on mad hatters, and a thesis.

......Legs.

A goal is just a dream unless it has legs.

And these legs need some stretching.

They've been tucked up under me all day,

curled around my seat,

under many coffee mugs,

intentions to take the dog for a walk,

and leftover lunch plates.

....

I've been nose-deep in computer/excel/accounting/spreadsheet world this week and last.

(A quick and happy realization I really do love my job in the studio,

where silver and stone could give two shits about excel)

The computer stuff is fine, no really, it is okay...

and I am getting better at it.

Minor battles won,

but not the war.

not yet.

But goals are good.  Even the ones that are not all about creativity.

I'm attempting to certify with Montana Arts Council,

as a "market-ready entrepreneur in the Arts"

by the end of October.

And this is no *new thing*

I've been in this process for almost 2 full years.

I've never written a thesis,

but this is probably as close as I will ever get to graduate school.

2 years, yeah....that's about it. 

this IS a thesis.

this IS a business plan.

this is....

a lot.

This is about evolving. and changing. and forcing yourself to do stuff you know you aren't going to like all the time, in hopes that you might just turn out on the other side for the better.  That you might actually LIKE your newfound self BETTER than you did the older version.  You might learn a few things about yourself, about your life, and about what you really do see as important.  You might understand more fully that sacrifice is...actually....not as bad as it sounds. 

oh, and yeah, there's the business stuff too.

it's like taking a magnifying glass to everything I've done and made for the last 5 years,

hoping to find some method to the madness.

Staring the rabbit hole right in the face.

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: 

"we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, 

or you wouldn’t have come here.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

so if I don't show up here this month,

the computer has swallowed me whole.

(and not into pinterest-land, where my cyber-wardrobe kicks major butt,

and there's always some glossy-page food picture 

of some organic peanut butter or pumkin treat.  

That'd be way better.)

on to more....

break-even analysis and product line list anyone?

XO Erin