Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Truly amusing.  I love animal antics.  So awesome that you caught it on film!

I missed this before!  Gorgeous bears, gorgeous table.  I'm so glad to hear it was a positive experience for you.  Thanks for sharing your photos!

In that case, please sign me up!

Tami, I'm sending you a PM with a question.

Of course, me too!  I'll email you with my addy again to cover all bases.  Excited!

Aw, I'm so sorry Jenny. That sounds entirely not holiday-cheer-y.  I think you're on the right track with the milking it thing and I'd peel you some grapes myself but I fear they'd be raisins by the time they crossed the ocean and got to you.  Can I send healing thoughts instead?  I'm doing it, NOW.

As a woman full of medical curiosity, I have to ask, how did you manage this?  I'm thinking, with my bit o' anotimical knowledge... the fibula is the front bone of the lower leg.  So maybe, you bonked it hard on something?  It's thinnest in the middle, so maybe somewhere there?  Shelli:  Medical Detective.

Feel better soon, hun!   

Oh, cool idea.  Missy makes darling little bears and is positively sculpted from happiness and enthusiasm.  I've met her at the Nevada City show several times now.  What a great choice for the artist!

Yes, there are so many to keep track of.  Congratulations to every last one of you.  A heady feeling, isn't it?  Well deserved and bravo to you.   :clap:  :clap:  :clap:

Oh, yeah!  John Paul Port, of all people -- jack of all trades! -- actually advised me to try magnesium, too.  I didn't get around to trying that because around that time my symptoms were abating on their own and rather quickly and completely at that (there were here BIG and then they gone -- *poof*)  But clearly Laure's suggestion about magnesium has made the rounds.  It's certainly worth a try and I had vowed to myself that if these palps ever present themselves again, it's the first thing I'll try.

PERFECTION!  Love, love, love your classic style.

She's darling!  You're a masterful pattern maker and I love every last thing you make.  Adorable!

The other place isn't "bad" and it's the best of what I've seen otherwise; it's just charmless, as are most office spaces, in Chico or otherwise.  Admit it; it's the rare 1890's house that's available for office use!  Truly one of a kind, and I'm sure space there only RARELY opens up, so I'm thinking hard, trust me.

To answer Daphne's questions... YES the other place can be painted; I can envision how I'd place my furniture there; I CAN play a radio while working; and it has AMAZING light, and tons of it; I CAN put down area rugs.

The photo studio will remain in the guest room at home because, well, it's a guest room, so it can!  Plus it's too difficult to move, frankly, unless I really have to.  It's entirely artifically lit so I can take photos at night or on weekends; I'll just bring home finished work.

I hate being ambivalent.  Life is easier when I am starkly and completely filled with conviction and opinion!  Laughing here.

Will still be keeping eyes open and looking this weekend, possibly viewing the other spaces again, at different times of day, if the broker is game.

Back from an evening viewing of "charming house" with my kids and husband, and my son Noah, upon seeing it, said, "It's gloomy, mom."  While it's not THAT, exactly, he's right --  there are some problems with the lighting despite two big windows and I mentioned those to the broker this morning.  Plus the windows are awkwardly placed and I"m having trouble figuring out how to arrange my furniture in there.  So don't get too excited yet about that one!  Food for thought, given that it should really be PERFECT for a bigger pricetag.

More later, must drop the boys with their dad.  I'm still looking/thinking about the perfect solution! All ideas welcome!

Hi all, and thanks for checking in, Kelly.  After really mulling over all my options and taking every big picture issue into account -- cost, isolation vs. company, safety/security, location, motivation factor (will I want to GO there?), do I want to "share" space (no, not really, if I can work this out otherwise) -- I decided to take a serious stab at finding just-for-me office space.  As I mentioned, here in Chico it's quite affordable. 

