinking about the summer and how I want it to go, in terms of goals and challenges. Next post - I'll be writing about those things. Figuring out my brain. In the midst of the tornado damage that is my bedroom currently. Here we go. 

cloudy days | vegetarian quesadillas | ghetto roller coasters | CD players | a/c