Yes, I am going!!!!
For the first time EVER, I won’t be a day late and a dollar short. I am finally at the right place at the right time to participate in something I want to participate in.  I am finally in a major city during a major craft festival!  I will get to go to this festival and see all (okay, some) of the wonderful creative people of New York! I am beside myself with excitement! I will get to put a human face to the folks at Etsy and play around with crafty stuff at one of several workshops.  I will also get to meet one of my  favorite surface designers Lotta Jansdotter! She will be there offering free tote-stenciling workshops, and I will be there, with bells on! I am so mad that I didn’t think to bring my copies of her books to sign…then again, at the outset of this trip I didn’t know I’d actually get to meet her.  The funny thing is, I had planned on going to visit her studio tomorrow in Brooklyn, but found out I couldn’t because it would not be open on that day. I had emailed her from the website to check first (and good thing I did).  I followed the link for her facebook fan page, and there it was: an invitation to come and stencil with her for FREE!!! I couldn’t have planned this better!

I am very excited about this event for the obvious reasons above. I am also excited because I am taking this as a sign to finally go for it! I have been flirting with my surface design passion for a couple of years now… I’ve dipped my foot in the pool and backed up, dipped and backed up.  Now with my youngest child getting ready to start preschool full-time in the fall, I’ve been contemplating what I will now be doing with my days.  Of course, design rears it’s pretty little head again, and I am feeling quite drawn to it…this time more seriously.  I am working on trusting my own creative voice, and cultivating my creative confidence.  Ms. Jansdotter has been a big part of that for me…seeing the beauty in the simplicity of her work and knowing that I over think things too much, and that I need to just do it!

I cannot wait to see what tommorrow brings. Be on the lookout for pictures.