Posting. And hoping my sons, nieces & nephews aren't laughing.

Well, there had to be a start-up post, right?  Welcome to my little blog about things that I do to make a living. And keep my sanity.  I have two teenage sons, and if you ask them, some days it actually makes me insane instead.  But I always learn something, and usually the clients are fairly pleased with the outcome, in spite of my constant second-guessing.
I have a plan for this year.  Since I've had several requests, I needed to get a blog up and running to show what goes on behind the scenes; most of the time, people only see the result.  There might be some who would like to know how you get from Point A to Point B in order to try it out for themselves.  I'm good with that.  Throughout the centuries, up-and-coming artists were usually required to apprentice with an established artist for years before they could go out on their own; I've certainly done my share of learning from workshops, DVDs, and tutorials and blogs posted by other creative types.  As soon as I can learn a bit more about blogging, I will link to some of the sites I like to visit the most for inspiration, as well as post photos of prior work and current work-in-progress.  One thing at a time.
Part of my plan for this year also includes starting up an online shop.  I've set one up on Etsy.  Now I just need to get stuff done to sell there.  Most of what I've done so far have been requests that people have brought to me, so as soon as it's done, it goes out the door.  What I need (desperately) to do is to sort through my roomful of supplies, get cranking, and just make things because I like them.  My Mantra for the year (as ridiculous as it sounds) is, "Lose the Fear, Lose the Pile."  It's an understatement, really, as the "pile" in question could easily be mistaken for Mt. Aetna.
So if you're following along, please be patient with me while I learn a bit about how to go about doing all of this.  If you're really nice, wish me luck.  You never know when that might come in handy.