November 2021 – Stephanie Richey Art

Light

I am a day early with my post and email, but only because it is the last day of November, and I promised you in one of my last few posts that I would post about the “Light the World with Love” calendar that my Church puts out. I am super excited about this calendar; it is 25 days of service-oriented activities.

I tried to get it to load so I could share the whole calendar here, but I’ll just have to link you to the calendar instead. You can find it on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints website along with other resources and videos, or link directly to it here.

I love this calendar! I don’t do everything on it, and I miss days occasionally. But I keep it where I can see it, try to read the prompt every day, and do something, whether it be the prompt for the day, or I think of one on my own. This has brought so much light into my life, especially during the holiday season, and hopefully the things we do for one another will brighten someone else’s, and maybe their whole holiday season as well.

I also love the Christmas videos I see. There are so many, and they are a great visual reminder to share and to care for others. I have seen many already this year, and here are some of my favorites:

Be Part of the Greatest Story Ever Told

The Christ Child

Giving Machines – by Spencer Murray

Believing Christ – by Spencer Murray

Forgive others – by Spencer Murray

Sharing and giving of ourselves is the best way I know of, to make this ever-darkening world a little bit brighter. If we each take the opportunity to share a little light with someone else, imagine the difference it would make in this world! If Love were more abundant, imagine the peace that we could have, within ourselves and in our communities, even the world around us. Every day is a great day to share and to serve, but the holiday season is an especially good time to do so, and there are so many people in need of a little help, a little friendship, a little love. And when we share our light with others, it helps strengthen the light with in us. What will you do this season to share your light?

Printing

First, the giveaway drawing! I had my son help me with this, and we have a winner! Denise Moore, you have won the bag, apron, print, stickers and book! I will be contacting you this evening; I am excited to send you your prize!

Now, on to my blog post. I am so excited! I hinted at this several posts ago, but I am now up and running! I have purchased an archival grade printer, with pigmented inks instead of regular ink jet ink. This type of ink lasts up to 300 years if the art is taken care of properly. I am so excited!

Several things that surprised me. I knew that this would be a big printer, it has a capacity to take up to 17-inch-wide paper, and up to 24 inches long, but I didn’t realize how big it was going to be. I knew that the description said it weighted 80 pounds, but I didn’t think about how big 80 pounds was. So, when it arrived, I was a little taken back by the size of the box, and how heavy it was. But we got it downstairs and set up in my art/craft room.

The other thing that really surprised me was how easy it was to get it all set up to print. Tuesday night after it arrived, we hauled it downstairs and set it up. But I was tired and had to be up early, so that’s all that got done. The next day I spent getting ready for Thanksgiving, then Thursday was Thanksgiving. It wasn’t until Friday that I was able to sit down next to the printer, with my laptop and get everything synced and working. My son wanted to go to town, and I told him it probably wouldn’t happen that day because I didn’t know how long it would take. Well, 10 minutes later I was done and had a picture printed.

This isn’t the best picture of the piece of artwork I printed, but wow. The detail and color match are so impressive. I picked a picture with a variety of colors and gradients of color, and wow. I am super impressed. This isn’t the right paper for art prints, but for photography it would be spectacular! I am now waiting on the right paper; I have some ordered.

This printer is kind of a culmination of a variety of things I have been working on to make my business more self-sufficient. I love working with awesome local businesses, but I also love being able to produce my own art and prints myself. During Covid I decided to learn how to digitize my own art. There was definitely a learning curve to that, but the place I had my prints printed said I had done a terrific job color matching and they would print what I had personally digitized. This summer however, I discovered that sometimes the printers get really busy, and even though they are going as fast as they can, and sometimes having a hard time getting supplies, I am losing customers because I can’t get my prints fast enough. This printer was the final step in being able to be a standalone company, as well as being able to produce art for other local artists.

I am excited for this new adventure. If you are a local Alaskan and need art prints printed, I would love to talk to you about pricing and options!

Pockets

First, before we get into the pocket thing, just a reminder that I have a FREE GIVEAWAY drawing going on right now. There is a bag, apron, fabric panel, small print, and some of my favorite stickers, so check out my last blog post to see how to enter, it’s really easy! I will be drawing on Sunday, November 28 and will post the winner on my blog, as well as on Instagram. I will also, hopefully, be able to contact the person who wins!

So, on to pockets. I love pockets in my jeans, well, in all my pants, but particularly jeans. I don’t know a woman alive that doesn’t like having pockets in all their lower body clothing. I also like them in dresses, as well as the long open cardigans and things like that. Pockets are very handy for storing things and keeping them safe. I remember when my kids were little and they discovered pockets. Everything went in there, first was their hands, until they discovered that walking with your hands in your pockets is a really bad idea if you trip. Then, everything else, rocks, dirt, sand, leaves, whatever cool thing they found outside.

As we get older, we tend to store more useful things in pockets, like your wallet, extra change, car keys, Chapstick, useful stuff like that. Some women like carrying a purse, that’s good too, but I hate having the extra stuff to carry around. I don’t carry extra stuff around like lotion, my checkbook, tissues, hairbrush or comb. All that stuff goes in the car, since I am rarely out and about without a vehicle. My kids still ask me to carry their stuff. I can be walking through a grocery store carrying an armload of items (because I didn’t want to grab a cart), and my kids will want me to carry the stuff they’re carrying too. Or, we’re standing at Church and they bring me their coats and scriptures because they’re tired of holding them.