While I definitely feel isolated working at home, it's more the distractions of home PLUS the isolation PLUS the fact that I haven't had a "place" outside these four walls in seven years and I'm going stir-crazy here, that mostly has me thinking that "going to work" -- actually leaving this place and going somewhere else -- is the right thing to do, as a next step.  And even though I miss people, sometimes just having coffee near someone is enough; I actually do enjoy my own company, much moreso now that I'm older.  I just don't like it SO MUCH that I want eight hours to elapse before I see or hear another living soul, like they do now, when I'm working at home!

Soooo.... I've seen a handful of local office spaces, two of which are real standouts.  I've found a wonderful commercial broker (to whom I will directly owe nothing; his interest is just to rent the spaces his office reps) who is really working WITH me in so many ways, including seeing whether places will go with a shorter lease; change even brand-new paint colors to make space more "cheery"; or even lower rent and/or include utilities. 

I'm pretty much narrowed down to two spots at this point and it's the usual pro/con game.  One costs more, but is infinitely more charming (in an 1890's building, in fact, with hardwood floors and a stained glass window.)  My neighbors there would be a photographer, across the hall, and the offices for a small chocolate factory.  A creative person, and chocolate people.  Does this place sound right for me, or what?  There's a shared kitchenette (no other space has this feature) and a large closet (also not available in the other spaces I've seen) which means much of my "junk" can be stored out of sight, keeping a neat space.  And in addition to a/c and heating, there's a ceiling fan, which actually matters since Chico gets to be 114 in the summertime!  Plus the ceilings are a marvellous 15+ feet high.  I'd be downtown which means the world is at my fingertips -- Peet's, Starbucks, dozens of restaurants, antique shops, gift shops, and a used bookstore for my lunch hour, and people galore, as it's next door to Cal State Chico.  And I'm within two short blocks of Bidwell Park, the nation's third largest municipal park, where I can watch children splash and swim, or take a long walk or ride.  Very appealing and a five star location!  Wouldn't you love to go to work in a place that looks like this?

The other option is an upstairs corner unit in a professional building housing mostly therapists -- I can't get away from them! -- with tons of light and tons of space, but it's way less charming.  However, it's about 1/2 the cost, which is a factor!  I'd be less "excited" about going to work in this location for a myriad of reasons, including the absence of charm as compared to the first space, and the fact that it's not nearly so well located, and doesn't automatically place me smack in the center of hustle and bustle, which is what I miss.

In either location, I'd be focused on working in-office and not on sampling my surroundings, but when it's time for lunch, I'd rather spend my lunch hour mingling with other humans than driving to get to them.  There's something very appealing about the idea of working super hard for hours and then "treating" myself to a stroll around town.  You can see the direction in which I'm leaning, for sure.

I'm waiting to hear final outcomes on some of my more pressing questions, and I'll let you know what I decide!

It's sooooooooo scary when that happens, Daph & Gijzette!  I had a spell of wacko heart palpitations about a year or so ago now.  After they happened 24/7 for a few days and I could no longer sleep and was beginning to feel dizzy,  finally ended up at the ER, too.  My BP at that time was something monstrously out of whack, like 170/120... and I was having atrial fibrillations of some kind.  They sent me for followup to a cardiac specialist because the EKG tracked many irregular beats per minute and I ended up wearing a Holter monitor for 24 hours, which is basically just a portable EKG that records data.

When that was read I was alarmed and surprised -- but also validated -- to learn that I had experienced over 6000 irregular beats (EXTRA, not missing) in a 24 hour period.  I knew this already, or suspected it (although those numbers are bigger than I might have guessed) because my heart felt kinda like it sounds when you put tennis shoes in the dryer.  I could NOT sleep and was getting more and more stressed over the whole thing, which had cropped up absolutely out of nowhere... and also in a time of huge stress for me.

The cardiac docs also did a stress test on me (I rode a recumbent bike while they recorded heart beats) and a stress ultrasound, which picked up a small mitral valve regurgitation issue previously unknown to me!

