Who turned the summer off? Autumn is definitely tugging at the end of summer and my plants know it better than me. I find myself harvesting lavender and drying seed pods both at the same time. Anything that can be dried and used in wreath making is being cut and tied with string. My new studio is proving to be an excellent drying space because the back of it is away from direct sunlight. I have small bunches tied up all over the space and they are drying very quickly and then they can be stored in air tight containers.
This sabbatical is truly wonderful as I feel so unrushed. Having taken so much out of my diary I have created time to allow tasks to take the time they take rather than feeling that I need to get a move on all the time. The morning was spent writing or rather editing and then the afternoon was spent in one of the shops that has my products in as I was replacing and topping up. Pete works there in the afternoon so we began chatting and I ended up staying all afternoon. I dusted and hovered the shop in the time I was there and just felt unhurried.
I hope to start my Christmas lines soon as I have almost finished the designing and costing. With love from Arran sells particularly well in the run up to Christmas so I need to get on with the new products to be ready for them hitting the shops by the beginning of October. I am limiting the online sales to the With love from Arran facebook page so it will interesting to see how that goes. Once the sabbatical period is over I don't want to crash into such a busy time that any progress I make in the sabbatical is lost. Making and selling for With love from Arran is not such a big part of my life at this time but I am not ready to stop this work. It pays for our little luxuries and I do enjoy the creativity of it. That said, it takes quite a bit of time so I may need to restructure it a little. I am wondering whether I could just limit it to certain months of the year and will be giving that some thought.
I have had some wonderfully rewarding feedback for my meditation through writing course and it would appear that an online version is the way forward for this course. I am using the sabbatical to plan a few more online courses to begin in 2014 and this is really exciting for me. I want to put one together on mindfulness gardening that uses seasonal gardening to lead us into and out of meditations that help to heal us and move us forward. I also want to echo this with the language of flowers which will help students connect with the folklore of flowers before experimenting with the creativity of floral design. Of course, thinking of them as online courses is the challenge but I am determined that this will work. I had an email from a student today who said, due to personal reasons, she is behind with the course but realises that she can do it in her own time and that has made a huge difference. I think our lives are busy and complex so a course that can be completed with people's own timetables in mind has to be one of the solutions. I am a perpetual student and I am always studying something or other and I think there are a lot of people like that in the modern world.
So, it seems clear to me that the sabbatical is beginning to work its magic and I am thrilled. I have slept really well the past few nights and the pain has dropped considerably as a result. I will be visiting the castle this week to begin my Moments of Reflection - Brodick Castle project so will post the link here and if you feel inspired to share a piece of creative writing in a response to any of the photos that would be very welcome. We are all so enjoying the athletics world championships on the television at the moment. We do like to shout at the telly!
Until tomorrow. xx
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