Where is this all going? To my pet-peeve. I hate it when women’s jeans come with pockets like this:

I can barely fit my fingers in there, no way I’m getting my car keys to stay in there, and I wouldn’t dare put any amount of money in a pocket this small, it would fall out and get lost. Who designs jeans this way?! The worst part is, the pants are really comfortable, so I wear them around the house when I know I don’t have to go anywhere. Guys jeans they have the biggest pockets ever. My boys walk around with their hands in their pockets, almost up to their elbows, they’re so roomy! Why can’t women’s jeans be designed like that? Anyway, I have very few pet-peeves. Most things I just ignore, but I thought today I would share with you all one of the few, probably ridiculous, pet-peeves that I do have. What are some of your pet-peeves?

Giveaway!

Christmas is coming, and who doesn’t want a free Christmas present! Today I am starting a giveaway that will run for one week. I will post the winner of this giveaway in my blog post next Sunday Nov 28, 2021. What’s in the giveaway, you ask? Well, let me tell you (pictures aren’t great, sorry!) …

First in the bag will be this fun apron. This is an adult size apron, one size fits most. It has been hand dyed blue, with a little bit of variegation darker at the bottom, getting lighter as it moves up. It has one of my favorite paintings on it, the sleepy owl. The apron is 100% cotton and has been prewashed. Care instructions: Machine wash in cold water, reshape and dry flat, do not dry in dryer. Iron if needed, except on image front or back.

Next up in the bag, is several items. On the top is a Christmas Gnome fabric panel. These are great for crafts, table runners, pillows, etc. Pictured on the bottom left is one of my favorite prints, the Temple Tulips. This is a 5×7 print, ready to frame when you receive it. Bottom right is a collection of several of my stickers. We have the Sleepy Owl, a yellow and pink Hibiscus, Red Poppy, Octopus, Sunflower, and Giraffe. These stickers are vinyl, waterproof stickers. They can go in the dishwasher, and I know a number of people who put them on the bumper of their car, or the boxes that go on the roof of their car.

And last couple things. My newest book titled – Gratitude: Creating a Happier You, a book about some of the things I am grateful for, as well as room for you to write down what you are grateful for. And lastly, the bag that I keep referencing. This is a polyester bag with another one of my favorite paintings, the Norhtern Lights.

There are several ways to enter, and you can enter in all the ways for more chances to win:

> Like this blog post

> Comment on this post, can be a comment about the post, a thumbs up, “sign me up”, just something so I see you.

> Like and comment on my Instagram post about this giveaway (Stephanie Richey Art).

> Tag 5 friends on my Giveaway post on Instagram (You can tag 5 new friends every day to get extra entries)

> Subscribe to my YouTube channel Stephanie Richey Art

> Comment on any one of my YouTube videos

I am so excited to share my art and what I create using my art with others, and so excited to give some of it away!

Aim

I find it funny where some of my inspiration comes from. We were watching one of the new marvel movies (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) the other night as a family and toward the end of the movie there was one line that caught my attention. I’m pretty sure it’s because of where my mind was focused, and has been focused for the last several weeks, maybe even a couple months, not knowing which direction I should go in my business. The line went something like this – “If you aim at nothing, you hit nothing.”

I have felt a little at a loss as to the next steps in my business. I had been pondering and praying to figure out which direction to go, and pretty much just stabbing in the dark at a lot of different things. Recently my husband encouraged me to buy a printer, a very expensive printer that can print archival prints on a large variety of papers, as well as canvas, to use in my business. I thought he was crazy, although I had told him many times how frustrating it is to get an order and not be able to fill it for 10 days to 2 weeks because of the delay in printing. So I took a leap of faith in ordering. It’s not here yet.

But, in the mean time, I have felt very pulled, in so many different directions, not sure which way to go, and not sure if this printer is even a good idea. Then this line, one single line in a 2 hour movie, that I didn’t even watch the whole thing of, was part of my answer to the questions I had, and the wonder as to the direction I needed to go. Then, Tuesday when I was preparing my Seminary lesson for Wednesday morning, one of my favorite quotes from one of my Church’s Apostles, and one I had completely forgotten was part of the lesson material. It makes me grateful that the Lord is in the details of our lives.

This quote is by Jeffery R. Holland, and says, “To any of you who are troubled about the future…

“God expects you to have enough faith and determination and enough trust in Him to keep moving, keep living, keep rejoicing. In fact, He expects you not simply to face the future (that sounds pretty grim and stoic); He expects you to embrace and shape the future – to love it and rejoice in it and delight in your opportunities.

“God is anxiously waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as He always has. But He can’t if you don’t pray, and He can’t if you don’t dream. In short, He can’t if you don’t believe.” You can read the full article here.

So, today I have been pondering where to focus my time. One thing I have noticed more this past couple of months than any other time in my life, is the lack of time. I cannot do everything that I want to do, so I need to focus on fewer things, that I can give more time to. I have thought as I have pondered today, that I need to get one thing going really well, and then once it’s going and getting easier to manage, then I can work on the next things. So, now to decide on what that one particular thing is, I have so many ideas, but I can’t continue aiming at nothing and expecting to get results, I am learning that.

How do you focus your mind and your time? What would you like to accomplish that you aren’t now? I would love to hear your ideas.