As scary as all that sounds, it turns out that, diagnostically, it all amounted to a bunch of nothing serious.  My final diagnosis was PAC's, or Premature Atrial Contractions.  Many if not most people have them and many if not most don't even feel them.  I'm not sure if that makes me an oddball or what but I don't understand how you can NOT notice such a thing!  I was on BP lowering meds for a short while and told to decrease stress and caffiene (which has been ongoing for me since.)

Just as quickly as the PAC's came on, they evaporated about one month after they began, and I haven't been troubled by them again except once or twice, and then only for a few beats in succession... not hours and days like before.

I found that ultimately, the best cure for it was to RELAX.  I don't want to sound patronizing in saying this but if, like me, you're torqueing yourselves up even further with concern and worry, you really ARE probably making your symptoms worse.  It's absolutely terrifying -- I get it -- and those symptoms are REAL.  I really was almost unconscious, my BP was so high on that night I ended up at the ER, and I really could NOT sleep even once I had my diagnosis because the palpitations kept me up nights.

But once I relaxed into the total bummer knowledge that I might feel that way forever, but I was OKAY anyway!, I found things improved.  And, like I said, ultimately they just went away.

I have a totally unproven theory that sounds like witch craft, even to a science minded gal like me.  And I "get" that correlation does not imply causation.  Still, I am CONVINCED in my gut that the energy drinks I had recently began guzzling for the first time in my life contributed directly to these palpitations.  And once this all happened to me I did some research on them and there are many who agree they aren't well enough understood and may indeed cause benign or problematic heart conditions in susceptible individuals.  AT this point, I pretty much think energy drinks are the devil.  Which is a bummer, because I was IN LOVE WITH those Superman ones, which I had found only a week or so prior to the first PAC's.  It's my belief -- again, totally unfounded, scientifically -- that drinking those things "did something" to my heart muscle or SA node or conductivity system that kickstarted me into a lengthy bout of palpitations.  And that, as I stopped drinking them and cut caffiene even further, whatever had been turned on, or had been "broken", healed, and things got back to normal. 

Anyway, this is a long post... but my intent was to say, this IS terrifying... you ARE smart to see the doctor... your fears and discomfort ARE real... but probably, you're both okay, and things will likely change/improve for you in short order.  Get lots of sleep and do cut down on caffeine and stress to the extent you can.

And feel better soon, friends!  :hug:

Yes, you do.   You're completely "with it" in all the ways I am not.  That's a good thing, and something to aspire to.  I just hate being reminded, by the mere presence of people more capable than myself, that I am totally missing the boat on something that I actually want to be good at.

But that's okay.  I will learn from you, oh grand poobah of doing it well and doing it smart and doing it right.  Thank goodness for people like you who help me fill in all those many blanks!

You guys are covered in AWESOME SAUCE!!!!!  What a wonderful read to wake up to.  There were so many posts I can't hit them all directly but let me try.

Bobbie, you crack me up.  No resolution yet.  Will see second space today and check into others.  The price around Chico for the amount of space I'm looking for is, I kid you not, $250-$300/month.  Doesn't that sound do-able?

Ellen, you wrote the loveliest and most understanding things... like you always do.  I'm an extrovert and you're an introvert, but other than that in so many ways we're soul sisters.  Thanks for your friendship.

Tami, I want your life, but I don't have an art background despite being a fairly creative person, so I'm not qualified.  (pouts)

Paula, you are sculpted from wisdom and intelligence and sense.  I want it, but admit, I do not have your head for business --  yet!  Nor your discipline, by a long shot.  You're a great role model (I'd love to claim I make 3 big bears a month;brilliant, to have an actual GOAL!) and have some great ideas about planning and forethought that can only be helpful.  You intimidate the crap out of me.  But I adore you!

