Travels, Business & Earl.

Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge
It's a dark and stormy night here in Cambridge tonight (residual affects of Hurricane Earl). I don't mind much as long as it blows outta here by tomorrow morning. We are catching an early flight to Chicago to visit my brother & sister-in-law (and to meet my new nephew for the first time!) and so I will be very sad if our plans get squashed b/c of bad weather. (those of you who know us, know that our travel track record pretty much STINKS. so it didn't surprise me much to hear that a hurricane was headed our way the same weekend as our trip. yup, sounds about right. just see this post for an example).

Aside from all the rain, today was definitely better than yesterday. Although I spent most of it *not* making art and instead glued to my computer reading dizzying amounts of material on SEO (search engine optimization), which is all quite complex. I've really been trying to work on my shop lately and figure out ways to get more traffic through there, and apparently this is one of the big ways to do that.

I am starting to realize that there is much, MUCH more that goes into a creative business than just making art. I mean, I *knew* that going into this, but I wasn't really prepared. And manALIVE it's a lot of work!! I feel like I could literally spend DAYS reading forums and articles and e-books on building up my creative business, getting 'seen', marketing, etc. Which sometimes leaves not enough time for actually *creating* things....sigh. So I am trying to find the balance between the two.

There is more I could say but my brain is slowly shutting down and I still need to go pack for Chicago. Hope you enjoy a lovely (rain-free!) weekend.