Welcome New Followers

I’m taking a tip from One2Try, one of the great hosts of Friday Follow. She wrote a little post about herself. And I love reading blogger profiles. In fact, it’s one of the first things I read when I visit a new blog. I realized that my profile hasn’t been updated in who-knows-when. So here’s a little bit about me and my blog.

I live in Northern California with my husband of 20 years. He had 3 boys from his 1st marriage who moved in with us after 6 months – full time. I welcomed this because I was unable to have children of my own (endometriosis). I was a SAHM to them for years.

I couldn’t find information on stepparenting in the ‘90’s, so – being a chronic DIYer – I edited & published a 32 page freebie stepparenting magazine. 10,000 copies every 2 months. Sold the ads, wrote the articles, did the layout & design. I burned out after 2 years. No wonder, huh? Plus, after about a year, I realized that parenting is parenting. Most ‘step’ issues are really between the parents – not the kids.

The boys are grown(ish) now. The youngest has a son – the light of my life!

 

I cared for him 5 days a week from 5 – 18 months. It was fun, but hard. It gave me the opportunity to have the baby I could never have on my own. Now, at 2-1/2, he’s in daycare and I see him 1-2 times a week. This has allowed me to fully pursue my business.

Except for the fact that one month after Grandson went into daycare, my mother was diagnosed with non-hodgkin’s lymphoma. So I now spend 3-1/2 days at her house and the rest of the week at home.

I’m a full-time artist, painting murals and, now, murals on canvas. I’m completely self-taught. Well, I did take a college art class in 1975 and quit painting after that for nearly 20 years. I could always sketch, but painting was just relaxing to me when the boys were at home.

It used to take me weeks to do a mural. If I figured out my pay per hour, it’d be way below minimum wage. But I kept at it and have gotten a little faster.

Now I focus my painting on nurseries. Mainly because of the economic market. But I also love painting for kids. I’m also developing DIY paint kits. I taught painting for quite a few years at a local craft store to people with no experience.

That’s what this blog was supposed to be about – teaching others to paint. That’s before I knew what blogs really were. I guess I could still do that, but my interests are all over the map and I like writing different things. So much for finding my ‘niche!’

I also used to teach feng shui classes. Mainly because there weren’t any available locally. (Do you see a trend here?) I learned more from my students than they did from me, I believe. It was fun to come up with decorative solutions that weren’t asian design to help my students. That’s another goal here – to get to where I can help readers decorate their homes utilizing feng shui principles.

A few months ago I posted about being resistant to writing about feng shui. That stems from the ‘70’s – my teenage years. I was raised an Episcopalian, but at age 12 my mother started Transcendental Meditation. The rest of the family followed.

Being active in school, I was embarrassed about meditating. It was kinda like a secret life. I’ve always tried to be ‘normal’ – whatever that means. Now, I’ve finally accepted I’m not normal, and that’s okay. I’m me, and I’m finally getting comfortable in my own skin.

Which leads me to Law of Attraction. You may have noticed the little sidebar on the right with a daily message. I’ve used LOA for years and, yes, even taught a few classes on that, as well.

Speaking of classes, my true passion (besides Grandson) would have to be jazz dance. I started relatively late in life – age 26. By sheer coincidence, I started teaching dance too. In the ‘80’s I taught M-F evenings and all day Saturday. It was my life. Until I met Hubby.

I actually thought I’d take 6 months off from teaching and get used to raising the family. You can tell how little I knew about kids. Well, it’s been 20 years and here I sit. I gained a ton of weight, lost it, was in a car accident and have a herniated disc, but I’m determined to get back to dance.

My goal is next fall. I’m calling it “Last Chance Dance.” Classes for women who always wanted to dance and never did. Just fun stuff – no serious jumps & turns.

So that’s me. I’m all over the map and I’ve finally accepted that. You might read about painting, decorating or feng shui. But my blog is my little window into my world and I’m so grateful to you for visiting!

Now, I’m off to paint a little, feng shui a little & write a little. Typical Sunday for me. ;)

Colleen