Karen, your post is especially intriguing and strikes a special chord.  I've been thinking that if I worked PT or FT outside the home, it would indeed help me budget my "free" time after work more efficiently, and would make bear time seem like a refreshing trip to the spa.  It's all relative, isn't it?, this life stuff.  I'm not sure other life circumstances make it right for me to jump back into the work force quite that completely right now, but I'm thinking hard about what you said and its implications for me, personally.  There's just something to it that makes sense.

Wanda, I hear you.  The 24/7 nature of being at home is part of what's driving me crazy.  I need an outlet!  Just walking into a space that's NOT HERE sounds therapeutic!  I moved to Chico away from friends and family and AFTER the boys were in school so I don't have friendships here from "mommy n me" or parenting classes, high school, college, or work.  That's another part of my problem -- few social outlets because the opportunity to develop friendships hasn't cropped up and I haven't nurtured it.  Too bad you don't live closer; we could help one another stay on task.  Coffee... work... lunch break... work... coffee again... Wouldn't we have fun?

Duff, EXCELLENT advice about consulting a tax advisor.  I do take a very small deduction for working at home but should really find out what the consequences are if I rent space vs. have a shed vs. continue in this same vein.  Thanks!

Daphne, we can drown our disappointment that life actually takes work and effort in mochas, together, someday.  And I'm not being judgmental or sarcastic; I'm totally serious.  Did you ever think, when you were, like, 20, that it was this hard???  Not me; that's for sure.  In fact, that's been one of the major talking points between me and my girlfriends as we work through our forties together.  Life, as joyous and beautiful as it is, is just HARD.  And it just never gets easier... just more complicated.  Also, more layered with love and wonderment and magic, which is a good thing because all that hardness needs some balance.  But it just IS... hard, I mean.  <sigh>

Chrissi, I am a teacher.  Not just at heart, but with a degree and credential.  Food for thought.... as is your EXCELLENT idea to get some social stimulation by taking classes in art, which I would LOVE to do and never have done.  There's this group of women locally who get together to scrapbook, something I've let go and enjoy and NEED to do as I'm so behind (like a decade, seriously.)  It's very casual, too, so if I couldn't make it, that wouldn't be a hassle.  You've got me thinking...  Thanks!

Roxanne... "tits on a bore hog."  Honestly, it's a good thing I wasn't drinking coffee, or I'd have spit it all over my monitor!  Funny girl.  I hear you SO LOUD AND CLEAR on the burnout thing.  It's a killer.  As is that way it sounds like we both have of finding something new, throwing ourselves 100% into it, and then feeling completely exhausted and like, oops, forgot that OTHER thing I was supposed to be doing, too. 

Your shed is lovely and if it weren't for the fact that Chico and my neighborhood, in particular, require permits (we've got pretty strict CC&R's), and that I have no idea how to DIY any of the work and would have to hire it out ($$$), I'd go that route in a heartbeat.  Still thinking about it, though; my dad is an electrician and I could get him to help.  He lives four hours away but it's a possibility.  Still thinking.

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Questions for you guys:

1.  How does one FIND an "artist collective?"

2.  If you shared space with other people, especially strangers you only just met... wouldn't you be worried your things would be used/ruined/stolen?  Or am I the only paranoid, negative thinking person when it comes to protecting property and patterns in this way???

3.  Who invented liquid soap, and why?

It is!  If only they went to the same school and had the same hours... !  Nothing is ever easy, is it?

Thanks, Kelly!

NO, I feel very much in good company, actually, Brenda.

Part of the problem for all of us is that there's no "one size fits all" solution to any of these problems -- isolation, discipline, and so on.  And so many variables come into play.

For example, I could get a part time job or even volunteer to appease my feelings of isolation.  But I share my kids with my ex-husband, who gets them every other weekend, and much of my time "with" them, they are in school.  So I don't want to miss any after school hours I might otherwise spend with them, because I'm working Tuesdays and Thursdays... or whatever.  You get my drift.

Getting an office would force me to focus and I know myself; I would get there and work.  But there's the overhead thing, which cuts into the bottom line.

