"Don't stop believing, unless your dream is stupid."

A lot has been going on in the world of With Bear Hands.

Since I quit my desk job, life has been a whirlwind. I've attended a business class, acquired some new commission work, participated in the Dogwood Arts House and Garden Show, been asked to be on a radio show and a part of two other House and Garden Shows, moved my booth at Nostalgia... (phew!)

New booth at Nostalgia on McCalla

I feel like most of my time has been spent driving from one place to the other. Unfortunately, I haven't adjusted to this new non-schedule, and I keep forgetting appointments, so I rush from one place to the other all day long.

It's making me long for a building where everything I do is in one place, The Salvage Room, 17th Street Studios, and my apartment. Then people can just come to me and my center of creativity, hospitality, and recycled building materials.

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It's been pretty neat to see how quitting my one stable job has propelled my thoughts forward. The visions in my brain have been running rampant, and all I can do is look forward, not backward or sideways- a first for me. For every one item I check off my to do list, five to ten replace it. There's no time to tarry.

This made it hard to sleep in the beginning. That's getting better, but sometimes I wake up in a mild panic some nights. The whole process has been humbling, sobering. It's made me reconcile my dreams with reality, to think about what is in my means. If my dreams aren't attainable right now, I should adjust them in order to exist in the present.

It's like Kid President says: "Don't stop believing... unless your dream is stupid. Then you should get a better dream... Get a better dream and keep going." Best advice I've heard so far.

Hopefully soon, I will get the hang of it.

A big obstacle right now is making sure I actually create art while I'm in my studio. When I'm there, I can easily be distracted and spend most of my time emailing and strategizing. As this new week begins, I want to focus on that area and give some other things a rest. It's hard to trust that if I take moments out of my day or week to make art that I will survive.

Another thing I've been thinking, in regard to missing appointments, is that it may be time to replace my phone. I know people ran businesses in the past without smart phones, and I wish I could figure out how they did it. The rubber band is slightly unprofessional, but maybe it fits: I fixed this crappy phone With my Bear Hands... and this rubber band. 

Perhaps it's time for this 80-year-old-at-heart 28 year old to bite the bullet and enter the 21st century.