My dad, who is ex-army, keeps telling me, "Just get some discipline!"  So I write down my plan for the day, and it promptly falls to pieces -- always for a good reason, really, in the moment anyway! -- the first or second attempt.

I'm just looking for a radical change to shake things up and get back on track, that will help me work more focused, that won't cost too much, that doesn't require me to hire a contractor or go through extensive permit processes, that frees up my guest room, that allows me to be with my kids, that pays the bills, that doesn't force me to spread my bearmaking across twenty rooms (that kind of thing drives OCD peeps like me nutso,) and coats that all in milk chocolate to boot.  How hard can that be???

  Cracking up here. 

Anyway, you guys are an awesome assist.  I saw one of the two available spaces today and it's nice but I'm waffling until I see the second, which has more light.  The price is so affordable I'd almost be lobotomized not to think about it seriously.  Will post more once I see space #2!

So many great ideas you guys!  I'm still churning on what's best, and there are so many permutations I haven't tried yet.  For example... part of why I feel so lonely at home is that the computer and all my friends there positively BECKON to m, which REMINDS me constantly that I'm alone and there are fun things to be said and read online (am I a dork, or what???)    And I walk past laundry (wash it!) and dishes (clean them!) and chipped paint (Aleta, where are you?  Will you please redo MY house for a change?)

But if I had an office space, in the backyard or otherwise, even though I'd still be alone, I don't think I'd be lonely, because I'd be FOCUSED... instead of always feeling pulled to something else.  Because, you know, there'd be nothing else to do! 

I'm really sounding like quite the nutcase, aren't I?  :)

On your suggestions, I spent the afternoon browsing Lowe's and Home Depot catalog, and looking up artist studio and rental spaces here in Chico.  I did find one very promising office for rent, VERY near my house, VERY affordable.  So affordable I can't afford NOT to look at it, since it's quite nearby, and honestly, if I made even two bears per month and assuming the market doesn't totally plummet or my work stop selling entirely (please don't let that happen), I'd still make more than I'm making now, because I'm working so slowly and often only finish one a month.  If I got to three or four or five a month it would be miraculous!

I worry I sound whiny or incredibly spoiled; actually, I'm neither, but this problem has been haunting me for some time now.  Lack of focus, most generally.  I'm very fortunate and feel grateful and blessed to have a guest room I can use as a studio.  I"m sure those of you working on coffee tables want to hit me about now!  But hey, we all have our issues.  That guest room is taken over entirely with my craft stuff, such that we can't have guests anymore because they can't move around in there or store anything except to plop on the bed!  And my parents are only a few hours away so it would be nice to house them graciously.  So ideal as a guestroom studio sounds, that has it's own problems, and it's so overcrowded I can hardly move in there -- seriously.  Pretty as it is, it's also the most depressing room in the house, lacking the wonderful sense of light we get elsewhere.  It just feels like I'm going into a cave to hibernate -- rather into a place I feel energized and creative and alive -- when I go in there to work. Yet it's the only place in the house that makes sense as a work space.

Anyway, I'll touch base again with how the viewings go this afternoon.  Chico is very affordable in terms of housing costs (although much less so than, say, a decade ago.)  If I lived in SF this wouldn't be an option because I'd have to sell twenty bears a month to break even; I'm not looking at anything near that kind of profit/loss situation locally.   I'm checking out two local office spaces and I would never have done it if you all hadn't been so understanding and supportive and had so many great ideas, which SHOVED me into doing some serious research.

I like the shed idea second best, but admit, I don't even have the cashflow right now to fund the purchase and outfitting of such a place (electricity, permits, heat/air which are required because of weather patterns here.)  We'll see where this goes.

Updates to follow.  THANK YOU for being my friends!

Yeah, that's true but can't you deduct it elsewhere, as rent?  I'm not much of a tax gal -- leave it to the experts -- but that makes sense to me.

Wow, so many more replies than I anticipated, and a few via PM as well!  You guys are the best.

Here are some thoughts and they are NOT an attempt to shoot down your ideas. I'm just talking about myself and what I know myself to be and how I know myself to work and function.

1.  I've tried the "set aside specific times to work" thing and find I'm just too distracted to stick to it.  Once I'm IN the guest room/studio I'm okay.  It's getting there, and then STAYING there, that's the problem.  I think it's not even "distraction" although that's the word I use.  I am desperately, entirely tired of the isolation of working at home.  I'm a screaming extrovert and I can't stand "going away" to my guest room which is surrounded by chores that need doing and my computer which brings relationships -- you guys!  So I'm not sure that's a good option given my personality and my feeling of isolation there, and one of the reasons I'm thinking about something that is outside the four walls of my house.  At least that way I'll have a commute and a reason to go out for lunch or coffee once a day and that is a kind of social sharing.   I miss that so much!  All these years of working at home have really taken a toll on my spirit, in truth.  I miss people, which is much of the reason I love TT and art forums/communities so much!

2.  The backyard shed/studio idea is a good one.  It's AWAY FROM the house but still a part of it and the plus side is that it might even increase the appraised value over time!  Of course I'd need to check permit requirements for the area but the yard is big enough and I think it would be doable.

For those of you with such a setup, though, I have to ask -- how do you heat/cool the space?  We don't have a clue how to run electricity to such an area.  What was your solution to that problem?  How big were your pricetags to get such spaces set up, if it's not too personal to ask? 

3.  I've not even started looking here in Chico for space.  There's no point in working in someone's closet so it would have to be welcoming which might mean more costly.  And then there's the lease thing; do I want to commit to 6 months or a year when it might bankrupt me sooner than that if fiscally it doesn't work out!

AARGH!

Anyway, just some of what I'm thinking, and trying to take into account financials, plus the person I think I honestly know myself to be.

You're all total rock stars; thanks for your many words of encouragement and so many great ideas.  I'm sure somewhere between the lot of you I'll find an excellent compromise/solution.  Maybe I should just move my entire studio space to somewhere more "Friendly" within my own house.  No reason why I can't work right here in the front room.  Although, that's where the damn computer -- the bane and joy of my existance, both -- is located.  <sigh>

Laughing here...

I find it so hard to NOT be distracted by home stuff -- cleaning, bills, computer stuff like forums where I enjoy browsing and endlessly connecting with other people -- that I'm contemplating getting an outside-the-home office so I can be FORCED into greater productivity and less distracted by "real life" concerns and drivel.

The upside of having an office is that I would set it up without a computer or other time-wasters -- but with a radio or iPod or whatever, and probably a DVD player which I can watch while working so I don't feel totally isolated -- so while I'm there, I'd have pretty much nothing else to do BUT work on bears and art stuff.  If I'm putting in 5-8 hours a day like that, I simply have to end up with more product to sell.

The downside of having an office is that, first, I have to actually GET there each day.  And of course, that it makes working late at night more difficult.  And second, it costs money.

I'd appreciate any insight anyone might have to offer, especially those of you with craft offices away from home, or who know someone who works in that fashion.  And even those of you with business offices (not craft related) away from home -- I'm not talking about "going to work" but rather, just an office all to yourself that you rent or borrow -- would be a great resource.

I'm not expecting a huge deluge of replies because I haven't heard people write about this much, but I'm just curious and interested in hearing about your experiences, if any, in this area.

Thanks!

Whoa, Amy!  First of all, you and your husband are an adorable couple.  Second, I would DIE for your kitchen (even though I'm a very NOT confident chef.)  I loves me the stainless steel/black appliances, and the Viking-style ranges.  Ooh.  Beautiful kitchen!

I might just try that spicy rub recipe.  Sounds delish!

Congrats on the VERY cool coverage. 

Beautiful bear, Jenny, and an even more beautiful gesture.  I'll be in touch!